Here’s a quick tip by Vimeo user Braxton McCarthy: use rubber bands when panning and tilting on a tripod to make the movement smoother.

(via Photoxels)

Here’s a quick photo related life hack: if you have a lens filter that just won’t come off, try using a rubber jar opener to do the task. If you don’t have one already in your kitchen, there might be cheap ones at your local dollar store!

(via Pixiq)

Next time you’re attend a fireworks display, try shooting your photographs or video out of focus. This video by Danny Cooke is a pretty beautiful look at what you can achieve by doing this. What’s more, if you focus on the spectators in the foreground, it looks like they’re watching bokeh fireworks as well!

(via f stoppers)

With Photokina 2010 just around the corner, rumors regarding soon-to-be-announced DSLR cameras from Canon and Nikon are swirling around the blogosphere, and certain facts about the cameras seem to be getting clearer.

Canon 60D

A source tells me that Canon will be showing off a few new cameras at private events on August 30th and 31st. This fits nicely with the rumor that Canon will be unveiling the 60D at a press event on August 26th. My guess is that the 60D will be announced at a press event by the end of this month, and that the Canon 1Ds Mark IV will be unveiled late September.

The 60D is rumored to be a 18 megapixel camera with a tilt-screen and heavy emphasis on video recording.

The source also stated that we will be seeing a S90 replacement and possibly a G11 replacement as well.

Nikon D3100

According to Nikon Rumors, this camera is already listed in the Best Buy inventory system, with the SKU 1222817 and the title “Nikon D3100 DSLR w/ 18-55mm v”. They also report that the camera will be announced August 19th, exactly one week before Canon’s event.

The D3100 is rumored to be a 14 megapixel camera with continuous autofocus during video recording and 3fps for still frames.

Other Gear

Aside from the tilt-screen rumor, there doesn’t seem to be too much that’s groundbreaking about these upcoming announcements. However, Canon Rumors received a tip saying that the upcoming PowerShot will be “revolutionary”.

That seems a lot more interesting to us. We’ll update you if we hear more about this, but we’ll probably know everything within the next few weeks.

Google has a new feature that photographers may enjoy: you can now customize the Google homepage with your own photography. Visit the Google homepage, and you should see a “Change background image” link on the bottom left hand corner of the page. If you don’t see this link, try logging out of Google and then visiting the page.

You can use images from a preset collection, a public gallery, your Picasa account, or your computer via upload. If you can’t see this feature for some reason, it should be rolled out to you shortly.

A while ago my friend discovered Microsoft’s Bing Cashback program, which provides instant savings for “qualified” purchases. What’s neat is that any eBay purchase made with “Buy It Now” and paid using PayPal qualifies for the savings. After he discovered this, my friend bought Canon 5Ds in bulk on eBay and sold them on craigslist for a profit.

I just bought a used 5D yesterday on eBay for $1200, and instantly saved about $100 using this method. Here it is as a step-by-step tutorial:

1. Search for the Product on Bing

Head on over to Microsoft’s Bing search engine to search for your product.

2. Click the Sponsored eBay Link

In many cases you’ll find the link in the sponsored sites box. If you don’t, just type in something else until you do find an eBay link (i.e. “Canon 5D”). It doesn’t need to be the item you’re looking to purchase. As long as you enter eBay through a sponsored link on Bing you’ll be qualified for cashback.

2. Check the Top of the Page

At this point, there should e a special “Microsoft Cashback” graphic at the top of the page, with the text “Must use Buy It Now and PayPal”. As long as you see this, you’re good to go. If you don’t enter eBay through the sponsored link on Bing, you won’t see this and you won’t be participating in the program.

3. Find Your Item

You can now search for any item you’d like to buy, using eBay just like you normally would. You have 60 minutes to find and buy what you’re looking for before the cashback expires. If it does expire, all you need to do is start over and reenter eBay through Bing. It’s really that easy!

Since the program requires that you Buy It Now, it makes sense to filter by Buy It Now listings, and to sort by price from lowest to highest.

4. Purchase the Item Using Buy It Now

Make sure the special graphic at the top from Step 2 is still visible. If it is, click “Buy It Now” to purchase the item.

5. Check the Review Page

After clicking the “Buy It Now” button, eBay takes you to a confirmation page to allow you to review what you’re getting into. If you’ve done the previous steps correctly, this page will also have a special “Microsoft cashback” box that tells you exactly how much cash you’re going to get back with the purchase. If everything looks right, hit the “Commit to Buy” button to make the purchase final.

6. Pay Using PayPal

Pay for the item like you normally would using PayPal. As long as you pay using PayPal, you’ll get the cashback.

7. Sign Up for the Bing Cashback Program

Once you’ve purchased the item, you’ll receive an eBay message in your account telling you to check your Microsoft Cashback page. If you don’t have one, you can create one at this time. Make sure you create your account through the link provide in the message.

The signup is very fast and simple.

You will soon find the cashback amount show up on your account. Ordinarily, cashback takes 60 days. However, if you sign up for an account beforehand, you can go into your Microsoft Cashback settings and join the “quick cashback program.” This allows you to have the cash sent to your PayPal account very shortly after the purchase (sometimes immediately).

That’s it! What’s great about this program is that you can use it for anything on eBay as long as you use Buy It Now and PayPal. After buying the 5D yesterday, I used the program to purchase a VGA adapter for my MacBook Pro, and saved 8% on that as well in addition to the low 3rd-party price I found on eBay.

Good luck, and leave a comment letting us know how it goes!

A few years ago New Zealand-based Flickr photog fettucininz was looking for an easier way to position his flash for table top photography, when he found that his old desk lamp had just the right screw thread for mounting his flash. The resulting setup is ultra flexible and super cheap (it’s free, after all). If you have an old balanced-arm desk lamp lying around, see if you can repurpose the thing as a nifty flash stand.

Image credits: Photographs by fettucininz

We found and shared a pretty useful tip a while ago that involved organizing loose cables with binder clips. I switched to a new desk recently, and found myself with the messy cable problem:

The cables had to be pulled somewhat far into the desk to prevent them from slipping into the crack between the desk and the wall. I tried using binder clips, but my desk is too thick for them to be attached.

Look around for another solution, I decided to try using some old tennis balls. I have quite a few lying around the house from the glory days of high school tennis. Here’s what I used:

The small screwdriver set and scissors are simply used to cut holes into opposites sides of each tennis ball. There’s probably other (and easier) ways of doing this, but a box cutter didn’t work for me.

Puncture the tennis ball using progressively larger screwdrivers until the hole is large enough to shove the scissor blade into. Then cut or tear a hole using the scissors.

Create a coin sized hole in both sides of the tennis ball, with the slits lined up. This allows an opening to be created in the tennis ball when it’s squeezed:

Thread each cable through a tennis ball, and voila! They can be neatly stored at the edge of the table without falling into the crack:

When you need to use a cable, you can simply pull it through the tennis ball while leaving it pressed against the wall. This helps you avoid having tennis balls scattered all over your desk:

Yay for organization and efficiency! Do you have any personal tips for organizing your cables?

Polaroid stopped making instant cameras back in 2007, and ceased production of instant film two years later. Before Polaroid pulled out completely, the Dutch-based Impossible Project purchased Polaroid’s old equipment and factory in the Netherlands in an attempt to save Polaroid film from going extinct.

The company successfully re-engineered the film, and launched the new line of instant films a couple months ago. Recently they even opened up a storefront in New York City.

In the meantime, Polaroid found a new owner, and recruited Lady Gaga as the Creative Director and face of the company. Last week Polaroid announced a new instant film camera, the Polaroid 300, which looks remarkably similar to the Fujifilm Instax Mini 7.

According to Amateur Photographer, The Impossible Project isn’t very happy with the new camera, since they were expecting Polaroid to announce a new camera that would accept their 600-type film. Polaroid had showcased such a camera back at CES 2010 earlier this year.

A spokesperson for the company was quoted as saying,

The management of the Impossible Project finds this confusing and clearly wants to state that the Polaroid 300 is not the camera that has been announced in Polaroid’s press release from January 7 2010.

My guess is that we’ll be seeing Polaroid’s real announcement coming soon. If you’re a fan of Polaroid photography, hold your horses — good things come to those who wait.

On a semi-related note, Wikipedia has a pretty interesting summary of how The Impossible Project came to be:

Austrian photographer Florian Kaps, the owner of the largest online vendor for SX-70 films and organizer of the web-based instant photo gallery Polanoid.net, had bought the approximately 500,000 film packages that were on stock. He teamed with André Bosman, a former head of film production in the large Polaroid film factory at Enschede, designed a plan to redesign the SX-70/600 film system in collaboration with Ilford Photo, and convinced the Polaroid owners to participate. Plans for a relaunch under the Impossible label were announced in January 2009. Buildings in the Enschede plant, which had produced 30 million film packs in 2007 and 24 million in the first half of 2008, were leased to the company created by Kaps, who by May 2009 had raised $2.6 million from friends and family for what he had named The Impossible Project.

500,000 film packages? Wow…

If you have multiple lenses and not enough space in your camera bag, carrying an extra lens might require you to stack a lens on top of another in a single lens compartment. The problem is that the bottom of one lens might rub against and scratch the lens below.

Derrick Story over at The Digital Story has a simple do-it-yourself solution to this problem: a Rear Lens Cap Pad. Cutting out a piece of adhesive, padded material and attaching it to the rear lens cap allowed him to rest his 50mm lens on top of a 70-200mm lying horizontally below.

If you’re working with smaller primes, another tip is to attach the rear lens caps of two lenses together, allowing you to securely transport two lenses together. The downside of this method is that your lenses won’t be able to travel separately.

Do you have your own tips or tricks for saving space when hauling your glass around?

Rear Lens Cap Pad for Stacking in Camera Bag (via Wired)

Image credit: Photograph by Derrick Story