GADGET GIZMO CAMERA SPECIAL Framed by the Future

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No more blurs, no missing the moment, no dull selfies. Camera tech now focuses on you

MODERN CAMERAS have had an interesting history, almost Indian soap-opera style, with almost the same drama. Film cameras dominated at one time, then came their slow death by digital cameras (Kodak never saw it coming). Then digital cameras themselves committed hara-kiri by not seeing what cameraphones were doing to them. Cameraphones are a true blessing and have ensured that everyone turns into an instant omnipresent ace photographer. Our lives are now enriched by the same pouty, cheek-sucked-in selfie from every single human being we know, plus never-seen-before shots of dogs, children, holidays and plated food. It’s a world full of bright, beautiful images that come to us at the speed of light and from all directions. And yet, not much has changed in the world of optics in the last few years. But this story of cameras is about to get two amazing twists.

ROBOTIC CAMERAS – THE SOLOSHOT

What’s your greatest frustration with that camera in your hand? While there are quite a few – if you think deeply about it, it has to be the fact that it takes you away from the moment. You’re the one who has to frame the shot, perfect it, make sure the lighting is right, the settings are all in place and then click the picture or shoot the video. If you’re the lucky parent at your child’s school performance or concert, you can never enjoy it, since you’re the one making sure you get it on video. Well, fret no more as a robotic camera is about to do it all for you without any intervention from you. The Soloshot consists of a base and tag. That’s it! Screw the base onto a tripod, attach your camera to the base, put the tag on the person to be filmed and boom! It’ll do it all automatically. It’ll follow the person (anyone doing anything) or thing (a remote-controlled plane or car on a race track), move automatically up, down, left or right and even zoom in and out to keep the person perfectly framed.

Playing a game of tennis or a cricket match? Put the tag on, fire up the Soloshot and it’ll give you a precisely framed video as well as still shots of your entire game. A child in a school play? Put the tag in their pocket, put the Soloshot at the best position you can find in the auditorium, walk away, enjoy the performance live and go back to collect the most perfectly shot video, ever. Soloshot 3 works indoors and outdoors, plays well with most still and video camera brands, and can pull off quite a bit of optical magic that even you can’t do. (It can film from kilometres away and can be programmed to shoot more than one tag). The future doesn’t need a camera with a person behind it. It will do it all on its own. with you finally IN the picture!

YOU AS THE NEXT STEVEN SPIELBERG – DJI OSMO

The first time I saw a drone capturing video as it flew, I was blown away. But when I saw the video, I was blown to bits! It was terrible. Every shake, every swoop, every movement, every turn was perfectly amplified in the footage, making it the easy winner in the Most Ghastly Video Ever Shot category. Things have changed dramatically since then, with gimbal technology. Irrespective of what you do with a camera mounted on a three-axis gimbal, the video will look smooth, flat and professionally shot. No optical stabilisation can come this close. And now the same technology has come to a camera that you can hold in your hand. Different motors, mounted on three sides of the camera, triangulate their focus and cancel out any movement or shake in any direction. It doesn’t matter what I throw at it. Running like I was drunk while filming, shooting while moving the camera from one hand to another, taking a video inside a super-bumpy car and even cycling with it mounted on the handlebar on a dirt track. The videos had no blur, no shake and absolutely smooth video. You can also lock it on to a subject and then move around and it will turn on its own to focus on that object. A quick press on the trigger, and it swivels around to take a really good selfie. Hold it over your head and it will automatically take a number of shots by panning on its own to give you a perfectly stitched-together 360-degree panorama shot. Leave it in one place to get a smooth timelapse or hold it in your hand without a tripod to pull off your best long exposure shot ever! Plus a custom app gives it even more powers. It is optical magic of a different buttery smooth kind that even movie directors can’t dream about today.

AND THERE’S MORE...

There are lots of other changes that the camera is going through right now. Lytro ILLUM doesn’t need you to focus when you take a picture as you can refocus any shot at any point in the picture AFTER you’ve clicked it. The Nixie is a wearable camera on your wrist that turns into a mini drone and flies off to record you at the touch of a button. The Lily drone does almost the same thing but you can’t wear it on your wrist. And the Nokia OZO VR is a virtual reality 360-degree-shoot-capable camera with eight lens sensors and eight microphones.

Rajiv Makhni Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3

HTBR22NOV15