April 2011

Michael Zhang

76-year-old Photoshop Master in China Restores Old Photos for Free

Having old photographs restored is a service that many residents in China can't afford, but a 76-year-old man named Baojun Yuan is doing his part to help his fellow citizens by offering his astonishing Photoshop talents free of charge. After learning how to use the program when he was 60 years old, Yuan purchased a computer and scanner, and has fixed more than 2,000 photographs. He says, "my teacher just taught me how to repair the photos, but he forgot to tell me how to charge."

Michael Zhang

How Nikon (And Other Big Companies) Responds to Design Suggestions

On Nikon's question and answer Facebook app, a guy named Andrew Yu offered the idea of replacing the shutter button with two touch sensors and received the above response from Nikon. It's an interesting look at how Nikon, camera manufacturers, and big corporations in general usually respond to ideas and suggestions from the general public.

Michael Zhang

Controversy After Vegan Magazine Found to Use Non-Vegan Stock Photos

In the past week or two there has been an interesting controversy regarding the use of stock photography: vegan blogger quarrygirl.com published a post on April 13th accusing the nations leading vegan magazine VegNews of using non-vegan stock photos to illustrate its vegan recipes. An example presented is a "Vegan Spare Ribs" article that uses a Photoshopped iStockPhoto image of actual barbecue spare ribs (shown above).

Michael Zhang

Imagining a Compact Camera Designed by Leica and Apple

The Leica i9 is a concept camera case dreamed up by design firm BLACK Design Associates for the iPhone 4. Unlike the Slow Photography Camera we shared last week, the i9 is actually an independent camera that simply uses the iPhone as a giant touch screen and as a modem for the web.

Michael Zhang

Slow Photography Concept Cam Lets You Use Your Phone Like a Hasselblad

With the recent craze on mimicking retro photography through phone apps, it's only natural that someone would take it a step further and design a retro way to shoot with the phone as well, right? The Slow Photography camera concept by photographer David McCourt is a medium format-style box that lets you use your phone as a digital back.

Michael Zhang

Photos of Sony’s A35 and NEX C3 Leak onto the Interwebs

Over on the dpreview forums, a member eddieaus leaked photos of Sony's yet-unannounced A35 (shown on left) and NEX C3 cameras. While not much was revealed about the A35, the C3 will reportedly be a 16.2 megapixel camera (packing the same sensor as the A55) that shoots HD video.

Michael Zhang

Slit-Scan Camera App for the iPhone

Slit-Scan Camera is a new app for the iPhone that lets you shoot trippy slit-scan photographs. Rather than capture a whole image at once, the slit-scan app exposes each scene through a "sliding slit", giving anything moving within the frame a strange, warped look.

Michael Zhang

Night Vision Compact Camera Lets You Shoot in Absolute Darkness

The Midnight Shot NV-1 Night Vision camera by ThinkGeek is a compact camera specially designed for infrared photography. Instead of permanently removing the IR filter from a traditional digital camera, the Midnight Shot allows the filter to be retracted when you want to use it as an IR camera. It shoots 5 megapixel stills, VGA video, and has built-in IR illumination that lets you shoot and film in complete darkness.