Hasta La Gadget!

A snapshot taken through the Pinwide. Try this with a film camera.

Back in April, I wrote about the Pinwide wide-angle pinhole lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras. I liked it so much I ordered one, and I promised to let you know how it worked out. The short answer? Pretty good, for a pinhole. The long answer? Read on.

The Pinwide is a plastic disk that clicks onto the lens mount of my Panasonic GF1 like any other lens. It has a slightly dished conical shape which puts the pinhole back inside the body. This is what makes it wide-angle, and it’s something not possible on an SLR because of the mirror that slaps around inside the body. The pinhole itself is laser-cut into a tiny disk of metal at the center.

In use, you get to adjust the camera’s ISO and shutter speed, and that’s it. The aperture is fixed at around ƒ96-ƒ128, so even in bright sunlight you’ll need to crank your ISO to a minimum of ISO 800. And with such a tiny aperture, everything in the frame, near or far, is in focus.

It’s surprisingly fun to use. Set the camera to aperture priority, crank up the ISO and all you have left to do is point and shoot. The 22mm focal length (35mm equivalent) means you can stand a couple of feet from a person and capture them from top to toe. It also means dreamy, super-wide landscape and cityscape shots.

The resulting pictures are grainy (noisy), blurry and have some distinctly weird color shifts. In short, just the kind of thing you spend long minutes achieving in grunge-ifying apps like Instagram.

If you’re looking for high-fidelity shots, you won’t find them here. If you’re looking for $40 worth of fun, along with some truly unusual-looking shots, then the Pinwide is just the thing. Recommended.

Pinwide product page [Wanderlust]

See Also:

• Pinwide: Wide-Angle Pinhole Lens for Micro Four Thirds Cameras …
• Giant Pinhole Camera Is Three Stories High
• Six-Month Pinhole Exposure Shows the Sun's Travels
• The $50 Hole: Photojojo's Body-Cap Pinhole Conversion

Megapixel, megaschmixel — we’re more impressed when camera tech goes the opposite way and shrinks down. A happy byproduct of his neural mapping research, Patrick Gill and his Cornell University team have engineered a cam so microscopic it could fit on the head of a pin. The lensless creation is only one 100th of a millimeter thick, looks more like a miniature CD and doesn’t require any budget-breaking parts. Named after the Fourier transform that inspired it — a mathematical operation that breaks a signal down into various frequencies — the Planar Fourier Capture Array translates pixel components into a fleshed-out image. Creators of the tiny camera tech stress that it won’t be “[taking] family portraits,” but you could probably count on having this nigh-invisible sucker implanted into your brain. It’s definitely one small step for man, one nano-leap of the photographing kind.

Continue reading Cornell University’s microscopic camera makes photos with mathematics

Cornell University’s microscopic camera makes photos with mathematics originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Holga’s TIM looks like an alcoholic Englishman after a particularly nasty Friday-night brawl, eyes half closed and all but a single tooth knocked from his stupid grinning mouth. And like that violent drunk, TIM will also stumble through life seeing double.

TIM stands for Twin Image Maker, and to this end the camera’s “eyes” are a pair of identical lenses. Shoot with both open and you can make 3-D photos. Shoot with either one closed and you get half-frame images, allowing you to put the same image on either side off the photo, or make a diptych of any two images.

TIM’s single tooth slides around in his smiling mouth to set the aperture for correct-ish exposure, and the camera also comes with an optional ($15 standalone) flash with color filters. Combine this with the half-frame and multiple exposure options and you have enough image-bending tools to make even a sober viewer dizzy.

All of these shenanigans are recorded on 35mm film.

TIM, from Holga, is available now and will cost you a very reasonable $50 or $60, depending on whether you opt for the flash or not.

Twin Lens Holga with Color Flash [Photojojo]

See Also:

• 3D Holga For Ultimate Photo Gadget Geeks Is Both Expensive and …
• Holga D, The Ultimate Lo-Fi Digicam
• The Digital Holga, Or How To Waste A Million Pixels
• Stereo Holga Camera Lowers 3D Production Values
• Digi-Diana: Lomo Lens Adapter for Canon, Nikon DSLRs

In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you’d like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with “Insert Coin” as the subject line.

Perhaps the simplest function on any camera, the shutter release is typically triggered using a dedicated button, or — most often in the case of a professional rig — using a wired or wireless remote. The Triggertrap falls into that latter category, completing the circuit necessary to capture an image after receiving commands from a virtually limitless array of sources. After pairing with your DSLR or ILC using a universal connector, you’ll be able to trigger the device to snap a photo using a laser beam (thanks to the built-in photo transistor), sound (a hand clap, for example), or a timer — typically most applicable to time-lapse photography. An auxiliary port will enable you to get even more creative — you could release the shutter using a remote control, pressure trigger, or even a cell phone call, for example.

The Triggertrap is well on its way to a Kickstarter campaign goal of $25,000, but there’s still time to pre-order a DIY kit for $70, or a turn-key version for five bucks more. As always, Kickstarter will issue a refund if the project isn’t funded before the July 31st deadline. Both devices are Arduino based and open source, so you’re free to make modifications as you wish — assuming you don’t mind getting your hands dirty with a bit of programming. Jump past the break for a quick demo video, and keep an eye out for the creator’s Pringles can DIY macro lens, just past the 13 second mark.

Continue reading Insert Coin: Triggertrap open source automatic camera release (video)

Insert Coin: Triggertrap open source automatic camera release (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew instant coffee was good for something. The folks at Make just demoed a rather novel method for developing negatives from a roll of black and white film — you remember film, don’t you? Known as Caffenol, the process involves a smattering of household substances, including Vitamin C powder, instant coffee (caffeinated only), good ole H₂O, and Cascade. Of course, it’s not as simple as throwing this stuff in a slosh bucket with a roll of film and mixing it up, but it’s not that complicated, either. If you’re looking for something to do with those instant crystals, and still have a non-digital camera laying around, hop on past the break for a homebrew tutorial.

Continue reading Caffenol turns Folgers into DIY film developer — decaf won’t do (video)

Caffenol turns Folgers into DIY film developer — decaf won’t do (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jul 2011 04:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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