In a series of huge announcements, one of video’s biggest powerhouses, Canon, announced new camcorders with specs that are so good, you might just be tempted to take out a second mortgage to get one.

Canon announced their new products in stylish Hollywood event. They showcased their new C300 cinema-style camcorder, brand new cinema lenses, and a mysterious DSLR-style concept camera that shoots in 4K. The C300 was the story of the night since it marked Canon’s first foray into the cinema market. It has an 8.3 megapixel sensor that delivers a full 2 megapixels of information  for each color channel  meaning that color reproduction should be very accurate, much like the 3 CCD sensors of cameras in the past. The C300 will also include Canon’s newest DIGIC DV III image processor meaning that it will be able to handle those simultaneous feeds of color information accurately and quickly. In addition, it will record in Canon’s MXF format which means you’ll be getting a 4:2:2 MPEG-2 codec at 50 Mbps. Staying true to form, they’ve included two slots for CF cards in the camera so that you can record on both cards simultaneously or relay-record.

The C300 has a Super 35mm sensor, making it smaller than the recently announced EOS-1DX, but bigger than the sensor found in the 7 and 60D. A bit odd considering that sensor size is a big selling point for cinematographers since it typically means less noise in the image and gives the camera the ability to achieve a shallower depth of field. Even so, there are plenty of other great features on this camera that any pro will love. To begin, the camera is modular. That means that you can take almost everything off of the unit until it becomes more or less a camera ‘brain” housing just the sensor and processor. As such, it has an shoe mounted attachment that includes a 4 inch 1.23 megapixel monitor that can swivel 135 degrees horizontally and 270 degrees vertically and 2 XLR inputs with 48 volts of phantom power. The monitor also includes a waveform monitor to quickly see the overall brightness of a scene, an RGB Parade display for color saturation, a vectorscope, and an Edge Monitor Focus Assist for getting your image sharp. The camcorder records audio in an uncompressed 16-bit PCM format at 48 kHz giving you great control in post over how your captured audio sounds.

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Panasonic today announced the introduction of the LUMIX DMC-ZR3, a fully-featured digital camera complete with AVCHD Lite High Defintion (HD) video recording capabilities, a25mm ultra-wide-angle Leica lens and a powerful 8x optical zoom – giving consumers a wide-range of shooting options, yet in a slim body that is small enough to fit in a pocket or small purse. New to the ZR-Series this year, Panasonic also introduces Intelligent Zoom, which extends the LUMIX ZR3’s zoom to an impressive 10x. Read the rest of this entry »

We all have experienced a lapse in memory from time to time. It’s especially disappointing when the memory you’re trying to recall is one of importance, such as a special family event or vacation. Over the decades, the popularization of camcorders and cameras have helped us forever capture memories, but only the moments chosen by the person operating the camera.

Microsoft Research has developed a device called the SenseCam that is proving to be a great tool for memory loss. The digital camera is worn around the users neck, and is equipped with a fish-eye lens in order to capture as much information as possible. The SenseCam takes up to two pictures a minute without having to be prompted, and can store up to 30,000 photos on a 1GB flash memory card. This allows the user to view a thorough recount of their day picture by picture, or by compiling them all in a stop-motion fashion.

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