Here’s something you’ve probably never seen before: a white “L” version of the cheap Canon 50mm f/1.8 (AKA the “nifty fifty”). No, it’s not an uber-rare and expensive special edition. It’s a custom paint job by Clubsnap forum member nntenzo. After painting the lens with paint mixed from three $1 tubes, he used a laser printer and decal paper to add the lettering and decals back onto the lens. The resulting lens is one that will definitely befuddle any Canonite who happens to catch a glimpse of it… It’s a conversation starter for sure.
So this is how some photographers always manage to capture awesome action shots… Now if only Neo or Max Payne would lead a photography workshop on how to activate “bullet time”.
The Image Fulgurator is a brilliant device created — and patented — by Berlin-based artist Julius von Bismarck. It’s an optically triggered slave flash that fires through the back of a camera, projecting a message or image on the film through the lens — basically, it’s an optically triggered projector. What this allows von Bismarck to do is prank unsuspecting photographers by adding random pictures or words into their photographs whenever they use their camera’s flash. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a strange (and extremely rare) piece of camera gear: the Leica Telephoto Assembly Rifle. Also known as “the Leica Gun”, it was made for photographers at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, and became popular among wildlife and sports photographers during the interwar years. One of them will be auctioned off at the Tamarkin Rare Camera Auction on October 30th, and is expected to fetch up to $100,000.
Who knows, maybe shoulder stocks will make a comeback as a form of image stabilization.
Here’s a quick and easy tutorial that’ll teach you a cool method of transferring a photo print (black and white or color) onto a block of wood. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a fun and creative idea that requires brains rather than a big budget: using an ordinary video-capable camera and some basic editing software, you can show a person walking forward through a world that’s traveling backward. For even crazier examples of this same technique, check out the music videos for The Scientist by Coldplay, Typical by Mutemath, and Drop by The Pharcyde.
Cut Out + Keep member Myam made this awesome Leica-style messenger bag for a photography-lovin’ friend. Sadly there’s no tutorial for this bag, but she says that the process is identical to what’s seen in this guitar bag tutorial she wrote. A padded insert can also be added to make the bag more suitable for holding cameras. This bag could definitely make for a fun weekend project and photography gift.
Flickr user Alex12Ga turned his Canon 5D Mark II into a DIY digital view camera by mounting a Novar-Anastigmat 75mm f/3.5 lens from 1949 with its original bellows. He mounted the bellows to his camera using an aluminum plate and an EOS mount ring that he salvaged from a broken Sigma lens. Read the rest of this entry »
You’ve probably seen videos showing the rolling shutter effect turning airplane propellers into boomerangs, but what if the camera was attached to the spinning object rather than pointed at it? mguw of Helidigital decided to find out by attaching a small camera to the rotorhead of an RC helicopter, synchronizing the RPM of the rotor to the scan rate of the camera. The result is an uber-trippy video in which reality is bended through the rolling shutter effect.
YouTube user smithje77 and his dog recently embarked on a cross-country road trip from Seattle to Maine (3,000+ miles!), and he decided to document the journey by programming his Droid X to snap a photograph every 90 seconds (the script is available here). Afterward, he took all the stills captured and combined them into one epic time-lapse video that shows what it’s like to drive from coast to coast.
