Monday, February 28, 2011

Nikon COOLPIX S3100 14 MP Digital Camera with 5x NIKKOR Wide-Angle Optical Zoom

Nikon COOLPIX S3100 14 MP Digital Camera with 5x NIKKOR Wide-Angle Optical Zoom Lens and 2.7-Inch LCD. Slip this ultra-slim, ultra-light COOLPIX S3100 camera into your pocket and you’ll never miss a memorable moment. At an incredibly slender 0.8 inches and just 4.2 ounces, it goes wherever the fun is—the beach, the mall, your best friend’s house. It comes in seven attractive colors—silver, black, red, yellow, purple, blue and pink. And you’ll love its One-Touch HD Movie function, which enables you to watch the action with family and friends.

The COOLPIX S3100 isn’t just the most stylish and convenient camera you’ll ever own, it’s also the smartest. Consider our Smart Portrait System, which includes amazing advantages like our Smile Timer that automatically releases the shutter when your subject smiles, and Face-Priority AF, our latest face-finding technology that detects and focuses on up to 12 faces. Blink Warning tells you when a subject may have blinked—and alerts you to re-take the photo.

Product Features

  • 14.0-megapixel CCD sensor for superb image quality
  • 5x Wide-Angle Optical Zoom-NIKKOR Glass Lens
  • 4-way VR Image Stabilization System
  • 2.7-inch (230,000-dot) display
  • EXPEED C2 for enhanced image quality and processing speed

Technical Details

  • Brand Name: Nikon
  • Model: S3100 Purple
  • Optical Sensor Resolution: 14 MP
  • Optical zoom: 5 x
  • Width: 2.3 inches
  • Height: 0.8 inches
  • Weight: 0.3 pounds
 

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Sony DSC-HX1 Digital Camera Review

World s first digital still camera with Sweep Panorama. With Exmor CMOS Sensor, powerful G lens and 20x Optical Zoom, achieve an imaging excellence that will change the way you shoot.
In photography, timing is everything. With the ultra-fast, 10-shots-per-second speed of the Cyber-shot DSC-HX1, its easy to capture a swinging bat just before it hits the ball. Remarkable Exmor CMOS technology even makes it easy to capture photos in low light while maintaining smooth color gradation and crisp detail.
Especially useful for beautiful landscape shots or shooting skyscrapers, the Sweep Panorama mode takes seamless 224-degree shots with breathtaking 9.1 megapixel resultsjust press the shutter and sweep in a horizontal or vertical direction. And don’t miss the 20x optical zoom or the Intelligent Auto mode that eliminates the guesswork by automatically adjusting camera settings for you. Got a shaky hand Optical SteadyShot image stabilization has you covered by reducing blur for sharp, lifelike images.


Sony DSC-HX1 Digital Camera Specifications/Price.

Price PKR Rs. 42400/-
















Mega Pixel
9.1
Optical Zoom
20x
Digital zoom
40x
LCD Size
3.0 Inch
Built In Memory
11 MB
Memory Type
DUO PRO
Battery Type
Rechargeable
LCD Resolution
230400 Pixels
Battery Life
390 Images
Dimension
114.5 x 82.8 x 91.8mm
Weight
453g

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Nikon Coolpix P7000 Review

The Coolpix P7000 joined its D3100 and D7000 big brothers in reaching market in the late third quarter of calendar year 2010. Nikon describes this latest high-performance Coolpix as “…. the perfect complement to an advanced photographer’s D-SLR, and it inspires the entry-level consumer to explore the boundaries of their photographic capabilities and fulfill their creative vision.




The Coolpix P7000 packs the hardware to complement a DSLR, notably a RAW shooting capability and zoom lens covering the 28 to 200mm focal range in 35mm equivalents, with a fast f/2.8 maximum aperture at the wide end of the lens. Here’s the view at each end of that zoom:

Wide Angle, 28mm
Telephoto, 200mm


It also carries a $500 MSRP that borders on entry-level DSLR territory, but that money buys you a laundry list of features: face detection and a shutter that can fire automatically when it detects a smile or warn you if someone blinks, 720 HD video with autofocus, zoom and stereo sound, a full mix of automatic and scene-specific shooting modes along with full manual controls, a built-in neutral density (ND) filter and electronic virtual horizon, and a fairly comprehensive in-camera image editing suite. The camera has a 100 to 3200 ISO native sensitivity range (expandable to 6400 manually and up to 12800 when shooting in Low Noise Night Mode) with its 1/1.7-inch CCD sensor, and the processing technology is Nikon’s latest EXPEED C2. There’s a built-in flash, hot shoe, optical viewfinder with diopter adjustment, 3.0-inch LCD monitor with high resolution and about 79MB of internal memory; the camera uses SD/SDHC/SDXC memory media and class 6 or better speed is recommended for video capture.

Nikon includes a Lithium-ion battery and charger, camera strap, AV and USB cables, quick start guide, user’s manual and CD-ROM software with each camera. Users should be aware that Nikon has issued a firmware update for the P7000 – our review sample had not been updated when it was received – that deals with issues related to image recording time with RAW captures, lens focus, zoom and monitor highlight loss with D-Lighting enabled. The update is available on Nikon’s website and is simple to install – it took only a few minutes to load it before beginning shooting for this review, so I have no baseline performance with which to judge the update’s impact on camera operations.

 

Thursday, February 10, 2011

CCTV Surveillance for Your Home

Many people think of  CCTV surveillance cameras as something that's reserved for big companies, for shops, and for high security areas such as maybe government buildings. However this need not be true, and in fact CCTV camera has many uses as well for the private home and many people can benefit from installing CCTV surveillance in their property.



The first reason you may want CCTV in your property is of course for security. Here, having CCTV surveillance allows you to keep an eye on your property and this way when someone approaches the house you will get advanced warning (for CCTV security positioned on the outside of the home that is). At the same time you can also have CCTV inside your property and this of course helps to protect your belongings while you're not there. This way, should someone break into your property, you can then aid the police by providing them with video evidence and this can help them to track down guilty parties and that will increase your chances of getting things back. If you have a home with any particularly valuable items then you can point your surveillance at those in order to protect them, and likewise if you work from home then you might want to place your CCTV within your personal office or study and this way you would be able to protect your documents and data too.

CCTV has more advantages though and can help keep you and your home safe in other ways. For instance the very fact that you have CCTV camera will for many people be seen as a strong deterrent and thus even if the cameras don't record anything, they may be enough on their own to prevent people from breaking into your property in the first place. Something else to consider if you live in a friendly neighbourhood is that CCTV can also pick up things that are going on outside of your property in the local area. As mentioned earlier, the fact that CCTV is focusing on an area can mean that it helps to prevent people from committing crimes in the first place, and this way you can help to keep your whole neighbourhood safe and happy and contribute to your local community.

You can take your CCTV further for your home and there are many additional functions etc that you can utilise to give it more benefits for your home environment. For instance you can purchase IP CCTV which means 'Internet Protocol'. This then means that you can transmit your footage wirelessly and makes your cameras perfect for remote surveillance. If you're the kind of person then who goes on holiday but spends the whole time worrying about their home, then this is for you and will allow you to check the safety of your property from anywhere with an internet connection (you can even check on your cats/plants). Likewise, if your CCTV is digital it can use a motion sensor or video analysis and be tied into your alarm so that it goes off only when it picks up potential intruders.

Getting CCTV surveillance cameras for your home is a wise move from a security and surveillance standpoint. Click the links for a security cameras for your property.

How To Decide Between A Night Vision Or Infrared Security Camera

When you are looking to set up a home security system or surveillance system for your business, one of the main decisions you’ll make is exactly what kind of cameras to make use of. We have all heard about ‘night vision’ cameras. It’s a common term that hides a lot of technology. Understanding the difference between the two major kinds of video security cameras can help you make the right choice once you finally decide to go with a particular system.


Day/Night Security Cameras:

A persons eye sees visible light. When we say it’s ‘dark’ outside, what we mean is the fact that there isn’t enough visible light for us to see. However, it’s rarely the case where there is actually no visible light whatsoever. At night there are numerous light sources that give off some light, it’s just usually too dim for us to use using the eye.

But there is natural light from the moon and stars and artificial light from street lamps, security lights and other sources. This light might be too dim for our eyes to use, however the CCD chips in a night vision video camera can be made to be extremely responsive to these types of visible light.

Day/Night security cameras (and many of your high end night vision devices which the military uses) contain this type of sensor that is sensitive to visible light.

There are some advantages to this. Because the camera needs only regular light, you are able to improve the cameras range and recording potential simply by adding additional normal lighting to areas you want to cover. And because of the camera’s sensitivity, a small amount goes a long way. Also, you will normally record a color picture right down to very low light levels until it is necessary for the camera to change to monochrome mode.

The main drawback to Day/Night cameras is the fact that high quality units also usually come at a higher price.

Infrared Security Cameras :

Infrared light can not be seen by the human eye. However detectors in infrared security cameras can use infrared light to show you what’s happening after dark. An infrared security systems uses light waves from this portion of the spectrum to provide you with an image.

Part of the infrared image is captured from the heat radiated by an object. So even in total darkness, such as a closed warehouse or garage, an image can nonetheless be recorded.

An advantage to infrared is that you need not have visible light to record a picture. There are many cases where you may not want security or other visible lighting in the area or in a building. By using an infrared camera, you are able to still monitor the area easily.

The main problem with using infrared cameras is they do not provide a color picture in low light situations. The image is converted in the infrared wavelengths to a visible picture shown in either black and white or the common black and green images most of us have seen.

Image Quality or Best Surveillance?

Making your decision for which type of business or home security camera to make use of comes down mainly to these two items. If you wish to use your system to record the very best image night or day and you don’t mind adding any necessary lighting to areas that might need it for quality coverage, then a Day/Night type camera system is the best way that you can go.

If, on the other hand, you don’t want to have visible lights on all night, or you want to monitor places that adding lighting will be a problem, then you definitely should think about using an infrared security camera wherever necessary.

The choice between the two types of outdoor security camera systems is much easier when you know how surveillance and security cameras work.

Motion Activated Recording

Conservation is the key term in reference to motion activated recording. In the following article, we’ll take a look at how digital video security and surveillance systems go about doing this and why conservation is a key term associated with this type of monitoring.


Digital video camera security systems can initiate motion activated recording in different ways. One of the most common ways to provide motion activated recording is to use a digital video camera with a built-in motion detector. Digital video security cameras equipped with motion detectors begin recording video when motion is detected and stop when motion is either no longer detected or after a designated (pre-programmed) time period.

The motion detector itself is called a PIR or Passive InfraRed sensor. This sensor constantly monitors the passive infrared signature of the camera’s field of vision. When a significant change in this infrared signature occurs (such as when a person, vehicle, or other object passes by) the PIR interprets this change in the infrared signature as motion.

The PIR sensor on motion activated recording cameras is electronically connected to a relay switch. When the PIR detects motion, the relay is energized to the “On” position which turns on the camera and begins the process of recording. When the infrared signature in the camera’s field of view becomes constant, the sensor interprets this as non-motion and the relay switch is then open, shutting the circuit to the camera off. (Many cameras have an intermediary circuit that is programmed to shut the camera off after a time delay in addition to or after motion is no longer detected.)

One of the biggest benefits of PIR motion activated recording is conservation of digital video security system resources. For example a typical motion activated recording system may have one or more motion activated digital video cameras, a Digital Video Recorders DVRs with a Digital Signal Processor or DSP, and an optional monitor. The DVR usually consists of a hard disk drive, like the one in most personal computers and in miniature systems may consist of SD cards, small Integrated Circuit (IC) chips, or other portable non-volatile media.

Even though technology advancements are yielding larger capacity and more efficient storage devices, regardless of the type of storage on the DVR, the capacity is still finite. Furthermore, the digital video files created by the cameras and stored on the DVRs are extremely large files. To keep file sizes as small as possible without losing significant quality, COmpression/DECompression or CODEC utilities are used. These utilities may be in the form of software or a hard-wired IC chip.

CODECs greatly improve the storage capacity of any given drive, conserving on system memory. This is important because whenever storage capacity is reached, the newest digital video files are re-recorded over older digital video files. If the files are archived before hand the data could be lost. There are several ways of improving efficiency in addition to using a CODEC. A larger capacity storage medium can also increase re-recording loop times, handle multiple camera recordings at once, and provide storage space for software programs and other necessary binary information.

Another way to greatly improve the storage capacity and efficiency of the camera-DVR relationship is to only record what is necessary. PIR motion activated recordings or PIR motion detector cameras do exactly that. By recording video only when motion is detected, a tremendous amount of memory on the storage medium is conserved. For some applications, motion detection would only be detected if there is a breach in security (banks and retail stores after hours for example) and this could mean no need to record for days or even months.

Memory is not the only resource that is conserved by motion activated recording cameras. Many users these days prefer the use of totally wireless cameras. These cameras send their digital video data via radio signals to a corresponding receiver that is connected to the DVR or to a DVR with a built in receiver. However, these cameras still require a power source which indicates the use of some sort of power supply carried by a wire to the camera – unless the camera is battery operated.

Battery operated cameras may use standard one-time use batteries or rechargeable batteries. Regardless of the type of battery, motion activated recording drastically conserves battery power as the PIR sensor demands a very small drain on the camera batteries as does digital video recording.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Advantages Of Security Camera Systems

Modern security camera systems are cutting edge monitoring tools but they weren’t always this way. The fact remains that the security camera system is a discovery that was made a long time ago which took time to evolve with the right kind of technology becoming available. Transmission of electronic signals happened first in 1879 when David E. Hughes transmitted radio signals beyond 100 yards only through a keyed transmitter. Technology was not as developed in 1879, so the signals received were not too clear. Nevertheless, text messages were still received beyond 100 yards.


Today, with the advent of modern science, wireless security systems have become a necessity in modern homes. People are more conscious of their personal safety as well as the safety of their homes. The very fact that there is a security camera recording everything prevents criminals from comitting crimes. These wireless close circuit TVs are now connected to the household wireless network, thus making it easy to monitor your home through the Internet in any part of the world. The 3 main advantages of putting up wireless security cameras are that they are versatile, flexible and provide inconspicuous surveillance.

These are versatile when it comes to their positioning and placements. Due to the wireless attribute of these cameras, you need not worry about the length of the wire thereby getting the opportunity to install as many surveillance cameras in the most optimum location. This increases the effectiveness of the cameras. On installing the wired cameras, it is very difficult to replace or move them from one place to another thereby causing you trouble. But the option is flexible with the unwired ones. Being unwired, it is very easy to hide these cameras and install them in any part of your house, providing extra security to your homes.