Olympus E-5 DSLR reviewed: solid upgrade for E-3 owners, not much appeal for anyone else

The DSLR market just seems to keep on speeding up, and it looks like Olympus might be lagging back toward the caboose a bit with its latest full-body DSLR, the E-5. It's the successor to the E-3, jumping to 12.3 megapixels and adding 720p recording with full exposure controls, plus a handy swiveling LCD. But, according to reviews, it just doesn't quite compare to something like a much cheaper Nikon D7000. PhotographyBlog liked the improved image quality and the rugged build, but not the ugly rolling shutter effect in video recording and the poor high ISO performance. Similarly DigitalCameraReview says this $1,699 beast "feels like a modest update to the E-3," a sentiment shared by Pocket-Lint as well. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

via >> PhotographyBlog.com

ViCon Motion To License Build And Sell Microsoft Sensecam Technology

Amnesia? Alzheimer’s? Memory Loss? Bad hangover? Suffer no more once you hang this ViCon Motion Systems built camera around your neck.

Originally an initiative by Mircosoft with the help of university researchers, the Sensecam is a mini-recorder meant to help people suffering from short term memory loss. Now that the technology has become market ready, production has been licensed to ViCon Motion, who will build a multitude of these 94gram gadgets that have 2GB of memory.

Renamed the ViCon Revue, the wide angle lens on the automatic recorder takes three photos every minute which is then transferred to a PC with the requisite software via mini-USB. Though the target market for this gadget are the elderly, we imagine the ViCon Revue becoming a must-have accessory for narcissists of every stripe—you know, the kind of people who post nonstop about their mundane existence on Twitter?

Beyond narcissists, the ViCon Revue also appears doomed to become the tool of an introspective artist who wants to do Andy Warhol one better by recording several years of their life on this thing and making a movie from it.

Last, the ViCon Revue is also great for parties. If you wake up the next morning clueless as to what exactly transpired the night before, your ViCon Revue was taking pictures the whole time.

The ViCon Revue sells for a hefty $775.

Via Gizmag.com

Poco PRO 14 MegaPixel Credit Card Sized Camera

Iain Sinclair, creator of the Cardsharp knife has designed and is currently in the development, production stage of releasing a remarkably thin 14 megapixel camera called the Poco Pro.

The Poco Pro camera has a magnesium chassis measuring just 85.5 x 54 x 5 mm and weighs in at just 65 g. Its equipped with a 14.6 megapixel autofocus CMOS sensor, 2-axis gyro controller and 2.4 inch AMOLED 240 x 320 pixel (QVGA) display.

It also features DSLR style manual shooting controls such as mechanical shutter, continuous variable aperture and even has a built-in piezo speaker, twin microphones fitted with noise cancellation and a 3.5 mm jack.

The Poco Pro comes with 4GB of internal storage, that can be expanded via microSD cards up to 32GB and also has an optional microSD Wi-Fi card available for wireless transmission of images and video directly to your PC. Its amazing how Sinclair has been fitted everything into such a small footprint.

You can currently pre-order the Poco Pro camera directly from Iain Sinclair who plans to ship his ultra slim camera in June 2011 for around $307

Via Gizmag.com

JVC Launch Trio Of New Everio Camcorders

JVC has just unveiled three new Everio camcorders all featuring 40x optical zoom, full HD video recording, SD/SDHC slot, USB port, HDMI interface together with a 2.7-inch LCD screen and an automatic uploading to Facebook and YouTube feature.

The higher specification cameras, model numbers GZ-HM670 and GZ-HM690 are both equipped with 3.3MP CMOS sensor improving their ability to record video in dark areas. While the lower end model the HM450 only has a 1.5MP CMOS sensor.

All three models will be arriving in Japan shortly and are expected to be priced accordingly : $950 for the GZ-HM670 pictured above with 32GB of internal memory, $950 for the HM690 with 64GB internal memory and $540 for the low-end model with just 8GB on board. No information as yet has been provided regards worldwide availability.

Via Crunch Gear.com

Aiptek 3D Camcorder: Now Available For USD183!

About six months ago, we mentioned about the Aiptek’s 3D Camcorder, that was exhibited during the Computex 2010 in Taipei, Taiwan. You could now get the Aiptek 3D Camcorder for a discounted price at USD183!

Aiptek 3D Camcorder has a dimension of 7.5 x 3 x 9-inches, weighing 1.9 pounds and capable to capture both 2D and 3D still images and videos. Other features including Dual HD CMOS Sensors, built-in 3D LCD playback screen, 32GB expandable SD card slot, USB and HDMI ports.

Official Price: USD199.- [ Buy Aipetek 3D Camcorder for USD183, right here! ]