Han Shing cam magically turns 3 megapixels into 12

Like most of you, we ignore the interpolation numbers that digital camera manufacturers continually trot out to make their cameras seem more impressive than they actually are. But Han Shing Technology managed to catch our attention, with a humble 3 megapixel camera that interpolates to not six, not eight, but 12 freakin' megapixels. We don't even want to know what those pics look like after they're put through the wringer, especially ones captured with the 8x digital zoom (what, you were expecting optical?). The rest of the camera's specs are fairly run-of-the-mill, with a 2-inch TFT LCD, 32MB of built-in memory, and an SD slot for expansion. And unless "Logo" is actually the name of this camera, we're guessing this'll probably end up rebadged in any number of incarnations, so be on the lookout.

[Via MobileMag]

[Michael @ Jun 14th 2006 3:34PM]

It's not called the "Logo." The model number is HS-DV338A, but according to the AVING site, Han Shing is marketing this camera as the "Handster." Also, where do you see that it takes SD cards?

[Pete Avila @ Jun 14th 2006 3:38PM]

Wow! Thats one BIG camera.

[daaper @ Jun 14th 2006 3:44PM]

Michael, at two points in the description:

1. "Continuous Image playback AVI, 640 x 480 pixels, (Based on External SD Card)"

2. "Weight 88g (without battery and SD card)"

[Petr @ Jun 14th 2006 3:45PM]

It says, "‧Weight 88g (without battery and SD card)‧Weight 88g (without battery and SD card)"
so I am assuming there is an sd card. Does the interpolation actually make the pic look better? colnt you do a better job in photoshop?

[D @ Jun 14th 2006 4:08PM]

I like the "LOGO" name. If I owned a electronics manufacturer I'd name it something like "Better Electronics Than Everyone Else" and roll out products named "You Should Buy One Of These" or "Best Value For The Money".

[Sizer @ Jun 14th 2006 4:08PM]

> Does the interpolation actually make the pic look better?

No. It will look just like you took a 3M pix and blew it up with crude scaling. Same with the 8x digital zoom.

> colnt you do a better job in photoshop?

Yes, you'd do a much better job with Photoshop bicubic scaling.

Anyhow, the 12M interpolation and 8x optical zoom are absolutely worthless. If you used them both at once you'd probably end up with one huge 12 megapixel blob.

[binaryvisions @ Jun 14th 2006 4:17PM]

Hahaha... This camera rocks. I can't believe manufacturers get away with this idiotic crap.

TWELVE megapixels? Are you kidding me? Nice way to make a perfectly fine, 3 megapixel image look like crap.

I'd love to get my hands on one of these just to amuse myself by taking pictures at 12mp while maxing out the 8x digital zoom. I bet I could draw better images in Microsoft Paint!

[William Crabtree @ Jun 14th 2006 4:28PM]

Can you say Holga like art cult?

[phule @ Jun 14th 2006 5:19PM]

[[Picture Effects Black & White, Color ]]

Since when did a color image become a "picture effect"

Wow, this camera is going to be craptacular.

[Wry Cooter @ Jun 14th 2006 6:31PM]

Here is how I would make a 3 mp sensor take a 12 mp image...

Load it with stitching software. The camera moves, it takes in more of the landscape roving eye style, until it has fulfilled its 12 mp quota, which is dumped from the buffer, for the next shot.

I'd buy that camera. Kodak makes one that acts similarly, for panoramas.

[Brian James @ Jun 14th 2006 7:47PM]

WHY!?! More importantly, HOW could anyone on a corporate payroll be so stupid as to think of this crap!?!

[Alexander @ Jun 14th 2006 9:43PM]

There was a peice of software that would take images and make a panaoramic image out of them. You could take the pictures in any order, at any zoom and it would stitch them together. I think it was called autostitch or something. I wonder if it works on linux...

[Ivan Kirigin @ Jun 14th 2006 10:56PM]

I work in Computer Vision.

There is a process called Super Resolution. One form of the algorithm is tracking features between frames in a video sequence. Those correspondences are used to align images to compensate for scene and camera motion. Interpolating across multiple aligned frames is much better than single image interpolation.

Check this out
http://www.ri.cmu.edu/projects/project_537.html

[Perrey Z. @ Jun 14th 2006 11:18PM]

This camera is only for OEM and ODM orders. The customers logo/brand goes where the "logo" word is.

[Tom @ Jun 15th 2006 9:41AM]

You take the white pill, you go back to taking pictures with your Canon Digital Rebel and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the black pill, you stay in Wonderland and see how crappy the resolution gets.