Watch out for Panasonic's release of the very first 3CCD DVD movie camera, VDR-D400. The 3CCD feature of the camera enables it to capture image data by assigning one color to each chip, resulting in more accurate color information as compared to one CCD cams currently available.

The new Panasonic VDR-D400 boasts of 800,000 pixel with its 20x Leica optical zoom. It also has 2.7 inches LCD, which displays crisp and clear pictures, a joystick control for easier navigation and a 16:9 widescreen recording capability. Other features of this new hot gadget is the SD/Sdhc card slot, O.I.S, built-in LED color enhancement light, a video editing software, Hi-speed USB 2, and MPEG-2 recording in XP/SP/LP modes.

The slick design and the eye-catching silver color of the new Panasonic VDR D400 makes it the perfect gadget to show off to your friends on your next vacation or reunion. It weighs 720g (including the batteries) and measures 70x149x90mm. It is poised to take over the market on 1st of September for a hefty price of ¥120,000 (about $1050). But hey, you wouldn't mind spending that much after you see the envious looks from your friends.

Fujifilm has came up with a new contraption being packaged as a digital camera that is blessed with advanced simplicity. Advance and simplicity may be contradictory to you but for some reason, Fujifilm might be able to pull it off. The FinePix S6000fd joins the growing family of FujiFilm Finepix.

The camera is blessed with 6.3MP with 6th generation Super CCD-HR Technology, 10.7x optical zoom with manual control, dual shot mode, movie recording with sound at 30 fps, 2.5 inch LCD, and 10MB internal memory.

If you think that the digicam is pretty simple to be an advanced contraption, well, the features do not end there. The S6000fd has a feature called the Face Detection Technology which is a new technology designed to significantly improve your picture taking by identifying human subjects' faces in the frame (up to 10 faces) and in real time, determining the optimal focus and exposure settings for the absolute best results possible in any shooting conditions.

Also, the digicam's picture stabilization technology is something to talk about. Perfect for taking pictures of moving objects. This easy to access feature (selectable on the mode dial) lets the FinePix S6000fd choose the correct light sensitivity and best-matching shutter speed automatically, for the highest quality digital pictures. It goes with well with its i-Flash Intelligent Flash. It recognizes scene conditions and determines the optimum flash output to ensure superb results.

If you ain't so sure if you want to use the cam's flash or not, then let the S6000fd decide for you with its dual shot mode. Dual shot mode will take two pictures with one press of the S6000fd's shutter button; one with flash to capture a bright, vivid image; and the other without flash, to capture the natural ambiance of the shot's environment.

It will be available this coming September, and the price tag will be divulged in the coming weeks.

VPC-E7	VPC-S7

At first glance you'd think that they are actually the same camera, and Sanyo got all confused themselves and released it with different names. Their similarities in design also transcend to the kind of features that they have. Both only have minor differences, that would be dependent on the buyer to deem them important or not.

The E7 offers a red-eye correction function while the S7 doesn't. It is also lighter than than the S7 by 34 grams, coming in at 132 grams compared to the 166 grams of the S7 with the battery. Aside from those very minute discrepancy, the two cameras offer a 7.1 Megapixel CCD, 3x Optical Zoom, 2.5 inch LCD monitor, VGA-Size (640x480) video clips and compatible with a 4GB SDHC Memory card.

If you're considering buying one of these cameras, think about the features you're looking for or what you're going to use it for. It might be better to have them side by side for better comparison. Both cameras will drop on September and is rumored to be priced at roughly around $353 USD.

Casio Europe have announced that they will be soon be releasing the Exilim Card EX-S600D. Based entirely on the Ex-S600, which came out last October, this model adds the functionality of video recorded in DivX format! Yes you heard, DivX. One of the most popular formats of video around, this compresses footage into a smaller size with lower loss of quality than rival formats.

Other main features it took from its predecessor include, DSP Anti shake technology, long battery life (average 300 still images), revive shot for bringing old pictures back to life again and also the Past movie, which records movies 5 seconds before the button is pressed. All these features are very ingenious.

Hardware wise it includes a 6.0 megapixel CCD 1/2.5 sensor capable of resolutions up to 2816 x 2112 pixels, 3x optical zoom, and a 84'950 pixel 2.2" display. Memory is in the form of SD/MMC cards, or the internal 8.3MB memory. Because of its weight and small form factor, its a very popular unit in sales, and prepare for its new features to increase those sales.

However, the only people taking advantage of this new release, will be those in Europe only.

  

Ifyou're in, say, an exclusive vacation spot or in a private party and you don't want to get your photos taken (most probably you're a celebrity or you're just afraid your parents might see what you've been up to), then you might just want to invest in this newly developed system that can block digital camera functions.

A prototype of this system has been completed and produced by a team at the Intelligent Computing division of Georgia Tech College of Computing. The materials used to build this device were things you could easily get your hands on: lighting equipment, camera-mounted sensors, a computer and a projector.

This device works by scanning a given area for the reflectivity and the shape of image-producing sensors commonly used in digital cameras. According to those in charge of the project, the camera-neutralizing technology could have commercial promise in these two major fields - protecting restricted areas from being photographed and stopping video copying in areas such as theaters.

At the moment, this technology only uses two cameras and visible light to search for CCDs. If it's going to be used in the future in business centers or government offices, then developers think that they will be replacing the said equipment with photo-detecting transistors and invisible infrared lasers to find contraband cameras.

This system works neither on film cameras (these don't have CCD sensors) nor on single-lens reflex cameras (because of their folding-mirror system).

The camera-neutralizing technology will be developed further and be made available soon.

Finally, a new CCD image sensor that breaks the 100-million pixel barrier has been created. This new image sensor was developed by the Semiconductor Technology Associates (STA) and manufactured by Dalsa Semiconductor in Quebec.

The CCD is a kind of image sensor typically used in digital cameras. This is a light-sensitive integrated circuit which stores and then displays image data after it converts each pixel into an electrical charge. This electrical charge is important as it's directly related to a certain color in the color spectrum.

This 4x4-inch charge-coupled device has a configuration of 10,560 x 10,560 pixels, making it the world's highest resolution image sensor.

The CCD image sensor was developed by STA for the U.S. Naval Observatory's Astrometry Department with funding from the Navy's Small Business Innovation Research program.