Category: Photography

Capturing, handling and printing photographs

Camera Phone Sales Soar Worldwide in 2004

Camera Phone Sales Soar Worldwide in 2004New research from Strategy Analytics reveals that 257 million camera phones were shipped worldwide, representing 38 percent of total handset sales in 2004.

This figure was up sharply from the 84 million units sold last year (16 percent of total), in 2003.

The global research and consulting firm also reported that despite their generally shoddy quality, sales of camera phones are now outselling digital still cameras by almost 4 to 1.

Last year, 68 million digital still cameras were sold, with sales growing 40 percent annually (up from 49 million units in 2003).

“Global camera phone sales grew by an impressive 200 percent year-over-year in 2004,” commented the impressively monikered Neil Mawston, Associate Director of the Wireless Device Strategies (WDS) service at Strategy Analytics.

Camera Phone Sales Soar Worldwide in 2004“Nokia led the pack, with an 18 percent worldwide market share, followed closely by Motorola at 17 percent, and Samsung in third position at 13 percent,” he continued.

Chris Ambrosio, Director of Strategy Analytics’ Global Wireless Practice, also fancied a go on the mic: “The digital still camera market is running out of steam. Vendors such as Kodak, Canon and Fuji will find growth harder to achieve in 2006.

Camera phones will eventually capture 15 percent of the low-end digital still camera market by 2010, while attempts to sell households in developed markets a second or third device will be restricted by the ubiquity of multi-megapixel camera phones”

The Strategy Analytics’ 2004 Global Camera Phone report also noted that VGA sensors (640×480 pixel) will still be the “sweet spot” for camera phones in 2005, but vendors will soon be screaming, “look at the size of our megapixels!” as a means of getting one over their rivals in the high end market.

Camera Phone Sales Soar Worldwide in 2004These ‘Pixel Wars’ are expected to drive higher megapixel handset demand to 3 in 10 sales worldwide in 2005.

Strategy Analytics concludes that removable memory media will be standard issue on camera phones by the end of 2007, but there’ll still be a mixed bag of wireless connectivity options on offer (e.g. USB, WLAN / WiFi, Infra-red, Bluetooth, etc.), forcing manufacturers of accessory products – like printers – to support a wide range of solutions.

Strategy Analytics

Yahoo Buys Flickr

Yahoo Buys FlickrYahoo has whipped out its wildly wedgified wallet and snapped up the online photo-sharing service Flickr, less than a week after launching a beta test of its new blogging tool.

Flickr lets users upload digital photos from computers, PDAs and camera phones, create their own photo albums, post photos to blogs, and store, sort, search and share your photos online.

Joanna Stevens, a spokeswoman for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, confirmed the deal Sunday: “We look forward to working with them for their innovation and product development across the Yahoo Network in the coming months,” she said.

Stevens said Flickr will remain a standalone site for now. The company’s employees, however, will have to up sticks to Sunnyvale later this year.

Yahoo’s existing photos hosting and sharing service, Yahoo Photos, will gain features from Flickr, although the two services will remain separate “for the foreseeable future.”

Yahoo Buys FlickrThere will be some early integration, however, with the ability to log into Flickr using a Yahoo ID and password.

According to Caterina Fake, Flickr’s vice president of marketing and community, users of the company’s free and paid-for services will get more space, while prices for professional accounts are expected to fall.

This announcement comes less than a week after Yahoo announced Yahoo 360. This service combines a new blogging tool, along with long-established Yahoo products such as instant messaging, photo storage/sharing and Internet radio.

The service also includes social networking tools for sharing recommendations about places to eat, favourite films, fab music, great clubs (like London’s Offline, for example!) and so on.

The acquisition of Flickr (and parent company Ludicorp Research & Development) and the development of the Yahoo 360 service reflects a growing interest in social networking and blogging services.

Microsoft added a blog product for its MSN Web service in December, called MSN Spaces. Google, meanwhile, owns the hugely successful Web log service Blogger and social networking site Orkut.

Flickr
Yahoo 360

DSC-T7: Sony Announces sexy 5.1mpx Camera – CeBIT 05

Sony DSC T7(CeBIT, Hannover) Wandering around the Sony products at the pre-CeBIT press conference, I came across the DSC-T7, the smallest, sexiest model whos roots lay with the DSC-T1.

Available in the to-be-expected silver and a sultry black, the DSC-T7 re-introduces Sony DSC T7a sliding cover that both covers and protects the lens and switches the camera on. Measuring only 14.8 mm / 0.6 in at the lens cover, and 9.8 mm / 0.4in for the main body, it packs 5.1m pixel. The back is taken up with a 2.5″ TFT Hybrid LCD, displaying 230,000 pixels.

As you can see from the shots, this baby is really slim and an instant object of desire. Sony think it will sell well to the female side of society and I wouldn’t be so exclusive – men will want this baby too, but we’d advise against popping it in your back pocket and sitting down. Sony DSC T7

Sony DSC T7Nothing definite on release dates or price but the talk in the corridors is it should be around in May for around 375Euro, $500, 260 UKP.

DSC-T7 Specs: DP Review
DSC-T7 Specs: Sony Press Release

GZ-MC500: 3-CCD Hard-Drive Camcorder from JVC Everio

JVC Announce New Everio Range Hard-Drive Based CamcordersThe diminutive JVC GZ-MC500 comes with three 1/4.5-inch CCD that records high-quality MPEG-2 video onto CompactFlash microdrives, with a 4 gig card, capable of storing up to an hour of “DVD-quality” video.

The GZ-MC500 is slightly larger than the previous two Everio models, and the increased size makes it easier for users to access advanced features such as a focus ring, manual shutter speed control, manual aperture control, real time histogram display, auto bracketing and manual white balance control.

There’s also the usual Program AE dial on the side of the unit, offering a range of exposure options including Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Twilight, Sports, Snow, Portrait, and Auto/Manual modes.

In keeping with its prosumer aspirations, the camera features a rotating grip and is kitted out with a matt black finish of a fairly rugged construction, although the small LCD screen (1.8 in) and weird omission of a microphone input may deter prospective customers.

The camcorder’s zoom is a bit weedy as well, measuring in at only 10x optical zoom (8x for stills).

The Everio offers four recording quality levels for the MPEG-2 video, with the highest quality setting providing 60 minutes of video recording time on a 4 gig card, with the lowest quality setting stretching it out to pixellated-tastic 300 minutes (JVC says that models with six or eight gigabyte hard disks will be available later in the year).

JVC includes the PowerProducer DVD authoring software with the GZ-MC500 so users can export their video to different medium/formats.

For capturing high quality still images, new camcorder sports an interpolation technique called “pixel-shift” which JVC claims is capable of doubling the amount of information horizontally and vertically via “prism optics and filterless 3-CCD pixel shift technology”.

JVC Announce New Everio Range Hard-Drive Based CamcordersTranslated into a language approaching English, this means that the camera is able to produce thumping great 5-megapixel with a resolution of 2560 x 1920 pixels still shots. This is second only to Samsung’s latest Duocam camcorder.

With consumers warming to hard disk based recorders, this compact combination of camcorder and camera, could prove enticing to enthusiasts keen to start fiddling about with all those exposure options and consumers looking for auto-everything recorder.

The JVC Everio GZ-MC500 will be available in March for $1,799.95 (£950, €1,400)

JVC
CCD

HP Blur Photos with Camera Privacy Patent

HP Digital CameraHP is making an interesting move in the digital camera market. The company’s latest technical wizardry is a system in which digital cameras could be equipped with circuits that could be remotely triggered to blur the face of those who don’t want to have their photo taken.

This story originally came around in November last year after HP had been granted the patent. We didn’t cover it then, so are pleased that our friends at News.com have brought it up again.

The design for paparazzi-proof cameras is covered under US patent application 20040202382, which was filed in April 2003 and published in October 2004, and describes a system in which an image captured by a camera could be automatically modified based on commands sent by a remote device.

It covers technology that would have to be incorporated both into digital cameras and the ‘image inhibitor modules’. Cameras would be equipped with facial recognition software sophisticated enough to single out faces for the blur treatment. The repercussions for this technology are outstanding, allowing anyone who doesn’t want their photo taken at a particular time to trigger a ‘clicker’ (image inhibitor module) to ensure that any cameras or camera-equipped gadgets in range produced only a fuzzy outline of their face. This story takes us back to the classic science fiction TV show, Thunderbirds, when Thunderbird 1 was fitted with a camera detector to stop their advanced technology being copied. At the time such an idea seemed impossible, strange how science fiction becomes science fact.

With the prevalence of digital recording devices, one of which is cameras, people will either have to become used to having their actions and utterances captured, employ impractical draconian measures such as banning them, or throw technology at it.

At Digital Lifestyles we’re keen on audio recordings and have been wondering for some time if, by identifying vocal patterns, people could opt out of being recorded.

The move comes following the proliferation of digital imaging capabilities with growing concerns about privacy, especially as the number of subjects who would prefer not to be photographed has increased thanks to mobile phones with built-in digital cameras and video functionality. However, when we spoke to HP they told us they had no current plans to commercialise the technology, which would require widespread adoption by camera makers and possibly government mandates to be practical. For now, the company is keeping the patent as part of its IP portfolio.

HP
HP focuses on paparazzi-proof cameras – News.com
Badge keeps paparazzi out of the picture – The Times, November 2005

SCH-250 5Mpx Phone from Samsung Released

Samsung, the world’s third-largest handset maker has today released the world’s first camera phone with 5-megapixel resolution in Korea. In conjunction with Japan-based camera specialist Asahi Pentax, Samsung have devised a camera module specifically for the mobile phone.  Poor quality mobile pictures will soon be a thing of the past  – a mere grainy memory.  Besides the incredible resolution, the SCH-S250 also includes the first QVGA display (240×320)) in a mobile phone that supports 16.7 million colours.

Your average mobile-wielding sulky teenager considers built-in cameras with picture resolutions of less than one megapixel passé, but the SCH-S250 will raise their little technical antennae.  The 5-megapixel camera features a high-quality CCD sensor, 1/1000-second shutter speed, and QVGA  (Quarter VGA)video recording. The unique “stretch” design protects the display and camera lens when not in use. 92 MB of built-in memory can store up to 100 minutes of high-quality video, but less than 18 still photos at full resolution. Additional storage can be added and a  32MB auxiliary memory is included as standard. And the people at Samsung and Asahi Pentax didn’t stop here – an MP3 player and TV output round out the features.

This little phone could be used as your portable office as it also includes a text-to-speech function allowing the phone to “speak” to-do lists and incoming text messages.

Furthermore, South Korea’s top mobile carrier, SK Telecom, has said it will introduce 10-megapixel camera phones produced by Samsung by the end of this year. The SCH-S250 price will be announced next week, so it is hard to predict yet how soon the kids will be fighting over it in the schoolyard.

Mobile operators love high resolution photos, as transferring them takes lots of bandwidth and there for cost the user considerably more than low res pictures.

Samsung

Sun and Kodak Settle Patent Dispute Out of Court – Software Industry Trembles

Sun and Eastman Kodak have settled a long running patent dispute with an out of court payment. Kodak has been chasing Java creator Sun Microsystems for the past two years, claiming that Sun’s wrtie-once, run-anywhere programming platform violates three patents owned by the film company.

Kodak, who don’t produce programming platforms, had been after US$1.06 billion (€859 million) in damages – or roughly 50% of Sun’s entire profit from its hardware sales from the three years from 1998 to 2001. Instead, they accepted US$92 million (€74.6 million) from Sun, without Sun accepting or denying Kodak’s allegations. From their behaviour, it certainly looks like they just harassed Sun until they were paid to go away.

The dispute revolves around three patents that Kodak acquired in 1997 from Wang Laboratories – specifically the way that one program can call another one to assist. This, they say, was similar to the way that Java works. That’s it – there was no identical source code, no dispute over look and feel: it was entirely down to the concept of one program calling another one to help. It’s actually similar to the way that all software works.

Obviously there are concerns amongst software companies that such vague patent claims might destroy the entire industry as companies turn to each other to extract licensing fees for vague and invalid patent disputes. Even if a claim is eventually thrown out, the entire process can be crippling to companies.

I believe that Kodak’s behaviour in this case is especially shameful given that the only reason they have a business in the first place is because they have relied upon the innovations and free exchange of ideas – from generous and insightful people who created the industry before Kodak even arrived. Kodak are old hands at this game given that, in the 70s, they themselves infringed seven patents belonging to Polaroid – an action that took five years for Polaroid to win.

A history of the innovations in photography

Sun’s statement on the dispute resolution

Adobe Propose Digital Negative Standard Format for Cameras

Adobe have proposed a public, archival format for raw digital camera data to deal with the archival problems of detail loss and accessibility. For most camera users, images are stored as JPEGs, which is a lossy format even with the gentlest of compression. Some cameras make use of a raw format, storing the image exactly as it is captured without compression – but of course not all manufacturers use the same format and the specifications for many of them are not publicly available. This lack of an open standard also creates the risk that software to read a particular camera’s raw image data may not be available in the future, making archiving problematic.

To combat these concerns, Adobe are suggesting the adoption of DNG, or Digital Negative Format and have made its specifications freely available. DNG is based on the TIFF-EP format, and supports metadata so that images can be described and differentiated.

To encourage adoption, they have released a free converter which will take the raw image format from a variety of cameras and convert them to DNG. Adobe hope that a single processing solution will improve workflow for photographers if they have to use raw files from multiple cameras and manufacturers.

Adobe on DNG

Sidekick ll has Arrived

SideKick IISideKick II, Danger’s successor to its Sidekick “smart phone.” hits the US shops running on Wednesday.  The launch happens today though in Santa Monica where you can also buy the 25 percent slimmer version a day earlier.

This is a portable office, and not only because the screen swivels open to showcase a full QWERTY keyboard.  What else would you call a device that incorporates instant messaging, email, web browsing, a phone service, and a personal organiser, which stores up to 2,000 personal contacts, all accessible through a simple interface?  Not to mention a built-in low-resolution digital camera with flash, and built-in speakerphone, and enhanced battery life giving approximately 4.5 hours of talk time.  Retailing at $299 (~£166, ~€244) with a one-year contract also makes it a very affordable moveable feast for the mobile professional.  Furthermore, each Sidekick II owner gets a personal Web site, run by T-Mobile and Danger, that automatically synchronizes with the device.

T- Mobile Sidekick II owners get their own email account and can set up as many as three external accounts to deliver email directly to their inbox. Yahoo! Messenger is now available for download to the T-Mobile Sidekick II, in addition to the fully integrated version of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) service, meaning users can IM their friends and colleagues while surfing the Web.
 
The T-Mobile Sidekick II, based on Danger, Inc.’s hiptop Wireless Solution, will be available through T-
Mobile at T-Mobile retail stores, selected national retailers, and online at www.t-mobile.com.  Along with the launch of the T-Mobile Sidekick II, T-Mobile and Danger plan to introduce software that will enable Sidekick customers to wirelessly synchronize their desktop contacts and calendar information with their T-Mobile Sidekick. This synchronization software will be available for the T-Mobile Sidekick II and previous Sidekick generations.

Danger Inc.

T-Mobile