Cameras

Wild birds are notoriously fickle photography subjects. Getting up-close pics usually requires an expensive camera, a honking zoom lens, and the ability to hold extremely still for long periods of time.

The $149 Bird Photo Booth on Kickstarter combines a bird-feeding platform with a place to stash a camera for taking avian glamor shots without upsetting the skittish subjects. The device comes with foam insert adapters for iPhone, iPod Touch, and GoPro cameras. A universal Android insert is under development.… Read more

Lens cleaning equipment such as blower brushes and compressed air can take up quite a bit of space in your bag. The folks at Digital Camera World have come up with a novel DIY way of keeping things compact by transforming paintbrushes into portable tools for cleaning off minute particles when shooting in dusty environments.

All you need is an inexpensive paintbrush that's readily available at any craft shop.… Read more

I was on a video shoot recently, helping haul equipment over the hills and river rocks in the Gold Country of California. A metal slider rail for the camera was an especially challenging piece to move around due to its size and weight.

There will soon be an inflatable alternative. AirTracks is a blow-up camera track and dolly designed to hold 8 pounds of equipment. It deflates down to fit into a small stuff sack so you can pack it into the backwoods and still get smooth tracking shots.… Read more

Google Maps' Street View feature has long allowed users to get a glimpse of far-flung destinations in 360-degree panoramas. Today the company is inviting users to contribute panoramas of their own.

Today Google unveiled Android 4.2, whose features include a new camera option called "Photo Spheres." A Photo Sphere is a 360-degree panorama akin to similar offerings from Microsoft (Photosynth) and the namesake product of startup TourWrist.

Only Photo Spheres, though, can be uploaded to Google Maps.

"Your images will help make Google Maps more comprehensive, and enable other travelers to get an accurate preview of … Read more

If you're going to burgle a house, iPhones can be very useful.

Sadly, for 23-year-old Emmanuel Jerome, his iPhone was useful to the police as well as himself.

Being of evidently subtle mind, Jerome decided not to turn the lights on at a home he and some of his friends burgled. Instead, he apparently used his iPhone as a flashlight.

Perhaps because his fingers were shaking with excitement or because his subconscious was desperate for him to be caught, he pushed another button too -- which ultimately plunged him into a painful darkness.… Read more

As a slight arachnophobe, I'm a bit surprised to discover that I find the above photo of live newborn lynx spiderlings stunning -- and the subjects rather adorable. Stunning and adorable are in the eye of the beholder, of course, but I do know that Walter Piorkowski's photo suddenly makes me feel a bit more comfortable with creepy crawlies.

It happens every year when Nikon announces the results of its annual Small World Photomicrography Competition, which celebrates the art of photography shot through a light microscope. Science becomes exquisite (unexpectedly at times) as photomicrographers turn their tiny lenses on the likes of bat embryos, algae, larva, stinging nettles, and ladybug legs. Even insidious cancer cells become visually mesmerizing. … Read more

While some Kickstarter projects go about begging for funds like online versions of Oliver Twist, others can't staunch the flow of pledges. Memoto is one of those. The little camera is raising big money, so much that it doubled its $50,000 funding goal in just 12 hours and has already topped $245,000.

The lightweight Memoto clips onto the front of your shirt or somewhere else convenient. It takes 5-megapixel photos at the rate of two photos per minute when it's being worn and shuts off when you tuck it away into a pocket. The 8GB of memory is enough for a couple of days of photos. The photos are stored online through a Memoto service so you don't have to clog up all your precious computer memory.… Read more

Samsung gives the NX system a much-needed boost with a couple of key lens announcements: a nice-sounding yet reasonably priced 45mm f1.8 prime and what seems like a kit-quality 12-24mm f4-5.6 wide-angle zoom.

Both incorporate the system's i-Function intelligent operation, but they also both lack optical image stabilization; as more lenses arrive without OIS, I increasingly appreciate the cameras that use sensor-shift IS and are thus not dependent upon the manufacturers' decisions about the feature. It's true that as focal length decreases so do stability issues, but I've never met a focal length that couldn'… Read more

Apple issued an OS X update today that lets iPhoto, Aperture, and other Mac software use raw photos taken by the Nikon D600 and several other cameras that arrived last month at the Photokina trade show in September.

The Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 4.01 enables use of raw photos from the following cameras: … Read more