One of the big conveniences of shooting digital is that your pictures pop out with useful details baked into the EXIF data. Exif4Film is a tool that makes recording EXIF information easier for film photographers. It comes as a pair of programs: an Android app helps shooters store specific details as soon as photos are captured, and a desktop application takes the Android app data and automatically adds it to your film scans. The apps are completely free, and developer Kostas Rutkauskas tells us that they’re planning to open-source the project soon. If you’re an Android user and analog shooter, give it a shot and let us know how it goes!
Next month a project called Red Bull Stratos will attempt to set a new world record for highest free-fall skydive in history. Skydiver Felix Baumgartner will leap from 120,000 ft (36,600m or 22.7 miles), breaking Joseph Kittinger’s record of 102,800 ft set in 1960. The behind-the-scenes video above gives a glimpse into how the team is planning to photograph and film the crazy stunt with 15 cameras at the edge of space — an environment with zero air pressure and temperatures as low as -60°. Read more…
If you want to live out your fantasies of being a cowboy in the wild west — and don’t mind attracting strange looks — take a look at this slick gun holster camera case by Japanese leather design shop Roberu. Made of leather, the case keeps your mirrorless camera (e.g. Sony NEX, Olympus PEN, Nikon V) in an easy-to-access location around your waist that’s perfect for whenever you need to fast-draw and photograph a fleeting scene. It isn’t cheap though: a single black, dark brown, or camel-colored case will set you back ¥18,900, or roughly $242.
A couple of years ago, Sigma expressed a desire to create a mirrorless ILC of its own. And even though everybody and their mother in the camera industry seems to be jumping on the mirrorless bandwagon, Sigma instead is renegeing on that 2010 statement. In an interview with Chinese website Xitek, a Sigma manager stated that the company would never launch a mirrorless system. Read more…
Here’s a cool idea for those of you who feel that the colors you have to choose from when buying a Nikon 1 mirrorless camera are a teensy bit lacking. A new German website called Pimp Your Cam (Note: some images on the site are NSFW) will soon start selling unique, airbrushed Nikon 1 cameras and customization options through the site and at select retailers.
The site and idea is the brain child of photographer Jens Brüggemann and Berlin airbrush artist Torsten Rachu, and each design they come up with is 100% unique. In fact, if you order a design — which, according to their press release, you’ll soon be able to do from their website — that design will be removed from the site as soon as the order goes through. Check out some of their impressive work after the break. Read more…
Now that July is just about over with, only one month and a few weeks separate us from the start of Photokina on September 18th. And as the wait becomes progressively shorter, speculation about who may be announcing what is gradually ramping up. The most recent batch of speculation has to do with Fuji and the fact that the X100 is now showing up as discontinued on Crutchfield, as well as $200 off at both Amazon and B&H. Read more…
Over the years we’ve featured many incredible time lapse videos shot in locations ranging from Disney Land to Paris, but seeing an awesome time lapse and making one from start to finish yourself are worlds apart. This tutorial series, put together by videographer Preston Kanak and introduced in the video above, offers amateurs and professionals alike the opportunity to learn how to shoot amazing RAW time lapse footage absolutely free. Read more…
Still shoot film? Use filters when you shoot? FilterCalc is a new Android app that’s designed to help non-TTL photographers figure out proper exposure when using filters.
This base ISO exposure calculator comes with preloaded database of almost 500 filters. By selecting the actual ISO value and filter type, the app computes base ISO to be used with the light meter resulting in proper exposure.
FilterCalc can compute ISO compensation in increments of 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 and full stop EV. You can select compensation values by stops, by filter factor, by preloaded filter brand/type, or add your own custom data.
The app is free and can be downloaded over on Google Play.
The video installation “The Wizard of Oz Experiment” shows the movie “The Wizard of Oz“ 5829 times side by side. The movies are arranged in rows from left to right and time shifted by exactly one second each. The video starts at the top left with the first second of the film and finishes bottom right with the last second of the film. The projection is in a continuous loop that repeats every 98 minutes.
A computer voice speaks the whole subtitles of the film “The Wizard of Oz” in a 68-minute loop.
The 2-minute video above gives an idea of what the installation is like. It’s interesting seeing how the colors change throughout the film.
Photographer Robert Buelteman takes pictures of shocking things — literally. The California-based photographer uses Kirlian photography techniques to capture amazing images of 80,000 volts of electricity coursing through flowers. The technique is so dangerous and tedious that very few people in the world even attempt this kind of photography. Read more…
