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Inventor helps young photographer to be able to take photographs again

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Many of us take photography for granted. Whether it’s a big fancy DSLR or the phone in our pocket, Photography is part of our daily lives. For some, that simple pleasure of just hitting the shutter isn’t so easy. One such person is James Dunn. James, now 23, from Whiston, England, has a potentially-terminal skin condition which prevents him from being able to use a camera.

James has Epidermolysis bullosa, a genetic disorder which causes his skin to be extremely fragile. Prone to blistering and in constant pain, James’ fingers started to fuse together when he was only 10 years old. Now, thanks to the BBC series The Big Life Fix and inventor Jude Pullen, James once again has the ability to pursue his passion.

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This 3D printed lens produces amazing results

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In the past, the thought of making your own lens would probably seem like a fairly impossible mission. For most of us, it still seems pretty out of reach. Not for determined photographer and weird lens master, Mathieu Stern, though, who created his own 3D printed lens.

Making your own 135mm f/1.8 has to come with a pretty huge sense of accomplishment already. Upon first using it and seeing the results, though, you can’t really fail to be impressed. Obviously, the lens is manual focus, and doesn’t feature any fancy features like image stabilisation, but I think we can let that slide.

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SLO: The 3D printed 35mm film camera

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I’ve always assumed a camera should be impartial. Sharp and bright, lacking consideration or mystery, randomness or error. Lately we’re asked to apply a filter to add a gloss of emotion after the fact.

Analog photography takes the sense of a moment and turns it into a tangible image. My 3D printer turns the content of my thoughts into real shape and form. I wanted to know if there’s a more authentic photograph to be found at the intersection of design and photography – so I set out to make a camera with only a 3D printer.

The result is the SLO, whereby the act of recording a moment expands to include the creation of the recorder. SLO is a single lens objective. SLO is the mechanical shutter. SLO is the speed of good design, and the feeling of capturing life with a camera you made yourself.

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This new camera lens is as small as a grain of salt

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Everything seems to be getting smaller and smaller these days. Cameras and lenses don’t seem to be immune to this phenomenon, despite some cameras pushing for bigger.  Of course, there’s no real right or wrong when it comes to the size of your camera, just whether or not it will do the job.

One of those jobs for cameras is medical, and scientists at the University of Stuttgart are really taking it to the extreme in a new paper published in Nature Photonics, producing lenses that are 120 millionths of a meter in diameter.

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How to shoot super detailed macro photographs with the help of an Arduino and a bunch of LEDs

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This is one of those topics that can become extremely complicated very quickly, but if you have a love of macro photography and a passion for electronics, this could be just the project to get you fired up.

Using a process called “Reflectance Transformation Imaging” (RTI), whereby light is studied hitting the surface of an object from multiple angles to produce a sequence of images, we’re suddenly able to see a lot of detail that would otherwise be missed in our normal macro photography.

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Shooting the moon with a Raspberry PI, a cheap lens and no DSLR

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Shooting the moon has been a little obsession of mine for a very long time, in fact ever since I started photography. I guess it is my love of impossible images, science fiction and science fact that drove me to want to take photographs of the moon.

I tried a few things using the gear that I have collected over the years. Sadly, neither zoom lenses nor telephoto lenses ever really resulted in a clear picture of the moon.

UNTIL!!!

I got the Picamera! A Raspberry PI camera module.  Now don’t laugh, this 5 megapixel wonder has a trick up its sleeve! You can remove the lens and expose light directly to the sensor – and if you happen to have access to a 3D printer, you can make a Canon EOS lens mount for the Picamera!

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Make your own 3D printed speedlight grids

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As somebody who owns what some would describe as a ludicrous amount of speedlights (although, nowhere near as bad as Joe McNally), and regularly grids some of them to provide a selective rim light or to throw a little splash of light in a dark corner of an environment, Chris Cameron’s project intrigued me.

3D printers are becoming more and more affordable, with technology advancing so quickly, getting faster and more accurate with each rapidly released generation, that I would bet most of us know at least one or two people who own one of some form or another.

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A 3D printed Camera Slider for $10 worth of Alluminum

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If you are willing to put the motor aside on your slider, this is probably as frugal as you can get. Dan Colvin (previously here and here) made this small and cool little slider which only needs some nuts and bolts and two aluminum pipes to build. I was kinda skeptic about how well the slider will perform being based on friction but the demo reel completely got me

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Panasonic’s New 3D Photo Lab Uses 120 Lumix GH4’s; Creates 3D Printed Figurines Of You

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On July 17th, Panasonic opened the doors to it’s new 3D Photo Lab, which utilizes 120 GH4 cameras. Located in the Panasonic Center Osaka, if you live in or are planning a visit to Japan you may want to head over to the 3D Lab’s website and book yourself a reservation to partake in the experience. For 55,000 yen ($443USD), you can step inside of the photo lab and have your photo taken. Panasonic then uses your photo to model a one of kind 3D figurine after, which they 3D print and deliver to you three weeks after your photo session. [Read More…]

How To Build A Swiss Army Knife Style Slide / Memory Cards Holder

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If you use the Light Blaster Projection system, there is a good chance you’ve amassed quite a bit of slides. I’ve seen people hack a Think Tank Pixel Pocket Rocket by removing the middle stitches that separate each compartment, but why settle for fabric when you can print a nifty Swiss army knife style.

This file from thingiverse is made to hold several slides in a sweet-looking wallet that kinda resembles a Swiss-army knife.

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