It was just a few days ago that news was spreading of Sharp’s new 12MP image stabilized CMOS sensor. Roughly the same size at the sensor in the iPhone, it’s the world’s smallest to have stabilization. And while the cramming of so many pixels may or may not be a good idea, turns out that the stabilization capabilities are pretty darn impressive. Just watch the video below to get an idea. Incidentally, it’s mounted inside the “Sharp AQUOS SH-01D, a skinned Android handset from Japan’s NTT DoCoMo which also packs a 1280 x 720 3D display into its waterproof case.”
There are a limited number of times you’re going to want to be taking a picture straight down, but if you do, you’ll soon realize it’s easier said than done. It usually requires the purchase of a specialized tripod if you want to do it right. It gets even more complicated if you’re planning on shooting with an iPhone. But with the Steady Stand 200 from ModaHaus, things change.
Designed from the outset for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, Androids, Blackberrys, smartphones and most compact cameras, the STEADY STAND provides an elevated platform support for overhead product photos ensuring pin sharp, totally square-on, precisely composed, perfectly exposed photos. The clear translucent side walls soften and diffuse incoming light helping eliminate harsh shadows and provide clean uncluttered reflections in shiny subjects such as jewelry. Takes the grind out of processing documents and receipts as well!
For $34, an affordable portable product photography station could easily be thrown into your backpack and carried to wherever the client needs it.
It bears repeating at any given chance: past a certain point, megapixel counts in sensors are almost meaningless unless you’re printingroad signs. What matters more is the quality of the lens, and when you’re talking about the camera on a phone, well, size constraints kind of limit things. If you don’t mind giving your iPhone 4 or 4S a trip-to-the-eye-doctor look, Photojojo has created an accessory that could add a little range to the types of photos you can take. Made from aircraft grade aluminum, the iPhone Lens Dial features a rotating dial with three different lenses:
“A 0.7x Wide Angle for sweeping landscapes. Get fun warped images with the 0.33x Fisheye. Switch to the 1.5x Telephoto and get nearly two times closer to your subject.”
Aside from the dubious claim that 1.5 is nearly 2, Photojojo seems to have made an interesting product. The lenses are “optical quality coated glass” and the case gives you access to all your buttons. Holes in the rotating dial let you take pictures with the iPhones regular camera. The only two drawbacks we can see is that shots taken with it appear to display some massive amounts of vignetting. And the price: $249!
During my brief, but enjoyable, vacation last week, Nikon unloaded a bunch of new digital cameras on the market, including the Coolpix S1200pj which caught my pico projector loving eye. The S1200pj is actually Nikon’s third projector-equipped compact P&S camera, but improves on the previous models with a 40% increase in brightness (an impressive 20 lumens) and three times the contrast. Facilitating a projected image up to 60 inches in size, in ideal conditions of course. It’s also competently capable as a P&S with a 14.1MP sensor, 5X optical zoom with lens-shift stabilization, ISO settings up to 6400 and a 3-inch HVGA display on the back.
But sharing movies and videos of your mundane daily activities with friends and family is going to wear on them at some point, so Nikon has also made the S1200pj iOS friendly. Using an included cable you can connect your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to the camera, letting you project content from any of those devices. And making the S1200pj a far more valuable companion for those who travel a lot. Available sometime in September for $429.95 in black and hot pink metal finishes.
Over the years we’ve written a few times about the Gorillapod, an extremely versatile camera tripod that can be used to take shots from unconventional places. It’s a great product, but it can be made better. Still images is not the only thing modern DSLRs are able to do: they also shoot great video. The only problem is stabilization.
They transform the Gorillapod Focus into a camera dolly, with which you can do the following type of shots:
Arcing shots that rotate around objects
Sliding shots that push or pull the subject into focus
Rolling shots that glide over the subject
Time-lapse shots that move the camera slowly and smoothly
Panning shots that scan a wide area
“Worm’s eye view” shots that slide just above the floor
The entire system consists of the Cineskates (the wheels), a BallHead X joint, the Gorillapod Focus, a case and cleaning cloth. And the best news is that you can actually purchase this now, as the Kickstarter project associated with it has amply surpassed it’s $20,000 funding goals and should start shipping soon. Retail, the complete system will go for $350 but if you pledge now, you can have it for $275.
For those times when the talent’s being difficult, you keep blowing fuses on set, or Photoshop’s being a pain in the butt; the Photojojo Store now has a Shot Glass Lens Set to help get you through it. Modeled after a real Canon EF 24-105mm lens, the shot glasses are “…perfect in every detail, from the teeny raised numbers to the focus-ring ridges to the wee auto/manual focus switch. They’re nice and heavy, too: sturdy ceramic that feels solid in your hand.” Get ‘em in a set of 3 for $18 and you’ll ensure in the future you’ll never miss another ‘shot.’
It’s probably not a concept that Nikon or Canon are going to embrace any time soon, but if you don’t have much confidence in your photography skills, Sascha Pohflepp’s blind ‘Buttons’ camera will certainly appeal to you. It’s actually part of their ‘Blinks and Buttons’ art exhibit, and as you can see in the photos, the camera has no lens, no sensor and no optics whatsoever. Just a faux shutter button that triggers a cellphone hidden inside to retrieve and display a photo from Flickr that was taken at the exact same moment. So in a manner of speaking, the Buttons camera actually takes other people’s photos.
And since the camera was created as part of an art piece, I feel obligated to share the artist’s ‘motivations’ and ‘inspirations’ behind it:
Taking a photo means making a memory. Choosing a moment in time and framing a situation. Archiving it or making it public. Either way, we create a visual item that we have an emotional attachment to through our memory. Photos help us to remember moments in our past. Often they even become a memory in their own right. For many, making their moments public through services like Flickr is already part the process of photography itself, creating archives which contain a vast collection of visual fragments of individual lives.
Popular Photography has a brief, but interesting, interview with someone at NASA regarding how a DSLR needs to be specially prepped before it can be blasted into orbit and used on a spacewalk. Most noticeable in the photo above, featuring a camera used for astronaut training, is a white shroud surrounding the flash. It turns out that’s apparently pretty important since the flash won’t fire in the vacuum of space if left completely exposed:
The equipment under the thermal blanket is a Nikon SB-800 flash in a custom housing that is used during a spacewalk (EVA). The flash needed a special housing because it will not work properly in the vacuum of space. The housing holds air pressure so that the flash will function properly. There is also a bracket on the bottom (covered with a white thermal blanket) that the camera and flash mount to.
And, while the cameras do return to Earth after a space flight (instead of simply being jettisoned to lighten the Shuttle’s (RIP) load) they don’t always return to active duty after inspections. Apparently the unshielded radiation of space does quite a number on their sensors.
If you’re not thrilled with the idea of being burdened with a camera bag while out shooting, Leica’s lens holder lets you attach a second lens to the underside of either your Leica MP or M7 film cameras using the tripod mount. It will of course add a bit of extra weight to the whole package depending on what lens you’ve got hanging down there, but sometimes a heavy camera’s not a bad thing when you need to keep it steady during a longer shutter. In fact, Leica even positions the accessory as a way to add a stabilizing handle to your camera, and as a miniature tripod. (Just make sure you’ve got a lens cover on!) As for pricing, since it’s an official Leica accessory they seem to range from ~$180 to $200+ online.
Related Tags: Innovation, Photography, Sharp
Permalink | 
No Comments
9(unknown*no*no*0)&guid=ON){kind=small}
