February 6, 2012

The months of rumors and speculation are finally over: Nikon has announced its long-awaited D800 FX-format DSLR. As was revealed back in October 2011, the camera offers a staggering 36.3-megapixels -- the world's highest in a 35mm DSLR. Other specs include an ISO range of 100-6400 (expandable to 25,600), 91k RGB 3D color metering, a speedy 51-point AF system, a 3.2-inch LCD screen, 4fps continuous shooting (5fps for DX shots), 1080/30p HD video recording, and... in-camera two-shot HDR.

This is the first photo of Canon's upcoming 24-70mm f/2.8L II, the followup to an extremely popular and well-regarded lens. It'll weigh less than the first version (which is nicknamed "The Brick") and have a 82mm filter thread (up from 77mm), but -- to the dismay of Canonites everywhere -- won't have Image Stabilization. No word on availability, but Canon Rumors thinks it'll be priced between $1,800 and $1,900 when it hits store shelves.

Here's a first look at two lenses Canon has up its sleeve: the new Canon 24mm f/2.8 IS USM and Canon EF 28mm f/2.8 IS USM. It looks like Canon is making an effort to bring image stabilization to cheaper and wider prime lenses. Currently the "widest" Canon prime lens with image stabilization is the Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS USM. These would also be the first non-L series prime lenses to offer IS. Price and release date for both are currently unknown.

Swedish photographer Göran Strand created this amazing "little planet" photo (AKA a stereographic projection) that shows the Aurora Borealis overhead. He titled it "Planet Aurora".

Last week we reported that the Sacramento Bee had suspended one of its photographers for splicing together a photo of egrets. After some further investigation into Bryan Patrick's body of work, the newspaper discovered two more photos that had been Photoshopped. It immediately fired Patrick and published a notice: …

A funny photography-related remix of a well-known Dueling Analogs comic.

Remember the hoopla last year after artist/programmer Kyle McDonald installed an app on Apple store computers to secretly snap portraits of customers? Outcries of "invasion of privacy" sprang up everywhere, and Apple got the Secret Service involved in putting an end to it. Well, photographer Irby Pace has done something similar, but instead of secretly capturing images, Pace simply visits Apple Stores and harvests self-portraits "abandoned" on the devices. Pace collected over 1,000 images in …

Photographer Brock Davis likes playing with food. Among his food related experiments are recreations of famous explosions done with cauliflower. The image above shows the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Destin of Smarter Every Day made this helpful video in which he and his daughter explain the basics of light painting and digital camera sensors using "super simple speak".

Malaysian photographer Peiling Lee captures beautiful, dreamlike macro photographs of tiny critters she finds in her garden. She uses a Canon 50D and a 100mm Macro lens. Her work reminds us of Nadav Bagim's Wonderland project that we shared last year.

Here's a disturbing video called "If You See Something, Film Something" that shows why it's important that citizens have the right to turn cameras on the activities of police officers without being stopped or harassed: …

Here are the first full photographs of Olympus' new OM-D series Micro Four Thirds camera, the EM-5 (with an optional battery grip attached). The images were published to Amazon Japan before quickly being taken down. The camera is expected to become official on Wednesday, so we'll have a full spec list in a couple days.