Archive for October, 2011
Kodak was not first out of the gate in the pocket camcorder market. For a long time they lagged behind Flip. Since they’ve introduced the Playsport Zx5, they’re clearly leaving them far behind, though.
But forget about comparisons for now. The Kodak Zx5 is a superb camcorder/digital camera all by itself. Many of the features carried over from the Playsport Zx3 demonstrate that, and the new features only seal the conclusion.
Like its older brother, the Zx5 is a small, lightweight unit. It measures a very modest 4.4″ high x 2.3″ wide x 0.7″ thick and weighs a mere 125 g (less than 1/3 of a pound).
The Playsport Zx5 is waterproof. Shoot in the rain, take it in your swimming pool, or dive under the surf down and never fear. It can shoot fine down to 10 feet for up to 2 hours. Even divers rarely stay down longer than that and fading deeper down would require special lighting.
Luckily, the Zx5 is far more than just a repeat of an earlier fine model. It’s a definite advance.
Sharing video and photos on social media sites is easier than ever. A simple three-step process starting with a simple button push puts your video (or photos) on YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, or several other popular sites. Or, select an email account, the Kodak Gallery or Pulse Display.
Shooting in full 1080p is now a realistic choice, too. Older models technically offered that feature, but beyond 720p it was often iffy. The Zx5 delivers. Plug this model into your HDTV using the supplied HDMI cable and that will become obvious at once.
You can save a little space by selecting the 720p setting. Or, if you want to record high-speed action, choose the 720p/60 fps setting. The video still looks great. For the truly space-thrifty, there’s a WVGA setting. However, thanks to inexpensive, large SD cards you won’t need it. Even at 1080p, the Playsport Zx5 will hold up to 10 hours of material on a 32 GB SDHC card.
The high quality 5MP digital camera onboard means you won’t need to carry along a separate still camera, either. A gentle tap switches it to 16:9 ratio, letting you create true widescreen HD photos. In these days of 10MP cameras that may not sound like much, but unless you crop a small image area and magnify it considerably, you’ll never see the difference.
Built-in digital image stabilization ensures that both stills and video will be nice and sharp under normal circumstances. For that extra bit of stability it’s easy to use the Zx5′s tripod mount. Smart face tracking technology tells the camera a face is in the frame and automatically selects the proper focus and exposure.
If you are searching for a truly pocketable camera with loads of style, the black Kodak EasyShare Slice compact digital camera might be the right choice for you. This interesting device is a 14 megapixel camera and sports a large 3.5 inch touch screen LCD display for intuitive and responsive operation. The unit is fronted by a 5x SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH zoom lens with optical image stabilisation feature. With a 35mm equivalent focal length of 28-140mm, there is ample scope to capture anything from a wide-angle landscape picture to close-up portraits of your family and friends.
Taking great photos is easy with this attractive, slim and sleek camera and the wide selection of scene modes as well as a Smart Capture Mode of the device lets you concentrate purely on the picture. Face Detection technology and Face Recognition technology are also included in the Kodak easyshare Slice cameras. The Face Recognition feature ingeniously recognising faces in your photos and tags each picture so you can quickly locate specific people in your library.
Another fantastic feature of the Kodak EasyShare Slice is the SLICE album which uses 2GB of dedicated internal memory to store up to 5000HD resolution photos. Your original high resolution JPEG files are written to microSD and microSDHC memory cards. The Kodak EasyShare Slice can also produce 720p high definition video with sound. All of this technology and more is squeezed into a svelte body which measures only 17mm thick.
The optical lens offers a focal length of 6.3 – 31.5 mm and optical zoom of 5x. There is also an LCD touchscreen viewfinder with anti-reflective coating. The shutter comes with a self-timer with smart capture and settings exposure modes. The unit comes with 2GB of dedicated internal memory for HD images (original files stored to memory card), intelligent scene detection, intelligent capture control, and intelligent image processing High ISO mode features.
The one button upload feature of the device allows you to capture the images and upload them to various social networking websites instantly and quickly. By pressing its share button, you can tag the pictures easily and share them with your Internet friends by uploading them directly to the KODAK Gallery and other social networking sites such as YouTube, facebook, and Flickr. You can also carry your pictures anywhere and everywhere with a Kodak easyshare Slice and the built-in photo album of the device lets you view and organize the portable versions of your entire photo collection via the bright and vibrant touch screen display.
The Kodak EasyShare Slice is more than just a camera. It’s a whole new way of capturing and sharing the special moments of your life.
” Only within yourself exists that other reality for which you long. I can give you nothing that has not already its being within yourself. I can throw open to you no picture gallery but your own soul.”
Herman Hesse was born in 1877, in the Black Forest town of Calw, in Germany. He was a novelist, painter and poet. He received the Nobel prize for Literature in 1946. The quote above is from his work, “Steppenwolf,” published in 1927. His life was filled with turmoil and at one point was institutionalized with mental issues. He met and befriended Carl Jung, and that relationship influenced his work greatly.
Hesse points out that I have the ability to tap into other realities, if I believe I can. I need nothing but what is inside me to achieve that quest. That fact has been written about for centuries and for some reason, I keep forgetting I have that ability. It seems like my soul is dormant, waiting for some deathly experience to awaken it, in its splendor. What am I doing with it now? One of the main ingredients of being human sits inside of me, like a prisoner waiting for execution. I have learned of its existence, but rarely use its secrets. I function as a machine that has it’s energy source partially blocked, and putter along at half power.
I guess all those years of learning about external events and worldly things took my focus off myself, and I looked for help from those things in order to be fulfilled. It was not correct to perceive myself as something other than a reasoning mammal, waiting for judgment day. I was filled with self pity, self doubt and self annihilation. If I searched within myself, I needed the help of someone or something who knew how to do it, their way. I gave the keys to my engine to others in the hope they could recondition me and save me.
Well, that was then, and now is now. As Herman says, the reality I search for is within me. I have the tools to find it. I have the power to change my thoughts and beliefs, no one else can do that for me. I can live in this physical form and experience happiness and love, without expecting judgement and suffering, unless I bring them into my life. It turns out the harshest critic and judge of me, is me. That is where change comes in. I can believe that I am a spirit having a human experience, and live through my spirit. In spirit there is no judgement, sin, or aggression. In spirit there is faith, gratitude and love for all life. There is connection and awareness to a universal matrix of All There Is, Love. I operate with the full power of eternal energy and share it. I become what I believe and I know what that means. My truth is shared with all in unconditional universal service and I enjoy it. Abundance, peace and love are everywhere, in everything and I feel them with my emotions.
Fear is present from time to time, but is welcomed as a guest in the house of spirit. I accept it and release it in love. From that contrast I become a grander version of myself and grow within the matrix.
My picture gallery is filled with all those experiences and expressions that I created. Each one a reality in its own way. Each one bringing me closer to understanding the reason for my journey through time and space.
I am who we all are. A mirror held up to one another to remember, to change, to grow into pure expression of our source in human form.