I was on the light rail transit this morning, commuting to a business meeting at the other end of town, when I saw this guy with a Canon EOS camera on the train.  That would have been perfectly normal, carrying a camera around, but I do remember a memo a while back stating that taking pictures inside the train is subject to a fine.  (The reason for the warning is pretty obscure, but it was a way of telling peeping toms not to take stolen shots of passengers with their cell phone cameras, spy cameras or any other camera.)

At the end of the line, the photographer and his guide, walked to the connecting station to ride the other train.  Since I was also on my way to the other line, I didn’t pay much attention to this as I was deep in my own thoughts.  Until I saw him raise his camera and casually took a shot of a security guard.  The photographer was walking towards the pair of security personnel, raised the camera with one hand, and without looking through the viewfinder shot straight ahead.  I noted that he didn’t use any flash and that the LCD didn’t have a LiveView feature.  After taking the shot, he continued walking with his guide, who seemed to be acquainted with the security people, as if nothing happened.

On taking the train on the next line, I didn’t notice the pair at first.  It seems that they got on to a train prior to the one I rode.  After two stops, here was the pair again, stepping into the train and casually continuing their conversation.  The photographer again was very casual, asking questions and giving observations.  It seems that this was the first time he ever commuted on the light rail system.  On one shot he did take the time to look through the viewfinder, but on two other shots, he just raised his hand and pointed the camera to shoot.

While I found this to be too casual a method of taking pictures, I did find some method to what he was doing.  I was able to see one of the pictures he shot when he reviewed the picture immediately after shooting it.  It showed a vanishing point of lines pointing towards the center.  The lines were the posts, and ceiling and vents all pointing towards the end of the train cab.

Thinking about it and understanding the process, I can see that at least he was repeating a process which he most probably already did with the other train lines.  Alternatively, it was also possible that he had already studied the shots he wanted to take and just took them without any need of looking through the viewfinder.  It did help a lot that he had a good camera, with a good auto-focus and light metering.  The process of taking pictures looked less technical and he could concentrate on what he wanted to shoot, and if he repeated the process with several trains, he can choose which one would be best among other like pictures.

Minox is an established brand in a niche all its own.  Well maybe not all its own, there are others out there in the space it occupies, but these are mainly low quality copy cats and not really competing with the Minox.  The niche is very small, and Minox invented it:  the spy camera.

Though the Cold War is all but history, Minox continues to make mini cameras which for all intents and purposes, really are spy cameras.  Minox designed cameras to be small and easy to hide and carry.  These cameras were also designed to shoot pictures unobtrusively, in the best possible resolution.

The company started in the late 1930’s and has weathered the transition from film to digital cameras quite nicely.  The latest products maintain the mindset of the mini-camera.

The new Minox camera is named the Agent M DSC (for Digital SpyCam). The Digital SpyCam is a 5MP camera in a very small form factor of of just 86 x 29 x 20 mm.  With a bright 1.5 inch viewfinder, you can take spontaneous, fast shots, even in low light condition. And when in doubt, the integrated flash switches on automatically.  Pictures are stored in mini-SD card (capable of storing up to 16MB of files) aside from the 128MB built-in memory.  It’s also capable of shooting 320×240 video in AVI-format.  Without the flash unit, the camera weighs 90 grams.  Aperture is f/3.0 and the focal length is 8.5mm, equivalent to 42mm on a 35mm camera.  It may not have optical zoom, but it does have 4x digital zoom.  Minimum focusing distance is at 0.5 meter.  The pictures can be downloaded by a USB 2.0 connection to a PC running Windows or Mac.

Another new product is the Agent M Digital Sunglasses Camera.  Looks like an expensive pair of sunglasses (with replaceable lenses too), it has a micro video camera integrated in one earpiece which can be controlled remotely and inconspicuously.  The other earpiece has an MP3 player.  Though I think it would be a bit suspicious wearing one of these indoors and away from the sun.

There’s also the Agent M Digital Belt Camera which masquerades as a belt buckle and enables videos being taken without being noticed.  The camera records in 3GP format with the controls within easy reach on the underside of the buckle.

Something more  common is the Agent M Digital Pen Camera.  This is a real working ball-point pen with a micro video camera which records in AVI format.  It also has a microphone integrated in the pen clip.  Videos are downloaded via a built-in USB port.

And there’s the special Agent M Spy Sunglasses 180°.  So called because it allows the wearer to see behind his back.  The secret is in the mirror-coating on the inside outer edges of the lenses, acting like rearview mirrors.  And like any other pair of decent sunglasses it also has UV protection.

These products may look like novelty items or toys, but Minox has been manufacturing well-designed durable miniature cameras for the past 70 years.  Going digital, these are not your grandfather’s tools.  Some companies make instant classics, and Minox is one of those.

Source:  Digital Photo Gadgets Blog

As photo frames go, I have a lots of photo frames for my still pictures.  They are all around the house, in varying sizes and shapes, with single pictures and some holding multiple prints.  I guess that is very much dated now. What with the developments on technology (and Harry Potter novels with the moving images inside the pictures) I guess it would have been a matter of time for a moving image in a photo frame.

My latest photo frame is an 8-inch LCD digital photo frame.  Yup, I thought it was time for a change.  Though I didn’t think that anything smaller than an 8-inch would be worth it.  But it should be noted that there is a significant price difference between a 7-inch digital photo frame and an 8-inch one.  Among other things, my digital photo frame is not battery powered and doesn’t have internal memory.  It comes with a USB port, and slots for SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro/xD type memory cards.  It can run videos but it doesn’t have a sound output jack or built-in speakers.

But, still, the main problem with that model is that it doesn’t run on batteries.  The portability of a photo frame makes it a notch above that of a regular photo frame.  A battery-powered photo frame, can be technically considered a photo viewer.  The first portable photo viewers were only about 3-inch LCD screens and looked like cameras without lenses.  Nowadays, a lot of photo viewers are larger (up to 7-inches) and capable of video and sound.

And recently, Kodak just released the specs for their new digital photo frame.  And it has a 7-inch OLED screen.

The use of the organic light emitting diode (OLED) means that this device would be thinner and use less power.  It also means that for now it would still be a bit more expensive to manufacture.

This will be up for sale November 2008 for $999 from the Kodak.com