Alan Morris created a DIY LCD viewfinder loupe by slicing the viewfinder off a pair of child binoculars and building the loupe using plexiglass. The total cost came out to about $10-15. It’s a bit wobbly when not in use, but that just gives it character, right?
(via CheesyCam)
Last week Scott Bourne published an article on Photofocus titled, “Photos On Twitter – What You Should Know“. In it, he claimed that Twitter’s terms of service (TOS) forced photographers to give Twitter a license to do whatever they wanted with photos shared through the service. The argument centered around a couple paragraphs found in the document:
By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed).
This was used to argue that Twitter owns a license to photos shared through the service. Read more…
Light painting and calligraphy are both hard enough skills to master on their own, but what about combining the two and doing it well? That’s what French artist Julien Breton specializes in. These photographs show Breton’s calligraphy created with light with no trickery involved at all.
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The first phone to use the 16 megapixel Sony CMOS sensor announced at the beginning of the month has emerged, and it’s a Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot phone. The Cyber-shot S006 cellphone has a 16.2 megapixel sensor and ISO that goes up to 12,800, but it still has a camera-phone with its tiny lens rather than the phone-camera look adopted by the new Panasonic Lumix camera. Thus, though the S006 might pack 3 more megapixels than its Lumix counterpart, the 13.2 megapixel Lumix might end up delivering superior images. We’ll no doubt see extensive image quality tests when both these phones hit the market. The S006 arrives next spring.
(via Engadget)
Terrorists aren’t the only people photographers are being mistaken for in the UK — upscale shopping area Multrees Walk in Edinburgh has begun targeting photographers after a string of thefts by ram raiders, or burglars who drive large vehicles through the front of stores and then loot them. The above video shows a confrontation with security that occurred after a guy and his friend snapped a photo of a shop window.
Amateur Photographer reports,
Though the street is privately-owned, stopping photographers in such areas often sparks outrage, as these locations are considered by many as public spaces.
AP understands that retailers were concerned that photographs could be used to identify security-sensitive information, such as the location of CCTV cameras or the type and make of shutter used to protect a shop front.
The spokesman confirmed that there are no signs at Multrees Walk to warn photographers against picture-taking.
Too bad there’s no wait to prove you’re not a photographer by day and ram raider by night.
(via Amateur Photographer)
Solaroids are unique prints created by photographer Jeff Mclane by exposing large format (4×5 in) Fuji instant film to direct UV light for long periods of time.
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If you have a Panasonic Micro Four Thirds camera and a love for retro photos, the Skink Pinhole Pancake Pro Kit can instantly turn your camera into a digital Holga pinhole camera. It’s a modular system that provides three kinds of “holes”:
Depending on the desired effect, you can use your camera as a pinhole-, zone plate- or zones sieve camera. To a high degree the installed aperture determines how your vision is creatively interpreted in rendering an image. The traditional pinhole creates relatively sharp images with exposure times ranging from one second to several minutes. With a zone plate or zone sieve however, photos can be taken without a tripod, if the lighting conditions permit higher speeds.
Meet the Inflatable Photo Studio (IPS), a giant plastic bag that inflates in 3 minutes to provide you with a super-portable temporary photo studio. This might be an elaborate, outdated April Fools joke, but the website looks somewhat legitimate, and there’s even a video demonstrating the thing in action.
If in fact the IPS is real, you can purchase a large one (with fan included) for $500, or a small one for $400.
(via Strobist)
There was quite an outcry back in September when we shared the iCannon 4 project, where some guy gutted his Canon film SLR to use it as a shell for an iPhone 4. The frankencamera shown above is a bit cooler – it was created using a Russian Leica imitation and a Sony DSC-WX1 digital compact. Both cameras were disassembled, with the rangefinder contributing the outer shell and then Sony cam offering the inner workings. What’s amazing is that the resulting camera looks like a nicely designed retro digital compact – similar to the new FujiPix X100.
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Lens caps, filters, and hoods are great from protecting lenses from scratches and bumps, but they aren’t the best for reducing the impact in the case that you accidentally drop your gear. The Lens Guard by DeluxGear is designed to absorb this kind of shock, protecting your lens from the impact of bumps and drops, and slips over lenses snugly with or without the filters or lens cap attached.
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