April 2011

Michael Zhang

Night Vision Compact Camera Lets You Shoot in Absolute Darkness

The Midnight Shot NV-1 Night Vision camera by ThinkGeek is a compact camera specially designed for infrared photography. Instead of permanently removing the IR filter from a traditional digital camera, the Midnight Shot allows the filter to be retracted when you want to use it as an IR camera. It shoots 5 megapixel stills, VGA video, and has built-in IR illumination that lets you shoot and film in complete darkness.

Michael Zhang

Shooting Instant Photos as Windows into the Real World

If you have an instant camera, have you ever tried taking digital photos of the prints right after you made them? For his series titled "Instax Windows", Shawn McClung carries around a digital camera and snaps a digital photo of his Fuji Instax prints right after they're taken, with the scene in the print lined up with the real world.

Michael Zhang

Photosynth Comes to the iPhone to Help You Shoot Stitched Panoramas

Microsoft's jaw-dropping Photosynth technology has arrived on the iPhone as an app that allows you to easily create immersive 360-degree panoramas. All you need to do is load up the app and sweep your camera around in every direction, and the app automatically snaps photographs filling in the panoramic image (you can also tap it if it gets sluggish with its snapping).

Michael Zhang

US Postal Service Uses Photo of Wrong Statue of Liberty on Stamp

The United States Postal Service admitted last week that the Statue of Liberty photo found on 3 billion newly printed stamps was in fact an image of the half-size replica (shown on left above) found in front of the New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas rather than the original in NYC. The original photo was shot by photographer Raimund Linke and was found through Getty Images.

Michael Zhang

First Underwater Color Photo Ever Taken

This is the first color photograph ever taken underwater. It's a hogfish captured off the Florida Keys in 1926 by National Geographic photographer Charles Martin and Dr. William Longley. In addition to some special waterproof camera housing, the duo used pounds of highly explosive magnesium flash powder to illuminate the scene.

Michael Zhang

Nikon and Sony Gaining on Canon in Worldwide Digital Camera Market

Market research firm IDC released its findings about the worldwide digital camera market recently, with interesting details about the current market shares of camera manufacturers. From 2009 to 2010, Canon's share remained perfectly constant at 19%, while #2 player Sony increased its share from 16.9% to 17.9%. Nikon also grew from 11.1% to 12.6%. The worldwide market for digital cameras is also growing -- last year it increased 10% to 141 million cameras sold.

Michael Zhang

Local News Piece Paints Boston Street Photographers as Perverts

Boston news station WBZ-TV stirred up some controversy recently after airing a piece titled "Downtown Crossing ‘Street Photographers’ Crossing The Line?". Apparently a viewer sent in some video showing a group of six or seven older men who regularly visit a particular crosswalk to photograph pedestrians on the street, saying that they see the men "aggressively hunting down and photographing women and children nearly every day". The station then decided to air a piece and publish a story from this perspective, questioning the intentions of the photographers and quoting other pedestrians on the sidewalk disturbed by their behavior.

Michael Zhang

Homemade Medium Format Camera with 360 Degree Lens

Check out this bizarre looking homemade medium format camera spotted by tokyo camera style on the streets of Tokyo, Japan. That bizarre glass bulb you see sticking out of it is the 360 degree lens that projects panoramic views onto the 120 film inside the camera.

Michael Zhang

Famous Photos Recreated with Star Wars Clone Troopers

David Eger has a fun 365 day photo project called "365 Days of Clones" in which he posts a daily photo involving Star Wars clone trooper action figures. He also has a neat mini-series in which he recreates famous photographs, called "Cloned Photos". See if you recognize any of these.