The ANAR Foundation is a Spanish organization which helps kids in risk. They Operate a unique phone number - 116 111 - where minors at risk can get aid and consultation.
Anar did a campaign advertizing the number, but were facing a problem where they did not want potential aggressors to see that a kid was even looking at the ad. Click to continue ›
A short while ago Sony got a good buzz about their soon to be introduced AKA-DM1 dog-mounted camera harness for the HDR-AS15. This particular harness is set to initially release in Japan and it not yet available in the US. Yet, Jenny Cisney, chief blogger at Kodak did a similar DIY with a Joby Gorrilapod and a Kodak point and shoot back in 2006. (10 Karma point if you can identify the camera :)
If you are spending a lot of time as a traveling photographer, you must have noticed that in addition to the usual energy consuming gadgets like strobe and camera batteries there are now a plethora of devices that need a USB charging buddy. Things like a Smart phone, an iPad or even a GoPro. Carrying around chargers and sockets for all this gear is kinda messy. Especially if you are traveling to a foreign country and need a power adapter for each charger.
Adam Dachis over at Lifehacker has a sweet solution for this utilizing a gadget travel organizer, a 7-Port USB Hub and an 11,000mAh Portable Battery to make a light weight, portable and tidy charging station. Click to continue ›
The Retina display on Apple's iPads is amazing. It is so amazing that it makes the 1366x768 resolution on the laptop I am using to write this post feel EGA old. If only there was a way to hook a Retina display to a laptop, then I would really enjoy watching photos on my laptop ....
Well, there is. Andrzej from the Warsaw Hackerspace just hack such a display. Well, Apple are not the only company to offer a 2048 x 1536 resolution, they are just the only company to call it Retina, so technically, it is a hack for a non-retina 2048 x 1536 laptop display.
Andrea Biffi is a photographer who happens to be an engineer. Good for everybody as he shares a smart totally made-at-home motorized panoramic head. (Kinda like the Gigapan systems heads, only simpler).
Just as a quick intro, a motorized panoramic head is what you use to take huge panoramas (like this 450 people pano taken in Germany). It takes a picture, moves the camera a few degrees, takes another picture. Rinse and repeat. Later, the individual photographs are stitched in post to create a huge, several Gigas worth of panorama.
Back to Andrea's head. The ingenious part behind Andreas design is that it is purely mechanical. Click to continue ›
The thing about a GoPro is that if you constantly challenge it to stay in one piece, eventually the odds will accumulate against you and it will fall and hit the ground (see the compilation of videos after the jump).
While a GoPro placed low and getting hit is no issue, having a camera drop a few meter is not healthy for the camera of the people below it.
DIYP reader Joe Romie shoots a lot of volleyball and to get interesting angles he places a GoPro over the stadium mounted on a superclamp and manfrotto arm. Here comes the smart part (although somewhat trivial). Joe's idea for using a GoPro in an impact prone environment is tethering it to the rail with fishing leaders so if it gets hit by the ball, it will not fall all the way to the floor a few meters below.
Freelensing is a form of photography where the lens is hand held in front of the body and is not inserted into the bionet. If you ever tried it, it is pretty cool and creates tilt/shift like effect, only with a random aspect to it because you are... well... hand holding the lens. This is why it's called Freelensing.
If you are new to the subject, or just want a refreshment, Luke Roberts has a great introductory tutorial on freelensing (which is where the title sketch was taken from).
One of the harder things to do while freelensing is focusing, you are constantly moving, the camera is moving in relation to the subject, and the lens is moving in relation to the camera. This is where Magic Lantern can help. Magic Lantern is a custom firmware pack for Canon DSLRS which adds features to the camera. Click to continue ›
GoPro cameras have became almost synonymous with low-risk-stick-it-anywhere cameras. And they can really be stuck almost anywhere given the proper mounting solution. The black edition ability to record 1080p videos @60fps (or 720p @120fps) without worrying too much about killing the camera makes is a great tool for sport-extremists and movie makers alike.
But, as we said before, given the proper mounting solution is key to paling the camera in weird location. Here are 11 DIY solutions to sticking a GoPro practically anywhere. Click any of the titles after the jump to read the full tutorial. Click to continue ›
The steadicams building tutorials are among the more popular builds on the blog. No wonder, as using a Steadicam produces significantly smoother video than just holding a camera by hand.
Chad Bredahl over at krotoflik has a new tutorial (and his tutorials are top notch - see his Jib and Travel Jib tutorials). This time it's a $30 steadicam based around a half shaft and some double flash brackets. (A full fledged system is about $799 if you were wondering).
For a build tutorial a demonstration short and some musing from me hit the jump. Click to continue ›
First major win for the Nikon Hacker team - removing the 30 minutes (or 29:59 if you wanna be picky) video recording limit on Nikon DSLRs .
Ever since DSLRs introduces video capabilities, there has always been a recording time limit for 30 minutes. Interestingly enough, this limit is not coming from hardware of software restrictions, but rather from a regulatory requirement that classifies devices recordings over 30 minutes of video as Camcorders, thus increasing their custom duty rates.
While Nikon's hacked firmware is not nearly as advanced as CHKD or MagicLantern, it is slowly making its moves into becoming a reality. (Why make it so hard Nikon? Why? See what MagicLantern did to Canon and how it helped embrace the 5D +ML as a beloved tool for videographers). Click to continue ›
