Here’s an interesting look at what the aperture blades on a Canon 18-55mm (the kit lens for many DSLRs) look like. The video above shows the blades moving into position at 120fps. This happens every time you shoot a photograph and in the blink of an eye.
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This “Sky Aperture” t-shirt is a nice way to sport some photography-related apparel without being too geeky. You can grab it now for $20 over on Threadless, though if you wait you might be able to grab it for $5 or $10 during a sale.
Here’s an interesting glimpse into what a DSLR’s aperture blades and shutter curtain look like in super slow motion. Specifically, it’s a Nikon D3 shooting at 11 frames per second with 1/4000 shutter speed and f/16, all captured at 5,000 frames per second. What’s amazing is that the shutter curtain moves so quickly that you can’t see the sensor at all, even at 5000fps!
The blogosphere is abuzz today over a rumor that Canon and Apple may be planning to collaborate on an upcoming project. Craig over at Canon Rumors started it yesterday when he wrote,
I’ve received a few pieces of information about an upcoming collaboration between Apple and Canon. What that collaboration is hasn’t been spelled out to me. It could be with the upcoming Final Cut Pro 8, or maybe something more.
The story was soon picked up by blogs and magazines, with everyone trying to make guesses as to what the “secret project” might be (if there even is one). Hopefully it has to do with Aperture or something photography related, though the next version of Final Cut Pro is a likely candidate as well.
Image credit: Canon Laptop by Frank Kehren
Fuji’s much anticipated FinePix X100 is now available for preorder over at Adorama for $1,199. Fuji also released the above video showing the camera’s aperture and shutter systems in action. The aperture looks quite round at all f-stops, which should lead to some pretty nice looking bokeh. The shutter sound you hear is the actual shutter’s sound mixed with sound effects from the camera.
(via Photo Rumors)
Apple launched its new Mac App Store yesterday, along with an App Store version of their popular photo editing program Aperture. The program costs $199 in a retail box and $159 through Amazon, but through the new App Store the price has been cut to a mere $80! It’s no wonder that it’s currently the top grossing app in the entire store. If you’ve wanted to start using Aperture but have always been deterred by the price, now’s a good time to jump in.
You can start using the Mac App Store by updating your Mac OS X to version 10.6.6.
(via Canon 5D tips)
Apparently inspired by the f-stop watch we posted on recently, theres a new widget for Android phones that puts an aperture clock on your home screen. Unlike the wrist watch, the widget actually adjusts the “aperture” depending on what time it is, though it refreshes every half hour to save battery life. The bad news is that this dash of geekery comes at a price — the app costs $1.05 over at AppBrain. Someone make a free version please.
This morning Apple introduced the latest version of their photo editing software: Aperture 3. The $199 program ($99 for existing users) adds over 200 new features to the previous version, including the Faces and Places features that were popular in the latest release of iPhoto. In addition, there is now a Brushes feature that allows you to “paint” adjustments onto photographs, much like the feature that was added to Adobe Photoshop CS4. The new version will also run in 64-bit mode, which Apple claims will allow it to run an “order of magnitude” faster.
