June 2011

Michael Zhang

Micro Four Thirds Cell Phone Charm

Move aside Panasonic GF3, this is the world's smallest Micro Four Thirds camera. Olympus took its Despicable Me-style shrink ray and reduced the Olympus E-PL1, E-P2, and E-PL2 to the size of an SD card for a promotion over in Hong Kong. They're meant to be used as cute little cell phone charms, but they work nicely as tiny prop cameras for your action figures as well!

Michael Zhang

Life as a Human Guinea Pig: Inside the Weird World of Medical Studies

Medical experiments can be quite bizarre -- I once heard about one that involved injecting subjects with various kinds of animal feces. After a year of participating in various clinical trials for cash, photographer and recent art-school graduate Josh Dickinson decided to start a project called Studied to document what it's like to be a human guinea pig. His experiences range from being pricked with needles and subjected to pain to being suffocated...

Michael Zhang

Photographer Uses Mouth as a Camera

For her series titled Face to Face, photographer Ann Hamilton placed a pinhole camera in her mouth and shot photographs by simply opening her mouth at people. Upon first glance, the view almost looks like you're looking out someone's eye.

Michael Zhang

Real vs. Counterfeit Nikon Accessories

One sad truth about the photo industry is that there's a ton of counterfeit products floating around, and unless you buy directly from a reputable source, it can be difficult to know for sure whether you're getting the real thing. Last month we posted on how up to 1/3 of memory cards labeled "SanDisk" are actually counterfeit. Over on Nikon's website, there's a support page that shows photographs of counterfeit Nikon accessories next to genuine ones, with many of them almost indistinguishable from each other. Some of the counterfeit products are so real-looking that the only difference is a slightly different screw, or a slightly brighter logo.

Michael Zhang

Panasonic Unveils the GF3: Small, Light, and Minimalistic

After having images of it leaked onto the Interwebs last week, Panasonic's DMC GF3 Micro Four Thirds camera is now official. Like its predecessor, the GF2, the GF3 packs a 12-megapixel sensor, has a 3-inch LCD touchscreen, and shoots 1080p 1080/60i AVCHD video. In terms of differences, it has a faster processor that allows for faster autofocus times weighs 15% less, is 17% smaller, and is also even more simple than the GF2 -- it lacks a hot shoe and has a pop-up flash there instead.

Michael Zhang

Leaked Photos of the Panasonic GF3

Observant Micro-Four Thirds fans recently spotted a strange looking camera in a promo video on YouTube (which was quickly taken down). The camera is most likely Panasonic's new Lumix GF3, a camera that's expected to be officially unveiled on June 13th. Its rumored to pack the same 16 megapixel sensor as the G3, not have a hot shoe, and to have a touchscreen-based interface. The company also seems to be taking the "large sensor in a small body" thing quite seriously -- this camera is tiny!

Michael Zhang

Found Photos from Cameras Purchased at Car Boot Sales

For part of his MA in Documentary Photography at the University of Wales, Brendan Corrigan visited car boot sales -- a kind of market where people sell things out of their trunks -- and purchased old cameras for about the price of a roll of film. He then had the used film inside each camera developed, publishing the photos online alongside the cameras they were found in (along with the price he paid for the camera). His project is called "Make me an offer".