When your grandfather was Dr. Erhard Glatzel, one of the great lens designers of the twentieth century, it won’t come as too much of a shock to find out that you’ve inherited two lenses that, by all accounts, don’t officially exist. Other people? Well, they might be a little bit surprised… and a lot bit jealous. Read more…

Snapping mirror self-portraits may have gotten a huge boost from the introduction of digital photography and smartphoneography, but it is by no means a new activity limited to our era. The photograph above was created back in 1917 — nearly 100 years ago! It was snapped by an Australian flying ace named Thomas Baker when he was 20 years old.
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Musician Lauren White recently came across a “gold mine” at a flea market in Saugus, California; she discovered 23 candid never-before-seen photographs of the Rolling Stones captured in 1965 while the band was enjoying a road trip.
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Here’s some interesting color footage showing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1939. Tom Pappalardo stumbled upon it after buying some 8mm film from a junk shop. He writes,

I bought this reel at a junk shop in Northampton, Massachusetts (I think?) about a decade ago. It sat unwatched in a box of other random Super 8/8mm reels for quite awhile, until I decided I wanted to capture some of my family’s own home movies. Since I had the projector set up, I ended up sifting through all my other ‘mystery’ reels, and this was one of them.

Hopefully memory cards also last 72 years for people of the future to discover in the same way… Hope you guys are having a good Thanksgiving!

(via Laughing Squid)

USBCELL batteries might look like ordinary AA rechargeable batteries upon first glance. That is, until you see how they’re charged. Rather than use a battery charger, the batteries are charged using the standard USB ports on your computer or laptop. They could come in handy on trips where you need power for your camera or flash, but want to avoid the hassle of a separate battery charger.

USBCELL AA Rechargable Battery [Amazon]

So this is how some photographers always manage to capture awesome action shots… Now if only Neo or Max Payne would lead a photography workshop on how to activate “bullet time”.

(via ISO 1200)

The New York Times made a blunder on its website yesterday, when it displayed the wrong photograph for one of the headlines. The headline of the story was “Clinton Arrives in Chile With Pledge of Aid”, and the caption read “Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet”, but the photograph was obviously not showing the two politicians.

Here’s a full screenshot of the front page:

It’s amazing how something so strange could slip by the editors.

“My, Hillary! You’ve changed since I last saw you!”

(via Boing Boing)

Here’s a bizarre combination of old and new: a photo album that looks like a gigantic SD card. It holds 60 4×6” prints, and will be available from Spinning Hat starting in April for £9.99 (~$16). What would be awesome is if prints from the shop always came in these things.

(via PhotographyBLOG)

For sale on eBay is a Century Studio Camera by Eastman Kodak transformed in steampunk fashion into a computer workstation. The auction starts at $5,000, but you can Buy it Now for 7,500. The workstation is shown with a matching steampunked keyboard, but it’s not included in the auction.

Amazing ‘Steampunked’ original Century Semi-Centennial No.1 Portrait Studio Camera (Eastman Kodak manufactured in Rochester NY) — totally restored and transformed into a modern computer workstation! Our restoration includes all the original parts of the Century camera with some additional period items including Victorian ‘Lion’ Angle Brackets and brass balls.

(via The Online Photographer)

Just in time for the Winter Olympics, Google announced on Tuesday that Street View now includes imagery of several runs at Whistler Blackcomb ski resort, where many of the events will be held. To capture the photographs, Street View cameras were mounted on a snowmobile that made runs down the slopes. Here’s a look at what it’s like.

If they keep this up they’ll have to launch a Google Mountain View. Hah… hah… Get it?

(via Engadget)