backside-illuminate cmos

Regardless of your feelings about 3D, there's really no stopping the onslaught of products now. Hence we have Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-TX9 and DSC-WX5 that offer the ability to shoot 3D panorama photos.

The TX9 replaces the TX7, which is barely 6 months old. It has the same body, touch-screen LCD, and lens as that camera, but its backside-illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor gets a resolution bump from 10 to 12 megapixels. The WX5 replaces 2009's WX1 and again is built essentially the same as its predecessor, but with the higher-resolution sensor. However, along with the increased megapixels come important shooting feature differences.

First, there's that 3D stuff. In addition to the Intelligent Sweep Panorama found on Sony's earlier Exmor R-based models, these have a 3D Sweep Panorama. Press the shutter release, sweep the camera vertically or horizontally, and the camera captures left and right images and then stitches them together. You then connect the camera by HDMI to your 3D-ready HDTV, pop on your glasses, and enjoy. The results are good, especially considering how easy it is to create them and that they're single-lens cameras as opposed to dual-lens cameras like Fujifilm's Real 3D W1.

The 3D fun doesn't stop there, though. Both cameras have a Sweep Multi Angle option that captures a series of shots at different angles and then combines them into one shot. Tilting the camera left and right plays through the photos, creating a lenticular lens effect. The result is very similar to what you can do with any camera and Start 3D, but these can only be viewed on the camera. And going by what was said at the demo Sony gave us, it seems like it's mostly just a gimmick to sell 3D cameras at retail stores to people who don't own 3D HDTVs. … Read more

Fujifilm tosses in a boatload of this-year's-buzz technologies into its new FinePix HS10. The upside of this is that it includes a 10-megapixel backside-illuminated (BSI) sensor, which promises an improvement in low-light photographs; manual zoom ring on the lens; a seven-frame, full-resolution 10fps burst mode; 3-inch tilting LCD (albeit at the common but low resolution of 230,000 pixels); and 1080p HD movie capture with stereo sound. It also has a full set of manual and semimanual exposure modes, and supports simultaneous raw+JPEG capture. On the downside, Fujifilm's first out of the gate to announce a 30x … Read more

On your digital camera, do you hate having to stop recording a movie just to capture a still photo? Apparently this irks enough consumers that Samsung added a Dual Capture feature to its new TL350 compact camera. Start recording a movie (at resolutions up to 1080p no less) and you can simultaneously snap 10-megapixel photos. Hopefully it doesn't leave a big hole in your movie while the camera captures the still.

In case that's not exciting enough for you, the camera is built around a backside-illuminated CMOS sensor. In other cameras, this type of sensor has improved low-light … Read more