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Visualized: 121-megapixel satellite photos show Earth in glorious, psychedelic detail (video)
We're starting to think the Russians have an inside track on high-resolution space photos. When Nokia's 41-megapixel photo of Earth's horizon was just a twinkle in the 808 PureView designers' eyes, the Russian Federal Space Agency had long since finished taking 121-megapixel photos of the whole planet that we're just now seeing in earnest. Unlike NASA photos, which are usually composites of multiple shots, the Elektro-L weather satellite's images display the entire planet in one ridiculously detailed take from 22,369 miles away. Why the trippy colors? Instead of just displaying Earth as-is -- real colors are so passé, dahling -- the satellite layers on near-infrared imagery that paints vegetation in wide swaths of rust-like orange. You can get a peep of what a day-night cycle looks like for Elektro-L in the video below, and hop over to the sources to get an inkling of just how insanely detailed the images can be. You can also be slightly jealous of the satellite's network connection: at a minimum 2.6Mbps and maximum 16.4Mbps for bandwidth, odds are that it has faster broadband than you do.
Tata announces Megapixel hybrid EV, alas, it's just a concept
The Geneva Motor Show means one thing: fantastic cars will be dangled in front of our faces, before being snatched away and being told that it'll never see the light of day, as it's "only a concept." The latest vehicle we'd purchase if they'd let us is Tata's Megapixel, a four-seater compact hybrid EV that promises a range of 560 miles (900km) on a single tank of fuel. A hub motor sits atop each of the four wheels, driven by a petrol-electric engine under the cabin, with a wireless inductive charging panel for topping up the batteries at home. It's designed for the city: with a turning circle of 180 degrees in a 2.8 meter space and sliding doors for easy entry. Inside, there's a rear-projected dashboard with a joystick controller (that reminds us of BMWs iDrive) and a smartphone dock for connectivity. Head on past the break to see the vehicle in action and wonder if it'll ever reach the market, like we're doing.
Samsung announces three Wave handsets, dripping in Bada 2.0 and ChatON
It's shaping up to a be a busy IFA for Samsung. Barely 24 hours after announcing its new ChatON messaging client, the manufacturer is now gearing up to release a troika of new Bada 2.0-powered Wave handsets -- the Wave 3, Wave M and Wave Y -- set to make their debut this week in Berlin. Leading the pack is the Wave 3, which leaked earlier this week. Powered by a 1.4GHz processor, this little guy boasts a 4-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display, 3GB of memory (along with a 32GB microSD slot) and a five megapixel, auto-focus-enabled shooter. The Wave M, meanwhile, packs slightly less juice, with a 832MHz processor, a 3.65-inch WVGA screen and 150MB of onboard storage (with a 2GB inbox and 32GB microSD slot). Rounding out the collection is the Wave Y, with its 3.2-inch HVGA display, 832MHz engine and two megapixel camera. All three feature your usual smattering of WiFi / Bluetooth 3.0 capabilities and will ship with ChatON and Samsung's Social Hub baked into their DNA. No word yet on pricing or availability, but you can find out more in the full press release, after the break.
Cornell University's microscopic camera makes photos with mathematics
Megapixel, megaschmixel -- we're more impressed when camera tech goes the opposite way and shrinks down. A happy byproduct of his neural mapping research, Patrick Gill and his Cornell University team have engineered a cam so microscopic it could fit on the head of a pin. The lensless creation is only one 100th of a millimeter thick, looks more like a miniature CD and doesn't require any budget-breaking parts. Named after the Fourier transform that inspired it -- a mathematical operation that breaks a signal down into various frequencies -- the Planar Fourier Capture Array translates pixel components into a fleshed-out image. Creators of the tiny camera tech stress that it won't be "[taking] family portraits," but you could probably count on having this nigh-invisible sucker implanted into your brain. It's definitely one small step for man, one nano-leap of the photographing kind.
Olivetti's OliPad 110 tablet runs on Honeycomb, olive oil
Just a few months after unleashing what it called Italy's first tablet, Olivetti is turning its attention to what might be Italy's first tablet upgrade -- the OliPad 110. Much like its predecessor, this 1.3-pound slate rocks an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and a 10-inch touchscreen, but runs on Honeycomb and boasts a higher-res, 1280 x 800 display. There's also a two-megapixel camera strapped to the front, a five-megapixel lens 'round back and 16GB of onboard memory. No word yet on pricing or availability, but you can check out more pics of this bella signorina at the source link, below.
iOS 4.3 beta suggests 1-megapixel camera for iPad 2
Adding to the growing collection of iPad 2 rumors, 9to5 Mac has done a bit of digging into the latest SDK to find a listing that says the iPad 2 will have a back-facing 1-megapixel camera. This is only slightly higher quality than the camera in the current-generation iPod touch. The front is suppose to be a VGA camera, just like the one in the iPhone 4 and iPod touch. Sources have told the site that K94, the name of the folder where the listing was found in the SDK, is the iPad 2's codename. As some of our commenters pointed out in Erica Sadun's recent wishlist, the purpose of the back camera might simply be for better augmented reality apps, or for use in Facetime to take a quick casual shot of your surroundings. As another commenter suggested, it would also be useful for taking inventory in a retail environment or scanning any number of barcodes -- and you wouldn't need a lot of megapixels for that. Of course, like everything else released lately, this is still just a rumor. We won't know for sure until the magic unveiling sometime within the next couple months. [via Engadget]
Canon proudly intros 120 megapixel CMOS sensor, probably won't hit a DSLR in your lifetime
Oh sure, household names like Pentax are already producing cameras with 40 megapixel sensors, and we've seen quite a few gigapixel images crafted with a pinch of black magic, but Canon's newest innovation may take the mainstream megapixel race to its next logical level. Or should we say... illogical level. There's no two ways about it -- just trying to comprehend an APS-H-sized CMOS sensor with 120 megapixels is downright painful, and we're inclined to believe the company's claim that it's the world's highest resolution for its size. This new concoction has a pixel count of around 7.5 times larger than the company's highest-resolution commercial CMOS sensor of the same size (which is pegged at 16.1 megapixels), yet it still supports burst shooting of up to 9.5fps. Furthermore, it's fully capable of capturing 1080p video, but the one detail we're all eager to ingest isn't listed. For now, though, the plan is to let you know about the first camera to ship with it inside at Photokina 2030.
Casio's EXILIM EX-H10 ultra-compact gets 12.1 megapixels 10x closer
Casio's just pushed another 10x zoom compact camera into the market with its EXILIM EX-H10. Here we've got a 24-mm wide-angle lens stabilized by a 12.1 megapixel 1/2.3-inch CCD-shift sensor with up to ISO 3200 sensitivity, a 3-inch LCD, and the ability to grab Motion-JPEG video at 720/24p. EXILIM 4.0 image processing and a 10 frames per second burst mode for 1,280 x 960 pixel images too in a point-and-shoot measuring just 102.5 x 24.3 x 62-mm. Watch for it to hit Japanese retailers first starting next month for ¥40,000 (about $400). Pink rear-end after the break.
Sony announces new CMOS sensors, 12+ megapixel cameraphones coming soon
If you've enjoyed the point-and-shoot megapixel race, which has pushed sensor resolutions in your average 3X zoom compact cam well into the teens -- leaving a sad trail of dark and noisy holiday pictures in its wake -- you're going to just love the mobile phone megapixel race. Samsung's 10 megapixel SCH-B600 currently holds the lead, but Sony's got a ringer chomping at the bit with the Exmor IMX060PQ CMOS sensor, which, paired with its matching auto-focus lens module, will turn some lucky handset into a 12.25 megapixel shooter when it enters the race in March. Sony has also announced 5.15 and 8.11 megapixel sensors, but really, anything not in double digits is so last year.[Via Akihabara News]
Megapixel race hits the mobile realm
When the megapixel race unofficially started in the point-and-shoot world, it didn't take long before every last camera manufacturer out there was cramming 14-megapixel sensors into any ole pocket cam. Now, it seems the same race is headed to the mobile realm. Of late, we've seen a new batch of 8-megapixel handsets and a 9-megapixel sensor, and a recent interview with LG's sales and marketing director John Barton points to even more of those in the near future. According to him, "the megapixel race that we saw amongst camera makers is now being battled out between mobile manufacturers," hinting that 10+ megapixel phones (not to mention handsets with HD video capability) are closer than we may have imagined. Mmm, the possibilities.[Via Cell Phone Feeds]
The Lensas F2218: why wait for your 8 megapixel cameraphone?
Yeah, yeah, we know that Nokia, Samsung, and probably every other top tier manufacturer has an 8 megapixel cameraphone cookin' in the oven as we speak. Problem is, you're impatient, we're impatient, and frankly, we'd like this stuff now. Chinese firm Lensas has the solution to the pollution, though: meet the F2218, quite possibly the orangest 8 megapixel candybar on the market today. There's even a xenon flash in there, too, and from the looks of the sample shots on PConline's review, the whole package does alright for itself. Of course, without some incredibly fast network (say, TD-SCDMA) to back it up it gets a little tricky to effectively get those massive shots back and forth, but it's a start -- and in a reversal of roles, it's the big guys who'll be doing the copying come next year.[Via Unwired View]
Ricoh Caplio GX100 reviewed
The chaps over at PhotograhyBLOG have an extensive (as in six pages) review of the handsome Ricoh Caplio GX100 that we told you about in March. Opinions from the experts concerning this 10 megapixel camera seem largely favorable, with high marks for design, features and ease-of-use, and only a few minor quibbles in the image-quality department. They seemed particularly excited about the Caplio's use of a RAW storage format, which the competition has apparently been moving away from. But hey, it's your $700, so if you really want to know all the details, follow the link to the full review.
Battle of the 3+ megapixel cameraphones
Comparing cameraphone image quality can be a tough nut; apart from obvious things like poor focus or grainy quality, it can be a pretty subjective beast. PhoneArena went wild with high end handsets to give us a "thousand-angle" view of what it takes to stand out in an über (notice the umlauted u? We don't do that often, so this is serious business) shootout between three 3 megapixel cams -- including the D900, K800, and N93i -- and the KG920 and N95 at 5 megapixels. Each handset is put through a series of grueling tests including shooting outdoors, night shots, and macro mode with points awarded based on how they fare in each challenge. We won't spoil the read for you, but as a hint the winner rhymes with "okia." Hit the read link to check it out.[Thanks, Orhan C]
Samsung's new S830 / S1030 compact digicams
Although we're a bit partial to the more stylish NV lineup of Samsung shooters, the firm has unveiled a new duo of middle-of-the-roads compact for the budget-minded set. Both the S830 and S1030 sport the same silver casing, 3x optical zoom, a 2.7-inch LCD monitor, built-in microphone for voice memo attachments, auto-macro, ISO 1600, SD / MMC card support, optional rechargeable battery pack, AVI / MPEG4 movie mode, and ten pre-set scene modes as well. The 8-megapixel flavor packs just 20MB of internal memory, but does add a "one-touch playback" mode for reviewing photos without fully powering the camera up. The 10-megapixel version boasts 45MB of integrated storage, a slightly faster shutter speed, and comes bundled with a nice two-year warranty right out of the box. Unfortunately, pricing on each wasn't available, but both the S830 and S1030 should be landing sometime this Spring amongst the hordes of other ho hum point-and-shoots vying for your dollar.Read - Samsung S830Read - Samsung S1030
Sharp unveils 8.28-megapixel 1/2.5-inch CCD sensor
Although Sharp has already busted out 10- and 12-megapixel sensors for ultracompacts, the firm is toning it down a bit and making things even more compact with its latest 8.28-megapixel 1/2.5-inch CCD rendition. The company achieved the resolution "using the 1.75 μm x 1.75 μm pixel cell, which is claimed as is the industry's smallest class," and comes in at 60-percent of the volume of Sharp's previous model. Presumably hoping to cram these things into wafer-thin cameras of the future, it plans to start shipping the 10- x 10- x 3.5-millimeter sample packages later next week, while volume production of the ¥4,000 ($33) sensors are scheduled for April.
PSP camera review: "Worse than most camera phones"
It's been rumored and spotted and dated and now that it's out in Japan, it seems it's a little less than impressive. We're speaking, of course, of the PSP camera attachment, which import-focused site GameBrink declares is "worse than most camera phones on the market today."Indeed, the 5000 yen ($42), 1.3-megapixel phone seems a little behind the times when standard camera phones that come free with many wireless plans sport at least two megapixels. The attachment will only look more obsolete as eight-megapixel phones eventually penetrate the mass market. What's more, the camera's video function limits you to 15 second clips, regardless of how much capacity you have on your MemoryStick, negating one of the attachment's potential benefits.With no launch details announced yet for America, it's still unclear whether the device will even see the light of day outside gadget-obsessed Japan. Judging by this review, though, that suddenly doesn't seem like such an awful prospect.
Pogue's perspective: megapixel numbers don't matter
David Pogue has faced his fair share of myth-busting duties, but his latest assignment sure didn't have to be done in order to convince us that his unanimous discovery was indeed correct all along. While theorists (and those adamant that bigger always equals better) can theorize forever on why additional megapixels should yield clearer, more accurate prints, the reality of the matter is that extra megapixels are typically not much more than a marketing ploy to lure consumers into making an additional purchase. In his latest test, he took identical photos with anonymous 5-, 8-, and 13-megapixel shooters, and then printed them out on 16- x 24-inch poster paper at a professional photography lab. Then, he surveyed the general public in Times Square to see if the naked eye could actually discern between the varying sensors and the level of clarity -- to no surprise (and to theorists' chagrin), only a single person (a photography professor, mind you) correctly sorted the prints in order of megapixels, and Pogue even asserted that the lucky winner was probably guessing anyway. So, if you still don't believe us, be sure to hit the read link for the full skinny, and save yourself a few bills the next time you're camera shopping by not making megapixels your ultimate priority, capishe?[Via TheRawFeed]
HP and Flextronics team up to deliver higher quality cameraphones
It's no surprise that cameraphones are emerging as some folks' point-and-shoot of choice, and we've already seen LG and Schneider-Kreuznach team up to deliver higher quality shots from your multi-functional mobile, but now HP and Flextronics are trying the knot in order to allow users to capture photos "with the same high quality they achieve from their digital still cameras." The five-year deal gives Flextronics -- makers of Kyocera, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola handsets -- exclusive use of HP's image processing technology in return for an undisclosed royalty. The same technology used in HP's long-standing lineup of Photosmart digicams will soon be hitting the depths of your pocket, and promises to produce "significantly improved results" over current options, delivering shots that are "good enough to print." Although we're not sure if these forthcoming modules can outsnap the 10-megapixel SCH-B600, we're all well aware by now that megapixels aren't everything.[Via CNET]
Sigma launches SD14 and DP1 14 megapixel cameras
In case you're still curious about those SD14 teaser shots, Sigma has officially announced the arrival of it's newest flagship DSLR, and has thrown down a beefed up P&S to boot. The SD14 replaces the aging SD10 model, and rocks a (probably unnecessary) 14 megapixel Foveon X3 sensor, 2.5-inch monitor, dust protector, built-in flash, CF support, USB 2.0 connectivity, AF-assist, maximum ISO of 1600, and "improved auto focus / continuous shooting." The (admittedly odd) DP1 sports a P&S enclosure, but manages to house the same superfluous 14 megapixel sensor seen in the SD14, Sigma's "True" image processor, 2.5-inch LCD, CF slot, a fixed 16.6mm F4.0 lens, and even touts RAW capability. Sigma boasts that its specially-designed Foveon X3 sensor captures colors more accurately than typical CMOS sensors thanks to its three separate color sensitive layers (and judging by the promo site, results aren't too shabby). Both models should be available soon, and while we're left to ponder how much coin the DP1 (photos after the break) will demand, there's no questioning the £1099.99 ($2,093) required for the SD14. Read - Sigma SD14 Read - Sigma DP1
Nokia N73 review roundup
What's better than a review of Nokia's king-of-the-hill candybar, the 3.2-megapixel N73 with virtually every desirable feature under the sun? How about three reviews? Early reports suggest some discontent with the N73's build quality and processor speed, not to mention that the lack of WiFi leaves us wanting -- but viewing the phone as the N70's heir apparent puts everything into perspective for us. We'd normally refrain from teasing our US readers so incessantly with gorgeous equipment they can't have, but in this case, quad-band GSM is virtually a written invitation for the S60 lovers among us to get their import on.Read - phoneArenaRead - CNETRead - All About Symbian
