Olympus PEN E-P3 Digital Camera

One of the recent developments in the digital camera space has been the introduction of the mirror less, micro four-third sensor cameras. Some of the companies that are really pushing the envelope have been Olympus and Panasonic. There are a bunch of things that make these sort of cameras interesting. They are compact, although not as compact as the smallest point and shoot cameras and yet have the ability to produce SLR quality images. The reason for that is they have larger sensor sizes than point and shoot cameras, which means they have superior image quality.

14-42 mm lens bundled up

Olympus has re-introduced the PEN line of cameras in the digital camera era. Now, there’s a new model. It’s called the E-P3 and it’s the flagship model of the PEN range. Two cheaper models, the E-PM3 and the E-PL3 are yet to follow. The E-P3, like the older E-P1 and E-P2 are targeted at those who are looking to upgrade from a point and shoot camera to a camera with better performance, minus the complexities of a full-fledged DSLR. We first looked at these cameras at an Olympus briefing held in Mumbai, a few weeks back.

Design and Build Quality
The EPL PEN E-P3 has not changed much in design since its predecessors. The PEN E-P3 we received in our labs was a stylish matte black camera with hints of chrome highlights along the edges. Like other PEN cameras, it is compact in design and can fit easily in the hand. It is slightly larger than a standard point and shoot.

40 - 150 mm lens option also available

Unlike the E-P1 and E-P2, this camera comes with a built-in flash that is concealed in the frame of the camera. A simple press of a button next to it is all it takes to deploy the flash that is held inside the body by a set of springs and hinges. These buttons include a dedicated video recording button for shooting videos at 1080i and a Fn1 key  for setting various functions of this camera. Other controls found on the rear of the camera are standard buttons, which are seen on most cameras such as a four way navigational button for flash, aperture priority, auto focus and a timer. The navigational pad also doubles as a scroll for adjusting various camera settings. Besides these the other buttons found are playback, info, menu and erase. A silver jog dial is also located on the back and this is used for adjusting wide-angle and telephoto.

Mode dial on the top

On the top of the camera is a mode dial for changing between the different modes of the PEN E-P3. Other buttons found here are a camera shutter-release button, on/off switch and a secondary function button called Fn2, which can be used to change ISO sensitivity in the manual mode. It has different functions in the different shooting modes.

The camera being slightly smaller than a DSLR isn’t the easiest to grip with one hand. The handgrip on the camera is interchangeable with additional options being made available to users. These can be installed by merely screwing them on to the body. Olympus has bundled a 1150 mAh battery along with the camera and the battery bay is located underneath.

Mini HDMI port available

Features
The Olympus E-P3 uses a micro four-third, 12.3 MP sensor. Its distinct design means there’s no folding mirror mechanism. The screen at the rear is a 3-inch, 6,14,000 dots one. Olympus specifies that the screen used is an OLED. Unlike most other cameras, the E-P3 comes with a touchscreen interface, which is used primarily for selecting focus areas on the screen and also for altering settings.

Spring loaded flash

Olympus provides lens options with the E-P3. The standard kit includes only the stock 14-42mm (3.5-5.6) lens. We received the dual-kit lens kit, which includes an additional 40-150mm (4-5.6) lens. Other than the proprietary USB port, there’s also a mini-HDMI port so you can output videos to a large TV or projector.

Features (Continued) The last major product update, the E-P2 did not include a built-in flash, this one does. HD video recording capabilities are also present. It can shoot videos at HD 1080i using AVCHD and the AVI format. Full zoom on Olympus has taken a slightly different approach with the PEN E-P3. Some of the features include a special art feature, which is basically a set of filters that give you instant results. Olympus has also updated the interface on the PEN series of cameras. The E-P3 specifically has a very minimalistic interface with not too much happening on the screen at any given time. Icons and artwork used on the interface are dense and compact. Olympus has bumped up the amount of filters from six to ten. Hidden in the Scene mode is a 3D feature where it can click 3D pictures and can be viewed on a 3D compatible television. Performance The Olympus PEN E-P3 is bundled with various features and different shooting modes. Images shot outdoors seemed a bit dull in the iAuto mode, though focusing was accurate. Images appeared detailed and no color fringing was noticed. However, those images that were shot at low ISO sensitivities appeared very bright and the color looked off in most respects. Low ISO sensitivity saw color fringing The Olympus PEN E-P3 performed shoddily in images that were shot indoors, with a lot of colour supplementation being noticed. Images shot in iAuto mode appeared crisp and clear but, the colour supplementation was a turn off. Both the 14-42mm and the 40-150mm lens lend themselves well to macro photography. This was a major plus point of this camera. The flash lit up approximately ten feet of a well lit area, which is impressive for any camera flash. The camera allows users to accurately limit the amount of light that leaves the flash. Macro image shot well Focusing isn’t consistent. The camera manages to click photos quickly when there’s sufficient light and the objects are prominent. While focusing on walls or plain surfaces, focusing is slower and sometimes the auto focus system refuses to focus. Olympus bundles a 1150 mAh lithium ion battery along with this camera and they rate the battery at approximately 330 shots, which is quite impressive for a camera with all these features. Flagship model of Olympus Verdict The PEN E-P3 sells at a maximum retail price of Rs. 39,999 for a single lens kit (14-42mm) and a maximum retail price of Rs. 46,999 for a dual lens (14-42mm lens and 40-150mm). While this may be a step up from point and shoot cameras, the PEN E-P3 has its fair amount of quirks for a camera looking to break into the DSLR market share. While it may have a ton of interesting features and packs a ton of concepts into a compact body; this camera is still not competent enough to match up to DSLR when it comes to quality. Looks and flamboyance are this camera’s forte and it does well in the features department too. However, for a price of almost Rs. 47,000, one would rather opt for a lower price ranging DSLR camera and achieve better image results.

Acer’s New C110 Pico-Projector is USB Powered and ‘Android Ready’

Pico-projectors are handy little gadgets that come to the rescue when you have that spur of the moment presentation to deliver. Although they haven’t caught on too well in our country, this scenario may just change with their new C110 projector. What sets this apart from the rest is that it doesn’t require a power adapter and is powered solely through USB, either from a laptop or any Android Tablet provided it has a USB host port. Small and Compact Don’t take its size as a sign of weakness though, this DLP projector is powered by a LED lamp and can project up to a 100-inch screen. The brightness is a bit low at just 50 lumens, so you’ll need as little to no ambient light as possible for a good picture. The projector weighs just 175g and sports a very nice 1280x800 resolution. The C110 is expected to be sold at a little over $300 when it releases in August and even though we don’t have an India launch confirmed yet, it should make its way here since the ICONIA A500 is already out and they both complement each other very well as you can see in the video below.

BenQ Launches W1100 Full HD Projector for Movie Buffs

Choosing between a projector and a large screen TV for one's home theater setup has always been a tough choice. Most people don’t have that kind of hall space to accommodate a 100-inch screen, which is why sales of multimedia projectors haven’t really taken off. If you are one of those exceptions, then you’ll love BenQ’s new offering. They’ve launched the W1100, which is a full HD projector with a native resolution of 1920x1080p. It’s priced at Rs. 95,000 and is available across India.

Bringing the cinema home

Some highlights of the W1100 are the 2000 lumens brightness and 4,500:1 contrast ratio. The 10-bit color processor in this DLP projector is capable of pumping out 1 billion colors. You also get two 10W speakers with SRS WOW HD built-in so simply, that you just have to connect that HDMI cable and you’re all set. For a limited period, BenQ will be bundling a HD DTH set-top box (they haven’t mentioned which one) with the projector which should attract prospective buyers.

How To: Enable Night Vision on a Webcam

Most digital cameras, still, video or webcams, can only capture images when there is sufficient light on the subject. Insufficient light creates hazy and bad quality images. So what do you do when you need to capture images or record videos when there is low or no light at all? Infrared (IR) light can illuminate the subject and you can capture images even in the dark. IR light is actually an electromagnetic radiation whose wavelength is higher than normal light visible to the human eye. This means, when a subject is illuminated with infrared light, humans cannot see it, but a digital camera can capture these images quite well.

A web camera, a screw driver, a knife or a needle, some IR LEDs, a solder iron, some solder wire, some regular wire, an AC-DC voltage adapter or batteries and veroboard/ general purpose PCB (optional)

The CCD or sensor 
The main image capturing chip inside a digital camera is highly sensitive to infrared light. But there is an obstacle here—manufacturers of digital cameras implant an IR filter in the pathway of the lens and the sensor.  This filters out the IR rays so that only pure visible light can pass through. The reason—infrared light can agitate the image quality and produce overexposed pictures. This workshop helps you remove the IR filter in order to get the camera to capture images in the dark. Basically, all you need to do is remove the IR filter completely. We shall also show you how to make your own infrared light source so that you can use the webcam as a surveillance device at night. The best part is that nobody would even know that there is a camera as nothing is visible in the dark. Try out this workshop at your own risk.

Night Vision Webcam

Hacking the webcam
Unplug the camera from the computer and remove all the screws using a screw driver. You can do this trick with any still/video/mobile camera too. Open the camera case carefully to expose the internal circuit board. Remove the lens housing by unscrewing it anti-clockwise. Now carefully observe the rear section of the lens housing and you shall find a red-tinged glass—the IR filter. This filter needs to be carefully removed from its place. Pop out the seal to separate the IR filter from the housing carefully using the sharp, pointed edge of a knife or needle. Make sure you do not damage the filter or the seal in case you decide to place it back again. Mount the lens housing back and close the camera the same way you opened it. The camera is now ready for action.

Create a circular LED ring and mount it on your camera's lens directly. You can make the ring out of plastic/cardboard or design a custom PCB. Place the IR LEDs on the panel and solder them accordingly from behind. Using this trick will ensure that the subject in focus is 
completely lit with IR light.

Stealth lighting
Now we show you how to make an Infrared LED array. IR LEDs are available in any electronic spare parts shop for around Rs 4 each. You can also rescue some from damaged, old or discarded IR remote controllers. The amount of LEDs to be used would purely depend on the amount of light you would require and the voltage you would be applying to the circuit.

Follow the instructions carefully

Each LED runs on approximately 1.2 Volts DC (confirm the voltage ratings of the ones you buy). So ideally, if you plan on using 12 Volts to power the array, make sure you use at least 10 LEDs in series. Do your calculation and assign the number of LEDs to be deployed on the job. Once done, mount each LED on a veroboard or general purpose PCB and create your LED array. If you are not familiar with electronics and/or soldering, you could ask a friend for help or have the circuit assembled for you by an electronics technician. Solder all the LEDs in serial and finally solder some wires to connect it to the power adapter or battery. Alternatively you can design your own LED arrays. Assemble it on a cardboard or plastic ring and mount it around your camera lens, or create miniature spotlights to spread it around your house. Let your imagination run wild with ideas. If you hack your mobile phone camera, you can use a single IR LED to secretly take pictures at night.

Next set of steps

All done
Now that your camera is hacked and the infrared array is ready, you need to try out your camera in the dark. Create a dark environment either by closing all windows and curtains in your room or wait till sunset. Start a webcam software and switch on the Infrared LEDs. Observe that what a human eye cannot see is being captured very easily by the webcam. Infrared pictures captured by the camera will be in black and white, so don’t panic about the absence of color detail in the images. You can use an array with a large number of IR LEDs for a more powerful light throw or use multiple smaller arrays in different areas to brighten up the whole room/area. 

Caution: Continuous exposure to infrared light can be harmful to the human eye. Make sure you do not stare directly into the LED array when switched-on. You would not notice any light, but the eye pupil is wide open in the dark and Infrared light can blast through freely and cause damage too.

What next? 
If you have a wireless/Wi-Fi camera, you can use it as a surveillance camera at night. Use applications such as ‘WebcamXP’, ‘HandiAVI’, etc, which support motion sensing or time scheduled image capturing and recording. You can mount it on your main door, in your garden, in the garage, on the stairway or any place to be monitored in the dark. 

Note: Once the IR filter has been removed, pictures in broad daylight get highly overexposed.

How to: Setup Video Surveillance With Webcams

With the number of rising thefts and crimes, surveillance needs for home or office are a must. Deploying professional security cameras, alongwith digital video recorders for surveillance needs are very expensive. If you already own a webcam (or a number of webcams) you can create your own video surveillance unit at home or office in a very cost effective way. All you need is an application that can handle multiple camera feeds with a motion detection feature.  

IP cameras are preferred over webcams as they can be operated remotely

WebcamXP is one such extraordinarily powerful and yet cheap software, which can help in video surveillance for those on a shoe-string budget. Available in different versions, the WebcamXP 5.3.4.252 free version supports only one web camera and is available for personal use. Download the free version from ‘www.webcamxp.com’. Powerful features such as streaming, monitoring, motion and sound detection, recording and remote monitoring/storage are a few key features of this software. So, let us begin setting up WebcamXP and deploy your webcam(s) to monitor your home or office. 

Here’s what you would need to set up a small scale video surveillance unit: 

• The WebcamXP application (or any other similar application of your choice) HandiAVI is another great software.
• One or more Webcams (IP cameras would also suffice using compatible software 
• A live IP internet connection (if you need the video to be monitored from another location over the internet or stored on a remotely available server).

Get started

Make sure you have your webcam installed on your computer along with the necessary drivers. Install or place the cameras facing the area, which needs to be monitored. Note: USB cameras do not have a lengthy USB cable and hence can be only stretched as far as 1.5 to 3 meters from the computer using a USB hub. If you need the cameras to be installed outdoors or at places at a greater distance, we would advise opting for IP cameras or wireless cameras. Wireless cameras would require a router for the interconnectivity.

Step 1: The Software

Once the cameras are configured and the software is installed, launch the WebcamXP application. Here you will see a large preview window along with four small preview windows for adding multiple camera feeds.

WebcamXP is one of the free to use software, out there

Towards the left are control and configuration icons which will help setting up the software for your surveillance needs. The bottom half gives you information of the camera connected along with options for pan, zoom and tilt. This option will be available only if your camera supports the feature.

Step 2: Connect the cameras

Right-click on the small preview windows (numbered as 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively) and select ‘PCI/USB (WDM Driver) | <your webcam>’ from the respective list. If the camera is an IP camera, you would require entering details such as name, IP address and authentication details. Once done, WebcamXP will detect the camera and the video feed would be available on the main window and the small window respectively. Repeat the same procedure and install/connect all other cameras respectively. Remember, the trial version supports only one camera.

Step 3: Scheduling

Click on the ‘Scheduler’ tab and choose the required action to be taken by WebcamXP from the ‘Action’ drop down list. Choose the camera source number (the camera that needs to be configured) and the schedule for it to run.

Setting up schedules

Click on the activate button and relax. Let the WebcamXP software handle the rest for you while you are away from home or office. It can be beneficial in the night at home or office. 

Step 4: Broadcasting To broadcast the video feeds from all cameras over a network or the internet, click on the ‘Web/Broadcast’ icon on the left panel. Here enter the ‘IP Address / Host Name’ of your computer and enter a port number. Once done, click on the ‘Activate’ button. If your internet connection has a live IP, you can broadcast this feed directly over the internet and monitor it from anywhere across the world using any web browser. To access the broadcast, start the internet browser from another computer and type in the URL ‘http://<your computer IP>:8080’. For example, if your computer’s IP address is ‘10.20.31.171’, and you have set the port number to ‘8080’, then the URL you would need to enter would be - ‘http://10.20.31.171:8080’. Selecting broadcast sources Here, you can choose the desired camera’s video feed by selecting the source from the ‘Source’ drop down list. Clicking on the ‘Multi view’ button will show you all the camera video feeds on the same page. Saving continuous snapshots from every camera is a very strong feature for surveillance in WebcamXP. In this feature, you can configure the software to take snapshots of every camera at specific intervals and save them to a desired folder. You can set the frequency of taking snapshots from one second to several hours. You can also select a single video source or all cameras or cycle through all cameras one by one while taking snapshots. These photos can be viewed over the internet by clicking the ‘Gallery’ icon. All the snapshots can be seen in a pagewise format. Clicking a photo would give you details of the photo — source camera and time and date stamps. Step 5: Motion and audio detection The main and most important feature of any surveillance setup is motion and/or audio detection. Click on the ‘Security’ icon and in the ‘Motion Detector’ tab, click on a video feed and hit the ‘Activate’ button. By using the mouse cursor, draw a rectangle on the video screen. This area will be the motion detection area, which the software will closely monitor. You can select particular sensitive areas, which need high motion detection priority or select the whole screen for an overall monitoring. A slider on the bottom half is available to set the sensitivity of the motion. So, set the sensitivity accordingly to avoid false alarms. Enabling motion detection Sensitivity can also cause false alarms due to changes in lights. Features that can be enabled for motion sensing are recording, FTP uploads, HTTP posts, Email and SMS alerts, application execution, alarms and message windows. Usually at nights or when the light in the room is not sufficient, video cameras are usually useless unless you have an IR camera or IR lighting enabled for night vision. During this time, audio detection plays a main role. You can set the software to sense audio disturbances in the room/area and trigger alarms, accordingly. The audio source can either be the webcam microphone itself or a standalone microphone mounted in different areas. Step 6: Email alerts and FTP / WWW storage This feature will work only if there is an active internet connection enabled on the machine running the WebcamXP software. Using this feature, one does not need to monitor the cameras personally, but get alerted via email. Set the necessary values for SMTP gateway, username, password and subject line. Receive e-mail alerts Once done, the software will mail you the photographs captured when a motion is detected. Uploading photos clicked by the cameras to a web server or FTP server is possible. This feature is helpful in case you need the video surveillance data to be stored anywhere else other than the location on surveillance to prevent the culprits destroying the storage and recording equipment to get rid of of any evidence against them. Step 7: Recording The DVR option is very simple and straightforward. Enabling this feature makes WebcamXP record videos from one or all cameras. The video can be set to record every minute or more with options of frame rates for a smaller file size. This feature is useful when you need to record every moment of the activities taking place in the area for viewing it at a later time. This feature allows you to record a new video every few minutes. Enabling recording of video streams Older files can be deleted by setting the specific period (for example, every 24 hours or more as per your requirement). The frame rates can also be set to lower the amount of data storage space required by the captured video. Every camera feed can be individually recorded and stored. Make sure you have the required hard drive space alloted, if you use this feature. If you need your regular webcam to monitor an area at night or a place, which has very little or no light, deploying IR cameras along with an IR light would be needed. With it, you'll have a 24/7 security system in your home for hardly any cost at all, whereas professionally installed commerical systems can set you back by thousands of rupees. Note: Once you hack the webcam, the CCD sensor becomes very sensitive to normal light and cannot be used in daylight. You can only use the webcam indoors. To use it outdoors, you will need an IR filter in front of the lens.