You know those handle-equipped glasses called ‘lorgnettes’ that were popular among fashionable women in the 19th century? Instead of being fixed to your face, the spectacles were simply held up to your eyes with one hand, and were used mainly for style rather than vision correction. Kenko’s new Filter Stick is kinda like that, except for camera lenses instead of booshie eyeballs.
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Clemson University is apparently ditching film photography and going digital. The public South Carolina-based school has just turned to government surplus auctions to unload its analog gear, and the equipment is being snatched up for ridiculously low prices. The lot of 9 “excellent condition” Hasselblad 500 EL/M medium format camera bodies seen above was just sold for $1,200, which comes out to about $133 for each camera (granted, there are some taxes and processing fees tacked on).
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Don’t have any more babies to transport? Old strollers can be repurposed as a way to wheel your camera gear from place to place. Just load it up with your camera bag, tripod, lighting equipment, and accessories, and you’ll have yourself a mobile mini studio.
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Apple’s iPhone and iOS get a lot of media attention, but Google’s Android OS is the world’s most popular smartphone operating system by a long shot. Given this fact, it makes sense to at least target both markets if you’re releasing something that’s intended to be widely used. Triggertrap understands this, and today released the Android version of its mobile camera triggering app.
The app is designed to be used with the company’s Mobile Dongle, which has also been refreshed. In fact, the new Android app requires the new Dongle, while iPhone users can use either version.
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Cell phones have already gone the way of the touchscreen, so why not light meters? Perhaps they will, starting today. Sekonic has just announced a two new light meters that are the world’s first to offer a touchscreen interface. The L-478D and L-478DR both feature a 2.7-inch LCD touchscreen through which settings are changed by tapping or sliding your finger.
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For those of you who need to snap eye-level photographs of giraffes: Taiwanese gear manufacturer Fishbone has launched a crazy new tripod that literally reaches new heights of image stabilization. Called the Tree-pod, the tripod is designed for capturing photos or videos from way up off the ground. Dan Chung of DSLR News Shooter writes,
The device, otherwise know as the Zhezhi tripod, can reach 3.3m high, weighs about 13 kg and folds to about 90 cm long. It is aluminium alloy in construction and costs a cool $6000 US. In order to position and level the tripod head you can scale the Tree-pod in a similar way to a telegraph pole. Not sure I would trust it myself, but if heights are your thing then maybe it’s worth it.
3.3m is roughly 10.8 feet. The Tree-pod has attachable rungs that allow you to climb up it as if it were a ladder. Uses for it could include getting closer to the moon if your telephoto lens doesn’t have enough reach, and cleaning your home’s gutters when not doing photography.
Scale New Heights – with the Tree-pod [DSLR News Shooter]
We’ve seen some very heavy-duty gear lugged out to cover the Olympic games in London this year: some robotic rigs, an 800mm lens that could easily weigh more than the average lady gymnast, and of course, the usual suspects in a packed camera bag. But Guardian photojournalist Dan Chung is traveling light: he’s covering the games with a simple iPhone setup.
Using different combinations of an iPhone 4s, a clip-on Schneider lens and a pair of Canon binoculars, Chung has been live-blogging all aspects of the games. His photos yield surprisingly crisp results, indoors, outdoors and even underwater through a viewing window — which again reinforces the old photographer’s adage that the best camera is the one that’s with you.
Chung uses the Snapseed app to do in-camera/phone edits. You can check out more of Chung’s work on his Guardian blog.
Welcome to camera gear heaven: here’s a glimpse inside the Canon Professional Services office at the London 2012 Olympics. It’s a room that’s absolutely stuffed with cameras, lenses, and accessories from floor to ceiling. The Canon 1D X hasn’t been released to the general public yet, but this room has hundreds of them!
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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.
Gun Holder Camera Case [Roberu]
LCD viewfinders are popular tool among DSLR filmmakers for shooting in sunlight and ensuring tack-sharp focusing, but have you considered using one for still photography?
In this video, Portland-based photographer Jimmy Hickey explains some of the strengths and weaknesses of using one for photography. The main pros: you see exactly how the resulting images will look as you’re shooting them, and magnification makes focusing easier. The cons: battery drain and added bulkiness.
