Researchers have created the first comprehensive image of the entire 3×5-mile debris field around the sinking of the Titanic:

Compiled from more than 100,000 photos taken by underwater robots, the composite image shows the world’s best remembered shipwreck in strikingly sharp detail. Although much of the debris is hidden, you can see how the ship split apart and tell by the debris that they hit the ground violently. In just over a month — April 15 — it will have been a century since the ship hit an iceberg and sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic.

(via The Atlantic via Photographs on the Brain)

Image credit: Photograph by RMS Titantic Inc.

Wildlife photographer Markus Thompson was scuba diving in Deep Bay outside Vancouver recently when he stumbled upon a rusty Canon Rebel DSLR at the bottom of the ocean floor. After taking the SD card out and cleaning it, he was surprised to discover that it still worked, especially because the photos on it revealed that the camera was dropped back in August 2010. Thompson then turned to Google+ to find the owners, writing,

Approximately 50 pictures on the card from a family vacation. If you know a fire fighter from British Columbia whose team won the Pacific Regional Firefit competition, has a lovely wife and (now) 2 year old daughter – let me know. I would love to get them their vacation photos :)

After receiving thousands of comments and shares, he received an email from a friend of the owner, making this yet another crazy example of the Internet being used to reunite lost photos with their owners! You can see more photos of the DSLR here, in case you’re wondering what a year of seawater can do to a camera.

(via Markus Thompson via The Verge)

Image credit: Photograph by Markus Thompson

We’ve heard of digital photos being recovered after lost cameras drift for 1,000 miles (in underwater casing) or spend a year at the bottom of the ocean floor, but is there any hope for a camera that experiences four years of abuse at sea? Turns out there is. A man named Peter Govaars was walking along a beach in California when he stumbled upon a battered camera “skeleton” with a memory card still attached. He took the SD card home, took it apart, spent 30 minutes cleaning it, and was surprised to discover 104 photographs taken within a 2 week period in June 2007.
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