We're about to take a trip back in time to the early 1960s and learn how a $40 drugstore camera forced NASA to rethink its space missions. Yes, it’s true. A simple camera purchased at the local drugstore played a pivotal role in shaping the future of space exploration and set the stage for space photography in a non-scientific domain.
It was the kind of summer day that your mind instantly recalls when you hear the words “summer day”. Warm, sunny, gorgeous. William Meredith’s daughters, as was their habit when a day felt this good, lounging in the backyard, sunning in their swimsuits. All was peaceful -- until the girls entered the house, warning their father of an intruder in their backyard.
If you own a Nintendo Switch and an Android smartphone, did you know that the two can be paired for photography? It turns out the Joy-Con controller can be used as a remote shutter release for triggering photos without having to touch your phone.
In the past decade, Zeiss has launched a number of new lens lines for DSLR and mirrorless cameras with unusual-sounding names such as Batis, Otus, and Milvus. Perhaps you own one of these lenses, but did you know that each of those lens lines is named after a bird?
Did you know that your body is bioluminescent? That's right -- the human body actually emits visible light and can be photographed by an ultra-sensitive camera in complete darkness.
Here's a 16-minute report by CNBC that looks into how Amazon returns work. At the 14:39 mark, there's an interesting tidbit that you may not have known: when you see third-party camera bundles on Amazon with a body, lens, and/or accessories, many of those items may have been previously returned.
Does that photo of the new Canon 85mm f/1.2L DS IS lens look a bit dark to you? Well, that's because the new Defocus Smoothing coating Canon applied to its latest prime lens isn't without its tradeoffs. Though the Defocus Smoothing that helps improve the look of bokeh in photos, it's going to cost you a stop and a half of light wide open.
When the Google Pixel 4 was announced this week, it was revealed that it would be the first Pixel phone to not provide all users with free unlimited original-quality backups on Google Photos. But in a strange twist, thanks to a "loophole," owners of newer iPhone models do get free unlimited original-quality storage in the Google cloud.
After the Apollo 11 mission that successfully landed the first humans on the Moon back in July 1969, a NASA photographer unexpectedly became the first non-astronaut to touch Moon dust with his bare hands.
One of the biggest announcements in the camera industry this year was the Nikon Z Series and its first two cameras, the Z6 and Z7. That's how the camera models are usually spelled out when you see them across the Interwebs, but did you know that they're officially the Z 6 and Z 7? Yes, with a space in the middle.
"Migrant Mother" by photographer Dorothea Lange is an iconic image of the Great Depression and one of the most famous photos in US history. But did you know that the photo was "Photoshopped"?
You may have heard the camera brand "Nikon" be pronounced in different ways by different people in different countries. But what's the official and "correct" way of pronouncing the company's name?
If you're ever buying a Nikon camera or lens and the seller tells you they purchased it brand new, there's a very easy way to see at a glance whether it was actually factory refurbished. Simply glance at the serial number and look for a "secret code."
Here's an interesting little factoid: did you know that the iPhone's shutter sound was originally recorded from a Canon camera?
How does SpaceX get such clear and detailed imagery and footage of its rocket launches? Here's a 5-minute video from Primal Space that answers that question.
Do you use Eneloop Pro rechargeable batteries in your photo equipment? You may be able to get the same performance at a much lower cost. This interesting 7-minute video from Matthew Eargle of AirborneSurfer looks into whether these relatively expensive batteries ($20 per pack of 4) are actually identical to the much cheaper IKEA LADDA batteries that cost just $5 per pack of 4.
Did you know that there are only two known photos in existence that show the US Supreme Court in session? Cameras have long been banned inside the courtroom, so the only two photos were captured many decades ago by people who snuck cameras in.
Did you know that some colors in the world are too intense for an average consumer computer screen to display? In this 3-minute video by Tom Scott, see how one really intense pink is just too pink for your screen.
Here's an interesting portraiture tip you may not have considered before: what you wear as a photographer can affect how your portraits turn out due to the reflected light. That's what's shown in this simple 43-second video by the Koldunov Brothers.
The foods you buy in the store and at restaurants are never as tasty as they look in advertising photos, but what many people might not know is that you probably wouldn't enjoy eating the foods seen in those pictures. The reason is because commercial food photographers use all kinds of non-edible products to cleverly make food look delicious in front of a lens. Here's a 9-minute video on 10 of those tricks.
I never get tired of seeing our closest star set below the horizon, and seeing how the landscape changes as the warm light gets fainter by the minute. Every sunset has its personality depending each location, weather and season. One beautiful thing about a sunset is what happens right after the Sun has set. If turn around, you can slowly see the Earth shadow rising from the horizon.
Here's a fun little piece of photography trivia: did you know that when it was released in 1998, the Game Boy Camera was the world's smallest digital camera?
Have you ever wondered why some Canon lenses are white while most other lenses in the industry are black? No, it's not just for aesthetics and marketing... Canon has a technical reason for it: heat reduction.
Here's something that most Nikon DSLR shooters probably know already, but perhaps some of you don't... Most Nikon DSLRs feature two small green dots somewhere near buttons on the back or top of the camera. Those dots tell you how to do a factory reset of your camera to default settings.
If you grew up watching Looney Tunes cartoons, you probably know Elmer Fudd as the hunter whose life mission is to capture or kill Bugs Bunny. But did you know that Fudd's character originally started out as a wildlife photographer? In the first episode featuring Fudd, he's actually a photographer trying to shoot his bunny nemesis with a camera rather than a hunter trying to shoot him with a gun.
Rich Clarkson’s photo of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then named Lew Alcindor, in the 1968 NCAA Men’s National Basketball Final Four semifinal game in Los Angeles is a masterpiece of composition, timing and exposure. The square format is the result of shooting the game action with a Hasselblad – a practice that continued into the early 2000s. But that isn’t what makes this photo historically interesting.
Going a do-it-yourself (DIY) route is popular among photographers who want the benefits of a certain product without having to shell out money in order to buy the actual thing. Here's something you might not have considered though: building a DIY version of something that's patented can actually constitute patent infringement, and sharing those designs with others can land you in even deeper trouble.
Did you know that certain wide angle lenses offer slots on the rear mount that allow you to insert gel filters? Often this design decision is due to the fact that the bulbous front element prevents the use of a standard filter that screws onto the front, but sometimes it's not.
So, you think taking your film to the local shop to get developed is a pain? Try being an American spy satellite in the 1960s. Getting your film developed then meant dropping it in a special 'film bucket' capsule from space, which the US Air Force then had to catch in mid-air.
Here's a neat GoPro feature that you might not know about: the GoPro actually has a setting where you can take video and still photos simultaneously. No, we're not talking about pulling low-res stills out of video. We mean actually snapping high-res stills at an interval while shooting video.
Almost all of us know him. In fact, he was probably our first friend at some point. His name? Tom Anderson -- more affectionately referred to as Myspace Tom. As a co-founder of one of the first giants of social networking, Myspace, Anderson has had a hefty pile of cash to play around with since 2005 when he sold Myspace to News Corp. for $580 million.
So, what does he do with his time and funds? Well, as we revealed to you back in 2012, he takes photos... and pretty incredible ones at that.
Have you ever noticed that the watches and clocks found in product photographs and advertisements usually show the time 10:10? If you haven't, pay attention the next time you're flipping through a publication and come across a watch ad---the rule is almost always true.
If you have noticed this, do you know why 10:10 is the default time for watch photographers?
Here's an interesting photo trivia question: can you name any major world currencies that feature an image of a camera?
Answer: the old five hundred peso bill over in the Philippines. On the back of the original series is an image of a Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera!
Did you know that some of the most famous master painters from centuries past may have actually used camera "technology" to aid them in creating their masterpieces? According to the hotly debated Hockney-Falco thesis, some well-known artists likely used rudimentary camera obscura rooms as a tool -- essentially "tracing" parts of their work.
Do you ever clean the front element of your lens by fogging it up with your breath and then wiping it off with a cloth? If so, you might want to stop -- Nikon says the practice could be damaging to your glass. Apparently human breath contains stuff that isn't too friendly toward camera lenses.
This is probably a "duh" fact for many of you, but one that some of you have perhaps never heard or realized before: Did you know that the flashes in the Canon Speedlite lineup are named after their maximum guide numbers? To figure out the power of your Speedlite, just take the model name and hack off the zero at the end to get the GN (e.g. 430EX has GN 43, 580EX has GN 58).
If you've visited the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada anytime during the past five years at night, you've likely enjoyed the dazzling light show that appears on the side of the tower. The 1,330 uber-bright LED lights (which cost a cool $2.5 million) were installed in the elevator shafts back in 2007, and are turned on from dusk every day until 2 the next morning. What you might not have known, however, is that the seemingly random colors that appear are really not so random after all: they're actually pieces of photographs!
Photographer Jeff Cable purchased a couple Canon 5D Mark IIIs recently and discovered …
Take a look at your camera, and there’s a good chance it’ll have this symbol: Φ — a small …
We've heard of camera manufacturers dipping into unrelated fields before, and we've also seen some pretty interesting marketing stunts, but in the early 90's Kodak had already done both... in a colorful, cuddly sort of way. Back then, as an either desperate or creative ploy to get kids into photography, Kodak came out with the Kolorkins: a set of colorful, collectible stuffed animals.