Turns out you may not have to be stupid enough to post incriminating evidence on Instagram to get busted via photo in the near future. A pair of British researchers are working on a way to collect identifiable images from the reflections of people captured on a photo subject's eyeball.
When it comes to iconic imagery, there are few individual photographers who can best NASA. From the pale blue dot, to the blue marble, to the amazing photo of Bruce McCandless II floating out into space on the first ever untethered space walk, NASA's got quite a repository of amazing imagery.
One of those iconic images, dubbed AS8-14-2383 but better known as Earthrise, is about to turn 45 years old on Christmas Eve. And so NASA thought it appropriate to share the story of how luck and teamwork helped the astronauts of Apollo 8 capture this photo.
Backlighting can be all moody and subtle, but you can seldom go wrong with full-on, straight-behind illumination. Especially if your subject is the planet on which your family, friends and all of humanity happens to reside.
That's what the trio of Apollo 17 astronauts -- and soon, the whole world -- discovered 41 years and two days ago today. Navigating towards the moon on Dec. 7, 1972, the spacecraft had the sun behind it, providing a rare, fully illuminated view of the Earth.
Now that we think about it, we should have expected this, but we just didn't see it coming. The photo above supposedly shows a new camera on its way from Hasselblad. In keeping with the Lunar and Stellar before it, the Hasselblad Solar pictured above will basically be a Sony a7 redesigned using expensive materials and sold at a much higher price.
The online shopping revolution has wreaked havoc on brick-and-mortar stores, and photography shops are no exception. If you need an example, look no further than Jessops in the UK, which is down from 187 stores to only 36, and even those are only open because of some serious funding from investor and Reality TV star Peter Jones.
Stories like that, however, don't seem to be stopping camera companies from jumping into the retail store game. Over the past year, Canon opened its first Experience Center, Polaroid opened its first Photobar, and now Hasselblad is joining the party with its first retail store, which will be opening in a few days time in Tokyo.
Back in early August, we told you about Badass Cameras and their plan to create an adapter that could turn your iPhone into an uber-cheap (relatively speaking) digital back for your old Hasselblad film camera. Well, the wait is over. Arriving on Kickstarter a bit later than expected, the Hasselnuts adapter does just that.
For travel shooters and those looking to keep their kit light, new Interchangeable Lens Compacts (ILC) have been a major boon. But the real beneficiaries of the rise of this new system -- still less than five years old -- are the companies that make them. However, in order to maximize those benefits, manufacturers of ILCs need to establish the format as viable and resilient. For some, that means working together rather than against one another.
From the moment of its announcement, Hasselblad's Stellar camera's purpose has been controlling the damage done by the same company's Lunar crash landing. The latter camera is (was?) a ridiculous thing as noted in my Hasselblad Lunar review.
In addition to catching up on Hasselblad's lost dignity, the Stellar also needs to introduce as little damage as possible. After all, the Sony RX100 camera that the Stellar is based on was already discontinued at the time the Stellar was launched, but the latter's price is almost $2000 (~€1500). That is more than 2.5X the price of the RX100 successor, the RX100 II.
Want to own a piece of photographic and space exploration history? An original Hasselblad 500EL Electric Camera kit has appeared on eBay. This is the camera NASA astronauts used on the moon for its Lunar Apollo Missions.
About a week ago, the first images of Hasselblad's upcoming compact camera, the Stellar, leaked onto the Internet amongst rumors that it would essentially be a Sony RX100 with some very exotic housing materials and a much steeper price tag. Basically, people were thinking the RX100 would be to the Stellar what the NEX-7 was to the Lunar.
The title sort of gives it away, but did you know that there is an online archive that contains high-resolution film scans from every Apollo mission? The gallery contains all of the incredible photos taken during each of the missions -- from Apollo 1 all the way through Apollo 17 -- with some 1,000+ photos from Apollo 11 alone.
At the end of last month, a couple of job listings on Hasselblad's website revealed that the company was working on two new compacts and a DSLR. Part of their partnership with Sony, the hope was that these upcoming models would do better than the Hasselblad Lunar, which fell flat once people discovered it was basically a rebranded Sony NEX-7 with a much larger price tag.
Well, images of the first of those three cameras have leaked, but it doesn't look like Hasselblad is breaking the mold. Dubbed the Hasselblad Stellar (in keeping with the space theme), the first of the two rumored compacts looks to be a Sony RX100 made with more exotic camera housing materials.
So far, the partnership between Hasselblad and Sony hasn't been as enriching as both companies might have hoped for. Hasselblad's Lunar mirrorless camera was met with less-than-favorable reviews once people realized it was basically a re-branded Sony NEX-7 with a massive price tag.
But have no fear, the companies haven't stopped working together yet. In fact, if recent Hasselblad job listings are to be trusted, the company has three new cameras in the works.
On the same day that Kodak announced the sale of its camera film business, Hasselblad had big "ending" news of its own. The company today announced that it will no longer be producing the 503CW medium format camera. This teams the V System line is officially coming to an end.
For its H5D ad campaign, Hasselblad approached underwater photographer Henrik Sorensen, knowing that he would put together something worthwhile. What he came up with is a "twisted take" on Denmark as a fairytale country that he's calling "Not Just a Fairytale," and the above video takes us behind the scenes at the underwater shoot.
Remember that beautiful cardboard Hasselblad created by designer Kelly Angood a couple of years ago and released as a PDF template? If you'd like to build your own but don't want to go through the trouble of printing the design onto cardboard and cutting out the pieces, you'll be glad to know that Angood is working on launching a do-it-yourself kit for the camera.
You may have heard that there are 12 Hasselblad film cameras sitting on the surface of the moon at this very moment, left there by astronauts who needed to lighten their vessel's load as much as possible. However, did you know that at least one of those cameras was left there to test the durability of the gear?
Mecca in Saudi Arabia is considered to be the holiest city of Islam, and is only accessible to Muslims. 38-year-old London photographer Toufic Beyhum wanted to document what a pilgrimage is like for a Muslim and to "portray the peaceful and spiritual side of Islam", so he brought along a Hasselblad 500 medium-format camera when he visited the city. His images -- a few of which were snapped in locations where photography was prohibited -- offer an intimate look at locations that most people will never be allowed to see in their lifetimes.
Clemson University is apparently ditching film photography and going digital. The public South Carolina-based school has just turned to government surplus auctions to unload its analog gear, and the equipment is being snatched up for ridiculously low prices. The lot of 9 "excellent condition" Hasselblad 500 EL/M medium format camera bodies seen above was just sold for $1,200, which comes out to about $133 for each camera (granted, there are some taxes and processing fees tacked on).
Hasselblad surprised the photo world last month by announcing the Lunar: a hyper-luxury mirrorless camera with an opulent exterior and a Sony NEX-7 at its core. To say it wasn't well received would be an understatement; photographers immediately mocked the camera's over-the-top design -- it's decorated with gold and precious metals -- and the fact that it will carry a price tag $5,000 more than the camera it's based on.
Hassy isn't fazed by the criticism. The latest word from the Hasselblad camp is that it has opened a new design center in Italy, where the Lunar was conceived. Regardless of what you think about the camera, at least Hasselblad's game plan is becoming more clear.
Regardless of how you feel about Hasselblad's idea of taking a $1,100 Sony NEX-7, souping it up, and selling it for $6,500 as a Hasselblad Lunar, I think we can all agree that there needs to be honesty in marketing the camera. Well, that's what a couple of sections over on the Lunar website seriously lack. Check out the page boasting about the camera's APS-C HD CMOS Sensor, which contains a side-by-side comparison showing the common APS-C sensor size next to other popular sizes. Does that look like a Micro Four Thirds sensor to you?
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.
What's interesting is that not all the sketches show a modified NEX-7. Some of them appear to show a compact camera, and others a DSLR.
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.
Hasselblad first launched its H System of digital medium format cameras back at the 2002 Photokina. The H4D was …
If you look at the product page of any "exotic" piece of camera equipment on Amazon, there's a good chance that you'll come across some humorous fake reviews left by photographers looking to poke fun at the product's features. Last September, we shared some funny reviews left for the Sigma 200-500mm, which looks more like a bazooka than a lens. Another one is the Hasselblad H4D-50, a medium format DSLR that costs $19,000... as an open box demo. You can probably guess what the reviews poke fun at.
Some rumblings over in camp Hasselblad: 1001 Noisy Cameras reports that Hasselblad is …
Video technology is advancing at an alarming rate, and the question that seems to be on many a photographer's mind is: "will video ever render still photography obsolete?" In the future, will shooting a sunset simply involve going out and recording 30 minutes to an hour of video and then pulling your favorite frames into Photoshop or Lightroom? Well, that's the question that this video from Fstoppers is trying to answer.
Many a photographer would love to have a medium format camera gracing their camera bag, but not everyone can afford to drop anywhere between twenty and forty thousand dollars on a Hasselblad. Fortunately, the price of owning one just dropped by 22.9-percent. In an attempt to make medium formats more affordable and commonplace, Hasselblad is launching a global marketing initiative that will significantly drop the price of many of their cameras, including the entry-level H4D-31 (down by ~$5,000), and the 60MP H4D-60 (down by ~$8,000).
If you thought Nikon’s 6mm Fisheye lens from a week ago was crazy, get a load of …
This video, done by The Camera Store with help from Roth and Ramberg, is sure to stir up some controversy. One side will say that 35mm couldn't possibly compete with medium format, while the other will point out that the price difference makes the whole debate moot.