Cool new stuff for the new year
Kodak Porta 400NC and 400VC updated.... again
Just when we thought that Kodak was out of ways to improve films, they got even finer grain out of the 400NC and 400VC films.
Instead of having "FINER GRAIN" on the box, it'll have "EVEN FINER GRAIN".
Kodak has posted a FAQ on the reformulated film.
So, good news after the bad news.
Casio EXILM EX-F1
One of the under-utilized advantages of not using an SLR style design is that you don't need to flip a mirror up and cycle a shutter for every shot. It's an advantage that could make for a neat camera, but mostly we get cameras with crappy lag times and low burst-shooting speeds instead.
Casio has no SLR market to kill, so they made one of the only P&S cameras that have impressed me in the past 12 months or so. It doesn't have too many megapixels (6 megapixels on a 1/1.8 sensor) but it does have the ability to shoot video at upwards of 1200 frames per second or full resolution at 60 frames per second. Plus it can pre-record, so it'll continuously buffer the last 60 frames. They even give it a rapid-fire flash.
This is really cool, more as a hybrid between still photography and video photography, all in a compact digital package. It can shoot normal pictures, HD video, and high speed. So it's a point and shoot that actually tries to push the limits of what you can do with a point and shoot, instead of just a lame "me too" product that doesn't have any really good features other than megapixels that you probably won't be able to see any advantage from and the lens probably cannot resolve.
The high speed video modes are probably mostly a fun feature to play with that you won't use routinely. The 60 frames per second burst mode I can see being useful for average folks who don't want to develop mad sports-shooter skills.
