The iPhone has been touted as the world's most popular camera, but that world's most popular camera may be having some hardware issues. Several iPhone 6 Plus users are complaining through an Apple Discussion forum that their iPhone's camera is producing extremely shaky photos and videos... even when they stand completely still.
One of the stranger stories that occurred in the world of photography this past weekend was when Oklahoma football player Sterling Shepard crash landed on a Canon telephoto lens, snapping it into two pieces.
Now that the dust is settled, the photographer has come forward with his account of the incident and an apology to the player.
While diving for a catch at the back of end zone during today's game against Kansas State, Oklahoma wide receiver Sterling Shepard landed on something not-so-soft, but oh-so-very-expensive on the sideline: what looks to be a Canon 1DX attached to either a 400mm f/2.8L or a 500mm f/4L.
Shepard, we're happy to report, is okay. The lens... she's gone.
General wisdom is that you should keep a respectful distance between yourself and the animals you're photographing. If you don't, you -- or in this case the buzzing drone you were using in your stead -- might be punished for your folly.
Enter YouTube user Buddhanz1, his FPV quadcopter, and an angry ram he says he rescued and now looks after.
While filming a national skateboarding event in Detroit on Saturday, drone photographer Harry Arnold of Detroit Drone had his RC copter knocked out of the sky and broken by a punk rock bass player who decided to throw things at the UAV after finishing a song.
Sunsets are beautiful. They've inspired songs and paintings, they've been the backdrops to weddings and celebrations, and overall they're natures way of ending almost every day on a beautiful note.
However, as photographers, we often see them as something of a cliché. To change that up a bit, photographer Bing Wright decided to create a series of images titled "Broken Mirror/Evening Sky" that add a new element to the equation. As you can see from the image above as well as those below, it looks like he photographed some beautiful sunsets through broken windows. But that wasn't exactly how the images came to be.
A report on Canon Rumors is pointing out an issue with Canon's flagship full-frame DSLR and its Cinema counterpart: the 1D X and 1D C. Apparently users have been reporting problems with the 1D X's AF when shooting in less than 0° C, and if an anonymous report sent to CR is accurate, Canon knows about the problem.
Selfies. We can't seem to get enough of them. And while they're somewhat awkward and obnoxious at times, they're rather harmless, innocent and don't cause any damage, right? Wrong. Or at least it was in the case of a student who reportedly broke an early 19th century statue in a museum (see update) in Milan, Italy.
Just incase @29_JL @hullcityteam your not sure the ball is the yellow thing.... not the £6k camera (photo al walter) pic.twitter.com/op6zGrUBVX— Richard Heathcote (@rheathcote) December 21, 2013
Professional sports photographers know their equipment is always at risk, but British Getty Images shooter Richard Heathcote was still surprised and more than a bit miffed when his DSLR bit the dust at Saturday's Hull-vs.-West Bromwich Premiere League soccer match.
Usually we try to stay away from traumatizing you at the very beginning of the week, but this week, we'll make an exception. The video above started out as a tutorial on how to quickly attach and detach a lens "just like a pro"; it turned into a cringeworthy photographer fail.
Flipping through the pages of National Geographic might give aspiring shooters the impression that the magazine's photographers never run into issues. Many years of experience and incredible talent combine for a seamless photo experience where accidents never happen, right? Not really...
Last month we shared a couple videos showing how it's a bad idea to ask professional golfers to aim at your camera -- there's a good chance you'll end up with shattered glass and a pricey camera repair bill.
Unfortunately, the same thing can sometimes happen even if you don't intentionally put your camera in harms way. ESPN found that out at the British Open today after a golfer accidentally smashed one of its $80,000 high definition cameras.
Freelensing is a relatively inexpensive way of getting the similarly unique effect of an expensive tilt-shift lens, where the focus plane is thrown out of whack with the added bonus of natural light leaks. No, this isnt anything new, and the look that an expensive tilt-shift lens gives has been around for a while, but I wanted to share with you my experience with it and how I did it.
If you want to know what the market is like for high-end camera gear that has been destroyed by water damage, check out this eBay auction by a Hastings, Victoria-based Australian photographer who goes by the handle tallguy069. The poor guy accidentally dropped his Canon 1D Mark III DSLR and Canon 600mm f/4L lens ($10,000+ in gear) off a boat into saltwater, completely destroying the functionality of both pieces.
Yesterday we featured an interesting example of digital photographs being reintroduced into the real world in another form (Google Street View photos as life-sized portraits), and now here's another one. For her project "Broken Houses", NYC-based photographer Ofra Lapid created realistic models of abandoned buildings using printed photos, and then photographed them on an infinite gray background.
Photographer Jon Shireman has a cool project titled Broken Flowers that features photographs of flowers that were shattered. How do you shatter flowers, you ask? By freezing them with liquid nitrogen!
Phil Wright got his hands on the Sony RX100 -- the camera David Pogue was raving about -- shortly after it was released back in June. It didn't survive very long.
Earlier this month, Wright was rushing to work in the darkness of the early morning when he placed his coffee and his black camera bag on top of his car. When he arrived at work 22 miles and 25 minutes later with coffee in hand, he suddenly realized that his camera was nowhere to be found. After panicked call to his wife back home, she made the discovery: camera roadkill 300 yards from their house.
One of the questions that comes back most often when people learn what I do for a living is: how do you manage not to drop your camera? Up until Saturday, I could (somewhat smugly) answer that I am being very careful and have been lucky so far.
Depending on your subject matter, it can be a very good idea to take out a damage waiver when renting camera equipment. Wildlife photographer Andrew Kane learned this recently after renting gear from LensRentals for a shoot in Yellowstone. Here's his account of how the borrowed equipment ended up broken:
I recently rented a D4, Wimberly head, and 600VR from you, and the day before yesterday, I had a little bit of an accident. I was photographing a coyote here in Yellowstone and I followed it into the woods about 300yds away from the road. As I am taking pictures of the coyote, I heard twigs breaking behind me, and as I turned around I saw it was a grizzly bear. I picked up the tripod with the D4 and 600 on it and slowly started to back away. The bear got closer and closer as I tried to back up. When the bear got to within 20 yds. of me, I bumped into a brush pile that I could not lift the tripod over, so I had no choice but to leave the gear and continue away from the bear.
Now here's a divisive photo series that will draw both anger and cheers: graphic designer (and former Apple employee) Michael Tompert teamed up with photographer Paul Fairchild for a project titled 12LVE that consists of photographs showing annihilated Apple products. Here's the description:
12LVE [...] provides society a mirror, forcing us to question our infatuation with mere objects. By annihilating the adored, pulverizing the precious, and obliterating the beloved, 12LVE reminds us that although these objects have become quasi-religious icons, we will soon discard and replace them with the new crop—sleeker, faster, shinier.
YouTube filmmaker Casey Neistat‘s DSLR recently took a tumble, breaking a piece off …
Canon's 50mm f/1.8 Mark II is a terrific lens for its price, but its build quality definitely leaves something to be desired. Do a quick search, and you'll find legions of broken-hearted Canonites who had their 'Nifty Fifty' split into two pieces after accidentally bumping or dropping it. Flickr user tastygiant is one such Canonite, but he subsequently discovered an awesome use for the broken lens:
Being a geek, I figured I could use the broken pieces in the future, so I shelved it and bought a new 50mm 1.8 Canon lens. One day, while taking shots around my apartment, I stumbled across the broken lens again and decided to reverse the "barrel assembly" onto the front of my intact 50mm. Everything was blurry of course, but I noticed if I got very close to an object the detail came into view. After adjusting the aperture to around f5.6, I had a clear image.
It's important to note that you should switch to Manual focusing and rotate the focusing ring to "infinity".
This photograph was taken by a lens with some "obstruction" on the front element. Aside from the blurry patch of nastiness in the bottom portion of the frame, the rest of the image looks pretty decent. What do you think the "obstruction" is? A little dirt? A smudge where the photographer accidentally touched the front element? A scratch? The answer is a little closer to a scratch than a smudge...
An unfortunate photo-lover in Hong Kong recently got into a fight with his girlfriend, who proceeded to smash his beautiful collection of Nikon lenses. Among the casualties were a Nikkor 28-70 f2.8D, Tokina 28-70 F2.6-2.8, Nikkor 80-200 f2.8D, Nikkor 17-35 F2.8D, and a Nikon TC-20E teleconverter.
So we know DSLR cameras can survive plunges down cliffs (but not being trapped in …
Dmitry Sklyarov of Russian software company ElcomSoft announced yesterday that the encryption system used by Canon to prove the authenticity of photographs is flawed and unfixable. This is the system that's used to prove that images were not altered after being captured by the camera, and has applications in things such as court cases.
To prove their point, ElcomSoft published a series of ridiculous and obviously "Photoshopped" images (e.g. the astronaut planting a Soviet flag seen above) that all correctly pass Canon's authenticity verification.
Have a busted lens that isn’t worth repairing? Instead of throwing it away, you can turn it into a …
During Game 4 of the series between the Yankees and the Rangers this past tuesday, a player broke a bat when making a hit and the broken end of the bat flew all the way into the camera well, shattering the front of a Canon DIGISUPER 86II TELE xs camera lens worth $90,000. Luckily there was a protective filter being used over the lens, though it will still cost $20,000 to replace it. What's neat is that cameraman Steve Angel kept on shooting with the smashed lens, framing the scenes through the small hole in the shattered glass until the camera was replaced an inning later.
Just days after releasing a firmware update that brought 24 fps video to the 5D Mark II, Canon has pulled …