Did you spend hundreds of dollars on a GoPro camera only a couple of years ago, only to see better (and sometimes less-expensive) miniature action cameras hit the market? For folks looking at their expensive, outdated GoPro and having regrets, the company is launching a trade-in program. [More]
cameras
Nikon Killing 4K Compact Camera Line That Never Launched
By 2.13.17
Some things just aren’t meant to be: A year after Nikon announced the imminent launch of a new line of 4K compact cameras, the company has scrapped the DL series of devices and is looking into restructuring plans after a year of sinking sales. [More]
Samsung “Smart” Camera Is Ridiculously Hackable
By 1.18.17
A security camera in your house, that you can access remotely, might seem like a good idea at first. You can log into it from anywhere, to see what’s going on and if it really was the cat who opened your kitchen cabinets every day last week. But the problem with a thing you can access remotely is that a sufficiently determined bad actor can, too. And sometimes it doesn’t even take much determination to do. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Unearth $150 Camera From 2006, Ancient Overpriced Hard Drive
By 1.13.17
The Raiders of the Lost Walmart are the brave band of retail archaeologists who comb through the electronics sections of big-box stores to find gadgets that are obsolete or just plain old, and also comically overpriced. In this week’s field reports: an external hard drive and a digital camera that are over a decade old, yet priced as if they’re new. [More]
Nest Adds An Outside Security Camera To Its Lineup
By 7.14.16
Generally, delivery people and other visitors to our homes seem to operate under the assumption that regular citizens do not have security cameras. As systems become smaller and cheaper, this turns out to be a bad assumption. Now Alphabet-owned connected-home company Nest has announced that its popular cameras now have an outdoor sibling. [More]
Smithsonian Museums Ban Use Of Selfie Sticks, Still Encourage Selfies
By 3.4.15
When documenting a trip to the nation’s capital, tourists might enjoy having a few photographs of themselves against the backdrops of the memorials and monuments that fill the city. But if you were thinking of using a selfie stick to get just the right angle while posing in front of the Hope Diamond at the Natural History Museum, you might want to think again. [More]
Can Camera Companies Stay Relevant In A World Where Smartphones Rule? They’re Certainly Trying
By 1.7.15
Companies with long histories in the photography industry are scrambling to stay relevant in a day and age when nearly every smartphone comes equipped with a high-resolution camera, making it incredibly convenient and easy for consumers to snap away in just about every occasion. The fight for relevancy has never been more evident than during the showcases presented at the 2015 CES, where companies like Kodak, Canon and Nikon displayed a range of products designed to compete and capitalize on the convenience afforded by smartphones. [More]
Polaroid Tries To Take Back Photography, Sells Instagram Camera
By 12.4.14
The name of Instagram sort of derives from the name Instamatic, but the social media app’s logo evokes the Polaroid One Step, a useful and beautiful photography icon with a distinctive rainbow stripe. Now the reborn Polaroid company has created a device that’s a combination digital camera and mini-printer, which uses wi-fi or a nearby mobile phone to post pictures to social media. Mostly Instagram. [More]
Kids Trying An Old Camera React Predictably, Yet Adorably Confounded
By 11.10.14
In the newest installment of Kids React, where kids do what the title suggests and interact with technology of yore in a predictably adorable yet totally understandable way to outdated gadgets, we get to see what the children of today think of taking pictures with a camera that uses actual film… and ohmygosh, you can’t even see the photo after you take it! Oh, the humanity, life was so cruel then, etc. [More]
General Motors Reportedly Launching Cars That Detect Distracted Driving
By 9.2.14
For years, laws have been put into place to discourage distracted driving: no texting while driving, no talking on the phone while driving, the list goes on. General Motors is taking things a step further by commissioning a vehicle that detects and alerts drivers to their distracted behavior. [More]
A Single Camera Charger Shipped On A Pallet Looks Ridiculous
By 7.11.14
When a single charger box arrived at a camera store strapped to a wooden pallet, it caused one employee to take a video of the unboxing, then post it to Reddit with the question: “How is DHL still in business?” Yet this international edition of the Stupid Shipping Gang isn’t DHL’s fault. It’s how such items have to be shipped across borders. [More]
Samsung: “Limited Number” Of Galaxy S5 Phones Have Faulty Cameras
By 4.25.14
If you just bought a Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and are upset to find you can’t take photos with the darn thing? You’re not alone — Samsung says a “limited number” of the phones have a fatal flaw that renders the 16-megapixel camera useless. [More]
Dell Ends Weird Gift Guide Pricing Game, Lowers Camera Price $100
By 11.20.13
It’s the strangest thing: remember our post yesterday about Dell’s gift guide catalog and the camera prices that didn’t line up? Dell still hasn’t called us back or anything, but all of a sudden the price on that Nikon camera described in the post is down $100, in line with the catalog price. What a weird coincidence! [More]
The New Nokia Lumia May Have A 41-Megapixel Camera, But That Doesn’t Mean It’s The Best
July 25, 2013
A lot has been made about the 41-megapixel camera inside the Nokia Lumia 1020, but our tech-head twins at Consumer Reports say that you shouldn’t be swayed by the impressive number of megapixels, and that the camera is good but still outperformed by the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S4. [Consumer Reports] [More]
Nikon Fixes One Problem With My Camera, May Have Caused Another
By 10.16.12
Nikon says that Max’s camera has “evidence of physical damage.” That’s all very well and good, but the shutter problems caused by the alleged damage happened sometime between when the camera’s flash issues were repaired at Nikon and Max took it out of the box when it came back. He pressed the shutter to take a picture, and it jammed. It wasn’t jammed before he sent it in. Nikon wants a fee to repair this damage, which would be no problem for Max if he had actually caused it. He says he didn’t. [More]
T-Mobile MyTouch Advertises An Extra Megapixel That Isn't Really There
By 8.21.12
T-Mobile’s MyTouch and MyTouch Q are nice little baby smartphones. Sure, they don’t have all of the features of their fancier cousins, and they run a relatively ancient version of the Android operating system, but they’re relatively cheap ($50) with a new contract and have enough features to entertain most people. They have a dirty secret, though. T-Mobile boasts that these phones have a 5-megapixel camera. They don’t. Even if they technically do. [More]
Another Customer Sues Starbucks Over Bathroom Cam
By 9.22.11
After his 5-year-old daughter spotted a hidden camera in a D.C. Starbucks bathroom, a man is suing the company and asking for $1 million in damages on four counts, including breach of privacy. [More]
Understanding What All Those Weird Manual Settings On Your Camera Do
By 6.27.11
Photography newbies, as well as those who have used cameras for years but prefer to point and shoot obliviously, tend to be confounded by their devices’ settings. The fear of activating or deactivating a function and ruining your ability to snap pictures of your cat can be quite daunting. [More]
