Another wide angle camera on Indiegogo

There's another quirky wide angle camera open to investment on Indiegogo at: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/panono-panoramic-ball-camera

The camera has some interesting features:

• It's designed as a ball to be thrown
• It takes pictures automatically at the top of its thrown arc
• It takes a full 360 degree spherical picture
• The full image size is 72 megapixels!
• It can also be used attached to a "stick" or tripod
• There's a button on the ball to trigger photos
• Or, you can control it by a wifi App

The basic price is $549 USD + $104 USD VAT for EU delivery and it won't be available until September 2014...

The Ricoh Theta 360 camera is already available to buy direct (or through Amazon) and by comparison costs just £329 GBP including VAT - but its images are only around 6 megapixels - see: https://theta360.com/en/

Little Cyclops How to open the camera to fix hardware issues...

Greg has posted a set of instructions on how to deal with a constant blue light after over-charging your Little Cyclops - which incidentally also includes brief instructions on how to open up the camera (if you want to change the battery or fix other hardware problems):

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cyclops-Looking-A-Little-blue/

Little Cyclops How to Set the Time and Date

As long as there is battery power, the Little Cyclops maintains its own clock and uses this to generate names for the files it produces. For example, 130810-091742.JPG for a still picture file. The file name represents the date and time at which the photograph was taken in the form YYMMDD-HHMMSS.JPG where 'YY' stands for the two digit year, 'MM' for the month (or minute) number as appropriate, etc.

If you haven't managed to set your camera date and time yet than you will probably find that the file names all start with an '11' for 2011 as that's when the camera software will set the clock when it first powers on.

(If you don't manage to adjust the camera clock you can work out the real time any photograph was taken so long as you know the real time of one photograph - then use the difference between the time/date of that photograph name and the real time it was taken - add that difference on to any file name of any photograph produced with the same clock setting to get the real time that photograph was taken...)

There is some devious software to set the camera date and time actually stored on the camera. For maximum compatibility it is designed to run under early versions of Windows... As I work mostly on various version of Linux this can be a personal problem... I do have an old Windows XP laptop, and the process works on that. But it doesn't work on the new Windows 7 machine my employers supply, as that machine is so locked down it won't run software from any USB device.

So, to change the date and time on your Little Cyclops, first identify a suitable Windows machine that you can connect your camera to.

Ensure that the PC is switched on and running normally.

Ensure that your camera is switched off, so that you don't crash the camera software as you use a mini-USB to USB connection lead to wire the camera to the computer.

As you plug the camera into the computer the BLUE LED should illuminate and flash a few times on the camera. The computer should recognise the new hardware and may well "Autorun" the time and date software supplied by the camera. If it doesn't Autorun the software you may need to identify the first of two removable drives that can be seen on the camera and double click the DiskTools.exe software to get it to load. As usual with Windows, depending on your PC settings you may need to click "OK" a few times to confirm that you really want to run this software from a potentially untrustworthy source.

When the software is running, it offers you two options to click. One to create a password for the camera. The other to Adjust the camera Clock. Click on the button to Adjust Clock.

Another window pops up. It shows the time and date that the program has obtained from your computer. You can alter this time and date to any time and date you like. You also have three buttons that "move" the time and date from one place to another. One reads the time and date from the camera into the display (Get Device Time). The second reads the time and date from the computer into the display (Get PC Time). The third writes the time and date from the display into the camera (Adjust Device).

So, using these buttons, first get the correct time and date into the window display, then click on the "Adjust Device" button to save that time and date into the camera.

That's the camera clock set. You can then release the removable hardware and take some photographs to check that the time and date is set correctly. (A picture of a clock is a good test.)

As usual, you may need to RESET your camera by holding down the POWER and FRONT buttons together until the camera switches off, as I tend to find that the camera "crashes" and leaves the steady BLUE light on when you disconnect it from the computer.

Little Cyclops Motion Detection Video

Playing around with the buttons on my Little Cyclops I've discovered a previously undocumented mode.

If you are in Video mode with the Red LED showing and press the FRONT button then the LEDs will change to show Steady Red and Steady Yellow:

After a few seconds the LEDs will change to Flashing Red and Steady Yellow:

Trying this with the lens cap on or with the camera held still pointing to a static view makes it fairly clear that the camera is waiting for movement to happen before it starts recording a video.

I haven't worked out yet if the camera will stop recording if movement stops, that's another experiment I'll have to try if I get the time.

But, it's interesting that there are still features to discover on this camera...

Other camera news - 360 degrees and pocket price pocket cameras

Do you want an even wider lens than the Little Cyclops?

Ricoh have announced a model called Theta: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23980615 and https://theta360.com/en/concept/

It uses two lenses to capture a 360 degree image - so each lens must have a horizontal field of view of over 180 degrees (compared with around 115 degrees on the Little Cyclops) - and some clever image stitching to make for a single scrollable image. (Though the cleverness only has to be done once as the cameras are always held in exactly the same relative position.)

There was a suggestion of turning the Little Cyclops into a 360 degree camera, but this would need four cameras mounted together. This would be bulkier than the Theta and cost almost as much...

There a few other clever 360 degree cameras about - I quite like the Lomography Spinner.

Meanwhile at a more down-to-earth level. This year's version of my favourite pocket camera is down to £49.99 at Argos: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Search/searchTerms/CANON+A1400.htm

Why is this Canon Powershot my favourite? It's down to two main features:

• It has a viewfinder - and no matter what they say about extra bright LCD screens, I always find that in bright sunshine it's impossible to see an LCD screen properly - so this makes it easy to line up your shot in difficult situations
• It uses AA batteries - and again, no matter how much I like the convenience of USB charging on the Little Cyclops, there are always those occasions when you are away from a suitable charging point (camping or out in the wilds) when the ability to slip in a couple of fresh Alkaline AA batteries is really useful

Litlle Cyclops - How to...

I'm starting work on a "How to" guide for the Little Cyclops, my first article is listed on the right: How do I Take Better Photographs?

More Little Cyclops cameras available for Christmas

A new version of the camera is going to be available for Christmas delivery - on sale from Friday 30th August at 7pm UK time from: http://www.cyclopscameras.com/

Ideas for a new Little Cyclops?

There's a crowd sourced document looking for ideas for upgrades to the current camera and ideas for a new camera at:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19p-t4E38g8QsD1Fj5lyHypmWDGQDC1Cpdatrl9bwua8/edit#heading=h.prbe9naqdsm1

Charging the Little Cyclops battery again...

I don't really understand it - the lights I get when charging my Little Cyclops seem to have changed over time.

Maybe my microSD card has dodgy contacts - I sometimes have trouble reading it in the microSD slot of my card reader - but it always works if I plug it in via the SD Adaptor that came with the microSD card. Then again, I did first try charging my Little Cyclops without a card in the slot - as I mostly use Linux and wanted to read my one and only card at the same time.

Now, what I seem to get is steady BLUE and flashing YELLOW when charging connected to a PC. Or, steady RED and flashing YELLOW when charging connected to a USB charger.

When charging from a USB charger you can change mode and take photos as normal - and the lights then change to what you would normally expect when taking pictures (the YELLOW light switches off) - so that allows you to run the camera for a long while if you wanted to do a long term timelapse video.

WARNING - Don't format the Little Cyclops drive...

A warning has appeared on the Little Cyclops Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/fisheyedigicam

When you plug the camera into a Windows computer and see a 512mb device this is not the SD card but is the camera itself with all the files needed to run - please don't format or it will result in the "blue light error" - where the camera just displays a blue light when you try to switch it on...

You have been warned!
 

Single frame stepping the Totem (Linux) Movie Player

When you've recorded your Little Cyclops time-lapse video or even a full speed video you may want to select a single frame for use as a still photo.

On Windows video editors it's usually easy as you can typically single step through the frames to find the exact shot you want.

So, I was disappointed to be struggling in Linux with the Totem Movie Player only offering me the ability to jump to whole second positions.

But with a bit of web searching I managed to find the solution: The "dot" and "comma" keys ("." and ",") can be used to step the video forwards or backwards by one frame until you find the exact shot you want...

Meanwhile... When I edited SETUP.INI I quickly moved from the default video size (1280x720) to the larger 1600x1200 size for the benefit of the greater number of pixels. But, I now notice that the 1280x720 picture doesn't have a border and the aspect ratio is much wider - however, the horizontal field of view is still the same at around 115 degrees - so the wider aspect ration is losing information at the top and bottom...

What colour LEDs do you get when charging the Little Cyclops battery?

You'll see from my earlier post that I always seem to get flashing BLUE and flashing YELLOW LEDs when I'm charging up my Little Cyclops.

But the chart on the Little Cyclops FAQs page: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ma-FZabe-rtCpW2ixXAreCN3jgzgBWMF1vuZwxDAFpQ/edit?pli=1 shows different colours as being associated with charging...

I suspect the lights can vary on circumstances.

Today I got the usual flashing BLUE and YELLOW, but then had to shut my Linux PC down before charging was complete, so switched to using a USB charger. As the Linux PC powered off the LEDs went to steady BLUE - I had to reset the Little Cyclops to get the camera to recognise the USB charger, and then it switched to flashing RED and flashing YELLOW (the first time I had seen this colour combination associated with charging the battery) and when charging was complete it switched to the usual steady RED (ready for video).

But, what do you get?

I've set up a couple of polls on the right for you to vote on what LEDs you see when charging and when charging is complete - just for fun... Let's see what the majority view is?

Charging the Little Cyclops battery

Having used my Little Cyclops as an MP3 player for a while (and taken plenty of photos) the battery eventually ran out.

The symptom of this was that the camera went into shutdown mode (flashing RED and YELLOW lights then off) whenever I tried to take a photo - it would power up again as normal, but as soon as I tried to take a photo it shutdown.

So, I took the MicroSD card out to read the contents and plugged the Little Cyclops into a USB charger. And this is where some confusion happened.

When the Little Cyclops is fully charged it switches on - the lights for charging are flashing BLUE and YELLOW - and the lights for there being no card in the camera are (you guessed it) flashing BLUE and YELLOW. So, I never noticed when the camera switched from being charged to reporting there was no card in its slot.

So, the moral of this story is to always leave a working MicroSD card in the slot when charging the Little Cyclops. That way when it's fully charged it will switch from flashing BLUE and YELLOW to steady RED to indicate that it's ready to take videos.

Horizontal field of view and MP3 Player...

With apologies for the quality of the image - the 5cm radius child's protractor I found isn't quite in focus when taken with the Little Cyclops from the centre spot.

But, you can just about make out that 90º is in the middle of the shot and that means that the extreme left is at 32º and the extreme right at 146º - so the horizontal field of view is approximately 114º.

This compares well with the 80º quoted for the Big Shot camera.

It means that the Little Cyclops doesn't provide you with the full field of view quoted for its lens - of 170 degrees - but we can see that this has been cropped to provide a conventionally shaped image.

It does mean that the Little Cyclops is useful for Estate Agents, Garden Designers and the like in getting a complete photograph of a room or whatever. If you go to one corner of the room (or garden etc.) assuming that the angle at the corner is 90 degrees, then aim the Little Cyclops at 45º to the walls (and probably slightly down as you tend to shoot from eye level so you can see the LEDs) then you will include everything in the room. To make sure, you probably want to take a photo from every corner.

I'm starting to use the Little Cyclops as an MP3 player - it's smaller and handier than the other technology I've got. Just put your MP3 files in the VOICE folder on the MicroSD card and plug it into the camera.

The instructions for the Little Cyclops that have been published tend to be confusing as to which button is which - calling them 1, 2 and 3 or A, B and C - but 1 isn't A just to confuse you. So, I tend to think of them as POWER (the big round button with the conventional broken circle and line), MODE (to the left of POWER with a left pointing arrow on it) and FRONT (on the front with an arrow in the other direction).

To use your Little Cyclops as an MP3 player, switch the camera on (hold down POWER until you see BLUE and YELLOW flashing LEDs) then wait until the RED (ready for video) LED shows. Then press MODE and FRONT together and the colour LED changes to LIGHT BLUE. Press the POWER button briefly and the LIGHT BLUE flashes and your first MP3 track starts playing (through the headphones you plugged into the jack socket on the right of the camera). You can pause and restart the track with brief presses of the POWER button.

Volume is reduced by holding in the MODE button and increased by holding in the FRONT button. Skip to the next track by briefly pressing the MODE button and skip to the beginning of this track by pressing FRONT briefly once, then press FRONT again for the previous track and so on. To switch out of MP3 mode press MODE and FRONT together again and the LED changes to RED to indicate the camera is ready for VIDEO again.

Finally, to switch off, hold the POWER button until you have flashing RED and YELLOW LEDs.

Little Cyclops Lofi Fisheye camera arrives

Well, it's been a busy week since my camera arrived, trying everything out.

It does seem to work as described and has produced some good pictures.

However, my pictures don't compare to those on show at the Filckr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/littlecyclops/

More of the camera's features are fixed than expected - the shutter speed seems to be fixed at 1/125th of a second and the ISO (film speed) at 100 - but it still seems to cope in daylight or bright room light.

The photo size and other parameters are set in a file called "setup.ini" on the microSD card. The battery is rechargeable via USB and if you have a Windows PC you can set the camera's internal date and time through the USB connection too.

An instruction manual is being crowd sourced at:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ma-FZabe-rtCpW2ixXAreCN3jgzgBWMF1vuZwxDAFpQ

I'll try to write more when I get the time.

In the meantime there's also news of a US Boffin Bodger camera at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23579866

A free DAB aerial

In my earlier post I said how I had bought a new kitchen DAB radio but that reception wasn't great and I had to keep moving the aerial when I changed channels.

The FM radio that this replaced had a rod aerial and reception was slightly better, but the aerial still needed moving occasionally and there was no perfect spot.

The problem is that the kitchen is down at the back of the house, with slightly higher ground in the directions of the local transmitters, so reception is never going to be perfect. When we got the kitchen refurbished a few years ago I had a co-ax aerial socket put in with cable leading up into the loft - but never got around to fitting an aerial at the other end (not knowing if I wanted a radio or TV in the kitchen).

The dodgy reception on the new radio finally spurred me into wanting to fit a loft aerial, and a quick bit of research found a "free" aerial on the internet at: http://www.audiobritain.co.uk/DAB.html

In essence, the trick is to strip the right length of shielding off the end of the co-ax cable and put in a loop to form an inductance of about the right value:

It's a really neat Boffin Bodger trick. I stripped the last centimetre of insulation off the simple wire aerial that comes out of the back of the radio and poked this into a co-ax plug which is inserted into the aerial socket in the kitchen and the free aerial hangs vertically in the loft.

Both DAB and FM reception has improved! There's one small FM station I can no longer get (maybe it's horizontally polarised, or their low power transmitter is hidden from the new aerial position) but I can now get that station in better quality on DAB, so that's not a problem. And, other local stations which don't have slots on DAB can now be received on FM.

An excellent idea that works!

HD - why I'm watching SD...

Last year we splashed out and bought an HD TV with a Freeview HD tuner built-in.

One of the aims was to get extra BBC channels to watch - BBC1 HD carried the BBC1 England schedule while as we live in Scotland the SD version of BBC1 often carried different programmes, so it gave us a choice of when to watch things - sometimes even giving us access to programmes not seen in Scotland. And BBC HD again carried a different schedule, mimicking BBC2 England or BBC4 or having its own separate programming.

But since then the two BBC HD channels have changed. BBC1 HD now carries BBC 1 Scotland programmes, and BBC HD has become BBC 2 HD - carrying BBC 2 England programmes - so we have seen a significant reduction in programme choice.

There's also a slight difference in programmes on STV, generally during the "regional news", when STV HD carries the programme from Glasgow, but STV SD carries the local programme from Aberdeen. So, like my item on DAB v FM, we find that the programme we want tends to be on STV SD rather than STV HD.

Also, on SD you can instantly flick to "Red Button Text" or the extra Red Button channels (like "Play Along" with "Antiques Roadshow").

We also find that the difference in quality between SD and HD, while it does exist is not significantly noticeable - compared in particular with the vast improvement in picture quality that we see between the SD picture on our new 32" screen and our old 22" TV. Maybe if we had a bigger TV than 32" we would make more of an effort to watch in HD.

There is one new HD channel available this summer: "Red Button 303". It often copies the SD "Red Button 301" channel or the recently restarted "Red Button 302" channel that also looks to be here for the summer, but it sometimes carries different programmes. The BBC have obviously leased this HD channel from the transmitter owners for the busy sporting summer. The transmitter companies are still struggling to find someone to pay longer term leasing costs.

DAB - why I'm listening to FM...

I've just bought my second DAB radio - it was sold as an iPod dock with DAB - I bought it as a radio - the shelf price said £25 - the checkout price was £19 (even better).

I bought it to replace a kitchen radio which was getting annoying - the old one lost its tuning information whenever the power went off and only had 5 preset stations.

I can see the new one being just as annoying - but in different ways - it has 10 presets but it takes a lot of button pushes to actually pick a preset channel (new radio needs: "Preset" "Up/Down" potentially several times and "Enter" - the old radio had 5 dedicated buttons) - and the aerial needs to be positioned differently for FM and DAB...

Speaking of FM, despite buying a digital radio I still tend to listen mostly to FM.

The main station I listen to is BBC Radio Scotland - and this channel tends to have a number of variations depending on the frequency you are listening on.

For example, as a kitchen radio I listen to it while eating breakfast. At this time of day Radio Scotland broadcasts regional variations on FM but not on DAB/MW - and I want to listen to the local Aberdeen news and traffic news - so that means that I listen on FM.

In the evening there's a similar problem on Radio Scotland - DAB/MW often carries Sports programmes, while FM carries the scheduled music programmes. I prefer the Scottish Folk and Jazz shows, so listen to FM again.

In the car I want to hear local traffic news, and the RDS system for interrupting programmes with traffic news for each local BBC station area you pass through seems ideal. So, I listen to FM...

The only attraction of DAB is access to additional channels such as Jazz "FM", BBC Radio 4 Extra, BBC World Service.

Lofi-Fisheye delivery date slips

It's not a great surprise to me that the camera delivery date has slipped to 20th July.

When planning these things out there is always a tendency to assume that things will run smoothly. In reality some problems are always encountered. Greg indicates that there was a delay in getting the finance through compared with his expectations and that this led to a delay in ordering components and this has led to a delay in the whole project.

I'm hoping that by delaying his announcement to just a week before the camera was originally intended to be shipped that Greg has managed to include all the delays to date in his new revised date and that we don't end up suffering further delays.

The delay does already mean that it's not going to be practical to take a photo with this camera for entry in this year's Countryfile photo competition!

What are the odds of buying the Lofi-Fisheye camera late?

A recent post from Greg indicates that he is still getting emails from people asking to buy the Lofi-Fisheye camera - they obviously misunderstood the way the camera is being produced - in a batch of 1,000 cameras for which the parts order is no doubt already in... so there will be no more.

Incidentally, many cameras (and other modern electronics items) are also produced in batches - the manufacturer predicts how many they are going to sell, orders the parts, and has the batch made, then tries to sell them. If they sell well, there's a redesign exercise to see if the parts are still available or alternatives can be sourced cheaper, and a new batch - probably of a slightly improved model - is made.

If you missed out you might still have the opportunity to buy one of Greg's cameras or a lookalike...

I'm guessing that a number of people who bought two cameras in the final phase of camera availability actually only wanted one, and might be selling off the spare on eBay or wherever... so, shortly after the camera is released you could see some going for more than the £65 depending on demand. As always, take care that the seller really has a camera and isn't trying to get your money for nothing...

And then, cynic that I am, I suspect that the Taiwanese buyer of 50 cameras is actually planning to reverse engineer the device and then start to manufacture a lookalike - so 3 to 6 months after the release I'm expecting to see a very similar camera and it will probably be made in larger numbers, marketed worldwide and available cheaper - there's a risk it won't be as good - and a slight chance it could be better...

But, will they have missed the boat - is the time for this camera now and will Lofi-Fisheye shots be fashionable for just a short time, or will it be popular for longer? Who can tell...

Anticipation is high

I'm still looking forward hopefully to the day when my Greg Dash Lofi-Fisheye camera arrives.

The swallows are back roosting in the eaves of our barn and I'm looking for a small, inconspicuous camera I can stick up close to their nest...

There's a hint from Greg that he is hoping to change the camera software to program it to take photos when it detects movement. As you saw in my earlier post on the Bushnell camera, this doesn't always solve things if you are trying to capture small movements in amongst a lot of big movements. But, it may help with taking pictures of swallows.

This also hints that the software in the camera can be changed. I'm a regular software Bodger, so I'm hoping that there's some sort of scripting language where I can program when and how the camera takes pictures...

No doubt, the reality will bring me down to earth, but we can live in hope.

The price is right...

I have seen the odd post suggesting that Greg Dash's Lofi-Fisheye camera is too expensive. You can buy the door viewer that the camera is based on for as little as £1.50 GBP ($2.25 USD or probably less in the USA) if you shop around and they think that makes £65 for the whole camera sound expensive.

We had a problem a while ago with something stealing eggs from our hen house. We needed a camera to record what was happening and see who or what was stealing the eggs - we had found smashed egg-shells some distance away, so knew it was some sort of animal or bird.

We borrowed a neighbour's Bushnell Trail Camera. As the hens were coming and going all the time, we thought that would be enough to trigger the movement sensor in the camera. But for a couple of days we had plenty of pictures of hens, but none of any theft, and still the eggs went missing. We had to adjust the camera settings to make sure it captured the small animal that was stealing the eggs, effectively turning it into a time-lapse camera. And, eventually we did capture a Carrion Crow flying off with an egg in its beak.

My point is that the Bushnell is another camera without an LCD screen, without a viewfinder, with a fixed focus and fixed focal length lens, and its price in the shops is over £200. In comparison with which, the Lofi-Fisheye seems remarkably cheap.

So, my view is that the right price for the camera is the price you are prepared to pay for its features...

A Boffin Bodger Camera?

Two rubber bands hold the camera to a post

I've just invested £65 in a new digital camera - which is something of a typical Boffin
Bodger product.

£65 is my sort of price for a camera. A couple of years ago I spent £69.95 on a Canon Powershot A1200.

So, I know that for this amount of money I should be able to expect a large LCD screen, a zoom lens, auto-focus and all sorts of fancy features.

My new camera will have none of this - no LCD screen, a fixed focal length and fixed focus lens, just two buttons and a couple of LEDs to help operate it.

It's Greg Dash's Lofi-Fisheye camera which has been launched through Indiegogo - which means that my calling it an "investment" is technically accurate. I and the other investors have paid our money up front to enable Greg to go away and get his camera design manufactured - and, hopefully, by around the end of June he will have 1,000 cameras to send out to those of us who have risked our money on his venture. So, what's the attraction of this camera?

Normally when I buy a camera I end up wishing it had a wider angle lens, to fit in those extra people, or that massive building or just a wide landscape and that full-arc rainbow. My current solution is to use the Hugin Panorama stitching software to merge a number of separate photographs together. But that doesn't always work - people move (and can appear twice in the resulting panorama or just distorted into an impossible to achieve posture), and Hugin struggles with atmospheric features like rainbows and clouds.

I'm also looking forward to the promised time-lapse photography features of Greg's camera. Will it work?

I'll let you know.