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March 2008 News! Asher Picks: The Latest Imaging Technologies for 2008!

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Here's what's new for March 2008. The latest, last! These advanced technologies are available now or by late 2008. This provides a look over the horizon to where things seem to be moving. As one has a limited budget, knowing what's coming might influence some buying decisions and anyway, makes ones creative juices flow!

Let's hear what interests you and PM me with any advances you think are likely to be significant.




Casio's EX-F1 60 frames per second burst, 1200fps video!

EX-F1_Overview.jpg


The EX-F1 is a totally new type of digital camera that delivers speed and digital functions never before available! This new concept in digital cameras lets you shoot photographs that capture every moment of a moving subject, and movies that open up a whole new world invisible to the naked eye.

Ultra-high speed burst shooting captures 60 still images per second
High speed movie recording at up to 1200 fps


Something worth seeing for about $999 released in March 28th for the Japanese. Not sure about the USA or Europe! I'd love to have one!

casio4.jpg



"6 million effective pixel 1/1.8 type CMOS sensor, a focal length equivalent to approximately 36 to 432 mm (35 mm equivalent size) / F2.7-4.6 zoom lens with a 12X optical lens to form a digital camera. Full-resolution 60 / s continuous shooting performance and the full 60 fps in response to record high-definition video. Also, up to 1,200 fps prepare for the high-speed video photography features."

features06.jpg


Users can record images not just at the instant they press the shutter button, but before!
Continuously recording at up to 60 images per second, a maximum of 60 images can be saved in the camera’s own buffer memory even before the shutter button is depressed. Even if users press the shutter a little late, they will still be able to catch that vital moment.


Think about this with Photoacute .

PhotoAcute Studio produces an image from a sequence of continuous photographs, thus acquiring more graphic information than it is available from a single photograph. Using sophisticated algorithms it combines individual frames to produce one high-resolution image.

Unlike the digital zooming and image sharpening, resultant photographs produced by PhotoAcute Studio do really have higher spatial resolution. Small, thin and far away objects, traceries, textures and inscriptions become recognizable.


sf_superresolution.jpg


Add up those 60 files and increase the resolution and decrease noise. We'll just have to see how useful it is. For sure the rapid frame rate will create many new opportunities to dissect time!

Asher
 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
So, nobody is interested in a camera that can dissect time?

Nothing excites you?

I'm interested because it really shows the speed that chips can be emptied of charge read fro the next image and that's how the new generations of chips with individually addressed Foveon-like chips will work: Chip based shutters! I expect that's what is happening here!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
O.K, so you want to be moved! Fine, then try this new solid state SATA hard drive (PATA too if you wish!). These work at phenomenal speed and are shockproof to 1500G!

Imagine a raid of say 3 of them for your photoshop scratch disk? Cost on release about $600-$900 for one 32GB drive; just my guess from prices I've seen so far. Prices should drop by 40% at least by next year.


Flash Media / Solid State Drives / SATA II / 2.5" SSD

SATAII_box.jpg
SSD_sideB.jpg
SSD_bottom.jpg



The OCZ SATA II drive is designed to stay abreast of the performance features of high-end notebooks, and is ideal for energy-efficient mobile computing. With blazing access times combined with excellent reliability, the OCZ SATA II 2.5” SSD is the answer for enthusiasts demanding the most advanced storage for their notebooks and systems.

At incredible capacities of 32GB and 64GB and premier speeds of 120MB/s read and 100MB/s write, OCZ SATA II SSDs enable enhanced productivity in your everyday computing and intensive multi-tasking applications. Featuring durable yet lightweight brushed alloy housing, OCZ SATA II 2.5” SSDs have no moving parts that are prone to damage from common mishandling. Designed for ultimate reliability, these SSDs have an excellent two million hour mean time before failure (MTBF) ensuring peace of mind over the long term.

The advantage of such a drive is that one can easily travel with it without worrying about the baggage handling damaging the drive. It will be available in 3.5" versions too.

Oh, yes, Part Numbers:

OCZSSD2-1S32G
OCZSSD2-1S64G

Well, is that more interesting?

Asher
 

Eric Hiss

Member
Wow if I didn't already have a tough time filtering the data I have now.... what would I do with 60 frames/sec....


But the 1200fps movie mode would be really fun to play with.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Eric,

I try to find cutting edge technology that might change the way we work. The Casio can allow one to choose pictures taken before the shutter was pressed or any time afterwards. This, with the ability to stack images and so increase resolution and dynamic range and get rid of noise is pretty impressive.

Essentially, this allows dark areas to add up sufficient signal to go above the baseline noise. Also various signal noise is random and will be removed because the noise will not be in the same place each frame.

So instead of going for a pixel crammed chip, one can just take more frames!

Asher
 
So, nobody is interested in a camera that can dissect time?

Nothing excites you?

I'm interested because it really shows the speed that chips can be emptied of charge read fro the next image and that's how the new generations of chips with individually addressed Foveon-like chips will work: Chip based shutters! I expect that's what is happening here!

Asher

Well let's see some results first before getting too excited. If the individual images are too poor in quality, then stacking and super-resolution processing may not be able to even recover the initial compromises. I do like technological progress and its potential quality benefits, but postprocessing multiple images also requires motionless subjects if we want to avoid motion blur.

Bart
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Well let's see some results first before getting too excited. If the individual images are too poor in quality, then stacking and super-resolution processing may not be able to even recover the initial compromises. I do like technological progress and its potential quality benefits, but postprocessing multiple images also requires motionless subjects if we want to avoid motion blur.

Bart
Hi Bart,

Of course we are going to have to see how great Casio's rendition of these new directions in technology. I believe that we are at the edge of new potentially revolutionary ways of imaging. Casio's EX F1, however good it is, is just one of the first iterations. With better pixels, circuits and chips with ant-shake systems, solid state drives with consequent amazing vibration and shock resistance, rapid image acquisition the field will be open for smarter software.

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Liquid lens! Coming to a 6-7MP cell phone 3rd Quarter 2008!

March 13th 2007

1205336342539_seiko_1.jpg


Now for something totally different that we really knew was coming: a lens which works like the variable human lens to accommodate different focal lengths.

Here's the technology from Varioptic France! Yes the DXO France! Nicolas Clairs and Tim Armes' France, same country that moved Nationalism to replace the Royals and empowered the mobs and people. The place that has the Louvre, the great new airliners, a huge erector set of Iron and that makes pretty good wine, cheese and great movies where people smoke and talk a lot in restaurants!

tech_02.gif


The liquid lenses that we develop are based on the electrowetting phenomenon described below :
a water drop is deposited on a substrate made of metal, covered by a thin insulating layer. The voltage applied to the substrate modifies the contact angle of the liquid drop. The liquid lens uses two isodensity liquids, one is an insulator while the other is a conductor. The variation of voltage leads to a change of curvature of the liquid-liquid interface, which in turn leads to a change of the focal length of the lens.


Oh yes and the lens is real! Sw on the long leaf belew the flower:

1205336342683_sieko_2.jpg


Claimed advantages:

Large inverse focal length range
Ruggedness (No moving parts )
Fast response
Very good optical quality
Good transparency in the visible range
Wide Operating temperature range
Very good stability of the optical axis
Extremely low electrical consumption
Simple low-cost construction


To show you this is not just research conference material but real and soon to be in your hand:

BARCELONA, Spain – 11th February 2008 - Seiko Instruments Inc. (SII), (Japan) and Varioptic Lyon (France) – Varioptic and SII announced today the signature of a cooperation agreement to develop, manufacture and market Varioptic’s Liquid Lens products. The aim of this agreement is to achieve a significant penetration with Liquid Lens products in the fast growing camera module market and other large volume end equipment markets such as barcodes and webcams.

SII will use its manufacturing expertise as the number one supplier of Backup button battery and Capacitor to Cellular phone companies to produce Liquid Lens units in very high volume with aggressive cost reduction to ensure liquid lens products maintain their cost advantage for auto-focus.

SII production capacity plan is expected to reach 0.5 million units per month by 3Q of 2008 and will expand mass production capacity according to market needs.

This agreement builds on an existing production capacity for Arctic 314 and Arctic 416 liquid lenses designed for 5–Megapixel, 1/3” and ¼’’ format camera modules.


So how long will it be before liquid lenses appear in Digicams? I can see all sorts of magic if you add up the previous advances in this thread! I like the idea of things turning on their head. However, my 70-200 IS lenses are still good for another 4 years, I hope!

Spetember 2008 well know what the quality is like! Meanwhile read about the competing "FluidFocus" (Phillips Corporation's) lens and discuss this exciting new technology here.

Asher
 
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