With world pinhole photograph day just around the corner, you might want to make this handy exposure calculator.
Category: Photography
Hacking Digital Cameras, The Book
Now this is a book I can sink my teeth into! An entire book packed with projects just itching to void the warranty on that shiny new camera your loved ones bought you for Christmas. Mumm… Is that the sizzle of hot solder on a cleaning sponge? You bet it is! These are a few of the projects that are covered in the book:
- Building triggers
- Accessing raw sensor data
- Making accessory lens adapters
- Eliminating the infrared blocking filter
- Extending lenses
- Making reverse macro adapters
- Building a monopod
- Creating bicycle and car mounts
- Hacking microdrives from other devices
Looks darn handy for anyone that is looking to think out of the box and so something special with their camera.
Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day
On the last Sunday in April (the 30th this year), finish that box of oatmeal that’s been laying around in your cupboard for years and build your self a pinhole camera ’cause its World Pinhole Photography Day! That’s right, it’s the time of year when all are encouraged to take a lens less photo and share it with the world. I love taking pinhole photos myself, in fact I’ve gotten quite good at not using glass in my photos. If your a bit stumped on how to go about making a camera the WPPD site has some resources for you. You can even use a pinhole in the body cap of a DSLR if you want. I hope to see your photos up there on the 30th.
Last years gallery is good if your looking for inspiration.
Fisheye Lens for Your Webcam / Digital Camera
If you every play with webcams you quickly discover that the field of view just isn’t what is should be. These guys have put together a nice little hacking tutorial on how to mate a door peephole lens with an ordinary low end digital camera. Now I’ve been doing this for some time, either with peepholes like these guys or with some random lenses that I happen to have in my junk box (meniscus, plano convex, convex, etc.). Years ago I used to have a web cam pointed at a TV with a plano concave lens taped in front of it to expand the field of view. Worked great, it was fun to mess with. Adding a super wide angle lens to a low end camera will yield some pretty cool results, I suggest that you run out and pick a few peepholes up, they don’t cost much. I got mine and Home Depot for around $5USD. Heat up the hot glue gun and have fun!
[via Hack-a-day]
The Aggregate: Fisheye Digital Imaging For Under Twenty Dollars
Tallguy Productions: Set Sail
A friend of mine sent me a link to a computer animated Star Trek short that he has been working on. He did all the 3D work in Blender, very impressive for a freeware program. The full short is set to be released in September, I can hardly wait!
UltraPod Mini Tripod
I’ve blogged about a number of tripods in the past, window mounted tripods, walking stick tripods, and even tripods made out of string, but when it’s all said and done the tripod that I use the most is the venerable UltraPod. It’s small and folds shut, it’s got a Velcro strap to wrap around posts and such, and a ball head to point your camera in the right direction. Now it’s not perfect, many times the side of the ball joint will stop you from getting just the angle you want but because of the strap you can try to get a better orientation. Barring that, for the price it’s a perfect thing to have in your camera bag for those slow shutter speed exposures.
[via OhGizmo! and Coolest-Gadgets]