The Bond gadgets

Looks can be deceiving with exponential growth of technology giving engineers the liberty to make machines that makes maximum use of their hardware. These devices can do what they are meant to - and what they aren't.

LG LSM 100 (Price: Rs 3,500)
This is a traditional mouse that eliminates the need of a stand-alone scanner. Very bond-like indeed.

The mouse comes with a software for scanning documents and pictures.

When launched, the program activates the scanner at the bottom. Capable of scanning a document as big as an A3 page, it enables viewing the scan simultaneously and even access to basic editing.

A gadget for professionals or the recreational spy.

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BLUETOOTH-ENABLED PAD (Price: Rs 10,990 onward)
A Bluetooth-enabled personal navigation device can be mighty useful. Firstly, it guides you across unknown terrain throughout the country.

Then, you can pair it with a phone over Bluetooth and turn it into a car speaker.

MapmyIndia, SatGuide and TomTom have these easy-to-use offerings. The S550 from MapmyIndia is priced at Rs 16,990. The SatGuide 5.0 Navi costs Rs 10,990.

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ASUS EEE PAD TRANSFORMER (Price: Rs 32,999 (Wi-Fi), Rs 43,000 (Wi-Fi + 3G))
The Transformer is a 10-inch touch tablet running on Android Honeycomb. What makes it different is that it's accompanied by a keyboard dock.

Once the tablet is yoked to the dock, presto, it turns into a laptop. Scoring high on functionality, the Transformer has a couple of USB ports and an extended battery backup. It is available in two versions-Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi with 3G.

Specs: 10.1-inch display; Keyboard dock; Combined of 1.3 kg; Android Honeycomb; 2 USB ports, 1 HDMI mini connector; 16 GB onboard memory, expandable; Wi-Fi, Bluetooth; 5 MP camera

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CAPTURE AND PROJECT (Price: Sony PJ50E: Rs 59,990 Nikon S1200pi: Rs 14,950)
Nikon's S1200pj is a point-and-shoot digital camera equipped with a 14.1 MP sensor and 5x optical zoom.

What sets it apart, however, is its built-in Pico projector with 20 lumens brightness and a contrast ration of 200:1. Sony also has come up with a camcorder with a built-in projector.

The PJ50E has a CMOS sensor with 220 GB hard disk drive with projection of up to 60 inch diagonally. But unlike the Nikon camera, this camcorder is fairly costly.

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DIVA iPOD LIGHT (Price on request)
This is a great combination of a tablet lamp and a hidden speaker.

The 4.5 W LED lamp is great for reading, while the FM radio can soothe your senses if you are tuned into the right channel.

It can also be connected to an MP3 or CD player via the auxiliary port. The retractable docking station drawer can hold an iPod or an iPhone and the digital screen displays time and music features.

This is sourced in India by Light Labs.

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PROTRONICS EMERGENCY CHARGER (Price: Rs 1,100)

This is a sleek compact charger with a built-in LED torch. Operating on Li-ion batteries, it can charge a smartphone, an iPod or a PSP.

The emergency charger has a USB port and is accompanied with a set of jacks compatible with different devices.

So, next time you forget your charger, charge it using your new flashlight.

Specs: 2200mAh battery; 90 gm; 4-stage charge indication level; LED torch.

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PHILIPS COOLING PAD (Price: Rs 1,999 onward)
Cooling pads are platforms that protect your knees from the heat generated by laptops.

In addition to this, the Philips Notebook cushion speaker can also pump up the volume of the notebook (of course, it uses up a USB connection too).

The Notebook sleeve, on the other hand, protects against heat and doubles up as a useful protective cover for carrying the machine.

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VICTORINOX SWISS KNIFE (Price: Rs 6,265 onward)
Wondering what is Victorinox's fabled Swiss Knife doing in this list?

Well, it made the cut as the company has added a flash drive along with a flash light to its fully equipped multi-function knife.

The Secure 32 is a 32 GB pen drive with fingerprint and password protection and a bright LED torch. Smart, right.

The Presentation Master Flight 32GB also belongs to Victorinox and comes equipped with a pen drive, laser and Bluetooth.

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SONY ERICSSON PLAY (Price: Rs 22,000)
Last year, Sony Ericsson took the wraps off its gaming smartphone.

The top panel is just like any other touch Android smartphone's. However, there is a second panel beneath, which has gaming controls instead of a keypad. It has a few games pre-loaded, but more can be downloaded from Android Market.

Specs: 4-inch display; 5 MP camera; Android v2.3; 512 MB RAM, 400 MB RAM expandable to 32 GB; 175 gm; 1500 mAh battery.

STUFF FROM ABROAD

SONY DEV-5 BINOCULARS (Price: $1,999.99; store.sony.com)
A binoculars or a camera? The Sony DEV 5 is a combination, capable of capturing images and video recording at 1080p resolution in both 2D and 3D.

It even has a CMOS sensor, optical image stabiliser, auto focus and a 20x optical zoom. The device also has a built-in GPS receiver that allows it to geo-tag videos and photos.

HP PHOTOSMART ESTATION (Price: $399; shopping.hp.com)
This gadget from HP combines a full 7-inch colour tablet with a printer. Acting as a touch controller, the tablet can be removed from the dock and used for browsing the Internet.

It also comes with preinstalled apps for business and entertainment. The tablet can be used for remote printing as well.

ZUMREED X2 HYBRID HEADPHONE (Price: 120 pounds; red5.co.uk)
This noise cancellation headphone bundles up as a speaker. The ear cups can be rotated and placed on a flat surface in the speaker mode.

It is charged using a USB cable. A one-hour's charge gives it enough juice for four hours of playback.

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Through a Camera, Darkly

The technology of lenses has made art richer and more meaningful for hundreds of years. A Gerhard Richter retrospective shows Germany's most famous artist responding to the camera over a lifetime of painting.

 

Around 1670, Johannes Vermeer of Delft painted a young woman making lace. She can be seen concentrating intently on what she is doing. In the foreground is a sewing cushion, a piece of needlework equipment consisting of a box with a padded textile cover, from which skeins of red and white thread are spilling out onto another surface. Loose, liquid, those fibers resemble to a contemporary eye something of which Vermeer could have had no conception: abstract art. When you look at that lovely festoon of red looping over the blue table cover, ­Jackson Pollock comes irresistibly to mind.
Last autumn this beautiful, tiny painting (it is slightly more than eight by nine inches) was the centerpiece of a beguiling exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England ("Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence"). I am going to concentrate on a single observation about The Lacemaker: Vermeer must have looked at the model and her surroundings through a lens.
There has always been some academic resistance to this line of thought about Vermeer (perhaps because we want our greatest painters to be supremely skilled draftsmen who do not require any mechanical aid). But even the scholarly authors of the catalogue for the definitive Vermeer exhibition (held in Washington and The Hague in 1995–96) concluded, "The optical effect of the threads certainly derives from a camera obscura image."
What one sees in The Lacemaker is a great painter making brilliant use of the distortions a lens can cause. The picture is constructed in terms of differing fields of focus. The foreground is fuzzy, but the area in which the woman is absorbed—her fingers, the bobbins, the lace—is absolutely sharp. Her head and shoulders are, again, gently blurred. ­Vermeer was making art—creatively and innovatively—out of the visual anomalies created by a piece of antique technology, the filmless camera.
Fast-forward 340-odd years to the Tate Modern, in London, where a magnificent retrospective exhibition of the work of ­Gerhard Richter, titled "Panorama," pulled large crowds from October to January. (The exhibition is now at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin and will move to the Pompidou Center in Paris.) During the interval between Vermeer and Richter, the camera obscura evolved into the photographic camera, and the photograph became the dominant visual form of our culture.
"Panorama" makes it clear that Richter is among the truly outstanding painters of the last half-century. And going from The Lacemaker to the Richter exhibition revealed to what an extent Richter has worked—like Vermeer in that picture—by using not just the photographic image but also the blurring, smudging, and hazing a lens can create.
Indeed, Richter has said that he wants to paint like Vermeer, whom he has called "the artist-god." His own works are "a little damaged," he told the curator Robert Storr, and he means it literally: he was so frustrated by his inability to measure up to Vermeer that he attacked some paintings with a palette knife. "I really want to make beautiful paintings," he said. "I couldn't quite hold it; they're not as beautiful as Vermeer."
On occasion, he has consciously echoed the Dutch master. Richter's 1994 painting Reader (Lesende) is an updated version of Vermeer's Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (c. 1663–64). But there's much more to the relationship than such occasional visual quotations. As you walk through "Panorama," you realize that Richter has been endlessly fascinated by the interplay between the sharp, clear image and the visual noise created by the lens—just like Vermeer in The Lacemaker.
PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY
Many of Richter's most characteristic works depend on the way the camera—if it doesn't quite lie—tends to be "economical with the truth" (as a British civil servant, in the witness box, once described the deliberate lacunae that give a "misleading impression"). Some of the best-known were derived from black-and-white photos, in some cases family snapshots. In the 1965 work Uncle Rudi (Onkel Rudi), the subject stands smiling, wearing a German officer's uniform from the Nazi era; in Aunt Marianne (Tante Marianne), also from 1965, his aunt holds an infant who seems about to burst into tears.
At first glance, these might seem chilly. Almost all of them are distorted, as if the camera was moving at the moment the shutter clicked; most have zones of out-of-focus fog. But the chill is an illusion, and the blur (achieved by brushing the not-quite-dry paintings with a soft brush) a highly conscious device. When I talked to Richter in 2008, I suggested that the latter was a way of adding distance and detachment to the picture. He denied it: "That's not what I think about my pictures. I feel they are shameless, they so directly reflect what I am thinking and feeling. I'm not really a cool artist."
Blurring was there in the original photographs, but it was exaggerated in the paintings for several reasons. One motive was to make it possible to look at the unbearable. Richter's aunt suffered from mental problems and was forcibly sterilized and then murdered in a Nazi euthanasia program. The child in her portrait is the artist himself.
In a series of 15 photo-paintings Richter did in 1988 about the careers and deaths of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group, the darker the subject matter, the more it is veiled in fuzz and smear. In Hanged (Er­hängte), the body of Gudrun Ensslin suspended in her cell seems to be seen through a thick mist; Arrest 1 and Arrest 2 (Festnahme 1 and Festnahme 2), showing Holger Meins being forced to strip naked, are barely legible at all, just masses of sinister gray patches.
The effect of the blur, then, is emotional but also makes a Germanic philosophical point. "Lack of focus is important for me," Richter once said, "because I cannot see it exactly anyway and do not know it"—"it" being what he is painting. In other words, an image is always partial and maybe misleading. You never really see what Kant called the "thing-in-itself."
The smear and blurring are also beautiful. They help give the pictures presence as works of art, making them what ­Richter calls "ansehnlich"—meaning considerable, or worth seeing. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he painted a series based on aerial photographs of cities. One, Townscape Paris (Stadtbild Paris), completed in 1968, was painted in a deliberately loose, free fashion and looks like an abstract work up close. Only at a distance does it resolve into buildings and streets, suggestive of the bombed-out ruins that characterized most German towns in 1945. It is not quite clear that Richter intended that last layer of meaning, though he noticed it later. "My paintings," he has said, "are smarter than I am."
RANDOM BEAUTY
Richter's work generates its own beauties and meanings. A subgenre of his abstract oeuvre is derived in a systematic, mathematical way from color charts. To create the 1974 work 4096 Colors (4096 Farben), he took the primary colors red, yellow, and blue, plus green, mixed 1,024 shades from them, and put those down four times each in neat squares. The energy, even euphoria, of the result is not a feeling expressed by the artist but an automatic effect. Damien Hirst's spot paintings are generated by a similar system. These works, currently on exhibit in Gagosian Gallery locations worldwide, follow the simple rule that no two colors are repeated in a single picture. The appearance of the result is dictated by the size of the dots and of the canvas. Hirst's titles are all the names of pharmaceutical products, implying that actual human emotions are chemical in origin, just as the joy of the pictures is created by artifice.
But Richter's abstract pictures have much more often been loose and what art historians call "painterly." Some have been made with the aid of a squeegee, a tool for smearing, which is pulled over the work again and again, unpeeling some sections of paint and smudging others. This, too, is a process open to chance. Richter describes it as a succession of yes/no decisions, a process of accepting or rejecting what has happened until the artist is satisfied by the result. Other than that, he is not entirely in control. The paintings can suggest a glimpse of sunlight filtered through leaves, or reflections on water.
Richter has published a monumental album of his photographic sources, entitled Atlas, and he has made whole books of photographs, such as Wald (2008), a little masterpiece consisting of shots of a wood near Cologne. The latter is, like so much of his work, about how randomness—in this case a dense tangle of trunks and twigs—can generate beauty and a sort of order. But even such important works as Wald and Atlas are ancillary to his painting.
"I make a lot of photographs," Richter told me, "but I am not very interested in photography as an art. They don't touch me that much." What affects him most, perhaps, is the Vermeer effect: the interaction between the cool, apparently objective image created by a piece of equipment—a camera—and the free play of paint.
 

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Sony Alpha A57 Focuses on the DSLR Sweet Spot

Priced for competing with Nikon D5100 and Canon EOS Rebel T3i, the translucent mirror A57 of Sony will provide impressive video options and will shoot quickly. The company has revealed its newest translucent mirror DSLR-style camera that will replace Alpha SLT-A55. The APS-C sensored, 16-megapixel Alpha A57 is designed and engineered for competing with two famous midrange DSLR models, Nikon D5100 and Canon EOS Rebel T3i. As compared to pellicle/translucent mirror DSLR and conventional DSLR cameras like Canon Pellix from ’60s, this SLT system uses fixed internal reflex mirror for driving continuous phase detection autofocus system instead of optical viewfinder.

The Alpha A57 offers full manual exposure controls in two modes, offering auto exposure adjustments and continuous phase detection autofocus, while shooting in both video mode and burst mode. Its price, video options and fast burst mode all add up for creating an enticing camera option for budget minded videographers and sports shooters. Due in April, it has body based image stabilization and will be available for the price of $800 as a kit with 18-55mm zoom lens and $700 for body only.

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Sony Cybershot DSC-TX66 – A Fun And Powerful Snapshot Camera

Sony Cybershot DSC-TX66 is a camera, which the style-conscious will feel right at home with clean lines and sliding barrier that protects the lens when switched off. It captures very good video and snapshots, has plenty of fun shooting modes for those looking to do more than just images and is fast to shoot and focus. As slim as AA battery, you can slip it in your purse or pocket and head wherever the warm wind blows you. Capture enthralling evening shots with its 18.2MP Exmor R CMOS sensor well-known for its superb low light performance and snap up to 10 frames per second so you never miss a moment. With a luxurious 3.3-inch OLED touchscreen display, composing a shot or flipping through images is truly a pleasure.
With the sleekest Sony Cybershot DSC-TX66, you will be prepared to nab the shot anywhere at any time. Just slip this incredibly slim camera into your pocket or purse, then rest assured the next time something amazing happens, you will be ready. As slender as a AA battery, it is small in size but huge in shooting potential with Full HD 1080/60i video capture that records in 29-minute segments, 5x optical zoom, 10x Clear Image zoom and a whopping 18.2-megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor for incredible lowlight performance. With large, beautiful 3.3-inch OLED touchscreen, navigating menus, exploring creative Picture Effects options or flipping through photos is fun and easier than ever.

The 18.2MP Exmor R CMOS sensor of Sony Cybershot DSC-TX66 captures ultra-high definition images which take full advantage of its sharp Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens. It allows advanced processing, which reduces noise levels resulting in striking low light images with incredible details. For enhancing sensitivity and focusing speed, the Exmor R CMOS sensor uses its rapid throughput for delivering high quality image signals to its BIONZ processor that offers intelligent response data to a new high speed actuator motor in the lens. The result is fast, DSLR like focusing speeds even in low light.
The Sony Cybershot DSC-TX66’s Intelligent Scene Recognition Mode automatically detects 36 different types of scenes and selects appropriate camera settings. It has two modes: Advanced and Auto. In Auto Mode, the camera takes a single shot using optimal settings, while in Advanced Mode; the camera takes a photo with the optimal settings and, if in difficult lighting immediately takes a second photo with another optimized setting so you can choose which to keep. Traditional point and shoot camera flash shots just don’t capture colors the way the eye sees them. Natural Flash controls the white balance of both main subjects and background.
The Sony Cybershot DSC-TX66 is the slimmest, powerful and fun snapshot camera of the company, which might be too small and have too many megapixels for its own good. There are plenty of people who want something faster and with better video and photo quality or who don’t want or have a smartphone, which won’t kill their phone battery while shooting all day. That is why Sony Cybershot DSC-TX66 exists. It is a powerful camera which can outperform a smartphone in many ways, in a body which weighs just a few ounces and is no thicker than AA battery. It is available for the price of $349.99 and comes standard with 18-megapixel ½.3 backside illuminated CMOS sensor, 3.3 inch touchscreen OLED display with 1229K pixels, 5x, f3.5-4.8, 26-130mm lens, file format support for JPEG/AVCHD, H.264 AAC, highest resolution size of 4,896×3,672 pixels/1,920×1,080 at 60fps (interlaced, 24Mbps, AVCHD), 1,440×1,080 at 30fps (MP4); optical and digital image stabilization; storage media of microSDHC and MemoryStick Micro and bundled software of Picture Motion Browser (Windows), Picture Motion Browser Portable (Windows, Mac).
If you are looking for precise colors, you won’t get them with Sony Cybershot DSC-TX66. Nevertheless, they are vivid and bright, which, frankly is what most people want from a point and shoot. If you don’t fall into that segment, the company has added simple sliders for hue, saturation and brightness, so you can tune them to your liking. It won’t replace a full fledged high definition camcorder, but if you would like a single device to capture good videos and photos, this is a decent choice. The ISO sensitivity ranges from Auto,12800, 80, 6400, 100, 3200, 200, 1600, 400 and 800, while some of the white balance modes include Daylight, Auto, White Fluorescent Lighting, Cloudy, Day White Fluorescent, Natural White Fluorescent, Flash, Incandescent and Manual.

The Sony Cybershot DSC-TX66 also offers Superior Auto, Intelligent Auto, Scene, Program, Background Defocus, iSweep Panorama, 3D Shooting, Picture Effect and Movie. There are plenty of focus modes such as Center Weighted AF, Multi Point AF, Tracking AF, Spot AF, Touch AF and Face Tracking AF. Some of the metering modes are multi, spot and center weighted, while color effects include brightness, vividness controls and color. For those who like to leave it in auto, there are 3 options: Intelligent Auto, Superior Auto and Easy. Easy mode takes away all options except for image size and enlarges onscreen text, while the Intelligent Auto picks from ten scene types and turns on dynamic range optimization, image stabilization and face detection. The Superior Auto takes Intelligent Auto and adds 3 multishot modes: Anti Motion Blur, Backlight Correction HDR and Handheld Twilight.
Standard features on Sony Cybershot DSC-TX66 include 1/2.3″ Exmor R CMOS Sensor; Processor : BIONZ; Pixel Gross: 18.9MP; Effective Picture Resolution: 18.2MP; Color Filter System: RGB primary color filters; AF Modes: Multi Point AF / Center Weighted AF / Spot AF / Flexible Spot AF / Tracking Focus / Face Tracking Focus / Flexible Spot AF(Tracking Focus) / Flexible Spot AF(Face Tracking Focus); Flash Modes: Auto / Flash On / Slow Synchro / Flash Off; Memory Card Slot: MS Micro, Memory Stick Micro (Mark 2) and Micro SD/Micro SDHC Compatible; Metering Modes: Multi Pattern / Center Weighted / Spot; Scene Modes: High Sensitivity / Soft Snap / Soft Skin / Landscape / Night Portrait / Night Scene / Handheld Twilight / Gourmet / Beach / Snow / Fireworks / Pet Mode / Anti-Motion blur / Backlight Correction HDR / Hi-speed Shutter; White Balance Mode: Auto (Intelligent) / Daylight / Cloudy / Fluorescent 1 (White Fluorescent Lighting) / Fluorescent 2 (Natural White Fluorescent Lighting) / Fluorescent 3 (Day White Fluorescent Lighting) / Incandescent / Flash / One Push, One Push Set.

The Sony Cybershot DSC-TX66 also offers Red-Eye Reduction: Auto / On / Off; Erase/Protect: Erase: Single / Select / Date / Folder / AVCHD and Protect: Single / Select / Date / Folder / AVCHD; Media Type: optional Memory Stick Micro, Memory Stick Micro (Mark 2), microSD Memory Card, microSDHC Memory Card; Photo Capture from Movie; Dual Record; Audio Format: AC3 (Stereo); Microphone/Speaker: Stereo/mono; Wind Noise Reduction: Off/on; Anti Motion Blur; Sweep Panorama: Sweep Panorama / Intelligent Sweep Panorama HR / 3D Sweep Panorama; Face Detection: 8 Faces (Auto / Off / Child Priority / Adult Priority / Key Selected Face Memory); Smile Shutter technology; Image Stabilization: Optical SteadyShot with Active Mode Image Stabilization.
Also standard on Sony Cybershot DSC-TX66 includes In-Camera Editing: Trimming / Red Eye Correction / Unsharp Masking; Intelligent Auto; Shooting Tips; Background Defocus; Superior Auto; Tracking Focus: Off / Auto; Blink Detection; Picture Effects: HDR Painting / Richtone Monochrome / Miniature / Toy camera / Pop Color / Partial Color / Soft High-key / Watercolor / Illustration; In the Box: Multi USB Cable, Tripod Adaptor, Battery (NP-BN), Wrist Strap, Instruction Manual, AC Adaptor AC-UB10 and Paint Pen. Overall, Cybershot DSC-TX66 is a lot of fun to use and turns out some very good movies and photos.

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10 awesome alternatives to Instagram

Instagram isn't the only app out there that can retro-fy your photos. 

Social photo-filter app Instagram has had to be camera-ready lately since it's been in the press nearly every day. First, we saw the release of the much-awaited Android app and its impressive five million downloads in the span of one week.

Days later, the company was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion. Not a bad week (or year, since it was also named Apple's top app of 2011) for Instagram and its 13 employees.

Instagram is known for producing "hipster photos," an appropriate term when you consider the irony involved in retro-looking images being produced digitally. Before Instagram, the look could be achieved with inexpensive analog cameras such as Lomography and Holga. Although these cameras are popular enough to be found at stores like Urban Outfitters, lugging one around, processing the photos, and then settling on a platform to share them on can be a hassle. Instagram recognized that snapping a photo with your smartphone's camera is often much easier.

But Instagram isn't the only app out there that can rewind your photos 40 years; there's a slew of apps for both iPhone and Android that can do the same things—and, in some cases, even more. Many of the apps even work in tandem with Instagram, offering an arsenal of filters and effects for your photo-editing pleasure, and then allow you to export your photo to share on Instagram. Though not all of the apps are free, they're definitely worth the price of your morning coffee. We rounded up 10 awesome alternatives to Instagram that are worth a download. Know of another Instagram alternative? Enlighten us in the comments below.

 

Hipstamatic

Available On: iOS ($1.99 with additional "HipstaPaks available for $0.99)

Hipstamatic differentiates itself from the crowd of retro-camera apps in four ways: First, it's not free; second, it features a nifty old-camera-style user interface—a spitting image of a 1970s' Kodak Instamatic camera; third, it offers group albums; and fourth, it lets you apply the effects before snapping the photo, and not after like Instagram. Users choose a "film" and a "lens" to create that classic analog look of the 60s and 70s.

Hipstamatic isn't just being used to snap photos of what we ate for dinner. New York Times photographer Damon Winter used the app in his 2010 front-page photojournalism story about the War in Afghanistan. Hipstamatic also lets users buy analog prints of their best images so that works of art can live outside of the iPhone.

Snapseed

Available On: iOS ($4.99)

If you're looking for more than just a photo app that lets you doll up and share your photos, Snapseed, PCMag's Editors' Choice among iPhone camera apps, is the app for you. Rated a 4 out of 5 for its non-destructive editing capabilities, powerful photo correction, localized adjustments, and variety of image-enhancing effects, the app lets you perfect and create with your iPhone photographs. Snapseed boasts Photoshop-quality editing features that it takes from its parent, Nik Software, a company that's been making pro-level effects for Photoshop for years. Snapseed expertly handles basics like brightness, contrast, cropping, and straightening. It borrows its sharpening capability from its pro-level Photoshop plug-in, Sharpener Pro 3.0, which gives users a powerful way to bring out hidden textures.

Pixlr-o-matic

Available On: Android (free)

Instagram has nothing on Pixlr-o-matic when it comes to the number of effects, overlays, filters, and frames the app has to offer. Either snap a photo within the app or choose from one already in your gallery. Pixlr-o-matic has more than two million possible outcomes from the 68 filters, 73 lighting effects, and 193 borders you're able to choose from. Features include: Color overlays, which help you adjust mood, amplify or cool tone, and add surreal shades; lighting effects, which can add drama, sparkle, or grunge; and borders, which add the finishing touch. Once you're satisfied with your image, you can save it back to your phone's photo gallery. The app isn't connected to your Facebook or Twitter accounts; instead, all the sharing is done through the standard Android menu. That way, you can choose from a number of apps in your phone's arsenal, which, for most Android users, includes, Gmail, Flickr, Skype, Picasa, Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram. In fact, you might find yourself editing your photos with Pixlr-o-matic and then posting them on Instagram.

 

Picplz

Available On: Android and iPhone (free)

Like Instagram, Picplz features a photo-sharing social network within its app. In addition to sharing with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, and Foursquare, Picplz lets users share within the app, allowing them to browse through photos of the people they follow. Enabling location lets users view photos taken in a specific city or place. Photo filters such as Instant Film, Russian Toy Camera, the 70s, and High Contrast Monochrome, are also available for retrofying captured moments.

 

Hipster

Available On: Android and iOS (free)

Similar to Instagram, AOL-owned Hipster features dozens of filters and borders for your photos. You can take a photo within the app or edit a photo you've already taken with your phone's camera. The unique thing about Hipster is that it turns your photos into virtual postcards, allowing you to use geo-location to mark where you took the photo on your postcard. You can also add whatever text you want to the image and then share it on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Flickr. Users can connect to friends within the app and see what photos their friends are taking (and where). Of course, you can disable the geo-location feature if you don't want everyone to know where you snapped a photo. Like Instagram, Hipster has its own website for hosting your images.

Visit page two to see more awesome Instagram alternatives...

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Canon firmware update for XF camcorders incoming, brings broadcast friendly format along

Still loving your XF video shooter from Canon, but lamenting the lack of 1440 x 1080, 35 mbps HD? Better sit down on your director's chair then, as it looks like a forthcoming firmware update for the series adds exactly this (at both 50i and 60i.) The format is popular with broadcast and news, and no doubt Canon is hoping to broaden the appeal of the XF line by bundling it in -- or smoothing the workflow of existing owners. The update will be available to all four cameras in the range (XF100, XF105, XF300, and XF305,) and you'll be able to start shooting with it from end of May.
New Firmware Enhances Canon XF-Series Camcorders, Supporting Popular Broadcast Recording Format

New Firmware Enables 1440 x 1080 35mbps Recording at 60i or 50i for Canon's XF305, XF300, XF105, and XF100 Professional Camcorders

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced a new firmware update for all four models of the Company's XF-series professional camcorders, enabling a new 35mbps recording mode. The new firmware enables a highly utilized recording mode, popular with many major news broadcast corporations, capturing 1440 x 1080 HD video at 35mbps at 60i or 50i. This format is designed to help the camcorders seamlessly align with standard workflows used by many major news broadcast organizations. Once the firmware is installed, the recording mode will be accessed through the regular mode selection menu on the camcorder and the frame rate will be automatically selected, dependent on the camcorder's PAL or NTSC setting. All previously supported XF-series video resolutions and frame rates will remain available in addition to the newly supported recording format.

"We are happy to continually enhance the capabilities of our products and technologies to meet the needs of professionals in the marketplace. This new firmware will enhance our ability to satisfy the diverse technical needs of broadcast news organizations," stated Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Imaging Technologies & Communications Group, Canon U.S.A.

The firmware is expected to be available for download at the end of May 2012 for all XF-series camcorders and will be available on the individual product pages through the Canon website.

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Buying guide to mirrorless compact cameras

A couple of years a ago, when the first mirrorless compact camera was launched, many believed that it would not make a significant impact in the market as many people would find it difficult to move away from conventional digital single lens reflex cameras, owing to their quality. An understatement, the concept, initially did not take off as expected. However, last year in 2011, a significant amount of cameras flooded the market and many consumers adopted this concept of cameras and purchased them, as opposed to buying traditional DSLR cameras or high-end point and shoot cameras that are the mainstay in the market and sell more in comparison.

Why choose a Mirrorless compact camera?
While purchasing an interchangeable lens camera, one should know what the advantages of this breed of cameras are. The basic thing to understand while considering an Interchangeable lens camera is that one would want a camera that is pocketable, while still retaining features that are not found on standard compact digicams, such as manual controls, high quality images and being user-friendly.

The 14-42mm lens that is bundled in the kit

Here is a look at some of the key advantages of Interchangeable lens cameras:


The size of the camera

This is one of the biggest determining factors, which one would have to bear in mind, while going to the market for a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. These cameras are a lot similar in size to compact point and shoot cameras and can easily fit in one’s pocket. However, if paired with a lens, this feat will not be possible; unless of course it is a pancake lens, which flushes against the body without much protrusion. The weight is another big deciding factor and these cameras are only slightly heavier than compact cameras. They can be toted around easily and shooting with one hand is possible. Some of these cameras feature the retro styling as well, which can appeal to a potential buyer as it is pleasing to look at as well.

Full manual control
Many consumers opt for DSLR cameras because of the range of settings on these cameras. Compact cameras allow users to adjust very few settings, while leaving out other, much needed manual controls, such as the ability to tweak aperture priority, shutter priority and the full manual mode. Interchangeable lens cameras, therefore would be an ideal option, as they give users the ability to adjust various settings easily for the ideal shot. This genre of cameras can truly be termed as the bridge between compact point and shoot cameras and DSLR cameras.

The ability to change lenses
Consumers buying a compact camera have to settle with the fixed lens that comes with it therefore leaving users limited to what is part of the body. With mirrorless cameras, the body is a lot smaller than DSLR cameras, hence the lenses are also a lot smaller in comparison. As mentioned earlier, size is a big deciding factor that one has to bear in mind while opting for a mirrorless compact camera and hence manufacturers launch lenses that are a lot smaller as well. To make these cameras pocketable, brands have launched lenses known as pancake lenses. These are fixed focal length lenses that are not obtrusive and fall almost flat against the body of the camera. Apart from these, the normal and wide-angle lens are also not that big. However, a telephoto lens may be on the larger side. With the ability to change lenses, one can get the maximum out of a camera and brands tend to bundle up more than one lens along with the body of the camera.

Flagship model of Olympus

Ease of use

Mirrorless cameras have been designed as a go between a point and shoot camera and a DSLR. These cameras, by no means have been crafted to work as replacements for either of those cameras, but rather have a niche of their own. These cameras are also designed for those looking to step up from a standard compact camera. Hence, there's ease of use, here that is similar to standard compact cameras, but with all the neat abilities to tweak settings.

Ability to view images instantly

Cameras with Interchangeable lenses have been manufactured with the ability to provide information, like autofocus and preview on the display what is going to be shot by using the imaging sensor. This makes it a lot similar to compact cameras. Many mirrorless cameras come without a viewfinder, giving one the option to preview the content to be shot, on the display itself.
Does it fill the gap between DSLR cameras and compact point and shoot cameras?

There has been a gap between compact and DSLR cameras for a while now, there has been space for new format cameras to fill this void. Bridge cameras having manual controls was one segment that was aiming to fill the block, however, their size crippled this prospect. Another segment of cameras are professional point and shoot compact cameras, however, the sensor size is a lot smaller than DSLR cameras and they usually do not provide the image quality that is expected from them. When Panasonic and Olympus introduced the micro four thirds interchangeable cameras, these became the only contenders who actually managed to bridge the gap between a DSLR and compact camera as they provide really great image quality, small compact form factor and are extremely easy to use. The lens size of these cameras are also significantly larger than those on standard compact cameras.

What are the type of Interchangeable lens cameras?

When one thinks of mirrorless cameras with Interchangeable lenses, the first thing that usually comes to mind are micro four thirds. This is right to a very large extent as the first manufacturers to launch mirrorless compact cameras were Olympus and Panasonic who adopted these type of lenses on their interchangeable lens camera bodies. Mirrorless cameras ushered in a new breed of cameras from different brands, such as the Pentax Q series, Sony NEX series and the Nikon 1 series

Here are some of the models for those who are interested
Sony NEX-3K - Rs.18,000
This camera has been really popular and has been Sony’s answer to their competitors' products. This camera features Sony’s NEX lens mount and uses an APS-C size sensor. It features a 14.2 megapixel sensor and HD movie recording capabilities, which can shoot at a resolution of 720p. It comes bundled with an 18-55mm kit lens that should be more than sufficient for casual photography. An interesting mode found here is Sweep Panorama, which lets one capture a 180 degree panorama.

Sony NEX-5K - Rs.22,500
The other offering that was launched from Sony was the NEX 5 and the only difference between the two models feature-wise is that this one comes with full HD 1080i video recording capabilities. Physically, the body of the Sony NEX 5 is made of magnesium alloy, which puts it at a higher price than the NEX 3.

The Sony Alpha NEX-3 makes quite a statement

Nikon 1 J1 with 10-30mm Lens - Rs. 29,050

The highly anticipated mirrorless camera from Nikon has finally been launched in India after making its international debut, last year. The sensor size is smaller than that of a micro four thirds and this camera features a 10.1MP sensor. This interchangeable lens camera can shoot videos at full HD 1080p and has the neat ability to capture images, while recording a video clip.

Olympus PEN E-PM1 with 14-42mm Lens - Rs. 28,500

This is the smallest PEN camera available from the brand that has been one of the first to enter this segment of cameras. The E-PM1 features a micro four thirds Mount and comes with a 12.3 Megapixel sensor. It can record videos in full HD AVCHD and can record in RAW, JPEG, RAW+JPEG formats. 3D still image recording is also possible on this camera.

Available in a range of colors

Olympus PEN E-P3 with 14-42mm Lens - Rs. 37,500

This camera was announced at the same time as the PEN E-PM1 and is the third generation from the E-PL series. It boasts of some neat features, such as the ability to quickly autofocus and a 3-inch OLED touchscreen display. It features a micro four-third, 12.3 MP sensor and comes with a stock lens of 14-42mm. It can shoot videos at HD 1080i using AVCHD and the AVI format putting it on par with the other brands manufacturing mirrorless cameras.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3W - Rs. 39,900

This is one of the best mirrorless cameras that were launched last year and it sports some features that make a user not want anything more from a camera. It is a bit bigger than other mirrorless cameras and is also based on the micro four thirds system. It comes with a pancake lens and also with a 14-42mm lens. It comes with a 12.1 Megapixel Live MOS sensor and the screen has touchscreen capabilities. Videos recorded through this camera can be played back on a HDTV in full HD 1080p in the AVCHD format.

The internals of a micro four thirds camera

What is the future for mirrorless compact cameras?
As of now, it seems that brands are pushing for these cameras and consumers are adopting it. These cameras are not just designed for those wanting to upgrade from a standard compact camera, but also for professionals looking out for a pocketable solution, as opposed to their already owned DSLR. It appears that since it is a budding technology, it only has room to grow from here on.

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Sony Launches 4K Home Theatre Projector

Do you have a large house and require your own movie theatre set up in it? Well, look no further, as Sony has launched a projector system that offers full 4K resolution. The VPL-VW1000ES can produce images upto 200-inches diagonally. The brightness is 2000 lumens, which seems low for such a high-end device. The lamp life is rated at between 2000 and 2500 hours.

For those who enjoy HD content, the projector offers a option called “Reality Creation”, which basically upscales SD, HD or 3D content to 4K resolutions, or pixel dimensions of 4096 x 2160. From what we saw at the demo, it does look like it does a good job with the upscaling.

The VPL-VW1000ES 4K home theatre projector is available in India at Rs. 14,00,000. For the mere mortals like us, I guess it is time to break into a bank vault.

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Review: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V

Pros:Good image quality even in dark conditions; Fast shooting, Full HD video with stereo sound capture and autofocus plus optical zoom, Large crisp screen; Solid build; Full manual control.

Cons:Tiny buttons; Nascent 3D technology.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V
MRP: Rs 16,990
Street Price: Rs 16,200 (Letsbuy.com), Rs 16,600 (Flipkart.com), Rs 15,350 (eBay.in)

The holiday season is fast approaching and Sony has on offer its new stylish super-thin 16.2 MP Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V camera with a large 3.0" screen and a powerful 16x optical zoom with optical image stabilisation along with a 24 mm wide-angle lens. Belonging the travel-zoom class of cameras, the DSC-HX9V has a GPS to store location information into photos and videos. This is no ordinary Cyber-shot because it has got 3D built into it, which means that this is one of the new digital cameras from Sony capable of capturing 3D still images using just a single lens. It does so via the new 3D Sweep Panorama mode, which can be viewed on any 3DTV using the HDMI output present in the included camera dock. Thanks to the powerful BIONZ image processor, in addition to the above, this camera supports 1080i AVCHD and MP4 movie recording with stereo sound. The back-illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor can capture better pictures even in dark conditions. There is a lot more in this camera, read the review to find out.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V.
 

Bundle
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V
Li-ion rechargeable slim battery
4 GB Sony SDHC Class-4 memory card
USB cable
USB battery charger with power cord
Wrist strap
User manual
Sony PMB software disc

While the bundle is good, it would have been better to include an HDMI cable to connect to an HDTV. Also, you may find yourself running out of space with the 4 GB card, especially while recording HD videos. With such a large screen, it would also have made sense to include a carry pouch with this camera to protect the screen. Last year during Diwali, Sony was giving carrying cases with Cyber-shot cameras as a special Diwali offer, and we wish that Sony would have done the same this year as well.

Design And Build
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V belongs to the stylish H-series of cameras from Sony and is just 33.9 mm thick, weighing just 245 g. The piece we received has a carbon black brush metallic finish that looks really nice, with gunmetal covering the right and top. The build quality is definitely very solid.

The camera sports the f/3.3-f/5.9 Sony G lens, equivalent to 24-384 mm. This is a 24 mm wide angle lens with an optical zoom of a solid 16x, which is superbly fitted in the small dimensions of the camera. The lens is protected by a cover, which automatically opens or closes when the camera is switched on and off respectively. An auto-focus sensor is present to the right of the lens. That's about all that is there at the front, now let us take a look at the top.

Front view of the camera.

The pop-up Xenon flash is placed on the side away from where the shutter button is located, which is a smart placement because it reduces the chances of your fingers getting in the way. Stereo microphones for left and right are located near the centre as well just above the open lens cover. A sprint-loaded zoom lever encircles the largish power button, while a mode dial is present just besides this to select different shooting modes. The Power button with an embedded green LED is barely visible, just like the Custom button present besides it. The Custom button lets you assign any shortcut such as switching directly to ISO value selection without having to go inside the menu to access it. It would have been better if these would have been a little larger.

Top view of the camera.

The back of the camera has a large 3.0" 4:3 screen with 921,600 dot high resolution, which displays very crisp and vivid images. A rubberised thumb-rest is present on the left to help you get a better grip while shooting. The camera has a dedicated Movie Record button, a Play button, Menu, and Options button. There is also a jog dial with a centre button to access various functions and to cycle through recorded content in playback mode.

Rear view of the camera.

At the bottom of the camera, a flap with a latch houses the battery compartment and the memory card slot. This camera supports Sony's MS Pro Duo as well as SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards. The slim Lithium ion battery is a proprietary 3.6V Sony N-type NP-BG1 with a typical rating of 960 mAh. The battery can only be charged in the camera by connecting the camera via the USB cable to the provided charger. Lastly, there is a threaded tripod mount socket made of metal rather than plastic, thus ensuring durability.

The DSC-HX9V is literally crammed with features that you may find useful.

Intelligent Auto Adjustment mode is one feature we liked the most. It essentially puts the camera in autopilot mode in which the camera decides what parameters to use for getting the best shot. It is very interesting to see how the camera changes the scene modes from Backlight to Twilight as you move the camera to point a subject in brightness shifting to an area of darkness. Then there is a Superior Auto Adjustment mode in which, the camera takes six shots in quick succession and combines them to create an image with low noise and higher dynamic range. One of the features that we liked is the Background Defocus feature which can blur out the background and focus on the subject.

There are several scene modes to choose from, including High Sensitivity, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Soft Snap, Landscape, Beach, Snow, Fireworks, Advanced Sports Shooting, Gourmet, Pet, and Soft Skin. Notable is the Soft Skin mode, which recognizes skin tones and reduces appearance of blemishes and wrinkles without adversely affecting the rest of the image. The camera takes six successive shots in Handheld Twilight mode to get better image in low light and in Anti-Motion Blur mode to get sharper images without a tripod.

There are other notable features such as Smile Shutter, which detects the subject's smile and clicks photo automatically at the right moment. Face Detection can distinguish between adult and children and can detect up to eight individual faces in a scene and make appropriate settings to get the best shot. There is even an Anti-Blink function, which detects if the subject blinked when the shot was taken and sounds a warning so that you can take one more shot.

Performance
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V takes roughly 2.3 seconds to switch from Off to ready-to-shoot state. Shot to shot timing was found to be around 1.1 seconds, while it reduces to around 4 seconds when flash is used. With an advertised burst speed of 10 shots per second, it actually averages at around 7.5, which is not bad at all.

The camera comes with an amazing 16x optical zoom.

Photo without zoom.

 

Photo with 16x optical zoom.

The results speak for themselves.

5-Rupees coin shot from a distance of 3 cm with an exposure of 1/40 sec at ISO 100 in normal daylight.

A cropped full size part of the previous photo shows the details captured by the camera.

This photo of a flower, insect, and leaf was shot from a distance of 5 cm with an exposure of 1/400 sec at ISO 100 in normal daylight.

A cropped full size part of the previous photo shows the details captured by the camera.

As you can see, the end results are always amazing: they make you feel like a Pro.

This photo was taken in the twilight with an exposure of 1/4 second at ISO 3200.

Twilight mode was used to snap this shot under very dark conditions with only a few fluorescent tubes illuminating the scene from a distance. The shutter speed was slowed down to 0.25 seconds at ISO 3200. Since the ISO value is high, the shot is noticeably noisy, though not as noisy as many other conventional cameras. The back-illuminated Exmor R CMOS does seem to work very well with pictures taken in low light environments. This camera is therefore good for shooting in low light environments.

One of the features that we liked is the Background Defocus feature which can blur out the background and focus on the subject.

Rose shot with an exposure of 1/400 sec at ISO 100 in normal daylight.

In the above photograph, the rose is in focus, while its background is blurred out of focus.

ISO Sensitivity Test
ISO sensitivity modes of 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 can be selected in Programmable mode in addition to the Auto ISO mode. In general, you get good results up to ISO 800, but noise increases noticeably with anything above that, especially in dark shooting conditions.

Test ISO image.

 

ISO 100

ISO 200

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

You can see that the sharpness decreases and noise increases as the ISO value is increased, but Sony has managed to keep the noise levels admirably low when compared to most of the cameras we have reviewed thus far.

Sony has managed to completely eliminate fringing in this camera because it is not visible even at maximum zoom, except very minor hints towards the outer portions of the image.

3D shooting
As stated earlier, this camera allows you to capture panorama images in 3D. To clear the confusion, we must tell you that it is not as simple as point and click to capture a 3D image. That would have been possible if there would have been two separate lenses for left and right. In this case, there is a single lens to rely on for capturing what is supposed to be seen with left and right eyes, therefore "technically", a still stereoscopic image cannot be captured simply by pointing and shooting. 3D image capture is achieved using two different 3D panorama modes in the camera, each involving moving the camera in a horizontal or vertical direction. The first mode is called 3D Sweep Panorama, in which you can click the button and move the camera in the direction indicated on the screen. If you move too fast or too slow, you will be prompted to take the shot again. The camera captures up to 100 images in this mode and creates a panorama. Once you get it right, the resultant 3D panorama image is not only saved as a long JPEG file, but also as a MPO 3D image format, which can be played back on a 3DTV or even using the NVIDIA 3D Vision Photo Viewer, through which you can either view it on a 3D monitor or in anaglyph 3D if you have a normal monitor.

The second mode is Sweep Multi Angle mode, in which the camera is to be moved in a way similar to the previous mode, but in a smaller angle. The camera captures 15 images in this mode and stitches them into a panorama. This image is stored in the JPEG format as well as the MPO 3D image format. Unlike in the previous mode, you can view this 3D panorama right on the camera display all you need to do is to switch to playback mode and press the "render" button on the screen to combine those 15 shots to render the "3D" image. You can view this "simulated 3D" image by tilting the camera from side to side and see how the perspective changes to give you a feeling of three dimensions and it does look cool.

While we must laud the attempts by Sony to create a consumer 3D camera, we must admit that this is still not "real" 3D photography, in which we expect 3D still images and videos by simply pointing and shooting. These 3D images are not captured instantaneously but are a result of a combination of successive images captured by the camera. That can still be truly achieved by using two separate lenses. Besides, this also has a limitation that the subject has to be considerably near the camera (usually not farther than a couple of meters) with the background being considerably far.

As noted earlier, the camera supports recording full HD video with stereo sound. Movies are recorded in 1080i AVCHD format which is Blu-ray compatible. Videos can be captured at 1920x1080, which is Full HD in AVCHD format or 60i at 17Mbps and also at 1440x1080 at 30fps 9Mbps in MP4 format for more YouTube-friendly content.  Video quality is good with natural colours and crisp picture quality and sounds. The zooming is possible while shooting videos and it is silent. Continuous auto-focus also works while shooting movies.

The camera comes with Optical SteadyShot image stabilization using a built-in gyro sensor, which detects camera shake and compensates by automatically shifting the lens to prevent blur and preserve image quality. Optical SteadyShot is especially useful while using zoom and while shooting videos. In our test, it performed exceptionally well, producing amazing hand-held results at 16x zoom such as the test shot at the start of the performance section.

Overall, the image quality is good, though the colours can get slightly vivid. Focusing is very fast and it invariably attains a sharp focus, almost eliminating the need to use manual focus. The camera is very easy to use and anyone without a photography background can easily master it in minutes. The battery takes around 4 hours to charge and is supposed to last for 150 minutes, or around 300 images.

Verdict
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V is an excellent camera as far as performance and features are concerned. The slim design with a carbon black metallic body is both stylish and rugged and also incredibly light-weight. The camera sports full manual control, packs 16x optical zoom in the small body, has image stabilisation that works like a charm, and has a GPS for geo-tagging. The images look just right no matter how you click them, and if you make use of the Super Auto Adjustment mode, they are simply brilliant. The Macro mode is brilliant and lets you click photos that look like done by a professional. The wide angle lens can capture a large crowd in your party and can detect up to eight faces at a time. As is claimed by Sony, images captured in low light conditions are indeed nicely enhanced and very much usable. You can also capture full HD videos with stereo sound and play back on your HDTV using the accompanying dock.

One of the cons of this camera is that its control buttons are very tiny and hard to find in the dark. Luckily, at least the shutter button is large enough. While the 3D thing does work, it is more like a gimmick for us because of two things 1. You cannot click 3D photos, and 2. You cannot capture 3D videos. You can only capture panorama mode images in 3D, because of the single lens being used instead of a dual lens arrangement for left and right vision capture and then the multiple images in panorama mode are combined into a 3D image. Yet another fault with the camera is that the flash sometimes fails to evenly illuminate the subject.

Overall, this 16.2 MP camera has a very easy to use interface for anyone who has no background in photography. There are several nifty features crammed into this camera - far too many to state in this concluding paragraph. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V is available for an MRP of Rs.16,990, while it is available for a little less when you buy at the stores mentioned at the start of this review. This camera gets our full-hearted recommendation. For those who can settle for 10x zoom with all of the features of this camera, there is the DSC-HX7V for Rs 2000 less.

Design And Build: 4.5/5
Features: 4.5/5
Ease Of Use And Ergonomics: 3.5/5
Performance: 4.5/5
MoJo: 4.5/5

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

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