It's finally happened: we're living in an age when cameras will, in certain modes, just shoot themselves. 2009 looks to also be a year when things we once thought of as cinematic special effects, like the projection of Obi Wan giving Princess Leia her marching orders or Dick Tracey getting an assignment from his wrist phone, make their way into real-world mobile devices. We'll also be able to capture decent video of craters on the moon.
The real pleasure of the annual Consumer Electronics Show is getting a glimpse at such future-tech, but it's also an opportunity to take stock of which recently-released camera, camcorder, and camera-phone models seem to be most popular with the American public. Time and again, it seems, consumers are choosing ease-of-operation and straight-forward user interfaces over more impressive feature sets. Here's a quick round-up of some of the stand-out digital imaging product stories from CES 2009:
Casio is applying it's high-speed technology to a new generation of consumer digicams. The company announced two new pocket-sized cameras which will be able to shoot 30 still frames per second in burst mode. Both cameras will be branded with Casio's consumer name, Exilim. The EX-FC100, with a 5x optical zoom and external lens, will sell for $399.99, and the EX-FS10 with a 3x zoom and internal lens, will hit the market at $349.99.
Unlike traditional consumer pocket cams, these two new models can capture ultra-high speed action-shots, such as the precise moment a bat hits a ball, by recording dozens of frames in just a few moments. In playback mode, a review of the many shots looks rather like a slo-motion replay, and consumers can choose to save the most exciting frames.
William Heuer, Vice President of Digital Imaging for Casio America, said the new point-and-shoots capture so fast, even ultra-zoom and night shots are "virtually without blur."
Casio is calling its high-speed engine a redefinition of the consumer camera category.
President and founder of the company, Kazuo Koshio, also appeared at the company's CES press conference to introduce a new digital imaging technology he called a "moving image composite."
He demonstrated the new idea by taking high-speed shots of a smiling woman presenting a gift to him. He then super-imposed the high-speed shots of that presenter onto pre-fab greeting-card type backgrounds, from a birthday theme to a Christmas card.
Companies Mentioned:
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