Wildlife photographer Markus Thompson was scuba diving in Deep Bay outside Vancouver recently when he stumbled upon a rusty Canon Rebel DSLR at the bottom of the ocean floor. After taking the SD card out and cleaning it, he was surprised to discover that it still worked, especially because the photos on it revealed that the camera was dropped back in August 2010. Thompson then turned to Google+ to find the owners, writing,
Approximately 50 pictures on the card from a family vacation. If you know a fire fighter from British Columbia whose team won the Pacific Regional Firefit competition, has a lovely wife and (now) 2 year old daughter – let me know. I would love to get them their vacation photos :)
After receiving thousands of comments and shares, he received an email from a friend of the owner, making this yet another crazy example of the Internet being used to reunite lost photos with their owners! You can see more photos of the DSLR here, in case you’re wondering what a year of seawater can do to a camera.
Nikon is developing an X100-esque hybrid viewfinder for DSLR cameras. A recently published patent filing by the company describes and shows a DSLR with a viewfinder that can switch between optical and electronic modes. The purpose appears to be for providing the photographer with an optimal view of the scene — if the scene is too bright for the photographer (e.g. the camera is pointed towards the sun), then the camera switches to an electronic view that provides the user with a view that’s more suitable for their eyes.
Unlike the X100′s viewfinder, however, there is no electronic image overlaid on the optical one when in OVF mode.
Photographer Tyler Card‘s uber-creative Nikon DSLR costume was the talk of the photo world this past Halloween. If you’ve been wondering how he managed to make a fully functional giant DSLR, you’re in luck: Card has written up an extensive tutorial explaining how it was done:
[...] it really takes pictures, and comes complete with LCD display, pop-up flash, and shutter release button. I built this entire costume in one week, for only $35 dollars (excluding the cost of the camera equipment and laptop), with materials located at any local hardware store.
Photographer Peter Wirén came up with a super cheap and easy way to record sliding shots using his DSLR. Instead of buying an expensive slider or dolly system, he simply cut the fingers off an old glove and used them as “socks” on his GorillaPod. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a helpful video that attempts to demystify the concept of DSLR sensor sizes. If you’ve never been able to understand how sensor size (and its crop factor) affects resulting photographs, this video will help.
Ever wonder why most DSLR cameras capture images with a 3:2 aspect ratio, while most other cameras use 4:3? It’s because they were designed to match different things:
Common aspect ratios in still photography include 4:3 (1.33) used by most digital point-and-shoot cameras, Four Thirds system cameras and medium format 645 cameras; 3:2 (1.5) used by 35 mm film, APS-C (“classic” mode) and most DSLRs;
[...] The reason for DSLR image sensors being the flatter 3:2 versus the taller point-and-shoot 4:3 is that DSLRs were designed to match the legacy 35 mm SLR film, whereas the majority of digital cameras were designed to match the predominant computer displays of the time, with VGA, SVGA, XGA and UXGA all being 4:3. [#]
Prints have been around longer than digital cameras, so that’s why your compact camera photos are cropped when you try to have them printed as standard 4×6 prints (4×6 prints have an aspect ratio of 3:2).
Nikon says the megapixel race ended years ago, but its upcoming camera is rumored to be a 36MP beast. Canon, on the other hand, actually took a step backward in terms of megapixels, dropping from 21 in the 1Ds Mark III to 18 in the new 1D X. However, the company states that camera’s resolution is by no means worse than the 1Ds Mark III, despite what marketers want you to believe. A representative recently spoke to Amateur Photographer, saying:
We have designed the Canon CMOS sensor for the EOS 1DX so that it is much thinner than before and so that the photodiodes are closer to the surface of the sensor. This way the pixels collect more light and produce a better, clearer, signal.
With less noise, and our new improved processing algorithms, the camera is able to reproduce more detail. While using MFT is perhaps not the best way to measure the resolution of the camera, if you did use this method the results for the EOS-1D X and EOS-1 Ds Mark III would be very similar.
The 1D X also has a mirror that utilizes mechanical movement both ways rather than gravity, allowing for faster frame rates while at the same time reducing mirror bounce.
For Halloween this year, photographer Tyler Card decided to made a giant Nikon DSLR costume. Not just any DSLR costume, mind you, but a fully functional one. The camera actually takes pictures when the shutter release button is pressed, and the photograph is displayed on the giant LCD screen on the back. The built-in flash also works, and the camera is even capable of triggering Alienbees strobes. Read the rest of this entry »
A week ago we shared a photo showing Nikon’s factory in Thailand submerged due to the catastrophic flooding happening there. The latest news is that both Nikon and Sony have had their camera factories severely damaged, which may have cause delays of at least 1-2 months. 90% of Nikon’s SLR cameras — the low to mid-range ones — are produced at the company’s Thailand plant, while 100% of Sony DSLRs are made at its now-damaged factory.
Nikon was expected to announce a new DSLR by the end of this year, but it seems like that may be postponed indefinitely at this point. Sony’s new NEX-7 and A65 cameras have been pulled from Amazon due to “manufacturing concerns”.
Canon’s new 1D X can shoot full frame 18-megapixel JPEGs at a whopping 14 frames per second with mirror-lockup. Drop down to 12fps, and you can shoot RAW images while continuously tracking the subject using AI Servo mode. Here are a couple videos that give you a feel for what 14fps on the 1D X is like. Read the rest of this entry »
