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Samsung NX1 Reported To Be Discontinued In Europe, Hong Kong And Australia; Says There Are “Much Better” Cameras Available

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For a while now we’ve been seeing reports concerning the future of Samsung’s camera business.

It started with a report from a South Korean journal, followed by another Korean newspaper and Spanish and Portuguese stores claiming that Samsung will be exiting the digital camera business, and while Samsung hasn’t issued an official statement it looks like the end is nearing.

Reports are now coming in from Europe, Hong Kong and Australia claiming that at the very least the company is discontinuing its flagship NX1, if not shutting down the camera division completely.

In an unprecedented move, the company is reported to have explained this by saying that there are “much better and upgraded cameras”.

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More reports of Samsung shutting down its camera business

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Last month we shared a report coming from South Korea stating that Samsung is quietly pulling out of the camera business.

Despite a vague denial by the company, similar reports are now coming from another Korean newspaper as well as Spanish and Portuguese stores.

Could this be the end of the NX cameras?

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Samsung rumored to be dropping out of the camera business

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This next rumor is to be taken with a chunk of salt, but it’s a huge one if true.

Samsung’s cameras haven’t exactly taken over the camera market, and it’s said that management has decided to pull the plug on its digital camera business.

The South Korean company has not issued a statement regarding the matter as of this time, but Korean journal “Newstomato” reports that a decision to stop all development was made back in July already.

Without an official response one way or another, forums are filling up with “proof” that the electronic giant will or won’t shut down its camera division.

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Samsung Wants To Rid Of Hard Drives, Makes A 256-gigabit Flash

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Up until not too long ago having a complete system made with SSDs was not really a practical option for the most photographers. I mean the highest capacity SSD was 2TB and it was a hefty sum of $800, give or take a byte.

But now, Samsung is in the process of manufacturing a huge 256-gigabit SSD (32GB) should enable significantly more storage on each SSD drive. Considering that 80Gigs of data were around $70 just a few years back on 2004, I think that it will not take a lot of time until SSDs will replace HDDs completely. I mean, price per HDD storage dropped from $0.5/Gig to $0.0317/Gig in the course of the last ten years (that is a 96% drop) so it would not be surprising to see these huge SSDs drop from $400/TB to $25/TB in a similar time frame or to $130/TB in the next two years.

Engaget reports that Samsung are upping their yield and planning to ship during 2015. This means that even this year we will see bigger SSD drives at cheaper prices.

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Samsung’s Safety Truck Could Save Thousands with a Simple Camera and Monitor Setup

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The rate of traffic accidents in Argentina is horrific; statistically speaking almost one person dies every hour, with 80% happening on roads and mainly while people try overtaking other vehicles.

While overtaking a sedan or SUV-sized vehicle can be a rather simple task, trucks are a different story. Due to their size, trucks are not only physically harder to overtake but they also block the view ahead for the drivers trying to pass them.

Samsung launched a prototype solution hoping to save lives in the country’s hundreds of one-way roads and eventually everywhere in the world.

Amazingly the solution could be extremely simple: the truck has a wireless camera mounted in the front and the footage is displayed on a screen on the back of the truck.

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NSA Uses Hidden Software In Hard Drives for International Cyber-Espionage

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Earlier today it was revealed by Kaspersky, a leading software security group, that the NSA has been using leading brand hard drives to spy on targets worldwide. In fact, they have been doing so since 2001.

While you most likely use a hard drive manufactured by one of the companies involved, chances are that you haven’t been a victim. Not that you’ve got any way of knowing…

Infected computers were found in over 30 countries, including Iran, Russia, Pakistan and China.

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Sony Aims To Turn Smartphones Into Full DSLRs with the QX1 and QX30

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Yesterday, Sony’s upcoming QX1 was leaked onto the internet, giving us our first look at the lens mount and exactly what it’s expected to bring to smartphone users. The device wasn’t just officially announced today; it’s coming with a partner, as well, called the QX30.

I’ll start off with a TL;DR. Basically, we got the QX1 down yesterday: a mount compatible with any E-mount lens Sony offers. The newly announced QX30, however, is a fixed lens mount with an appropriate-to-title 30X optical zoom.

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Samsung NX300 Gets Hacked – Will Run Any Linux App

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We have seen some major cameras get hacked and it usually makes them better. Magic Lantern made Canon better, Nikon Hacker added functions to Nikon, and Ptool added video Codex for Panasonic. Now it is the time for Samsung camera to get hacked.

Finally after a year and a half in the wild the NX300 got rooted. Getting rooted means gaining administrative rights to the camera and practically running any program on it.

Developer Georg Lukas went ahead and played with his new NX300, but he did not play with it like a photographer would, he played with it like an IT consultant would exposing the camera security weaknesses (of which he found quite a few).
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Samsung Going On A Camera Craze – Announces A New NX3000 Mirrorless

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Looks like Samsung is bringing new cameras out faster than you can shoot a roll of 35mm film. The Korean company just announced a new entry level compact 20.3MP Mirrorless Camera – the NX3000.

Keeping in line with regular camera numbering convention (bigger model numbers = smaller cameras) the NX3000 is smaller than her bulkier NX300 bigger sister, while bigger than her tiny NX mini baby brother.

The NX3000 will be replacing the year old (already?) entry-level NX2000. And the feature list is indeed updated (as well as the color selection: black, white or brown faux-leather finish). It should be available in June 1st and estimated to cost $529 (with a 16-50mm optical image stabilized power zoom lens) or $479 (with a 20-50mm zoom lens).

Aside from a new 20.3-megapixel APS-C sensor, a flip-up-3-inch LCD and wink-control (similar to the selfie encouraging NX mini) and a longer lasting battery than the model it replaces. Hit the jump for more specs and images:[Read More…]

Comparing Video: a $600 Galaxy Note vs. a $3500 Canon 5D Mk III Is Pretty Surprising

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I guess a few years back this title would have made me laugh. How are those even comparable. Some were courageous enough to ask how they compare and analyze the resulting footage. And by some I mean cinematographer Alec Weinstein.

I mean the Canon 5DmkIII was used in shooting Black Swan, Captain America and House and it costs about $3500 without a lens, while the Galaxy Note 3 costs $600 and was used to shoot…. well…. cute cats and babies. It does however sports a 4K resolution.

The video is set up pretty cleverly, the lighting is not very challenging – all bright daylight; focal length has been adjusted, and shutter was matched at about 1/200th .Each shot is a few seconds, see if you can spot which shot was taken with which camera. Some are not that trivial to figure out.
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