Sony NEX-F3 and Alpha A37 cameras official: 16.1-megapixels for $600

News

  • May 17, 2012 at 5:19 pm

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Sony NEX-F3 in hand

Sony’s new entry-level Alpha SLT-A37 and NEX-F3 digital cameras were hardly a secret, we first saw pictures of the pair, followed by full specs three weeks ago, but today they’ve been made official. The two cameras are successors to the single lens translucent (SLT) A35 and the mirrorless interchangeable lens NEX-C3.

What you need to know, and what makes them appealing, is that both the A37 and NEX-F3 get a spiffy new 16.1-megapixel APS-C sized sensor, lilting LCD displays and a more ergonomic design with chunkier handgrips. They will also both retail for $599.99 together with an 18-55mm kit lens.
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MicroOLED 0.61-inch OLED panel has a 1280×1024 resolution, looking to find it’s way into a lucky camera’s EVF

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  • January 29, 2012 at 6:22 am

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MicroOLED 0.61-inch 5,400k dot 1280x1024 resolution OLED panel

Last year we were pretty excited with the new Sony OLED electronic viewfinder (EVF), which we tested on the Sony A65 camera, and can also be found in the Sony A77 and NEX-7.

The 0.5-inch ECX331A XGA (1024×768 RGB) 2,400k dot Sony OLED panel found in the above cameras, had at the time the highest resolution and pixel density of any commercial microdisplay. The benefit is that it provides an incredibly clear image, finally challenging optical viewfinders.

We’ve been championing electronic viewfinders as the future replacement to optical viewfinders in cameras, for some time now, because they offer certain clear advantages. First of all you can do away with the typical reflex mirror used to reflect part of the oncoming light from your lens to the pentaprism in optical viewfinders; as a result, you get more light onto your sensor and a more compact camera – see mirrorless cameras.

An EVF can also be more informative and customizable, with overlay information, and because you are effectively always looking at what the camera CMOS sensor is seeing, you have an exact live preview of what you will be shooting when you press the shutter button.

Until recently however, EVFs generally sucked, you had a pixelated image with a lot of lag and usually bad color reproduction and poor contrast.
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55-inch LG OLED 3D TV panel hitting mass production in July 2012, to be released by year-end

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  • January 28, 2012 at 7:52 am

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LG 55-inch OLED 3D TV

We first saw LG’s 55-inch OLED 3D TV as CES and with the company’s promise of a down-to-earth price for the largest OLED TV yet, our interest peaked. We’ve been waiting for alternative technologies to really challenge LCD and Plasma TVs, and while OLED panels hold a lot of promise, we’ve only seen extremely expensive and small-screened OLED TVs.

The company wasn’t forthcoming on too many details on the set. We know that the 55-inch LG OLED TV uses 4-color pixel technology (RGBW) for more natural colors and that it’s super thin and light at just 4mm thick and weighing 7.5kg (16.5lbs). Initial information point to a fourth quarter release at a yet undetermined price.
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LG announces world’s largest 55-inch OLED TV with 4-color technology, promises down to earth price

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  • January 2, 2012 at 6:15 am

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LG 55-inch OLED TV with 4 color pixel technology - front and side

LG is getting together a strong showing for CES 2012. We’ve already seen their 84-inch Ultra Definition QFHD 3D TV and now the company has announced the world’s largest OLED TV. The new 55-inch, 4mm thick OLED TV will make an appearance at CES in Las Vegas next week.

LG Electronics, is claiming that the new OLED TV will produce the most natural colors we’ve seen from any TV, based on their 4-color pixel technology and image processing features. Instead of the typical RGB arrangement found in other televisions, LG’s 4-color pixel technology uses red, green blue and white subpixels. Sharp has been using their own 4 color technology in their Quattron TV sets, with the inclusion of a yellow subpixel as the additional color.
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Panasonic to enter the world smartphone market with an ultra-thin 4.3-inch OLED Android device in 2012

News

  • December 11, 2011 at 5:39 pm

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Panasonic Android 4.3-inch OLED Android prototype back

South Korean and Taiwanese companies have been making it big in the world of smartphones. At the same time Japanese consumer electronic giants only have a presence in their home country. I’ve been meaning to write a post about this for some time, and it would have gone something like this. Japanese companies like Panasonic and Sharp make great devices, absolutely fantastic hardware. A while back I was a devotee of Sharp feature phones, but then they slowly disappeared from non-Asian markets. So what was keeping Japanese phones away from international markets? Software. They had the hardware ironed out but it was impossible to write software for any number of markets.

The takeaway of my imaginary article was that the rapid emergence of Android presented a great opportunity for Japanese giants to finally make a comeback. It doesn’t guarantee them success however. HTC churns out great devices by the dozen, and Samsung is currently the most popular Android manufacturer. Japanese companies have been finding it more difficult to sell their quality wares abroad as people increasingly go for value for money rather than high-end products. For example Panasonic, which makes great TV sets, is taking a beating from Samsung on flat panel sales.
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Sony starts selling its ‘magical’ OLED panels, coming to a camera EVF or head-mounted display near you — hopefully

News

  • November 4, 2011 at 12:42 pm

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Sony OLED panels ECX331A and ECX332A

Sony has just reminded us of its recent accomplishments in organic EL display technology and, well, just how awesome its duo of small OLED displays is. Sony had announced its pair of high resolution OLED panels back in late August, which have since found their way into the company’s latest digital cameras and 3D head mounted display.

First you have the 0.5-inch ECX331A XGA (1024×768) panel, which has taken its place in electronic viewfinders (EVFs) and is one of the major selling points of the Sony A77 and A65 DSLT cameras and the NEX-7 mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera. The slightly larger, 0.7-inch ECX322A 720p HD (1280×720) can be found in the equally exciting Sony HMZ-T1 OLED 3D head-mounted display.

What’s so special about these OLED panels? Well, they offer a wide color gamut (90% of NTSC), high 10,000:1 contrast ratio, and fast 0.01ms response time, with 200 cd/m2 brightness. More importantly they pack an insane amount of pixels in a small area.

To put things into perspective, the 0.5″ ECX331A with a resolution of 1024×768 (RGB) has a pixel pitch of just 9.9μm. In comparison, the iPhone 4S with a 3.5″ 960×640 resolution retina display has a pixel pitch of 77.1μm. In layman terms, pixel pitch measures the size of a pixel; the smaller it is the harder it will be for your eyes to distinguish between them and the sharper and more lifelike the image. That means that each individual pixel (made up of three subpixels, Red, Green and Blue) on Sony’s OLED panel is almost 8 times smaller than that of the iPhone 4S display. This makes them ideal for applications where you need a compact design and you would put your eyes very close to the display, such as EVFs and head-mounted displays.
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Sony Alpha SLT-A65 initial hands-on, OLED EVF and high ISO tests

The Lab

  • October 25, 2011 at 5:17 pm

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Sony Alpha SLT-A65 hands-on

Despite the ominous signs on general availability of the Sony A65, we’ve already confirmed that the camera is shipping to a few lucky individuals in the US.

Stuff-Review has managed to snatch one of the first Sony Alpha SLT-A65 DSLT cameras to ship. This is an initial hands-on with the camera, which is an actual final production unit, and we’ll be sharing some first impressions and test results. As we spend more quality time with the A65 we will update you on our finds.
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Sony HMZ-T1 OLED 3D head-mounted display lands at Harrods, London

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  • October 23, 2011 at 11:48 am

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Sony HMZ-T1 3D headset lands at Harrods, London

If you’re passing by the UK this month, you might want to make a visit to London’s luxury department store, Harrods. The UK retailer managed to snap an exclusive on Sony’s new HMZ-T1 OLED 3D head-mounted display until it goes on general sale in the UK at the end of the month. You can get your disorientating hand-ons experience in-store and pre-order one now, if you so please, for £800 (around $1,265) with an end of October release date.

The US release is planned for November and it has been priced at $800 stateside. You might want to check-out our initial coverage, with some tasty info and product shots.
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Sony’s HMZ-T1 OLED 3D head-mounted display is a 750-inch screen in your home

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  • September 5, 2011 at 9:19 am

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Sony HMZ-T1 OLED 3D head mounted display

Sony has been hitting home runs with its new tiny high resolution OLED displays. The company’s latest announcement is a futuristic headset, the HMZ-T1, hosting a pair of 0.7-inch OLED displays. Each display, one for each eye, is capable of a 720p HD resolution (1280 x 720), offering full 3D support for movies and gaming with zero crosstalk — that is, each eye will be seeing a totally different image, unlike current 3D TV technology. Sony is claiming that the experience is similar to being in a movie theater looking at a 750-inch screen from 20 meters away.

OLED panels offer very fast refresh rates, so fast moving action is a non-issue for them, while contrast ratios are also very good because OLEDs can be bright and colorful but at the same time offer deep blacks. Sony has paired the displays with a newly developed optical lens and with 45-degree wide horizontal viewing angles, you can imagine the level of stomach-turning immersion this headset can provide.
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Sony Alpha A77, A65 and NEX-7 ‘magical’ OLED EVF panel

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  • August 30, 2011 at 6:25 pm

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Sony OLED EVF panel

It’s difficult to hide that we are enamored with Sony’s new line of digital cameras. A big part of the allure of both the Alpha A77 and A65 cameras and the NEX-7, is the new OLED electronic viewfinder (EVF).

EVFs have the advantage of allowing you to see exactly the same image your camera’s sensor sees and the image it will eventually record, together with any effects, while providing a host of useful information. They also allow manufactures to do away with the optical mirror and create slimmer cameras. Their disadvantages however are that, they are usually not as large or contrasty as optical viewfinders, they are obviously made out of pixels with a finite resolution and might find it hard tracking fast moving action.
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LG promises 55-inch OLED TV in a year, world cries tomorrow

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  • July 24, 2011 at 4:20 pm

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LG OLED TV

Although we’re still waiting for LG’s 31-inch OLED TV shown-off last year — and pictured above — the Korean manufacturer has come out saying it will now concentrate on larger displays.

LG Display (LGD) CEO Kwon Young-soo, has said in an earnings call, that the company will launch a 55-inch OLED TV by the second half of next year.
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