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Archives for 2008

Ashton Kutcher in New Nikon COOLPIX Camera Ad Campaign

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I enjoy seeing how camera makers choose market their products, even more so after Sony’s Foam City. To that end, enjoy Nikon’s new commercial above and check out the full details on the ad campaign from Nikon in the below press release.

If you want to get your hands on the Nikon COOLPIX cameras featured in the Ashton Kutcher commercial, you can go to the best-selling Nikon COOLPIX cameras at Amazon.com by clicking here: Nikon COOLPIX Digital Cameras

NEW YORK (March 25, 2008) – Hollywood’s A-list actor and producer, Ashton Kutcher, is lending his photogenic qualities to Nikon to promote the manufacturer’s new COOLPIX Style series cameras. The campaign will debut nationally on March 25th with a television commercial, which precedes the print advertisements and an interactive online component. Nikon selected Kutcher for the campaign to bring brand relevance to a broader and more youthful audience. Taking place in trendy locales such as boutique hotels and upscale shopping destinations, the campaign highlights the exquisite styling, fashionable colors, simplicity and great performance of Nikon’s Style series compact digital cameras.

“Ashton is the perfect choice for this campaign as he embodies both the stylish and fun attributes of Nikon’s COOLPIX Style series cameras,” said Lisa Baxt, senior communications manager for Nikon Inc. “Ashton’s collaborative spirit, creativity and approachable personality enhanced our campaign which showcases the great style, sleek colorful design and ease of use of Nikon’s newest COOLPIX Style series cameras.”

“I am thrilled to work with Nikon on this campaign,” said Kutcher. “I think technology today represents so much more than just function – it represents personal style and sophistication. I’m enjoying the opportunity to work with such a well respected brand and a group of highly creative individuals on a campaign that showcases the style, design and simplicity of the new COOLPIX cameras.”

The television campaign spots, directed by Emmy award winner Brian Buckley, have Kutcher’s COOLPIX camera being discretely taken and passed around by numerous adoring fans who take several pictures with it before slipping it back into Ashton’s pocket. Ashton then notices some surprising pictures when he reviews the photos on his camera’s LCD screen. The print campaign, shot by legendary photographer Norman Jean Roy, truly captures the sophisticated yet playful essence of Ashton and the aesthetics of the camera. Following the television and print advertisements, the campaign will come full circle with a uniquely engaging internet component, details of which will be revealed shortly.

 

Stanford Researchers Developing 3D Camera With 12,616 Lenses

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The camera you own has one main lens and produces a flat, two-dimensional photograph, whether you hold it in your hand or view it on your computer screen. On the other hand, a camera with two lenses (or two cameras placed apart from each other) can take more interesting 3-D photos.

But what if your digital camera saw the world through thousands of tiny lenses, each a miniature camera unto itself” You’d get a 2-D photo, but you’d also get something potentially more valuable: an electronic “depth map” containing the distance from the camera to every object in the picture, a kind of super 3-D.

Stanford electronics researchers, lead by electrical engineering Professor Abbas El Gamal, are developing such a camera, built around their “multi-aperture image sensor.” They’ve shrunk the pixels on the sensor to 0.7 microns, several times smaller than pixels in standard digital cameras. They’ve grouped the pixels in arrays of 256 pixels each, and they’re preparing to place a tiny lens atop each array.

read more | digg story

Sony A200 Sample Images

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I was killing some time in Best Buy tonight and decided to snap a few images on the Sony A200. I took a CF card with me (it’s always a good idea to keep one handy). I certainly wouldn’t recommend overspending on a new DSLR at Best Buy (and never buy accessories there); however, it’s great to get your hands on a new camera before you make your purchase.

The Sony A200 basically handles like the A350, except for the display panel, which doesn’t articulate or feature a Live View function. Otherwise, the A200 has the same dedicated ISO button, which makes switching ISOs a breeze. The A200 has an sensitivity range of ISO 100-3200. Below, I’ve included several samples that cover the entire ISO range. You may download these images at 100% for you personal use and inspection. EXIF is embedded within. If you would prefer a gallery view, which also has an EXIF viewer, go here.

Sony A200 ISO 100

100% Crop

[Read more…]

Sony A900 at Photo Imaging Expo

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Sony’s new flagship A900 showed up at Photo Imaging Expo 2008 in Japan this week. (Coverage from masterchong.com) Significantly, this looks like a more polished sample than the previous mockups that we’ve seen.

There are several other features that are accessible from buttons and switches on the camera body. Some of these cool features include:

  • two scroll wheels (one for the thumb, one for the index finger)
  • dedicated ISO button
  • dedicate White Balance button
  • metering mode selection switch
  • slow sync button
  • no articulating LCD screen

It looks like Sony has really packed in quick customization for photographers without having to dig through menus. I’m looking forward to see how all these features work together in real world application. However, I’ll have to say I’m rather disappointed that the screen doesn’t articulate after getting hooked on the Sony A350 a couple of weeks ago.

According to a Sony representative at PIE, the A900 will be released in August or September at Photokina or IFA.

Nikon D60 Review at DP Review

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DP Review has posted a review of the new Nikon D60:

There’s a few nice new features, and bundling the new ‘VR’ (stabilized) version of the kit lens is a smart move that makes the whole package a lot more appealing, but it’s fair to say that the D60 is a subtle upgrade rather than a wholescale reinvention of Nikon’s entry-level best-seller.

For the latest news and reviews, be sure to check out Photography Bay’s Nikon D60 page.