OK, folks… listen up! Here’s a challenge to VIDEO producers from a STILL camera manufacturer.  As you’ve been reading in our magazine and on our site, the lines are merging between still and video shooting, and many still camera makers are making the cameras able to shoot good quality video, too. But, most people still think of STILL cameras as only being able to take – what we VIDEO shooters call – “Freeze Frames”.

Well, that’s no longer the case. And Nikon wants you to know about it by offering a contest with a prize of $100,000 for a great video… and it can be shot from any type of cam: video, still, or any brand.

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We’ve just been informed that Canon publishes a series of white papers detailing some of the finer points of their line of digital SLRs. The documents aren’t the usual marketing material–there are a lot of very deep details that only an engineer who also knows English particularly well (a rare feat, I assure you) would be able to articulate. You can learn things from a white paper that a spec sheet can’t even begin to get into.

We’ve not stumbled upon many other product-specific white papers, let alone a cache of them for an entire product line. If you’re a manufacturer of any products that deal with video and you’re reading this, let’s see your white papers, regardless of topic–whether product-specific or just technology-specific. We’re eager to see what you have.

We all have experienced a lapse in memory from time to time. It’s especially disappointing when the memory you’re trying to recall is one of importance, such as a special family event or vacation. Over the decades, the popularization of camcorders and cameras have helped us forever capture memories, but only the moments chosen by the person operating the camera.

Microsoft Research has developed a device called the SenseCam that is proving to be a great tool for memory loss. The digital camera is worn around the users neck, and is equipped with a fish-eye lens in order to capture as much information as possible. The SenseCam takes up to two pictures a minute without having to be prompted, and can store up to 30,000 photos on a 1GB flash memory card. This allows the user to view a thorough recount of their day picture by picture, or by compiling them all in a stop-motion fashion.

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