Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

Digital photography seems to be the in thing at the moment, I’ve got several friends who are would be photographers and a couple who are actually doing quite well out of it seeing as it started as a hobby and is now their full time job (Tez Mercer Photography), but the main thing I’ve noticed is although it’s started as a hobby, they all have top spec gear from the off, more than one camera, various lenses etc Like most hobbies I guess you have to have the best equipment and I’m not totally clued up on photography myself, but enough to make an educated guess on what’s good and what’s not.

Now Sony the name we all know and it’s well reviewed Alpha series have brought out two new DSLRs with all the latest goodies for the top end of the home photography market. So what have they got? Firstly Sony has introduced to both the A55 and A33 a new “Translucent Mirror Technology”. A technology Sony says has until now been “unattainable with traditional DSLRs”. So what’s it mean? Basically it means the camera can shoot continuous shots and focus, whether it be stills or 1080p video.

The lower spec A33 stands at 14.2MP and the A55 a slightly higher 16.2MP. Both have a new 15point auto-focus system, the A55 can shoot at a continuous 15fps and the A33 a slightly less impressive 7fps(still impressive though) Another feature likely to interest some of our readers is it packs Sony’s 3D Sweep Panorama mode. Like some of Sony’s other cameras it allows one to take 3D wide-angle shots that can be played back on a 3DTV

Unfortunately no release dates yet or prices but we believed the A33 will probably be around the £600-£700 mark and the A55 will probably set you back an extra 100 notes on top of that.

If you’re into music or at least musical instruments Marshall should be a brand you all recognise with its lovely black and gold colouring and Spinal Tap admired amplifiers that went “up to 11”.

Pure, the DAB radio experts teamed up with them a couple of years back (Evoke Marshall 1-XT) and made a DAB radio branded with Marshall and adopted it’s unique designs but this was at a time when DAB was still quite expensive and not as popular. Well Pure have decided to resurrect it again only this time it’s called the Pure Evoke 1S Marshall. It’s pretty much the same, now packing portability in the form of being able to be battery powered as well as mains, an FM tuner and an input for you to plug your iPod in too. There’s also an option to pick up an extra Marshall stack shaped speaker to add that extra volume to your digital music fest.

Not only that but this time it’s heading to the masses. Firstly though one will only be able to pick it up at HMV stores or at HMV.com in the coming weeks as an exclusive thing until the rest of the world picks it up some time in September. The Evoke 1S will be priced at £120, still a bit pricey for a DAB but it certainly looks great and the first incarnation became quite the collectors item, and the extra speaker will set you back £34.99.

We touched yesterday on the new iMac upgrades and talked about the notion that some people only buy Macs because they’re “pretty”. Well another new Apple product that takes all aesthetic pleasantries from the iMac and that lovely Aluminium MacBook Pro and basically makes it a simple screen is Apple’s LED Cinema Display. If you didn’t know already the Cinema Display is basically a Monitor which can be used with either Mac desktop PCs or with laptops. Older models of the Cinema Display were limited to what could actually be plugged into it, but now Apple have seen the fault and left it accessible to basically any type of current Notebook or Desktop Mac.

Ok so what’s great about it other than looks. Originally available in a 24” or 30” model Apple has now opted for just a straight 27” more than adequate space and room for you to do your work and with a resolution 2560 x 1440 it’s certainly packing the pixel power. Obviously as it’s now LED backlit, the screen is super bright with no wait time and greater control of brightness of your screen, not only that it has an ambient light sensor that can adjust the screen brightness to an optimum setting for whatever light your room is currently in.

Other things it has include built in sound, a 49W built in speaker with subwoofer, for fantastic sound whether from your games or media content. It has a built in I-Sight camera and microphone for things like Skype and also packs great connectivity with 2 USB 2.0 ports and 2 Firewire 400 ports. One thing Apple are pushing with the display is it’s eco-friendly, free from harmful toxins and is made of recyclable materials

All in all it’s a great monitor to have if you have a Mac or Macbook. However like all things Apple it comes with a price to match. As it stands there’s no price and only a “Coming Soon” date but looking back at the older models you can expect anything from £700 to £1000 at least.

Panasonic, always a brand you can trust (except maybe the 3DO lol) but definitely a great camera maker, have this week announced two new cameras to add to the family, the top quality compact Lumix LX5 and the tough and rugged Lumix TX10.

The LX5 is a top of the range compact, certainly capable of SLR quality imagery. With a 10.1MP Leica lens with the ability of taking 24mm wide angle images and has an optical zoom of up to 3.8x. Now the goodies. Full HD video clips recorded into the popular AVCHD Lite format but couple that with an HDMI out and you can view your shots and home movies straight to your HD telly. Panasonic have also claimed that on a full charge one can get a tasty 400 shots.

The TX10 on the other hand is for the more adventurous or perhaps clumsy of us. Unfortunately with no images to show, what we do know is it packs a 14.1MP lens capable of 4x optical zoom. With a shockproof body to withstand being dropped(to a certain degree) it is also waterproof in up to 10 feet of water.

We’ve talked about a few cameras and camcorders recently hoping to get some of our readers more interested in the visual technology beyond what a mobile phone can do, but with so many models and bands out there like anything it’s hard to pick the right one. The new Canon M32 camcorder has just been announced by the camera giants and to be honest it’s just an upgrade of its older M31, on the other hand the M31 was a popular well reviewed, recently released, camcorder so a better version can only be a good thing.

Specs wise it’s not much different. Powered with a DIGIC DV III processor and a HD CMOS sensor this camcorder is capable of 15x optical zoom with image stabilization and the same “Touch and Track” capabilities of it’s little brother. With a 2.7” touchscreen for your viewing pleasure it’s also capable of capturing 3.3MP stills

So what’s the difference????? Storage my friends. Now with double the storage capabilities of the M31 (a total of 64GB to be exact) it also has SDXC memory card support to to further expand. Plenty of room for your home movies and snaps. Out in September there’s no official price but as the M31 retails at around £600 we’d expect the M32 to retail at around that and maybe a slight drop in price for the M31.

Usually it’s “the bigger the better” but with Acer’s new S1 series of LCD TV screens it certainly looks like “less is more”. Announced this week, the super thin and small screens not only keep the high quality goods in a smaller space but also are “wallet friendly”. So if you’re interested in a smaller TV for your house or a decent quality, decent sized, space saving monitor, read on.

Housed in a nice glossy black outer shell the Acer S1 series truly indicate that size doesn’t matter. Opting to keep the screens small (18.5” to 23”) these little beauties only measure 15mm thick and a staggering 13mm in depth. Now I know you’re thinking squashing it so thin will mean it’ll lose out elsewhere. WRONG! They offer Full 1080p HD and a whopping 12million : 1 contrast ratio which alters frame by frame to deliver super sharp images. Couple that with a response time of 5ms and you’re looking at a belter. Now there is a downside in that the smaller screens only have VGA and DVI ports where as the larger 21 and 23 get HDMI too. Not only that with EcoDisplay low power consumption, you can sleep easy knowing your helping the environment too.

Prices start at an ultra-low £119.99 too.

When you see the word “Handycam” you imagine the little camcorders with the flip out screens that fit in your hand. Sony’s new “Handycam” the NEX-VG10E certainly isn’t “Handy” unless you’re a real video making enthusiast or an actual pro. Like it’s fantastic range of DSLRs and Micro Four Thirds it has interchangeable lenses so you can shoot some fantastic video, but when you’re using it you will look like you’re actually filming a documentary or movie, when if it was me, it would probably be my holidays or my friends doing stupid things to go on YouTube, where a compact camcorder would suffice.

Basically inside the beast is top notch technology. Powered with a BIONZ processor the sensor on board is a whopping 14.2MP EXMOR sensor. This will mean top notch quality images and videos. The camera captures your video into AVCHD format and it doesn’t limit the amount or length of video you take, it leaves that simply down to the size of your memory card. Lens wise, it supports the Sony E-mount lenses and with a special adaptor you can slap on the Alpha DSLR lenses too so you can always get that perfect shot. Now with this amount of quality imagery one thing that usually lets camcorders down is the sound quality……not with this one. A quad capsule spatial array microphone (“sounds” fancy) will also make sure you get top quality sounds aswell as images.

There’s no price details yet, but expect it to be quite high. Plenty of wait time too as it’s not due till September.

3D is the rage, clearly. We touched a month or so back about the fantastic NEX-3 and NEX-5 micro four thirds(the mini SLR type) cameras from Sony that had the ability to take 3D panoramic shots which you can view provided you have the necessary TV capability and a pair of “Joe 90” looking glasses. Well now Sony have announced these two compact cameras capable of the same thing.

Firstly the WX5. The step up from the Cyber-shot WX1 this a 12.2MP camera with a wide-angle 24mm lens capable of 5x optical zoom. On the flipside it has a standard 2.8” LCD screen to view. The TX9 on  the other hand is the step up from the Cyber-Shot TX7 camera. Again sporting a 24mm lens this has the ability of 4x optical zoom however this camera sports a 3.5” touchscreen on the rear.

What makes these compacts better than their older counterparts is the ability to capture Full 1080p HD video at 60fps and also have the feature what Sony are calling Superior Auto Mode. Basically it’s like Intelligent Auto and will detect all the correct settings for your photo depending on lighting etc. What this does though is on the press of the button, the camera takes multiple pictures(2-6) instantly and puts them all together to reveal a sharper, better quality image. Another feature is the Sweep Multi-Angle mode. You take 15 pictures at different angles and the camera works it’s magic and puts them all into one image. From this the user can tilt the camera into different positions and the image will move to those angles, creating a 3D effect.

Available in September we’re still waiting on Sony pricing them up. Viva la 3D.