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March 26 2012
Colorful Incase Mini Cable Kit: USB to Everything You Need
With all of the gadgets people are carrying around these days, it makes sense to keep some cables with you, just in case you need to connect some of them together. This new kit from Incase looks pretty sweet, and the fact that the cables come color-coded makes them even easier to find in the provided handy case.
The USB Mini Cable Kit measures just about 5 inches-tall and takes up very little space in your bag. It covers all of the essentials, including a micro USB connector for smartphones and cameras, mini USB connector for cameras and other electronics, and an Apple Dock Connector for all of your iOS gear including iPhones, iPads and iPods. Each 4 inch-long cable has a standard USB connector on the other end.
The kit is available in the fluorescent colors shown here, or in grey, black and white. It sells from Incase for $24.95 (USD).
[via NOTCOT]
February 23 2012
How-To: Build and Use an Afghan Box Camera
My old pal, Bay Area shutterbug Billy Baque, has a passion for the handmade, low-tech, all-in-one cameras-plus-darkrooms used by street photographers around the world. The so-called Cuban Polaroid is a typical example—a wooden box with a light-tight sleeve for the photographer’s arm at one end and a lens on the other. Billy describes the typical use:
Using photographic printing paper the photographer would expose a sheet of paper for the negative, develop, stop, and fix it inside the camera, then put a copy stand on the camera and photograph the negative (to obtain a positive), develop, stop, and fix, then wash the final print in a coffee can of water attached to his homemade tripod.
Billy just hipped me to Lukas Birk’s Afghan Box Camera Project, an ethnographic study documenting the rapidly-vanishing traditions, technologies, and skills of street photographers in Kabul. The Afghan version of the Cuban Polaroid is known as the kamra-e-faoree, and Mr. Birk has gone to considerable lengths to document its traditional construction and use, preparing a detailed build guide and an on-site video minutely recording lifelong Kabuli street photographer Qalam Nabi, in action, with his. [Thanks, Billy!]
January 26 2012
Super Slow Motion Canon DSLR Shutter Action
Destin of Smarter Every Day took the lens off his Canon 60D, pointed a Phantom Flex high speed video camera at the shutter, and took a picture. The exposure cycle happens in four stages and lasts less than a tenth of a second in real time, but the Phantom Flex stretches that action out to almost a full minute of screen time at YouTube framerates. Udi Tirosh of DIYPhotography.net breaks it down. [Thanks, Udi!]
September 21 2011
Build cheap panning camera mounts for time lapse photography
Panning time lapse photographs always look pretty cool, but there’s that whole “making a panning time lapse” rig that gets in the way of all the fun. [Getawaymoments] put together a tutorial quite a while ago showing how to use Ikea egg timers as cheap and dispensable panning units, and has updated his instructions with a pair of refreshed designs.
He stumbled upon two new egg timers at Ikea, the Stam and Ordning, which sell for $1.99 and $5.99 respectively. The Stam is a small plastic model that can be fitted with a set screw, to which most cameras can be mounted. A small bushing can also be installed in the timer’s plastic base, allowing it to be mounted on any standard tripod.
The Ordning is a beefier unit capable of withstanding more abuse than its plastic brethren, hence the larger price tag. A few minutes on the drill press makes room for a metal bushing, allowing the Ordning to be installed on any tripod as well.
The hack isn’t high tech, but we’re impressed with the results he was able to get with these simple kitchen timers. For the cost and time required to build them, they are sure to give most other panning rigs a run for the money.
Continue reading to see a short instructional video demonstrating how to build one of your own.
[via Make]
Filed under: digital cameras hacks
August 01 2011
Camera Cookies
Some cookies look almost too good to eat. These fun sets of camera cookies from mangar on Etsy fall in to that category. They'd be such a fun treat for a photographer friend!
July 19 2011
Another DSLR Camera Bank Helps You Save Up for an Actual Camera
Novelty items for DSLR fans are fast becoming popular. There’s the famous lens mug, the lens pillow, lens bracelet and there’s a camera-shaped speaker. There was even a Canon 7D piggy bank. Now there’s another piggy bank designed for DSLR devotees – this time of the Canon EOS 350D.
The DSLR Camera Bank is a realistic life-sized replica of the Canon EOS 350D that doubles as a piggy bank. As you’ll see in the gallery below it really is quite detailed. All the buttons and switches are present, as well as the viewing screen. The lens is also detachable, just like the real thing.
You can order the DSLR Camera Bank from Photojojo for $24 (USD). Aside from using it as a piggy bank, Photojojo has a couple of suggestions: you can give it as a present for someone else who’s also saving up for a camera or for kicks, treat it carelessly in front of your friends (or better yet make them break it) to freak them out. Of course with the first suggestion the person you give it to might think that you’re giving him a real camera and will thus be disappointed. As for the second suggestion? I imagine it’ll be a fun prank indeed, but if it does break that’s still $24 out the window. I’m quite the downer today.
[via Holycool]
June 03 2011
How-To: Bokeh Photography Effect
“Bokeh” comes from the Japanese word for “blur” or “haze.” It’s used to describe the quality of the out of focus areas of a photograph. If you’ve ever read a photography forum, you’ll know that the word is often used to describe how a particular lens handles out of focus points of light. You can even hear bokeh being classified as silky, Hollywood-style, or cream cheese-like (honestly!).
When a point of light in a photograph is out of focus, it turns into a shape defined by the lens’s aperture. We can create a second, smaller, aperture to attach to the front of our lens in order to customize that shape. The result is a charming effect in the background of your photographs, as long as there points of light such as streetlights, candles, or Christmas lights in frame. In MAKE Volume 26 and on Make: Projects, Sindri Diego walks you through the process of making photographs with this neat effect.
If you need a little inspiration, there’s no shortage of great ideas out there for how to use this in your photography. And if you try out this project, post your best photographs to the MAKE Flickr pool.
Subscribe to the MAKE Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube and Vimeo.
April 12 2011
iPhone 4 & iPad 2 Head Tracking via Front Camera: It’s 3DTime!
I’m sure most of you have seen Johnny Chung Lee’s Wii head tracking demo. But while Lee had to use a Wiimote and IR diodes (and a PC) for his hack, Jeremie Francone and Laurence Nigay of the Grenoble Informatics Laboratory were able to pull off the same trick on the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 using only the front-facing cameras on the devices. Plus some magical code of course.
Lee had to use IR LEDs because that’s the only thing that the Wiimote can detect. But Francone and Nigay’s program seems to be able to visually tag an object to follow, which I think is quite similar to how the Kinect works. Note that only the front-facing camera is used, and not the built-in accelerometers. Here’s the hack on the iPad 2:
Click to View Embedded Video Clip
And here it is on the iPhone 4:
Click to View Embedded Video Clip
The practical applications of such a feature are of course another matter altogether. Perhaps it could be used in games – perhaps a new version of FixPix or an evade-bullets-Matrix-style game – or combined with the rear-facing camera to create more interactive AR apps.
[via IntoMobile]
March 30 2011
How-To: Make Your Own Damn Springs
Idahoan Dean Williams used to make a living by repairing vintage mechanical cameras. If you’ve ever pulled your hair out trying to replace a small spring that hasn’t been manufactured since the factory was bombed by Göring’s Luftwaffe, you may be interested in his well-documented DIY method. Dean’s trick for annealing them inside a wad of steel wool in a toaster oven is worth a click all by itself. His entire site, in fact, will likely be of interest to those who appreciate close mechanical work.
More:
How-To: Make Springs
March 16 2011
Pixel Perfect Camera Decals are Worth a Thousand Bits
Here’s a set of stickers worthy of space in a photographer’s wall. Made by pixel art specialist Bill Brown, they come in packs of matte vinyl Polaroid, medium format and SLR cameras drawn in 8-bit style.
These decals started as downloadable images, all of which are still available for free at Brown’s website. There are 100 of them, but currently Brown hasn’t made decal versions of most of them. I guess if the first batch sells well he’ll consider making decals of the other types too.
You can order Pixel Perfect camera vinyl decals from Scribble on Everything. They come in three packs, each of them selling for $36 (USD). The Pixel Perfect Camera Collection has 30 decals 2 to 5 inches wide. The SLR pack contains 10 decals 8.25 to 9.25 inches wide, while the medium format pack contains 10 decals that are 5.5 to 6.5 inches wide. I wonder if you can cut them out and fit them on actual cameras.
[via CrunchGear]
December 25 2010
Cardboard Polaroid Camera Concept: 2 Pics, 1 Shot
I’m no hardware expert, but for the longest time I’ve been wondering why instant cameras are not commonplace nowadays despite Polaroid’s pioneering technology decades ago. Sure, even our phones can store tons of pics, but nothing beats sharing an actual photo. That’s why I was intrigued by the “Flutter in Pinhole” concept by designers Yoo Geun-hyuk & Yoon Bo-jung – it’s a disposable instant camera that doubles as a postcard.
As you’ll see in the presentation below, the Flutter in Pinhole camera is easy to use. Just expand the box, align your shot, and then tear off the black strip in front. The strip covers two pinholes, and inside the box are two small Polaroid sheets. This creates two identical shots. You can then use the camera’s cardboard body as a postcard – you can send one of the pictures and keep the other. Awesome.
Click to View Embedded Video Clip
What do you guys think? Sounds like a great way to share pictures right? Of course the downside is that you don’t get a digital copy for archiving, but you can always scan your copy.
[via Yanko Design via Crave]
December 22 2010
BETA Shell dSLR Lens Case Protects Against the Elements and Clumsiness
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In this case you could say that a $55 case is worth $700 in replacement costs. That’s the idea behind these BETA Shell SLR lens cases at least. When I take my camera out, I have a body and three lenses that come with me. I’ve not invested all that much in my camera, so my most expensive one was a little over $125. However, it’s not uncommon for a pro to use one that runs several hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars. Those are the people that would be interested in these cases.
The BETA Shell case consists of a water-tight polymer outer shell, with a couple layers of visco-elastic foam on the inside. Ultimately this means that no water is going to get in, and if dropped, the foam will absorb the shock from the impact. The case is also designed to withstand extreme temperatures, thus providing another level of protection for your lens. They are a bit bulky to carry around, so you may only want to use them when it seems most likely that damage can occur. With prices ranging from $55-$84 (USD), it could be well worth your money to invest in a couple.
Click to View Embedded Video Clip
[via UberGizmo]
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