CES is over, but Panasonic has no plans of letting the camera announcements end — they’ve just announced four new Lumix compact cameras in addition to the eight they introduced at CES earlier this month.
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The camera market may look vastly different in the future than the Canon and Nikon dominated one we see today if recent trends continue. Amateur Photographer is reporting that the combined share of Canon and Nikon dropped a whopping 11% in Japan through 2010, and is currently at 60.4%. What’s more, Sony has increased its share to 15.2%, and has in fact overtaken Nikon in the UK, capturing 25% of interchangeable cameras sold compared to Nikon’s 20%.
Sony received a lot of attention in recent months for its innovation, launching the world’s first translucent mirror DSLRs and the NEX line of EVIL cameras. Canon and Nikon have yet to enter the EVIL market, though Nikon is rumored to have a pro-level mirrorless camera ready by April.
There’s plenty of tutorials online that teach you how to convert digital cameras into infrared cameras, and plenty of services that will do the conversion for you if you send in a camera, but what if you want to cut out the hassle of having a camera converted? Mike Keesling sells pre-converted Canon Powershot cameras through his website Opticsgeek that capture infrared images straight out of the box. A PowerShot A480 will cost you $200, and a SX200 IS will set you back $350.
Erin Paysse sells one-of-a-kind pinhole cameras created by upcycling vintage hardback books. Each camera has a magnetic shutter and is designed to take standard 35mm film.
The camera comes with it’s own set of instructions on how to load, shoot, and remove film, approximate exposure times, number of turns to advance each frame, as well as sample photos taken from some of my many cameras. Each camera takes very different pictures, so get ready to experiment with this incredible camera!
Each camera costs about $200 and can be purchased through Paysse’s Etsy store.
You’ve probably heard of EVIL cameras already, but how about WVIL? The Wireless Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens is a concept camera design by Seattle-based design firm Artefactgroup. What’s novel about the design is that the imaging sensor is situated in the back of the lens rather than in the camera body, allowing the lens to be detached and used apart from the body wirelessly.
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Looks like the blogosphere was right in December of last year when it guessed that a teaser put out by Polaroid was for a new instant camera launch at CES 2011. The company — along with Creative Director Lady Gaga — officially unveiled the camera today in Las Vegas, and also showed off a new printer and a bizarre pair of glasses as well.
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The big camera corps are dumping a huge number of new compact cameras at CES 2011. While many are standard upgrades to bring their cameras up to par with what consumers expect nowadays, there are some that stand out for one reason or another. Some of Sony’s new compact cameras (the DSC-TX100V, DSC-TX10, DSC-HX7V, DSC-WX10 and DSC-WX9) are unique in that they can shoot 3D photographs with a single lens and sensor. The trick is that two separate photographs with different focus settings are captured and combined to produce a 3D look. The DSC-WX10 (shown above) is also the world’s first compact camera capable of 1080/60p video recording. These cameras will be available for between $220 and $380 starting in March 2011.
“Keep it simple, Stupid!.” That’s a principle exemplified by Apple’s industrial design, but sometimes is nowhere to be found when it comes to compact cameras. Panasonic, however, seems to be on the same wavelength with the Lumix FP7 they just unveiled at CES 2011. The physical buttons normally found on the back of point-and-shoots are missing, replaced instead with a sleek 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD. The only physical buttons that remain are found on the top of the camera — power, shutter, and zoom (dial). With the simplicity comes 16.1 megapixel photographs, 4x optical zoom, and 720p video recording. No word yet on pricing or availability.
Update: As @valerietherese points out, this is also taking a page from Sony and the DSC-T200 camera released in 2007.
Yesterday we got a sneak peek at a strange multi-dimensionally swiveling Casio TRYX camera, and today it was officially unveiled at CES 2011. The TRYX is a 12.1 megapixel camera that shoots 1080p HD video at 30fps or 240fps slow-motion video at 432 x 320. The unique thing about the camera is that the 3-inch touchscreen LCD can both bust out of its “frame” and also swivel, allowing the frame to be used as a stand and for the screen to point in all kinds of random directions.
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In the present day world of photography, “mainstream” digital cameras aren’t nearly as modular as desktop computers since components can’t easily be swapped in and out of the camera body. The future might look quite different, and Nikon is taking a step in that direction with a recent patent filing for interchangeable sensors on EVIL cameras. In addition to choosing a particular lens depending on the desired photo, photographers would be able to choose different sensors as well.
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