Category: Imaging

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Imaging

FLIXI frame let you hang your pics without a single tool

Even if the majority of photos taken ultimately live on the Internet, there is still a place for them in the home. Sure, Facebook and Instagram let us swarm the globe with the everyday, but special moments deserve a more prominent and permanent location.

To make framing and hanging photos an experience that rivals hitting a Share button in its ease, Montreal-based design studio Toboggan created FLIXI. Its Wall Snap system — comprised of four springy feet, double-sided adhesive tape, and an integrated level (perhaps overkill) — lets users quickly search for a place on a wall, ensure a level frame, and set it all under a minute. Slowly pulling on a pull tab within detaches it from the wall without a trace. FLIXI frames come in a variety of sizes (4X6, 5X7, and 8X10) and colors, all of which can also stand upright or connect together to make a two-sided hinged frame or a mobile. The many options FLIXI offers naturally lends itself to many display ideas, all of which can be worked out online through the Web app Toboggan offers.

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Imaging

New Petzval 58 lens is out to ring in more bokeh fans

The company Lomography ran a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013 for a modern, 85mm version of the old Petzval camera lens that was known for its swirly blur effect known as bokeh. Lomography reinvented the lens as the New Petzval 85 Portrait Lens for Nikon F and Canon EF Mount analog and DSLR cameras.

patent-claimedLomography has now created the New Petzval 58 Bokeh Control Art Lens that it says offers more control over the bokeh effect and a more standard, 58mm focal length. The lens features a new bokeh control ring that allows the user to determine how pronounced the bokeh effect will be in each photo. The lens will start shipping to early bird backers in December and will cost non-early-bird backers $750 for a brass lens and $850 for a black lens when they ship in early 2016. Lomography set a Kickstarter goal of raising $100,000 by June 26.

The lens should appeal to the very niche photographer audience it’s aimed at. Minor drawbacks include the fact that the lens can’t be used with both Canon EF and Nikon F cameras because each lens is equipped with either a Canon or Nikon mount and will only work directly with one.

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Imaging

Agua will help your camera make it through the rain

There are many weatherproof camera cases on the market. But it can be hard to quickly get a camera out of most of them, which means photographers could easily miss an important shot.

Agua is a weatherproof case that will protect cameras from a storm, but it’s been designed so that users can quickly pull it out and take a photo. There is no need for a separate camera strap because the camera gets attached to the bag via a quick-release buckle that allows the user to just pull it out of the bag to take a shot, but also protects the camera from falling. The bag is also padded on the inside, so users don’t need to keep the cap on the camera, allowing it to be ready for use at any time. There is also a special pocket for a lens cap to make sure that it doesn’t get lost.

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Imaging

SnapPal’s out to be a photographer’s best friend

There are many camera triggers on the market that are used to help photographers create time lapse photography. Some of them allow users to add their own sensor to a device, while others can also enable motion control or water drop photography. But it’s difficult to find one product that can do all of those and other functions, which means photographers who want all that functionality must buy different devices from different vendors at a potentially large cost.

SnapPal is a camera trigger that was designed to perform multiple functions and can be used for high-speed photography, time lapse, motion control, and water drop photography, according to its Kickstarter campaign. Other capabilities include bulb mode, allowing the user to increase or decrease exposure by varying the shutter’s opening time while performing time lapse. SnapPal comes with an infrared remote control, so there is no need for a smartphone app to control it as there is with the CamsFormer triggering system. The device costs $99 and will ship in August. Its maker set a campaign goal of raising $10,500 by July 9.

One drawback is that the remote looks a bit clunky. Some photographers will likely prefer to use a smartphone app. SnapPal also won’t work with every camera on the market. It does, however, apparently support many models, including most Canon and Nikon digital single-lens reflex cameras, Pentax K series cameras, Panasonic GH series cameras, and the A7R, A7S, A57, A58, NEX-3NL, NEX6, A65 and A77 from Sony, according to SnapPal’s maker.

 

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Imaging

Valo could have value for photographers needing flexible lighting

Getting the right amount of light is a frequent challenge for digital photographers, whether they are shooting still images or video.

The makers of Valo set out to solve that challenge by developing a programmable, modular LED flash for photography and video lighting. Photographers can use it as a flash or as a constant light source. It can be used as a main light, a hair light, a fill light or a background light. The open-source device is ready to use out of the box and features a micro-controller, and upgradeable firmware. Valo costs $189 and will ship in December. Its makers are hoping to raise $55,000 via Indiegogo by June 28.

Valo offers multiple lighting solutions in one affordable device, so it should come in handy for many photographers. One of the things that sets it apart is that the photographer can combine multiple units together to create a larger unit without wires, using the product’s internal magnets. Its wire-free nature extends to charging as each unit comes with its own internal battery and charges by USB. That may result in having to charge multiple units , but could take less time than charging a larger unit.

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Imaging

Lumigraphe introduces the camera obscura to the smartphone

The camera obscura was an optical device invented thousands of years ago that eventually led to the creation of the film camera. While many photographers still prefer film cameras to the digital cameras that have replaced them, there’s also a contingent of photography fans out there who like the distinctive look of images created by the camera obscura, including its unique color saturation and soft, dream-like focus.

patent-claimedThe Lumigraphe is an updated version of the camera obscura that was designed to be used with smartphones. The accordion-like device looks very much like early film cameras and creates images that look very much like those created by a camera obscura. The Lumigraphe was designed for outdoor use specifically. The user just has to open the device’s chamber and attach a smartphone to it to take photos. A pared-down, non-collapsible version will cost about $99, while the full-featured, collapsible version will cost about $219. Both will ship in December. The Lumigraphe’s maker is hoping to raise $49,276 through Kickstarter by July 6.

The device offers an imaginative way to use a smartphone’s camera that will likely appeal to a small segment of photography fans.

 

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Imaging

C-Box could be must-have device for indie filmmakers

There are several video cameras reaching the market now that independent filmmakers can use to make movies, including the URSA Ultra HD line from Blackmagic. But the cameras require the use of CompactFast (CFast) memory cards, a variation of CompactFlash cards, to achieve their maximum potential, and CFast cards are, for now, too expensive for at least some independent filmmakers to afford them.

patent-claimedThe C-Box is a plug-and-play device designed to solve that dilemma. It can be used with URSA cameras and other video cameras that use CFast cards to allow filmmakers to use whatever solid state drive (SSD) they want to instead of the CFast cards. C-Box will cost $500 when it ships in September. Its maker is hoping to raise $15,000 by June 10.

The C-Box system could be a must-have accessory for at least some independent filmmakers as long as it truly does exactly what its maker says it does. Most professional-grade external recorders will only handle up to 4K resolution footage, with a limited number of frame rate options. Some recorders even require the purchase of proprietary SSDs. But the C-Box system can record all of the frame rate and resolution options that the user’s camera offers for internal cards, directly to external, non-proprietary SSDs, its maker says.

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Imaging

Gekkopod mount wraps around anything to capture your mounting vanity

With smartphones and cameras allowing us to take more photos than ever, the latest goal seems to be getting a unique angle to capture a selfie or point of view. But the wide range of surfaces in the world make that a challenge, particularly for a portable mount..

patent-claimedGekkopod is a wraparound flexible camera mount that will work with any camera or smartphone, even a GoPro camera. It’s a more minimalist, flexible take on Joby’s Gorillapod camera tripod but with two extra legs to secure it. The design of the new product was based in a lizard’s hand –-hence the allusion to a gecko in its name. Gekkopod is made of 80 percent food grade silicon and 20 percent metal, so it can be bent easily to any shape and will stay in that form.

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Displays Imaging

Unwind anywhere in the world with the Atmoph digital display

Most would agree the Wi-Fi filled, smartphone-rich, urban living experience is draining. Being surrounded by drab apartment buildings, the idle humming of traffic, and the roar of subways wouldn’t be as bad if the apartments and home people came back to were more more relaxing. Unfortunately, window views of next door apartment buildings are all too common.

The Atmoph digital window gives owners the opportunity to have a piece of the world right in their own living space. The 27″ frame houses a crisp 1920 x 1080, fully HD display capable of showcasing 4K videos shot the company itself, live streams of locales around the world, or a user’s own videos. The result is a night reading by the fireside, an afternoon preparing dinner in the lush jungles of Costa Rica, or a chat in bustling side streets of East London.

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Imaging Smart Home

Remocam looks over a human family, controls its own device family

Once upon a time, the idea of a camera ready to capture anything in a home would have sounded like something out of 1984, But the past few years have seen no shortage of connected indoor security cameras that allow for surveillance of those unwelcome in a home or ways to check up on those who are welcome.

Remocam looks a bit like a levitating black golf ball. It includes night vision capabilities, takes a unique approach to the security cam market, going beyond watching to doing. Some of this is handled by the camera itself, which includes a speaker for, say, singing your baby to sleep remotely  But to take full advantage of the system, users will need to buy in to the company’s eclectic collection of smart home gadgets that include mainstream outlet adapters and bulbs, but also an automatic pet feeder called RemoPet. The latter is at least aggressively priced. The company seeks $50,000 in its Indiegogo Flexible Funding campaign. The basic Remocam is $199, a $50 discount off the expected retail price.

Remocam represents a middle ground between simple cameras and cameras loaded with home security sensors such as the Oomi Hub. That system also works with its own family of devices, but can also tap in to any Z-Wave device. Both systems have a great opportunity to take advantage of a larger family of devices in the connected home.