Digital cameras keep their focus

While most attention in the gadget world is on the breakneck pace of innovation in mobile phones, tablets and computers, another device has refused to die: the camera.Despite the onslaught of camera phones — the iPhone 4 has this year become the most popular device for posting snapshots to the photo-sharing website Flickr — cameras are still being sold.Japan, the world's largest manufacturer, shipped nearly three times as many cameras in January as it did in the same month of 2003, when the camera phone was still in its infancy.

"For several years, it has been predicted that smartphone adoption would cut into digital camera sales," said Prashant Malaviya, a marketing professor at Georgetown University. "In fact, the exact opposite has happened."Driving this is a number of factors, analysts and enthusiasts say. And, while most point to roles for cameras for both professional and personal users, the device's future is far from assured.First, photography is personal. People may be happy taking pictures with our cellphone or simple point-and-shoot camera, but it turns out that most won't entrust key memories to such basic devices.

Surveys by NPD In-Stat in November show that while more than a quarter of all American photos were taken by a smartphone, more people were buying cameras with detachable lenses or cameras with optical zooms of 10 times or more.This, says NPD In-Stat senior digital imaging analyst Liz Cutting, is because those people taking important family photos don't want to trust them to a device that isn't up to the task."Camera photography is certainly not dead," Cutting said. "We're just seeing a skewing toward what the smartphone can't deliver. People are recognizing that and are going for a higher-end camera."

New York State to begin installing security cameras in vehicles used to transport people with developmental disabilities

In a bid to cut down on cases of abuse, the state on Monday will begin monitoring security cameras in public vehicles used to transport people with developmental disabilities, the Daily News has learned.The cameras, along with Global Positioning Systems, will be installed Monday in state buses, vans and cars used to transport the developmentally disabled in the Albany area. The reform is part of a pilot project that officials hope to expand statewide within a month.Digital Camera Tip: What is ISO?

Courtney Burke, commissioner of the state Office of People With Developmental Disabilities, said in a statement the program will make the system safer while individuals are being transported.And she said it will also help resolve complaints, preserve evidence in cases of abuse and even help clear workers who are falsely accused of abuse.Burke’s agency and others like it that provide services to vulnerable populations have been hit hard recently by reports of abuse and coverups of wrongdoing.

There are no plans at this point to expand the security camera program to group homes run by the state and private companies.Travis Proulx, a spokesman for the Office of People With Developmental Disabilities, said the federal government has “very strict restrictions on use of cameras in homes, because that would essentially remove the privacy people are legally entitled to inside their homes.”He is pushing for passage of legislation that would require cameras to be installed in common areas of all group homes for the developmentally disabled, as well as in public and private transport buses, cars and vans.

Digital Camera Tip: What is ISO?

It used to be that you had to change your film roll to adjust your camera's sensitivity to light. Now it's just a setting that you can adjust from the menu called ISO. It's a numeric scale, so if you set your camera to ISO 400 it is twice as sensitive to light as when it's set to 200. Depending on the type of photograph you're trying to take, the ISO you'll want to use can vary greatly.Even though the sensitivity exhibited at a certain ISO is standardized—ISO 100 is the same no matter what camera you are using—the performance is not. Generally speaking, image sensors with lower pixel density are capable of producing photos with less image noise at a wider range of ISO settings than those that are crammed with pixels.

The first thing you have to understand is that ISO is only one third of the equation when it comes to taking a properly exposed photograph. The other two variables—aperture and shutter speed—work in conjunction with your camera's light sensitivity in order to capture a photo that is the proper brightness. Let's just say, to keep things simple, that the aperture—how much light the lens captures—is fixed. Boosting the ISO lets you shorten the amount time it takes the shutter to open and close, making it possible to freeze motion. Conversely, there are some instances when you may want to lower the ISO and use a longer shutter speed—landscape photographers sometimes use this technique to smooth the appearance of a river or waterfall.

Pixel density is pretty easy to figure out. A typical point-and-shoot camera has an image sensor that is 4.6 by 6.2 millimeters in size—that's really, really small. A typical APS-C D-SLR has a sensor that is 18 by 24 millimeters. If both cameras have the same resolution, like the 16-megapixel Sony Alpha NEX-C3 and the inexpensive Canon PowerShot A2400 IS, the pixel density of the camera with the physically larger image sensor is much lower, giving it an innate edge at higher ISOs.

Canon Cinema EOS-1D C 4K camera hands-on

It's been but half a year since Canon first entered the motion picture market, and the company is already back with its second and third professional video rigs. The Cinema EOS-1D C marks the most drastic departure from the C300,Speed camera plan advances which launched last November at an elaborate Hollywood event at Paramount Studios. It was at this spectacle that we were first introduced to the 1D C, which was then but a glass-protected prototype.

Now, far sooner than expected, the (relatively) compact camera is making its return to the spotlight, in more polished form. Like the 1D series bodies that bear similar monikers and appearances, including the yet-to-ship EOS- 1D X, the C model is a very capable still shooter, offering the same core functionality of the $6,800 X. It also brings 4K capture to the table, however, prompting Canon to price the camera far above its less-abled counterpart. At $15,000, we don't expect to see red C logos popping up in many a photojournalist's gear bag, but for deep-pocketed professionals with a need to capture 4K clips, this may be a worthwhile acquisition.

We took a closer look at the 1D C at Canon's pre-NAB event in Las Vegas. As the pictures and spec sheet imply, it's the 1D X's clone in nearly every way. In fact, beyond the headphone jack and C logo, there's not much distinguishing the pair externally. You'll need to hop into the menu before you'll really notice a difference, in the form of several unique 4K shooting modes, including 8-bit 4:2:2 24fps captures to a CF card or 8-bit 4:2:2 clips in an uncompressed format over HDMI. Otherwise, the C looks and feels just like the X -- a model pro snapper that we've already managed to fondle on three continents under Canon's watchful eye, but still has yet to ship.

Speed camera plan advances

Mayor Rahm Emanuel made a slight tweak to his controversial speed-camera ticketing plan Wednesday, unveiling a version with a lower fine just before a City Council committee considered the measure and recommended approval.A ticket for driving six to 10 mph over the limit in a speed camera zone was reduced from $50 to $35. The fine for going 11 mph or more over the limit will stay at $100.It was Emanuel's second concession to opponents on one of his signature initiatives in as many days. On Tuesday, Emanuel said he would support a seven-hour day for students in the city's public elementary schools, a step back from the 71/2-hour day he has been pushing since last fall. The change came after parents groups said 71/2 hours is too long for young children to be in school, and after threats of a strike by the Chicago Teachers Union.

The mayor already had made changes to the camera plan as he tries to build support among aldermen leery of voting for a package that many of their constituents view as a cash grab by the city. Emanuel previously cut back the hours the city could operate cameras near schools and parks to fewer hours than allowed by the state law, which he pushed through the Capitol last fall.Wednesday's council committee vote was applauded by the Traffic Safety Coalition, a group pushing for the speed cameras that is run by close Emanuel political ally Greg Goldner and funded by Redflex Traffic Systems, the city's red-light camera vendor. "The City Council vote today will help address speeding in Chicago, a problem that causes concern across the country," a news release states.

The mayor's administration made other tweaks to the camera plan Wednesday, hoping the full council passes the plan next week.Aldermen will be notified where the cameras will go in their wards but won't be able to block them. Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein said there will "always be a back-and-forth, a respectful dialogue" with aldermen about the location of the cameras. But when pressed by Ald. Thomas Tunney, 44th, Klein acknowledged aldermen will not be able to stop the city from installing cameras in particular spots.

Camera phone shootout HTC Titan II versus Nokia Lumia 900

The $199.99 HTC Titan II (Nokia N8 vs HTC One X) is the first smartphone sold by a U.S. carrier to boast an ultrasharp 16-megapixel image sensor. It also has a host of scene modes and granular manual settings that offer plenty of fine-tuned control.That said, the less-expensive $99.99 Nokia Lumia 900 (AT&T) is no camera slouch, either. It packs a respectable 8-megapixel sensor plus fancy Carl Zeiss optics. But can the Lumia best a phone that costs $100 more at its own camera game?

To get an answer, we put both the HTC Titan II and the Nokia Lumia 900 through a series of photo tests that we typically use for more-capable point-and-shoot standalone cameras. The results were quite surprising. First let me say that both handsets delivered images rivaling dedicated devices. Of course, real cameras will always perform rings around camera phones, at least for now. Still, the gap between the two product categories has never been this narrow.

During testing, Josh Goldman, CNET's resident point-and-shoot camera expert, and I used both phones to snap pictures of a challenging indoor still-life scene at various ISO settings. We also took the action outdoors on a particularly lovely spring day to challenge the HTC Titan II and Nokia Lumia 900 under real-world conditions. Ultimately we confirmed that while both smartphones have fast shot-to-shot speeds of less than a second, the HTC Titan II felt much more nimble -- especially with burst mode enabled. Additionally, the Titan II's HDR function powered by a backlit sensor produced much more detail in dark areas.

Nokia N8 vs HTC One X

Another week, another challenger to the Nokia N8's camera crown. This time the HTC One X, a fast, large screened Android 4 smartphone with next-gen camera hardware, including dedicated image processor, F2.0 aperture and variable intensity flash. It's very fast at taking rapid fire photos and has the nice trick of being able to shoot photos and video concurrently, but what I was interested in, as always, was whether the photos it took were any good! Using six varied test cases, I too a closer look....

For a full review of the HTC One X, you'll have to be patient for another week and wait for Phones Show 166. It'll be a cracker, since the HTC One X is really generally a fabulous smartphone - the processor's quad core and the display is unbelievable. However, this is a camera comparison and the device produces photos which aren't as detailed or as pleasing as those from the 2010 Nokia N8 - the much larger sensor, the Carl Zeiss optics and the Xenon flash all add up to images which still rule the (camera) phone world in April 2012.And it's worth remembering that the N8 itself produces images which, arguably, pale compared to its own successor, the 808 PureView, coming in a couple of months. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I took the N8 and the One X and tried a number of test shots in various conditions. People have asked why I keep comparing modern camera phones to the N8 - it's not that I see them as direct competitors in terms of overall aims and functionality. But one has to have a benchmark, something to measure everything else against. As the best (and something I always have to hand), the N8 camera is this benchmark, at least when comparing phone camera functions. So, for example, phone A's camera gets 'close' to the N8, while phone B's unit is miles away. You get the idea.