While the advanced processing, glass and sensors of DSLRs has made them a likely candidate for video capture for some time now, a few technical obstacles have stood in the way. All that could be changing, though, with this DSLR "Movie Mode" patent from Japanese inventor Hiroshi Terada uncovered by Photography Bay. The wide-ranging patent addresses trouble spots such as AF focus speed and tolerance, and the auto-cropping DSLRs perform during AF adjustments, but most interesting is the mirror. The patent suggests a mirror that lets through 70% of light, while reflecting the other 30%. Reflected light can be used for continuous AF, while transmitted light is captured on the camera's primary sensor. This mirror configuration also allows live view while shooting stills. There's no telling when we'll start seeing this in cameras, or if any major manufacturers have even licensed it yet -- or have developed similar systems -- but it does seem clear that DSLR movie shooting is fairly inevitable.

[Via Photography Bay]

Thanks to another set of ambitious iPhone hackers, we've officially got video on Apple's wonder-device (that somehow omitted video to begin with). It's not much right now, but if you want, you can see your phone recording five succulent seconds of real-deal video at around 15 FPS. The developers say this is just a proof of concept, and they've been able to get up to 45 FPS on the device -- so hopefully we can expect a more robust version soon (like, say, one that lets you save the recording). Check the video after the break to see the gorgeous work in action.

Those looking for a simplified way to convert home videos and other recorded content to formats palatable to your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV need look no further than Pinnacle Systems' Video Capture for Mac. The USB 2.0-based device features your basic composite, S-Video and stereo inputs, touts hardware video encoding and onboard compression (MPEG-4), and was designed to operate in OS X 10.4 or later. The box should be available in stores next month for a respectable $99.99.

[Via Electronista]

Buffalo has got a new video capture device for those not content with recording from a single source at a time, with the PC-MV72DX/U2 offering both S-video and composite inputs -- along with an integrated analog TV tuner -- to bolster your recording options. If that's not enough for you, it seems you can also daisy-chain up to ten of 'em together connected to a single PC. Alternatively, you can hook one (or more) of these suckers up to a network attached storage device (otherwise known as NAS), such as Buffalo's own LinkStation line of drives. Whatever configuration you go with, you'll get your choice of MPEG-1/2/4 video at up to 720 x 480 resolution, as well as all the PVR and TV viewing functions you'd expect to come with a PC-attached TV tuner. Look for this one to hit Japan later this month for 24,360 Yen (just over $200).

[Via Akihabara News]