The Crucial Camera News From CES 2024 (So Far)
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The Consumer Electronics Tradeshow of 2024 is kicking off, and while we don’t expect any huge camera announcements this year, there are plenty of other bits and bobs of interest to the photographically inclined. Here on Sunday night, the first pre-show activities have begun, followed by a hurricane of press conferences on Monday and the show floor itself on Tuesday.
We’re not on the ground in Vegas this year, but we are keeping close watch from afar to collect just the juicy photography-related news and round it up for you.
Here are the most important announcements, awards and releases (so far). We’ll be updating this post as announcements roll out throughout the show, which runs until Friday, January 12th.
This post will be updated live throughout CES 2024. Check back for the latest announcements.
Canon MS-500 Interchangeable Lens Camera
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Single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) technology is a photon-counting technique that’s been in development for decades. Canon’s prototypes of SPAD sensors, based around its 3.2MP chip, are some of the highest resolution examples and have accomplished impressive party tricks like capturing the movement of light as it travels through smoke. Now, with the MS-500, Canon has wrapped a Type 1 (13.2 x 9.9mm) SPAD sensor in a body that’s actually up for sale, capable of capturing images of objects in color during the dead of night at distances of a mile and beyond. Its applications in hobbyist photography are scant, and its $21,000 price tag makes it clear this is for industrial and commercial purposes. But packaging this tech into a product that’s actually for sale has earned it a CES 2024 Innovation Award.
Leica BLK2GO Pulse Handheld Laser Scanner
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Leica Geosystems, which spun off from Leica’s camera business in the 1990s, specializes in a different way of capturing reality through the travel of light: laser rangefinding. The company’s BLK2GO PULSE, winner of a 2024 CES Innovation Award, puts a two-sensor, solid-state LiDAR array (designed in partnership with Sony), into a handheld body that can capture instant, colored point-cloud scans of a location in concert with the device’s RGB cameras. Capable of capturing snapshots in a 10-meter range with a 2cm margin for error, the BLK2GO PULSE is definitely priced for commercial enterprises. Unless you’ve got $38,400 to burn, and something to use it for.
Boréas Solid-State Piezo Haptic Buttons
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Anything with points of friction is a potential point of failure, whether on a smartphone or a camera body. And while Apple has long replaced its Home buttons and trackpads with unmoving touch surfaces that only simulate a click, its ‘Taptic Engine’ still contains moving springs. Boréas’ piezoelectric buttons have earned a CES Innovation award by taking the principle further, simulating a physical response, but with no points of internal friction or wear. Combined with the advent of electronic shutters, this tech brings us closer to cameras with no moving parts to break down – eventually.
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This article comes from DP Review and can be read on the original site.
