CES - Digital photo and video

I was really hoping to start this show wrap-up with a look at the good and/or interesting things to come out of CES 2011. But as I was assembling my thoughts to work on it, I was assaulted anew by the continuation of a consumer-hostile trend which initially started--or at least which I first noticed--with the Canon HF R series launched last year. The trend: marketing camcorders that have an effective sensor resolution of less than 2.07 megapixels (1,920 x 1,080) as "Full HD" models. This is the equivalent of marketing your 3G network as 4G. … Read more

When it comes to digital camera announcements, CES generally isn't a big show. There is usually a handful of headline grabbers, but for the most part it's just announcements of budget and style lines.

Probably the biggest splash was made by Casio with its Tryx camera. Its shooting features aren't necessarily extraordinary (it does do some cool stuff, though), but its design makes it special. Most of the camera is a 3-inch touch-screen LCD that pops out of a frame and rotates around with its f2.8 21mm-equivalent ultrawide-angle lens 360 degrees. The screen itself swivels 270 … Read more

LAS VEGAS--When Looxcie, the wearable video recorder, came out last year, we thought it was a bit over the top: "The completely awkward-looking earpiece/camcorder fits the bill for William Gibson-style folk who fear ever missing a moment of reality that can't be recorded."

Now, at CES this week, the folks behind Looxcie say that they will take things even further when, in the first half of 2011, they release LooxcieLive, the first wearable live video streaming from Looxcie headsets to iPhones and Android phones.

Yes, it is now so easy to share our lives with those … Read more

LAS VEGAS--It was a bit unfortunate for JVC that its "world's first consumer camcorder to offer 3D recording in Full HD" came the day after Sony's announcement of its consumer full HD 3D camcorder, the HDR-TD10; it's even similarly named to JVC's offering, the Everio GS-TD1.

Like Sony's offering, the JVC model has two of everything that counts: a pair of 3-megapixel BSI CMOS sensors and two f1.2 lenses (5x zoom in 3D, 10x in 2D). It only has a single processing engine--unattractively dubbed "Falconbrid"--but that's just marketing. … Read more

Las Vegas - Known for a line of CB radios, Midland entered new mobile territory last year with wearable video cameras. At CES 2011, the company came out with its first HD video action cameras, the XTC200, XTC300, and XTC350.

The cameras are very compact units, weighing only 3 ounces with 140 degree wide angle lenses, as is common with this type of camera. The XTC200 records 720p video, while the XTC300 and XTC350 step it up to 1080p.

Each model takes up to a 32 GB SD card. With 1080p video taking about 1 GB for each 11 minutes, … Read more

For its latest addition to the PEN ILC line, Olympus makes a few design and feature enhancements to its E-PL1 Micro Four Thirds camera, resulting in the subtly--but not significantly improved, E-PL2.

The most obvious functional differences include a larger LCD, multiple variations for come of the Art Filters, support for the new accessory connector and redesign of the buttons. It also supports an extra stop of sensitivity, up to ISO 6,400.

LAS VEGAS--At last year's CES, we put together a slideshow called "Sexy sells at CES" that highlighted part of the human element that companies use to help make their gadgets stand out on the crowded show floor--or at least encourage people to stop at their booths.

For some reason, this slideshow proved to be rather popular with our readers, so we thought we'd cobble something together this year.

Don't get the wrong impression. Not every company hires models to show off their wares and talk about their products. And even when they do, the product … Read more

Maybe it's because Kodak's been targeting women 18-35 lately, but Kodak didn't make much mention of the EasyShare Max when it announced its other cameras at CES 2011. It's the company's newest top-of-the-line full-size megazoom.

The basic specs include a 30x f2.8-5.6 28-676mm zoom lens, 3-inch LCD and electronic viewfinder, and a 12-megapixel backside-illuminated CMOS sensor. As with all BSI sensors there's the promise of better low-light results and faster shooting performance. You'll also get full manual controls, raw capture, creative effects like an HDR mode for creating high dynamic range … Read more

The glory days of the digital camera market are coming to an end.

So concludes analyst firm iSuppli, which forecasts modest growth in coming years followed by decline as camera phones take over.

It'll still be a huge market, with tens of millions of units sold annually--just not as big as it once was after it peaks in 2013, the firm forecast.

"During [2014], shipments are expected to decline by 0.6 percent to 135.4 million units, with low-end DSC [digital still camera] models expected to encounter stiff opposition from the cameras in cell phones, which increasingly … Read more