latest argos catalogue seems to have some fairly cheap digi-cams (probably cheaper eslewhere if you can find them, but it's always neat being able to see them in real life - although the 16-day money back policy does NOT apply on digital cameras at argos!): "polaroid" (made by concord) PDC2070 (2mp, 8mb) £74.90 - Oregon Scientific DS8238 2mp,8mb £74.99 - praktica g2.0 2mp,16mb £79.99 - polaroid (made by concord) pdc 3030 3mp,16mb £79.99 - concord 3040af 3mp, 7mb(!!) £89.99 - Concord 4060af 4mp, 16mb £129.99.

mepis is fab. mepis 2003.10.02 mini-review at: joshwaller.tk other truths: black keyboards with faded letters on the keys are very difficult to type in the dark unless you're very good at touch typing.

Escape! nearly 13 seconds was my best and then i got bored

Attrition Security Rant: Anti-Virus Companies: Tenacious Spammers "Solution? Anti-Virus companies need to QUIT sending auto-response e-mail to infected mail. Thanks to everyone who sent this one in"

Fuji Photo Film to Market Super CCD Honeycom Camera Module Fuji 1MP Super CCD coming to a mobile phone near you?

very small (2x8cm) linux machine.

BlogInfo apparently nelsoncolne.blogspot has an rss feed... (tea review updated)

VIA EPIA MII - has a built in compact flash card reader! That's cool innit - especially if you've got a digital camera that uses compact flash :)

mini-itx.com - news a passively cool mini-itx pentium-m 1.3ghz system. wow!

FBI to probe MyDoom e-mail virus - Worst virus ever apparently. Just goes to show there's too many people out there that go round opening attachments without thinking. (and people who don't have a/v software and people who don't update it).

Super CCD vs CCD (vs CMOS?)

(obviously the CCD is only one part of the camera, and the lens quality and other factors will determine the end quality of the image - but i'm interested in CCD stuff at the moment)

Does Super CCD really offer that much better image quality than conventional CCD?


(this picture show the basic way super ccd works, but doesn't show the colours)

Super CCD uses the same mosaic type pattern, using 2 green pixels, 1 red and 1 blue. Recently they have announced the 4th generation - Super CCD "SR" and Super CCD "HR" (HR = High Resolution - basically the same as Super CCD but more pixels, eg 6mp sensor instead of 3mp sensor).

"Fuji uses aggressive interpolation to take advantage of the closer pixel spacing on the SuperCCD, producing an image that has more pixels than the sensor itself. In the case of the S1, the camera produces a 6.1 million pixel file from a 3.5 million pixel sensor. The resulting image doesn't have as much resolution as a real 6 million pixel sensor, but images produced by the S1 did show a slight improvement in detail resolution when compared to other 3.5 megapixel cameras." extremetech.

Fuji claims: "New, Honeycomb-Shaped Super CCD Image Sensor Technology Significantly Improves the Color, Clarity and Sharpness of Digital Pictures" (99) dpreview here's a review of the Fuji s7000 which uses the 4th generation of Super CCD 6MP sensor: dpreview s7000, this review of the Fuji S700 (using 4th generation 3MP Super CCD SR) concludes that the S700 "Exhibits more resolution than a camera with a normal 3 million pixel CCD" and there's a "Visible improvement in image resolution using the 6mp image size" but there's bad stuff too: see the conclusion.

Here they say that Super CCD offers a much better "interpolated" high resolution (eg 6MP image from a 3MP sensor) than you get from just interpolating a 3MP image yourself (using photoshop etc) - But it does not offer the same quality as a real 6MP camera.

"it would seem the Fuji s602 [with a 3MP super ccd sensor] can provide almost as much usable data as a typical 5mp native digital camera" comparisons here - although trying to compare the difference the CCD makes is always going to be difficult because different cameras have different lenses, images processors, etc etc.

here's another review of the 3MP Super CCD "SR" Fuji F700 Zoom with sample images - the guy says he doesn't think this new 4th generation Super CCD lives up to all the hype. (when the camera costs £260, for 3mp, 3x opt - is it really worth the extra money compared to a Canon A70 (3mp/3xopt) from £210, or an Olympus C-350 (3mp/3xopt) for £139? - see dealtime.co.uk.)

for some more on super ccd, see my earlier post: here.

Update 09/02/04 super CCD 3rd generation artifacts. Fuji 3MP Super CCD HR no better than Canon's standard 3MP CCD here.

Conventional CCD development is obviously not stagnant:


(this is how standard mosaic / bayer CCD / CMOS sensors work)


(this shows sony's new 4 colour ccd)

Sony seem to be the other big player in CCD development - they have developed a new CCD adding an additional colour (link) and a lot of other manufacturers often use Sony CCDs. (more info: sony press release) Cameras that use the new 4-colour filter CCD: macnn and a review of the Sony DSC-f828: dpreview dsc-f828 - it apparently "reduces color reproduction errors". Dpreview concludes that the 4-colour filter CCD is good: "New RGBE four color CCD delivers more pleasing color balance than DSC-F717 it replaces"

Kodak and Olympus are working together, Kodak have developed this 5MP GRGB CCD, (using the standard 1 Red, 2 Green, 1 Blue pixel), which is used in this Olympus E1.

Pentax use a 6MP Sony CCD in the stupidly named Pentax *ist D.

What about CMOS?

Most people tend to think of CMOS sensors in relation to cheap poor quality digital cameras that generally produce images that don't compare well to CCD cameras.

However - there's high-end CMOS sensor development from the like's of Nikon and Canon. 4.1MP in the case of this Nikon: Nikon D2H Review (dpreview) and 6MP CMOS sensor used in the popular high-end Canon EOS 300D. Canon are using an 8.2MP CMOS sensor in this new Canon.


(this is how foveon sensor works)

Another CMOS sensor (the clever Foveon X3) is used by the Sigma sd10 (preview) and the Sigma sd9 (review), I thought this deserved a more specific mention - reading this makes it sound awesome! more tech details.

...another is the Kodak DCS 14n which has a 13MP CMOS sensor. What's the quality like - and how does it compare to CCD? - From quickly skimming the reviews using a CMOS sensor in these high-end cameras results in pictures that are just as good as a CCD camera can produce. I've read elsewhere, that CMOS is preferred from a manufacturers point of view, because it's easier to manufacture and also cheaper.

From Canon's site - they think CMOS is good: "CMOS: Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. A type of semiconductor that has been, until the EOS D30, widely unavailable for digital cameras. CMOS semiconductors use two circuits, negative and positive polarity circuits. Because only one of the circuits can be on at once, CMOS chips are less energy consuming than other chips that utilize simply one type of transistor. This is a clear advantage of the CMOS sensor over the standard CCDs in use today."

(as a completely unrelated side-note - did you know aiwa are owned by sony? link)

As a side note: Fuji XD cards tend to be twice as much as Compact Flash cards, eg 256mb CF £33 ex vat, 256mb XD £66 ex vat (28/01/04)

The Most Hated Company In Tech you can probably guess who this is talking about. Linus Torvalds: SCO Is "Just Too Wrong" "SCO doesn't own the copyright on the files they are talking about". boycott SCO. and lets throw in another SCO link, just for good measure: SCO offer 250K reward for capture of writer of MyDoom virus. (the mydoom virus does a DOS attack on SCO's servers)

PRAKTICA 1.3 MEGA PIXEL LOOK............ this is an interesting camera, in the PDF here it says it does video: CIF (320x240) @30fps and VGA (640x480!!) @20fps! - although this could just be in the PC Cam / Webcam mode? Wonder whether it does sound? this place are selling it for £109! and say it does 25fps videos...

open office for windows/etc includes a free pdf generator. top notch.

"MessageLabs has now intercepted 1.2 million copies of W32/Mydoom.A-mm. The company is processing between 50,000 and 60,000 copies of the worm an hour. To date, the worm’s peak infection rate is 1 in 12 of all email scanned be MessageLabs. So far, the worm has been seen in 168 countries." link

The Tech Report - Worms bores through fabric of 'net | W32.Novarg.A@mm | Mydoom worm fills inboxes with zip file(s). | update your av software now - you do have av software don't you? | 'Novarg' or 'MyDoom', the latest mass-mailing worm to infest your in-tray is spreading at the same rate as SoBig - The worm also targets the SCO Group's corporate website | more links Mydoom Worm: The Next 'Big Evil' On The Net" | "today's windows virus". [slashdot.org*] | sample message. | more info.

presumably if your company have antivirus software on your email server and it's up to date (and it checks all your emails) then you should be okay. likewise with yahoo / hotmail which should theretically be able to stop hotmail / yahoo users from recieving this...

* "I brought a new Iron the other day and in capital letters in the instruction book I was told to never iron clothes while I am wearing them and that while I could use the shot of steam while the iron was in an upright position I should not forget the previous instruction about not ironing the clothes I'm wearing." link.

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock's new documentary, "Super Size Me," details his 30-day McDonald's diet and subsequent health woes.: "His liver became toxic, his cholesterol shot up from a low 165 to 230, his libido flagged and he suffered headaches and depression. "

FUJI PHOTO FILM CANADA INC. Super CCD history and technology explained. If a Fuji camera doesn't say "super CCD" on it, then it's just using a convention square CCD - not that it really matters, because the results are still very good - it's just that with the way Fuji keeps on going on about how much better super ccd is, you'd think all fuji's used super ccd. These people have a pleasant argument about super ccd.

eBay item - New Folder for Windows XP Home / Professional (link to ebay). ha ha ha some people are so funny. some people are even funnier and bid £10 million for it. oh my sides are splitting. (but 72,000 hits! crikey!)

some videos that are real stylish and straight to the point.

is this one of the strangest digital cameras you've ever seen? Concord Eye-Q 3x optical zoom only .3MP (640x480) - but it has a 3x Optical zoom!! more info.

win an apple laptop or ipod. (click view demo, play the game and then register to win the laptop)

Round up of new ultra cheap digital cameras (just for fun. prices include vat)

1.3MP (real): Benq 1300 40quid | Mustek Gsmart LCD2 35quid (no flash) | Digital Dream Enigma 57quid. | Gsmart Mini 2 32quid (achieves 2.1mp through interpolation - no flash) | SiPix Groove £50.

2MP (real): Mustek LCD3 52quid (no flash) | Mustek D30 56quid | UMAX astrapix 550 58quid (with mp3 player - nearly identical to minolta e201) | Premier DC2302 50quid (3x opt 2MP CCD - sample photos of new zealand) | Premier DC2070 50quid (2MP CCD - sample photos) | Fuji Digital Q1 67quid (2MP CMOS) | Trust 715 - 57quid | Casio QV2900 99quid 8x optical zoom!

the two 50quid cameras from amazon.co.uk are still the best value by far, paying any less means you have to compromise, and loose resolution, the LCD and/or flash. you could try ebay if you wanted a cheap 1.3mp camera though as they sometimes go for less than they cost from ebuyer.com. (eg £20-36 if you're lucky)

3mp, 3x zoom: Konica KD3000 99quid. (seems cheap for a potentially "real" camera, ie, not just a rebadged one, but konica/minolta is the same company so who knows - my gut feeling is that's it's probably just a rebranded one, as no one seems to have bothered reviewing it. Update: It's the same as the 3mp / 3x opt PRAKTICA DCZ 3.2) Probably the best quality / price 3MP camera(s) are the Canon A300 (£125 amazon.co.uk) and the Olympus C-350 (3x opt - £139 amazon.co.uk) - The Fuji A210 (from £136), Fuji A303 (from £147), and Fuji A310 (from £154) are probably very good as well. more fuji 3mp cameras. cheapest 3MP JENOPTIK 3.1LCD from dixons.co.uk for £69 - Index also do a Vivitar 3.3mp digital camera for £69.99.

4mp amazon.co.uk also seem to do the cheapest real 4MP camera: Premier DC4311 Digital Camera [4MP 3xOptical] £129 (GBP) - Seems strange that Fuji don't do 4MP digital cameras.

5mp this kodak dx4530 (sample photos) at £199 seems to be the cheapest real 5MP camera.