DIYPhotography.net

Brighton based photographer and product design undergrad Maxim Grew probably ate way to many Popsicle and had a few too many visits to the doctor. With the resulting Popsicle sticks and Tongue depressors he built a working Polaroid camera.

Maxim used a few off the shelf components like a lens, a Polaroid film holder and some Fuji-FP 100C, but the body and bellows of the camera are 100% lollipop sticks and cardboard. Amazingly enough - the camera works perfectly.

Hit the jump for Maxim's movie showing how the camera was build, and for a  sample photo. Click to continue ›

It is one thing to have your photo taken in public. It is a whole different thing to have multiple photos of you taken in public, tagged and stored in a way that enables search. Think facebook image tagging crossed with images streaming from ATM machines, street cameras and security cams. Sounds scary right?

According to Professor Isao Echizen from Tokyo's National Institute of Informatics there are ways to avoid constant tagging of your face. One such way is to constantly tilt your head. Another less pain inducing option is to use a pair of glasses designed by Prof. Echizen specially designed to disable face recognition. Click to continue ›

Photo.net user Brendan Taylor could not settle the cognitive dissonance between his love for vintage cameras and his love for digital photography. The only resolution to this upcoming madness was to meshup two cameras a Nikon Nikkormat EL and a Sony NEX 5N.

This allowed Brendan to keep the vintage look of the Nikkormat while getting access to the advanced features of digital photography, including the NEX's touch screen. Click to continue ›

A few days ago we shared a quick sneak peak at the RotoRig - A light weight jib that resembles Light Craft's trapezist, Zolinger's ZP1800 and DSLR devices MK4. It's the kind of jib (or crane) that lets you do amazing Hollywood style sweeping shots. But, in some aspects it is even better. If you are a solo shooter and have to carry your gear alone, the RotoRig saves you from having to carry multiple rigs. It doubles as a video shoulder rig and triples as a hand held jib. We also shared a shot flick shot entirely with the rig in its three positions, and the fact that it can so easily transforms really makes me sad that they did not have a movie autobot back in the days.

The response has been overwhelming and basically everyone said the same thing? How do you build one? In fact, Amazon's stock of the monopods was nuked.

Well, Chad Bredahl is not the guy to keep you waiting and he put up a video showing how the rig was built. He also shared a complete parts list (as noted below). So everyone who grabbed the monopods off Amazon before the price went up can go ahead and complete the build. For the rest of you, Walmart has them for $9.99. Click to continue ›

If you ever took a camera bag to a restaurant, coffee shop or anywhere that makes you put it on the floor, you know that can be really be a peace killer. And you are constantly worried that someone might snatch it.

You try placing the bag under the seat / have one of the straps loop around the chair legs and put it in your lap. Not really convenient.

Youtue user Kipkay came up with a clever $2.5 hack that may not protect your bag, but will definitely let you know if someone is trying to pick it up.

The system is based on a $2 impact alarm (the kind that alerts on broken windows) with an added $0.5 tilt switch. Once the device is turned on any tilt, such as a bag grab, will trigger the alarm. (As with everything, there are commercial options for this, but they are not nearly as cool)

Now here is the clever part (back in my programming days we used to call those "features"). The alarm has not off switch. Once it goes on it can only be turned off by drowning it, smashing it or...applying a magnet to the tilt switch, which is not that trivial if you just picked up this bag and started running. Where would you even get a magnet.

[$2 Alarm Protects Your Stuff!! via Photojojo | PetaPixel] Click to continue ›

If someone made a survey and checked to see what is the one piece of equipment you loose most, I am willing to place dollars for pennies that the answer would be lens caps. Those things just keep getting lost. I guess this why you have so many lens cap holders solutions out there.

Here is a nice idea by Flickr user RawSniper1 that uses nothing but 2 pieces of Lego, has a really shallow footprint and will save your cap.

It is probably one of those super simple ideas that make you smack your head and say how come I did not think about it before.

You would need a drill, some glue and a bit of wire to make this, but it is totally worth it if just for the innovation of using Lego in your process.

P.S. if you want something a bit more fancy, you can check Benny Johansson's lens cap holder which is probably the cutest lens cap holder in the world.

[Lego Gear on Flickr] Click to continue ›

When I get asked what's the first thing an HD shooter should get to boost production value, I usually say a slider. But things are changing and light weight jibs are starting to emerge and take the spot of the first thing you may wanna buy for added production value.

DSLR devices makes the MK4 for about $350 and Zolinger makes the coveted ZP1800 for $750. Both would be a good start in the jib world. Chad Bredahl made a DIY jib - The RotoRig - that is not only travel friendly, but also doubles as a shoulder rig and a hand held jib. (which used with the IS-enabled 18-55 Canon kit lens is way more stable that what I would have thought possible).

To make his point Chad made a short movie made entirely with jib/shoulder rig shots using the RotoRig. Click to continue ›

With software like PTgui and Adobe's built in CS6 photomerge stitching of almost any sequence of semi-overlapping photos into a panorama is a no brainer. That goes for hand held, and definitely for tripods. (And even for the iPhone 4S panorama feature)

But if you want a precise panorama, a "regular" tripod and head combo is not enough. If you want to get your panorama pieces perfect for stitching you have to rotate not around the camera base, but around the camera's entrance pupil. This is where a dedicated pano-head comes into play. 

A panoramic head has calibration options so the camera rotates around the entrance pupil which depends both on lens and camera. There are dedicated pano-heads out there like the excellent panosaurus, Nodal Ninja and 360 Precision, there are some super cool DIY options out there ranging from easy through medium to complex.

5teve over at photography-on-the.net was inspired by Dr. Sean Parkin's design and built quite an impressive DIY pano-head. Aside from being a kickass pano-head, one of the nice things about it is that it uses no "heavy" tooling and can probably be built at your garage even if you don't have a lathe or a CNC machine at your disposal. Click to continue ›

Photographer Patrick Luke built quite a clever video Dolly. While we have had our share of dollies and sliders before, I don't think I've seen something this cost effective yet.

Here is a break down, curtsey of Patrick. We did not put any sizes down as those may vary depending on how wide or long you would like your dolly to be, but the guidelines should provide enough direction if you would like to build your own. Click to continue ›

You Can always square your photographs in post, but true inst-edicts will not stop there. How about permanently squaring your DSLR's view finder (Canon 40D in this instance). Now This is some real insta-commitment coming from Maciej Pietuszynski. Here is what you'll need:

Click to continue ›