Last week, RepRap finished printing out an entire DSLR Canon 5D camera. It includes the body and a permanently attached zoom lens. As you would expect, the camera doesn’t work. This is more like a proof of concept. The guys at RepRap are proving that advanced shapes can be printed via a cheap 3D printer like the RepRap. Here’s a video that shows more detail:

Speaking to the Fabbaloo blog, RepRapCentral says that the future will one day allow the printing of optics and dials. Combine this with 3D printable electronics, and you have a fully-functional 3D printed camera on your hands. It’s still a ways out there, but the future is always one day closer.

I can almost guarantee that advancements in 3D printable electronics will be met with the utmost resistance. The camera industry is already facing hard times, and giving people the ability to make their own cameras would hurt them even more. It’s doesn’t have to stop at cameras either. 3D printers may one day threaten the very supply and demand model that our current economy is built upon.

You can make your own Canon 5D camera right now with this handy 3D model from Thingiverse. Once again, it won’t be a working camera, but it’s still cool to see how 3D printers have come so far in creating complex shapes.

The iPhone 5 is also much thinner and lighter – coming in at 7.6mm thick and 112 grams. That’s 18% thinner and 20% lighter than the iPhone 4S.

And to Apple fans’ delight, the camera has also received some improvements.

The 8 megapixel camera now features backside illumination, a hybrid IR filter, a five-element lens, and f/2.4 aperture. More features include spatial noise reduction, a dynamic low-light mode, and faster photo capture.

“The ocean looks bluer, kids look happier, and the world is a more beautiful place,” said Apple Marketing VP Phil Schiller.

Apple also unveiled Panorama mode, which allows users to take large horizontal panoramic images with their camera. According to Schiller, these wide images can clock in at up to 28 megapixels (and maybe more).

Video has also received an upgrade. The FaceTime camera is now HD (720p), and the rear camera offers 1080p HD with improved video stabilization.

You can now take still photos while recording video as well.

More details on the device are emerging. You can check out more features of the iPhone 5 here and full Apple event coverage here.

[image via The Verge]

An anonymous source speaking to GSMArena revealed Samsung’s intentions to reveal a camera based on the Galaxy S III this week at IFA. The rumored camera would be a 16MP point-and-shoot and feature Android 4.0. It will also sport a 10x zoom.

The tipster described the phone as being a “Galaxy S III glued to the back of a point-and-shoot.” It would feature no physical buttons on the back. As the artist rendering above illustrates, it would quite literally be like having a Galaxy S III attached to a traditional point-and-shoot.

It will also reportedly come in two flavors – Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi+3G. The latter is being shopped around to various carriers. It certainly would be strange to see Verizon or AT&T offering a 3G camera that didn’t have access to voice. Of course, 3G with Skype could solve that particular problem.

If this turns out to be true, Samsung will have surpassed Nikon’s admittedly weak first offering. The Coolpix S800c features only Android 2.3 and 3.5 inch OLED screen. If Samsung’s rumored camera is anything like the Galaxy SIII, it will feature a huge 4.8 inch AMOLED screen and a 1.5 GHz dual core processor.

Like with all rumors, it’s important to not get your hopes up. Thankfully, we’ll find out if Samsung really is making a wonder camera later this week as IFA kicks off on Friday in Germany. It’s already guaranteed that the company will be showing off the Galaxy Note II and the Galaxy Player 5.8 at the trade show.

[Image Credit]

Nikon announced three new cameras today – the Coolpix S6400, the Coolpix S800c, and the Coolpix S01. It’s the S800c that we want to pay special attention to. The camera is powered by Anroid 2.3 and features a 3.5-inch OLED screen for impressive photo detail.

Here’s the official feature sheet from Nikon:

Simple setup and connection
Setup and text input for Internet connection using operations that are similar to those used by Android smartphones is possible.

Browse and post to social networking sites (SNS)
The beautiful still photos and movies recorded with this digital camera, as well as comments, can be posted to social networking sites such as Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. Not only is posting to an SNS simple, but browsing them is also smooth and easy.

Support for Google Play and built-in Google apps
Users can customize their cameras by downloading favorite apps from Google Play. This will expand the ways in which users enjoy digital photography. A number of Google apps, including Google+, YouTube, Google Maps, and Gmail come preinstalled on the camera.

Simple image transfer to other smart devices
The camera’s Upload to Smart Device app can be used to transfer high-resolution photos and movies to smart devices running the Android or iOS operating system over a wireless connection.

The S800c will come equipped with a 10x optical zoom and built in vibration reduction. It’s also able to record full HD movies at 1920×1080 resolution. All in all, it’s a basic point-and-shoot camera that has the added bonus of being an Android phone without the phone. With Skype and free messaging services, there really isn’t a need for the phone part anyway.

Unfortunately, there is no release date or price set for the camera yet. It’s safe to say that the camera will be released by the end of the year. As for price, your guess is as good as mine.

Nikon Rumors got hold of a filing with the Indonesian Communication Agency that outs the existence of Android-based camera from Nikon. The model is called the Nikon Coolpix S800. It will be the first Android-based camera from Nikon and as such, it won’t sport the best the operating system has to offer just yet.

The rumors suggest that the camera will be running Android 2.3. That’s probably due to limitations of the hardware itself. That being said, it will run all the apps that are available in Google Play. So you can play a quick game of Angry Birds while you’re waiting for photography subjects to show up.

As for the actual hardware, the camera will reportedly sport a 25-250 mm lens and a 3.5 inch OLED screen. It will also have built-in GPS and Wi-Fi for all the Android apps that support those features. Nikon Rumors says that we can expect an announcement of the camera on August 22.

It’s suspected that Nikon is going to start small as a way of testing the market. Many people already have cameras on their Android phones, so it remains to be seen if demand will be high for an Android powered camera. If successful, we might start to see Android powered high-end cameras.

The lead image is of the CoolPix S8200, but we can expect the Android-powered version to look somewhat similar.

Three scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have discovered a way to see around corners and through walls with natural light. The technique is called scattered media and it’s kind of like the teleportation of light. As you may or may not know, what we see around us is actually light bouncing off of objects. Our eyes then process this light and create the images that we see.

Cameras work in much the same way. The only problem is that cameras, like our eyes, can’t see through objects that block light. If we look at a wall, we’re only seeing the light that is being reflected off the wall. We can’t see the light that’s behind the wall creating the images that exist there. The new camera from the Weizmann Institute of Science solves this problem.

Here’s how Xtreme Tech explains it:

The approach is surprisingly simple, and relies on a device called a spatial light modulator (SLM). Basically, when light bounces off an object, each part of that object changes the phase of light differently. An SLM is an array of pixels that can alter the phase of light passing through it, depending on the electrical current passing through each pixel. In this case, the scientists used a genetic optimization algorithm to modulate each pixel of the SLM until a sharp image is extracted from the white noise.

As you can see, it’s not exactly X-Ray Vision in the traditional sense. The technique is also still highly impractical from a usefulness standpoint. Regardless, it’s a step in the right direction. The technology can be used to better identify things within a body during surgery. It also doesn’t require doctors to shoot radioactive X-Rays through your skin. It’s a win-win for everybody.

If you wish to read the research on this new camera, check out the scientist’s research. It’s fascinating and provides a good look into how we might perceive light in the future.

A team of researchers at UCLA have created the “world’s fastest camera” that’s able to identify rare breast cancer cells in real-time. What makes it even better is its astounding fale-positive rate of only one in a million cells. The researchers say that being able to find rare cancer cells early can help them prevent the leading cause of cancer spreading throughout the body.

So, how does this camera work? Let Bahram Jalali, the Northrop Grumman Endowed Opto-Electronic Chair in Electrical Engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, can explain it much better than I can:

“To catch these elusive cells, the camera must be able to capture and digitally process millions of images continuously at a very high frame rate. Conventional CCD and CMOS cameras are not fast and sensitive enough. It takes time to read the data from the array of pixels, and they become less sensitive to light at high speed.”

The next logical question would be to ask how fast the camera actually is. The short answer – it’s really fast. The long answer – the camera was integrated with advanced microfluidics and real-time image processing that can screen 100,000 cells per second. It’s 100 times faster than the current standard blood analyzers.

The team is now testing the camera in collaboration with clinics. If proven successful, the camera will “reduce errors and and costs in medical diagnosis.” It also has the potential to be useful for “urine analysis, water quality monitoring and related applications.”

Can we start adding super fast cameras to inventions that are amazing? Sure, it’s no 3D printer yet, but these super fast cameras are definitely helping in the field of medicine and general technology. The future is upon us, folks, and it looks bright.

[Lead image: UCLA]

Now Trygger, a company currently running a campaign on Kickstarter to fund their project, is offering a new iPhone case that features a built-in polarizing filter, that slides over the camera when needed. The case is similar in form to an Otterbox, and fits tightly over the phone, as opposed to some other lens-enhancing cases for the device, which ad bulk. Below is the Kickstarter clip:

Polarizing lens filters work to cut glare and unwanted reflections, thus capturing photos in a more natural light. Below is a before and after screenshot:

The Trygger case comes in various colors, and retails for $49.95. Those who support the project in Kickstarter can get an early-bird special for $35.

First discovered by Patently Apple, new patent application deals with technology that would allow the camera of an iOS device to recognize a wide variety of patterns including faces, phone numbers, URLs, and much more.

The potential applications of this technology are widespread. The example in the application’s drawings depicts a poster for a movie based on a book. The pattern detection tech in the camera would allow the user to scan faces on the poster to bring up more information about the author, scan URLs to open or bookmark web pages, scan the ISBN of the book on which the movie is based for more information or the option to purchase the book from an online merchant.

This being a patent application, there’s no hint as to when, if ever, we might see it in an actual iPhone. Even so, this is the kind of thing that Apple loves to introduce as a way of upping the ante in its rivalry with other smartphone makers. So while we probably won’t see this sort of thing in the next iPhone, we may expect to see it in iPhones a year or two down the road.

The Powerflex 800 also features facial recognition and 22 pre-programmed shooting modes – included a macro mode that accommodates shooting as close as 1 cm to 30 cm, as well as a night shooting mode that captures images in low light, without having to use a flash.

The Powerflex 800 comes in black, red or silver, and will be available in April, retailing for $316. Accessories include a matching nylon bag, wrist strap and a 4 MB SDHC card.

Rollei was the maker of the legendary twin-lens Rolleiflex, first manufactured in 1928 – which might have had some inadvertent influence on the original Bolex 16mm cameras, which has recently lead to the reimagining of that camera, the new Digital Bolex.