Having your camera stolen is not a fun experience. If you’re not fortunate enough to have a camera that catches its own theft in progress, your recovery options are limited to services like Stolen Camera Finder, CameraTrace and, the most likely fix, a good insurance policy.

According to a recent patent, however, Nikon may have another method in the works that will try to prevent and deter theft. Nikon Rumors reports that the camera giant has filed a new patent in Japan (number 2013-61508) that locks certain lens/body combinations using a password. Read more…

Nikon has released some pretty interesting patents in the past. As recently as October of this last year we saw a patent for a camera attachment that blows air into the tripod mount to keep your sensor cool. Just days before that another patent showed that the company might be building features specific to “camera toss” photography into its compact and mirrorless cameras.

Nikon’s most recent patent isn’t quite as out there, but still unique as far as we can tell — it’s a dual lens hood. Read more…

Apertures can get pretty big, but a new patent from Nikon seems to imply that a future Nikon 1 mirrorless lens could weigh in at f/0.7. The patent, which gives an example of a 32mm f/1.2 (pictured above), clearly states that the new technology could successfully yield smaller numbers due to optimization of the aperture diameter, flange back length and image circle. Read more…