An order of smartphone camera units suggests Amazon might be venturing into phones

Rumours of an Amazon mobile phone aren't exactly new. Speculation started when the Kindle was released; it heightened when the Kindle Fire came out; it has rumbled on since then with suggestions first that Foxconn might be manufacturing the handsets, and then HTC. Now it's being reported that Amazon has placed orders for smartphone compatible compact camera modules with Taiwanese manufacturer Primax Electronics, ready to launch a new device in the first half of 2014. I've not been able to dig up any more information on the camera unit specs, but even with a world-beating camera, any Amazon smartphone is going need to strong hold in the app market. Apart from an interface that not everyone gets along with, the Kindle Fire's primary shortfall is its lack of apps. If Amazon wants to compete in the mobile market, whatever the price of the device, this is something that will need to be addressed.

(Headsup to TechRadar)

Reorganisation at Sony: digital imaging a business priority

Sony's newest addition to the camera world: the SLT-A57

'Was the Roman Empire's collapse a result of over-expansion?' It's the sort of question that university lecturers put at the bottom of an exam paper to allow anyone who hasn't revised to ramble on interminably and at least write something. If Sony's latest corporate reorganisation fails, and the company continues it overall downward spiral, future business analysts might, too, ask if Sony's demise was precipated by being too big.

From 1 April this year, Sony will embrace a new corporate structure that merges consumer and professional branches, streamlines the decision-making process, and places digital imaging, gaming, and mobile devices at the foundations of its business. The initiative is called One Sony (how very unifying) and is the brainchild of the incoming CEO Kazuo Hirai.

Over the past few years, Sony has struggled to convince people that they should be buying Sony TVs, has divorced itself from Ericsson, and can't really compete with the likes of Netflix or Amazon when it comes to content access. But people love Playstations and Sony held second place in the market share of worldwide camera sales in 2010. (17.9%, compared to Canon's leading 19%.) So they know where their bread is buttered.

Another important move is to appoint an executive to unify Sony products and create a better user experience. Will this make it easier for us to get our photos from our Sony cameras onto our Sony tablets and our Sony HDTVs? Maybe.

Even if Sony cameras aren't your bag, they are a key player in the camera market; their video cameras are favoured by many cameramen, their development of SLT technology is exciting, and they're a prime mover-and-shaker in the EVIL camera market. Sony is one of the companies helping to keep things moving along in the digital imaging world, so hopefully this restructure will help it to stay that way.

(And as for the fall of the Roman Empire, size did have something to do with it, but it sure as heck wasn't the only factor.)

How to do time-lapse photography

Sunrises make for glorious time-lapse scenes

If you've ever seen the sun come up quickly over the city in CSI, or that fox decomposing in the title credits of True Blood, you've seen time-lapse in action. Here's how to do it...

Time-lapse is where photography meets video. Essentially, all you do is that you take a load of photos, and then play them quickly after each other–like a flip-book cartoon–and watch the frames come to life. Taking a photo every second compresses half a minute into a single second; with glorious results.

All you need to create your first time-lapse masterpiece is a tripod, a camera, an intervalometer, and a good idea.

In order to create your first time-lapse photographic movie, first you will need to think of an idea that you want to convey. Sunsets in the desert, a flower wilting, or (if you're really ambitious) a human being going from cradle to grave - it's all possible.

Taking the photos

So, to begin taking photos, set your camera on your tripod and make sure it stays in the same position throughout the whole process. Next, you can start taking your photos. You can do this by hand, but to get the timings smooth and your video looking better, try using an intervalometer. There's many different types of 'em out there - including ones you can buy for about £15-20 or $20-$30 from Amazon, and, of course, the Triggertrap, which comes with time-lapse features built in.

As a general rule, the more photos you take, the longer your final movie will be. Make sure that you also keep your camera on the same settings while you are photographing your scenes, otherwise there will be a noticeable difference in many of your photos in the final product–I find that Aperture Priority (Av/A) and manual focus works well; that way, the depth of field stays the same, but the camera will compensate for any fluctuations in lighting.

Stringing them together

Once you are done taking your photos, then you can upload them to your computer and lace them together by using a video editing software. Choose a video editing software that you are comfortable with and import the photos into the program. The photos will import in the order that you took them and each photo will automatically be assigned a time per frame. The time per frame is the amount of time that each photo will appear in your video. You can go to your tools and manually enter times that work for your video's concept. Most videos play at around 30 fps, but you don't have to play your video at full speed; you can choose to let each frame last two or three frames of your video, for example.

Overall, time-lapse photography can be a beautiful form of photography. It can be a simple process at first, but as you up your skills, your movies will take longer to produce, and they will become more complex. You can start introducing camera movement during the timelapse, for example, or come up with other cool effects.

If you are feeling adventurous this weekend, then grab your camera and try your hand at time-lapse photography. It is a fun way to spend a few hours, plus your final product will be a video that you can share with your friends and family. Keep practising–it's a lot harder than it sounds!

Need some inspiration?

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Life of flowers (Жизнь цветов) from VOROBYOFF PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

Good luck!