Cameras

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

Use promotion code KATA10 during checkout at Samy's Camera to get 10% off your purchase of any KATA Camera Bag.

B&H has the SanDisk Extreme Solid State Drive (480GB) available for $329.95 with free shipping. Compare at $369.99.

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)

There’s no shortage of interesting work coming from Shin Seung Back and Kim Yong Hun of Seoul, South Korea. Yesterday we posted an interesting body of work that employed the use of computer algorithms to detect facial structures in the clouds above. The duo has another project that caught our eye: one that shares a representation of the four seasons — with a twist. Shin Seung Back and Kim Yong Hun have gone about an interesting method of combining a million images to create just one representation of a season. The project, not surprisingly called ‘A Million Seasons,’ involved the collection of one million photos tagged with spring, summer, autumn, and winter on Flickr. Color Averaging Process Each of those pictures was then converted to one pixel, with the color of that pixel representing the average color of the image collected. The final result? One image, composed of one million pixels, that represent each of the seasons. Spring Summer Autumn Winter Differentiating the Spring and Summer picture may be tricky, but you can clearly see the differences between the Autumn’s orange-and-red and Winter’s lighter colors. You can view more of Shin Seung Back and Kim Yong Hun’s work on Shinseungback Kimyonghun. Image credits: Photographs by Shin Seung Back and Kim Yong Hun and used with permission

A quick blog update. The various round-up posts (eg Cameraholic Digest and such) are behind. We will hopefully catch up by Friday night. This is not a new burnout, so fear not! A number of "off topic" things like dentistry are temporarily "drilling" into blog time! For the latest camera specials and in-stock alerts, check the Cameras Deals blog. Republication of this RSS feed on any website or blog or app is prohibited and violates the terms of use of this RSS feed. This text comes from the RSS feed of 1001noisycameras.com. This full-text RSS feed is provided as a service to our loyal readers for their personal use. Republication fees start at $1000 per month and will be billed to violating websites.

Microsoft has made it official: The new-and-improved Kinect that will ship with the Xbox One later this year will also come to Windows in 2014. The Windows version will offer the same improvements found in the Xbox One’s Kinect. The device has a wider field of view, better depth detection, an improved noise-canceling microphone, more precise skeletal tracking, and ambient light detection. But don’t expect Kinect to replace your PC’s mouse and webcam anytime soon. Microsoft still envisions Kinect primarily as a product for businesses and organizations, though the company expects consumers to interact with the motion controller in public places. MicrosoftThe new Kinect sensor in actionTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here