Suppose Apple hadn’t abandoned its digital camera business. What effect would Steve Jobs and his team have had on the cameras we use today? Photo enthusiast Karim Ghantous thought about this recently, and came up with the following list of things he thinks Jobs might have pushed for.
Read more…
If you have a GoPro or any other compact camera with a constantly exposed lens, you can protect the lens from scratches when it’s not in use by making a cheap DIY lens cap out of a ping pong ball and a rubber band.
Protection for GoPro Camera Lens [Instructables]
Many Nikonians would have been overjoyed if Nikon’s mirrorless cameras had been announced with an APS-C sensor instead of a 1-inch one, but are DSLR-sized sensors the best fit for smaller interchangeable lens cameras? Michael Johnston over at The Online Photographer says no, arguing that Micro Four Thirds is the optimal size:
APS-C sensors work fine in fixed-lens mirrorless cameras, such as the Leica X1 and the Fujifilm X100. And while NEX is making its own splash and winning its own adherents, many have pointed out that the over-large sensor is distorting the size of the lenses, preventing them from being miniaturized in proportion to the cameras. On the other hand, Micro 4/3 really does seem to have it right: the sensor is big enough, but not too big; small enough, but not too small. The cameras are right-sized, the lenses are right-sized. Everything’s in balance. Everything fits.
Since one of the main reasons for going mirrorless is compactness, perhaps APS-C sensors should be left to larger DSLR-sized cameras like the Sony A77 (which has been getting some glowing reviews, by the way).
Micro 4/3 is the Big Kahuna [The Online Photographer]
Image credit: Goldilocks by violscraper
A 19-year-old man in the UK has been sentenced to two months in prison for snapping a courtroom photo. Paul Thompson was sitting in a public gallery last week — the defendant was a friend who was on trial for robbery — when another friend texted him to ask where he was. Thompson decided to snap a picture with his Blackberry to explain why he couldn’t talk, but was quickly arrested by officers who noticed what he was doing. He was then sentenced to two months in prison for “contempt of court” by Judge Barbara Mensah, who wanted to send out a strong message:
There are notices all around the court building about not taking photographs in court. This is a serious offence and the message must go out that people cannot take photos.
Although two months in jail seems harsh, it could have been worse: CBS News notes that the law gives the courts the right to jail someone for up to two years for photography.
(via The Guardian via Small Aperture)
Update: Apparently the teen was being a lot more disruptive than most news sources are reporting. Thanks Tom.
Image credit: Courtroom by ☺ Lee J Haywood
Back in 1996, National Geographic released a documentary film titled “The Photographers” that gives the world a behind-the-scenes look at how the magazine’s amazing imagery is created:
Going behind the camera and on assignment with veteran photographers for National Geographic, this documentary answers the eternal question asked by the magazine’s readers: “How in the world did they get that shot?” The photographers recount the grueling preparation that shooting for the magazine entails, from mundane details such as obtaining visas to preparing oneself for dangers such as severe climates, deep-sea dives, raging beasts, and local bandits. [...] this video is a visual delight, as many examples of noteworthy National Geographic photographs, and entertaining explanations of how the shot was set up and snapped, appear throughout. [#]
What’s great is that you [US residents] can watch the entire 53-minute film for free over on SnagFilms.
The Photographers (via NYIP)
Update: Readers are reporting that the film isn’t available outside the US. Sorry guys…
Sling Shot is a concept camera that’s designed to capture expressions of fear on people’s faces. It’s shaped like a slingshot, and the camera’s shutter release is the elastic band: pretend like you’re about to shoot the slingshot and the camera snaps a photo. It could make for a fun gag camera, and luckily it’s nowhere near as morbid as this 1938 revolver camera.
Candid Camera with a Sling [Yanko Design]
Inspired by the incredible ISS time-lapse that went viral recently, YouTube user isoeph collected NASA photographs from The Gateway To Astronaut Photography of Earth and created this equally impressive time-lapse video showing the ISS passing over the auroras.
(via Laughing Squid)
Nikon included the above illustration when announcing its new mirrorless cameras in the UK. The company’s new EXPEED 3 image processor, which is supposedly “the fastest in the world”, can process data at a whopping 600 megapixels per second. That’s equivalent to 24 frames per second with a 25MP sensor!
In an interview with The Imagine Resource, Nikon General Manager Masahiro Suzuki says that the processor is five times faster than the company’s current flagship DSLRs by using 24 channels of digital readout instead of 12 channels of analog readout. Regardless of whether or not the Nikon 1 System succeeds, the fact that this kind of technology is making its way into consumer cameras is pretty exciting.
(via dpreview)
New Zealand-based wedding photographer Delphine Ducaruge takes photos from her wedding shoots and combines them into creative stop-motion animations. You can find more of them over on her Vimeo page.
The relatively small 1-inch CX-format sensor found in Nikon’s new mirrorless cameras caused quite a bit of discontent among serious shooters even before the cameras were announced, but now that it’s official we finally have the opportunity to see its image quality in real-world environments. dpreview has published a gallery of 23 JPGs shot with the Nikon J1, along with 5 RAW files shot between ISO 100 and ISO 3200. Take a look, and judge for yourself.
Nikon J1 real-world samples gallery [dpreview]
