May 15th, 2012 by Allison Gibson Posted in Blog, Cameras, News
Last week, Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” became the most expensive work of art ever to sell at auction when it was sold at Sotheby’s for $119.9 million. Yesterday, we were exposed (photography pun alert!) to the world’s most expensive camera. Purchased by an anonymous European buyer, the above pictured 1923 0-series Leica (one of the first 31 cameras ever produced by Leica) went for a whopping $2.8 million. And we thought the Leica Hermés camera was pricey!
During the Salone del Mobile furniture design fair in Milan, IKEA introduced one new PS product that requires no Flatpack and no sheet of adorably-illustrated instructions. Because it’s a camera—a cardboard camera. Designed by Jesper Kouthoofd the Knäppa camera is about as low-tech a product announcement as we’ve seen in a decade. IKEA gets that; their promotional video (see below) is both instructional and tongue-in-cheek in tone. “It’s very easy to use,” says Kouthoofd, with a sly smile.
What about features? Well, the camera comes with a zoom function that works like this:
As the designer said, it’s easy to use. Be sure to check out the “advanced image stabilization feature” in the promo video.
Of course, the point of the Knäppa is not so that IKEA can compete with Canon, Nikon, and the like. (See above zoom feature for reassurance.) “I think design belongs in real homes,” says Kouthoofd, “and to prove this we made a camera [as] a link between the PS design and you.” You see, the whole point of the camera is to use it to shoot pictures of your (preferably IKEA’d-out) home. You are then encouraged to upload those shots to the PS AT HOME website, where others have also shared images of their IKEA PS furniture. Rumor has it, the Knäppa will be given away to customers who buy new PS products or available for sale only at select stores.
The camera being developed for the new Blackberry 10, which was introduced at last week’s Blackberry World conference, will feature a Lytro-like “living pictures” element. In the same way that Lytro’s light field camera flipped the idea of what a photograph is on its head, the Blackberry camera will also disprove the notion that a photograph is a documentation of a single moment in time. But it will go about this in a different way than Lytro does. With the Blackberry camera, a blunder in the capture (like, say, someone blinking) can be overridden by moving either backward or forward in time to a point at which that element of the shot is just how you want it.
Not following? That’s because time travel is complex. Check out this video of RIM’s Vivek Bhardwaj playing with the technology:
May 8th, 2012 by Allison Gibson Posted in Blog, Cameras, News
Olympus today announced the latest offering in their longstanding tradition of waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof, crushproof and dustproof compact cameras—the Tough TG-1 iHS. Built for durability, the TG-1 iHS is being billed as the toughest Tough model to date; it’s waterproof down to 40 feet, shockproof from drops of 6.6 feet or less, freezeproof down to 14 degrees (Fahrenheit), and can withstand being crushed under up to 220 pounds of weight. It features a 25-100mm, f/2.0-4.9 4x zoom lens, and with an available adapter ring ($19.99) you can add a waterproof fisheye ($119.99) or telephoto ($109.99) attachment.
The Tough TG-1 iHS is priced at $399.99, and while the camera body is rugged, a full underwater housing accessory will also be available for $309.99 in July.
April 3rd, 2012 by Allison Gibson Posted in Blog, Cameras, News
Canon announced today the EOS 60Da DSLR. Not to be confused with the Canon 60D (reviewed here), the 60Da is “optimized for astrophotography.” It offers a modified infrared filter and a low-noise sensor with heightened hydrogen-alpha sensitivity. These modifications, according to Canon, allow the camera to capture photographs of “red hydrogen emission” nebulae and other cosmic phenomena. In other words, it’s built for those shooting in a specialized field.
While this isn’t a mainstream image maker, we can’t help but be fascinated (is “star struck” too horrible a pun?) by the camera. One Canon exec says, “This new camera enables an accurate depiction of a part of our solar system which is hard to achieve with conventional cameras but should be enjoyed and celebrated.” It features a 1,040,000 dots 3-inch Clear View LCD screen and ISO speeds up to 6400 expandable to 12800. Oh, and “The improved infrared-blocking filter is a modification suited specifically toward astronomy enthusiasts to achieve a hydrogen-alpha light sensitivity that is approximately three times higher than that of a normal Canon DSLR camera. This produces a 20-percent higher transmittance of Hydrogen Alpha line, or H α wavelength, allowing astronomers to capture crisp, clear images of reddish, diffuse nebulae.”
Should astrophotography be your thing, the Canon EOS 60Da will be available starting this month from select dealers for an estimated $1,499.00.
Reminder: don't ruin your eyes and cameras looking directly at/shooting the solar eclipse! Here's how to look safely: http://t.co/fLCzSVUM'all'2012/05/20
