At the CP+ show in Japan, Ricoh is showing off a new camera prototype its developing that can capture full 360-degree immersive photographs with a singel push of the shutter. The omnidirectional camera looks like a cross between an electric toothbrush and a hammerhead shark. Lift it up into the air, press a button, and it will capture an image that shows every direction around you.
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Lens caps are a great solution for protecting the front element of lenses when they’re not in use, but can be misplaced when you take them off. On the other hand, screw-on lens filters are a great solution for protecting the lens’ glass as well, but they introduce an additional layer of glass between your camera and the world. Is there a middle ground?
At the CP+ trade show in Japan, Kenko International is showing off a new product that aims to deliver the best of both worlds. It’s called the Flip Cap, and is a lens cap that screws on permanently, but flips out of the way when you’re using your camera.
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Olympus isn’t the only camera company toying around with the concept of cheap body cap lenses. At the CP+ show in Japan, Pentax took the wraps off a body cap lens of its own for its Q system line of mirrorless cameras. Officially called the “Mount Cap Lens,” the accessory is a pint-sized hyper-focal lens that will reportedly produce toy-camera-style photographs.
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A couple of new photographs of the Olympus XZ-10 high-end compact camera have leaked, revealing that the camera will look pretty similar to the current XZ-2.
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Compact cameras are becoming pretty serious photography tools when it comes to sensor sizes and lens qualities, but one thing they generally lack is an easy-to-use filter system. Interchangeable-lens photographers can usually just find a filter of the correct diameter and use it with their lens, but things get more complicated when you’re dealing with fixed-lens cameras. Although using filters is possible with some models, the systems aren’t very friendly: they’re usually proprietary, expensive, or based on unwieldy adapters.
That all changes with the new MagFilter by CarrySpeed, an easy-to-use filter system for compact cameras based on magnets rather than threads.
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Fujifilm announced back in January at CES that it was working on an M-mount adapter for the X-Pro1, a camera that looks strikingly similar to Leica’s digital rangefinders. The company is now showing off the adapter at the CP+ trade show in Japan. Leica film aficionados who want to play around with digital in style can now choose between paying $1700 for the X-Pro1 or $6000-$7000 for the Leica M8 or Leica M9.
(via Fujifilm via Leica Rumors)
At CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show that just kicked off today in Japan, Sony is showing off a see-through prototype of an upcoming translucent mirror A77 camera. It will replace the A700 DSLR as a mid-range to high-end shooter, will shoot AVCHD video at 1080p with a APS-C sensor, and will be available sometime in the middle of this year. Not much else is known about the camera at this point. Looks like the whole translucent mirror thing is working well for Sony.
P.S. Just a thought — if they just released the A77 with the prototype’s aesthetics, they could just call the thing a “translucent camera” instead of a “translucent mirror camera”.
