Sony Corp. revealed that it plans to start selling smartphone camera modules soon, instead of just image sensors. The decision is believed to be aimed at signing up contracts with Apple Inc. and other leading smartphone manufacturers. Sony is the global leader in CMOS image sensors, with a market share of about 40% in the image sensors used in smartphones, including those … [Read more...]

HOYA Corp. said that its net profit for the First Quarter of 2013 dropped 47% yearon-year to 12.3 billion yen, on revenue of 100.4 billion yen, which saw a rise of 8%. The company said the decline was because of last year’s one-time profit because of the insurance income of 11.03 billion yen generated after it was affected by flooding in Thailand. Profit before tax also … [Read more...]

Olympus announced that its camera business’ losses had been reduced significantly, but its PEN sales had failed to meet expectations. The company said that its PEN sales had fallen 12% in the first quarter; however, it expected the net annual income from mirrorless models to be in tune with last year’s figure of 9 billion yen (about US$90 million). The lacklustre sales … [Read more...]

Nikon announced a new digital compact camera, the Coolpix S6600, with 12x Zoom. The camera has a 16.02MP backside illuminated CMOS sensor, a 2.7” vari-angle touch-screen LCD monitor, image stabilization via a lens-shift system, and a 25-300mm (equivalent in 35mm terms) 12x zoom lens. Addition features include the potential for macro photography at as close as 2cm, Wi-fi … [Read more...]

Sony announced the launch of a new compact interchangeable lens system camera called the NEX-5T. The NEX-5T is essentially the NEX-5R, but with new Near Field Communication (NFC) technology for one-touch transmission of images to other devices, such as Android-based smartphones and tablets compatible with NFC. The camera’s other features remain the same as the NEX-5R, such as a … [Read more...]