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- First Look: Lamborghini’s New Tecnica Gives the Huracán Its Biggest Makeover Yet - Robb Report
- Duovox Mate Pro Camera Can Capture Full Color in Near Pitch Darkness - PetaPixel
- GoPro's FPV drone camera is the start of its new age of anti-Heros - TechRadar
| First Look: Lamborghini’s New Tecnica Gives the Huracán Its Biggest Makeover Yet - Robb Report Posted: 12 Apr 2022 08:17 AM PDT This past fall, the Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Omolagata (STO) was showing off its track prowess at Willow Springs International Raceway, in Rosamond, Calif., while the marque's chief technical officer, Maurizio Reggiani, was on hand beaming like a proud father. At the time, it was the latest release for a model line introduced in 2014 as a complement to the flagship Aventador, and Reggiani assured that there would be no other Huracán with the same level of motorsport-inspired performance. He stopped short, though, on stating whether the family tree was now full, or if another sibling could be expected. The answer to that came this morning with the announcement of the Lamborghini Huracán Tecnica. And as the name implies, tech is its touchstone. Regarding the Tecnica's fit in the Huracán hierarchy, Lamborghini chairman and CEO Stephan Winkelman stated in the official announcement that it "completes the Huracán lineup, sitting perfectly between the [Evo] RWD and the track-focused STO, flawlessly presenting technology, performance and the Huracán's V-10 aspirated engine in a dramatically evolved design."  Introducing the Lamborghini Huracán Tecnica. Photo by Philipp Rupprecht, Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. The new rear-wheel-drive variant carries the same 640 hp, 5.2-liter naturally aspirated V-10—with 417 ft lbs of torque—found in the STO, which represents an increase of 30 hp and nearly 4 ft lbs of torque compared to the Evo RWD. But it was designed and engineered to bridge the gap where its stablemates fell short. "It's important that our cars have their own special character," says Mitja Borkert, Lamborghini's head of design, while giving Robb Report a virtual walk-around of the Tecnica in preparation for the New York International Auto Show this week. While the new release does not have the race pedigree as the STO, a car Borkert says "takes 100 percent of the DNA of our Super Trofeo cars to a street-homologated car," the Tecnica is much more of a daily driver while being, according to Borkert, "much more agile and higher in performance" than the Evo RWD. Reasons he cites include the Tecnica's rear-wheel steering and a uniquely tuned suspension.  The car is claimed to cover zero to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds and reach roughly 202 mph. Photo by Philipp Rupprecht, Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. Those two facets are tied to the familiar, yet still cutting-edge, Lamborghini Dinamica Veicola Integrata (LDVI) system, a super processor that acts as mission control when it comes to pilot inputs and how they are translated, nearly instantaneously, to help inform the Performance Traction Control and torque-vectoring systems. All of that is further refined by the three drive modes of Strada, Sport and Corsa, each with successively more aggressive engine and transmission mapping. With its 3,040-pound dry weight and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission managing the power plant, the car is claimed to cover zero to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds and reach a top speed of roughly 202 mph. Carbon-ceramic brakes (six-piston calipers in front, four-piston calipers in back) work to bring the Bridgestone Potenza Sport tires, wrapped around 20-inch Damiso wheels reflective of the Vision GT, to a complete stop from 62 mph in just 103.3 feet.  Features like a fixed rear wing contribute to the Tecnica's dry weight of only 3,040 pounds. Photo by Philipp Rupprecht, Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. Emphasizing what is intended to be the Tecnica's unique balance, as well as its place in the Huracán pantheon, are the visual cues presented on its aluminum-and-composite body. "First of all, from the side, you will see that the front end is slightly longer [2.4 inches, to be exact], so we have worked heavily on the aerodynamics. We have increased the downforce on the car by 35 percent [compared to the Evo RWD], especially on the rear of the car," Borkert says. He adds that the rear wing is fixed to reduce weight and is more integrated with the back of the car than, say, the higher wing on the Performante. At the same time, there has been a 20 percent decrease in overall drag from the Evo.  Styling for the side daylight openings (DLO) was inspired by Lamborghini's Essenza SCV12. Photo by Philipp Rupprecht, Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. Despite the fact that, other than length, the Tecnica has the same dimensions as the Evo, the car looks wider, lower in profile and more muscular. This is due in part to the redesigned back end, broad and sculpted haunches, and a front window that Borkert says has been "visually elongated" due to his re-envisioning the lines on the carbon-fiber front. He also tapped into aesthetic elements from some of Lamborghini's unobtainium, including a front bumper inspired by accents on the Terzo Millennio concept, and side daylight openings inspired by the Essenza SCV12 that also incorporate air intakes.  The dash features improved legibility, and the user interface provides onboard telemetry that can be shared. Photo by Philipp Rupprecht, Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. Where the tech comes into full view is in the cockpit of the car, touted as having the greatest amount of connectivity found in any Lamborghini model. The dash features improved visibility and legibility, and the user interface provides digital diaries and onboard telemetry that can be shared, as well as compatibility with Amazon Alexa, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. "This is the biggest design update we have ever done on the Huracán," says Borkert of the Tecnica, which starts at $239,000. "It looks new from every perspective." Orders are being accepted as of today, with deliveries set to begin in the fall. |
| Duovox Mate Pro Camera Can Capture Full Color in Near Pitch Darkness - PetaPixel Posted: 12 Apr 2022 12:20 PM PDT
The Duovox Mate Pro night vision camera promises the ability to capture full-color photos and videos in near-complete darkness. It fulfills that promise as a fun, if not limited, tool. The new Mate Pro aims to "replace traditional black-and-white infrared night vision devices," according to Duovox founder David Chen. Targeted toward nighttime adventurers, campers, and content creators, the Mate Pro is an unassuming compact device with the incredible ability to see into very low-light scenes. The camera is now being funded through Kickstarter. A Compact Camera with Night Vision ChopsDuovox provided PetaPixel with a pre-production sample of the Mate Pro and therefore observations of its build quality and design may be limited to my unit and may not be indicative of the final production run. The Duovox Mate Pro measures 4.5 inches (11.4 centimeters) wide, 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) in depth (including the fixed lens protrusion), and 2.125 inches (5.398 centimeters) tall. Other than the fact the lens is in a fixed position and non-removable, it's a compact-sized camera that tucks away nicely when not in use. The camera doesn't come with a lens cap, so it will be up to you to protect the front element when storing.
Most of its 7.6 ounces (216 grams) of weight is weighted toward the lens, which does make it front-heavy. At this weight, that may not make much of a difference in handheld use, but it does make setting it down on its own more difficult for framing a shot because it will tilt forward and rest at a downward angle. Included in the box is a mini tabletop tripod that can connect to the 1/4-inch socket on the bottom of the camera to help set up a better angle. The body chassis is plastic with six hard plastic buttons on the top of the camera. There's a power button, a shutter button, and four other buttons that act as shortcuts to different menu settings. These menus can be just as easily accessed through the 3-inch non-tilting touchscreen display on the back of the camera.
On the right side of the camera is a port cover hiding away the USB-C charging port and microSD slot, which Duovox claims will accept up to 512 GB cards. For my testing, I used a SanDisk Extreme 128 GB card, which unsurprisingly worked and showed 8.5 hours of video record time available. The USB-C charging port is a little more particular in what was compatible, with a 5-watt USB-A charger and a USB-A to USB-C cord doing the trick.
According to Duovox, ghe non-removable battery has a 3,000 mAh capacity. In practice, it drains at a moderate pace with about an hour or so of total video recording and casual standby time available per charge. A Plethora of SettingsOn the touchscreen display, there are a number of toggles and menus to control the settings of the Mate Pro. There are immediate controls for screen brightness, color and monochrome switching, screen lock activation, photo and video playback, an audio recording on-off switch, Wi-Fi connection, and flashlight control with three levels of brightness. There are also buttons that allow you to change the camera mode (photo, video, and vertical video) and enter camera mode menu settings and system settings. The video mode settings that are available are as follows:
The photo mode settings that are available are:
Seeing in the (Mostly) DarkThe ability to see full color in dimly lit scenes comes from its Sony STARVIS 2 CMOS sensor which was originally launched in 2015 and is being used in a range of products, like Dell's UltraSharp 4K webcam. Duovox claims that the Mate Pro can attain imagery in as low as 0.0001 lux and has 22 stops of dynamic range. Optics in the camera include a seven-lens system that captures an image through different resolutions to combine into one photo and there is also an infrared filter to help retain color fidelity. In testing, there does need to be at least some source of light in order for the sensor to work. I tried setting this up in the backyard one night, hoping a raccoon or something would come by, but it couldn't see anything and what I got was a pure black recording. However, the Mate Pro can make the most out of just the smallest amount of light and does provide full color and luminance in situations where it would appear pitch dark to the naked eye. Videos are recorded in 2,560 by 1,440 resolution, and JPG photos are 5.7-megapixels (3,200 by 1,808 pixels). The camera can shoot in a RAW file format, however, I was unable to open them with Adobe applications. Duovox does apply some level of noise reduction and other optimizations to the images coming out of the camera, but it's plainly obvious that the result is still a very boosted signal. For an image coming straight out of the dark, it's kind of impressive, but it's still clear that, from an image quality standpoint, there are limited avenues in what can be done with these recordings. Still, the ability to reproduce fairly accurate colors is impressive to me. Brightening a dark image is one thing, but the color fidelity is way better than I expected. After my time with the Duovox Mate Pro, there are a few things I'm not a fan of. My first and maybe largest complaint is the super far minimum focusing distance. The lens has a fixed focus which is fine, just like a GoPro does, but you have to be at least around 37 feet (11.3 meters) away from a subject for it to render sharply. Shooting indoors or almost anywhere in my backyard did not have the distance required to make anything sharp. When I first heard about the Mate Pro, I wanted to set this up more for camera trapping wildlife with the motion detector but it requires such an expansive area in front of the camera that I found it very limiting to use in practice. By the time there is sharp focus, smaller critters are going to be quite small in the frame, too.     A couple of other issues is that it's prone to light strobing effects from artificial sources and there does not appear to be a way to adjust the shutter speed to compensate for it. There's also a pretty heavy rolling shutter effect with any sort of side-to-side movements. Whether the Duovox Mate Pro has an application for artistic approaches to photography and videography will be up to the you, however, from my experience, it seems more like a toy for general nighttime observation or it could be used for fun to show off what places or things look like in the dark. The Duovox Mate Pro is currently being funded through Kickstarter with backing price as low as $599. The retail price for the Mate Pro is currently set to be $1,200. The compay says it tends to deliver finished cameras by October of 2022. Disclaimer: Make sure you do your own research into any crowdfunding project you're considering backing. While we aim to only share legitimate and trustworthy campaigns, there's always a real chance that you can lose your money when backing any crowdfunded project. |
| GoPro's FPV drone camera is the start of its new age of anti-Heros - TechRadar Posted: 12 Apr 2022 10:00 PM PDT GoPro's discontinued Karma drone had such a bad take-off in 2016 that you'd forgive its cameras for never wanting to fly again. But its new Hero for FPV (first-person view) drones reveals a more sensible, laser-focused approach that should help banish those ghosts – and gives us an intriguing glimpse of what other Hero cameras to expect this year. The Hero 10 Black Bones is the really anti-Karma. Rather jumping outside its comfort zone and building a drone with an unfortunate tendency to lose power mid-flight, GoPro has instead stripped down its flagship action cam and made what looks like the perfect little camera for FPV fans. You can see why in our hands-on GoPro Hero 10 Black Bones review. When it comes to product launches, this is about as close to a guaranteed home run as you can get. Yes, FPV drones are still pretty niche, but a significant number of pilots have been reverse-engineering Hero action cameras to make them suitable for small drones for years. The growing community has also frequently pleaded with GoPro to make a newer version of its previous tiny action cam, the Hero Session (which arrived back in 2015).
Well, the Hero 10 Black Bones is that camera. And that means we can expect to see a lot more videos like Tesla's swooping Gigafactory tour. The only real downsides are that Bones is currently US-only, with GoPro telling us "we do not have a date yet for international availability". And the fact that it's strangely more expensive than the Hero 10 Black, despite that fact that 'Bones' lacks the display, battery, speaker, GPS, or waterproof build quality of its all-rounder sibling. When we asked GoPro about this, it told us its new action cam costs "significantly less than the industry going rate for a "naked" GoPro, and Bones helps you save time, money and risk by delivering a quality product with GoPro warranty". Perhaps, but there's no doubt GoPro is cashing in on the unique combination of Bones and the ReelSteady stabilization software it acquired in 2020, which only works with GoPro gyro data. And that's a sign of things to come. Skeleton crewNaturally, we'd rather the GoPro Hero 10 Black Bones was priced more like the Hero 4 Session, which quickly dropped to $199 from its original $399 price tag. But this strategy, which seems more likely to succeed than the all-in-one DJI FPV, reflects a new, savvier GoPro that sees niche, specialist cameras as the fix for plateauing demand for its do-it-all Hero range. So where else might GoPro take the 'Bones' approach? A strong contender, based on some patents we recently discovered, is a rival to the DJI Pocket 2 vlogging camera. The patents describe a Session-style modular camera that would, unusually for GoPro, sit in a three-axis mechanical gimbal for super-smooth stabilization. This Interestingly, the camera is also described as modular and compatible with drones. Could the Hero 10 Black Bones have already given us a glimpse of GoPro's vlogging camera? If so, the move would again have echoes its Karma drone, whose camera could be removed and used with the now-discontinued Karma grip stabilizer.
The possibilities for specialist GoPro cameras don't end there either: a dash cam, streaming camera, bike camera and, in particular, high-end professional GoPro are also surely on the cards. One of our few issues with the Hero 10 Black Bones is that it still only lets you shoot with 8-bit color depth – which means there could well be room for a higher-end Hero, offering features like 10-bit color depth, in the near future. While we're moving into the realms of speculation here, it does have a solid grounding – a recent earnings call confirmed that this kind of specialization is going to be GoPro's direction for the next couple of years. During the call in February, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman said that "at the end of 2022, we plan to increase our hardware offering from the two product types we have today, Hero and Max, to four distinct camera products". Is the Hero 10 Black Bones one of those four products? Given it's part of the Hero line, perhaps not – and that apparently won't be the end of GoPro's expansion. According to Woodman, GoPro "expects to expand that further by the end of 2023". In other words, 'Bones' is just an appetizer for what's to come from the action cam maker. Karma chameleonThis is change of tack is long overdue. GoPro has taken a long time to recover from the hedonistic mid-2010s when it over-extended itself with launches like the Karma drone. This set the company on a more focused path that led to the Hero 9 Black, Hero 10 Black and, importantly, a new software-focused model that's produced some popular wins. These include the GoPro Quik app, the new GoPro Player + ReelSteady desktop app, and its GoPro Subscription, which we rate as a good investment (particularly if you're planning to buy one of its cameras).
The upshot of all this is that GoPro is ready to make some interesting new cameras again, if not like the ones of the past. The Hero 10 Black Bones is an interesting start, but it's just a hint of the ways GoPro is planning to chop up its all-in-one action cam into smaller, and perhaps more useful, pieces. Smartphones may mean that GoPros will never again reach the heights of their earlier mainstream appeal, but in its 20th year it seems the action cam king is preparing to show off its new tricks – and we're looking forward to seeing what those are later this year. |
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