Rumors of a Nikon mirrorless camera have been floating around the web since the middle of last year, and recent leaks have made us wonder not if the company would release a compact ILC — only when such an announcement would be made. Well, we finally have our answer. The company has finally announced not one, but a pair of compact “1 System” mirrorless cameras, and it seems totally fine with putting the focus speed up against the self-proclaimed champ.

The V1 and J1 share nearly identical specs, with the latter model sporting some fairly minor tweaks. Both ILCs include 10.1 megapixel CMOS sensors, HDMI / USB connectivity, a 1200fps slo-mo capture mode (!), 3-inch LCDs, 10fps shooting, high-res electronic viewfinders, and full HD (1080/30p) video capture — though 720/60p and 1080/60i modes are thrown in for good measure.

The J1 touts a built-in flash, auto-noise reduction on movie clips, a 73-point AF system, dual-core EXPEED processing engine, and a 29 minute cap on single movie files (far greater than the five minute ceiling on its earlier DSLRs), while the V1 boasts an EVF and supports an external flash, as well as a mechanical shutter, stereo microphone input, a “multi-accessory port” and a magnesium alloy chassis.

If you’re curious about details on those, well the initial list includes a 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 (kit lens), 30-110mm f/3.8-5.6 ($249.95), 10mm f/2.8 ($249.95) and a 10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 ($749.95), and a customized $149.95 Speedlight (SB-N5) flash will also be in tow. As for feature set? There’s a “Motion Snapshot” mode that snags stills as a video is rolling, and geotagging will be supported for those who opt for the $149.95 GP-N100 GPS hot-shoe accessory.

Furthermore, the company’s drilling home the “non-pro” theme with a gaggle of colorful straps and cases to match the rainbow’s worth of hues — white, pink, red, silver and black — that these guys will ship in.

The Nikon J1 and V1 will be available throughout the US starting October 20th, with the J1 + 10-30mm kit available for just $649.95. The V1, available with the same bundled piece of glass, will retail for $899.95.

SOURCE via Nikon

The Android community may be awaiting its very own Instagram app, but at least Flickr has now stepped up to fill the void. Yesterday, the photo-sharing service unveiled its very first Android app, along with a new social feature known as Photo Session.

Available for free on the Android Market, the app allows users to snap, filter and upload their photos directly to Facebook, Twitter or Flickr, all from the comfort of their own handset. It also features an array of camera functions like flash, ratio selection, and shutter focus, along with ten high-quality filters. Photo Session, meanwhile, allows you to browse through images with your friends in real-time.

All you have to do is round up your online comrades, start a session and begin flipping through a photostream. Every time you move on to the next image, your friends will, too, effectively turning any browsing affair into a collective, Don Draper-like slide show. For more details, check out the source links below, or trot past the break for a video run-down of Photo Session. Read more…

Well, it looks like Canon won’t be the lone company making a big camera announcement on November 3rd. RED CEO Jim Jannard has now confirmed that it will also be officially announcing its “new” RED Scarlet camera on the very same day (no coincidence, it seems), at which point it will detail “all the changes” the company has made to it. Unfortunately, that’s about all the company is saying right now, although Jannard promises that “when we announce the changes, we will be ready to ship.”

SOURCE via Reduser.net

Obtained by Korean site Money Today, these in-the-wild images appear to corroborate many of the specs we’ve already heard about, including that 4.5-inch AH-IPS display at 720p resolution, eight megapixel camera and 1.3 megapixel front-facing shooter. This device is also rumored to feature a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of built-in storage and will reportedly ship with Android 2.3.5, though it’ll be ready to update to the forthcoming Ice Cream Sandwich, as well. The LU6200 is expected to hit the Korean market sometime next month, where it’ll run on LG Telecom’s U+ LTE network.

SOURCE via Pocket Droid

With point and shoot cameras apparently now up against a megapixel wall, manufacturers are focusing on adding quirky new features to keep you hooked on the upgrade cycle. Sony’s new Cyber-shot TX55 includes several such additions, such as ‘amazing’ 3D image capture, ‘extremely low’ noise, and a new digital zoom technology called By Pixel Super Resolution, which promises to double the camera’s 5x optical zoom range while still capturing 16.2-megapixel images at full quality. We’re a bit skeptical about that last one, but if the $350 camera really can deliver on its promise, then we may just have a winner. Read more…

These days nearly all digital cameras can shoot video, but only a small handful give you the power to manually select aperture and shutter speed while doing so. The Lumix FZ47 is Panasonic’s latest high-end point-and-shoot to sport this functionality, providing full control over both video and still photo capture with its Creative Control mode.

The 12.1-megapixel superzoom can shoot 1080i HD at 30 fps, though it’s notably lacking in the 1080p department. There’s also a 3-inch LCD, 24x Leica zoom lens with a 25mm wide-angle focal length, and an option to shoot 3.5-megapixel stills while recording video.

For photographers willing to settle for a good deal less power, Panasonic also just announced its entry-level Lumix LS5, which includes a 14.1-megapixel sensor, optical image stabilization, and 720p video, all powered by a pair of AA batteries. The $400 FZ47 will ship next month, while the LS5 hits stores in November, with pricing yet to be announced.

Do you love Pentax very much? If you don’t fall into either of the Nikon and Canon camp, and love the Pentax so much, then you’ll probably like what you see above. It’s not a normal DSLR mind you. Also, it could be yours… if you’re willing to wait four months. Pentax is giving a very limited edition high-five to its medium-format 645D DSLR. The 40 megapixel stunner, recently crowned 2011 “Camera of the Year” at the Camera Grand Prix Japan, is getting a luxe lacquered makeover in this made-to-order kit. If you’re the type to collect overpriced (we assume) pieces of photographic paraphernalia, then this custom paulownia-wood box and its contents are probably up your alley. What do you get for all this premium exclusiveness? Well, there’s the aforementioned specially-designed body, a leather strap, body mount cap and center-spot-matte focusing screen. Not included is an actual photographer to take the pictures for you (or keep your swag clean) — now that would be high-end. There’s no word yet as to what this stately beauty’s gonna cost, but that shouldn’t stop you from pre-ordering it on the company’s site right now. Money may not buy you happiness, but it can get you a rare toy.

This isn’t the Ultraman GAIA that we come to know and love, but it does have to do with our planets at least. Back at the turn of the millennium, the European Space Agency devised an ambitious mission to map one billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy — in 3D. To do this, it enlisted UK-based e2v Technologies and built an immense digital camera comprised of 106 snugly-fit charge coupled devices — the largest ever for a space program.

These credit card-shaped, human hair-thick slabs of silicon carbide act like tiny galactic eyes, each storing incoming light as a single pixel. Not sufficiently impressed? Then consider this: the stellar cam is so all-seeing, “it could measure the thumbnails of a person on the Moon” — from Earth.

Set to launch on the Soyuz-Fregat sometime this year, the celestial surveyor will make its five-year home in the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, beaming its outerspace discoveries to radio dishes in Spain and Australia.

SOURCE via Slashdot

While the Chinese city of Chongqing has been planning this initiative for some time, we’re just now starting to understand the sheer magnitude of what’ll be built over the next two to three years. Cisco and HP — two names that are no doubt familiar to those reading this page — are apparently in cahoots with the nation in a way that overshoots prior expectations by some amount.

According to figures gathered by The Wall Street Journal, a whopping half-million surveillance cameras are being shipped over to keep watch across the city, with the awkwardly-named Peaceful Chongqing project giving the government unprecedented views of its citizens.

Critics are wondering why Cisco and HP aren’t being held responsible for whatever China ends up doing with this equipment, but the loophole here is a fairly obvious one; while it’s definitely not kosher for US firms to ship fingerprinting equipment to China, shipping everyday technology like cameras isn’t taboo, yet.

As you’d expect, both Cisco and HP seem confident that it’s not their responsibility to pay attention to what happens to the devices they ship, business is still business.

SOURCE via Wall Street Journal

Change may be afoot over at Hasselblad, now that the high-end camera maker has been acquired by Ventizz Capital Fund IV — a private equity firm based in Switzerland and Germany. Neither party disclosed any financial details, but Ventizz said it will implement “no major structural or key management changes” at its newly acquired company. It remains to be seen whether or not this acquisition brings about any changes at the strategic level, though Hasselblad CEO Larry Hansen said his company is looking forward to exploring “brand new markets”. Hopefully that includes the “sub-$10,000″ category.