Serious photographers need serious equipment. Taking a selfie at arm’s length is fine if you’re using a stock smartphone camera, but a quality camera calls for a quality camera support. The aptly-named Pop and Lock is an adjustable, sturdy camera support that can be configured a number of ways with four joints that can be locked into place at any 45 degree angle without losing stability. For those who want to beef up their GoPro footage or phone photos, the Pop and Lock is compatible. The campaign video shows off the fun side of the product while still doing a good job of selling its features. Pop and Lock launches in July for $129, far less than many other stabilizers.
Category: Imaging
The Premise. There’s nothing that grandparents love more than photos of their grandkids. Photo sharing these days is easy with the Internet and social media, but grandparents are notorious for having trouble using these new technologies. From a distance, sharing photos with older people can be difficult.
The Product. Famatic is a digital picture frame with an added touch screen bonus. People can share photos via wi-fi directly to the frame so that grandparents can enjoy a slideshow of new material right from their living room. The 8 GB device connects to Instagram, Facebook and e-mail as well so that people sharing on these platforms can easily upload their photos or videos to Famatic. The screen shows who shared the photo or video along with the caption and allows users to comment on each photo.
The Pitch. Famatic’s pitch begins with a charming video showing a family using the product with ease. It manages to use the same infomercial format that many campaigns use, but does so in a cute way that will make you laugh. The Famatic creators express an interest in the rest of the campaign to connect their product to more social media, including Flickr and Picasa. Famatic hopes to raise $75,000 in their 42-day Kickstarter campaign.
The Perks. This-amped up digital frame from the Netherlands offers a $169 early-bird special for the U.S. which includes shipping and a $209 international early-bird special with shipping included for the EU. At its regular price, the Famatic frame costs Americans $189 and the rest of the world $229. The highest reward tier of $329 offers different color options for backers. All tiers have an estimated delivery date of October 2014.
The Potential. The glory days of the digital photo frame have faded in the wake of tablet popularity. However, cloud-connected frames have some potential. Prior to leaving the consumer imaging market, Kodak had some success with the Kodak Pulse More recently, Flink went the crowdfunding route for its cloud-connected picture viewer, but fell short in its campaign. That said, Famatic is a promising way to share photos with friends and families alike and will improve as its creators add to their product in the future.
Flashlights, portable headlights, keychain lights and other lighting systems aim to provide convenience and light when on the go. Most of these types of lights are either bulky or don’t provide enough light when necessary. The RagLite combines portability and extra bright luminance to make a lighting system that is effective and easy to carry. RagLite consists of several strips of LED lights affixed to a piece of fabric. It comes in different sizes and is super lightweight and portable so that it can be taken anywhere. One mini RagLite costs backers $75 with an estimated delivery date of October 2014. This cool, yet expensive product, needs to raise $25,000 in its 60-day Kickstarter campaign.
Losing lens caps is a part of any photographer’s life. Some caps attach to cameras with a string, but these can be intrusive when trying to capture a cool shot. The Hack x Tack made out of steel and wood uses magnets keep lens caps from getting lost. This small clip attaches to your clothes or bag and grabs onto the cap with a magnet that adheres to the front of the lens cap. The magnet is entirely device safe and goes for $24 CAD with an estimated delivery date of August 2014. The Toronto-made Hack x Tack has a $25,000 CAD goal over 31 days on Kickstarter.
The Premise. Sharing photos is something almost everybody likes to do. Doing so should be easily and unintrusive, combining the excitement of receiving a social media notification with the surprise of an unexpected gift.
The Product. The Appnificent Eclipse is an addition to the smart photo frame market that integrates the features that users are used to applying to their photos when sharing them through social media. This way, using the Eclipse app, owners can take photos, doctor them to make them more attractive, add messages or emoticons, and then share them only to invited users via their Eclipse frames, Twitter, Facebook, and Dropbox. The frame itself connects to a home wi-fi network with a simple push of a button and can hold up to 2GB of photos for viewing as static images or part of a slideshow.
The Pitch. Appnificent Co-Founder Rod Spongberg introduces us to the Eclipse, showcasing how easy it is to connect the frame to both a wireless network and users of the Eclipse app. The rest of the campaign’s site goes over how to use each of the Eclipses features, from applying filters and sharing to adding emoticons and messaging. Appnificent wants to raise $75,000 to handle the tooling and production of the Eclipse. At $100,000 a stretch goal to double the frame’s storage from 2GB to 4GB will be unlocked.
The Perks. The Eclipse is available to backers who pledge $115 in either Charcoal Grey or Optic White. The device is also available with a custom protective travel case at the $165 level. All frames will be delivered In August of this year.
The Potential. There have several digital photo frames posted to crowdfunding sites in the past, and the most common “new” feature is the ability to wirelessly send photos securely. In that, the Appnificent Eclipse offers little in terms of innovation, but what makes it attractive is the large, high-quality display and the Instagram-like features that can be selected through the app before sending out the photo. The Eclipse is a strong choice for anyone in the market for a digital photo frame, but doesn’t quite offer enough to make consumers want to replace their existing frame.
The Premise. Lighting is the most important aspect of photography; without light, there’s no picture. Capturing an image with ideal lighting can be a challenging exercise for most new photographers, but using an external flash can help make it easier and can also be an inspiring catalyst for creativity.
The Product. FlashQ is a wireless flash trigger designed to work with external flashes for mirrorless and DSLR cameras. The transmitter attaches to your camera via hot shoe and using a radio signal it connects to the receiver which is attached to your remote flash either by hot shoe or sync cord. Three LED lights indicate whether the product is operating, triggering the flash, or pairing the devices. The FlashQ system can support up to eight receivers on remote flashes as long as they are paired with the transmitter. Small in size, but packing a big punch, FlashQ’s specifications state you’ll trigger your flash more than 100,000 times on the life of one battery.
The Pitch. Anita Yim introduces herself in a female-centric campaign video as an engineer and inventor of FlashQ. She explains that she was frustrated with other wireless flash triggers on the market because they were either large in size or looked ridiculous when using with her compact system camera. The rest of the campaign page focuses on additional accessories like a cold shoe adapter and a compatibility list of all camera manufacturers who use the standard size hot shoe that FlashQ employs. You will also see the variety of colors that FlashQ will be available in, including Midnight Black, Snow White, Macaron Pink and Knight Blue.
The Perks. For a $30 pledge, early-birds can receive a FlashQ in any of the four colors. Regular birds will be able to obtain a FlashQ for $39, once the early-birds have claimed all. If you’re willing to pledge $129, you will receive a custom FlashQ with your signature printed on the devices. If the project is funded, estimated delivery of FlashQ after initial production is September 2014.
The Potential. Use of the off-camera flash is a key way to create better lighting in your photographs, but using many of today’s systems can entail a steep price and learning curve. FlashQ could broaden the appeal of similar products such as PocketWizard and RadioPopper that are more popular with pros. but the product’s unique design and significantly cheaper cost may sway consumers to give it a shot (pun intended).
Ever wanted to capture a candid moment with your iPhone camera, but ended up spoiling the scene when you were too obvious about taking the photo? COVR Photo is an iPhone case with a slide-able prism that fits over your camera, allowing you to take photos discreetly. You only need to point the top of the phone to the subject in order to take the photo, much like the Peek-I that allows you take photos in secret. One COVR Photo lens cases costs backers $55 with an estimated delivery date of September 2014. COVR hopes to raise $80,000 in a 33-day Kickstarter campaign.
Lensbaby has created a lot of fans with its creative lenses for pro photographers; now it’s bringing its sometimes-blurred focus to the world of smartphone photography. The LM-10 Sweet Spot creative focus lens attaches directly to your phone’s camera and accomplishes a cool blurred effect as you take your photo. As with many other add-on mini-lenses for the iPhone 4 and 5-series phones, it attaches magnetically. One of these special attachments goes for an early price of $40 with an estimated delivery date of July 2014. Lensbaby hopes to raise $20,000 in its 30-day campaign on Kickstarter.
From eBay to Etsy, people are making money by selling small or unique items,. But when sellers have a whole catalog to choose from, taking quality, consistent photos can be challenging. Similar in concept to the Foldio, the Lightcase is a fold-out housing that can be used to take quality, well-lit pictures from above or in front, and then can be folded down into something size of a sheet of paper. Using frosted polypropylene, the Light Case takes natural light and diffuses it evenly, resulting in a sharp, clear photo. The hole at the top of the Lightcase is lined up with a smartphone camera so the phone can lay flat and take the picture with stability. Online sellers and everyone else can get a Lightcase in June 2014 for $36.
What. The photo frame industry continues to survive, even in the digital era, by providing a physical home for digital memories. However, the proliferation of digital images from smartphones have overwhelmed the ability to keep up with framing. Two Kickstarter projects – Fotobit and Republic Frames – each have a similar take on this problem.
Why. Both Fotobit and Republic Frames have the same idea: modular frames that can be clipped together to create unique “storyboards” to tell a tale through photographs. Fotobit’s uniform squares — optimized for Instagram — look ultra-modern, like a kind of photograph Tetris that can be installed with a single nail and include a clip for a bubble level to make sure they’re straight. Republic Frames uses stainless steel and clear magnetic clips to hold photos in place and arrange them in any 3D paneling scheme. A 3-pack of 4”x4” Fotobit frames costs $30, while a 2-pack of 4”x6” Republic Frames is $79.
When. Both of these California companies launched their Kickstarters within a day of each other, and are both running 30-day campaigns. Republic Frames was first to post, but Fotobit expects its product to ship in May 2014 compared to Republic Frames’ June.
Winner. The number of options the Republic Frames setup offers is more convenient, with frames for two different sizes of photos and a host of configuration schemes that do more than rest on walls as the Fotobits must.
However, there’s something to be said about the uniformity of Fotobit when you can get roughly four times the frames for the same cost. Plus, there’s something about the way the Fotobits can still be creatively deployed, but that boils down to a matter of personal taste. In terms of price and shipping date, Fotobit looks like the winner here, but Republic Frames is a close, close second.