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The BIGSOFTI is yet another small LED light to help you shoot better smartphone photos

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Small lights just seem to be popping up more and more lately. We’ve got Lumiee, Litra, Lumecube and a whole bunch of others beginning with “L”, not to mention all the cheap small lights that double as USB power banks over the last year or so. But now we have another one. The BIGSOFTI which, despite its name, isn’t that big at all.

It’s a small light, much like a lot of the others that are on the market, but it comes with a bunch of accessories that let you mount it to a bunch of different devices from your phone or laptop, to a camera’s hotshoe or a 1/4-20″ mount. It’s currently up on Kickstarter, with pledges starting at around $60, but it’s already beaten its goal more than six times over.

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Ditch those batteries with the GravGrip hydraulic stabiliser for smartphones and action cameras

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With the massive range of gimbals and stabilisers out there and the number of different companies making them, you’d think we’d see something truly new and different on a regular basis. Instead, we mostly see iterations. Really good iterations, but they’re often quite minimal changes with just a bump in spec. Of course, there are exceptions.

Here, though, we have the GravGrip, which is a very interesting take on stabilisation for smartphones and action cameras that has no motors, uses no batteries whatsoever and is small enough to slip into your pocket (really!). It’s currently on Kickstarter, where it’s already raised over $280K with just over two weeks left to go.

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“I’m Back” is back again with the “I’m Back 35” digital back to support more 35mm SLRs

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For those who haven’t heard of it before, “I’m Back” produces a range of digital backs for various analogue film cameras. After several successful Kickstarter campaigns in 2017, 2018 and 2019, I’m Back is, not surprisingly, back. This time they’re bringing the “I’m Back 35”, which offers compatibility with more camera models as well as manual mode shooting.

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This boy with autism raised $40,000 to publish book of toy car photos he shot with his phone

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We’ve shared some epic toy photos here on DIYP, and young Anthony Schmidt has just joined the group of artists I’m very proud to present. This boy is only 12 years old and he is on the autism spectrum. He has a big passion for toy cars, but they don’t just sit in his room. He takes pretty awesome photos of his toy cars making them look life-sized, using only a smartphone. Anthony is currently on a mission to publish his photo book, and he already raised the impressive $42,000.

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This tiny hotshoe mounted light meter helps you expose your old film cameras

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In this modern digital age, we just take for granted that our cameras contain light meters. And in mirrorless cameras, we can even see our final exposure before we even hit the shutter. But in the days of film, it wasn’t always so easy. Sure, towards the end of film’s mainstream days we got some pretty advanced 35mm SLRs, but a lot of the older ones in use today don’t contain a meter at all.

Electronics engineer and inventor Matt Bechberger wants to solve this problem with the Reveni Labs Light Meter. Currently on Kickstarter, it’s a tiny light meter that sits in the camera’s hotshoe, looks at the scene in front of it and then gives you a readout on a little OLED display.

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This keyboard for creatives has built-in SD & microSD card slots, HDMI and a USB hub

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Computer keyboards are all fairly standard these days, with very few exceptions. You’ve got the standard, normal, boring keyboards for PCs and Macs, then you’ve got the hot looking gaming keyboards with their backlit Cherry MX keys and 3 million macro buttons, and then there are the speciality keyboards, like Blackmagic’s editing keyboard for DaVinci Resolve.

But what if there were one designed specifically for creatives? While the Kolude KD-K1 (currently on Kickstarter) does offer benefits for gamers and regular office workers, it’s a decent looking bit of kit for creatives, too, thanks to SD and microSD card slots, HDMI output and a built-in USB hub.

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The NONS SL42 is the world’s first M42 mount instant film SLR camera

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I’ve always loved the concept of instant film like Polaroids or Fuji Instax, but never it’s really interested me enough to buy into it. But then I discovered the NONS SL42, which might finally win me over. It’s an M42 mount SLR that uses Fuji Instax Mini instant film to let you create instant prints with real lenses. It’s currently funding through Kickstarter, and it’s an intriguing looking bit of kit.

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PiXLIGHT is an all-in-one flash, stand and modifier designed for lightweight efficiency

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When you’re doing photography projects with speedlights, it can be a hassle sometimes with all the extra accessories you have to carry. Big clunky light stands, flash brackets, the flashes themselves, umbrellas, etc. After a while, you just get used to it and accept it, even if you end up taking out more gear than you’d really like to, especially when your needs are quite small.

Photographer Arash Hamidi decided he wanted to minimise the amount of kit (and weight) he wanted to take out with him on a shoot. So, he decided to do something about it by developing the PiXLiGHT, an all-in-one unit which includes the stand, flash and modifier all in one.

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The Jollylook Auto is a “modern vintage” folding instant film camera

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Those old folding film cameras are great. I’ve used a bunch of them over the years, and love when I get the chance to take my Agfa Isolette out the door to shoot off a few rolls. But that folding camera form factor seems to be making something of a comeback, but with a bit of an update.

The Jollylook Auto is styled on those old folding cameras but uses Fuji Instax “Instant film”, has a variable aperture, and even has a built-in flash. As with their previous camera, the Jollylook Auto is being launched through Kickstarter and has hit over two-thirds of its goal in just the first couple of hours.

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