Sony's new DSC-HX99RNV is a retinal projection camera system that is designed to help people with visual impairments better see the world around them and allow them to enjoy photography in ways they previously could not.
Apple's powerful, photographer-friendly line of Retina display MacBook Pros are overdue for an update. But if you're thinking of getting one anyway, don't! Reliable reports claim Apple will announce an update to these laptops at the end of the month.
Smartphones have revolutionized the way we go about our everyday lives. And while more often than not they’re used for more trivial tasks, there are times where their ubiquity and decreasing costs play a vital role in far more meaningful endeavors.
One such case is Peek Retina, a smartphone camera adapter and accompanying app that enables anyone with the know-how to perform an extensive eye exam on anyone... anywhere. The humanitarian potential is obvious.
One of the more interesting stories we ran across this weekend was an initial update from a small group of scientists who claim to have successfully extended human vision into near infrared. Their data seems to show that they have, indeed, managed to do this simply by altering their subjects' diet by restricting vitamin A1 and supplementing with A2 in order to create a certain protein complex. You can read more about this here.
The results seem exciting, mind-blowing even. But retinal neuroscientist and photographer Bryan Jones begs to differ, and he has been kind enough to let us reprint his full rebuttal below.
What is the resolution of the human eye? You might think it's a straight forward question with a straight forward answer. We have a certain number of photon collecting cells in our retina much like an image sensor right? So we should be able to pull a 'megapixel' count of sorts out of there.
Well, actually, it's not nearly that simple. And in the video above, video blogger Michael Stevens (aka. Vsauce) explains why, before ultimately answering the question anyway.
Technology often borrows ideas from nature, and camera technology is no exception. For example, you might remember the bug-inspired compound eye camera we shared just a few months back. Engineers at Swiss company iniLabs don't want to mimic bug eyes, however, they'd rather create something that mimics the human eye. And that's exactly what they did with the new Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS) 128 camera.
Here's yet another example of how technology used in space can help us earthlings in other ways. A partnership between scientists at Cardiff University and the UK Astronomy Technology Center has yielded a prototype device that can help detect Age-Related Macular Degeneration (otherwise known as AMD) -- a common form of sight loss -- using camera technology designed originally for use on space telescopes.
Earlier today, Adobe officially launched Lightroom 4.3 and Camera Raw 7.3, an update that brings support for Apple Retina Displays (and other HiDPI high-res screens) to Lightroom. The news comes just a couple of days after Photoshop received its own HiDPI compatibility update.
A couple of weeks ago we shared a rumor that today would be the day Adobe officially announced a few major improvements to Photoshop CS6, including support for Apple's Retina display. Well, as luck (or good sources) would have it, we weren't wrong. This morning Adobe announced several exciting updates to Photoshop and Creative Cloud.
Back in August, Adobe announced that HiDPI display support -- including for Apple's Retina displays -- would be coming to Photoshop CS6 sometime this fall. If the rumors floating around are true, we may only be about two weeks away from the official announcement date.
Photographers who have been patiently waiting for Adobe to bring Retina-compatibility to Lightroom will be glad to know that support is indeed part of the next update to the popular photo-editing program. In fact, you can download the compatible version already: Adobe has released a Lightroom 4.3 Release Candidate so photographers can help test the app and help squash bug before it becomes an official release.
New uber-high-resolution HiDPI displays like Apple's Retina display are amazing to look at, but aren't very useful unless 3rd party software makers optimize their programs to support the technology. If you're a photographer that has already shelled out a few G's on a Retina-equipped Macbook Pro, you're probably disappointed with the fact that Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom aren't optimized for the display. In fact, some photographers are finding the display unusable for professional photo editing due to the difference in detail between apps optimized for Retina and those that aren't.
If that's you, Adobe's announcement today will be music to your ears: Photoshop CS6 will support HiDPI displays in the next few months, and Lightroom 4 support is on the way as well.
Smartphone cameras have gotten to the point of being able to stack up well against digital cameras — at …