princely sum

Raspberry Pi, meet camera

Raspberry Pi camera For the princely sum of £20 you can now attach a camera to your Raspberry Pi unit, to fiddle about with and figure out how to take a photo with bare-bones code. This is very much more about learning to code than learning about photography, but it's about learning: I'm enamoured.

The camera unit comprises a five megapixel sensor and lens on a board measuring 25mm x 20mm x 9mm, that's capable of recording 1080p video.

Given it attaches to the Raspberry Pi via a socket and is little more than bare lens, chip, and board, and in order to release the shutter you need to enter a line of code, you might need a bit of ingenuity or teamwork to take a picture. And don't forget that once the camera's plugged in, it's up to you to figure out the code needed to operate it and locate the images that it captures. (Although the Raspberry Pi community is very good at lending a helping hand.)

But isn't that the point? Raspberry Pi is meant to spark children's enthusiasm and curiosity for programming. You plug it in and through a process of trial, error, and discovery, you get to where you want to go. (Or maybe nowhere near it, but it was fun all the same.) In particular with a camera, it gives children something that's both familar and tangible to latch on to whilst they're in the process of learning. Learning, after all, is supposed to be fun.

Once you've figured out how to take a picture, where it's kept, and what to do with it next, there's a Raspberry Pi photograph competition running until 14 June 2013. Pictures need to be taken with a Raspberry Pi (d'uh) and fall into one of four categories: Your Workshop/Den; Your Pi Project; People and Pets; Outdoors.

I think I'm buying one for my niece. (And naturally, by that I mean that I'm buying one for Eva so that I can play with it.)

Raspberry Pis can be purchased on the Farnell element14 Raspberry Pi website for just over £28. The camera unit is just under £20.

(Via Engadget)

3D video camera on the cheap

Okay so it looks a bit My-First-Camera, but who cares, if the final results look good.

With Toy Story 3 earning just shy of £40million during the first two weeks of its release, geeks still reeling from the beauty of Avatar, and all of Hollywood being a-flutter about 3D, you’d almost think there’s some sort of trend going on, or something.

It’s not just in the cinemas the revolution is raging: Sky is announcing the arrival of a new 3D channel later this year. It seems 3D has taken over our cinemas and is now making its way into our living rooms.

Okay so it looks a bit My-First-Camera, but who cares, if the final results look good.

Firebox is jumping on the bandwagon, and is giving mere slobs chance to get a piece of the action, with a HD 3-D Camera priced only £199.99. Awesome stuff.

This sleek, portable camera has been developed by the German technology firm Aiptek. It’ll have you recording in 3D super easily, without breaking the bank – sure as hell a lot more affordable than the $2,000 version from Panasonic

The little gem uses two separate lenses and image sensors to record videos in 3D.

Watching it couldn’t be easier: You can playback your recording immediately on the device, upload it straight onto YouTube 3D using the embedded USB connector and 3D glasses (included), or watch it on your fancy-pants 3D TV, through the supplied HDMI cable.

The battery will last for up to 1.5 hours and has an expandable memory suited for 32GB SD cards.

The Aiptek 3D Camera is available now from Firebox.com, and will set you back the princely sum of £199.99.