Varioptic liquid lenses now shipping in SnakeCam webcam
We've been hearing about how Varioptic's liquid camera lenses would revolutionize cellphones for a while now, so it's a little bit surprising to see the oil-and-water optics pop up in Akkord Electronics' el cheapo SnakeCam webcams first. The 1.3 megapixel S1300 and 2.0 megapixel S2000 cams feature a Varioptic Arctic 416 lens, as well as bendy mount, built-in microphone, and CMOS sensor, and will sell for just $20 per unit -- but we'd imagine that whoever ends up rebranding these will mark that up a bit.





















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
wilcoholic @ Jun 25th 2008 2:23PM
Wow thats really cheap but I cant imagine any purposes for such a device.
JC @ Jun 25th 2008 2:26PM
well, it's a webcam, so I imagine it would be used for porn
Xee @ Jun 25th 2008 2:31PM
Colonoscopy?
Shinigami @ Jun 25th 2008 2:31PM
How about technology testing? xD
Lowest Ranked @ Jun 25th 2008 2:36PM
Any toy can become an adult toy:
Location, Location, Location!
Abhinav @ Jun 25th 2008 2:36PM
Jus wait till apple pops one of these into a MacBook and charges an extra $250 for it...
Beddoes @ Jun 25th 2008 2:30PM
Liquid Snake Cam? MGS4 FTW!
Lowest Ranked @ Jun 25th 2008 2:38PM
After many years, our hero Snake has become soft overtime; his next game Metal Gear Liquid, says it all.
Gibson @ Jun 26th 2008 10:51AM
Glad someone else was thinking this! :D
applefan @ Jun 25th 2008 2:30PM
www.badgerbadgerbadger.com
Snake! lol
Shinigami @ Jun 25th 2008 2:31PM
Thats some great news to me - a start! I hope to see these kinds of lenses in phones next year (mobile phones first, cell phones later, meaning EU first, USA later :) ). But I certainly hope this will boost auto-focus speed of all cameras to Motorola ZN5's speed (less than a second to focus), as well as make phones thinner with larger sensors (8mp SE C905 is around 19mm thick, kind of too much).
jfjb @ Jun 25th 2008 2:47PM
how long is the neck of that thing?
Lowest Ranked @ Jun 25th 2008 2:54PM
Judging by the USB plug I'd say roughly 12 inches.
Which is exactly 12 times longer than my.... nevermind.
Frankenstein Black @ Jun 25th 2008 4:46PM
Wow! I am sooo sorry... Hey screw those judgmental chicks. Head up. Don't let them get you down...
Christian @ Jun 25th 2008 3:11PM
wait where's the link for purchase now?
That's still cheap for any type of web cam!
required @ Jun 25th 2008 3:43PM
any sample oil-and-water imagery?
neihprome @ Jun 25th 2008 4:27PM
Reminds me of the binoculars from Dune.
Harry Wagstaff @ Jun 25th 2008 6:31PM
A BENDY mount? Where do I sign up?