Cameras

Google I/O brought with it a lot of exciting updates for Google+, not the least of which were a slew of automatic improvements to Google+ Photos including Auto Highlight, Auto Enhance and Auto Awesome. But the updates didn’t stop when I/O ended last Friday. Today, Google’s Search blog announced that the company has started implementing some impressive technology that will allow you to search for your photos based on what they contain visually, even if there’s not a tag in sight. This new ability is apparently based on two types of tech: “computer vision and machine learning.” Together, these will recognize not people, but things in your and your friends’ photos, allowing you to search for those photos visually. For example, you could type in “my photos,” “my photos of cars,” “sunset photos” (above) or even “Aaron Feinberg photos” and get tailored results (assuming you’re friends with photographer Aaron Feinberg on Google+): Basically, Google can now recognize concepts like “sunsets,” “flowers,” and “the beach,” and embed that info into image metadata automatically. That way, you can find the right photo easily, even if it’s buried somewhere deep within your archives and hasn’t been tagged. With the amount of photo uploads increasing daily, and some Google Glass-toting photographers claiming that they’re taking many more photos each day just because of how convenient the headgear is, the ability to dig through photos based on content is here not a moment too soon. To learn more, head over to Google’s Search blog or visit Google and/or Google+ to give the new search functionality a try yourself. (via Engadget)

Intel's upcoming family of Core processors, code-named Haswell, will offer 50 percent more battery life in laptops than did their "Ivy Bridge" predecessors, Intel said on Thursday.Haswell chips were designed with laptops and tablets in mind, and the main focus was on lowering power consumption, said Rani Borkar, corporate vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, in a media briefing.The longer battery life won't come with a cost to performance, according to Borkar. And in idle or standby mode the chips will do even better, extending battery life by up to 20 times, she said.The improvements are vital for Intel and its PC-making partners. PC sales are in one of their worst slumps ever, with users snapping up tablets and smartphones instead for mobile computing. Any improvements Intel can offer will help keep the PC market alive.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

High-end DSLRs by major camera manufacturers are made to be durable. After all, photographers find themselves in all kinds of environments documenting all kinds of subjects, so their cameras need to have serious protection against accidents and the elements. Ruggedness is often a characteristic that’s touted in new camera announcements, but exactly how rugged are flagship DSLRs? French Nikon photographer site Pixelistes recently decided to find out by torture testing a Nikon D3s. By “torture,” we mean subjecting the D3s to the far end of the abuse spectrum. The camera they tested went through all kinds of extreme situations that normal cameras likely never see. First off, they snapped photographs with the camera while standing in a shower: They then tested the camera against mud and shocks, dropping the camera (attached to a tripod) into a muddy puddle and onto a hard dirt path: As if that weren’t enough, they decided to immerse the camera in a container of water and freeze it into a solid chunk of ice… …and then burn the camera in a pile of paper: What’s amazing is that the camera did indeed survive all the durability testing. It emerged unscathed, and appears to be functioning just fine. Here’s the entire 15-minute video showing the various tests. It’s in French, but you’ll get the gist just by watching what happens: (via Pixelistes via Nikon Rumors)

Last month we shared some photo illustrations by science artist Ron Miller that showed what the night sky would look like if other planets in our solar system replaced the moon. Now Miller is back again with an equally interesting concept: what would landscape photos look like if Earth had a ring like Saturn’s? It’s nice having a moon, but “for spectacular skies it might almost be worth trading in our moon for a ring like Saturn’s,” Miller says. His illustrations show a ring that is in the same proportion to our planet as Saturn’s are to it. They show the different views people on the ground would see depending on where they live. From the equator, the rings would pass directly overhead and show up as a thin, bright line in the sky, “arching from horizon to horizon.” Here’s what a photograph of Quito, Ecuador would look like at night: From Guatemala, the rings become much more visible in the sky. The moon may be brighter in the sky due to additional light being reflected onto it from the Earth: In Polynesia, the Earth would cast a shadow on the ring, causing a dark gap in the middle. Each night this gap would sweep across the ring: From Washington, DC, the rings would “dominate” the sky both during the day and at night: At the Arctic Circle, you’d only be able to see the very edges of the rings: If you feel like you’ve seen the title of this article before, you’re not mistaken: we shared a similar post back in 2012 in the form of a video. Be sure to check that post out too if you found these concept illustrations interesting. Thanks for sending in the tip Leonardo! Image credits: Illustrations by Ron Miller and used with permission

Panasonic GX1 The Panasonic GX2 is rumored to be forthcoming and offer a new 18MP sensor, along with built-in image stabilization, a max 1/8000s shutter speed and a built-in viewfinder. The solid little Panasonic GX1 is currently available at a bargain basement price of $239 here at B&H Photo. [via Digicame-info] Copyright/DMCA Notice: The RSS entry was originally published on Photography Bay and is protected by copyright laws. It is unlawful to (a) edit, modify, alter, or create derivative works of the text, content or links supplied by Photography Bay, (b) use any robot, spider, scraper, other device or manual process to monitor or copy any content from the Photography Bay RSS feed, (c) sell, retransmit or commercially exploit the Photography Bay RSS feed, headlines or content in any manner except as expressly permitted in writing by authorized representatives of Photography Bay, (d) incorporate advertising into or the placement of advertising associated with or targeted towards the Photography Bay RSS feed or (e) use the Photography Bay RSS feed for any unlawful purpose or in violation of the rights of others. RSSID#794326 Related posts: Panasonic GH3 Rumors and Specs More Rumored Canon 60D Specs Pentax K-5 Photo and Rumored Specs

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Remember that 50-gigapixel camera being developed by Duke University scientists? Since we reported on the project last year, researchers have created a spin-off company called Aqueti for bringing the technology “into the world for everyone to experience.” The camera they’ve developed will soon be making public tours, and we’re starting to get a peek at what it’s capable of. Team member (and PetaPixel reader) Scott McCain tells us that they used their prototype Aware2 camera this past weekend to take a picture during Edenton, North Carolina’s 300-year anniversary celebration. With a single exposure, they captured this 300-megapixel photograph of North Carolina’s governor: The photo is embedded as an interactive, zoomable image, so feel free to dive into it to enjoy the camera’s crazy resolution. (You’ll notice that the team also embedded a couple of other shots they snapped over the course of the day.) Unlike traditional gigapixel cameras, which use panning robotic camera heads to capture hundreds or thousands of photos, the Aware2 camera captures all of its images in a single snap. This makes it possible to capture gigapixel photographs of single moments containing movement — scenes that are difficult (or impossible) to capture using traditional gigapixel technologies. Here are a couple more uber-high-res photos captured using the Aware2 prototype: The secret behind the Aware2 is that it uses 160 individual microcameras that each have a 14-megapixel sensor. Thus, each snap captures 2.24 gigapixels of raw photographs. These images are then stitched together into a smaller ~1 gigapixel photo measuring 55,000×18,000 pixels. These gigapixel photos have a panoramic field of view that’s similar to the human eye, yet you can zoom into them with the power of a large telephoto lens. The team is still working on improving the exposure and focus abilities of the camera, but claim that the current quality is roughly comparable to consumer DSLRs. A 100% crop from the Aware2 camera (left) and a 100% crop from a Nikon D60 (right) Here’s a prototype camera that the team recently showed off at a local farmers market. A new iteration of the camera this summer will be 1/3 of the size of this one: Aqueti is planning to take the camera on a tour of North Carolina this summer and is currently raising funds through Kickstarter to make it happen. Next year the company is planning to drive the costs down to make the camera available to a wider audience. The price point of the camera right now is quite high — McCain compares it to a TV broadcast camera — so it’ll likely be something that’s rented out for special purposes and events rather than something you’ll be able to keep on your shelf. You can find out more about the camera and the campaign over on the Aqueti website.

For the last couple of years, the folks at third-party protection plan company SquareTrade have posted regular drop tests, taking consumer electronics devices and either dropping them or dropping things on them, all in the name of finding out which fares best. The tests, which have so far been limited to phones and tablets, are uncomfortable to watch, but as photographers we found their latest video rather more painful than most. For their latest drop test, SquareTrade partnered with New York electronics store B&H to drop two digital SLRs from a height... (read more)

Scott Johnson, primary photographer at Contrast Studio (Editor's note: The following opinion piece is by Scott Johnson, the primary photographer at Contrast Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. It first appeared on Contrast Studio's blog and does not necessarily reflect the views of Imaging Resource.) I’ve been thinking about the evolution (or devolution, depending on your point of view) of the photography industry a LOT lately, and after reading the statement below (which was transcribed in this Imaging Resource story... (read more)