Jolayne Attwood (jolayne on Flickr) was at the International Photography Fair in Bièvres earlier this year when she came across this gigantic Instamatic 133 camera. There’s no covert street photography or shooting from the hip with this baby.
Obviously, what we have here is a brilliant conversation piece.
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About a year after launching the first mainstream stereoscopic digital camera, the FinePix Real 3D W1, Fujifilm has just announced its successor: the FinePix Real 3D W3. This new camera boasts 720p video recording, allowing you to film your own low-budget version of Avatar at home. The camera has two 10-megapixel sensors spaced 2.9 inches apart, and a special 3D screen that allows you to view your photos and videos in 3D without special glasses. Of course, when you’re sick of playing James Cameron, you can always switch back to 2D mode for traditional snapping.
The two lenses and sensors also allows for upgraded 2D photography: advanced 2D modes allow you to snap two different photographs at the same time. The two photos can have different focal lengths, different colors, and different ISO values. This means you can take zoom and wide angle photos simultaneously, or capture motion blur and sharp images at the same time as well.
Priced at $500, it’s also $100 cheaper than its predecessor. The W3 will be available starting September.
Photoshop CS5′s Content Aware Fill feature was quite a hit when it came out earlier this year, but what about free alternatives? Webinpaint is a web-based photo app that aims to do just that. You simply open up an image, paint over the area you’d like removed, and click the “Inpaint” button for the app to do its removal magic.
From tests I’ve done with the app, it’s pretty clear it doesn’t come close to the power of Content Aware Fill. However, for simple photographs without much texture or clutter, the app actually works quite well.
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We often share cool slow motion or time-lapse videos here on PetaPixel, but this video is a bit different. YouTube user brusspup uses a turntable spinning at 45RPM to create amazing optical illusion animations. To a human eye look at the turntable, everything looks like a blur, but record it at 24 frames per second, and amazing animations appear!
In the description, brusspup writes:
The images of the guy jumping is me. I recorded myself jumping in the living room then took 30 frames from that footage and traced the images in photoshop and filled with black. Then printed out the 30 images and cut each one out. I used 30 wooden blocks and glued them to a piece of construction paper then taped the images of the jumping guy to the clear sheet and aligned them with the blocks.
The idea is similar to what a zoetrope does.
Nikon just announced two new Coolpix cameras today: the S1100pj and the S5100. The S1100pj (pictured in this post) is an update to the S1000pj projector camera, with an increased brightness of 14 lumens (up from 10), a thinner form factor, and the ability to become a tiny projector for your computer via USB. This allows you to project whatever is on your computer screen onto a nearby wall… with your digital camera. How crazy is that?
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Typical sized white balance cards may be of (literally) little assistance in color calibrating global imaging satellites, but scientists have figured a clever workaround. Lake Tuz, Turkey’s third largest lake, dries out annually and turns into a giant salt bed. Because of its vast size and unique salty white color, scientists worldwide can use the lake to standardize their satellite measurements.
From August 14-25, scientists will be comparing ground-based measurements and comparing them with satellite results.
Apparently satellites don’t come with preset white balance for “sunny.”
(via PopSci)
Image credit: Satellite image via Google Maps
It’s not just photography enthusiasts that like to play with bokeh — check out this short clip from the new movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Pay careful attention to the bokeh whizzing by in the background outside the bus. The look is so subtle that most people probably wouldn’t even notice it.
To learn how to do this yourself, check out the “Create Your Own Bokeh” tutorial over at DIYPhotography.
(via DIYPhotography)
Deal alert: There’s a special offer on Popular Photography magazine over on Amazon. You can get a one-year subscription of the magazine (12 issues) for $5 flat with free shipping. The annual subscription normally costs $14 (or $54 if you believe Amazon), so if you’ve been thinking about doing your part in keeping print from going extinct, here’s a chance to test the waters. The special price lasts until August 21st, 2010.
Popular Photography on Amazon.com (via Photography Bay)
Update: This deal is only available to US residents.
Tom Lowe of Timescapes creates amazing time-lapse videos that we’ve featured here before, so it was interesting to come across the above behind-the-scenes video showing how he uses an experimental crane Kessler Cranes created. The video shows the crane in action, and then the footage from the camera mounted on the crane.
Who knew a 40-second-long behind-the-scenes video could be so epic?
(via f stoppers)
Here’s a terrific “Doh! Why didn’t I think of that?” idea shared by Flickr user Ralph Odenwälder in his photostream: create a set of matching Polaroid photographs for an awesome do-it-yourself memory card game that you can either give someone as a present or play yourself!
Of course, you could do the same thing by making duplicate prints with your digital or film photographs, but somehow it just doesn’t feel the same…
(via Photojojo)
