6-megapixel Sony for just US$179! 
Sony introduced the Cyber-shot DSC-S500, expected to ship in the U.S. early August. The Cyber-shot DSC-S500 is an entry level 6.0 megapixel digital camera with 3x optical zoom lens, 25MB of internal memory, and a 2.4-inch Super HAD LCD. There aren't that many features, but who'd have thought just a little while ago you could get a 6mp Sony for just $179.95?!
-- Posted Monday, June 26, 2006 by chb
Digital camera and PDA combine to create reader for the blind 
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) unveiled a groundbreaking device, the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader. The portable Reader, developed by NFB and inventor Ray Kurzweil, enables users to take pictures of and read most printed materials at the click of a button. Users merely hold "the camera that talks" over print -- a letter, bills, a restaurant menu, an airline ticket, a business card, or an office memo -- and in seconds they hear the contents of the printed document played back in clear synthetic speech. Combining a state-of-the-art digital camera with a powerful PDA, the Reader puts the best available character-recognition software together with text-to-speech conversion technology -- all in a single handheld device. [see Blind Reader page] -- Posted Monday, June 26, 2006 by chb
Digicam shipments grow, but market consolidates
According to IDC, overall digicam shipments continued to grow in 2005, but the market began to consolidate as weaker camera vendors exited the market and new consumer electronic vendors enhanced their global presence. IDC predicts that the worldwide digicam market, which entered early maturity last year, will continue to mature across the world as emerging markets experience strong growth and older markets begin to decline. IDC predicts that: 1) Global demand will continue to be strong in the short term, with 111 million units shipping in 2008, but a slowdown is on the horizon; 2) Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world will emerge as powerhouses and account for over 40% of the global shipments in 2010; 3) More vendors will exit the market in the next 18 months. IDC's study, "Worldwide 2006-2010 Digital Still Camera Forecast", provides a high-level, comprehensive view of the worldwide DSC market. It contains 2005 actual unit shipments and total 2006 - 2010 forecasts. -- Posted Thursday, June 22, 2006 by chb
Kodak introduces 12X EasyShare P712 
Kodak introduced the 71. megapixel EasyShare P712, a nice modern longzoom camera that's sure to please a lot of fans of standard size digicams. The P712 has a large 2.5-inch LCD, is extremely fast, has optical image stabilization, 32MB internal memory and a SD Card slot, goes up to ISO 800, offers both automatic and manual control, measures 4.3 x 3.3 x 2.8 and weighs 14 ounces. It also does VGA video at 30fps and you can even use the full zoom during video capture. MSRP is US$499. -- Posted Wednesday, June 21, 2006 by chb
Panasonic announces its first digital SLR
Panasonic Corporation of North America today announced the availability of its first digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera with an interchangeable lens, the DMC-L1, in the United States. The camera will be available beginning early September for a suggested retail price of $1,999. The camera comes equipped with a LEICA D VARIO-ELMARIT lens featuring the industry's first optical image stabilization system - MEGA O.I.S - designed specifically for the Leica lens. -- Posted Wednesday, June 21, 2006 by chb
Face Tracker for cameraphones announced
FotoNation announced today FotoNation Face Tracker for camera phones. Face Tracker uses a radically new approach to identify and lock onto human faces in a camera phone’s preview image, tracking them as they move around within the frame and automatically adjusting focus, exposure, and white balance before the image is captured, ensuring that faces are optimally taken and that skin tones are reproduced with exceptional accuracy.
Especially important for shooting under poor lighting conditions and at night-time, Face Tracker draws a box around the face, showing the user which face is being tracked. It can also track multiple faces in the preview image simultaneously. Because of its advanced tracking algorithm, Face Tracker accurately follows and adjusts exposure on the selected faces as they move in frontal or profile positions and establishes the correct image orientation automatically.
FotoNation Face Tracker also takes into account any processing speed limitations within the camera phone. The Face Tracker technology is highly optimized, allowing sufficient processing power for the camera phone to run its own algorithms while faces are being detected, continuously maximizing the available resources.
www.fotonation.com
-- Posted Monday, June 5, 2006 by dtm