Cameras

Sigma DP2 Merrill Review: Clumsy Body, Beautiful Sensor

Sigma is better known for its camera lenses than its cameras. But the company also makes a ridiculously strong imaging technology—the semi-legendary Foveon X3 image sensor. The Sigma DP2 Merrill is Sigma’s latest attempt to mobilize this sensor in a camera. Can it crush? What Is It? A compact $1000 camera with a 23.5 ×…

Lytro’s Innovative Light Field Camera: Now With Manual Controls!

When the Lytro light field camera made its way into the hands of consumers earlier this year, it did something no camera had previously done: absorb all the light rays in its field of view, making it possible to refocus the image anywhere the photographer desired. But its controls were (perhaps intentionally) simplisitic, which meant…

How to Take Great Photos with a Bad Camera

Someone in your life still uses a crappy, ancient, point-and-shoot digital camera. Maybe it’s you. Maybe it’s your mom. And at some point, on some vacation, or some holiday dinner, you’re going to get shot with it—the digital equivalent of a FunSaver. Don’t just sit there ridiculing the poor machine. If you help it along,…

A 29 Megapixel Security Camera Could Catch a Flea Breaking and Entering

The traditional approach to video surveillance is to blanket a property with low-res VGA cameras to catch suspicious activities from any angle. But with Avigilon’s 29 megapixel JPEG2000 HD Pro, you can slap a wide angle Canon lens on the end and cover an entire parking lot in one fell swoop. It might border on…

The First Time the Public Ever Saw a Polaroid

Polaroid, that thing that happened before Instagram happened, is one of the fascinating untold tech stories of our time. In the recently released Instant: The Story of Polaroid, Christopher Bonanos recounts the stunning day the inventors of Polaroid first unveiled their new technology. Excerpt from Chapter 3: Seeing It Now An ad executive once said…

This White Plastic Bowl Turns Your Smartphone Into a Photography Studio

Having trouble selling your knick knacks and sundries online? Maybe you just need better photos on your eBay listing. But instead of hiring a professional photographer, the Nimbus Cloud Dome promises pro-looking shots using just your smartphone. In a professional studio you’d rely on a set of diffused lights and a curved white sweep to…

Samsung’s Nutty Android Galaxy Camera Is Coming to AT&T’s 4G Network Soon

We’ve been excited about the Samsung Galaxy Camera since it was announced back in August. We saw the weird/brilliant mashup of a Jelly Bean-running Galaxy S III with a point-and-shoot camera in action last month, and it looked like a winning combination. Well, Samsung has just answered a few of the remaining question marks: the…

Our Favorite Smartphones, Cameras, Headphones, Speakers and More

Yes, in September we finally got the long-awaited iPhone 5, but that was just one of the many, many rad gadgets we tested. Here’s a rundown of all the best new gear you should know about. For the full list of Gizmodo favorites, head over to the complete Best Gadgets In: https://gizmodo.com/a-week-with-the-iphone-5-5946599 The Best Smartphone…

Transforming Cap Guarantees You’ve Always Got a Lens Hood Handy

Perfect for photographers who don’t dig the lens flare look but want to keep their kit as minimal as possible, the awkwardly-named Hoocap combines a lens cap and hood into a clever transforming accessory. It keeps fingerprints and scratches off your lens, and glare and flares off your photos. At the moment the Hoocap’s only…

New Apple Patents Hint At Upcoming Camera Features

With iPhone 5 announced and released, designers are back to the grindstone. In fact, they probably already have been for a while. A few new Apple patents filed just a few days ago provide some hints at what Apple cameras might do in the future. One of the most inteteresting covers a number of gestures…

This Is What Shooting a Gun Underwater Looks Like

Ever wonder what it would be like to shoot a gun underwater? It looks like a scene lifted straight from a Bond flick. Firearm aficionado Andrew Tuohy gave it a go with a .40 Glock 22 in his own pool. The video above was shot with Pentax WG-2 on the “high speed” video setting. It’s…

Sony just bought a $644m share of Olympus in an attempt to lay its hands on better camera technology. Interesting. [WSJ]

Here Are Pictures from the First Full-Frame Point-and-Shoot, the Sony RX1

Sony excited a lot of people who were down on point-and-shoots with the full-frame RX1. As the smallest full-frame sensor camera, it sounded like it could be awesome. But sounding awesome is different from looking awesome and with cameras, it’s all about the shots right? Well, here are some sample shots of the RX1. https://gizmodo.com/sony-rx1-the-first-full-frame-point-and-shoot-camera-5942476…

This iPhone Case Is a Tiny Photography Studio That Won’t Help Your iPhone 5’s Camera

There’s usually a dearth of new iPhone accessories leading up to an Apple event, because most companies don’t want to release a product incompatible with the latest model. Not Manfrotto. Its new KLYP case improves your iPhone’s shots with a much needed mini tripod and large multi-LED flash. But iPhone 5 owners can just move…

Lensbaby Spark Review: Magical Camera Blur Effects, If You Fuss With It

Tilt-shift photography is all the rage. It’s based on a type of lens that distorts perspective and focal plane to create atmospheric blur effects. Tilt-shift lenses are usually cray expensive, but Lensbaby makes a whole line of blur-tastic lenses for cheap. Their newest toy for a DSLR, the Spark, only costs $80. But does it…

Is Your iPhone 5 Camera Seeing Purple?

The latest iPhone 5 defect claim to emerge from the mists is the issue of purple flares appearing in camera images where lighting is particularly bright. The issue was first pointed out in the AnandTech forums, and apparently Apple has acknowledged the issue. Plus looking at testing done by Mashable, the issue seems like anything…

Here’s a Galaxy-Shooting Camera You Might Actually Afford

How do photographers get those absolutely stunning photos of the stars? Not by aiming a point-and-shoot at the sky. To zoom into galaxies far away you not only need specialized glass—you need the right type of image sensor in your camera. And while they don’t come cheap, at least now they come… cheaper. https://gizmodo.com/these-are-the-best-amateur-pictures-of-space-this-year-5944871 The…

Gorgeous Cameras and the Nerds Who Love Them

Biannual photography trade show Photokina took place last week in Cologne, Germany. It was a gathering of companies, journalists, and enthusiasts, all there to swoon over the latest camera gear. If you couldn’t make the trip, gaze upon this symphonic ode to camera lovers everywhere. Camera Geeks is a wonderful little creation by famed DSLR…

Nikon D600 Review: Images This Spectacular Have Never Been So Cheap

Earlier this year, we fell in love with the Nikon D800. How could you not? It’s a 36.6-megapixel hulk of a professional camera. But if you don’t have $3000 lying around, too bad. https://gizmodo.com/nikon-d800-review-a-major-hd-upgrade-but-is-it-the-be-5897968 For a lot of serious photographers, the Nikon D600 sounds like an ideal compromise: the camera you can still afford with…

How the iPhone 5 Camera Stacks Up with a DSLR

In our iPhone 5 camera battle, we mostly pitted it against cameras in its own weight class: the Galaxy SIII, the HTC One X and the 4S. Sure, we stacked the odds a bit when we compared it to the Canon S100 and Nokia’s 808 PureView, but we didn’t go as far as to see…