Panasonic, maker of everything from vacuum cleaners to bikes, can now count itself as a maker of awesome lenses. The brand-new Leica 42.5mm f1.2 for Micro Four Thirds cameras is not only impressive specs-wise (it’s an ultra-fast 85mm equivalent portrait lens) but by all accounts it takes some pretty amazing pictures.
Cult of Mac reader Christian Kos wrote to ask a couple of questions about shooting photos on a camera and importing them to the iPad using the camera connection kit. Specifically, he wanted to know
Long answers below. Short answers: No and yes.
This is the Ladibird, and it might just be the answer to the question, “What the hell are the camera makers going to do now that we all have iPhones?” The Ladibird is a camera case that slides onto your iPhone 5/s and lets it take great portrait photos, complete with the blurred backgrounds characteristic of a fast lens.
Canon’s new PowerShot N100 is also called the Story Camera. Why? Because it reads to you as you fall asleep at night? Because it puts speech bubbles in the mouths of your portrait subjects? Nope. It’s because it has a second camera on the back that snaps a photo of the photographer as they snap a picture of, well, anything.
Nikon has chosen the media shoutfest that is CES to announce the D3300 SLR, an update to the – that’s right – D3200. It comes with a new sensor, a faster processor, a different crappy kit lens and this year’s favorite new gimmick: no optical low-pass filter.
The Fujifilm X100S aka The Best Camera I Ever Owned aka The Only Leica A Photographer Can Afford is now available in black. And unlike the overpriced special edition black X100, the black X100S is neither a special edition nor more expensive – it’s just a regular alternative colorway for the camera.
Would you pay $7,800 for a suitcase full of carbon fiber and aluminum tubes? No, me neither, but clearly somebody will, or Shadowcam wouldn’t be hawking its crazily-priced S–5 camera stabilizer, a three-axis gimbal rig that would keep your shots steady even if you stood on a vibrating table with a bowl of jello on your head.
MaxStone is yet another way to trigger your camera from your iPhone, with all the usual timer and detection options to fire the camera’s shutter from afar. But this one takes a different approach to the hardware. Instead of running a cable from the iPhone to the camera, the MaxStone uses a combination of Bluetooth and IR.
What could possibly go wrong?
There’s something utterly terrifying about the above image, which is the promo picture for the Shot Trak HD, an HD gun camera. There’s nothing wrong with hunting (as long as you’re actually eating the animals you’re killing), and I guess that recording the action is no different than clamping a GoPro to your helmet and jumping off a mountain wearing a squirrel suit.
But the idea that you’d sit around with friends and family to view the kill shot in the comfort of your own living room? That’s a short trip to Creepsville, man.
Back before there was home video, there was Super 8, Kodak’s home movie system which used film cartridges to record sound and moving images, ready to be played back onto a giant projector screen at home. So pervasive is the aesthetic of Super 8 that even today, fake home movie footage in TV shows and movies is usually degraded to look more filmic.
But this isn;t a post about nostalgia. It’s a post about a sweet new digital cartridge – the Nolab – that brings old Super 8 Cameras back to life.
Like the Lomo Konstuktor (which I have actually konstrukted and found to be pretty cool), the Last Camera comes as a kit so you can build your own camera.
Unlike the Lomo, though, the Last Camera comes with two interchangeable lenses, and you can buy extra kits to customize it in the future, and it even ships with a special “light leak” back that lets stray photons in through the back door.
Looking for a $330 camera bag that looks like and old thrift-store leather satchel? Then look no further: The Brooklyn ONA Camera Bag is just such an enigma, a beautiful bag that can carry your gear in a safely padded interior. Or you could opt for my excellent alternative…
You know all those tripods we feature here on Cult of Mac? Maybe you have a stack of them at home, or maybe you just have one of them, stuck at the back of the coat closet and generally never getting used. Or maybe you don;t even have a closet to keep it in, and you just keep tripping overt it on the way to make you coffee every morning.
Enlight’s new Phlite is here to help. It’ll let you leave your tripod permanently erected in the living room, without anyone complaining. How? Let’s see…
Olloclip has turned from being a maker of a neat novelty iPhone accessory into a purveyor of an entire iOS lens system. The newest member of the family is the Macro 3-IN–1, a set of closeup lenses with built-in light diffusers and high-quality optics.
I bought the original version of Lomo’s make-it-yourself Konstruktor camera, made it, shot a roll of film, loved the results, and gave the thing to a thrift store.
Why? Because film is a pain. In fact, I probably should have bought this limited-edition see-through version instead, as it would at least had a life beyond one single 36-exposure roll of film.
When it comes to screens, 3-D=lame: our own brains are more than capable of turning 2-D cues into full 3-D scenes without any weird glasses or other trickery. But 3-D scans are totally useful for all kinds of fun and frolics, as well as real, serious applications. And now you can turn your iPad into a 3-D scanner with the Structure Sensor.
If you can get over the fact that you’re paying $89 for a strip of paracord with a pair of leather end caps, you are going to love Killspencer’s new camera strap: it’s absolutely gorgeous, and probably weighs less than your iPod nano.
I have one of Doxie’s neat candybar-shaped paper scanners, and it’s great for getting through piles of paper. I can scan bills, flyers, photos and even whole books – I ripped all the pages from a beloved but falling-apart cookbook and scanned the pages one at a time to make a PDF.
But for anything less sheet-shaped, it’s useless. And often the next best option – your iPhone’s camera – isn’t much better. You have to focus it, hold it steady, and somehow wedge the pages of your Moleskine notebook open with one hand while lining up your scanning app with the other
That’s the slot that Doxie’s Flip wants to fill. It anything that’s not a big sheet of paper. Although it can kinda do that too.
I hope you’re ready for yet another case that adds extra lenses to the iPhone’s amazing camera. This one has a twist. Well, I guess they all do, but this one has a different twist. It’s also ruggedized and waterproof.
Wow. Nikon has finally announced its Df DSLR after a long teaser campaign, and it looks like a winner. It’s a full-frame DSLR with a bunch of retro-style knobs and dials all over its body.
Do you like to enjoy the bounties of your own body while you’re on an audio-only Skype call? Who doesn’t, right? And so you’ve probably also “accidentally” enabled the camera and inadvertently revealed your shame at some point, too. What you need, my pervy, flashing friend, is the iShutter, a $15 strip of steel with a hole in it.
I’ll be honest: I’m writing about Olympus’ new Stylus camera mostly based on its look. Because frankly, I usually hate superzoom cameras for the ugly non-compromises that they are. They want to give you everything, and usually they deliver nothing.
At first look, the new Olloclip 4-In–1 isn’t something you’d buy if you already own the original. After all, it only has an extra macro lens to add to the existing macro lens, the fisheye and the wideangle.
But if you’re the kind of person who already bought an Olloclip, you clearly value the iPhone as more than a snapshot camera. And the optical improvements to the Olloclip might just tempt you to upgrade.
I love my Fujifilm X100S, but I’m sure glad I didn’t ditch my Micro Four Thirds Panasonic when I bought it. Why? Because Micro Four Thirds is fast shaping up to be the iOS App Store of camera standards: if you want to make some cool hardware for a big market that will buy new things (hell, they bought into Micro Four Thirds already didn’t they?) then it’s the place to go.
Exhibit, uh… Where are we now? Exhibit D? Exhibit D is the Experimental Lens Kit from Lomo, a three lens kit for your Micro Four Thirds body that costs just $90.
Fujifilm has announced two new cameras today. One is the hot-looking X-E2, which adds phases-detection AF, split-image manual focus and some hardware tweaks to the X-E2. Way more interesting though is the new XQ1, which puts Fujifilm’s amazing X-Trans sensor into a tiny compact camera.
