Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

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 ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Well, the big news today comes from Nikon with their official announcement of the D300s DSLR. The new model keeps the D300’s DX-format 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor but adds new features like a dual CF/SDHC card slot, 7fps burst mode (or 8 with the optional MB-D10 battery pack) and most notably, a 720P 24fps movie mode.

Now it’s pretty obvious HD video recording is here to stay when it comes to DSLRs, and while 1080P would have been preferred, Nikon has at least included a stereo sound input allowing videographers to capture high-quality audio using an external mic. The D300s also allows you to edit videos in-camera with the ability to select start and stop end points during playback, but to me that sounds a lot more like ‘trimming’ than ‘editing.’ And if the 3-inch 920,000 pixel LCD display isn’t sufficient for your ‘editing’ needs, the camera also features the new Type C HDMI interface allowing you to review and edit your clips on an HD display. $1,799.95 (body only) available in late August.

[ PR - NIKON D300s REVITALIZES THE STANDARD AND MEASURE OF AGILE, PRO-LEVEL DX-FORMAT D-SLR DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE ]

By Evan Ackerman

Adequate light has always been a problem for picture taking, which is why someone made the mistake of inventing the on-camera flash, spawning generations of washed out pictures filled with creepy red eyes. A much better way to go about taking pictures in the dark is with a more sensitive lens, but the more sensitive the lens gets, the bigger it has to be.

You can get around this practical limitation by cheating and using electronic enhancement, and the Electrophysics AstroScope 9350EOS-FF night vision module makes this just about as easy as possible by mounting snugly between your DSLR body and the lens of your choice. You can use telephoto lenses, macro lenses, tilt-shift lenses… The AstroScope preserves all the electronic connections between your camera and your lens and just sits there, amplifying photons as they pass through. It works just fine with image stabilization, draws a minimal amount of power from your battery, and is available for both Nikon and Canon DSLRs.

As far as price goes, Electrophysics thoughtfully answers that question in their FAQ:

Is the AstroScope expensive?

The AstroScope 9350-series products are cost effective modular solutions. We designed the AstroScope with modularity in mind to save you money and to “build in” a level of forwards compatibility. You can take advantage of the unique opportunity to “swap” our patented Gen III AstroScope common module Central Intensifier Unit from one night vision imaging platform to another (for example, use one CIU for both a camcorder and an SLR camera setup).

The only other problem with this night vision module is that it turns the whole image that exciting high-tech military fluorescent green color, which might cramp your style if you’re trying to, say, take pictures of animals at night. The solution, of course, is to go find animals that are green to begin with. Like, polar bears.

[ AstroScope ] VIA [ Photography Blog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

We’ve written about Thought Out’s unique accessories for the iPhone before, but this time they’ve got something particularly useful for photographers and videographers who’ve decided the 3GS is adequate enough for their needs. (Yeah, I don’t get it either.) The PED3-TriPhone and PED3-TriPhone-FORM are a couple of rotating mounts that allow you to connect your iPhone to a tripod or other stabilizing devices. And while the PED3-TriPhone mount ($28) is designed to work with a naked iPhone, the PED3-TriPhone-FORM ($32) will actually accommodate one in a protective case.

[ Thought Out PED3-TriPhone and PED3-TriPhone-FORM ] VIA [ iLounge ]

By Andrew Liszewski

A lot of high-end DSLRs still use compact flash cards instead of the ever-more-popular SD and its smaller cohorts. (The Nikon D3 comes to mind.) But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to buy a CF card which are getting harder and harder to find these days. These handy adapters from PhotoFast allow to use standard SD and microSD cards in your camera via a CF type II compliant adapter. And I particularly like the model in the lower right-corner which actually comes with a built-in RAID controller allowing you to use up to 4 microSD cards at the same time, theoretically giving you about 64GB of storage with 4 x 16GB microSDHC cards.

All 3 of these adapters appear to be available from the PhotoFast website and range in price from about $25 for the SD to CF adapter to about $30 for the microSDHC to CF adapter. Though the microSDHC model with the RAID controller won’t be available until mid-July.

[ PhotoFast CF Adapters ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I won’t pretend to be a professional photographer, but I have taken a few good shots here and there. Growing up in the digital age, I never really dealt much with film cameras, except with my old point-and-shoot camera from when I was a kid. I know that I’m missing out, having never shot anything with Kodachrome film. Unfortunately it looks like I won’t have many opportunities in the future either.

Kodak has announced that they are ending production of their Kodachrome film. While many photographers swear by the colors produced by Kodachrome, it only amounts for around 1% of all still film sold by the company. It’s difficult to describe how it is different from other still films, but you’ll probably at least recognize this photo, which was taken with it. If you happen to stock up on this stuff, you’ll want to use it up and have it developed by next year sometime. Currently Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons Kansas is the last place that still processes it, and they will only continue to do so through 2010.

[ Kodak ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Andrew Liszewski

After using an iPhone for a couple of years now, I only yesterday realized how poor the camera’s macro capabilities were. Now obviously it’s not something I use on a regular basis, but the ability to snap usable photos of text from magazine articles or even business cards can definitely come in handy. So the options for iPhone 2G or 3G users are to either upgrade to the new 3GS, which could be rather expensive depending on your current contract, or just grab this Clarifi case from Griffin Technology for just $30.99 (currently on sale).

Not only will the durable polycarbonate case protect your phone, but it also features a sliding macro lens on the back which improves the iPhone camera’s focus distance from about 18 inches down to 4 inches, allowing you to finally take half-decent close-up shots.

[ Griffin Technology Clarifi Case ] VIA [ Cool Hunting ]

By Evan Ackerman

When I reviewed the Eye-Fi wireless SD card back in May, one of the quibbles I had with it was that there was no way to decide which pictures you wanted to upload. The card would send ‘em all… Good ones, bad ones, naked ones, everything you take just goes. In fact, here’s what I said: “there isn’t any way to designate specific pictures to upload, or not to upload. But of course, there isn’t really a way to integrate that sort of functionality into the card itself.” Yep, I said that. Happily, I’m here to report that I’m an idiot and Eye-Fi is a genius, because they’ve made it happen: you can now selectively upload pictures from your camera.

It’s quite simple, really: using the online manager, you can set up the card to only upload pictures (or videos) that you’ve designated on your camera as locked. That’s it. The rest of the pictures will stay on your card for you to do whatever you like with. On my Nikon D40x, the lock button is right next to my thumb. It’s easy, it works, and as of today it’s available for free for all Eye-Fi cards.

Also released today is a new, uh, level? of Eye-Fi card, the Eye-Fi Pro. It costs $150, and is able to handle RAW files, as well as connect to a computer via an ad-hoc wireless network, i.e. no router necessary. These are certainly nice features, although RAW support at least seems more like a firmware upgrade, and it would be cool if Eye-Fi would push that option out to their other cards, even if it’s for a small fee, so that people who want to be able to upload RAW don’t have to buy a whole new card. I guess I shouldn’t really complain, though, since we’re getting the selective upload update for free.

[ Eye-Fi ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s an understatement to say the iPhone’s built-in camera isn’t the greatest, but that doesn’t mean the phone itself can’t be a useful tool for serious photographers. A company called Pixelexip has a couple of apps currently available on the App Store for $0.99 each that might come in handy, even if you’re shooting with thousands of dollars worth of professional camera equipment.

LightSource turns your iPhone (or iPod Touch) into a customizable light panel for accenting still-life or low light photo shoots. In reality the app is nothing more than another flashlight, but it features a wide array of settings for specific light sources like fluorescent or gaseous lights, and it could be just the thing for adding a distinct catch light in your subject’s eyes, or adding a specific tint to a scene.

GrayCard is basically the same idea, another glorified flashlight, but it turns your iPhone into an adjustable gray card for white balance reference and corrections later on. You simply select how your scene is lit, daylight or tungsten lighting, as well as a cool or warm setting depending on how you want your shots to turn out. Now I’m actually a little skeptical as to how well this app would work when using a flash, given the iPhone’s reflective glass screen and limited viewing angle, but in certain situations it might be better than carrying around 20 different filters.

Thanks Wook!

[ Pixelexip - LightSource & GrayCard ]