Getting a tripod head level can be a hassle, as Dr. Carl Koch found out on a cold night in Switzerland when photographing a Christmas display. He then spent four years inventing the Acadalus CPS-H1, an advanced self-leveling camera head that automatically levels a camera with the touch of a button. Killing hassles comes at a steep price — the Acadalus costs $5,000 for the studio kit, and an extra half-grand or so if you need the battery pack and charger for outdoor shooting.
This might be old news for some of you, but I just came across it so I’m guessing many of you haven’t seen it before either. This is a 4GB USB drive that looks exactly like a miniature Canon 5D Mark II, with an EF 24-105mm lens as the drive, and the camera body as the case.
You can find them on eBay by searching for “canon 5d usb“. These little things will set you back about $94 apiece, including shipping.
Don’t need that much power in a USB drive? There’s also a 2GB flash drive that looks like a Canon 450D (AKA Rebel XSI). It actually costs more ($110) and seems to be a bit more rare. The USB drive is also in the body rather than the lens, and it comes with a kit lens rather than a nice L lens:
Seeing as the lens ship from Hong Kong, Canon probably doesn’t have anything to do with these lenses, just like the Canon 24-105 coffee mugs that appeared when the Canon L lens mug became a crazy Internet hit.
Anyhow, if you want to say you have a full frame USB drive and don’t mind spending semi-big bucks for one, this is the way to go.
Hot on the heels of the latest Canon coffee mug craze, here’s another fun item for you to drool over: a Canon mode dial vinyl decal for your laptop. What better way to show your love for photography and/or nerdiness by displaying a cryptic circle of symbols for the world to see? It’s available for $15 + shipping from suzieautomatic’s Etsy store.
I don’t know about you, but I often find myself wiping off the LCD on my DSLR or point-and-shoot with my clothes. The unseemly but common practice of wiping gadgets with clothes is exactly what FIFT, a husband and wife design team in Japan, had in mind when they designed the ‘Wipe Shirt‘.
This practical (but probably unfashionable) button down shirt has microfiber built into either the cuff or the shirttail, and allows you to clean your gadgets (and glasses) as you naturally would:
While cleaning your LCD screen might be perfect for this unique shirt, you probably wouldn’t want to touch anything more sensitive (i.e. your lens) with this, despite it being microfiber.
You can buy it for yourself or as a gift for ¥13,650 (~$148.5) straight from Japan.
Here’s the latest innovation from Pentax: a puppet body for your lens cap! The “Cameraman” is a handmade puppet body that comes with a 52mm lens cap showing a smiley face. It costs ¥2,914, or about $32, and is only available for a limited amount of time.
There’s also about 100 different designs you can choose from, though we think it’d be cool if they offered a blank doll for you to draw your own design. It’d be like the Munny for cameras.
This is the same company that allows you to customize the colors of its entry level DSLR, the K-x.
Looks like Pentax is trying to differentiate itself from the competition with creativity and adding a “fun factor” to entry level photography.
Japanese company Green House recently released the Mini Digi, an “ultra-compact” digital camera that fits on your keychain. This eye-catching gadget is only 2.5 inches wide, and captures up to 160 photographs at .3 megapixels. If you get tired of carrying it around with your keys, you can also attach it to your computer and use it as a webcam. Oh, and did we mention it shoots AVI format videos as well? The Mini Digi is available through the online store for $20.
The Cloak Bag is a minimalistic camera bag with a pretty unique feature: it allows you to photograph without removing your camera.
The bag features a zip-open bottom that can be rolled in on itself to adjust the height for various lenses, and slits in the sides allow you to use the camera as you normally would.
To secure the camera to the bag, you replace your camera strap with a special strap that attaches to the bag using velcro. This means the bag may not be compatible with special straps (i.e. an R-Strap) you might use.
Canon was handing out coffee mugs that look like the Canon 70-200mm L series lens at the Vancouver Olympic games. Josh Weisberg, director of the Microsoft Rich Media Group, got one at the Olympic Press Center, and sent the above photograph of it to PDNPulse.
If only Canon would start selling these things to the general public. I’d buy at least one.
Image credit: Photograph by Josh Weisberg and via PDNPulse
Here’s a bizarre combination of old and new: a photo album that looks like a gigantic SD card. It holds 60 4×6” prints, and will be available from Spinning Hat starting in April for £9.99 (~$16). What would be awesome is if prints from the shop always came in these things.
If for some reason you’re against carrying extra batteries around for your digital camera, then this might be just the gadget for you. YoGen is a human powered charger that generates power when you pull on the lawnmower-style ripcord.
It will officially be launched at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, but you can already place orders for the $40 device on their website.
The YoGen charger comes in two styles: clear and black. Here’s what the clear charger looks like in action:
In addition to digital cameras, the charger is meant for anything from iPods to cell phones. The power is supposedly comparable to standard AC adapters, which also means it’s primary use isn’t in charging your gadgets back up to full power by hand (since that would take forever), but rather to give your device an extra spurt of power when you need it.
The Yogen website also has a couple videos showing how the thing is used. This one features an absent minded-man who constant talks to himself and fishes for dead/plastic fish. Enjoy!
