There’s no app for this: Etsy seller Erin Paysse designed this pinhole camera out of an iPhone box. It’s been done before with an iPod box, but Paysse added a clean, retro touch to the camera. She’s selling the camera for $80, as well as some prints produced by the camera for $25.
Check out her store to see more creative pinhole cameras made out of boxes and books.
(via Boing Boing)
A while ago my friend discovered Microsoft’s Bing Cashback program, which provides instant savings for “qualified” purchases. What’s neat is that any eBay purchase made with “Buy It Now” and paid using PayPal qualifies for the savings. After he discovered this, my friend bought Canon 5Ds in bulk on eBay and sold them on craigslist for a profit.
I just bought a used 5D yesterday on eBay for $1200, and instantly saved about $100 using this method. Here it is as a step-by-step tutorial:
Head on over to Microsoft’s Bing search engine to search for your product.
In many cases you’ll find the link in the sponsored sites box. If you don’t, just type in something else until you do find an eBay link (i.e. “Canon 5D”). It doesn’t need to be the item you’re looking to purchase. As long as you enter eBay through a sponsored link on Bing you’ll be qualified for cashback.
At this point, there should e a special “Microsoft Cashback” graphic at the top of the page, with the text “Must use Buy It Now and PayPal”. As long as you see this, you’re good to go. If you don’t enter eBay through the sponsored link on Bing, you won’t see this and you won’t be participating in the program.
You can now search for any item you’d like to buy, using eBay just like you normally would. You have 60 minutes to find and buy what you’re looking for before the cashback expires. If it does expire, all you need to do is start over and reenter eBay through Bing. It’s really that easy!
Since the program requires that you Buy It Now, it makes sense to filter by Buy It Now listings, and to sort by price from lowest to highest.
Make sure the special graphic at the top from Step 2 is still visible. If it is, click “Buy It Now” to purchase the item.
After clicking the “Buy It Now” button, eBay takes you to a confirmation page to allow you to review what you’re getting into. If you’ve done the previous steps correctly, this page will also have a special “Microsoft cashback” box that tells you exactly how much cash you’re going to get back with the purchase. If everything looks right, hit the “Commit to Buy” button to make the purchase final.
Pay for the item like you normally would using PayPal. As long as you pay using PayPal, you’ll get the cashback.
Once you’ve purchased the item, you’ll receive an eBay message in your account telling you to check your Microsoft Cashback page. If you don’t have one, you can create one at this time. Make sure you create your account through the link provide in the message.
The signup is very fast and simple.
You will soon find the cashback amount show up on your account. Ordinarily, cashback takes 60 days. However, if you sign up for an account beforehand, you can go into your Microsoft Cashback settings and join the “quick cashback program.” This allows you to have the cash sent to your PayPal account very shortly after the purchase (sometimes immediately).
That’s it! What’s great about this program is that you can use it for anything on eBay as long as you use Buy It Now and PayPal. After buying the 5D yesterday, I used the program to purchase a VGA adapter for my MacBook Pro, and saved 8% on that as well in addition to the low 3rd-party price I found on eBay.
Good luck, and leave a comment letting us know how it goes!
There’s a super rare Nikkor 6mm f/2.8 fisheye lens for sale on eBay. How much does f/2.8, 6mm, and a 220° field of view cost? A mere $34,020.
Aside from this uber-rare lens being uber-expensive, it’s also ridiculously heavy, weighing in at close to 11.5 pounds. Here’s what Photography in Malaysia has to say about this lens:
You are looking at one of the most gorgeous looking lens in 35mm SLR photography – a lens that can actually see behind itself! This series of lenses were originally developed for special scientific and industrial use where wider-than-180° picture coverage is required in surveillance work, photographing the interiors of pipes, boilers, conduits, cylinder bores and other constricted areas. But in applications such as advertising and commercial photography they are used extensively for dramatic effects.
To put the field of view in perspective, human vision is about 180°.
(via Photojojo)
There’s a video demonstration of a Chinese military shovel that’s becoming quite popular on YouTube. Induro’s PHQ-Series tripod heads are similar in that they seem to do a little of everything. These are a cross between flexible ball-heads and accurate pan-heads, offer five directions of precise control (quintaxial positioning), and are equipped with five different bubble levels to help you adjust. Want to take 3D photographs? There’s a feature for that.
The PHQ1 for smaller cameras will cost $230, while the PHQ3 will sell for $290.
(via Wired)
There’s a Nikon 11/2000mm Reflex-Nikkor-C lens for sale on eBay. The price? A mere $19,950.
This page has more information on this rare lens:
This is the longest reaching and the largest dimension Nikkor optical lens for 35mm photography [...] This rarely seen lens was believed to be hand made and on a special order basis. It was generally been seen finished in white colour which carries the purpose of minimizing thermal effect if use frequently in the field [...] Neither the lens is easy to carry along nor friendly to handle as its dimension and weight factor often require time consuming setup for shooting.
The thing isn’t “easy to carry” because it weighs about 39 pounds. It’s also fixed at f/11, so you’ll need good light and stabilization to use it effectively.
(via Nikon Rumors)
Time to dust off your old Polaroid cameras. The Impossible Project has just unveiled its new PX100 and PX600 instant films for Polaroid cameras, after a three year effort to save Polaroid photography from extinction. The $21 packs, available starting Thursday, will each provide 8 black and white images. Color film packs are also expected to be released sometime this summer.
PX100 film is for the SX-70 Polaroid camera from the 1970′s, while PX600 is for more recent cameras that take 600-series film. While the new film will not carry Polaroid branding, new Polaroid instant film cameras that use the film have been announced. The company plans to produce more than 1 million packs in the first year.
Do you love Polaroid enough to pick it up again for $2-3 a shot?
The Cloak Bag is a minimalistic camera bag with a pretty unique feature: it allows you to photograph without removing your camera.
The bag features a zip-open bottom that can be rolled in on itself to adjust the height for various lenses, and slits in the sides allow you to use the camera as you normally would.
To secure the camera to the bag, you replace your camera strap with a special strap that attaches to the bag using velcro. This means the bag may not be compatible with special straps (i.e. an R-Strap) you might use.
You can order one yourself for $49 directly from their website.
I think the idea is pretty neat, though you might look a bit funny holding a bag up to your face. Perhaps you can pretend you’re drinking out of it…
(via PhotographyBLOG)
Buttons is a concept camera by Sascha Pohflepp that lacks traditional camera functionality. Rather than taking photographs, it displays photographs that other people took at the moment you pressed the button. Pohflepp explains,
Buttons takes on this notion of the camera as a networked object. It is a camera that will capture a moment at the press of a button. However, unlike a conventional analog or digital camera, this one doesn’t have any optical parts. It allows you to capture your moment but in doing so, it effectively seperates it from the subject. Instead, as you will memorize the moment, the camera memorizes only the time and starts to continuously search on the net for other photos that have been taken in the very same moment.
Essentially, it is a camera that – using a mobile communication device – takes other’s photos. Photos that were created by someone who pressed a button somewhere at the same time as its own button was pressed. Even more so, it reduces the cameras to their networked buttons in order to create a link between two individuals.
So how does it work? Flickr, of course! The SonyEricsson K750i inside the device contacts a server that searches Flickr for photographs taken at the requested moment. As soon as a match is found, it is transmitted to the “camera” and displayed on the screen. The press-to-view process could take a “few minutes or hours”.
(via Trend Hunter)
Here’s a good tip for life: when flying, try to keep your camera gear with you at all times. A man named Harold found out the hard way after paying $40 to check in his gear, including a Nikon D60, worth over $900, only to find it missing after arriving home. He shares over at The Consumerist:
I wish to share an event that occurred to my wife and me with United Airlines. On 2-7-10 we were returning from Hawaii after a vacation. We left Honolulu on Flight #72 with stops in San Francisco and Los Angeles and our final destination of Tucson, Arizona. When we boarded in Honolulu the agent from United indicated that our carryon luggage was too big and had to be placed in baggage. We paid $40.00 for it. In my luggage was a Nikon D60 camera with the accessories valued at over $900.00.
Upon boarding we were not given any instructions regarding any liability or insurance for my baggage. When we arrived at home in Tucson I discovered my camera was missing. I contacted Honolulu Police Department and reported my loss. I then contacted United Airlines by phone and by the web to notify them of this theft. On 2-19-10 United wrote me a letter stating that they do not assume liability for photographic equipment. This item is excluded from their published baggage liability. I find this information from United lacking when you board their flights. Consumers should be made aware of this information before placing their luggage in United’s care.
It’s true. If you take a look at the Baggage Liability policy available online, United Airlines states,
For travel wholly between points in the U.S., United will not be liable for loss of money, jewelry, cameras, negotiable papers/securities, electronic/video/photographic equipment , heirlooms, antiques, artifacts, works of art, silverware, irreplaceable books/publications/manuscripts/business documents, precious metals and other similar valuable and commercial effects. [Emphasis added]
However, this policy is by no means unique to United. A quick check of other airlines such as American Airlines or Continental show the exact same thing.
Professionals have probably long known about this policy, but it’s something that would be good for amateurs to know and keep in mind. Keep your gear with you!
Image credit: United Airlines Boeing 777 by birdlike
Some years ago Canon offered a f/1.0 version of its 50mm L lens. They’ve since stopped manufacturing lenses faster than f/1.2, and US-based company Noktor thinks there’s an opportunity for relatively affordable “hyperprime” lenses.
Today, it announced the Noktor HyperPrime 50mm f/0.95, a manual focus lens designed for Micro Four Thirds cameras. The $750 lens will begin shipping on April 15th, but the company is accepting preorders on their website. In addition to Micro Four Thirds, the company has a poll asking which mount it should design lenses for next.
Here’s a photograph shot with the lens showing its low light performance:
One of the problems with having such a large aperture is that the resulting depth-of-field is so shallow. The lens, being more than a stop faster than an f/1.4 lens, could be very difficult to focus correctly for shots were precision is needed. It was one of the complaints people had against the Canon 50mm f/1.0, though that lens was autofocus.
It’s interesting to see another lens company pop up for a specific type of lens, just like Lensbaby and its creative focus lenses.
P.S.: Various sources are saying the lens is almost identical to the Senko 50mm f/0.95 C-mount CCTV lens.
