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Technology View - by Arun On Technology

3D Photography may be reality in immediate future

Due Credit: Adobe, Audioblog,
Photography is amazing. It is as close to capturing time as man has ever been. Since videos are a series of still photos run by in a quick sequence, it all boils down to imaging. Recent technology demonstrations from Adobe will take this concept of time capturing to another height.

When you take a photograph, you are essentially capturing a moment in time. But the issue with that mode of capture is that your position or point of view at that moment gets fixed. This essentially implies that you are limited to only the possibilities that can be perceived from your view, which needless to say does not necessarily capture every element of that moment that you have tried to freeze frame.


The Technology


Lets face it. This technology is revolutionary and will be some time before it comes. Essentially, Dave Story, VP of Digital Imaging at Adobe showed off a whole lens piece that was created by one of its engineers for the moment capture that we are talking about.

Not to get you lost in technical jargon but to put it precise in the words of John Nack,

Adobe research scientist Todor Georgiev* has been working on algorithms for use with a plenoptic camera & was motivated to build his own lenticular lens array.

There is a video of the whole presentation at this audioblog which is a must watch for those who have to see and feel the real implications of this technology.

The future

Ever wanted to be there and relive some perfect times with your family or friends, enjoying around a campfire. The pictures do a great job of reminding about those days but are you able to really relive them? The technology demonstrated by Adobe makes it possible to alter the position of view around the objects of the image. Which means, you can take a picture and then view the contents in the image from multiple points.


Now mix that up with video and you get a digital video recorder that is must have for all seasons. Combine them with the nifty features that you have with virtual world APIs and viola, you are able to walk and navigate the sandy beaches and literally relive the whole moment that you captured way back.

There was once this concept floated by Microsoft of the technological capability to capture and store all your digital information so that you maintain a sort of digital archive that accounts for your whole life. Adobe's product could well be the same applied to every moment of your life.

And the result of this true 3D model capture means that we save our surroundings for later regeneration. Perhaps as close as we get to time travel.

Stay tuned to these pages for more information on technology grounded in reality and ready to take off.
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Holiday Gadgets special : Nikon Coolpix L5

Due Credit: Nikon Aus for infos and Shopferret.com.au for prices
Holiday Gadgets
Holiday Gadgets
The holiday season is just around the corner. Whether you are lover of getting gifts or bound to give gifts, very good time to choose your gifts. Regardless of your religion–you have to give and receive gifts in December and January (well unless you are not that social). In holiday not only buying gifts there are plenty other expenses that hurts your wallet, so you should make a mix of quality and economy when you choose gifts. What is the use of buying a few thousand dollars worth gift and struggle next few months, which will spoil the fun of holiday? That is why I plan to bring up cheaper but comparatively high quality gadgets through out this month which I will continue until last day of this year (2006).

Sometimes, you just can not ignore the appeal of simplicity. Unless you are a super camera freak, probably a high tech SLR camera with hundreds of functions will make you feel irritate rather then happy. That could explain why we have seen a rising number of cameras that combine a very short list of features with lots of automation to provide a pretty thought-free shooting experience. This should definitely appeal to people who are confused by the various settings on most cameras and have no interest in learning about their complexity, though as you could imagine, tweakers will want to steer clear. Nikons Coolpix L5 wont give you experience of shooting with a SLR but wont disappoint you either, if you love simplicity yet qualities.
Nikon's Coolpix L5
Nikon's Coolpix L5


Top among its features is its 7.2-megapixel CCD sensor and a 5X optical, 38mm-to-190mm, f/2.9-to-f/5.0 zoom lens with optical (a.k.a. lens shift) vibration reduction (VR). This method of VR is the most effective offered by Nikon. Other variations on the theme include electronic, which combines info from sensors at the time of image capture with internal processing to try to remove blur from images that have already been shot; and mechanical, which shifts the CCD to compensate for shake. The 2.5-inch LCD is a decent size but has only 115,000 pixels, so images appear coarser on it than on cameras that include LCDs with higher pixel counts.

You wont find any manual exposure controls, but there are 15 scene modes, as well as exposure compensation of up to plus or minus 2EV in 1/3-stop increments. You can also choose between matrix and center-weighted metering, as well as auto and center-point autofocus. If you are shooting something that you expect may turn out blurry, you can try Nikons Best Shot Selector (BSS)- my personal favorite. With this turned on, the camera will shoot as many as 10 photos while you hold down the shutter release, then automatically select the one it thinks is the least blurry.
Nikon's Coolpix L5 LCD
Nikon's Coolpix L5 LCD


Holiday Gift Choice: 5X optical zoom; lens-shift vibration reduction; easy to use. Price range AU$342-AU$370. makes it a reasonable gift choice. Holiday Gift score for this item is 3 out of 5.

Key Specifications:
Dimensions and Weight
3.6 x 1.8 x 2.4 inches (W x D x H)
170 g.
Type of Camera : Compact digital camera
Effective Pixels : 7.2 million
Image Sensor : 1/2.5 inch-type Interline CCD (7.41 million total pixels)
Image Size (Pixels) : High (3072*), Normal (3072), Normal (2592), Normal (2048), PC (1024), TV (640)
Lens : 5x Zoom-Nikkor; 6.3 - 31.4mm (35mm [135] format equivalent to approx. 38 - 190mm); f/2.9 - 5.0; 9 elements in 7 groups
Digital Zoom : Up to 4x
Focus Range : 50cm (1 ft. 7.7 in.) to infinity, 4cm (1.6 in.) to infinity in Macro mode
LCD Monitor Size : 2.5-inch
LCD Monitor : 115,000-dot TFT LCD monitor with brightness adjustment
Storage Media : Internal memory: approx. 8MB, SD memory card
File Format : Compressed JPEG, Quick Time Motion JPEG, sound files: mono/wav
File System : Design Rule for Camera File System (DCF), Exif 2.2 file, Digital Print Order Format (DPOF)
Shooting Modes : Auto, 4 modes with Scene assist (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Portrait), BSS (Best Shot Selector), Color Options, Date Imprint, Self-timer
Scene Modes : Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dusk/Dawn, Night Landscape, Close up, Museum, Fireworks Show, Copy, Back Light, Panorama Assist
Capture Modes : 1) Single, 2) Continuous (approx. 0.7fps), 3) Multi-shot 16 (approx. 5fps, only available at image size 7M)
Video Recording : With sound: TV movie (640) at 30fps, Small size (320) at 30fps, Smaller size (160) at 30fps
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SLR: Doorway to Digital photography

Well a lot of we would love to have a SLR camera. But what’s the secret of SLR cameras, why they are so expensive and adorable. Only way to find out is get to know SLR, I am sure you won’t regret it.

The term digital SLR is short for digital single lens reflex, so named because these types of cameras use a mirror positioned behind the camera lens to direct light toward the viewfinder when you're composing a photo. When you release the shutter, the mirror swings quickly out of the way, letting light from the lens travel straight to the sensor and momentarily blacking out the viewfinder. The viewfinder in an SLR incorporates a prism--usually a pentaprism--that flips the incoming image around so that you can see it right side up and bounces it onto the focusing screen where you see it.

The SLR design allows one camera to accommodate a very wide range of lens focal lengths, and that's the biggest reason that SLRs dominate serious photography. The explanation? With a non-SLR camera, you have to match the angle of view of the "taking" lens with that of the "viewing" lens. That's easy with a fixed lens or a short-range zoom, but it requires increasingly complex and expensive viewfinder mechanisms as you try to cover a wider range of focal lengths. With an SLR, you avoid this problem because the taking and viewing lens are one and the same.

There are manly 3 types of SLR camera available:
Interchangeable-lens full system digital SLR
These are what most people mean when they say "digital SLR," and they are the primary focus of this buying guide. As the name implies, the ability to remove one lens and replace it with another--to go from, say, ultra-wide-angle to supertelephoto--is what sets these cameras apart. Most of the modern day SLR is belongs to this type. Example- Canon EOS 30D, Canon EOS ID mark II.
Canon EOS 30D
Canon EOS 30D


Fixed-lens digital SLR
The lenses on these cameras can't be removed, which limits their versatility. The best known of these models use a semitransparent, non moving mirror to bounce some light to the viewfinder while letting most through to the sensor, which means you can use their LCDs for composing. Example- Olympus E20N.
Olympus E20N SLR
Olympus E20N SLR


SLR-like or SLR-style
These are standard digicams that use an electronic viewfinder (EVF)--just a small LCD--in place of an SLR's pentaprism or a point-and-shoot's optical finder. They can't truly be considered SLRs because they have no mirror, and we've yet to see an EVF that approaches the image quality of a decent pentaprism viewfinder. These cameras are sometimes called ZLRs. Example-Sony Cybershot DSC-R1.
Sony Cybershot DSC-R1
Sony Cybershot DSC-R1


Unlike other cameras in case of SLR camera, you got to be picky; the cheapest one I know is about US$800 and it can go as high as US $5k (don’t laugh). But all depend on for what purpose you will use it, what are your intended results. For example- someone wants to hold his/her memories and buy Canon EOS 1D Mark II will be a west of money, and resources. He/she can easily satisfy her/his needs with just a 6 or 8 mega pixels SLR, since no need for high speed frame rate and bulky zoom lenses. So you have to explore your needs first before you jump into decision to buy a SLR camera.
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