With the 2008 international consumer electronics unlimited convention days away in Berlin, we take a look at the cutting edge in the world of cameras. It is believed that the focus will be on the developments in HD technology and Phillips have already announced the unveiling of their 38mm screen, however other manufacturers are expected to have some counter measures up their sleeves. The coup of digital technology has been felt around many markets and non more so than that of photography.
In both the domestic and commercial markets digital still and video technology had dominated, with the latest developments in HD filming actually replacing 35mm film at top levels of production. Digital has made home video production and post-production more accessible and the Oregon ATC2K camera is an example of this. It has been specially designed to make filming in adverse conditions easier. It is a strange looking camera and has ok picture quality, however the weight of the head and sound quality are pretty dire. It is ideal if you are looking to record action scenes that will be paired with music in editing, also it can be found for under 100GBP online.
Not so outdoorsy is the Casio Exilim Card EX-S10 digital camera. This belongs more in the tiny handbag of a young lady of a night out as opposed to rocketing off-piste with the Oregon strapped to your shoulder. It is thin, sleek and easy to use with a large live view screen and excellent home video options including a YouTube video feature. The down side to this Kate Moss of the digital camera world is that it is mostly automated and has very few manual settings. It has good ISO image quality but a low powered flash unit and is quite pricy at 220GBP.
Adobe Lightroom is literally fresh off the press. It is the latest version of the photo editing software and is still being tweaked by Adobe as we speak. The sneak preview shows that the photo categorising has improved vastly and as any photographer or editor will tell you, a large part of the post-production process is done before you enter the editing suite in the labelling of your rushes. This has been addressed as there are better options when downloading your photos however it is still too new to get an all round picture of the features and capabilities.
Digital technology is more accessible than ever and the Oregon action cam epitomises this, a weather proof digital camera with great picture quality for under 100GBP.
