Looking for a cool Xmas present for your favorite photo fanatic? Check out the new offering from our friends at Photojojo: The Super-Secret Spy Lens. With an accompanying adapter, this baby screws right on to your DSLR lens, whether its a fixed-length or zoom (but not fish-eye or wide-angle). Inside is a high-quality mirror assembly, set at a 45º angle; you simply point your lens straight ahead, but swivel the (somewhat gaping, and not so spyish) “secret cut-out” towards whatever, or whoever, you secretly want to shoot. Click. Candid heaven! The SSSL is about $50, with adapter. Merry Spyshooting!
The brand-new Nikon D90looks pretty much just like all the other moderately priced DSLRs, whether Nikon, Canon, Olympus, or whatever. Let’s face it: the mid-range market is flooded, with too many models offering not enough serious differences to distinguish themselves.
But the D90 is different, in a serious way. Yes, it has a new, larger CMOS sensor, and new high-speed processing software, both of which could prove valuable. But the D90’s biggest secret is movement: this is the first SLR ever to record video. And it’s hi-def video, up to 1,280 x 720 pixels. And since the camera’s sensor is bigger than your average camcorder’s, and you can use a variety of top-flight Nikon lenses (only very high-end video gear offers multi-lens ability), that means the D90 just became the gold standard of amateur video-making. Just like in your still shots, you can get really shallow depth of field, which is unheard of with camcorders; and the D90s ultra-high ISO settings (up to 6400, which remains to be tested) means you can can get good, moody detail in very low-light conditions. Yes, the file sizes will be enormous. But the quality will probably be worth it for most of us. The D90 could be a video game-changer.
Here’s a slick/hip promotional video for the D90, of its advance testing by pro photographer Chase Jarvis. Many of the clips in the video were shot with the D90, at 3200 ISO. Pretty great stuff.
If there were ever a perfect camera accessory for all our self-portrait-
crazed Fotolog fanatics, this is it: the Quik Pod® extendable handheld tripod. No more outstretched arms and skewed compositions (although for some I know that’s a crucial aesthetic choice). Just screw your cam onto the standard tripod mount, extend the shatter-resistant polycarbonate and aluminum shaft, activate your self-timer, and smile!
From vale__vedder
From tabarruk
There’s even a small mirror that lines up right under the lens, so you can make sure you, and all your friends, are in the shot. Of course it works for more than just portraits—at a full 18.5″ it’s long enough and sturdy enough to offer great still or video views over crowds at concerts, sports events, parades, etc. And at just 3.5 ounces, it’s lighter than some cellphones—totally worth carrying around everywhere. Happy snapping!
Now this looks hot. Japan’s Komomura Corp. has released a new version of its digital tribute to the legendary twin-lens Rolleiflex 6×6, first introduced in 1929. The MiniDigi AF is 5 MP (although it’s interpolated from a 3 MP sensor), and produces images in the classic Rollei square format. You flip up the hood atop the camera and look down to compose a scene, on the tiny but clear 1.1 TFT screen.
While most of the handsome chrome-and-aluminum styling is not functional, you actually do have to wind the crank a full turn to prepare the camera’s next shot! While there are no scene modes and no flash, and the shutter lag is a drag, the experts at popphoto.com nevertheless admire the nostalgia factor: “Think of it as the ultimate photographic conversation piece: something to bust out at the family reunion, camera club social, or anywhere old-time photographers are likely to gather and talk shop. It is cute, it is cool, and it can actually grab a few photons for good measure.” At $399, it’s a pricey guilty pleasure, but a welcome antidote to our current regime of point-and-shoot conformity.
Well it sure looks like the semi-annual Sorry, Your Camera is Obsolete! Season is upon us. Buckets of new Nikon, Canon, and Fuji digital point-and-shoots and SLRs are being announced this week, in advance of their actual unveilings, at the industry-leading Photo Marketing Association ’07 trade show March 8-11 in Las Vegas. One of the best places to get clear info about new cameras is DP Review. They summarize the model’s new features quickly, highlighting the improvements and design changes that might actually matter, before offering the maker’s press release, and enough pics to get a good sense of things. And of course they do a great job of following up with in-depth previews and then reviews of the most promising releases. DP’s preview of PMA, with info on 81 new products (so far) that have been announced in the past 7 weeks, is here.
The most intriguing looking model unveiled this week is the Canon PowerShot TX1 (pictured above), an Elphish-sized cam that wants to be held vertically, emphasizing its branding as an HDTV (1280×720 pixel, 30 frames per second) movie camera. It’s also got a 10x zoom with optical (not electronic) image stabilization. Yeah, we think we might want to test this kid out. Hello, Canon?
Fireworks are the best. But, a lot of the time, when we get home we find that our pictures of them are kinda… eh.
For the New Year’s celebrations tomorrow, I was going to put together a list of stuff to think about when shooting the shooting-star stuff, but our friends at Photojojo have done it for us, much better than I could have hoped to pull off. Their 11 practical tips and creative ideas on how to prepare for and capture the rockets’ red glare—tripod is a must, longish exposures, low ISO—are fairly complete. I especially liked the advice of using the camera’s self-timer, even when using a tripod, to eliminate camera shake. (Most of us don’t have a cabled shutter release on our digicams.) And the creative ideas, like using flash to get some people and context in there, really do work pretty well.
The one thing I would add? While I heartily endorse using a tripod in many conditions, I’ve found that that can limit you to getting fantastic captures of the event, but not necessarily of the mood, or the essence of the night. Experiment with settings, take your camera off it’s mount, and if you’re close enough, go after the less obvious shots (like clarsen, top, and t_squared, above did). After awhile you’ll find you’re expressing yourself in a lot more meaningful ways than just “Oohs” and “Ahhs.”
And be sure to upload your New Year’s fireworks shots to the Fireworks group log!
Just in time for Christmas, Canon stuffs everything into one gigantic stocking!
Hot on the heels of the EOS 30D, the full-frame 5D, the Rebel XTi (aka the 400D), and the alpha-numerically gifted -1D Mark II N, Canon’s latest development—a camera so shrouded in mystery it has no name, number, or even letter—just might represent the photography world’s highest achievement ever in Digital SLR technology and design.
Canon luvvahs everywhere will fall head over heels for this GIGA-pixel breakthrough, which, despite its unprecedented number of onboard controls and slightly unwieldy size (8.1 x 9.6 x 5.2 in., body only), surprisingly weighs just a feathery 4.9 ounces.
Besides its state-of-the-art four White Balance buttons (another 5 settings reside in the 87 highly legible menus), and a perky 1.7″ TFT LCD monitor, this brainy behemoth features an intriguing new-look battery charge monitor—based on solid-state technology.
Just in time for Christmas, an exciting and new, totally unique camera design. Made with toys, no less! Unfortunately, it’s one-of-a-kind, and the creator is not taking orders—yet.
Adrian Hanft’s 35mm Lego Camera is a fully-functioning pinhole camera, with an internal shutter and ingenious advance-and-rewind mechanism, made almost entirely with stock Lego parts. (He modified one piece for the rewind knob.)
See his site for some nice explanatory animation, like this shutter view:
There are also pics of an earlier model and a medium-format version here, and a link to instructions on how to make the medium-format model, here.
And for good measure, these Lego cams take great pictures, as seen in Hanft’s gallery.
Minox, the German company famous for its 8×11mm-format spy cam, has recently released the MINOX DC 1011 Carat, a 10-megapixel point-and-shoot plated in 24k gold, with 10 tiny diamonds surrounding the lens. Retail? About $1,600. Say Bling!
Well the rumors were true: Nikon has just announced the new D40, its entry-level 6.1-megapixel DSLR which it says is the company’s “lightest, most compact and easiest to use digital SLR ever.” At a list price of $599, which includes an 18-55mm Nikkor autofocus lens, it’s also the cheapest. (But even with the lens, I’m not sure that’ll be low enough to really catch on with the masses.)
Check out the in-depth preview of the D40 at dpreview.
Via Engadget, images of a possible new budget-minded Nikon digital SLR were discovered a few days ago on a German merchandiser’s Web site, but they were quickly taken down. Is this for real? No one knows yet. But pushing the DSLR market down below $500—if this camera is real, and if that is the plan—may not be a terrible strategy. While it could easily cannibalize sales of the solid and very pro-minded D50, it could make up for that in laying the foundation for a brand-new category: entry-level DSLR. We’ll see.
Digital Camera HQ has just released a new round-up of The Worst Digital Cameras Ever that’s worth a read. DCHQ has been around for a few years, and their editors are levelheaded and committed to evaluating bang for the buck, and steering consumers clear of digicam headaches. They also get a significant amount of user feedback and reviews. (For in-depth information and reviews of major camera releases, we still check out dpreview, every time.)
If reading the “worst” reviews makes you weep because you have one of those clunkers, check out DCHQ’s 2006 holiday gift guide, which features a lot of good, well-priced cameras organized in useful categories.
Which camera review sites out there do you use regularly?
Got an old flatbed scanner collecting dust on top of the bookshelf? Or even sitting new in its unopened box, languishing in the closet? (*raises hand*) Well, on your next lazy Sunday afternoon, before you throw that thing out on the sidewalk, take a look at Michael Golembewski’s Scanner Photography Project, which details the much cooler and more satisfying way you can recycle your obsolete Umax or Epson 1250.
A few years ago, Golembewski, a photographer who also designs artists’ tools, decided he would build himself a homemade digital camera using a cheap flatbed scanner. Read More »
