Earlier this week a photograph of a mysterious IKEA digital camera crafted out of cardboard took the web by storm. Now more details are emerging and we now know that the camera is very much real. It will be called KNÄPPA, and was designed in collaboration with Stockholm’s Teenage Engineering. Billed as “the world’s cheapest digital camera”, the KNÄPPA is made out of a single piece of folded cardboard, a single circuit board, a camera sensor, and an integrated USB connector.
Read more…

Google’s Project Glass has been all the rage since the company released their mock-ups and video of the project at the beginning of the month, and for good reason — the idea is out-of-this-world cool. But from the start we’ve known that Project Glass was only in the beginning stages, the glasses were an idea that couldn’t yet do many, if any, of the things featured in that futuristic video. A couple of days ago, however, the world got its first glimpse of what Project Glass can do.

In an interview with Charlie Rose, researcher Sebastian Thrun used the glasses and his voice to snap a photo of Mr. Rose and upload it to his Google+. The photo (shown above) is nothing special — it looks like an ancient camera phone image — but it serves as confirmation that the glasses can already perform a few basic functions via voice command. And considering the speed with which technology advances these days, any indication of functionality could mean Project Glass is much further along than we think.

(via Gizmodo)

What do you get when you cross a camera, dancers, and a gigantic 59-foot-tall kaleidoscope? “The Power of X”. This amazing dance video was created for TEDxSummit conference that was recently held in Qatar, and was created without any computer trickery. Everything you see in the video is what the camera captured through the kaleidoscope on a massive soundstage. To see how it was created, check out the behind-the-scenes video.

(via Laughing Squid)

If you’ve been following us for a while you may remember the Hope poster lawsuit we reported on in January of 2010. The case pitted artist Shepard Fairey against the AP and Mannie Garcia over a photograph Garcia had taken of President Obama. Fairey, who ultimately lost the case when he admitted to having destroyed and falsified evidence, was claiming that his poster fit the definition of fair use.

Today we have a similar issue of photographs that have been altered artistically, only the players have changed to music photographer Jim Marshall’s Estate vs. Thierry Guetta (Mr. Brainwash) and Google.
Read more…

Here’s a good example of why photographers should think about carrying liability insurance: Art + Auction magazine is being sued for $300,000 by art collector Corice Amran after its photographers accidentally knocked over a 2,630-year-old Nigerian Nok statue. The magazine was photographing the terracotta statue — the oldest known figurative sculpture south of the Sahara — at Amran’s house in May 2011 when the photographers decided to pick it up and move it to the opposite side of the room. According to the lawsuit,

During the photographers’ move of the Nok figure, the Nok figure fell onto the floor and was smashed into a myriad of pieces, cannot be restored and is a total loss. Defendant, through the photographers, acted negligently and without the due care necessary with respect to the Nok figure, particularly in light of its rarity, value and fragility. As the result of defendant’s negligence, the 2,630-year-old Nok figure owned by plaintiff was destroyed.

At least it was an inanimate statue and not a baby…

(via Courthouse News via Boing Boing)

For his project titled Maet (“Full”), photographer Per Johansen shot still life images of various foods packed tightly into plastic bottles. His aim is to draw attention to the issues of gluttony, greed, and consumerism.
Read more…

Amateur Photographer sparked an outcry among photographers this past Tuesday after it pointed out a section in the London Olympics’ ticketholder policies that states:

Images, video and sound recordings of the Games taken by a Ticket Holder cannot be used for any purpose other than for private and domestic purposes and a Ticket Holder may not license, broadcast or publish video and/or sound recordings, including on social networking websites and the internet more generally, and may not exploit images, video and/or sound recordings for commercial purposes under any circumstances, whether on the internet or otherwise, or make them available to third parties for commercial purposes.

Shortly after we reported on the story yesterday, a spokesman for the Olympics organizing committee (Locog) issued a response stating that they “are not looking to stop private individuals from posting photographs on social networks,” and that the intent is to prevent photos being used for commercial purposes. He did, however, acknowledge that the wording is unclear, saying that it will likely be clarified when tickets are mailed.

(via Amateur Photographer via TheDigitalVisual)

Image credits: Image by London 2012

Yesterday we reported on a rumor that Nikon is gearing up to launch an affordable entry-level full frame DSLR called the D600. Details were scarce, but now there’s murmurings of detailed specs: Nikon Rumors writes that the camera may has a 24 megapixel sensor and a $1500 price tag — the cheapest of any full frame DSLR thus far. The above photo, which appears to show a Nikon D600 strap, was also posted today to the Chinese forum Xitek. If the rumors turn out to be true, we’ll see an official announcement for this camera before Photokina rolls around in September. Let the affordable full frame revolution begin!

(via Nikon Rumors)

It’s been a while since I wrote a history article and two or three people seemed to like them. I’ve pretty much covered the development of early cameras and lenses so it’s time to consider the way we recorded those images so other people could see them. No, I’m not talking about Facebook. I’m talking about film. Actually, I’m talking about even before film, mostly, but I really wanted to work that ‘development of film’ bit into the title. Pretty great, isn’t it? OK, maybe not.
Read more…

Early last month we reported that Shutterfly had agreed to buy Kodak Gallery for a meager $23.8 million. The process, done by way of a “stalking horse bid,” meant that another company was allowed to make a competing bid for the gallery by April 20th.
Read more…