Back to Basics
We’ve made cameras disposable, accesorizable, and shiny. Now, at least in the design world, there’s another type to keep a watch on.
The OneShot Camera is just that. A simple lipstick sized digital point and shoot. It would come without an LCD display and without a memory card slot. So basically what you buy would be what you get. What do you get beyond a miniscule device? Simple charging, just shake the thing (like you would a bottle of orange juice) to recharge. Storage capability will make a huge difference, but I can see a market for this thing.
Bottle Cap Tripod
Carrying around a camera tripod isn’t always convenient, but this bottle cap tripod is good to go.
Made with a flexible rubber socket that slips over the top of most bottles and a standard tripod screw, the ingenious design turns your water bottle into the extra set of hands you need to take awesome pics.
The device works best with point and shoot cameras and bottles that are at least half full for obvious weight reasons.
It can also pivot about 15 degrees for extra flexibility. Cost about $10.
Cool.
Found via Rachel Ray magazine
A New Eye View
Video cameras are everywhere, as is editing equipment and home made movies. Well, here’s a new twist on home video, a few ways to play with “special” effects like the pros (sort of).
First there is Garden Watch Cam. The name says it all. The camera can be set up in your yard and takes long videos of your plants as they grow. You can now have your own professional nature show and watch flowers bloom from bulbs to full plants. Speed it up for sure, but the Garden Cam keeps you from having to sit outside with a normal handheld for weeks.
For a less professional, but nicely ridiculous concept, there’s the Pet’s Eye View Camera. The camera takes photos instead of video, but hey, you still get a unique angle and look don’t you? And isn’t that the point anyway?
Driving Along in an Automobile
Cars today are well equipped. Many come with rearview cameras, other help you parallel park, and even more come with DVD players installed. But lets be honest, cars are not as safe as we’d all like them to be in this day and age.
That’s where the AWS 4000 collision warning system comes in. With a camera that faces the front of your vehicle the warning system will alert you about probable accident situations, your distance from the car in front of you, and can even recognize certain situations where you’ve drifted over road lines.
The AWS is expensive, and requires professional installation. Perhaps a smaller model would be more popular, but how do you price safety?
Party Shot
Sony’s latest gizmo takes your party pictures for you. You set up your camera (currently only their new Cybershot’s TX1 and WX1) and you place it on a table or mount it to a tripod during your get together. The mount then tilts and zooms your camera automatically to see out a face with the camera’s face detection capabilities. It then waits for a smile and triggers the camera using the “smile shutter” feature.
As my husband said, it’s kinda creepy, but it could make for some nice shots without having to have a roving photographer. It can pan 360 degrees and tilt 24 degrees.
This device makes it easy to capture more natural expressions and fun, candid moments of you, your family and friends without having to hire a photographer.
I don’t know about you, but I only hire photographers for weddings, and I certainly wouldn’t trust this machine to capture the pics for that :). However, it would be fun to have at birthday parties and other shindigs where it is hard to get natural, candid pics.
Go, Go Gadget Mom
Mother’s Day is just around the corner and gadget gifts aren’t just for dad.
The new Canon Powershot SD780 IS Digital Elph or its better-equipped siblings would make a great gift for the mom-on-the-go. For just $250 (with rebate) the 12.1 megapixel camera is a great option for a grab and go camera. It also has HD movie capabilities. The higher zoom options are $299 and $379, respectively.
I have a nice DSLR but it isn’t something I can stick in my diaper bag and have with me everywhere. A camera like this though could really help a mom be sure to capture all the shots she wants.
Oh, hubby . . .
Building a Picture
Lego has partenered with Digital Blue to bring the world a new line of tech gadgets, all adorned with the lego touch. That’s right, MP3 players, walkie talkies, and cameras all built from lego bricks.
The gadgets supposedly come out this summer and are aimed at kids, but that doesn’t mean kids are gonna be the only ones buyin. Legos are always awesome.
Unfortunately these newest gadgets are just that, gadgets. Despite the sweetness of the design you can’t redesign anything yourself. The bricks don’t come apart, they just stick together forever and look cool.
Camera Capability
We hope one day that the country will be completely wireless, wifi everywhere. First America then the world. Well Sony’s newest camera is preparing for that particular revolution.
The Cyber Shot G3 is the first digital camera to be wifi enabled. Basically you can upload photos to the net right from the camera, very much like cell phone shots today, but better image quality. For now you’ll have to have access to a wifi hot spot, but one day you’ll be able to upload pictures from anywhere. It kind of kills any chance you have to “sleep on it” before posting a possibly unfortunate picture, but hey, it’s the price we pay.
Quik Pod solves photo-taking dilemmas
Ever been on vacation with your hubby and want to take the perfect picture but there is no one to snap the shot? Quik Pod comes to the rescue.
It’s an extendable handheld tripod that can make the difference between capturing the memory and just having a blurry face pic or one-person image.
They also have a larger version for DSLRs and loads of accessories, including a suction cup adapter (available soon). It works with any device that can be used with a traditional tripod so point-n-shoot cameras, video cameras, etc.
Photo via Quik Pod
All in the Wrist
Watches don’t just tell time anymore, often they don’t tell time at all. The fact is, they’re still portable, always have been, and that makes them a great base for any on the go gadget.
Thanko has released a video camera watch in a new MP4 version. It comes with a color screen and both photo and video camera capabilities. The quality of said video is pretty poor but what do you expect from a watch? It’s a little large, but someone out there should be able to pull it off. (And it still tells time too).
Also new on the market is the asteroid wrist watch. It’s exactly what it sounds like, a wrist watch that plays the old school asteroid game. You don’t even need buttons to slack off in class, you can play simply with a twist of your wrist. How convenient.
