March 2011

Michael Zhang

Wall Mounted Box Prints Polaroid-style Instagr.am Photos Remotely

Instaprint is a neat wall-mounted printer that fuses old-school Polaroid-style instant photos with social media (namely Instagr.am). Basically it's a box you rent for events that contains a modified, Internet-connected Zink printer. It uses the Instagr.am API to constantly scan for a specific location or hashtag, and when new photos are found they're automatically printed and pushed out the bottom.

Michael Zhang

Sleek Case Transforms iPhone 4 into Futuristic-looking Camera

The UN01 is a Kickstarter-funded iPhone 4 case that makes it look like some kind of Apple-designed futuristic camera. The middle of the case features a pseudo-lens bulge that is actually a locking mechanism that secures the two halves of the case. They're looking to raise $23,000 to bring this case to market in 7 colors, and a pledge of $30 will pre-order one for you in black or white.

Michael Zhang

Roll of Film Lost During NYC Blizzard Returned to Owners

At the beginning of the year, a guy named Todd Bieber was skiing in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park when he came across a lost roll of film. After he had the pictures developed, he discovered some pretty nice photographs, and created a video to find the owners. The video went viral, and amassed over 1 million views.

Michael Zhang

Camera on the iPad 2 is a World’s First, but in a Bad Way

When the iPad 2 was announced a week ago, many people were undoubtedly excited that front and rear-facing cameras were added to the device. However, rather than endow the iPad with a rear-camera equal or superior to the iPhone 4's, the geniuses at Apple decided to add a pretty lame one, giving it the (dis)honor of being the first "camera" to have a sensor resolution lower than the display resolution.

Michael Zhang

Wooden Tripod for Photographers Who Want Both Style and Stability

Most modern tripods are made of materials that are designed to be light-weight yet stable. If having the lightest of tripods isn't a requirement for you, then check out these hand-made wooden tripods from the German company Berlebach. Though they can weigh in at 6+ pounds, the solid ash wood legs are supposedly better at dampening vibration than steel, carbon, or aluminum. Plus, they look pretty snazzy.

Michael Zhang

Press This Cat’s Butt and 3-megapixel Photographs Come Out

The Necono Digital Camera is a funky cat-shaped digital camera out of Japan that might make it easier for you to take smiling baby photos. It's a 3 megapixel camera that doesn't have any LCD screen embedded for you to review your shots -- you have to connect it to a "Monitor Ground" base that includes an LCD or transfer the images to your computer via USB. The cat has a shutter button on its butt, the camera and a self-timer LED in its eyes, and magnetic feet that allow you to stick it in random places.

Like many novelty cameras, the Necono doesn't exactly come cheap... It'll run you a whopping ¥15,750 ($192). At least you can be the only one among your friends to take pictures with a cat.

Michael Zhang

Brouhaha Over Lady Gaga “Rights Grab”

Television network TBD recently sent photographer Jay Westcott to cover a Lady Gaga concert in Washington D.C. Upon arriving at the Verizon Center, Westcott was given a release form, on which the fourth paragraph read,

Photographer hereby acknowledges and agrees that all right, title and interest (including copyright) in and to the Photograph(s) shall be owned by Lady Gaga and Photographer hereby transfers and assigns any such rights to Lady Gaga.

After making a call to his editor, Westcott was told to not sign the release and to not shoot the concert.

Michael Zhang

Putting Faces to the Names Found on Photoshop’s Splash Screen

Every time you launch Photoshop, you're greeted momentarily with a splash screen showing a cloud of names that give credit to the people who have worked on the program. This "Behind the Splash Screen" video introduces you to some of the people whose names are found there, and provides some background on how Photoshop CS5 was developed (as well as the huge challenges they faced).

Michael Zhang

Fujifilm Finepix X100 Next to the Leica M3

Here's a side-by-side comparison of Fujifilm's Finepix X100 and the classic Leica M3. Needless to say, the X100 is one classy looking digital camera. It just started shipping this past weekend in Japan, and should begin arriving elsewhere in the very near future. If you want a closer look at the camera's features, check out the 124 page owners manual that recently found its way online.

Michael Zhang

Invisible Paintings That Can Only Be Seen by Cameras

Toronto-based artists Brad Blucher and Kyle Clements have an exhibition titled "Take a Picture" which features paintings that are invisible to the human eye but visible to cameras. To do this, they use a frequency of light that is outside the visible spectrum but visible to the CCD and CMOS sensors found in digital cameras.

Michael Zhang

Ed Helms Introduces Digital Cameras on The Daily Show

Here's a fun blast from the past: in the early 2000s The Daily Show ran this short segment in which Ed Helms (now known for playing Andy Bernard on The Office) introduces viewers to digital cameras. It's an interesting glimpse at how some people felt about the emergence of digital photography as it was starting to become popular.

Michael Zhang

Famous Films Compressed into Barcodes

What you see here is every still frame of the famous 1939 film The Wizard of Oz compressed into a single frame, creating a colorful "barcode" for the movie. moviebarcode is a neat blog that publishes these images for a wide range of famous movies.

Michael Zhang

Interview with David Gallagher of lightningfield

David Gallagher was one of the earliest photobloggers with his (now defunct) website lightningfield.com. He is currently an editor at the New York Times.

PetaPixel: Could you tell me a little about yourself?

David Gallagher: I was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with my wife Fiona. I've been involved with journalism and the Internet since I got out of college. Now I work at The New York Times, where I'm an editor dealing with tech news.

Michael Zhang

Panasonic Lumix FX77 Can Whiten Teeth and Apply Makeup to Faces

Panasonic wants to move portrait retouching off of computers and directly into cameras. Their Lumix FX77 compact camera released last week has a "Beauty Retouch Mode" that allows users to make all kinds of edits to faces immediately after capturing the photo:

The Beauty Retouch Mode makes it possible to virtually makeup the faces. In Esthetic Mode, various effects can be applied to the face including clearing the skin texture, whitening of teeth and so on. In the Make-up Mode, you can choose the color of foundation, lips, cheeks or eye-shadow. [#]

The photoshopping capabilities aren't limited to what can be done naturally -- users can also do chin lifts and eye enlargements!

Michael Zhang

Jar Opener as a Cheap Follow Focus

Last year we posted a tip on how you can use jar openers to remove stuck lens filters, but have you ever thought of using them as a cheap follow focus? Tony Carretti was shopping at Bed, Bath & Beyond when he came across a twist jar opener in the kitchen aisle that he realized could be used on his camera.

Michael Zhang

Polaroid Camera Models Made with Paper

Mel Stringer (aka girliepains on Etsy) keeps dreaming up cooler and cooler camera papercraft decorations. Her latest creation is a Polaroid model that include fake Polaroids to stick in the slot.