Facial recognition company Face.com has just released a new mobile application that takes advantage of its technology to identify the faces of your friends in photos. Called “KLIK,” the app is a real-time, facial recognition mobile camera app for iPhone that automatically identifies your friends by name before or after you take their their photo.

To use the app, you have to configure it with your Facebook account, as that’s how it learns who you friends are. You don’t, however, have to immediately share the pictures you take using KLIK on Facebook – that part is optional.

In most cases, KLIK can identify the person in the frame before you snap the photo, and the name will then appear directly over their face in the camera’s viewfinder. (The name does not appear on the saved photo, of course). If, however, KLIK can’t figure out who someone is, tap “Tag Me” on the unrecognized faces in the saved photos to ID them. As you identify unknown faces and save the photos, the app learns and its ability to recognize those same folks in future images improves.

Although the app could have easily been built just as a “proof of concept” of Face.com’s facial recognition technology, it’s clear that that startup has put some time and effort into the app’s design and feature set. The app isn’t just impressive in terms of its technology – it’s pretty, too.

In addition to the facial recognition bit, KLIK supports some Instagram-like photo filters for making your photos seem more artistic. It also offers feeds of nearby photos and friends photos, tagging photos from the camera roll, and social sharing to Facebook, Twitter, email, and publicly on KLIK itself.

Oh, and did I mention it’s pretty? KLIK requires iOS 4.3+ and a Facebook account to work. The app is available for free here on iTunes.

Riding high from a series of mid- to high-level successes in its 2010 and 2011 camera line, Olympus execs could be excused for feeling good. However, as 2011 winds down, Olympus is not in the news for medical imaging devices or micro 4/3s lenses.

Instead, it’s in the news for a scandalous affair that threatens to sink the company and has already claimed the company’s board.

It was a cover-up, and a huge one at that, and some are calling it the the biggest corporate scandal in Japan since the 1990′s. And while the technical illegality of what went down is certainly not up for debate, the word “scandal” deserves a closer look.

After the sharp rise of the yen in 1985, then President Toshiro Shimoyama introduced what is known as the “zaiteku” (or, speculative investment) strategy to Olympus and began conducting “aggressive financial asset management,” according to an independent panel’s report. But as many of you know, the bubble economy in Japan burst in 1990, and losses began. To try and stop the bleeding, Olympus started investing in high-risk high-return products, and eventually the losses grew to JY$100 billion (US $1.2 billion) by the end of 1990.

To cover up those losses, Olympus started making acquisitions, including the 2008 purchase of Gyrus, with incredibly inflated acquisitions advisory fees, and also participated in what’s called a Loss Separation scheme, which basically keeps losses out of Olympus’ consolidated financial statements.

In October of this year the company appointed its very first non-Japanese CEO in Michael Woodford, who only spent two weeks at his post. Upon suspicion of covered-up losses, he made allegations that the company may be up to some shady business and was promptly relieved of his position. At the time reports circulated that the cover-up may also involve “yakuza,” or the Japanese mafia.

Today an independent six-person panel unrelated and unaffiliated to Olympus, the same one that first “discovered” the scandal, has released a lengthy report that finds just what was expected. Olympus was in fact covering up losses, however there is nothing thus far that links any of the shady dealings to organized crime.

That’s the story, in so many words. And when you look at the facts, it seems obvious that Olympus (specifically ex-EVP Hisashi Mori, auditor Hideo Yamada and former Olympus chair Tsuyoshi Kikukawa) was “wrong” in covering up the scandal. In almost all the ways, that’s true. A number of companies sustained horrible losses during their zaiteku phase, returned back to their core business, and regained their position as powerful, upstanding organizations.

But Forbes contributor Stephen Harner brings up an interesting point on the notion of honor within this mess.

When I think of the term corporate scandal, I imagine some fat cat running away to some Caribbean island with a lifetime of cash that doesn’t belong to him. At the very least, I imagine the same fat cat sitting on a stand before a judge and the rest of the world feigning any form of a conscience.

But Harner points out the fact that the motives of the executives involved were that of trying to save the company, not to make themselves rich. “Olympus incurred such huge losses in its zaitech transactions in years past that at almost any time, had it chosen to recognize the losses, it very likely would have been bankrupted.” He goes on to say that these final acquisitions (between 2006-2008) and their bogus advisory fees were likely the end game, and that Olympus may have succeeded in covering up the losses entirely had it not been for Michael Woodford.

It’s also speculated that other Japanese companies are hiding losses from their zaiteku transactions and that “more often than we choose to think, company managements can and do exercise judgment and discretion on loss recognition, asset valuations, and disclosures,” according to Harner.

At this point, we’re waiting to see whether or not Woodford’s call for justice will lead to any legal action against those involved. Then there’s the matter of whether or not Olympus will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The WSJ reports that its only chance is correcting its past financial statements by December 14, a tough deadline when you factor in getting an auditor’s signature. Even if it succeeds, there’s still a chance the company will be delisted anyways for lies already told.

Here in the States, being delisted means one of two things: the company is either doing so poorly that its entering bankruptcy territory or the company must move itself to one of the smaller exchanges, like the OTC and Pink Sheets markets. The difference there is that outside of the massive primary Stock Exchange (whether it be the NYSE or the Tokyo Stock Exchange), the regulations that make companies palatable to large investors and mutual funds no longer apply.

The company is soon considered untrustworthy.

After nearly two decades of falsified financial reports, perhaps that fate is a fitting one for Olympus.

I’ll admit that I’m a middling photographer at best, but that doesn’t stop me from buying all sort of expensive gear. Photojojo’s new iPhone accessory appeals to that same sense of camera gear lust in me but on a slightly smaller scale. The iPhone Lens Dial is an iPhone case with three different lenses mounted on the back, so you’ll never have to go long without indulging your fisheye fixation.

Just snap your iPhone 4 or 4S into the Lens Dial’s matte black body, and you’ll have three different lenses at your disposal: a 0.7x wide angle, a 0.33x fish-eye, and a 1.5x telephoto. It’s pretty sturdy too — the Lens Dial is made out of aluminum, so in the event you drop it at least the phone inside should survive.

Photojojo has been making iPhone-friendly lenses for a while now, but they all required you to pop the lens off and stow them somewhere else when you were finished. The Lens Dial (as you may have guessed by the name) allows you to rotate between each lens as needed, and you’re welcome to leave the whole shebang on if you don’t mind lugging a brick around.

Part of the fun about using the iPhone as a camera is that it you get pretty impressive performance with a minimum of know-how. Photojojo’s Lens Dial adds some fun new capabilities to the iPhone’s already-solid camera, but it comes at a price: the Lens Dial will set customers back $249. Worth it? Tough call, but if you’re like me, you’re already searching the couch for loose change.

Short Version: While the idea of a flip-out screen for self-portraits is just a tad gimmicky, the MV800 is one sweet little point-and-shoot. Whether you’re straight-up obsessed with yourself, or a narcissist is hidden deep within, this thing just begs you to take pictures of yourself. And if your experience is anything like mine, you’ll really, really enjoy it.

Features:

• 3-inch capacitive flip-out LCD touchscreen
• 16.1 megapixels
• 26mm wide-angle lens
• Full HD video capture
• 5x optical zoom
• MSRP: $279

Pros:

• Too many fun software features to count
• Compact (and beautiful) design: should fit comfortably in any pocket
• Straight-forward interface: easy enough for a grandma to understand

Cons:

• Touchscreen wasn’t as responsive as I’d have liked — flipping through pictures was a bit tedious
• No microphone input, despite 720p video capture capability
• Samsung may have overdone it on some funky features — Pose Guide, I’m talking to you

Long Version:

Point-and-shoots have recently been overrun by stellar phone cameras, but that doesn’t mean there’s no market left for them. No matter how many cool tricks your phone’s camera can pull off, the Samsung MV800 can do it better, I assure you.

Hardware:

The MV800′s claim to fame is its flip-out 3-inch LCD screen, connected to the device by a single hinge. In my time with it, the hinged screen seemed sturdy enough. I felt a little looseness at one point when the camera was flipped out, but overall I’d say the flip-out screen shouldn’t give you any trouble.

When it’s flipped out, the backside of the camera has a textured black finish, which really enhanced my ability to grip the camera when taking self-portraits. On the back, you’ll also find a secondary shutter button, making it much easier to (again) take self-portraits. But there’s more to the flip-out screen then self-portraits. Sometimes you need to hold the camera up high or down low to get the shot you want, even though your face can’t necessarily follow suit. The screen lets you see what you’re shooting from just about any angle.

The MV800 is equipped with a Schneider-Kreuznach 26mm wide-angle lens, with 5x optical zoom. To be honest, image quality isn’t necessarily this little guy’s forte. Of course, that’s not to say that MV800 pictures are bad, but it certainly can’t compete with what you see from DSLRs, micro four thirds and other more high-performance systems.

I took a few test shots with the MV800 and my Olympus E-PL2 micro four thirds camera to show you the difference.

Olympus:

Samsung:

Along the left side you’ll find a microUSB port for charging and HDMI out, which should be welcome news for anyone looking to take advantage of the MV800′s 720p video capture capabilities. On top you’ll find your standard shutter button, zoom toggle, and a power button, while battery, microSD card access, and your tripod slot is located on the bottom of the camera. In terms of build, feel in the hand, and general aesthetics, the MV800 has its bases covered.

Software:

If the narcissistic nature of the MV800′s hinged screen didn’t get you, my bet is the software will. Anyone who enjoys taking pictures for fun (rather than as a serious hobby, or career) will enjoy fiddling around with the software features on this camera. To start, the interface is super easy to understand, even if you know absolutely nothing about photography.

Along with Smart Auto and Program settings for both video and stills, the MV800 offers different scene options to let you get the best shot based on your environment. Along with your standard filters (my favorites below), Samsung also included the ability to take 3D photos, as well as live panoramic shots.

Then things get really interesting. Samsung included a feature called Magic Frame on the MV800, which is pretty fun to play around with. There are two uses: you can use magic frame with a picture you’ve already taken, or in one of Samsung’s preset frames. It basically brings in a little window (shaped like a circle, square, or heart) in which you can lay one picture on top of another. So let’s say I have a picture of a billboard… I can use magic frame to put a picture of my own face on the billboard, which would pretty much make me a movie star.

If, on the other hand, you aren’t feeling creative enough to handle both the primary and secondary shot, Samsung has plenty of different frames in which you can supplant your face, or anything else for that matter (save for ghosts, which are invisible).

Here are some of my favorites:

The MV800 also features picture-in-picture mode, which will be pretty useless to anyone fluent in Photoshop, but then again that isn’t the MV800 demographic. This camera was made for people who usually can’t figure out cameras, or Photoshop for that matter, and a few of them may just want a picture of their kid’s baseball team, with a close up on their kid’s face in the bottom corner. Or something like that, I guess.

Then we have Funny Face, which uses the camera’s facial recognition technology to distort your face in awkward/funny ways. It’s pretty similar to PhotoBooth on a Mac, just with more options and face recognition. There are also modes for certain types of pictures, which sets the camera to all the right settings for whatever it is you’re trying to capture.

The worst and most awkward feature by far on the MV800 is its Pose Guide. You have a variety of different poses to choose from (as performed by some dark-haired model girl), which are then “sketched” into the LCD view finder for you to mimic. This is super weird. Not only is it awkward as hell to try and match the given pose, but you’re also then comparing yourself to whoever this girl is that Samsung deemed attractive enough to appear all over their cameras. And she is attractive enough, which just made me feel not so attractive. Since I assume many owners of this camera will be teenage girls who heart taking Facebook profile pics, the more self-esteem the camera can offer the better.

The MV800 comes with a built-in photo editor, along with a StoryBoard feature. Storyboard lets you choose a handful of pictures from your library, and compile them together in interesting ways, or even add a fun border. It’s features like these that make the MV800 more useful than gimmicky. Whether you want to add funky effects, create a special and unique memory, or simply crop out that random guy’s hand, the MV800 never makes you change platforms. You could literally do just about anything you wanted to a picture on the camera, take it straight to the nearest photo printer, and never involve a computer throughout the process.

Conclusion:
The Samsung MV800 isn’t a serious camera, but that’s fine. If you (or someone you know) is looking to have fun the MV800 is an excellent sub-$300 option. It’s cute, small, has more than enough features to keep you totally occupied, and it’ll probably get a “Whoa!” out of your (less camera-savvy) friends, too.

This beauty is a Nikon F Photomic T, which first hit the streets all the back in 1965. Aside from being a gorgeous piece of retro tech, it’s also one of several NASA-owned cameras from the estate of collector Arthur Keir that have been put up for auction.

Keir’s NASA collection spans the decades, from the Nikon F you see above, to its successor the Nikon F2 (1978), to a bulky Canon L2 video camera that flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia (1998).

For those less interested in photography, Keir has also amassed quite a bit of NASA effluvia, ranging from a glove bladder to thermal slippers, both of which were meant for extra-vehicular activity.

If this blast from the past has you reaching for your wallet, be warned: prices seem to be a bit on the steep side. Still, some of these pieces could be gifts of a lifetime to the maniacal photographer in your life, so feel free to check out the rest of Keir’s collection. Even if you resist the temptation to buy something, you’re sure to get your daily dose of retro camera porn.

Features:

• 12.3-Megapixel Live MOS image sensor
• Tilting 3.0-inch screen
• 3D Photo support
• ISO up to 12800
• 1080/60i AVCHD or AVI video recording
• MSRP: $699

Pros:

• Amazingly small
• Excellent video recording
• Fast shutter speed

Cons:

• Pricey
• Lenses are pricier
• No flash

Short Version
It’s hard to recommend the E-PL3 over the more powerful and touchscreen-equipped E-P3 but if you’re in the market for a much more compact micro 4/3s shooter and you can survive without a built-in flash, this may be the camera for you.

As Olympus perfects its micro 4/3s chops, it’s interesting to watch the products they produce improve and, more importantly, shrink. The E-PL3 is the “light” version of the original PEN line but it is not the entry level model. At $699 it’s still a mite expensive for the average shooter but I find that the more I use micro 4/3s hardware the more I like it.

This model is newer and sexier than the bulkier E-P3. It has an improved UI and features a 12.3-Megapixel Live MOS image sensor and TruePic VI Image Processing Engine. It also has an impressive autofocus system called FAST (Frequency Acceleration Sensor Technology). There are also a number of improved art filters and it supports 3D shooting, albeit with iffy results.

The best thing about the E-PL3, however, is the size. It is about as big as a Canon G12 and supports all of Olympus’ micro 4/3s lenses, from the pancake 17mm to the ultrazoom 40-150mm. To shrink the camera down properly, however, Olympus had to remove the built-in flash (a hot-shoe accessory is available) and, like the rest of the line, this model eschews an optical viewfinder.

Fans of simpler camera will be pleased with this model as it is almost barren when it comes to function buttons. There is a basic mode setting dial on the top, a dedicated video record button, and a few display and menu buttons. There are no dials for various manual functions and, due to a lack of a touchscreen, it may be a bit hard to tweak things just right if you’re not familiar with the interface.

Outdoors, this camera shines. I actually noticed slightly better photos out of the E-PL3 than the EP3 in some conditions, although indoor shots were a little iffy and often blurred in non-auto modes. Obviously the camera is only as good as its lens and the focus and clarity of all of the Olympus line is quite high if not excellent for this class of lens. I did notice some purple fringing but that’s the reality of consumer-level hardware.

Autofocus is amazingly fast – a far cry from the original PEN line’s slow and steady focus. It has 35 auto-focus points and focused surprisingly quickly in video mode. It records in 1080i or 720p — I’d go with 720p.

The camera, if you care, comes in white, black, and red.

Conclusion

Coming at this from an amateur’s standpoint, I find the E-PL3 slightly lacking, especially when compared to its slightly larger cousins. However, it was a dream to carry around on vacation and it’s surprisingly easy for almost anyone to use, making it a good second camera for the home. While I believe something like the E-P3 gives entry-level DSLRs a run for their money, the E-PL3 is a more subtle camera, requiring real buy-in and understanding before it becomes clear why you would spend $700 on this versus a Canon Rebel.

That said, if you’re looking for the ease of a point-and-shoot with the versatility of a DSLR, this can’t be beat. Whether this particular model is the one you want is still up in the air, however. I’d recommend looking at both and deciding on a model depending on your dependence on flash indoors. If you’re a big party photographer, I’d aim for the E-P3. If you’re looking for something compact for street shooting, you can’t go wrong with this unit.

If you’d like to see a more exhaustive look at this camera, pop over here to read Photography Blog’s Fountainhead-sized review.

Pixeet is a full, floor-to-ceiling panorama lens that works with almost any phone. It currently only supports iPhone but it will soon support Android and Blackberry devices as well.

How does it work? Well, you stick the lens right on the device and scan the room or space from left to right. The aluminum and glass lens picks up a full 360-degree panorama and then lets you post it to Pixeet’s own servers.

The lens will also work with other devices like digital cameras and webcams. It uses a magnetic ring that sticks to the device and holds the lens in place. There are plenty of these on the market but I think the more widespread compatibility is key here. The lens costs $50.

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Although I’ve never been a huge fan of the Cybershot line, it’s interesting to see how much tech Sony has been dumping into these things of late. For example, this $350 camera shoots full 1080i video and 12-megapixel stills at exactly the same time with no interruption.

It has 5X optical zoom and some sort of 16-megapixel 10X digital zoom and can also shoot in 3D. Panoramas are easy and massive at 42 megapixels. It will be available in September.

I’d love to see the final quality that comes out of this slim shooter and, while I’m sure it’s technically impressive, I’d worry wee bit about overkill.

Features:

• Micro 4/3s Lens Mount System
• HD Video Recording
• 12.3-Megapixel Sensor
• 3-inch touchscreen display
• MSRP: $899 with lens

Pros:

• Small, light, and solid
• Touchscreen and built-in flash make things easier for beginners
• Excellent photo quality

Cons:

• Slightly complex interface
• Some minor color aberrations
• Some minor auto-focus problems

Short Version
As a long-time fan of Olympus’ Micro 4/3s series of cameras, I came to the E-P3 expecting good things. I was not disappointed. The camera is like Mini Cooper or a Smart car: it gets you where you need to go, you have fun on the way, and the resulting savings in size, bulk, and, in some ways, price makes it a great second camera for a DSLR buff or a great first camera for someone just getting started in the world of removable lens shooters.

Full Review

The E-P3 is Olympus’ most expensive and largest M4/3 camera. Their current line-up includes the E-PL and E-PM (Lite and Micro, respectively) cameras, each designed to be a little smaller and lighter than the last. To put it in Apple fanboi terms, the E-P3 is, then, the iPod Touch while the E-PL is the Nano and the E-PM is the Shuffle. Each of these cameras can mount any of the M4/3 lenses Olympus manufactures.

The E-P3, then, is the granddaddy of Olympus’ M4/3 line. The MSRP of $899 gets you the camera and a M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm II R f3.5/5.6 Zoom lens (or a 17mm prime lens, but that’s may be a little less useful for beginning shooters) and the camera comes in silver, black, and white. It weighs 13 ounces and is five inches wide. It has a 3-inch touchscreen that allows you to instantly focus on any part of the image with a single tap. A mode wheel on the top offers various shooting modes while a separate Function button allows for quick access to the camera’s various settings. There is a dedicated video button on the back of the camera and the on/off switch is carefully recessed, unlike the buttons on previous Olympus M4/3 cameras.

There is no optical viewfinder although you can purchase an after-market viewfinder that fits into the camera’s hot shoe. A pop-up flash button hides on the left rear edge while a number of quick-set buttons and dials grace the rear for manual control of aperture and speed. The front is featureless except for the lens release button.

A full run-down of every feature is far beyond the scope of this review and I’m coming at this from a user’s perspective. To be clear, if you’re looking to read this review and then pick apart my camera prowess in comments, go here instead. I’m an enthusiast, writing this review for beginning enthusiasts including, but not limited to, folks taking a long trip, new parents, and wannabe street photographers. I’m essentially comparing this camera to entry level offerings from Canon (the Rebel series, perhaps the G12 most specifically) and Nikon (the D60 and D80). I am fully aware that you are a camera god and can shoot a wedding using only an old Quaker’s Oats box with a hole pricked in the front and a piece of muslin covered in gelatin silver halide. This camera is clearly not for you.

The question I’m attempting to answer is this: can a non-pro/prosumer shooter use this camera to get great pictures. In my experience thus far I’ve found that it is more than feasible and, in fact, this camera could replace a similarly priced and outfitted entry-level DSLR. The speed, auto-focus, and feature set makes it an excellent camera for around-the-house and travel snaps and professional lensmen (and women) will enjoy the size and portability combined with the excellent performance.

The Camera
Beginners will probably take to this camera fairly quickly. With the kit lens and the Auto and Art settings, folks used to a point and shoot can, well just point and shoot their way towards relative success. Multiple on-screen menus and prompts ensure you know what’s going on behind the scenes and the art mode menu is surprisingly easy to use. Instant, on-screen reproduction of the effects and settings ensures that you aren’t caught by surprise when the camera takes something you weren’t expecting.

In iAuto mode (essentially intelligent auto sans a forced flash) the camera offers a number of on-screen prompts for setting saturation, brightness, as well as “motion zoom” (grabbing a bit of smudge off of a moving object) and “background blur” which adds bokeh (blurred backgrounds) to portraits and the like.

The Scene mode offers multiple scene settings including Macro, sport, “children” (of the swiftly moving variety), and evening/night photography. The Art mode allows you to add multiple filters to a scene including sepia, grainy film, and a tilt-shift effect. These are fun at first and quickly become boring once you realize that you can actually take quality photos with this thing.

I shot mostly in P (Program) mode and had excellent results in all sorts of light. Beyond focus, I did very little speed, ISO, or aperture adjustment and took some excellent pictures of the family on a few short trips.

The best thing about the Micro 4/3s platforms is the ability to quickly and easily remove and replace lenses. However, M4/3 (MFT) cameras are mirror-less, thereby making them more compact. The lens, as it were, shoots the image straight onto the sensor. I found myself drawn to the new 12mm f/2.0 “pro” lens (which costs $800 freaking dollars) but I got similar performance from the kit lens as well as the surprisingly effective M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 (a more manageable $299). Do you need a lot of lenses? No (I’ll discuss this in depth below), but it helps.

This photo, for example, was shot with the 12mm lens at ISO320 with at F/2.0 1/60 sec. It was an off-the-cuff shot of my daughter and I think it is more than adequate for the average shooter. The fact that I was able to get her to sit still for the 1/60th of a second it took to shoot her is a testament to the speed and auto-focus capabilities of this camera.

This shot of Bacchus, on the other hand, was shot at ISO1600 in 1/23 sec at F/2.2 (with the same 12mm lens). This was shot at near dark in the rain and, while it could do with some brightening, it was a good shot given the conditions. Obviously the quality of the glass in both of these shots played a large part in the quality of the shots.

$899 lens or no, in all, I got some excellent shots with the E-P3 without much fiddling. Olympus has considerably improved auto-focus (and they’ve reduced the amount of noise during video recording) and I’m pleased to note they’ve improved the out-of-the-box color quality. Formerly most of the E-P series of cameras had a nasty habit of trending towards orange and red, even with the white balance set properly. This was not an issue in this camera.

The Lenses
If you are just starting out, the kit lens is fine. I also really like the 17mm, $299 pancake lens for street shooting as it allows for a fuller, in-focus frame and is good for portraits and wide-angle shots. These are the only two lenses you’d really need initially and if you never buy another lens, these two are more than sufficient.

The aforementioned 40-150mm is a wild zoom lens that can really bring distant objects closer (the storks on the chimney, in the gallery below, were shot with that lens). If you have the cash and the impetus, the $899 12mm is amazing and takes great shots in any light. This lens really makes a difference when grabbing nice, clean portraits and rich, luminous landscapes.

If I saw any problems it was some slight blue/purple fuzz on some subjects. There were also some slight focus aberrations that occurred when shooting quickly but were difficult to reproduce.

The caveat is this: if you intend to purchase only one lens, you may not be ready or particularly need a MFT camera (or a DSLR, for that matter.) There are plenty of excellent point and shoots available including the G12 and S95 from Canon or the P300 from Nikon. Investing in a single platform is a hard bet to make but I’m fairly certain the MFT line won’t die out, leaving enthusiasts high and dry. Although some of the lenses (like my favorite 12mm) are wildly pricey in general terms, the prices can get worse when you enter the high end of the DSLR spectrum.

The Bottom Line
This camera isn’t for everyone, but it offers enough value and performance that it could easily replace the standard, entry-level DSLR and, thanks to the compact body and fairly reasonable pricing (considering the build quality and performance) you’re looking at a nice camera for an acceptable price.

While I cannot, in good faith, recommend this to someone who may or may not want to invest in at least one lens to go with it, I would recommend it as a second, portable camera for travelers and as a nice around-the-house camera for new parents and grandparents. It’s strong enough for a nerd yet made for a beginner.

There are many arguments for and against supporting the MFT format and I look forward to a hearty back-and-forth in comments. However, as someone who has lugged a full DSLR kit around the world, being able to slip something as powerful and compact as the E-P3 into a small bag and still get great photos is a welcome feeling. It’s an impressive piece of kit and well worth considering.

A Note On the Gallery
My limited skills produced these shots, but Robin Wong’s shots and Koon Yik’s e-book offers a bit more quality, especially when compared to my ham-handed attempts.

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If you’ve been wildly despondent at the death of the Polaroid, there is still hope. This DIY “instant camera” by Niklas Roy uses a simple digital camera and printer to take and print images. Here’s the bad part: the camera has no memory so it prints out the image in front of it line by line for a process that takes three minutes total. That means you have to sit perfectly still for your portrait.

My ‘Electronic Instant Camera’, is a combination of an analog b/w videocamera and a thermal receipt printer. The device is something in between a Polaroid camera and a digital camera. The camera doesn’t store the pictures on film or digital medium, but prints a photo directly on a roll of cheap receipt paper while it is taking it. As this all happens very slow, people have to stay still for about three minutes until a full portrait photo is taken.

The full source code is available here and you can basically recreate this thing with Niklas’ instructions. Amazing, fun stuff.
via Technabob

The Vue camera system is not for 24-hour, constant surveillance. The battery lasts only six months of standard use, which means about five minutes per day, so you can’t just let it run. The $199 standard package includes a base station and one camera and you can grab two motion detector cameras for $289. The cameras come with small magnetic bases that allow them to be attached to walls at almost any angle and you can just set them on a shelf for a fairly wide view.

You can assign actions for motion detection as well as set timers for various cameras – say, set it to record your driveway between 5am and 6am each day to catch your neighbor’s grandma micturating into your flower bed. These have some low-light capability but they are not night-vision cameras by any stretch of the imagination.

As a sedentary blogger, I have cameras all over the house, including a Dropcam to watch for the Fedex and USP guy when he comes around back. These cameras have gotten better and better over the years and I’m actually pleased with this improved Vue camera. It’s small, compact, and quite usable and the interface is dead simple. It’s not a perfect surveillance solution but it’s adequate and should be useful for folks who want to watch a rarely trafficked space or just watch the yard every few hours for signs of alien invasion/stray cat infestation.

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Buy the Classic Mini Digital Camera at the Photojojo Store!

Photojojo is selling this sexy little spy cam, similar in size and shape to Minox’s previous digital M3, for $179. It has a 5.1-megapixel sensor, 4x digital zoom, and a clever little visual viewfinder stuck on top. It’s a sassy little bit of fluff and could be a nice portable camera for folks who want to feel like the Marathon Man.

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If you thought the face recognition technology from NEC we’ve shown you last year was impressive, think again: Panasonic is working on a system that can recognize 64 faces and compare 32 faces at the same time. The maker, Panasonic System Networks, says that’s up from only 8 faces the previous system (NV200) could register.

On top of it, the system can identify a given person’s age and gender and also count the number of people in the area filmed. Panasonic promises a reasonable price and says that owners of the NV200 can upgrade their network video recorder with a kit to enable the new features “in the near future”.

Now combine this tech with NEC’s solution and some of Panasonic’s earlier face recognition systems, and we’re in for a pretty scary future.

Our friends at Diginfonews Tokyo took the following video of Panasonic’s new system earlier this month in Tokyo (it’s in English):

As they’ve announced on their blog today, TapTapTap has hit both one million downloads of Camera+ and one million dollars in revenues from the app, the rare double-double in the app world. Revenues include both sales of the app itself (which currently sells for $0.99) and in-app purchases, co-founder John Casasanta writes. And what’s perhaps most impressive about the two milestones is that TapTapTap hit them despite being pulled from the App Store for a four-month stretch last year (something they illustrate humorously in the graph above).

But since Camera+ came back a few weeks ago with version 2, revenue has been up 2.7x when compared to the first version, Casasanta says. And it has only been a couple weeks since they announced their 500,000 total sale.

Casasanta then uses the rest of his post to go off about a few things on his mind — namely: VCs, business models, competition, and Android vs. iPhone. While he notes they’re actively being courted by VCs, Casasanta makes his overall disdain for many of them prettty clear. He simply thinks they’re too focused on pushing for a free, ad-driven model — something which TapTapTap doesn’t want to explore.

He also takes a swipe at some of Camera+’s competitors, namely Instagram, downplaying their 1 million download milestone. “Numbers for free apps aren’t nearly as impressive as the press is making it sound. The recent darling of Silicon Valley and one of our competitors, Instagram, has been lauded for getting one million downloads of the app in 10 weeks. But in reality, this number is pretty tiny compared to what high-ranking free apps are doing on a daily basis,” he writes. ”The Facebook app, which usually isn’t even in the top 10, will typically get a million new users every week or so, and these are active users, not just downloads,” he continues.

As for Google vs. Android, Casasanta cites Google’s lack of an effective equivalent for Apple’s payment structure as the reason why the platform doesn’t interest him. And he thinks Google doesn’t have that in place simply because they don’t care too much about it. Instead, they’re all about selling ads. He does conceded that both the Apple and Android models will probably thrive, they’re for “two different kinds of users… and two different kinds of developers.”

“Basically, we’re sticking with exactly what we’ve done so far… we’ll continue to create high-quality paid apps with no ads, exclusively for iOS,” he says in conclusion.

You can find Camera+ in the App Store here.

Update: Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom has responded:

“We like Camera+ and would love to support their growth as a paid app – internally we don’t see them as a competitor. Many of our users use Camera+ on a daily basis to post over to Instagram, just like they use Hipstamatic, Camerabag, etc. Our goal is to create a platform for sharing these images, not to supplant the myriad of apps out there that let you take and transform photos.”

“He’s right that it’s wrong to quote the number of downloads as a success metric. We don’t do that — our announcement was that we had hit 1 million registered users, not the number of people that have downloaded it.”

The rig you see here is wireless although you can actually just wired the camera through a frame that you put in front or behind you. You can use almost any head-mounted display including (try the Vuzix) and a camera with video-out. Then you put a bag over your head and walk around.

Just remember, folks, when you look into the void the void looks into you. Have fun!

Instructable

Features:

• 10 MP Sensor
• ISO 100-3200
• 720p HD Video Recording w/ microphone jack
• MSRP: $499.95

Pros:

• 7x optical zoom
• DSLR level image quality
• Light weight

Cons:

• Optical viewfinder is kind of pointless
• Shooting in RAW takes a long time between shots
• Fn custom control button isn’t all that functional

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Review: I love my DSLR. It’s a great camera that takes wonderful pictures but feels like a boat anchor hanging off my shoulder after a long day of shooting. As a result, I started looking for a smaller camera that would meet my extremely high expectations of picture quality, but be small enough that I can carry it around in my pocket, or at least be small enough not to make me feel weighed down after a day of shooting.

I love my D300. I think it’s a great camera, but when I first started looking into a smaller camera, I started with Canon. In fact, to be honest, Nikon didn’t really compete well with Canon in the P&S arena. These made many Nikon shooters (like myself) unhappy, since brand loyalty does have a significant impact. Nikon knew this, and while they tried a couple of times to come up with competing products, they failed. The P7000 has succeeded where these other products failed, and the Canon finally has some competition.

Shooting with the P7000 is a dream. Because there isn’t any actual physical shutter, there’s minimal lag, dependent upon your shutter speed. The P7000 only has a 10 megapixel sensor, but it shoots in either jpg, or a special version of RAW, specific to the P7000, called NRW. Taking pictures using the NRW mode significantly increases the shutter speed, but it also gives you greater control over the images. The P7000 isn’t a sports camera, the high speed shutter isn’t really super high speed, but it would be sufficient for shooting a kid’s basketball game or cockfight. It’s really easy to use the P7000, the LCD screen is clear and clean, and provides a very good view of what your camera will actually see when it shoots. There is an optical viewfinder as well, but to be honest I find myself never using it. The LCD viewfinder gives a better idea of what your images will look like (the white balance being an excellent example of this), really making it a better choice to frame your pictures. This is particularly true when shooting video, as it makes it easier to keep the camera stable.

The P7000 has excellent white balance options. You can either select auto, or one of the presets (daylight, incandescent, one of three different fluorescent options, cloudy, flash, or you can manually choose a Kelvin setting. You can also choose from one of three pre-set options as well. In addition to the white balance, you can also change the ISO from the same control knob. The P7000 covers an ISO range from 100-3200, and the lens has a optical zoom range from 28-200mm equivalent.

The P7000 also has some interesting built-in editing features. Obviously it’s not the equivalent of something like Photoshop, but you can add things like a black border, skin softening, straightening, and even more interestingly a “miniature effect” – which is the equivalent of a tilt-shift lens, allowing you to make a full size scene look like a miniature display. It’s easy to use the edit features, and the camera will create a copy of your original image before making changes, which is ideal if you want to change things in your computer later.

All is not perfect, though. The firmware needs improvement because the camera has issues. There have been a few times when I’ve tried to use functions and the camera will freeze. Luckily, it’s easy to shut the power off and power it back on, which would clear the freeze, but it’s inconvenient. I’ve also had problems with the artificial horizon, as well as other issues that can be addressed by an improved firmware. I have no doubt that Nikon will release an improved firmware, I’m just hoping that it’s sooner rather then later.

Conclusion: Despite the problems I’ve ran into with it, the P7000 is a good camera. I’ve been using it since October (the recent Multi-Tool gift guide was shot with it exclusively). I have no reservations recommending the P7000 to any level of user, and while it does need some help from a firmware upgrade, the potential is there for it to be a truly great camera. Truth be told, I like this camera so much I bought one for my own personal use.

Update: There’s been a firmware release for the P7000 from Nikon. The new version (1.1) updating some of the issues that I had with the camera, as well as issues I hadn’t experienced. Here’s a list of the bugs fixed by firmware 1.1:

• Image recording time at image quality settings that include NRW (RAW) has been reduced.
• Lens control has been optimized to reduce the frequency with which the “Initializing lens. Cannot focus.” message is displayed.
• An issue that, in some rare cases, prevented zoom operation has been resolved.
• An issue that caused the monitor display to exhibit a loss of detail in highlights (blown highlights) when the shutter-release button was pressed halfway with Active D-Lighting enabled has been resolved.

Nice to see that Nikon is working on the issues in their latest Coolpix. I’ve installed the new release, and it works extremely well. It even appears to have beaten the “lockup” problem I ran into.

Digitimes, whose news we need to take with a grain of salt, is reporting that Largan Precision is making the cameras for the so-called iPad 2. If you read the Digitimes statement, they’re basically saying that Largan Precision is declining to state whether they are making the part or not in a Taiwan Stock Exchange. Largan reportedly makes the 5-megapixel cameras for the iPhone 4.

The problem is that many doubt the iPad 2 will have a rear camera. So what is this strange camera? A VGA model for FaceTime? Pointing to another line in the filing, Digitimes stated:

In order to focus on high-resolution lens modules, Largan will outsource production of VGA models for use in tablet PCs instead of producing in-house, the sources indicated. In light of growing demand for tablet PCs, Largan’s shipments of related lens modules are expected to account for 10-20% of its consolidated revenues in 2011, the sources said.

So basically you’re dealing with two bits of info: Largan may or may not make iPhone cameras and Langan is planning to stick those same cameras into a tablet. Then you put the two together and you get a nice bump in share price for Largan and we learn nothing new about the iPad 2 except that, as we suspected, it will probably have a camera. Thanks, Internet!

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You’ll need to order the appropriate cap for your body, but after that it’s easy. The pinhole cap even continues to work as a body cap; Photojojo thought to include a clear cover over the hole to keep your sensor clean. Be aware, you’ll need to use a tripod to get any kind of decent looking picture, but that’s not the point, is it? One thing though – $50 is a little steep for a body cap, even if it does have a laser cut hole in it. Why couldn’t you make your own? Props to Photojojo for marketing the idea though.

[via Gearlog, Gizmodo]

Want to stage your own moon landing? Pick up one of these nice Hasslblad cameras for $35K or so and take some pictures of a flag waving on a windless moon while your partner and a boom mic is reflected in your dome-like helmet.

From the ‘pedia:

In 1962, NASA began to use Hasselblad cameras on space flights, and to request design modifications. The first motor-driven camera, the 500EL, appeared in 1965[3] as a result of NASA requests. While Hasselblad had enjoyed a slowly but steadily growing reputation among professional photographers through the 1950s, the publicity created by NASA’s use of Hasselblad products dramatically increased name recognition for the brand.

Basically this is one of the most famous cameras in the world. It went into space, came back, and took great pictures. While it’s not much in the looks department, it’s a sexy beast.

Auction Page via BB

http://contour.com/videoPlayer/ContourMapVideoPlayer.swf?customPlaylistURL=http://contour.com/alaska.xml&autostart=false

Note: Due to the size limitations of our website, the above video is pretty squished. Check out Contour’s site to see it in it’s full size glory.