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Apple patent application teams up multiple smartphone flashes for better lighting
Smartphone camera flashes are notoriously weak compared to dedicated models, but what if you could fire them from several handsets at once? Since none of us have the millisecond timing needed to do it manually, Apple has filed a patent application to let any number of iOS (or other devices with a flash) fill in the light automatically. It'd work by using a master device as the camera, which would trigger slave devices positioned around the subject to fire their flashes when the shutter is opened. A test image would first be taken and analyzed by the software, which would then remotely adjust the intensity of the slave flashes to produce the final photo. The filing allows for virtually any device with a sensor to act as the capture device and a broad variety of illumination devices, including dedicated lights, smartphones, tablets or camera flashes -- though we imagine Apple would concentrate on its own products. If you're already planning to use friend #1 for a kicker light, friend #2 as an eye-light and friend #3 as a hair light on that next outing, please remember it's still just an application for now.
Nikon launches $550 Speedlight SB-910 flash: light-up controls and thermal cut-out protection
You know what $549.95 gets you in the camera world? About 90 percent of a T3i. Or, you know, a flash. Nikon has just outed the proper successor to the Speedlight SB-900, and at over half a grand, it best be packin' more than just bright lights. The Speedlight SB-910 touts an enhanced operating system and graphic user interface, and comes equipped with a wide zoom range as well as FX / DX-format identification that optimizes zoom settings based on the camera body. The company's also promising better battery life and a bolstered thermal cut-out function -- which offers protection against damage to the flash panel and body from overheating during continuous flash use -- not to mention an improved LCD and the ability to be used as an on-camera flash, wireless commander or remote. You'll get a trio of illumination patterns (standard, center-weighted and even), and it'll be shipping here in the US in just over a fortnight. Here's hoping it's not too late to add a last-minute crush to your wish list. %Gallery-140582%
4.5 million fps microscope camera powered by ultra-fast X-ray flash
Remember those rugged gadgets we smashed to bits in super slow-mo? Well that spectacular footage was shot at around 1,500 frames per-second. A new camera system being built for the European XFEL (X-ray Free-Electron Laser) facility will record stunning clips of viruses and cells at an almost unimaginable 4.5 million fps. The camera is, in part, powered by a high speed flash created by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, that blasts its microscopic subjects with ultra-bright X-rays. The flashes themselves last as little as two femtoseconds, or 2x10^-15 seconds for you math nerds out there. When the whole apparatus is fired up in 2015 it could provide amazingly detailed, 3D images of individual molecules and answer some questions about the behavior of viruses and cells.
Apple attempts to patent a smarter camera flash
There's always something intriguing cooking in Cupertino, even if Apple's ovens are full, and the latest item on the list is a novel camera flash assembly you might one day see on an iPhone. Where camera flashes are typically fixed in a single spot on a device, Apple's trying to patent a flash redirector that could whip them around, letting you frame a dimly-lit picture the way you want and automatically adjust the intensity and direction of the flash to get better results. The patent application suggests that devices would have a dedicated lens for the flash, and then a pivot on either that lens or the flash itself to aim, plus an "evaluator" that figures out what needs to be lit and by how much. Alternatively, Apple imagines you might be able to just select an area on a touchscreen camera device (wonder where we'd find one of those?) with your finger and aim the flash yourself, but if we know anything about Apple's love of simplicity they'll try the AI solution first. Either way, it seems like an excellent nighttime equivalent to iOS 4.1's HDR, and something we might like to see on all sorts of shooters, not just those on phones.
iPhone OS 4.0 beta 4 hints at LED flash, camera for iPad, iPod, iPhone
We've yet to see concrete proof that Apple's portable media players will ship with a camera, but the new iPhone OS 4.0 beta shows Cupertino's at least considering the notion for the iPod touch and even the iPad. It seems AT&T tethering wasn't the only thing hidden in iPhone OS 4.0 beta 4 -- 9to5Mac found a variety of telltale references to an a flash when pouring through the update's source code. Does that mean that the iDevices will actually get cameras, let alone supporting light fixtures? It's too early to tell... but we did spot an LED flash on that early iPhone HD, and a recent Vietnamese leak proves that Apple at least prototyped an iPod touch with a camera -- though no flash, sadly -- as well. Is Apple simply updating their error messages, or is there something to this? You make the call.
iPhone gains battery life, camera flash, loses sex appeal with FastMac's iV
Why yes, FastMac -- we want 24 hours of talk time, 72 of audio, 20 of video, and 31 days of standby on our iPhones and iPhone 3Gs. Throw in a camera flash that doubles as a flashlight, and the ability to charge a USB device like a Bluetooth headset right off the phone, and you've got a deal on this iV charging kit of yours! Oh, there's a catch? It's a wee bit bulky, with an aesthetic similar to that of mophie's Juice Pack? Hey, it could be worse. This largification -- along with $79.50 -- is apparently the price you pay for digital endurance.[Via Macworld]
Korean digicam chip could make flashes obsolete
If you're oblivious to those generally-useless cellphone digicam flashes at this time, we hear ya -- we can't stand them either. But would it not be nice to capture quality images in dark spaces without being blinded by the light from a traditional flash and without seeing the blur of a phone cam that accompanies flash-less night or dark shots? The South Korean Electronic Technology Institute says it has the answer in a new low-light image sensor chip. The main feature? the chip allows digital cameras to snap great shots with hardly any light. Yes, we're talking 1-lux lighting levels here for both still and video capture, with a claimed low-light sensitivity level 2,000 times more than other sensor types. Nice, very nice -- though as usual, we'll have to reserve judgment until it finds its way into a shipping product.[Via Phone Scoop]
