Our Battlemodo showed that while cheap pocket camcorder video quality has come a long way, audio quality is usually abysmal. The Zoom Q3 aims to change that with TWO directional microphones that can be focused much like a lens zooms.
The picture of Nyko’s Zoom Case for the DSi says it all, no?
Pentax’s X70 is a non-DSLR with 24x Superzoom, but it’s also the first of its kind to include 720p video recording.
Brando, never one to miss an opportunity to attach a thing to another unlikely thing, has expanded its mobile phone zoom lens line to include models for the BlackBerry Bold and Storm.
Nikon’s P90 doesn’t boast the mightiest barrel of the increasingly ridiculous superzoom subset of digital cameras—that’s Olympus’s crown to wear—but 24x is serious step-up from the P80 and trumps Canon’s latest.
Zoom lenses are by no means a rarity, but it’s not often that someone chooses to sacrifice one to the internet. FredMiranda forum member sbv20 found himself with a useless Canon 17-85mm lens after the aperture became stuck, so he did what any good gadget freak would: he tore it apart. He documented the process with a fantastic series of photos which demonstrate that even the boring lenses found dangling from necks at any tourist destination are obscenely complicated.
I guess the complicated combination of accelerometers and proximity sensors isn’t trivial technology, but this one really should have been done by now: automatic zoom based on camera movement. In a new patent application, Sony Ericsson has detailed technology that judges your intention to zoom by measuring the camera’s distance from your body, zooming in as it moves further away. The patent is just for cameraphones at the moment, but there’s no reason that it couldn’t (or shouldn’t) crop up in the next generation of point and shoots as well. [UnwiredView via Engadget]
Until now to telescopic-zoom an image with your iPhone 3G involved a quick sprint in the general direction of your photo’s subject: But now Brando has a version of their telescope add-on for the phone. The lens is a 6x zoom bolt-on, and comes with a transparent mounting system/iPhone case much as before. It’s also still very awkward looking: You won’t be sneaking up to many curtains to peep unnoticed with this in your mitts. Available now for US$19. [Brando]
Well, it might be for viewing your pocket fluff, if you’ve got a scientific mind and it’s interesting to you. This new ‘scope is a little smaller and more portable than ones we’ve shown before and features 24-90x zoom, a 1.8-inch LCD, 2MB of internal memory and a 300,000-pixel CMOS sensor. If you like exploring the world of the small and wiggly, then you’ll have to wait as there’s no info on pricing or availability. [Akihabaranews]
If you’re gonna zoom, ZOOM, goes an old saying I just made up, and Nikon today is heeding those words: the CoolPix P80 point-and-shoot has an 18X optical zoom lens—that’s a 35mm equivalent of 27-486mm. Along with that, it’s got full P, A, S and M modes, optical vibration reduction and up to 6400 ISO at lower resolutions, so it’s all but guaranteed to let you crawl up a fly’s arse in midair. Compared to the budget minded full-manual CoolPix P60, the P80 has a few incremental improvements: a 10-megapixel CCD, up from the P60′s 8 megapixels, a 2.7″ LCD, up from 2.5″, oh and a $400 price tag, up from $230. Helllloooo profit margin! Press release after the gallery.
