Three Panasonic camcorders debuted in the gadget world; the HM-TA1, HDC-SDX1 and the HDC-SDT750. Each camcorder targets different demographics.

The Panasonic HM-TA1 is a perfect blogger camera. It’s a tiny camera with 1080p HD video. Bloggers can upload photos via the attached USB terminal (less cable, easier to upload photos to blogs). The screen is a 2.0 LCD and other features include ‘EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) system, cool color modes, Apple’s iFrame video format (960 x 540/30p) and effortless sharing with social sites like FaceBook and YouTube with the included software.’ The price tag is US$170.

The Panasonic HDC-SDXI camcorders are for people who like taking videos of events, family gatherings, etc. More sophisticated than the HM-TA1 but is still compact.

Panasonic said this is the lightest full HD camcorder in their line. Its features include ‘1080p HD video offering, the SDX1 sports a 23x intelligent zoom system, Apple’s iFrame video format, Hybrid optical image stabilization, rotating 2.7-inch touchscreen LCD, Intelligent scene selection, Face detection and Face recognition technologies’. The price tag is a US$500.

The Panasonic HDC -SDT750 is the first 3D consumer level camcorder. This Panasonic camcorder captures ‘true-to-life 3D content’. If you don’t want your own personal 3D movies you can take out the adapter. It also captures high quality full 1080p HD video which uses 3MOS image sensor configuration.

The 3D camcorder also features ‘12x optical zoom lens, Time-lapse recording mode, 5.1 channel audio recording, iAuto mode for effortless recording, Hybrid O.I.S., AF/AE tracking, intelligent scene selection, a large rotating 3.0-inch touchscreen LCD, and Pre-Rec mode to name a few.’

For its performance the Panasonic costs US$1400.

The Ansel Adams discovery snagged a great big controversy as family members of the late photographer dub the negatives as fake.

Rick Norsigian found old negatives in a garage sale which he purchased for US$45. The negatives turned out to be unpublished photos of landscape photographer legend Ansel Adams. Norsigian’s investment went up from US$45 to US$200 million!

However family member of the American are crying ‘fraud’. This is in spite the team of experts having gone over the 65 rolls of negatives now owned by Norsigian and found the photos to be the work of Adams.

Adams grandson said “There is no real hard evidence. I’m skeptical.”

Bill Turnage, managing director of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, said: “It’s an unfortunate fraud. It’s very distressing.”

A team of California lawyers forms an authentication team hired by Norsigian. The party claimed that two handwriting experts confirm that the writing (on the envelope in which the negatives) were found belonged to Adams wife.

Norsigian also consulted with a meteorologist who confirmed that the cloud formations were the same as the day that Adams took his famous Yosemite photo.

According to Telegraph UK reports other photography experts are claiming the photos to be authentic. “It truly is a missing link of Ansel Adams and history and his career,” said David Streets, a Los Angeles art dealer and appraiser who is hosting an exhibition of the photographs.

Norsigian is charging $7,500 for prints from the negatives and Mr Streets estimated that the set could be worth at least $200 million.

Patrick Alt, a photography expert who believes the negatives are authentic, has said the collection showed Adams “trying to discover his voice” and “illuminates a very important part of his evolution as an artist because this is the work that he did in his twenties”.

He added: “In almost all of the photographs, the compositions are virtually flawless, truly being made by a photographer of singular vision and talent.”

Check other articles about Ansel Adams here.

Blogger and video camcorders enthusiasts have another gadget to rate, the handy Samsung HMX-E10 HD camcorder. We like the shape and the body design.

The latest Samsung camcorder can capture full 1920×1080 (30p/ H.264 format), that HD video for you. Other features include 1/3.2-inch CMOS image sensor, 270 degree swiveling lens unit, 2.7-inch touchscreen LCD, built-in USB plug, one-touch YouTube upload (when connected to your PC), 8-megapixel still image capture, and a microSD card slot.

The Samsung HMX-E10 will be available this September for an affordable US$199.99.

Features:
·     1920×1080 Full-HD Video
·     H.264 Video Format
·     8MP
·     Ultra-Compact Design
·     270° Swiveling Lens
·     HDMI Connectivity
·     Built-in USB
·     USB Charging
·     Smart Filters: Miniature, Vignetting, Defog, Sketch
·     Panorama shot
·     Built-In intelli-studio2.0 Software
·      One-Touch Upload to YouTube

This is the season for new camera releases from all major camera brands including Sony, Panasonic, Fujifilm and Samsung. Most of the cameras have similar features, we certainly wrote more than a couple super zoom stories last week. Enter the latest digicam, Samsung ST80 which offers an interesting interesting feature — WiFi!

The Samsung ST80 WiFi enabled digicam allows users to upload images and email them through WiFi, thus helping the transferring of files more and more seamless.

The ST80 is a simpler version of Samsung’s CL80 and CL65 WiFi cameras thus making it also more affordable.

The features include a 14 megapixel image sensor, 3.0 inch LCD screen, a limited 3x optial zoom. The lens has no real wide-angle capabilities but it does offer 720p HD video recording.

The Samsung ST80 WiFi digicam will be available September 2010 for a US$250 price tag.

It seems like all things shown in that 60’s animated sitcom Jetsons is becoming real; phone calls that lets you see each other, robots, 3D cameras. We can’t wait to see flying cars and hear our dogs talk.

In the meantime Panasonic, inspired by the Jetsons or not, is working on a 3D lens compatible with Lumix G-series mount. This means that the Panasonic Micro Four Thirds cameras will now have the option of  3D lens.

Panasonic still has not released the names of Micro Four Thirds cameras that are compatible with the lens.

The lens will have two optical path which will project right and left image pairs to the sensor of the camera. The duo images can be stitched into a 3D image with the use of the company’s 3D image processing system. Panasonic’s Viera 3D television can display the images.

Panasonic said it is the first digital 3D lens for the Micro Four Thirds system. According to the company, “This year will be remembered as the ‘First Year of 3D Era’ and Panasonic has already taken the lead by launching 3D-capable VIERA™ televisions and Blu-ray™ 3D Disc Players,” said Darin Pepple, Senior Product Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company.

“With Panasonic’s development of a twin-lens capable of 3D shooting, the company is providing consumers with a way to capture their own 3D content, which they can then enjoy watching in the comforts of their own home. Panasonic is dedicated to evolving the 3D ecosystem, letting consumers create and display lifelike 3D images in their homes.”

The Japanese electronic company said the lens will be released/ made into the real deal by the end of this year.

No list of compatible Four Thirds camera has been revealed.

Rick Norsigian proved that there is such a thing called luck. Norsigan, an antique collector and painter went on a garage sale 10 years ago. He paid US$45 dollars for some unknown glass negatives of Yosemite National Park. Well, that unknown glass negatives are 65 images that are works of perhaps the greatest landscape photographer Ansel Adams!

So that 45 bucks that Norsigian invested years ago could make him a multi-millionaire today!

The 65 negatives of Yosmite are said to be the missing link the career of one of the most beloved American photographers of all time.

Adams was reported to have lost 5,000 negatives when his darkroom caught fire in 1937. What Norsigian purchased were negatives dating from 1920 and 1930 so what the collector has is unique and array as there have been little film to survive from that era.

The price of the photo is valued at a whopping US$200 million!

Norsigian has not made a statement whether he will auction the negatives or not but he is selling limited edition prints of each picture. That already made him a tidy profit of $1,500 for each digital print while silver gelatin dark room prints sell for $7,500.

As luck is always doubted in life there is a debate over the photos authenticity, specifically a concern raised by Matthew Adams – Ansel’s grandson. However the consensus remains that the photos are the real deal.

Adams, who took a look at the plates last year, wants carbon dating testing before declaring that the plates are the work of his grandfather.

One of the coolest gadgets we’ve seen featured is the Camalapse. The gadget is pretty much a egg timer and its shaped like one as well. The egg timer comes with a tripod and a screw where you attach your camera.

The device does a 360 degree rotation and if paired with your camera’s time-lapse feature can create an amazing 360 degree time-lapse for an hour. You can also stitch the time-lapse photos to create 369 degree panoramic photo.

The base it a bit tiny so it might have problems holding a DSLR or a large camera with heavy lens.

How much is the Camplapse? It can set you back around US$25 and you have the option of a ringing bell that signals the end of the cycle.

Here’s a product description by the company “Get cool b-roll footage by setting up your GoPro HD HERO or ContourHD1080p on the Camalapse and capture up to 360 degrees of footage over an hour.

Simply attach your GoPro HD HERO or Contour HD1080p to the top of the camalapse via a tripod adapter and either attach the camalapse to a tripod or set on a low/flat/stable surface. Point your camera where you would like the video to end and while firmly holding the bottom half of the camalapse, twist the top portion of the camalapse so that the camera is pointed towards your starting point. Click record and you are all set.

(tripod, camera and tripod adapter not included – shown in pictures for example only – see the compatible parts tab to purchase the appropriate adapter if needed)

Not tested with other cameras. Due to the weight/balance and location of the tripod mounts on various cameras, we can’t recommend the camalapse for other cameras. However, you might find that if your camera is small, lightweight and fairly center balanced, the camalapse may work for your particular camera.”

We like the idea of a seamless time-lapse so we might actually get one even its a bit pricy.

Just how heavy duty is the Canon 5D’s high definition video feature? Well it has impressed us before as it was used by House for its season finale.

Now Levi’s Jeans shot a commercial called “Walk Across America” and it used a Canon 5D to capture the video.

The newest Levi’s commercial is pretty cool and the setup for shooting it was pretty practical. The commercial is an impressive stop-motion video of a dude walking through across the cities of America.

The director for the Levi’s commercial is photographer Peter Cote.

According to Cote “”From a technical perspective it was an extremely difficult shoot. Measurement was very key to our success. If our measurement or my framing was not consistent then none of this would have worked”

Cote adds “”Color correction was also difficult,” he adds. It was hard to push anything too far in color correction because the environment changes so much, each of them has a different level of contrast.

For more technical details check the 5D website

Are you a hipster or perhaps want to be one? Believe us, it’s not hard to be a hipster you just have to listen to the right obscure music and the right vintage gear.

Get your hands on the latest indie/hipster gadget — the Helga D camera and gadget your way through hipness.

The Holga D is still a concept camera which was a project by India-based industrial designer Saikat Biswas. He delivers that plastic medium-format loom Holga camera into the digital age.

The Holga, a cheap toy camera will still be an optical jankiness that creates vignetting, blurring, and light leaks.

Biswas designed the digital Holga to be minimalistic.

The ISO, shutter speed and aperture will be placed on top of the body and on lens.

The camera is powered by standard AA batteries, and uses an SD card to store photographs.

Go check the design here.

According to the site “For those who are not aware of Holga, 
it is an inexpensive, medium format 120 film toy camera, known for its whimsical and surreal images. 

It’s low-cost construction and simple meniscus plastic lens often crates vignetting, blur, light leaks, and other ‘qualities’ that’s unacceptable in the mainstream photography. But the quality problems have obtained a major cult following among some photographers, and has become really popular in recent years.”

If you need a female photographer icon who broke boundaries in photography then check out Diana Arbus and her photography.

Arbus was known as the “photographer of freaks”. She took interest in photography subjects that were less than perfect verging on the odd, ugly and surreal.

The American photographer was also a writer and she was noted for her black and white square photographs of “deviant and marginal people or else of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal.

How controversial was Arbus work? Normain Mailar one said “Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.”

Perhaps life does imitate art as Arbus commited suice in 1972. Her works, beautiful photograohy of strange people live forever.

1923 Born Diane Nemerov March 14, New York City.

1963 Guggenheim Fellowship

1965 – 1966 Arbus held a position as Instructor of Photography at Parson School of Design from 1965-1966.

1966 Guggenheim Fellowship

1968 – 1969 Arbus held a position as Instructor of Photography at Cooper Union from 1968-1969

1970 Received the Robert Leavitt Award

1970 – 1971 Arbus held a position as Instructor of Photography at Rhode Island School of Design from 1970-1971.

1971 Died July 26, New York City
Selected Exhibitions

2008 Times Square, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York City, NY

2007 June Bride, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York City, NY

2006 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (July 9 – October 8, 2006)

2005 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (February 28 – May 29, 2005) Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (June 17- September 18, 2005)
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (October 13, 2005 – January 15, 2006)

2004 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (February 29 – May 30, 2004)
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (June 27- August 29, 2004)

2003 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (November 25, 2003 – February 8, 2004)

2000 – 2001 Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Bermany, Diane Arbus (November 10 – January 20)

2000 Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Diane Arbus (May 25 – July 22)

1997 Galleria Photology, Milan, Diane Arbus: Women

1996 – 1997 Robert Miller Gallery. New York, Women (November 19, 1996 – January 4, 1997)

1996 PaceWildensteinMacGill, Los Angeles, Untitled: Diane Arbus (opened April 25)

1995 Robert Miller Gallery, New York, The Movies: Photographs from 1956 to 1958 (January 10 – February 4)

1992 Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, Diane Arbus Untitled 1970-71

1991 Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto, Diane Arbus [90 photographs, curated by Ydessa Hendeles]
Jane Corkin Gallery, Toronto, Diane Arbus [includes Portfolio]
Edwynn Houk Gallery, Chicago, Diane Arbus: Photographs [16 photographs]
Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, Diane Arbus [29 photographs]
Robert Miller Gallery, New York, Diane Arbus Untitled 1970-71 (November 19 – December 28) [30 photographs]