When it comes to telescopes, gear matters, and so does size. the bigger is better, and NASA could make telescopes up to 100 times bigger than before. Yep, you read that correctly. The secret lies in liquid lenses, and the very first experiment is about to take place aboard the International Space Station.
Xiaomi MIX 4 features under-display camera, but no liquid lenses
Xiaomi has announced Mi MIX 4, its first smartphone with an under-display front camera. It’s not the first-ever, but it’s one of few phones that have it so far. It’s still a relatively new technology, so it’s definitely worth taking a look at.
Xiaomi teases new Mi MIX – the world’s first smartphone with a liquid lens
Xiaomi has teased their upcoming Mi MIX smartphone with a camera that contains a world’s first. It’s going to have a liquid lens that adjusts its focal length and focus distance through the use of an electrical charge. This isn’t the first liquid lens to exist, and they’re common for some industrial uses, but it’s the first time one will be getting put into a production smartphone.
Other than the lens, there aren’t really many details about the new device yet or even just its camera – although no paternership deals with Zeiss, Leica or Hasselblad have been announced. Oh wait, they did get into bed with Light a couple of years ago. And Xiaomi did put out a survey last year to see if they should team up with a big name camera manufacturer (and which one). So… maybe?
Lomography launches $80 panoramic film camera with liquid-filled lens
Lomography has announced HydroChrome Sutton’s Panoramic Belair Camera, a 35mm film camera that uses a strange (and pretty cool) liquid-filled lens. If the concept sounds familiar, it’s because this type of lens is included with DIY cardboard camera Lomomod No. 1. Only this time, you won’t need to assemble anything on your own.
Huawei has patented a “liquid lens” camera module, possibly for the P50 series
Liquid lens technology isn’t a new idea, but it hasn’t really taken off. We’ve seen a few gimmicky implementations over the years, but we’ve yet to really see anything implemented in a consumer device on a large scale. It looks, that Huawei might be looking to change that, though, as a new patent has recently been approved detailing a liquid lens smartphone camera module.
Gizmochina seems to think that it might debut on Huawei’s next series of P50 smartphones, but Samsung’s been working on similar technology since at least 2005 with a company that’s been exploring them for even longer, and it’s still not here. Huawei does tend to push things when it comes to the cameras in their smartphones.
How to use a condom as a camera lens, and other such silliness
Having previously used the humble balloon as a soft light diffuser for a camera’s popup flash, the Koldunov Brothers received a question if you could switch out the balloon for a condom to achieve similar results.
While they quickly determined that a condom didn’t work quite as well as the balloon as a softbox, the pair also experimented to see what other photography tricks could be pulled off with their little latex friends.
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