camera

If you're into time-lapse photography here is a way to easily build yourself an affordable panning device using some simple tools and a kitchen timer.

Rather than let life pass you by, save it. With the camera-equipped Eyez glasses, users can share point-of-view video without the clunky cameras and nettlesome file transfers that rabid uploaders typically endure.

Logitech just announced the very first Google TV box, to be called the Revue. With video calling, a full QWERTY remote, and lots of apps, it's much more capable than the Apple TV (which is either "streamlined" or "barebones," depending on who you ask). But to get the full Revue package, you'd have to spend enough to buy four--yes, four--Apple TV units. Eeep.

Many of the things we film for TE videos aren't the kind of thing you'd want to put an expensive camera anywhere near. Some of them aren't even the kind of thing you'd want to put a cheap camera near. To expand our recording options, I built a protective housing for a lipstick camera. Here's the how-to and video of us trying to destroy it. After a weekend of exploding propane tanks right next to it, it is still going strong.

People who dislike having medical cameras snake through their body on the ends of long tubing now have a fun alternative. A new remote-controlled spider bot can scuttle around inside the colon or intestine and perform a medical inspection instead.

Rest assured that the experience sounds much more pleasant than Neo's icky encounter with an electronic bug in The Matrix. Italian scientists have tested the device inside pigs, controlling the spider bot wirelessly to diagnose serious conditions such as cancer.

Thirty-five millimeter film is dead. Everyone over the age of nine now owns a three-megapixel digital camera with a 10X optical zoom. Parents upgrading to telescopic lenses are passing down their relics to kids who can’t aim and have never loaded a roll of film. In the digital revolution, the disposable camera was merely an innocent bystander (along with Polaroid). But at dive shops and drug stores, the single-use underwater film camera has survived as the practical option for honeymoon photography and pool party documentation. With the recent launch of the 5.0-megapixel Digital Underwater Camera Mask from Liquid Image ($99; a 3.1-megapixel version costs $79), the end is near. To see how potent the gadget could be, I spent an afternoon underwater attempting to document a most difficult subject matter: two kids under the age of seven.

For a closer look at the finished product, launch the photo gallery here.

Make Your Camera Space-Ready

Cost: $18.37
Time: 16
Hours
Easy | | | | |
Hard

The smaller your camera, the more susceptible it is to even the slightest tremble, which can leave your photos looking like Impressionist paintings. Fortunately, optical image stabilization has trickled down from pro cams to the shake-prone pocket models. The cameras use motion sensors to detect any quiver and move a piece of the lens to compensate for it. I tested three in the most blur-inducing scenarios: in low light without a flash-the slow shutter speed gives you more time to twitch-and at full zoom, which magnifies shake.

Launch the slideshow here.

Specs: Casio EX S600BE

What: Thinnest 6-megapixel camera available

Size: 2.32 in. (h) x 3.54 in. (w) x 0.63 in. (d)

Weight: 4 ounces

Cost: $400

Sensor: 0.4-inch-square primary-color CCD containing 6.18 million pixels

1. Focus

Dept.: Tech Lesson
Tech: Machinima moviemaking
Base Cost: Free
Time: 1 hour and up
Dabbler | | | | | Master

CASIO
EXILIM Zoom EX-Z750
MSRP: $449
Resolution [effective]: 7.2 megapixels
Video file type: MPEG-4
Zoom lens type: 3x optical/ 8x digital zoom lens, f2.8-5.1 [38-114mm 35mm equivalent]
Lighting: AF Assist lamp
LCD size: 2.5"
Frame rate and window size: 30 fps at 640x480
Dimensions: 3.5" x 2.3" x .88"
Weight: 4.48 ounces [w/o battery]
Memory Type: SD Card

E

Even with five, six, seven million pixels of resolution, palm-of-your-hand digital cameras produce disappointingly blurry results in low light. It´s nigh impossible to hold the camera steady during those long exposures. Boosting the sensitivity of the image sensor (ISO) so it can gather more light hasn´t worked, because that entails running more electricity through the sensor, which registers the current as light. This creates a pockmarked trail of incorrectly “exposed” pixels and gives you a dark and “noisy,” or grainy, image.