December 2010

Michael Zhang

“Modern Times” Points to Future Times

"Modern Times" is a short film that offers a glimpse of the future in both the story that it tells and the way it was made -- it's a low/no budget film created entirely against a green screen with friends as actors. Maybe in the future shooting at real locations (or with real people) will be less and less necessary as CGI continues to become more and more mind-boggling.

Hank Dietz

How to Fix Simple Cosmetic Issues on Old Lenses

I really love using old lenses on modern digital cameras, but many old lenses have cosmetic issues that make them a little less pleasant to use. Here are a few very cheap and easy things you can do to make these old lenses a little nicer to look at and to use. I don't advocate doing this to rare collectible lenses; this is for "user" lenses.

Note that these things have nothing to do with internal functionality of the focus or aperture, nor the condition of the glass. That should all be good before even thinking about this. No sense making lens ergonomics better if the lens isn't known to be worth using!

Michael Zhang

Royal Engagement Photographs by Fashion Photographer Mario Testino

Prince William and Kate Middleton recently released engagement photographs shot by fashion photographer Mario Testino, who previously also made portraits of Princess Diana. Testino is one of the world's most sought after fashion photographers, but public opinion regarding these portraits appears to be quite mixed (check out this dpreview forum thread).

Michael Zhang

Time-Lapse Motion Control Using a BBQ Rotisserie Motor

While adding movement to time-lapse videos is cool, the special equipment (e.g. dollies, cranes, etc...) you need can be pricey. Derek Mellott couldn't afford to shell out hundreds of bucks for a dolly, so he decided to make his own using things found in his garage. His resulting setup included tripods, a cable management tray, a TI-calculator as an intervalometer, and a BBQ rotisserie motor to slowly pull the camera along.

Harry Lim
Subjectiv Lens

Lo-Fi Photography with a 4-in-1 Lens

 

If you're a fan of lo-fi images produced by plastic or pinhole camera, you don't have to carry around multiple cameras or lenses. The "Subjectiv" lens give you four shooting modes in one lens and is compatible with Nikon and Canon.

Michael Zhang

“Chrono Cubist” Photos by Diego Kuffer

For his "In Transit" series, Diego Kuffer takes multiple photographs of scenes, then creates neat-looking composite images afterwards. Kuffer tells us,

The idea behind the series is all about time, but in a more condensed way, also known as "moments". I wanted to capture a moment with photography, but it only allowed me to get instants. So I decided to use the idea behind the movie making techniques (a great way of capturing moments) and apply it to photography. So, I took several snapshots of the same scene, sliced them horizontally and vertically, and assembled them in to a single one, chronologically. I like to think about these grammar as Chrono Cubism.

Michael Zhang

Futuristic Concept Camera Captures Entire Perspectives at Once

It's always fun thinking about what photography will be like in the future, and the direction camera technology will go. What's even cooler is seeing these ideas turned into concept drawings or videos. The Capture180 is a concept camera by Lucas Ainsworth that takes a 180° hemispheric photograph with each exposure in addition to the ordinary, framed photograph. When viewing the photographs with the camera, you can "knock" the camera into a viewing mode in which it acts as a small window into the giant scene that was captured.

Michael Zhang

When Protecting Your Lens Goes Too Far

How far can you go in protecting your gear before people start thinking you have serious issues? We're not exactly sure, but the guy in the photo above probably crossed that line quite a few filters ago. Thankfully (or sadly, depending on how you see it) the guy isn't actually an uber-paranoid photographer, but just someone from the BorrowLenses team having a little fun.

Harry Lim

Canon 7D Used to Shoot Stop-Motion Episode of NBC’s “Community”

You may have heard that the Canon 5D Mark II has been used to film an episode of "House" on FOX. Now NBC is using a 7D for an upcoming Christmas episode of "Community". On Thursday, Dec. 9th, 2010, they're going old school and doing a Rudolph-esque claymation episode.

Michael Zhang

Luma Introduces the LoopIt Sling for Lighter Cameras

The LoopIt is a new camera sling by Luma designed to be smaller, lighter, and more affordable than the Luma Loop. Both slings use a lanyard and connector that slide along the camera strap and connect to cameras via any available strap mount point. The push-to-release swivels are manufactured at the same factory that invented the swivel used by the US military, with tolerances that supposedly exceed the ones used in combat.

Michael Zhang

360° Degree Camera Inspired by the Eye of the Fly

The folks over at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have created a camera modeled after a fly's eye that provides a 360° view of the world. Packed with the 100 small cameras, what the camera captures is combined on a computer to provide a single 3D view of the world.

Michael Zhang

CNN Reports on Professor Wafaa Bilal’s Surgically Implanted Head Camera

CNN recently did a story on NYU professor Wafaa Bilal and the camera he had implanted on the back of his head. The video above gives you a glimpse into what it looks like and how the system works. Turns out it wasn't a working camera that was permanently embedded into Bilal's skull, but rather a baseplate to which the wired camera can be mounted magnetically.

Harry Lim

Commercial Shot at 600 Frames Per Second with 225K Watts of Light

What do 225,000 watts of light get you when shooting with the high-speed Phantom camera? Not much. Just ask Vincent Laforet who shot this commercial using the uber-expensive camera. Even with that much light, he still needed a 2.0 aperture. That only created more problems of staying in focus while using dolly moves in slow motion.