design

Michael Zhang

Make Your Wall Magnetic for an Awesome Way to Show Off Photos

Did you know that you can turn any wall magnetic by painting it with magnetic primer? Communications company M Booth did this with one of its walls, then sent out employees onto the streets of NYC with Fujifilm Instax cameras. The result is this impressive wall displaying 800 instant photos!

Michael Zhang

Flickr Designer Writes Blog Post Publicly Criticizing the Site’s Usability

There have been a number of stories lately reporting that a large number of Flickr users are leaving the site for new photo-sharing services that are cropping up, including Instagram and 500px. Earlier his week, a designer at Flickr named Timoni West wrote a post on her blog that publicly criticized Flickr's usability. More specifically, she calls the "Your contacts" page (the one that shows your contacts' photos) the "most important page on Flickr", pointing out the problems with the page and offering redesign ideas that would address them.

Michael Zhang

Canon EOS-0: All the Bells and Whistles You Never Wanted to See on a DSLR

The Canon EOS-0 is what you get at the Apocalypse when all the major camera, software, and operating system companies get together to unleash unspeakable evil into the world. It's a camera with a little bit of everything: support for every major lens mount, a drive for various kinds of discs, Windows Vista as the operating system (shudder), Photoshop available on the giant widescreen LCD, etc... Pretty much the only thing you won't find on this camera is a toaster.

Michael Zhang

Nikon D5R Concept Camera Features Rotating Sensor and Viewfinder

Illinois industrial design student Ned Mulka created this Nikon D5R concept camera for his senior thesis design project. While the design itself may be pretty iffy for a camera, the main idea behind it is pretty interesting -- instead of having to rotate the camera itself for portrait orientation photos, why not only rotate the sensor, mirror, and viewfinder? An even crazier design would involve only rotating the sensor, allowing the camera to shoot any orientation without having to change how you hold the camera -- though this would probably be an engineering nightmare for the camera makers.

Michael Zhang

How Nikon (And Other Big Companies) Responds to Design Suggestions

On Nikon's question and answer Facebook app, a guy named Andrew Yu offered the idea of replacing the shutter button with two touch sensors and received the above response from Nikon. It's an interesting look at how Nikon, camera manufacturers, and big corporations in general usually respond to ideas and suggestions from the general public.

Michael Zhang

Imagining a Compact Camera Designed by Leica and Apple

The Leica i9 is a concept camera case dreamed up by design firm BLACK Design Associates for the iPhone 4. Unlike the Slow Photography Camera we shared last week, the i9 is actually an independent camera that simply uses the iPhone as a giant touch screen and as a modem for the web.

Michael Zhang

Hitch Concept Camera for Capturing Memories at Group Events

At weddings, guests are often given disposable cameras that they can use to capture memories from their vantage point, but collecting and processing them afterwards can be a hassle and it's definitely not something that has caught up with our digital photography age. Hitch is a concept camera idea by industrial design student Martin Spurway that makes a lot of sense -- guests at an event are given simplified digital cameras, and photographs from the cameras are automatically collected when the camera is placed on a special dock.

Michael Zhang

Nikon D800 Concept Features Detachable LCD Screen and Swiveling Grip

TechnoFotografia created a concept design for the yet-to-be-announced Nikon D800 DSLR. One of the novel features dreamed up for the design is a LCD screen that can be detached from the camera and used remotely (seen above). If this were to ever exist on a DSLR, losing the screens would be an issue, and replacing them would likely cost a fortune.

Michael Zhang

Another Concept Design for Digital Film

One of the biggest hits this past April Fool's Day was RE-35, a futuristic cartridge that transforms any 35mm film camera into a digital one. As the website went viral, many people actually thought it was a real product, prompting the design company behind the design to issue a notice on the website explaining that it was fake. As stated by numerous readers, digital film isn't exactly a new idea -- an actual company called Silicon Film attempted this product about a decade ago (and even gave a demo at PMA 2001) but ran into "storage, battery, environment and sensor size limitations".

Judging from the response to this April Fool's Prank, however, it's pretty clear that this is an idea that would be enormously popular with photographers if it were to actually exist and perform reasonably well. The above illustration is another concept design for "digital film", created by students of Hongik University for the iF Design Awards this year.

Michael Zhang

Old Navy Follows in Gap’s Footsteps and Uses Photo without Permission

Last month we reported that a Flickr photographer had found his photograph of a car being used as a Gap clothing design without his permission. It now appears that appropriating images from the web wasn't limited to that design, nor just the Gap brand -- Old Navy, another brand owned by Gap, is now being accused of stealing a car photograph as well. A photographer was strolling around in an Old Navy store in El Centro, California when he came across a shirt that he just couldn't stop staring at. It featured a Land Cruiser that look remarkably similar to one he had photographed before.

Michael Zhang

Fujifilm Finepix X100 Next to the Leica M3

Here's a side-by-side comparison of Fujifilm's Finepix X100 and the classic Leica M3. Needless to say, the X100 is one classy looking digital camera. It just started shipping this past weekend in Japan, and should begin arriving elsewhere in the very near future. If you want a closer look at the camera's features, check out the 124 page owners manual that recently found its way online.

Michael Zhang

Decorate Your Wall with Fake Frames and Real Photos

You might have framed photographs up in your home, but what about using an entire wall to show off your pictures? Photographer Lyanne Wylde turned her hallway into a photo wall by putting up wallpaper with frames and slowly filling in the frames with her own photographs. You can buy the wallpaper, titled "Frames", yourself from Graham & Brown for $45 a roll and start your own wall!

Michael Zhang

Wireless Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens Concept Camera

You've probably heard of EVIL cameras already, but how about WVIL? The Wireless Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens is a concept camera design by Seattle-based design firm Artefactgroup. What's novel about the design is that the imaging sensor is situated in the back of the lens rather than in the camera body, allowing the lens to be detached and used apart from the body wirelessly.

Michael Zhang

Sony A77 Rumored to Have Two Pellicle Mirrors for Crazy Hybrid Viewfinder

SonyAlphaRumors received a pretty interesting tip yesterday regarding the design of the upcoming Sony Alpha A77 (which is still a rumor at this point). The anonymous tipster wrote that the camera -- successor to the A700 -- will have an innovative design that boasts a hybrid viewfinder by blending optical and electronic images:

Yesterday Sony explained the new system that will be used for the incoming a77 (the a750 will use a regular SLR design). Practically the are using two semi-transparent mirrors and a high-resolution EVF to reinforced the live image. They are using a reflexive technology design called 70/30, between each semi-transparent mirrors.

The final image in the viewfinder will have 30% of original image and 70% of electronic reinforced image through the new EVF.