Apple’s new iPod Touch is slimmer, faster, better, yadda yadda yadda. That’s neat and all, but what really matters, and what might just spike its sales into the crazy numbers, is its new camera. It has 5MP, it has auto-focus, it has the iPhone 5’s new panorama feature, and it starts at just $300. Why the hell would anyone buy a regular point and shoot any more?
Like most of the iPhone 5, the new camera is a solid evolution rather than the big jump we saw in the earlier iPhones. It keeps the same ƒ2.4 lens aperture as the iPhone 4S and the same great 8MP sensor, but some tweaks to the lens, the new Lightning connector and the new A6 processor all make the iPhone 5 into the perfect new phone for photographers.
Pentax other announcement at Photokina this week concerns a pair of prosumer-level SLRs, the K5-II and the K5-IIs. These are the exact same camera, only the S has had its low-pass filter left off, and will cost you $100 more than the vanilla K5-II. The low-pass, or anti-aliasing filter allows for higher-resolution images, but could introduce unwanted moiré patterns into photos. Studio photographers will love it.
The Photokina photography show is in full swing, and with it comes a rain of new product announcements. Today is Pentax’s turn, with a few new cameras including the Q10, an extra body for the Q-system.
The Q10 keeps the stupid small sensor in its mirrorless body, gets a little faster and also launches with a pointless new lens adapter.
At one time, deep back in the swirling mists of time, Polaroid was like the Apple of photography, not only making the best stuff but also inventing new ways to do things. Now, the brand is nothing but a label slapped onto a bunch of crap by the current owner.
But that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing amazing going on in the analog instant film world. Take a look at the Impossible Project’s FPU (Film Processing Unit), an amazing gadget that marries your iPhone to real, instant analog photos.
Man oh man. This leaked Sony RX1 looks sweet indeed. If the rumors are to be believed, the camera is a mirrorless body with a full-frame sensor (the same sensor as the also-rumored Sony A99) and a whole bunch of manual controls. It also looks like it’ll play nice with proper, old-school 35mm lenses.
The chunky K-30 is the latest DSLR from Pentax. Don’t be deceived (or put off) by its unusual looks – in use, it’s a fantastic general-purpose camera that produces high quality, color-accurate pictures. Cult of Mac took it for a spin.
IStabilizer’s Monopod is just that – a monopod. Only instead of being optimized to work as a disabled tripod, a camera stand with one leg instead of three, it is made to be used with lightweight cameras like the iPhone to snap pictures from more than arms’ length.
When I first saw the PR blurb for the Quicam app, I thought “What could possibly go wrong?” After all, who could ever foresee a problem with an app that lets you snap photos and immediately send them to Twitter and Facebook, automatically and without a single extra button press.
Really, what could possibly go wrong?
Fujifilm has – as expected – announced the X-E1 mirrorless compact camera. If it had come a year ago, we’d all be going crazy about it. Now, though, it’s little more than a cheaper version of the X-Pro1, without that all-important hybrid viewfinder.
Man-bag. Murse. He-purse. Call it what you like, but you need one. Finally men in the U.S are following the European example and carrying their day-to-day gear in a bag instead of stuffing it all into a wallet, and then jamming that into a back pocket.
Cameras, iPads, iPhones, chargers, e-books and — yes — even wallets need a place to go, and what follows is our roundup of the best bags to put them in.
And who knows? Maybe one day your adult males will stop wearing baseball caps and shorts and start dressing like grown-ups instead?
Olloclip users rejoice. Or rather, Olloclip users who really hate any kind of lens-induced distortion, rejoice! For now you can grab a free app which will automatically remove and correct any and all of the bends, aberrations and artifacts of your handy add-on lens.
Just when you thought it was safe to enter a camera store without being assaulted by megapixel madness and other “feeds and speeds,” Samsung goes and adds a new tech race to the game. Processor speed. Its impressive new camera, the Galaxy Camera, comes with a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, and looks like the future of compact camera design, packing an Android 4.1 Jellybean computer.
Sony has gotten on the connected, app-enabled camera bandwagon at last with the NEX-5R, an updated 5N which adds Wi-Fi, “apps,” an very sweet new AF system and a couple of extra buttons. Sony’s NEX series is already smoking hot, and these new features might just bring the fire brigade a-runnin'.
There are a bunch of services which will take your old films, movies and even videocassettes and scan/digitize them, but YesVideo is not only pretty convenient, but also claims to be the first to modernize your analog memories and store them in the cloud.
Sure, the company will still send you a comedy “archival” DVD so you can put your hot coffee on your desk without leaving a ring, but now you can also store an unlimited amount of photos and videos online and ready to share.
What’s the single standout feature that makes you want to buy Fujifilm’s retro-tastic X-series cameras? It’s that neat hybrid viewfinder, right? That’s the real innovation, and the real difference not only between the X cameras and your screen-only iPhone, but between the X-series and all mirrorless cameras.
Which brings us to leaked news of the forthcoming X-E1, a new budget-friendly X-series body which trims the cost by… ditching that viewfinder.
It’s taken a while, but the first iPad-specific camera apps are starting to trickle into the app store. The iPad 2’s camera was, frankly, a total piece of crap. The new iPad, however, sports the sensor of the iPhone 4 and the optics of the 4S. It was only a matter of time before the likes of ProCamera came along to take advantage of them.
Nikon’s rumored Android-powered compact camera is here. It’s called the S800c, and along with a smartphone OS, it packs GPS and Wi-Fi, making it a possibly the greatest Instagram shooter out there.
September is back-to-fashion month, when glossy magazines bulge at the seams with their biggest issues of the year.
To celebrate its fashion-packed September issue, W magazine partnered with Hipstamatic for a new lens called “WMag Freepak,” offered free to download in-app until September 2, and launched a contest that will earn the winner a chance to shoot for the magazine.
Photographer Peter Ellenby, a self-taught shutterbug who has lived in San Francisco, shooting bands, events, portraits and fashion since 1994, took the WMag lens on a trial run for pics that will appear in an upcoming edition of Hipstamatic’s iPad magazine Snap.
Here are his tips for photographing fashion, including why you should save money on a studio but always accessorize your shots with a touch of crazy.
The thing I like best about the Chromonaut camera bag isn’t the price (it’s a ridiculous $215), or the fantastic retro styling. Nor is it the name, which makes me think of 1970s pulp sci-fi magazines. Nope. The best part of this cool camera carrier is the removable padded inserts, which mean that the bag doubles as, well, a regular bag. An expensive regular bag, sure, but at least it won’t get left at home when you go to the beach.
This, apparently, is a new Android-powered phone from Nikon. As budget compact cameras become lass and less relevant thanks to camera-packing smartphones, manufacturers are essentially turning their cameras into phones.
One of the best things about using an iPhone to shoot your photos is the huge range of accessories you can buy to help out. But what if you’re on a budget? Or you just aren’t really into photography enough to spend more money? Or if you’re just bored today and feel like playing around?
Then you’re in the right place, because we’re about to take a look at DIY iPhone photo filters. And lenses. And other modifiers. And best of all, you probably have most of them around your home or office, ready for some instant procrastination. Let’s go!
Camalapse is short for “camel prolapse,” although oddly it has nothing to do with either ungulate mammals or slipping organs. Instead, the Camalapse is a clockwork stand for your camera which takes 360˚ time-lapse sequences.
I have no idea how many apps there are in the iTunes store that let you add filters to your photos. But I do know how many there are to remove those filters, and turn your picture into something that you can look back on in ten years’ time without cringing: One. It’s called Normalize, and it comes from Joe Macirowski.