2012

Light painting has become quite trendy as a photography project as of late, but it's by no means a new idea. The earliest known light painting photos were created back in 1914, and the technique has been employed by countless photographers over the years -- including Pablo Picasso in 1949.

When Leica announced at Photokina last week that future M and S cameras won't have numbers attached to the model name (e.g. Leica M), I wrote that the company seemed to be taking a page from Apple's book by having generations rather than models. Turns out that's not the case. Leica doesn't want to be what Apple is to the gadget industry, but what Porsche is to the automobile industry.

Watch out Google Glass: you've got competition in the life-documenting game. Autographer is an upcoming camera that's designed to document your life in photographs without you having to raise a finger. It's a fancy wearable camera that uses algorithms and five built-in sensors to make decisions on when to snap pictures. It can snap up to 2,000 high-resolution photos of the course of a single day, giving you a visual record of your life experiences.

We live in strange and exciting times in which phone camera photos can be compared side-by-side with top-of-the-line DSLR photos without anyone laughing (too hard). Having just gotten his hands on a shiny new iPhone 5, photographer Dustin Curtis decided to test out its camera's quality by pitting it against his Canon 5D Mark III (with a 50mm lens fixed at f/2.8).

When XQD memory cards were announced in December 2011, the CompactFlash Association touted the format as the successor to CompactFlash cards. We definitely seemed to be moving in that direction at first: one month after the unveiling, Nikon's flagship D4 DSLR was announced with XQD card support. The day after that, Sony became the first major memory card maker to announce a line of XQD cards. Six months later, Lexar also announced its intentions to join the party.

We had a chance to play around with the new Fujifilm X-E1 at Photokina 2012, at a meeting attended by people who were the brains and hands behind the camera. Announced back on September 6, the X-E1 is the more affordable counterpart to the well-regarded X-Pro1. It's an interchangeable lens mirrorless camera with the same beastly APS-C sensor, shedding 30% in size, 21% in weight, the fancy hybrid viewfinder in favor of an all-electronic one, and 41% in price (from $1,700 to $1,000).

Lost Memories is a beautiful 3-minute-long short film by Francois Ferracci that imagines a future in which cameras can share images with the world as soon as they're shot -- oh wait, that's now -- and can beam holographic photographs into the air for easy uploading or editing. In such a futuristic world, would analog photography still have any role to play?

Wealthy people who want to flaunt their wealth are attracted to shiny and pricey things. It's no surprise then, that more and more Hollywood celebrities are gravitating toward one particular brand for their photographic needs: Leica. Alex Williams of The New York Times writes that the stars aren't simply adopting the revered marque -- some are learning how to use it too: …

When news of Google's acquisition of Nik Software emerged a week ago, most of the tech press (and this blog) focused on one particular offering: Snapseed. It's a highly-acclaimed mobile photo editing app that has been growing like a weed as of late, so it made sense that Google would want it to participate in the ongoing mobile photo sharing war, right? Well, maybe not.

Are we past the age of entry-level DSLRs? Dan Nosowitz over at Popular Science has written a piece titled "Don't Buy A DSLR", in which he argues that DSLRs are no longer the best option for aspiring amateur photographers.

Social photo aggregation service Pixable has been acquired by Singaporean telecommunications company SingTel for $26.5 million. The service helps in photo browsing and discovery by aggregating photographs from your various social networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flicker) and using a special ranking system to only show you the interesting images. Billing itself as a "photo inbox", users can also keep up with their friends' photographs on-the-go using the company's popular iOS and …

Photokina 2012 came to an end in Cologne, Germany today. If you weren't able to make the show this year and are wondering what the show was like, we've collected some photos of the fancy booths set up by major camera makers. Hopefully they can provide you with a glimpse of how the big brands went about showing off their latest and greatest wares.

The frenzy of Photokina 2012 is coming to an end, but that doesn't mean crazy camera rumors are going anywhere. A big one currently floating around is that Canon is working on a DSLR with a massive number of megapixels. Northlight Images writes that we may see a preview of the camera at PhotoPlus 2012 in New York, which starts October 24.

On a mountaintop in Chile is the most powerful digital camera mankind has ever constructed. Called the Dark Energy Camera, the phone booth-sized device shoots 570-megapixel photographs using an array of 62 separate CCD sensors and a 13-foot light-gathering mirror. Planning and building the thing took 120 scientists from 23 international organizations a whopping 8 years.

Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond of NOTsoNOISY created this amazing stop-motion animation titled "Animated Tower." He found students and staff volunteers to turn an 11-story-building at the University of Health Sciences (HESAV) in Switzerland into a giant 10 by 11 display, with each window serving as a single pixel.

iPhoneography has made some significant advancements in the past couple of weeks due to the launch of the iPhone 5 and the release of iOS 6. Here's a brief report on some of the interesting improvements and changes.

What if there existed a lightbulb that you could completely control using your phone? And by "completely control", I don't mean simply switching on and off. I mean being able to precisely control the brightness of the light emitted, and even the exact color of the light.

If you thought the design and hardware specs of Canon's upcoming 4K-capable 1D C are strangely similar to the company's flagship 1D X, you're right: the two models feature identical hardware loaded with different firmware. At Photokina 2012, DSLR filmmaking blog EOSHD spoke to Canon representatives, who confirmed this fact to be true.

At first glance, New York-based photographer Richard Barnes' Civil War photos might look like they were taken from some museum or historical photographic archive. Look a little closer, however, and you'll begin to notice things that are quite peculiar. In one of them, there's a pickup truck parked in the background. In another, a man wears a T-shirt and baseball cap -- certainly not the fashion you'd expect to see in a mid-1800s photo.

Here's something to give you a chuckle as we head into the weekend. It's a parody iPhone 5 commercial that pokes fun at the fact that the phone has been stretched out in height without any change in width. But instead of being 7% taller, the imagined phone stretches that figure out to 795%. The result is a device that has some pretty interesting photographic applications.

Facebook is testing out a new feature for its Android mobile app called "Photo Syncing". The feature automatically backs up your smartphone's photographs by uploading them to Facebook as they're shot, tucking them away inside a private "Synced from Phone" tab on your photos page that isn't visible to anyone but you. You can then later choose which photos you'd like to make private and which you'd simply like for Facebook to hold on to.

Nikon's new entry level full frame DSLR, the Nikon D600, is supposed to be a lightweight camera with heavyweight image quality. DxOMark confirms it to be true. The camera equipment measurement company has announced its sensor quality results for the D600, and the score is sure to put a big smile on the faces of Nikonians around the world. Rated at an overall score of "94", the camera received the third highest score ever, and falls in third place behind the D800 and D800E -- cameras that cost …

Sending a camera up to the edges of space on a weather balloon has been done quite a bit now, but perhaps none of the projects have been as creative as Ron Fugelseth's effort. Ron worked with his 4-year-old son to give his son's favorite toy train Stanley a fun and exciting ride to space. They built a rig consisting of a weather balloon, a styrofoam box, an HD video camera, and an old cell phone for GPS. Stanley was then attached to the outside of the box using a rod, positioned so that the …

There are currently two interchangeable-lens rangefinder-esque cameras in Fujifilm's X-Series lineup: the X-Pro1 and the X-E1, both of which contain APS-C sensors. Owners are gushing over the cameras, which are actually quite similar aside from the viewfinders (hybrid vs. electronic only). They feature sleek, retro designs that are very similar to Leica's classic M-line of rangefinders. A common sentiment that I've heard is that the X-Series would be absolutely perfect if the company simply …

Lunch atop a Skyscraper is one of the most recognizable photos of the 20th century. The 1932 photo shows 11 construction workers taking a lunch break on a girder 850 feet above New York City. A second photo from the same shoot shows four of the men sleeping on the beam. The images are iconic and epic, but may not be as candid as they seem.

At The Impossible Project's booth at Photokina 2012, there was a Impossible Instant Lab camera printer/camera being demonstrated. This is the device that was announced a couple of weeks ago that lets you quickly turn your iPhone photos into Polaroid pictures (i.e. Impossible's instant film or whatever stock you have left).

French photographer David Chambon is a master of macro insect photography. An amateur photographer for over 10 years, his goal is to capture the magical beauty of nature through his imagery. All of his macro shots are amazing, but it's his morning dew series that stands out from the rest. He ventures out early in the morning, and photographs various insects perched on flowers and leaves, glowing from the tiny beads of dew that coat their bodies.

It seems that everyone has something to say about Hasselblad's new line of Lunar mirrorless cameras, with "ugly" being one of the common adjectives used. The fact is, Hasselblad is trying to pull a Leica by taking the Sony NEX-7, rebranding it, "upgrading" it with a new look and rare materials, and slapping a $6,500 price tag on the resulting camera. The Lunar's Photokina booth, brochure, and website feature concept sketches that show how the camera's design came about.

Lexar has set a new bar in SD memory card capacity with its new 256GB card -- the largest size offered in the SDXC (Secure Digital eXtended Capacity) format. SDXC has an upper limit of 2TB, compared to the 32GB cap that restricts the SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) format.

Some weeks ago, I received an invitation from Leica for a special launch party they were planning to hold the day before Photokina 2012 opened. The event was titled LEICA - DAS WESENTLICHE, which translates to "The Essentials". Aside from stating that there would be product premieres and "photographic and musical highlights", the invitation did not reveal much else about the event, which went down this past Monday. Here's a first-hand account of what it's like to attend one of these Leica …

Nick Ut is the Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photojournalist who shot the iconic Vietnam War photo that most people refer to as "Napalm Girl". PetaPixel sat down with Ut about his life, career, and his most famous photo that is instantly recognized around the world.

If you're wondering why PetaPixel's coverage of Photokina 2012 -- the largest photo trade show in the world -- has been so slow, here's the explanation: it isn't intentional. Getting access to the Internet over here hasn't been as easy as I would have hoped -- the Wi-Fi at the hotel I'm at has been down for two days (I hear the same is true for other hotels as well), and there isn't free public Wi-Fi at Photokina.

Announced on Monday, Leica's new M rangefinder does away with the classic numbering system and simply goes by its model name. We got a chance to handle one a couple of times after the initial announcement... after fighting through the hoards that were clamoring to get a peek.

Immediately after handling the Canon 6D, we also got a chance to play around with the new Nikon D600. Unlike the 6D, Nikon's cameras were locked down to the display booth, making it more difficult to get a feel for the weight. However, based on the announced specs alone, we know that the Nikon camera is even lighter than the already-light 6D (760g vs 770g), though it is a bit chunkier in its dimensions. Despite being so light, the D600 also feels quite sturdy. It's cheap in its price but not in …

Canon's new 6D is the company's attempt to make full frame photography more affordable and accessible to more photographers. Our initial impression of the camera is exactly what the company is boasting about: that it's small and light. The camera's lightness makes it feel much more Rebel-y than its beefier full-frame siblings, but at the same time it doesn't feel cheap. It's not simply a full frame sensor stuffed inside a Rebel body. Canon has chosen to use magnesium alloy for key parts of the …

Hasselblad mixed things up today by announcing a new "ultra luxury" APS-C mirroress camera. Sounds like Earth-shattering news, right? Take a little closer, and you'll notice that it's not as monumental as it sounds. Basically, the company has taken a page from Leica's book by playing the rebranding game. Just as Leica -Lux compact cameras are essentially rebranded Panasonic Lumix bodies, the new Hasselblad Lunar is a dressed-up version of the Sony NEX-7.

Canon has introduced three new compact cameras to its PowerShot line, offering photographers three tiers of portable image making.

You've probably seen time-lapse videos shot looking out the side of an airplane through a passenger window, but have you ever seen one from the pilot's point of view? If not, check out the beautiful video above. It was created by pilot Jakub Vlk, who brought his Canon 600D to work and captured photographs across seven days. The video shows Vlk taxiing to the runway, taking off, floating up into the clouds, flying around, and landing.

"Entry level" is a huge theme in the photo gear industry this year, and it's not limited to cameras. Lensbaby has also joined in on the action by announcing its new Spark lens. It's stripped-down plastic version of the company's selective focus lenses, allowing you to shoot fun "tilt-shift"-style photos without breaking the bank.

Do you love the design of Apple products? Do you have infinitely deep pockets? If you said yes to both questions, then I have some good news for you.

I'm in Cologne, Germany covering Photokina right now. It's the day before the trade fair opens, and as I was walking through the exhibition center to a press event (which I'll write more on soon), I passed by some of the main exhibition halls. Instead of the squeaky clean "photographer's Disneyland" that guests enjoy when the fair is up and running, everything was a mess, as companies were working hard to set up their impressive displays.

Nik Software announced today that it has been acquired by Google. The company is the maker of Snapseed, one of the most popular photo editing apps in the iTunes App Store and a competitor to Instagram.

With much fanfare, Leica announced its new M and M-E digital rangefinders at Photokina today. The M breaks new ground by introducing some fancy new features that have never been seen before in an M rangefinder, while the M-E is the company's attempt at offering an entry-level digital rangefinder.

This news might not be very relevant to most of you, but Adobe has announced that future versions of Photoshop will not be compatible with Windows XP.

If you want a 50mm f/1.4 lens for your DSLR, you'll need to shell out at least a couple hundred bucks, even if you buy one made by a third-party manufacturer. For those of you who don't mind losing autofocus, you can get the same focal lengths and apertures for much cheaper by buying some old glass and an adapter. By much cheaper, we mean as low as $10-$20! India-based photographer Brock Whittaker recently did this after seeing an auction on eBay for an old Mamiya camera kit.

In addition to its pretty standard cameras and lenses introduced this morning, Olympus also announced something quite unique: a body cap lens. It's a pancake-style MFT-mount 3-element 15mm f/8 lens that is designed to replace your body old body cap. In 35mm terms, the focal length is equivalent to 30mm -- not bad for casual snapshots.

Olympus is entering Photokina week with three new cameras: the E-PM2 and E-PL5 for its PEN Micro Four Thirds lineup, and the X-Z2 as a flagship compact camera. Both PEN cameras feature a 16.1MP CMOS sensor, a max ISO of 25,600, in-body image stabilization, a 3-inch touchscreen, touch shooting, 8fps continuous shooting, photo filters, RAW files with in-camera editing, and 1080i HD video recording.

There's a huge wave of anti-Japanese sentiment sweeping across China, with violent protests popping up all over the country in response to the ongoing dispute over islands in the East China Sea. Amidst the public anger, Japanese brands are taking a hit... literally.

The leaked photos were authentic and the specs were spot on: Canon announced its new 6D DSLR this morning, the smallest, lightest, and cheapest full-frame camera in its lineup. At 690g, it's 20% lighter than the 5D Mark III. The camera is Canon's entry in the emerging "affordable full-frame" DSLR segment, which Nikon entered last week with its similarly named and similarly priced D600.

Microbiologist-turned-photographer Zachary Copfer has developed an amazing photo-printing technique that's very different from any we've seen before. Rather than use photo-sensitive papers, chemicals, or ink, Copfer uses bacteria. The University of Cincinnati MFA photography student calls the technique "bacteriography", which involves controlling bacteria growth to form desired images.