October 15, 2010

The Canon 1200mm f/5.6 L lens is a legendary optic that B&H calls "The Mother of all Telephotos". It's a 36 pound behemoth that costs $120,000 if you can find one for sale -- only a handful of them were made at a rate of 2 per year (delivery time was 18 months). When coupled with a crop factor body (e.g. the Canon 7D) and a 2x extender, the lens is the equivalent of a 3840mm f/11. In the above video, Bryan Carnathan of The Digital Picture gives us a glimpse of the lens in action.

The expression "shooting from the hip" might soon become "shooting from the ear" for iPhone photographers. There's a new app in town called Camera Camouflage that allows you to sneakily photograph while appearing to be engaged in a phone conversation. The app can activate your phones ringtone, allowing you to "take a call", and then snaps photos whenever you talk (it's voice activated). On the iPhone 4, the app deactivates the flash by default, helping you avoid potentially embarrassing …

Here's a scan of a Mechanix Illustrated magazine article from 1941 teaching readers how to get creative with their prints by creating "Shadowgraphs", a technique that uses photographs for photograms: …

Itching to get your hands on the Nikon D7000? You might want to try Best Buy. Apparently some Best Buy stores are breaking the rules and selling Nikon D7000 kits before the camera is officially available on Sunday. Here are some unboxing videos created by the lucky few who were able to purchase the D7000 early.

Last month we shared some of Kiel Johnson's amazing cardboard camera creations, and now here's a behind-the-scenes video showing how one of them (a twin lens reflex camera) was made. Kiel uses only three materials: cardboard, tape, and glue. I had no idea the cameras were so massive, since the photos he takes of them don't show any indication of scale.