Iran: Will Nokia achieve what Bush couldn’t?

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

Over the past week I’ve been dipping into the flood of “tweets” pouring out of Tehran. And I’ve been impressed: primarily, of course, by the spirit of the Iranian people, but also by the way Twitter has kept me informed with an immediacy and rawness that mainstream media coverage can’t match. What we’re seeing in the east is a landmark event, not only in geopolitical history, but also in the history of the internet

But while Twitter has undoubtedly played a major role in events, there’s a technology which I think has been even more pivotal. I’m talking about camera-phones — such as the one that captured the last living moments of a young Iranian woman named Neda, shot dead during a protest on Saturday in the streets of Tehran. (more…)

Digital Polaroid successor on the way

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

Polaroid jumped back into the market in March of this year with a range of cameras and a separate digital printing device called the PoGo. Producing little 2 x 3in prints in around 30 seconds, it was a nice little concept, but beyond kids printing stickers of each other to plaster all over the back of bus seats I couldn’t see any lasting appeal.

I did ask Polaroid back then about the possibility of integrating the printer into its digital cameras to come up with a true successor to the Polaroid instant camera, and the response was, with a wry smile, that advancements would come “at a later date”.

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“Big cameras” banned

Monday, June 30th, 2008

I had a parental visit at the weekend, and we decided to take in some of the tourist sites around the capital. On Sunday the itinerary involved a quick spin on the London Eye – it does actually move much faster than it appears to from my office window – followed by a gig in Hyde Park.

To the embarrassment of my family I had items from my bag confiscated at both.

This often happens to me, as an inveterate tinkerer and technology hoarder; bike parts taken by Science Museum staff, USB drives and mobile phones at a laptop manufacturer’s design centre. It’s no big deal to me, as long as it’s justified.

On the Eye it was a small toolkit I carry in case my bike falls to pieces. Fair enough; the spanner could be used as a weapon, perhaps, or to undo the capsule and send it plunging into the Thames. At the concert, though, it was my DSLR which was flagged up, as I was told that on the second day of the two-day event, staff had been told to stop “big cameras” from entering. This has been happening more and more in the last year or two.

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Stop! Please! (aka Spot the Difference)

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

The image you see above is the result of a small torrent of Canon IXUS cameras that cascaded into the office today. There’s an IXUS 80 IS; an IXUS 85 IS; an IXUS 90 IS; and an IXUS 970 IS.

You’ll notice they all look rather similar. (more…)

Megapixels are Dead

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Finally got my hands on Canon’s latest addition to its DSLR range, the EOS 450D, at the end of last week. Am always keen to see the new models in this particular range since I own a 350D, which is now three years old.

My 350D produces 8 million pixels; the 450D 12.2 million. So here’s a 100% crop of two shots I took with the two cameras, roughly 20 seconds apart. I used the same lens (a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di), at the same exposure settings (1/80th of a second at f/8) – click to enlarge them to full size:

Both were taken in RAW mode and processed in Canon’s own Digital Photo Professional application with identical default settings – same white balance, same sharpness, same contrast, same everything. I think you’ll agree, the difference in detail is less than obvious. The shot on the right – the 450D – is a little larger in size of course, but the actual rendition of detail is as near identical as makes no odds. (more…)

Just in: Canon Digital Ixus 85 IS

Monday, April 28th, 2008

It’s a shame this little beauty came in just too late for the current issue. It’s Canon’s latest pocket digital camera, the Ixus 85 IS and it already has a several members of the PC Pro lusting after it.

First impressions are good – it’s very light, small and pocketable, exhibits the usual solid Canon build quality, 10-megapixel resolution, a 3x zoom ISO up to 1600, face detection and an impressive-looking optical image stabiliser similar to the system seen on our A List favourite, the Canon Ixus 960 IS.

Be sure to check the Reviews section for the full lowdown – we’ll be giving it the PC Pro treatment very soon.

Here’s an early shot taken with the camera…