CameraTrace Traces Stolen Cameras

CameraTrace might help you trace your camera CameraTrace is a service that will help you track down your stolen or lost camera. It does this by scanning popular photo-sharing sites like Flickr and extracting camera serial numbers from the EXIF metadata contained in the photos. Then, when your camera goes missing, you use CameraTrace to track down any photos taken with it. If these images also have GPS coordinates embedded in them, you're golden. If not, you'll need to do a little detective work to track things down. Despite just launching publicly, CameraTrace has already had some success through its test and data-gathering stages. One photographer apparently recovered $9,000 worth of gear. The service costs $10 per camera to register, and the price includes a bar-coded security tag to stick on the camera itself. There is an option to try a “free trace,” but I had no luck with any of my cameras (one isn't supported, apparently, but the other one certainly is). After it didn't find anything, the tool offered me the option of signing up to better, future results. This feels sneaky to me: if the service has a database of all Flickr photo serial numbers, why wouldn't mine show up? And ironically, the easiest way for me to extract the serial number from my photos to test CameraTrace was to drag-and-drop a picture into the site of a rival service, Stolen Camera Finder, which does the same kind of thing only in a much friendlier way. Still, if it helps to get your camera back, $10 is a small price to pay. CameraTrace product page [CameraTrace]

Sony Cybershot W610, W630 on Sony China's website

If you're in the market for a new compact camera, as luck would have it, Sony China has published two new compact cameras on its website. These cameras are the W610 and the W630, both of which are expected to be the successors to the W510 and W570 respectively. According to the specifications, the W630 will sport a 16.1MP image sensor. It will also feature a lens at 25mm (at its widest) with 5x zoom, a 2.7" display, sweep panorama functionality and will also come with the ability to record 720p HD videos. The W610 on the other hand features smaller a 14.1MP image sensor with 4x zoom, a lens that is 26mm at its widest, a 2.7" display and will also feature a sweep panorama function. Based on the pricing, the Sony Cybershot W630 is expected to retail for 1,299 Yuan (~$206), while the Sony Cybershot W610 is going for 1,049 Yuan (~$167).

Sharp Launches World's Smallest Image-Stabilized Cellphone Camera

Sharp's small, stable smartphone sensor

12 Megapixels in a smartphone camera? That sounds like a bad idea. But an image-stabilized sensor in a smartphone camera? That sounds ideal.

Those previous sentences describe Sharp's new super-thin 1x3.2-inch CMOS sensor which, at 0.31-inches on the diagonal, is the same size as that found in the iPhone 4. The stabilization works by shifting the lens, and will allow sharp shots in much lower light than a regular camera unit.

The 5.47 mm thick unit (the world's smallest for a stabilized module says Sharp) uses a backlit (circuitry behind the photo-sites) design, shoots 1080p video, outputs RAW files and has a maximum aperture of ƒ2.5. In short, it sounds like exactly the kind of camera you want in a cellphone.

All except the 12.1MP, that is. Squeezing that many pixels onto such a tiny chip can cause noise, but more importantly in a cellphone, you have to save big 12MP images onto a device with limited storage.

Still, that probably won't stop any manufacturers one-upping each other with these big numbers. The RJ63YC100, as it is named, can be had in sample form right now for ¥12,000, or around $155.

Sharp to Introduce Industry's Thinnest CMOS Camera Module with Optical Image Stabilization for Smartphones [Sharp via FarEast Gizmos and Andrew Liszewski]

Manfrotto 732CY M-Y Carbon Fiber Tripod

The Manfrotto 732CY M-Y carbon fiber tripod is now available for $119.95. The tripod can hold up to 7.71 lb (3.5 kg). Weighs only 0.95 kg, the Manfrotto 732CY M-Y is perfect for photographers who need a lightweight and simple tripod. It comes without a built-in head, so you can choose exactly the head you need based on your camera equipment. [Product Page]

Lovefilm replaces Flash with Silverlight for streaming

With the demise of Flash on mobile platforms as well as for the Smart TV in your living room, it goes without saying that companies which rely on Flash to stream or deliver their data to the masses will need to check out another alternative. Well, Lovefilm has decided that they will no longer use Flash from next year onwards to stream their movies over for your viewing pleasure, but has decided to stick to Microsoft's Silverlight instead. The reason behind this is because movie studios are asking them to do so.

According to Lovefilm, “We've been asked to make this change by the Studios who provide us with the films in the first place, because they're insisting - understandably - that we use robust security to protect their films from piracy, and they see the Silverlight software as more secure than Flash.”

This might just result in quality improvement for Lovefilm's streams, since Silverlight holds a technology known as Smooth Streaming that will automatically adjust the quality of the video stream to the best level, depending on the quality of your Internet connection. This means that buffering is reduced in the long run for those on a low broadband speed.

DSLR ban for UK tube station

Now this is a rather interesting bit of news – it seems that DSLRs are now banned from being used at a particular UK tube station, which would be the Aldwych tube station. This is an abandoned London Underground station which recently opened up for tours, where DSLRs were banned because of "their combination of high quality sensor and high resolution, digital SLR cameras are unfortunately not permitted inside the station”. Of course, smaller sized digital cameras are allowed to “participate”.

Perhaps there is some reason for this, where some other historical sites really do not allow the use of flash photography, while professional videographers and photographers will need to apply for licenses for off-hours shoots as well. I wonder whether the clever use of a Micro Four Thirds camera will be able to circumvent this ban, as they are certainly not large enough in size to be deemed as a DSLR, and yet are similar in some aspects to image quality captured.