Photography

I told you about the mobile photo sharing site SnapMyLife back in March. Now, jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, they have introduced Snap2Twitter, a free Twitter application for BlackBerry or iPhone users that lets you take a photo (or use a picture already on your phone), add text, tweet it and save the photo on the SnapMyLife site.

And hey…Michael Papajohn, who co-stars in Terminator Salvation, Land of the Lost and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen uses Snap2Twitter to tweet behind-the-scenes pictures of his movie premieres, on-location shoots and more, so it is certainly worth checking out...and remember, it's free!

For more information and to download the free Snap2Twitter app, visit www.blackberry.com/appworld from your BlackBerry smartphone or www.apple.com/iphone/appstore from your iPhone.

The Samsung Pixon12 (M8910) features a 12Mpix censor, AF, XEON Flash, a 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen with 720x480 resolution, 150MB of internal memory, microSD slot, GSM/GRPS/EDGE, HSPA, GPS, FM radio with RDS and can record video at 30fps.

Also, the Pixon12 will be able to take pictures quickly at 2 second intervals and will be equipped with a 28mm wide angle lens so that you can capture full scenes at a larger perspective. The phone's equipped WiFi and HSPA will allow it to quickly upload photos to social networking sites like, Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, MySpace, Photobucket and Friendster.

Expect this amazing phone to launch this June in Europe with a more global launch this August. As of now, Samsung has not mentioned a price.

Get the full press release here.

The new JVC Xiview LT-42WX70 is a 42-inch, 120Hz, 1080p LCD TV monitor that targets digital imaging professionals and enthusiasts using high-end digital SLR cameras, allowing them for the first time to see the subtle colors, details and textures of their images faithfully reproduced.

The available color modes (depending on the source's signal) are:

• Wide (the TV's color space)
• Normal (ITU-R BT.709; HDTV standards)
• x.v.Color (xvYCC extended gamut)
• sRGB (same primaries as HDTV)
• Adobe RGB and sRGB (Adobe RGB color spaces are exclusive for viewing digital still images.)

Also, JVC uses its new high-quality GENESSA Picture Engine with 12-bit (x RGB = 36-bit) for truly accurate and natural colors. The 120HzClear Motion Drive III (100Hz for PAL video signals) in the engine reduces blurring on LCD TVs, helping to make images with rapid movement clearer and smoother using a high-precision interpolation algorithm.

The JVC LT-42WX70 is available now for $2,399.95. Grab the full press release here.

Panasonic is launching new, Class 10 rated, SDHC cards next month in the UK; we should see these cards in the U.S. shortly after that. These cards will be offered in 4, 8, 16 and 32GBs and should have a maximum speed of 22MB/sec. These SDHC cards, dubbed as the Panasonic Gold Series, will be the first ones in the world to achieve a Class 10 rating. The Gold series will allow users to record HD video with the DSLR cameras much more easily, due to the higher transfer rates the cards offer.

Panasonic is also releasing a Silver series with a Class 4 speed specification and maximum speed of up to 20MB/s. Currently, there is no information on a price for any of these cards. Get the full press release here.

The Epson Artisan 50 is an affordable (MSRP $99.99), high-performance single function ink jet printer. It helps enable users to produce Ultra Hi-Definition photos with excellent depth and clarity. Simple documents can be printed at speeds up to 38ppm in color, while the Artisan 50 can print laser-quality pages at 5ppm (black) and 4.8ppm (color).

Epson offers you the ability to be more eco-friendly by saving up to 50% of your paper with two-sided printing, is Energy Star qualified and RoHS compliant. The Artisan 50 is excellent for photos, too. It comes equipped with Auto Photo Correction and red-eye removal. Also, Epson has equipped the Artisan 50 with MicroPiezo technology, which gives your images superior quality without hindering your printing speed.

Expect to see the Artisan 50 at major retailers this June for an expected MSRP of $99.99.

A new 14.6 megapixel CMOS sensor has been rebuilt from the ground up to minimize noise and adds a four channel output for fast image capturing and the ability to record HD quality movies.

The magnesium alloy encased K-7 will capture video at 1280x720 resolution with a 16:9 aspect ratio (720p), 1536x1024 resolution with a 3:2 aspect ratio or 640x416 resolution with a 3:2 aspect ratio (VGA quality). All of these will be shot at 30fps.Read more

The Panasonic HDC-SD10 and HDC-TM10 will feature a 16x optical zoom, touch screen control, iA with AF tracking and Advanced O.I.S (Optical Image Stabilizer). As far as storage goes, the SD10 will record only to a SD/SDHC Memory Card, while the TM10 offers 8GB built in memory and support for a SD/SDHC Memory Card.

Panasonic has added an excellent new feature to these camcorders, too. The "Pre-Rec" function records three seconds of images into an internal memory buffer. Then, when the Record button is pressed, the three seconds prior are added at the beginning of the clip being recorded. This is excellent if you're at a sports game and just miss a big play.

Currently, these new camcorders are slated for a June release in the UK at 529.99 Euro / US$721 / 69,348 Yen and 499.99 Euro / US$680 / 65,423 Yen. But expect to see a global launch soon after that.

For information on compatibility with external image and video viewers, click here.

[Panasonic UK]

Olympus' new Stylus TOUGH digital cameras are shockproof, waterproof, freezeproof, crushproof and shakeproof and come in two models – the StylusTOUGH-8000 and Stylus TOUGH-6000.

The Stylus TOUGH-8000 features 12-million pixels and can survive a 6.6-foot drop, go 33 feet underwater, withstand 220 pounds of pressure, and handle freezing temperatures. And, the Stylus TOUGH-8000 is the first Olympus Stylus camera to offer internal charging.

The 10-megapixel Stylus TOUGH-6000 is made for everyday adventures – especially those with kids. To prove so, Olympus recently took their Stylus TOUGH cameras to a daycare center to let the kids try them out. Watch the video below to see how durable these cameras are!

Garmin just announced two new touchscreen handheld GPS devices – the Oregon 550 and Oregon 550t. These are not your average GPS units. Weighing only 6.8 ounces, they are waterproof, feature a 3-axis compass and include a built-in 3.2 megapixel autofocus digital camera that automatically geotags images.

Along with automatically geotagging each photo with the location of where it was taken, the digital camera in the Oregon 550 features a 4x digital zoom and allows you to take and view pictures in landscape or portrait mode. It also includes 850 MB of internal memory. Need even more memory? The 550 has a microSD card slot for more storage of photos and mapping. Your pictures can also be stored and shared online. Simply connect the device via USB, go to my.Garmin.com, then upload and store the photos on Picasa for all your friends to see. Read more