Tag Archives: camera

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The Polaroid Camera Makes a Comeback

I remember the days when you could use a Polaroid camera to take a picture and watch as the image developed. While those cameras are no longer available, the company recently announced its Polaroid Socialmatic Camera.

Polaroid SocialMatic Camera

According to the company, “Polaroid was the original social network: allowing people to instantly capture, print, and share life’s moments in a way that has never been possible before.” The camera will have a 14 megapixel front-facing camera and a two megapixel rear-facing camera. It will run on the Android operating system. With built-in wifi, it will be able to upload photos to the customer’s social networks. It is also Bluetooth enabled so it can send photos to a smartphone. In addition, the camera will also be able to print 2-inch by 3-inch sticker-backed photos.

It is expected to be available this fall.

New Android Polaroid Socialmatic camera, front/rear cameras, wifi, print capabilities.

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Instant Camera Not Dead

In the not too distant past, most agency producers and claims adjusters had an instant camera with them at all times. Digital cameras have replaced most of these older cameras, but there are still times when an instant photo can be useful. To serve this need, Fujifilm has released its Instax 200 Instant Film Camera and Instax Instant Color Film in the United States.

For years, the instant photo system has enjoyed great success among customers in Asia and Europe. As availability of instant film has declined, Fujifilm has received an influx of requests from photographers in healthcare, law enforcement, insurance, real estate, and other industries to make the complete Instax instant photo system available to U.S. customers.

The Instax instant photo system includes: LCD control panel displaying focal distance and film count; programmed electronic shutter, 1/64-1/200 sec; automatic flash for low-light shooting; two-range selectable shooting options; and sharp, vivid, super fine grain prints. The Instax 200 is available through dealers and photo labs that support the professional photography market, at a list price of $70.

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Create 3D Experience from Digital Photos

Microsoft recently launched a new Web site called Photosynth that creates 3D views from digital photos. With nothing more than a digital camera and some inspiration, you can use Photosynth to transform regular digital photos into a 3D, 360-degree experience.

Photosynth is a mixture of two independent breakthroughs: the ability to reconstruct the scene or object from flat photographs, and the technology to bring that experience to virtually anyone over the Internet. Using techniques from the field of computer vision, Photosynth examines images for similarities to each other and uses that information to estimate the shape of the subject and the vantage point each photo was taken from. Photosynth was inspired by the breakthrough research on Photo Tourism from the University of Washington and Microsoft Research.

It is easy to use. Using any digital camera, take a series of pictures of a scene or object (such as a client’s factory). Make sure you overlap each photo. Take as many pictures as you want, and take them from as many different angles as you can. Fifty to 100 pictures should be sufficient. Upload the photos to Photosynth and the service will “stitch” the pictures together, creating a panoramic view you can navigate using a browser.

Photosynth provides an interesting new way to deliver visual information to a client or underwriter—and it’s currently free.