My friend's husband insists upon taking pictures of the two of them with a camera held at arm's length. I swear, photos from this perspective account for more than fifty percent of pictures of the couple. So for Christmas, maybe I should think about getting him a QuikPod.
This extensible monopod makes it easy to take a picture of yourself (and, optionally, your spouse or significant other). Just screw the QuikPod into the camera, hit the self-timer button, extend it, and voila: perfect snapshots. It's less bulky than a tripod, and better than trying to find a precarious ledge on which to perch your new digital camera. There's even a mirror which lets you take a quick look before the picture is taken, so you can make sure you're not bickering about whether those ruins are Mayan or Aztec.
I suppose you could always ask someone to take a picture of you, but that would require human interaction, and we can't have that.
[via The Red Ferret Journal]
One of the most important pieces of advice for taking better pictures with your digital camera is to use a tripod. But many of us casual photographers don't want to log around a bulky metal contraption when we just want to take some snapshots. Wouldn't it be nice if there were an easier, more compact gadget?
Yodobashi's $24.99 Bottle Cap Tripod fits that need admirably. One side screws onto your average plastic bottle (with a cap diameter between 28.5 and 30.5mm), the other side has a standard mounting screw for digital cameras. Pop it on your handy bottle of, er, pop (or water, if you prefer), and you can take steady pictures. You probably want to make sure the bottle is still partially full, though, else the weight of the camera might cause a problem. The whole thing is hardly bigger than a bottle cap, too, so it's easy to throw in a bag or purse and forget about it.
[via Shiny Shiny]
I confess that when it comes to photography, I'm probably about as far from Ansel Adams as you can get. Up until recently, I thought an f-stop was some sort of invective hurled at the driver in the car next to you. Still, I like cost affordability and high-quality meshed into one compact package, which is what Nikon's going for with their new D40 DSLR.
The D40 is Nikon's most compact digital SLR camera yet. It features a 6.1 megapixel CCD sensor, a 3x optical zoom lens, a 2.5" LCD, and matrix metering, which compares your photo's lighting information against a database of 30,000 pictures. It also features instant shutter response, for capturing 2.5 frames every single second. Images are stored on SD cards and the camera can also be fitted with a variety of add-on lenses.
One of my friends has a Nikon DSLR that he likes quite a bit, but it's kind of a big fellow to lug around to our annual get-togethers. By itself, the D40 is just over a pound and it measures 5.0 x 2.5 x 3.7", making it a small step up for those of using compact point-and-shoot cameras. Best of all, it'll be available in December for $599, which is a pretty decent price point for DSLRs.
I've had a few business cards in my day, but all have been pretty staid; my name, a logo, some contact info. Sure, they're useful, but they're not necessarily eye-catching. Photoprinters have meanwhile become cheaper and more efficient, but what happens once you've printed out photos? They go in a book, or a box. What if we combine these two problems into one?
That's what Moo's doing with its MiniCards. They're tiny little cards (28mm x 70mm) that can fit a few lines of text on one side and a photo on the other. Best of all, they can integrate with your Flickr account, so you can print cards based directly on pictures from Flickr. I managed to snag a pack of 10 from their 10,000 pack promo (now sadly over), and the results are pretty cool, as you can see above. Use 'em as business cards, calling cards, gift tags—anything you desire!
You can make a pack of 100 for just $20 and shipping's free until October 15th.
A blind camera isn't a gadget you can buy right now, and I doubt it's something that anybody would ever really spend money on, but it's far too fascinating to not inform our faithful Gadgetbox readers about it.
The device is called "Buttons" and it was designed as an art project by Sascha Pohflepp, a student at the Berlin University of the Arts. Though about the size of a digital camera, the box features no optics at all: just an LCD display and a big red shutter button. Pressing the button doesn't take a picture, instead starting a chain reaction that will eventually result in the displaying of a picture taken in the exact same instinct as your own picture.
The guts of the device are a Sony Ericsson K750i mobile phone. When the button (cribbed from an Agfamtic 901) is pressed, the phone transmits the time to a special website that then searches Flickr for a picture taken at that time. When a picture is found, it will be downloaded to the phone and displayed. Of course, this might take a few hours or more, so it's not for the instant gratification set. Sometimes you have to be patient for art.
[via SCI FI Tech]
I'm with John Gruber on this one. The "slimming" effect that HP is building into their new digital cameras is pretty disturbing. But despite that, I'm curious to see whether, as I'm thinking, it's going to sell these cameras. Body image is a huge issue among Americans, especially women, who are constantly bombarded by pictures of how they're "supposed" to look. Like John, I don't think that the women in the pictures HP provides are particularly in need of "slimming."
I was going to say that it was interesting they only showed the effect on women, but that's not true—there is a man in some of the images. I fully understand the temptation of people to "fix" themselves in pictures, which is far easier given the prevalence and simplicity of photo-editing in this digital age. Still, when so many images end up manipulated, they start to lose their relevance.
[via Daring Fireball]
I was obsessed with spy gadgets when I was a kid. Now that I'm an "adult," that obsession has been replaced with one for fancy electronic gadgets. But it doesn't mean that I don't still yearn for my days as a tuxedoed secret agent. So, when a device comes along that combines my adult's enthusiasm with my inner child's wonder, well, it's a surefire hit.
You see, it resembles a lighter, but it's actually a digital camera. Just flip it open and you can take pictures until your heart's content. It requires one AAA battery, and can hold 30 640x480 pictures or 100 320x240 pictures which it will transfer over USB1.1. All for $30.
The only problem I can really see is that I don't think it's actually a functioning lighter. So, after a while people might get suspicious if they notice that you're never actually lighting that cigarette. So, careful out there, 007.
[via SCI FI Tech]
Sony's dropped a couple of new digital cameras. The intricacies of photography being somewhat over our head, we don't usually spend too much time on cameras, but the Sony pair boasted a feature that I hadn't seen in a digicam before: a touchscreen. Of course, digital cameras have been using LCD screens for years now, but using them to help control the interface strikes me as a spot-on idea. At 3", they're decent-sized screens, too.
Besides the touchscreen, the features are fairly ordinary. You get your choice between the stylish 7.2 megapixel DSC-T50 (available in silver, black, and red) and the out-and-out power of the 10.1 megapixel DSC-N2 (only in champagne gold); both feature a 3x optical zoom and lithium-ion battery packs. They'll run $500 and $450 respectively, and will be available for pre-order tomorrow from Sony Style.
[via SCI FI Tech]
Okay, you can fit what I know about cameras onto a very very small flash memory card. Like, you know, 1MB. Still, all the cool kids have been talking about the new Nikon D80 DSLR, so I figured I ought to at least mention it. For the sake of thoroughness.
It's a 10.2 megapixel beast (that's a lot, right? Kidding!), with a 2.5" TFT LCD screen. Nikon's ditched compact flash for SD cards with this model, and it also has a USB 2.0 connection. It also boasts better battery life than its predecessor, and apparently higher image quality. Who knew?
We've pretty much exhausted everything I know about this camera, other than it's going to retail for $999 or $1299 if you'd like, you know, lenses. I'd suggest it.
