Here’s a super-awesome way of using stop-motion photography to announce the birth of a new baby.

(via Fstoppers)

Lytro has finally announced its revolutionary consumer light field camera. It’s a tiny camera with built-in storage, an 8x f/2 lens, and a design that looks more like a futuristic flashlight than a point-and-shoot camera. The camera captures “living pictures” that can be refocused by the photographer and the viewer, which means focusing is completely eliminated from the process of taking a picture. An 8GB that stores 350 pictures will be priced at $400, while a 16GB with a 750 image capacity will cost $500. The camera will start shipping in early 2012, but you can order one now over on the Lytro website.
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As the rumors foretold, Canon has announced a new DSLR today combining the 1D and 1Ds line of DSLRs into a single camera: the EOS-1D X. This beastly DSLR is an 18-megapixel jack of all trades. It’s full frame, but still shoots 14fps using 61 autofocus points and a 252-zone metering system. ISO can be boosted up to a whopping 204,000. There’s a large 3.2-inch LCD screen on the back, and a futuristic optical viewfinder that offers things such as a dual-axis electronic level and an on-demand grid. For remote shooting and file transferring, there’s a handy built-in wired LAN connection. In terms of video, camera can also do 1080p recording at 24/25/30fps, along with 720p at 50/60fps. You’ll have to start saving up though — the 1D X will cost $6,800 when it’s released in March 2012.
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Back in August, it came to light that some of Leica’s $7,000 M9 cameras had a problem in which they would corrupt the SD card being used — a problem that caused one photographer to permanently lose work after a day of shooting. The company quickly acknowledged the problem, and today announced that they had finally discovered the cause:

Thanks to the close collaboration with SD card manufacturers, Leica has now managed to rectify the fault by making adjustments to the firmware. To ensure compatibility with as many cards as possible and to ensure that all the related processes remain fault-free and are not compromised, comprehensive testing must be carried out in the development phase.

In the coming weeks we will test a beta version of the firmware in practice in cooperation with affected and selected customers.

The firmware fix will be released to the general public after they’ve thoroughly tested it.

Leica M9 / SDHC Card compatibility (via PopPhoto)

MIT scientists have discovered that graphene, a material consisting of one-atom thick sheets of carbon, produces electric current when struck by light. The researchers say the finding could impact a number of fields, including photography:

Graphene “could be a good photodetector” because it produces current in a different way than other materials used to detect light. It also “can detect over a very wide energy range,” Jarillo-Herrero says. For example, it works very well in infrared light, which can be difficult for other detectors to handle. That could make it an important component of devices from night-vision systems to advanced detectors for new astronomical telescopes.

No word on when DSLRs will start packing graphene sensors.

(via MIT via ExtremeTech)

P.S. Did you know that graphene was first discovered in 2004 after a thin layer of pencil lead was pulled off using some ordinary tape?

Image credit: Illustration by AlexanderAlUS

Fujifilm’s press event yesterday wasn’t just to announce that they’re working on a new mirrorless system camera: they also announced the X-S1, the first non-retro styled camera to appear in the X lineup. The camera looks like a DSLR with a kit lens attached, but actually uses a fixed 26x f/2.8-5.6 lens and an electronic viewfinder. It uses the same 2/3-inch sensor size as the X10, which has about 1/4 of the area of a Micro Four Thirds sensor.

It’s strange that the company decided to add a camera like this to what was a pretty unique X Series lineup, but maybe there’s something special about the camera that hasn’t been announced yet…

(via Photo Rumors)

Apple has just announced its new iPhone 4S, and the new camera found on the phone is pretty impressive. It packs an 8MP (3264×2448) CMOS sensor that’s backside-illuminated, allowing it to gather 73% more light and capture images 33% faster. The lens is now an f/2.4 lens that contains 5 separate elements, which provide 30% more sharpness. Snapping a first shot now takes 1.1 seconds, and subsequent shots require only an addition .5 seconds each.

In terms of video, the iPhone 4S records 1080p HD video with image stabilization and noise reduction. The company is saying that the phone will be the best still and video camera many customers have ever owned.

(via Engadget)

If you’re a Flickr loyalist that hasn’t jumped ship for competing services, Flickr is rewarding you with a couple new tools for sharing your photos. Today the company announced an official app for Android and a new photo-sharing feature called Photo Sessions.
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Nikon’s long-awaited mirrorless camera system has arrived. Today Nikon announced the new J1 and V1 mirrorless cameras and four new Nikon “1 System” lenses. The two cameras have nearly identical specs: a 10.1 megapixel CX-format (13.2mmx8.8mm) CMOS sensor with 2.7x crop factor, a 3-inch LCD screen, 10fps shooting, 1080/30p HD video recording, 1200fps slow-motion recording at 320×120, simultaneous video/still capture, 73-point hybrid autofocus, and 12-bit RAW files.
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Canon sent out this teaser yesterday stating that it’s going to be making some kind of game-changing announcement on November 3rd. Since the location is Hollywood, it seems more likely that it’ll be some kind of camera for filmmaking rather than a mirrorless camera. Filmmaker Philip Bloom thinks it’ll be an EF and PL mount camcorder with a Super 35mm sensor (possibly offering 4K resolution).

While we’re on the topic of Canon announcements, TechRadar wonders whether Canon is planning to discontinue the Canon G series after the company unveiled the powerful PowerShot S100 yesterday. Perhaps the line will be replaced with a mirrorless camera series?

(via Engadget)