Camera Connection Kit with iPad and iPhone Review

The main accesory I wanted to buy with my iPad was the camera connection kit. Unfortunately this was sold out in New York, so I tried again on launch day in the UK. When the kit sold out in a couple of hours here it was time to place an order through the Apple online store and wait three weeks like everyone else. I’ve now had the kit for two weeks and can give some thoughts on it’s use.

The camera connection kit comprises two small adaptors that plug into the iPad dock connector, providing an SD card slot and a USB socket.

The intended use for these two items is to transfer photo and video content from your digital camera to the iPad for viewing, storage and subsequent transfer to a computer. The first thing I tested when the kit arrived was its ability to import media from my Panasonic LX3 camera. Jpeg and RAW images preview and copy to the ipad correctly, and the camera’s 720p video is also fully supported. This wasn’t a huge surprise as much has already been written about the functionality of the kit, but being able to copy party video’s quickly to the iPad for immediate viewing was one of those ‘wow’ moments for the guests.

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First preview of the HDR-TG3E

I posted a few days ago about the Sony HDR-TG3E, a compact HD camera that showed a lot of potential. The first hands on review I have seen has now been posted at tracyandmatt.co.uk. No sample video or photo’s but a video of unboxing and first impressions was posted. Unfortunately it’s hosted on Revver which I can’t add here. Worth reading the review for the comments on picture quality, and I look forward to seeing the first low light samples.

Cameras with blink/smile recognition

In the never ending quest to find the feature that sells a bucketload, General Electric is to launch a range of compact cameras in the UK with blink and smile recognition. The models will warn when someone in the photo you just took was blinking, so you can take another snap. They will also focus on smiling faces.
No definite pricing on these yet, but reghardware are claiming prices of £60 for the 7 megapixel A735, £120 for the 8 megapixel G2 and £180 for the 12 megapixel E1235. The 10 megapixel E1050 is probably the most interesting at £200, with a built in GPS receiver for geotagging and a HDMI port.

This makes me wonder what gimick the phone makers will try next to differentiate their products. Maybe the credibility filter, to remove anyone too ugly or embarrasing. Or how about a parental filter that removes nudity, drunken behaviour and obscene hand gestures so you can show your parents the lad/ladette holiday shots.