3 photo sharing sites for your new shutterbug - Holiday Gift Guide

If you know someone on your gift list is getting a camera or is a new shutterbug, you might want to consider getting them a "pro" photo sharing account where they can upload all their new photos. This is a nice gift for several reasons: 1. A pro account is a must have since most free accounts have a storage limit that the average photographer will easily exceed. 2. Pro accounts are ad free. 3. Pro accounts have more features and allow the upload of larger file sizes. 4. As the giver of the account, it stands to reason you might be given access to your shutterbug's photostream, although, it's equally possible you might not.
Here are my top picks for investing in a pro account. (Many thanks to our readers for enthusiastically recommending Smugmug).
Flickr - $24.95 per year. And they make it super easy to gift.

• Unlimited photo uploads (20MB per photo).
• Unlimited video uploads (90 seconds max).
• Unlimited storage.
• Unlimited bandwidth.
• Unlimited photosets.
• Archiving of high-resolution original images.
• The ability to replace a photo.
• Post any of your photos or videos in up to 60 group pools.

Photobucket - $39.95 per year

• Up to 10 GB of space for images and video clips.
• Unmetered bandwidth
• High resolution images – Up to 5MB or 2240 x 1680 pixels per image.
• Up to 10 minutes video play length.
• Custom URLs for up to 100 albums.
• Up to 100 images per slideshow.
• SWF file support.

Smugmug - plans start at $39.95

• Unlimited storage.
• Unlimited bandwidth.
• Choose themes.
• Display geotagged photos on google Maps.
• Ability to moderate, enable or disable comments.
• Galleries that auto size to fit any display.
• Friends and family editing.
• Disable downloading, viewing larger sizes.
• Make selected photos/galleries private.

A word of caution if you are considering a photo sharing account for a child - get the child's parents' approval first. Although there are privacy controls at most services, many parents are understandably cautious about their kids uploading and sharing photos online.
[Via: Download Squad ] [Tag: flickr, hgg, photo sharing, photobucket, PhotoSharing, pro account features flickr, pro account features photobucket, pro account features smugbug, ProAccountFeaturesFlickr, ProAccountFeaturesPhotobucket, ProAccountFeaturesSmugbug, smugbug, smugmug ]

Nikon outs D3x in own Pro magazine

Uh, oops. Sorry Nikon but your D3x is now even less of a mystery. According to your own Pro magazine, the D3x will sport an FX-format, 24.5 megapixel sensor shooting 5fps at full resolution or 7fps at a reduced 10 megapixels. Nikon made a few other tweaks including an extended ISO 50-6400 range but the body design, AF, metering, and main functions remain the same as the D3. The only thing we need now is a price and confirmed release date. Back to you Nikon. One more shot detailing the features after the break, full details beyond the read link.

[Via: dpreview forums ] [Tag: breaking news, BreakingNews, d3x, fx, nikon ]

Creative's $200 Vado HD pocket camcorder ready for pre-order

We've seen these Amazon "leaks" time and again. So while the December 7th date for the Vado HD might be an educated guess, the details including that $200 price tag certainly look real enough. The display still measures 2-inches, but the beefier 3.3 x 7.9 x 6.3-inch solid state camcorder now brings 8GB of storage for up to 2 hours of 720p MPEG-4 recordings -- 8 hours at VGA quality. It also ships with an HDMI cable for instant playback to your like-equipped television. Otherwise, slot the cam into your PC's (XP and Vista, only) USB port to instantly share your works to YouTube and others with the help of the cam's built-in Vado Central Software. With this, the Kodak Zi6, and Flip Mino HD, there certainly won't be any shortage of pocket HD cameras of suspect-tweener quality to choose from this holiday season.
[Via: epiZENter ] [Tag: amazon, camcorder, creative, pocket camcorder, PocketCamcorder, vado hd, VadoHd ]

Canon EOS 5D Mark II spotted for sale in the wilds of Shanghai

It looks like that hint at a release date we got earlier this summer turned out to be right -- well, within a few weeks anyway. It's November and Canon's new 21 megapixel shooter, the EOS 5D Mark II, is now available. But, for the moment at least, it looks like you need to be a resident of China to pick up one for the local equivalent of $2,900 for the kit minus the lens (no word on what the full kit's going for). The picture above was taken at a Shanghai retailer, and while this particular hand model might prefer that you consider the A900 instead, those of you with duffels full of Canon glass would be well advised to get those credit card balances raised; this hot DSLR is sure to be dropping elsewhere in the world within the next few weeks.
[Via: 1001 Noisy Cameras ] [Tag: canon, canon eos 5d mark ii, canon eos 5d mkii, CanonEos5dMarkIi, CanonEos5dMkii, dslr, eos 5d markii, eos 5d mkii, Eos5dMarkii, Eos5dMkii, in the wild, InTheWild, slr ]

Aptina producing cellphone image sensor that shoots HD video

It sounds like your camera phone's video capabilities may get exponentially more awesome in the near future. Aptina -- a division of Micron that manufactures one out of every three sensors for mobile phone cameras -- has announced the high resolution 5 megapixel MT9P013. There are better sensors out there already, but this one will also be able to record 720p HD video at 60 frames per second, and 5-megapixel video at 15fps. The sensor is going into production in January of 2009, according to Aptina, so it shouldn't be too long before we start seeing much better quality amateur films out there in the world.

[Via: SlashGear ] [Tag: aptina, camera, camera phone, camera phones, CameraPhone, cameraphones, mt9p013, sensor, sensors ]

Creative Vado HD pocket camcorder makes a few cameo appearances

Creative's Vado pocket cam hasn't been nearly as popular as the various Flips or the Kodak Zi6, but it looks like the company is taking another shot at it -- hot on the heels of the Flip Mino HD's introduction, we're seeing hints that a Vado HD is on the way as well. All we know so far is the S$299 (US$195) pricetag printed in Creative's Singapore holiday catalog, but the short HD videos posted by a user named "Vado" on Vimeo look nice enough. Check 'em after the break -- hopefully we'll find out more soon.

[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: creative, hd, pocket camcorder, PocketCamcorder, vado, vado hd, vado pocket video cam, VadoHd, VadoPocketVideoCam ]

Casio's EX-FH20 reviewed: perfect for YouTube slow-mo junkies, nobody else

The key to any good pseudo-educational show featuring demonstrations that typically result in explosions (i.e. Mythbusters) is super-duper slow-mo sequences that expand those fleeting instants of incredibly expensive pyrotechnical glory into multiple minutes of time wasted between commercial breaks. If you're looking to record your own similar antics, amateur-style, Casio's time-stretching shooter the EX-FH20 is for you, delivering decent image quality and a bevy of burst and slow-mo modes that will capture 7 megapixel stills at 40 fps and 1000 fps video at 224 x 56. However, if that sounds rather gimmicky to you, according to PhotographyBLOG's full review there's really nothing noteworthy about the machine which, at $600, is out-paced and under-cut by other, similar SLR-lite options like Canon's PowerShot SX10. 'Nuff said.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: casio, casio ex-fh20, casio fh20, CasioEx-fh20, CasioFh20, ex-fh20, reviewed, slow motion, slow-mo, SlowMotion ]