From the people who brought you the XShot Camera Extender, the pole that makes it easier to snap self portraits from a distance, comes the XShot iPhone case.

Made from durable “chrome plastic” the XShot is designed to fit the iPhone 3G & 3GS and features a 1/4″ screw tripod mount located in the lower left corner which allows you to mount it to basically any tripod on the market, including (surprise, surprise) the XShot Camera Extender! Of course if you’re trying to grab a self-shot that way you’ll also need to find a third-party camera app that includes a timer, since you won’t be able to push the iPhone’s camera button when it’s perched 3 or 4 feet away from you.

The XShot iPhone Case isn’t available just yet, but you can pre-order from the company’s site for $29.95 if you’re already convinced it’s a must-have.

[ XShot iPhone Case ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Anyone who’s ever taken a picture can probably understand how much of an effect movement can have on your camera. Of course the longer your exposure time, the less movement it takes to create a blur. Tripods are good, but even they are still not perfect. Sure, there are several forms of built-in image stabilization in modern cameras, but what if you’re taking pictures from something a little more bumpy? That’s where it gets especially tricky. There are advanced camera stabilizers out there, but they can be rather expensive. However, if you have a couple of old hard drives and some ingenuity, you can build one yourself.

One Instructables user discovered that a pair of spinning hard drives can create the same gyroscopic effect that professionals use to keep a camera steady. The parts list isn’t too exotic, with most of the parts being easily found in your house or garage.

• Needed: 2 discarded harddisks (HDs)
• Some old discarded computer, or parts
• The part in the old computer which holds floppies en HDs at a 90 degree angle…
• A wooden box or plywood etc..
• A hand grip
• One or two strips of aluminum
• A camera screw
• 3 or 4 car USB phone chargers
• A 12 V power source (lead acid cell, a discarded NiCd cell, or (rechargeable) batteries)
• Some rubber washers and a piece of inner tire
• Contact glue

The actual work to construct the device looks to be a little advanced, so you’re going to need to know your way around a soldering iron. In the end you’ll have an awesome image stabilizer that can work with most cameras. Sure, it won’t look the prettiest, but it gets the job done for around $50 or so in parts.

[ Instructables ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

While it won’t disguise the fact that you’ve taken a self-portrait at arm’s reach, the Samsung DualView TL220 12.2 megapixel digital camera should at least improve your results since it features a second 1.5-inch LCD on the front allowing you to better frame your shots. The extra display, which sits right next to the lens, can also be used for displaying a shutter timer, settings info or even a ‘fun’ animation to capture a child’s attention.

On the back you’ve also got a large 3-inch touchscreen (with haptic vibrations) which keeps the buttons on the camera to a minimum, built-in optical and digital image stabilization, 720P movie recording, an actual recycle bin for retrieving deleted snaps and a smart album which can sort your photos by color, faces and even content. $299.99 available directly from Samsung.

[ Samsung DualView TL220 ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I had the opportunity to visit New York for the first time earlier this year. I have to say that Times Square is one of the most amazing sights I’ve ever seen. The lights and giant screens are awe-inspiring at night. Well how would you like to get one of your own pictures up on a giant screen in Times Square? One company is giving you a chance to do just that.

CanvasPop is a new company that promises to take any of your pictures from Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket (or wherever you have your pictures uploaded) and will print them on a large canvas. They promise to work with any resolution (they specifically list the iPhone as a source), and still have good-looking results. Well if you’re one of their first 500 customers, you’ll be able to put one of your own pictures up on a big screen in Times Square. It’ll only be up for 15 seconds, but you’ll receive a picture of the screen showing your picture, complete with date and time. Prices start at $30 for an 8×10 canvas, and go up.

[ CanvasPop ] VIA [ Crave ]

I’m not entirely sure why Mobile Mechatronics decided to name their iPhone tripod adapter the Blur, when that’s exactly what it’s designed to eliminate. It’s kind of like naming an anti-nausea medication Vomit, or a fire-extinguisher the Raging Inferno. But nevertheless, I like the idea. It basically gives the iPhone a standard tripod mount allowing it to be attached to everything from a monopod to a Steadicam in theory. (Though there’ll probably be balance issues.)

For just $14.99 you get the adapter which attaches to the bottom of the iPhone (presumably using the dock connector) a pocket-friendly though somewhat useless mini tripod and the Blur Tripod iPhone app which gives you a shutter timer, what sounds like an intervalometer and even a level. The app can also be purchased on its own for just $0.99.

[ Blur Tripod Adapter ] VIA [ Gear Diary ]

Today Sandisk announced a new line of compactflash cards aimed at professional photographers with read & write speeds of up to 90MB/s over a UDMA-6 bus. The Extreme Pro CompactFlash cards feature the company’s “Power Core Controller” for increased reliability over the life of the card, and include other pro features like a silicone coating for moisture and humidity protection. According to Sandisk the new cards are available/shipping worldwide now in 16, 32 and 64GB capacities ranging in price from $300 up to a hefty $800.

[ PR - SANDISK EXTREME PRO COMPACTFLASH MEMORY CARD RAISES BAR FOR PROFESSIONAL GRADE PERFORMANCE, CAPACITY AND RELIABILITY ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

While it might be the world’s first digital camera with a built-in projector, it turns out the Nikon S1000pj was actually trumped way back in 1957 when it comes to the convergence of cameras and projectors. The Wittnauer Cine-Twin was an 8mm film camera that could be converted into a projector with the addition of a special base and a few other add-ons like film reels and what-not. Unfortunately there were many factors that prevented the Cine-Twin from catching on back in the day including its 3 heavy D-cell batteries, the fact that the delicate and expensive projector bulb was always in the camera, even when you were out shooting, and it was only sold in jewelry stores (Wittnauer was apparently a famous jeweler.) So here’s to hoping that Nikon has a bit more success with their design.

[ Retro Thing - New Nikon S1000pj Not First Camera/Projector Convergence ]

Since most cameraphones are just barely capable of producing decent photos anyways, it’s not surprising that their macro capabilities are far from amazing. But Flickr user cnflikt has found that by mounting the focusing lens from an old DVD player to a small piece of cardboard, and then placing it over the lens on their Sony Ericsson K800i, they were able to get some pretty great results when it came to macro photography. Not exactly the cheapest hack if you don’t already have an unwanted DVD player lying around, but the results do speak for themselves.

[ Flickr - cnflikt ] VIA [ DIYPhotography.net ]

Professional photographers (and apparently Autobots) with digital SLRs that still use a compact flash card might want to start saving their pennies for PhotoFast’s new CFast Gen1 CF cards. Available in 8, 16 or 32GB capacities the cards feature read speeds of up to 100MB/sec and write speeds of up to 50MB/sec thanks to a built-in SATA controller.

The CFast Flash Drive Series is the new and improved combination of CF and ATA Serial Transport (AST), it contains a SATA controller and flash memory in a (m)atchbook-sized package with a 7+17 pin connector consisting of 7-pin signal and 17-pin power and control connector. Within a maximum speed of SATA II 3.0 Gbps, this faster data throughput will make for increased performance in burst shooting modes and faster read times when you put the CFast card into a card reader to transfer to the computer.

There’s no word on pricing or availability just yet, but don’t expect the 32GB model to come cheap.

[ PhotoFast CFast Gen1 ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

A lot of people were quite upset to hear that Polaroid would be stopping production of their instant film and cameras back in 2008. In fact, it inspired a group know known as The Impossible Project to buy up all the company’s machinery and production equipment to hopefully bring the cameras back in 2010. But if you simply can’t wait that long, Urban Outfitters will be selling 700 hand-numbered deadstock Polaroid kits in their stores, starting August 21.

The kit includes the Polaroid ONE600 Classic instant camera as well as a pack of Polaroid instant film, but UO will also be selling deadstock original Type 779 film until the limited remaining stock runs out.

[ Dazed Digital ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]