cameras

How Well Can You Learn Photography Without Getting Up Off Your Butt?

Photography is a hobby that generally takes plenty of hands-on experience to nail down. Sure, the basics of photography, such as composition and the exposure triangle can be learned through reading and research, but to truly improve on your photography, you need to get out in the field and just shoot... or do you?

10 Quirky Camera Designs from Digital Photography’s Past

Camera makers narrowed the point-and-shoot market down to a couple of basic designs some years ago, and ever since it's been one variation after another on slim-and-silver or megazoom brawn. But oh, back in the day...

There was room for experimentation, as shown by these inventive camera designs that turned heads at the time but never quite became industry reference points.

The War Against Photography is Growing Alongside the Use of Security Cameras

The western world was sent into a brief paranoid frenzy when whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked government information about the surveillance of the National Security Agency (NSA). I say brief, because it seems to have been forgotten by a large number of people; it seemed like it was just more news. The revelations, and more that followed, showed how the NSA record phone calls and data and more controversially; that they use information from emails and social networking sites.

The Policy of Banning Only DSLRs from Concerts is Ridiculous

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros are due on stage in 15 minutes and I walk up to the doorstaff ticket in hand. They tear the ticket and ask to look in the camera bag for deodorants and liquids. I'm not too sure why. This is the Trinity Centre in Bristol with a capacity of 650 and normally holds community events.

The doorman tuts and says “Interchangeable lens.” I'm a bit confused. “Tour manager has said no interchangeable lens cameras, sorry.” I returned to my car, out the equipment in the boot and went back to the gig.

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These Privacy Glasses Use Infrared Light to Hide Your Face from Cameras

In this day and age, you're likely to have a hard time walking down the street and not seeing a camera somewhere. If it isn't held by the shutter-happy tourist in short shorts, it's the CCTV camera mounted at the entrance of the local subway station.

How does one maintain anonymity? Staying in? No! You put on fabulous privacy-protecting glasses under development by Japan's National Institute of Informatics.

Video: NASA Gives a Tour of the Cameras on the Mars Curiosity Rover

The Curiosity Rover has been trekking the surface of Mars since late last year, and so far, there has been no shortage of great imagery.

But what gear is behind those intriguing images we see so frequently? NASA JPL has put together a short video on the camera equipment on board the Curiosity rover.

Rodeo Bans “Professional” SLR Cameras — A Swipe at Animal-Rights Crowd?

We're getting more and more accustomed to authorities telling us if and how we can photograph something, so the camera ban enacted for the recent Reno Rodeo isn't all that surprising.

What's different with this one is the intended target of the ban, which animal-rights activists claim is intended to prevent them from exposing abuses.

Fujifilm Planning to Slim Down Compact Camera Line

Olympus isn't the only camera manufacturer finding ways to cut costs by getting rid of their low-end camera offerings. Tokyo-based Fujifilm is expected to dramatically slim down their compact camera line by fifty percent in the near future.

Imagined Kodak Technology Puts Face-Detection on Steroids

Despite the proliferation of SLRs and Micro Four Thirds cameras, “auto” mode isn’t going anywhere. As evidence, consider a recently published patent application from Kodak that assumes the average camera user can’t even figure out which direction to point the thing.

Does Everybody Get to be a Concert Photographer Now?

"Please turn off or silence your cell phones, and absolutely no photography."

The request at the beginning of Tony Bennett's (Yes, I'm old and I like jazz. Deal with it.) rapturously received concert last week at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall was standard stuff. What happened afterward was far from standard, however.

One Photographer’s Rant: “There’s Too Many Cameras on the Market”

An interesting video has been going viral within the photographic community today (with a little help from Reddit). The video shows photographer Andre Bailey of Envy Me Images ranting about the state of the consumer DSLR market -- specifically lamenting over and over that "there's [sic] too many cameras on the market."

Pro DSLRs Lose Value More Slowly Than Consumer Ones, Study Finds

New cameras are like new computers. Both of them depreciate quite quickly as new technologies and new models are churned out year after year. This presents a perpetual problem for photographers, as many constantly grapple with the question of whether to upgrade their camera to a more recent model, or whether to purchase a higher-end model so that it keeps its value longer.

Market research software company Terapeak recently did a study that looks at depreciation in Canon EOS DSLRs. The results are pretty interesting.

The Armadillo Camera and Other Wacky Camera Creations

Swiss photography duo Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs were featured here in April of last year for their DIY large format camera created out of a stack of books. It turns out books aren't the only things the two are making cameras with: they also have cameras that mix the worlds of taxidermy and photography.

For their project titled Camera Collection, Onorato and Krebs created one-of-a-kind cameras out of extremely unusual things -- including an armadillo (shown above).

X-ray Photographs of Various Cameras

Memphis, Tennessee-based photographer and X-ray technician Blake Billings has a set of images showing what various cameras look like when photographed with an X-ray machine. What you see above is a Nikon D60 DSLR.

Sony NEX-3N Mirrorless Camera and A58 SLT Become Official

After having their photos and some specs leaked this past weekend, the Sony NEX-3N and A58 finally became real today through an official announcement by Sony. The new mirrorless and pellicle mirror cameras were unveiled alongside a set of new lenses, and offer some pretty standard upgrades to current models.

Sony A58, NEX-3N, and Lenses Outed as Leaked Photos Emerge

Sony has a couple of new cameras and a set of new lenses coming out, and we're starting to get a better idea of what we'll be seeing announced very shortly. Expect to see a new SLT camera called the A58, a new mirrorless camera called the NEX-3N, and a trio of A-mount lenses.

Massive 1,000+ Piece Camera Collection Being Auctioned on eBay

Want to own a giant collection of vintage cameras, but don't want to spend a lifetime acquiring them one by one? If you have deep pockets and money to burn, here's your shot: collector Brain Cue of Alameda, California (kka20101 on eBay) is selling his massive camera collection that he has spent over 50 years building up.

Photography Equipment Arranged Neatly

We've shared photographs of neatly arranged camera gear before, but they've generally been cameras disassembled into its individual components. Photographer Jim Golden took the whole "neatly arranged" concept to a whole new level recently: he shot the photograph above after arranging more than 190 cameras, lenses, and accessories in his studio.

People Becoming Paparazzi Photogs in the Presence of Celebrities

For those of you who can't stand what paparazzi photographers do with their cameras, know this: it's not just the professional celebrity photographers who do such things. When a celebrity is spotted in public, ordinary people all around pull out their cameras and do exactly the same thing.

The video above shows what happened recently when Tom Cruise and his daughter Suri tried to watch a show at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida.