DIYPhotography.net

With the year coming to an end I wanted to share the top 5 most viewed camera hacks here on DIYP. Surprisingly two of them belong to the "make your own lens" category. Click to continue ›

Looking to put together a sexy camera bag? Already have a messenger bag you want to carry your camera in? Love the look and feel of waxed canvas bags but don't want to fork over the money to buy one new? THIS TUTORIAL IS FOR YOU! Click to continue ›

Nikon has some cool features in its WU-1A wifi dongle for the D3200. This sweet $60 dongle adds wifi capabilities to the D3200, adding a nice range of features like the ability to watch the Liveview display on a smart phone, or take pictures from the same smart phone and have the download to the phone automatically.

How about getting the same functionality on the D800 or the D4? This is a whole new game and will set you back a nice $550 for the D4's WT-5A or $740 for the D800's WT-4A.

Hardware hacker Joe Fitz reversed engineered the WU-1A to work with the higher end cameras. And by hacking we mean the real deal, including disassembling the unit, reading cheap datasheets by candle light and sniffing the USB traffic.

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I got an interesting mail from Alaa Abi Haidar (facebook) today, it tell a short story of a stolen footage and suggests an interesting solution on watermarking videos using shaped bokeh.

Here is the story:

"The clip below was an experimental attempt to automatically watermark clips and stills after one of my fashion clips was edited and broadcasted by one of the commercial regional TV channels in France without my consent and without any credit.

In fact the credit was cut off the original clip. However, for the time being, I prefer not to disclose any information about the TV and the people involved in the process.

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The folks at the Slanted Lens decided to Get a bit DIYish this weekend and came up with a PVC DIY shoulder rig.

It's a bit different from the designs they are floating around the web and the entire build is about 10$. Basically it's a bunch of PVC parts, a 1/4-20 screw and some optional electrical tape. It looks pretty nice, thought the angle on the shoulder looks a bit weird. Click to continue ›

I think it is safe to say that for thousands of years photographers (me included) have been cleaning lenses by blowing on the lens and then wiping it with a piece of cloth.

Nikon discourages that, saying that breath contains acidic elements that can damage your lens. In reply to a Nikonian who asks "How do I clean the camera lens?" Nikon support replies:

The best way to clean a lens is to use a piece of lint free lens cleaning tissue and a small amount of Lens Cleaning solution. Do not use anything containing abrasives or  solvents, only use Lens Cleaning Solution.

First we recommend taking a small blower brush to blow off or brush away loose dust or debris.

Next, place a drop or two of cleaner on the tissue (never directly onto the lens) and then wipe the lens in a circular motion, beginning in the center and working your way outward, removing any marks or smear.

If the above supplies are not available a clean, dry, soft, lint free cloth can be used to clean the lens. Do not breathe on the lens to fog it for cleaning. There are harmful acids in breath that can damage lens coatings. Just use the blower bulb, then brush, and wipe the lens in a circular spiral from the center outward.

The same method can be used to clean the viewfinder eyepiece of Nikon cameras.

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We've featured a fair share of videos using shaped bokeh, but it is always about the discs that makes the shapes. We never actually taken about how to get the lights that make the bokeh thing right. And for the most of it, it's pretty simple. Just point your camera at a distant street / tree top / sparkling water / night car lights and you're good.

Well, here is something different. A clever technique for creating moving dots of lights that are not driving cars. LIGHTS's "Timing Is Everything" features a moving bokeh done by wrapping LEDs on a giant barrel like device and spinning it while shooting. Pretty clever if you ask me. (video and BTS after the jump) Click to continue ›

Here is an awesome entry to our How I Took It Contest from Mambastik. It's a vintage case for vintage looking cameras. This specific one is for the Olympus Pen EP1, but the process described makes it a breeze to adopt to any camera.

Speaking of How I Took It, the submission period is over and we are working hard an rallying up the dozens of entries and reviewing them all. Results soon.

I decided to do this build as an alternative to expensive camera cases found on various online shops. I've always asked myself, "why is it so expensive? I could probably make it myself!" And so I took on the challenge. I made this a while back, but have made improvements since then.

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Ever since Canon introduced their mirrorless EOS M I've been curious to see which of the two custom firmware groups will have a go at it: CHDK or Magic Lantern. I got my answer today.

The Magic Lantern team has successfully dumped the camera's firmware and were able ran a hello world program on it. Magic lantern writes:

In his review, Roger Cicala said the EOS-M is "a firmware update and a price drop away from being a great camera". We, the developers of ML, will try to address the first issue.

We like the EOS-M a lot, even if in our poll it came out near the bottom. With a few software tweaks, it can be a great small camera for timelapse and astronomy work, according to ubergizmo. The video side didn't really impress us, but as a compact travel camera with DSLR image quality, it's probably going to be hard to beat.

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Here is a quick and fun project submitted to our How I Took It Contest by Nick Cool. It shows how to build a soft focus filter (kinda like a lensbaby soft focus) from a small-hole sink filter.

This is what the resulting photographs will look like out of camera.