Google recently reaffirmed its commitment to keeping recently-acquired Nik Software's high-end photography tools alive, which led some to believe that Snapseed -- Nik's popular photo editing app -- would be neglected or shuttered. That doesn't appear to be the case.
Nikon published a news post recently boasting that its D4 and D800 DSLRs had "become the first DSLR cameras to pass the very elaborate European Broadcasting Union (EBU) test, commonly referred to as the BBC Test."
Gabriel Paez is like a one-man Google Street View. On September 21, 2012, the panoramic videographer and iPhone hacker set out from Seaside, Oregon on a journey across the United States to Portland, Maine. Carrying him from place to place was Pucho, his 2005 Vespa PX150 scooter. Strapped to his back was a giant panoramic camera rig designed to capture 360-degree video footage of his adventure "for a live stage show" he's working on.
With the advent of Internet-connectivity and apps in cameraphones and digital cameras, images can now be shared with others in ways never before seen in the history of photography. Unfortunately, not all of the ways are positive. Some are downright creepy.
Last month we wrote about how the small focusing lens inside a laser pointer can be repurposed as a cheap macro lens for your smartphone. After seeing this project online, photo enthusiast John Coleman decided to give it a shot. To keep the lens secure against your phone, you'll need something to hold it (e.g. a hair pin) and some tape to attach the holder to the phone. The photo above shows the super simple attachment Coleman created.
One major trend in the camera industry this year is the introduction of mobile operating systems such as Android into digital cameras. By opening the door to things like Wi-Fi, data plans, and apps, camera makers are going in the same direction that phone makers went some years ago, turning their devices into what can best be described as portable computers with specialized functions (e.g. voice-calling, photography).
Earlier this month, Nokia found itself in a public relations nightmare after it came to light that photos and videos in a video promoting the Lumia 920 smartphone had been faked. The company quickly began to do damage control by inviting the press to test out the PureView camera against competing smartphone cameras. The Verge's test was quite promising, and now Engadget is confirming those results after doing tests of their own: …
Would you use a camera app that could only shoot a single photo before becoming useless as a camera? The answer is probably no, but you should still take a look at One Memento nevertheless. It's might sound unappealing at first, but the idea behind the app is quite interesting.
If you were thinking about buying the iPhone 5 as your primary carry-around camera, you might want to hold off on that. Reports are emerging that the camera suffers from purple flares when bright light sources are in or around the frame. Cult of Mac reports that iPhone 5 owners are taking to online forums to express their displeasure with this issue.
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).
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.
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).
Developers who pre-ordered Google's Project Glass glasses for $1,500 won't be receiving them until early 2013, but a number of lucky journalists were recently given the opportunity to take the camera-equipped, augmented reality eye-piece for a test drive. The New York Times' gadget kingmaker David Pogue writes that the device has the potential to be one of the rare devices that introduces a whole new gadget category to the world, …
Apple's iPhone and iOS get a lot of media attention, but Google's Android OS is the world's most popular smartphone operating system by a long shot. Given this fact, it makes sense to at least target both markets if you're releasing something that's intended to be widely used. Triggertrap understands this, and today released the Android version of its mobile camera triggering app.
Apple is on stage right now announcing its new iPhone 5, and has just revealed the details of the smartphone's camera. It's pretty much the same camera as the one found inside the iPhone 4S, except they made the whole thing "thinner" (the iPhone 5 is 18% thinner than its predecessor). You'll find a slightly improved backside-illuminated sensor that shoots the same 8-megapixel photos at 3264x2448 resolution, and the same 5-element lens with a f/2.4 aperture.
Love it or hate it, Instagram is currently a pretty big deal in the mobile space. Big enough, perhaps, that many smartphone users might not even consider switching to a phone running Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system unless the photo sharing app is available. If you're one of those people, get ready to think about jumping ship: Instagram is coming to Windows Phone.
Now that The Impossible Project has succeeded in reviving Polaroid-style instant films -- even giant ones -- the company is expanding its horizons and branching out to new products. Today, it announced a crazy new device that's dedicated to turning your digital iPhone photos into analog instant photo prints: the Impossible Instant Lab.
After Nokia unleashed its 41-megapixel 808 PureView phone back in February, most people thought that it would set the bar for future phones branded with the PureView monkier. "PureView" came to mean, "a ridiculous number of megapixels in a phone camera." Turns out that's not the case.
Sony is attacking the mirrorless camera with a one-two punch this year. After announcing the Wi-Fi-equipped NEX-5R last week, the company is preparing to also release the NEX-6. The two cameras are nearly identical in terms of specs and features, except for one major difference: the NEX-6 has a built-in electronic viewfinder, while the NEX-5R does not.
Modder Andy Rawson needed an easy way to find air leaks in his 100-year-old house in order to improve its energy efficiency. Not wanting to spend thousands of dollars on a thermal imaging camera, he decided to go the DIY route. He built a box containing a 64-zone temperature sensor, and managed to connect the device to his iPhone via the dock. By overlaying the temperature data onto the iPhone's camera display, the $150 attachment instantly turns the iPhone into a cheap thermal imaging camera.
In June of last year, we reported on an unsettling patent filed by Apple that would allow certain infrared signals to remotely disable the camera on iPhones. It showed the potential downsides of bringing cameras into the world of wireless connectivity, which appears to be the next big thing in the camera industry. Now, a newly published patent is rekindling the fears of those who don't want "Big Brother" controlling their devices.
There's a fascinating rumor floating around in the gadget world today. Apparently Samsung is planning to introduce a point-and-shoot camera that's powered by Android OS and based on the popular Galaxy S smartphone. GSMArena, which first published the rumor and created the mockup seen above, reports that the camera will be named the "Samsung Galaxy S camera" (creative, I know). It's said to feature a giant 4.8-inch screen and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
Nikon made a big splash in the compact camera world yesterday by being the first major camera manufacturer to bake Android OS into a compact camera, the Coolpix S800c (Polaroid released one a while ago, but it's hardly a major player at the moment). The S800c looks and sounds interesting as far as specs and press releases go, but what's it actually like to use a camera that could be mistaken for a smartphone?
Flickr's Android app is almost one year old now, and the service is getting it ready for its birthday by pushing out an update with a fresh UI and new features. Version 1.5 introduces a new navigation menu, new explore features, metadata editing, new camera options, and more.
After weeks of rumors and leaked photos, Nikon has finally officially announced its new Coolpix S800c compact camera -- the company's first camera to be powered by Android OS. It's designed to be a powerful point-and-shoot that offers the versatility of app-based mobile phones.
If you've been looking for a way to hold "photo conversations" with friends and family as easily as you chat through text messages, Skype has a solution for you. The company has added one of the features requested the most by its millions of users: mobile photo sharing. Upgrade to the latest version of Skype's iPhone and iPad apps, and you'll be able to beam your latest snaps to anyone on your contact list without having to worry about things like file size limits or paying for MMS charges.
A couple weeks ago, we shared a rumor that Nikon is working on a compact camera powered by Android OS (said to be version 2.3 Gingerbread). New leaked photos are revealing what the camera will look like.
iPhone users who want to flaunt their inner photography geek can buy special skins or cases that transform their phone into a camera look-alike. That option wasn't awesome enough for photographer Jake Potts of Bruton Stroube Studios, who recently decided to use his phone's glass back to create an ambrotype photo using the wet plate collodion process!
If you want to take Lensbaby-style selective focus macro shots using your phone, go buy a cheap laser pointer. Photographer Zaheer Mohiuddin writes that the lens inside laser pointers (the one that focuses the laser) works well as a macro lens for the tiny cameras found on smartphones. After taking the device apart and finding the small gem-like lens, simply attach it to your camera with some tape to start shooting close-up pictures.
Usman Rashid of Irvine, California was photographing during a trip to Florida last year when started looking for a way to view his DSLR's photos in real-time using his iPad. What he found was that existing solutions on the market were either too pricey or a pain in the butt.
Would you shoot a wedding professionally with your iPhone and Hipstamatic? If you want to stay in business, probably not. But what if you were asked to do so, and paid for your work?
How do you feel about Android OS? How about Android OS in your camera? If you're a Nikon compact camera user, that might soon be possible. Nikon is reportedly planning to announce its first Android-based point-and-shoot in the very near future.
360 Panorama has come a long way since we first shared it two years ago, going from an unpolished app with some highly negative reviews to one of the most popular camera appears boasting thousands of reviews and a 4.5 star rating.
Hey Android users: if you're looking for an easy way to make your photographs "pop", check out Perfectly Clear. Previously available only for desktop machines and iOS, Athentech Imaging has now released the Android version of the popular auto image correction app.
We've seen some very heavy-duty gear lugged out to cover the Olympic games in London this year: some robotic rigs, an 800mm lens that could easily weigh more than the average lady gymnast, and of course, the usual suspects in a packed camera bag. But Guardian photojournalist Dan Chung is traveling light: he's covering the games with a simple iPhone setup.
How's this for a strange camera accessory: the Paparazzo Light is a lighting attachment for iPhones that mimics the look of vintage press camera flashes (yes, the kind the original Lightsaber was made from). The light comes from a 300 Lumen LED that's powered by two dedicated CR 123 batteries, and three modes offer different brightness settings for photos and videos.
One of the big conveniences of shooting digital is that your pictures pop out with useful details baked into the EXIF data. Exif4Film is a tool that makes recording EXIF information easier for film photographers. It comes as a pair of programs: an Android app helps shooters store specific details as soon as photos are captured, and a desktop application takes the Android app data and automatically adds it to your film scans. The apps are completely free, and developer Kostas Rutkauskas tells us …
Still shoot film? Use filters when you shoot? FilterCalc is a new Android app that's designed to help non-TTL photographers figure out proper exposure when using filters.
The iPICS2GO Negative to iPhone Scanner is a simple device that lets your iPhone double as a scanner for photos, both film and prints. It works with 35mm negatives and slide film, as well as 3x5 and 4x6 prints.
The latest issue of Sports Illustrated magazine features 18 baseball photographs by sports photographer Brad Mangin across 6 of the opening pages. Not just any photographs, mind you, Instagram photos.
LZRTAG is a free Android app that lets you generate QR codes associated with uploaded images -- mostly animated .gif images. The codes can be printed out and placed on walls and other surfaces. When scanned with the Android app, the codes call up the associated image and display it in an augmented reality on your phone.
Smartphone cameras have gotten to the point of being able to stack up well against digital cameras -- at least when viewing the photos at smaller sizes. Zoom in, and there's still a pretty big gap in quality due to the smartphone's smaller lens and sensor. BuzzFeed's John Herrman writes that the emergence of ultra-high res displays displays is converting people back to digital cameras: …
Typically, light painting requires a little bit of photography know how and some camera equipment that's up to the task. But a new product by Tomy may change all that, or at least give non-photographers and kids something to play around with when they're bored. Tomy's new light pen and app combo, which will retail for $30, allow the user to create rudimentary light paintings using nothing more than the pen and a free iPhone app.
The stated goal on "the Kick" is that they're trying to "help you take better pictures, make better videos and have fun doing it." But what they've really done is re-imagine, and maybe even revolutionize, portable lighting. That's because the Kick, in particular the Kick Plus, can do so much: use it as a strobe, as a continuous light source, or to generate different colors or effects.
Aviary -- the online photo editor that replaced Picnik as the official editor for Flickr -- is expanding their scope by releasing an Android and iOS app. Up until now iOS users had no Aviary to speak of and Android users had only a "plugin," but as of yesterday, full-blown apps for both operating systems are available in the iTunes App store and Google Play.
After Facebook launched its own iOS camera app last month, many people were surprised that the app was simply named "Camera" on the home screen. To clear up confusion -- and likely to prevent any trouble from Apple -- Facebook has updated the app with a new name: Camera•. No word on how it's supposed to be pronounced ("camera dot"?) but the change comes along with the latest update that includes more reliable uploads.
Just like point-and-shoots, the camcorder market was also hit hard by the advent of good-quality smartphone cameras. For the average person, all the home video capability they might ever need can now be found in, say, their iPhone. The only problem with that -- besides a higher susceptibility to Vertical Video Syndrome -- is that the videos you take on your smartphone rarely leave your smartphone.
A new iOS app from design studio Maybe It’s the Lightening, simply titled Stilla, works with one simple premise: every photo has a second photo -- or third or fourth -- that your camera missed. For every picture of your friend on the boat, there's a beautiful sky and a glorious reflection of that sky in the water that you missed. Stilla seeks to remedy that.
Here's an interesting product idea by Oregon-based designer Jason Hilbourne that combines a charging cable and a mini-tripod into an easy-to-use, pocket-sized device. His project, dubbed Twig, is specific to the iPhone and has already gotten quite a bit of attention. With 56 days to go the Twig has already secured $64,000 in funding -- putting it a whopping $14,000 past its goal. But more-so than its iPhone functionality, for us the intriguing thing is to see if anyone takes this idea and runs …
