March 2011

Michael Zhang

Man Uses a Canon 5D Mark II as a Secret Video Camera in North Korea

When's the last time you saw some amateur video shot from inside North Korea? There's a good chance the answer is never, given how secretive the country is and how tight the policies are for what outsiders are allowed to do. Photojournalist Steve Gong, however, captured some really high quality video from inside the country using a Canon 5D Mark II.

Michael Zhang

Flickr Chief Matthew Rothenberg Departs

Matthew Rothenberg, the man who has led Flickr the past two years has Head of Product, announced today that he is leaving the service. In a message posted to his Twitter account, Rothenberg states,

Here goes: after 5 years, I will be stepping away from Flickr. Will miss working with such a talented, hard-working, and hard-drinking team.

Despite reassurances from Yahoo that Flickr is doing well, many will undoubtably look at this development and wonder whether the future for the service is as bright as the company would like us to think. TechCrunch also reported today that the situation inside the service isn't too great.

Michael Zhang

Surreal Double Exposure Photographs Created Entirely In-Camera

"Double Exposure" is a series of surreal photos by Dan Mountford creating by exposing single frames of film twice. While they look like photo-manipulations done with fancy image editing programs, Mountford relies on fancy camerawork for the images, leaving only the color additions/modifications to post-processing.

Michael Zhang

How Not to Do Wedding Photography

You've probably heard people say that you shouldn't try to get a cheap photographer for wedding photography. Here's a good example of why.

Can you point out all the things this wedding photographer is doing wrong? Leave a comment and we'll get a running list going here.

Michael Zhang

Delicious Canon Rebel XT Cookies

Check out these Canon Rebel XT cookies made by CookieJan's Creations. They're 3D, with 67mm "zoom" lenses attached, and are tasty for both the mouth and the eyes.

Jessica Lum

Collector Claims Discovery of Chopin Photograph

A Polish collector claims he's found an extremely rare daguerrotype of composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin, taken in his final repose in 1849.

If the image is authentic, it would be one of only three photographs of the composer, including the image of him alive in 1846, above. And it would be the only known original daguerrotype in existence -- all other images are duplicates.

Michael Zhang

Egyptian Blogger Has Photos Deleted by Flickr, Enlists the Help of Anonymous

After several Egyptian secret police buildings were raided recently by protestors, Egyptian blogger Hossam (AKA 3arabawy) stayed awake for two days organizing and uploading photographs of members of Egypt's secret police who have been accused of brutality and torture. The problem was, Hossam was uploading the images to Flickr, and Flickr wasn't happy about the fact that he didn't shoot them. Flickr soon vaporized the photographs and emailed him a warning for copyright violation.

Michael Zhang

Tsunami-leveled City Sendai Home to Major Nikon Manufacturing Plant

The massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that devastated Japan today was located just east of the city of Sendai, which subsequently suffered major damage due to the resulting tsunami. What you might not know is that the city is home to Nikon's flagship manufacturing facility -- the plant that produces Nikon's professional DSLRs (e.g. D3s, D3x and D700). Fortunately, Nikon reports that there have been no reports of injuries among its employees in that city, and the plant seems to have escaped serious damage as well.

Michael Zhang

Actual Spy Cameras Used by the CIA

Like the US Government, the CIA has its own Flickr account, and one of the sets they have features photos of various gadgets used by the agency's spies over the years. Among the gadgets are a number of spy cameras designed for various purposes and scenarios.

Michael Zhang

Wall Mounted Box Prints Polaroid-style Instagr.am Photos Remotely

Instaprint is a neat wall-mounted printer that fuses old-school Polaroid-style instant photos with social media (namely Instagr.am). Basically it's a box you rent for events that contains a modified, Internet-connected Zink printer. It uses the Instagr.am API to constantly scan for a specific location or hashtag, and when new photos are found they're automatically printed and pushed out the bottom.

Michael Zhang

Sleek Case Transforms iPhone 4 into Futuristic-looking Camera

The UN01 is a Kickstarter-funded iPhone 4 case that makes it look like some kind of Apple-designed futuristic camera. The middle of the case features a pseudo-lens bulge that is actually a locking mechanism that secures the two halves of the case. They're looking to raise $23,000 to bring this case to market in 7 colors, and a pledge of $30 will pre-order one for you in black or white.

Michael Zhang

Roll of Film Lost During NYC Blizzard Returned to Owners

At the beginning of the year, a guy named Todd Bieber was skiing in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park when he came across a lost roll of film. After he had the pictures developed, he discovered some pretty nice photographs, and created a video to find the owners. The video went viral, and amassed over 1 million views.

Michael Zhang

Camera on the iPad 2 is a World’s First, but in a Bad Way

When the iPad 2 was announced a week ago, many people were undoubtedly excited that front and rear-facing cameras were added to the device. However, rather than endow the iPad with a rear-camera equal or superior to the iPhone 4's, the geniuses at Apple decided to add a pretty lame one, giving it the (dis)honor of being the first "camera" to have a sensor resolution lower than the display resolution.

Michael Zhang

Wooden Tripod for Photographers Who Want Both Style and Stability

Most modern tripods are made of materials that are designed to be light-weight yet stable. If having the lightest of tripods isn't a requirement for you, then check out these hand-made wooden tripods from the German company Berlebach. Though they can weigh in at 6+ pounds, the solid ash wood legs are supposedly better at dampening vibration than steel, carbon, or aluminum. Plus, they look pretty snazzy.

Michael Zhang

Press This Cat’s Butt and 3-megapixel Photographs Come Out

The Necono Digital Camera is a funky cat-shaped digital camera out of Japan that might make it easier for you to take smiling baby photos. It's a 3 megapixel camera that doesn't have any LCD screen embedded for you to review your shots -- you have to connect it to a "Monitor Ground" base that includes an LCD or transfer the images to your computer via USB. The cat has a shutter button on its butt, the camera and a self-timer LED in its eyes, and magnetic feet that allow you to stick it in random places.

Like many novelty cameras, the Necono doesn't exactly come cheap... It'll run you a whopping ¥15,750 ($192). At least you can be the only one among your friends to take pictures with a cat.