These are photos taken hand held with an iPhone held over the eyepiece of my telescope last night. Now my scope is a pretty good one – a 16 inch reflector, almost 7 foot long, with an excellent eyepiece (Pentax).  The scope is a Meade Starfinder with a Dobsonian mount.

I don’t get a lot of emails talking about iPhone camera shots of stellar objects and telescope setups.  So this one from Terry this morning grabbed my attention.  I was lost right after the words ‘pretty good one’ in the description of the scope above, so I’m no judge at all on whether these are real / fake / good / bad / mediocre shots.  Giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming they’re real, very nice idea and good looking images – especially the one of the moon.

Any telescope / stargazing experts care to weigh in with opinions on these?

We’d love nothing more than to extol the merits of Sony’s Alpha ultra-compact concept with an interchangeable lens — which bears a striking resemblance at face value to Olympus and Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds standard — but alas, the little device is hidden behind glass. Furthermore, all the Sony reps we managed to corner wouldn’t answer our questions. Will the lenses be interchangeable with Sony’s current Alpha DSLR line, or any of the MFT lenses? What’s been cut from traditional Four Thirds models to accommodate for the drop in size? Radio silence, save for a repeat of this morning’s information and a finger point to the adjacent ”
Exmor APS HD CMOS” sign — which, as we know from this morning, is larger than a Four Thirds sensor, but we’re not sure how much. Still, enjoy the pics we managed to take from behind the glass — and also be sure to enjoy the shots of this morning’s other Sony announcements, the
Super Telephoto Lens (500mm F4 G) and the prototype Distagon T 24mm F2 ZA SSM.

Turns out Nikon’s CoolPix P100 is quite a beaut, and our brief time taking snapshots with the compact superzoom at PMA yielded some pretty good pics with relative ease — guess Ashton’s onto something, after all, if you’re not looking for something pocketable. Also of note is the incredibly sturdy articulating display, a great value-add to the $400 piece.

It’s a beautiful day in Anaheim, which makes it a perfect day to introduce a couple of compact shooters. Regardless of the fact that we just made that up, Casio’s in full agreement, as it has just pushed out the new Exilim EX-S7 (shown above) and EX-Z35 (shown after the break) at PMA 2010. The pair of low-end cameras offer up 12.1 megapixel sensors, 3x optical zooms and direct-to-web upload options; the S7 ships with a 720p HD video mode and a 2.7-inch rear LCD, while the Z35 gets a VGA movie mode and a 2.5-inch LCD. Neither option will blow any minds, but the relatively low $139.99 / $109.99 (in order of mention) price points just might generate some interest from the novices in attendance.

Perhaps it’s unfair to peg as “pricey” a trio of cameras with as yet unannounced pricing, but Sigma’s got a bit of rep in that department. It also has a reputation for cramming incredible sensors inside beautiful, minimalistic form factors, and that certainly doesn’t seem to be changing. The DP2s (pictured) and DP1x compacts (followups to the DP2 and DP1s, respectively) share a tweaked rear design that should hopefully make the notoriously obtuse cameras a bit easier to operate, and the DP1x is also putting the “Quick Set” button and True II processor from the DP2 to bear on its wide-angle view. Both cameras also boast a new, faster auto focus algorithm, but at the root of it all is the same old 14 megapixel DSLR-level CMOS sensor. In fact, Sigma’s also stuffing this DSLR-style sensor into a DSLR, the new SD15. It was originally announced way back in 2008, but it’s apparently really happening this time. It includes the same True II processor, a larger 3-inch LCD, and all those fancy DSLR perks like swappable lenses and a 77-segment AE sensor. Unfortunately, there’s no word on price or release dates for any of this trio just yet.

Now here’s how to show off a durable camera. While a number of companies we’ve seen at PMA had non-interactive displays to exemplify just how waterproof their shooters were, Sony went one step further and put a pair of its DSC-TX5 in a block of ice. Yes, we could pick this one up and play with it — as well as another pair that were submerged in water of milder temperatures — and from our time with the camera, there was no fogginess and the shots were very clear for its class — no replacement for a DSLR, but it’s certainly easier to fit in our pocket while falling down the ski slopes (and capturing our failures in 720p, should we choose to publish the embarrassment). Also spotted? The DSC-H55, but with the HX5V just around the corner and sporting a similar form factor plus GPS and TransferJet, we’re having a hard time getting too excited about that one.

Samsung’s TL500. We caught the bright, bulky beast bristling at PMA in front of a miniature 3D model of the Taj Mahal enclosed within a shadowy cube. The articulating display was indeed quite luminous, and as you can see from the sample shot, the flash-imbued capture is quite nice — same can’t be said sans flash in this instance, though. As for the TL350, we’re always a fan of the analog dials for battery and storage, and the 1,000 frames per second video recording was quite the treat. That said, at 138 x 78 resolution, it’s not practical, but the in-between burst shoots do lend themselves to some fun party tricks. Hardware shots just below, TL500 sample shot after the break.

PMA is just kicking off in earnest down in Anaheim, and it looks like Sony has arrived in a big way. Looking to make a splash in a DSLR world dominated by Canon and Nikon, the outfit has brought a few of its best and brightest concepts to SoCal. Up first is an ultra-compact “interchangeable lens” concept, which is no doubt Sony’s attempt to get in on the fledgling Micro Four Thirds game before it blows up big. Few details on the device are available, but we’ll be doing our best to pry whatever specifications we can from the booth representatives in short order. Moving on, there’s a conceptual model of the Alpha A700 replacement, complete with an Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor that promises full AVCHD video capabilities. There’s also a prototype of a Super Telephoto Lens (500mm F4 G) as well as a prototype Distagon T 24mm F2 ZA SSM, which ought to make wide angle junkies drool profusely. The company’s also dishing out a raft of accessories, including underwater housing devices, HD lenses and output cables, tripods / accessory packs and a Compact PictureStation photo printing kiosk. Stay tuned for some hands-on action from the show floor.