We’d swear this had to be some sort of spoof on the impeccable James Bond, but sadly enough, the whole thing is true. A secondhand Nikon Coolpix camera which sold on eBay for a mere £17 ($30) turned out to be a real bargain once its new 28-year old owner completed his first image dump. Along with decidedly decent snaps from his US vacation, he also found a number of “top secret” images, diagrams and sketches that have since been confirmed as MI6 material. We’re talking photos of rocket launchers, hand-drawn graphics of terrorist links and all sorts of other information not at all intended for civilian eyes. ‘Course, the whole thing could just be the act of one talented Photoshopper, but we highly doubt the agency would be so fortunate.

[Via Digg, image courtesy of WWII Airplane Model]

While JVC Victor hasn’t promised us a review unit just yet (cmon, we’re still begging here), we did get a chance to get up close with its SDHC concept camcorder today at CEATEC. Designed for the more sophisticated user (as opposed to family users, they tell us), the camera will shoot both high-quality HD video and stills, something they say has yet to be done in a device. The upcoming Everio is slated for release in the first half of 2009 at an undisclosed price, but JVC promises the unit is, indeed, coming. In the meantime, we’ll have to make do with these new shots in the gallery below.

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JVC has hopped on-board the HD cam bandwagon and brought some tasty wares to the table at CEATEC today, with the next gen Everio HD Memory Camera. This SDHC based concept is expected to be AVCHD ready with an HDMI port. There wasn’t much more info to go around, but we expect full disclosure and a review unit real, real soon (you listening JVC?) — or at the very least a hands-on at the show. In the meantime, feast your eyes on the above photo.

[Via TechRadar]

Last we heard from Panasonic, the DMC-G1 super-light was tentatively priced at $799 for US markets. Turns out this is fact, at least if the officials at Panasonic’s booth here at CEATEC are to be believed. What’s more, they say the G1 will hit stateside shores in November, so if you’re in the market for a new camera, start saving now. In related news, we got our hands on the G1 again, this time in red (the camera, not our hands). The digital viewfinder is still a bit disorienting, but the proximity sensor that turns off the big display when you’re up close is a nice little trick. Pics and what-not below.

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Comically (and accurately, might we add) described as being “about the size of a late 90’s mobile phone,” Kodak’s Zi6 was widely hailed as the first true competitor to the mighty Flip Video. As we completely expected, this bugger was found to be remarkably easy to use by critics at Gadling, though the portable nature and simplistic operations were overshadowed by lackluster image quality. The cam struggled to adjust when whizzed around and when going from dark to light areas, and we were told to just put the thing away rather than attempt to use it in low-light scenarios. Of course, thisshooter isonly $179, so it still may be perfect for a select group of daylight-lovin’ users. Hit the read link for the full review and a quick sample video to help you make up your mind.

We’re still waiting for geotagging to go mainstream on consumer-level still cams, but Geotate isn’t waiting around in its quest for location-aware domination — it’s teamed up with DXG to develop the first geotagging video camera we’ve seen. The camera itself isn’t anything special — it’s just another average DXG HD cam, based on the DVH586 — but the geotagging is powered by Geotate’s Yuma software, which does most of the heavy lifting on the server at import, so we’d expect it to be pretty robust. No word on pricing or availability, but we’re assuming it’ll fall in line with the rest of DXG’s lineup on the cheaper side.

Welcome back to returning advertiser Lensbabies — they’ve got some cool new lenses we just saw at Photokina. Find out why Photojojo advertisers keep coming back.

Thanks to returning sponsor Lensbabyfor making this week’s Photojojo possible.
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How?
How in the name of the Jolly Green Giant did Meg […]

Thanks to returning sponsor Lensbaby for making this week’s Photojojo possible. ~ Have a cool photo product or site? Reach 220,000 photo fans

How?

How in the name of the Jolly Green Giant did Meg Wachter get anybody to pose for these portraits?

Was it bribery? Hypnosis? Did she promise them a guest spot on “You Can’t Do That On Television”?

Probably all of the above.

Tell ya what we’d do if we wanted to get pictures like these, though:

We’d host a big end-of-summer BBQ/pool party, with lots of soupy side-dishes, and we’d wait ’til everybody all had their bathing suits on, and then we’d break out the camera for the hugest, sloppiest, food-fight photo extravaganza there ever was! Yeah!

We’re not saying you have to spend this coming weekend that way, it’s just, you know, it is the end of summer. And they would be really awesome pictures. We’re just saying.

Meg Wachter’s “Dumped” Portraits

p.s. Congratulations to the winners of our Lomography + Photojojo Photo Tip Contest! First prize goes to lauramary, followed closely by shanegoguen, tom_ashor_bhaan, halfawakehaiku, and ginnymae.
Thanks to everyone who entered- you’re all brilliant!

Link to this | Filed under Inspiration.

It has been some time since we’ve seen a new competitor in the photo backup realm, so it’s with a great sigh of relief that we pass along word of Sanho’s HyperDrive COLORSPACE UDMA photo backup device. The unit is capable of sucking down 2GB of data per minute and claims to be “the only storage device in the market that can decode and display true RAW images from any camera on its 3.2-inch (QVGA) color LCD screen.” Furthermore, it orientates images automatically depending on how it’s held, and the included data synchronization functionality enables the drive to sync information with another external HDD or your main rig. Oh, and it can understand 14 different types of memory card, so you’re probably fine on that front. Check it out next month for between $339 (80GB) and $599 (500GB), depending on capacity.

When the megapixel race unofficially started in the point-and-shoot world, it didn’t take long before every last camera manufacturer out there was cramming 14-megapixel sensors into any ole pocket cam. Now, it seems the same race is headed to the mobile realm. Of late, we’ve seen a new batch of 8-megapixel handsets and a 9-megapixel sensor, and a recent interview with LG’s sales and marketing director John Barton points to even more of those in the near future. According to him, “the megapixel race that we saw amongst camera makers is now being battled out between mobile manufacturers,” hinting that 10+ megapixel phones (not to mention handsets with HD video capability) are closer than we may have imagined. Mmm, the possibilities.

[Via Cell Phone Feeds]

Take this with a pinch of NaCl, but Adorama has it that Panasonic’s Yasunori Takase confessed to a US price tag on the newly unveiled Lumix DMC-G1. During a leisurely chat at Photokina, the higher-up noted that the Micro Four Thirds camera would hit US soil for $799, though he didn’t bother to mention an expected ship date. If you’ll recall, we found that the G1 would start shipping at the tail end of October for ¥80,000 (around $750); considering that, we’d say $799 sounds about right over on this side of the world.