Hasta La Gadget!

The LoopIt is a smaller – and possibly better – version of the LumaLoop, a bandolier-style camera strap invented last year by photographer James Duncan Davidson. Like it’s older brother, the strap is slung across the body for both security and comfort, only this one is designed specifically for the modern crop of mirrorless cameras.

The strap is fashioned from the same Pennsylvania-made webbing that NASA uses, and this extends to sixty-inches and holds the camera at your hip. The camera itself joins onto a lanyard which loops through one of its two strap-mounts, and the lanyard has a swivel that it also used by the US army for its gear. It won’t be falling off.

The trick of the lanyard is that it can slide freely along the webbing, letting you grab the camera from your hip and raise it to snap in a second. I currently use one of the seatbelt-webbing straps from Photojojo, which allows you to get the camera up pretty fast, but the strap still catches on the clothes.

There is also a tripod-mount adapter for hooking up any other device with a standard-sized screw, but for camera the loop is probably better, as it can’t unscrew. Best of all, the LoopIt is half the size of the bigger, SLR-sized Loop, $35 compared to $70.

LoopIt product page [Lu.ma]

See Also:

• Solar-Powered Camera Strap Keeps You Shooting
• Camera Strap Buddy Makes Any Camera Comfy
• LumaLoop: Finally, a Camera Strap Done Right?
• Sliding Sun Sniper Shoulder Strap
• Buckle Up! Seat-Belt Camera Straps
• DIY Camera Hand-Straps From Photojojo

Underabove is a two-eyed camera, designed to float twixt air and water and snap photos of both worlds simultaneously. The concept design, shaped much like a pair of conjoined bowling-pins, is weighted with water so it will float in the sea like an iceberg, only with just 50% of its body pulled underwater by the liquid ballast.

The camera, designed by In Kyung Han, has a lens in each end, both of which snap a picture when you trip the shutter or use the self-timer, which is set by a dial around the upper neck. There’s also an LED screen for framing and reviewing pictures, and even a flash for filling shadows or capturing your night-time skinny-dipping. And of course, the whole thing is waterproof.

It’s a fun idea, but a rather specialist, not to mention bulky, solution. How hard is it really to quickly grab a shot above and below the waves with a regular waterproof compact? On the other hand, it is cute, and would make a great bath-toy. Although in that case you might want to switch the camera off first.

For Scenes Above And Below The Sea Level [Yanko. Thanks, Radhika!]

See Also:

• CES 2010: Film Underwater With HD-Camera Scuba Mask – Video – Wired
• Underwater Housing for Lumix GF1 Will Sink to 250-Feet
• Agfa Rises From the Depths with Cheap Underwater Camera
• Liquid Image's HD Video Underwater Camera Mask
• Liquid Image Underwater Camera Goggles: Upskirt Action for the …

Somebody at Pentax has just plain lost it. Here you see the forthcoming limited-edition K-r, a custom version of the regular 12 megapixel DSLR. It seems to have been built from eye-searingly bright children’s building blocks, and somebody has even wedged a robot-head into the hot-shoe.

Pentax has a history of colorful experimentation, from the “world’s reddest DSLR” to the rainbow-colored K-x which “requires sunglasses to use”. But with this Korejanairobomoderu, or Korejanai robot edition, Pentax has reached a new high. And I mean “high” in the drug-smoking sense.

Other than its candy-coated shell (and decapitated robot head), the camera is unchanged from the stock K-r. It does have a matching lens, though, a special-edition version of the 35mm ƒ2.4, which equates roughly to the length of a 50mm when used on a crop-frame body.

The price for this Willy Wonka camera will be ¥99,800, or $1,190, and only 100 will be made (that’s precisely 100 too many). Pre-ordering opens at 12PM on December 24th, for delivery in January.

K-r colorama [Pentax]

See Also:

• Bright-Red Pentax K-r Fails to Stir Passion
• Pentax Hides Bland New Retro Digicams in Groovy Getup
• Rainbow-Colored Pentax K-x Requires Sunglasses to Use
• Pentax K-x: World's Reddest DSLR?

The iFlash not a battery-sucking, CPU-choking browser plugin. Instead, it’s an LED lamp that plugs into the dock-connector of any iPhone or iPod and provides a “flash” for your photos.

It’s self-powered, so you won’t drain your battery, and you’ll have to switch it on and off manually, making the dock-connector little more than a mounting point for the light. And that’s not the only hole it will fill on the iPhone: a little plastic jack-plug will let you dangle the dongle from the iPhone’s headphone socket when not in use.

I’d probably avoid this particular gadget, though. If you’re going to add light to your photos, why go to all the bother of buying an expensive light and then just stick the thing right near the lens, where it will give you the same harsh shadows you get from any light so close to the lens. It’s like buying an SB900 strobe for your Nikon and then sitting it in the camera’s hot-shoe. No, better to just take the $40 this widget will cost you and buy a decent LED flashlight.

iFlash Product Page [Gadgets and Gear via Oh Gizmo]

See Also:

• Strobe Pro Adds Motion-Stopping Flash to iPhone 4
• Cheap, Manual Flashgun: Built by Strobists, for Strobists

This little SD card reader is like a tiny plastic toaster for your camera’s memory cards. The little cube has four slots, each of which can take its own SDHC card, and the box comes with a detachable USB cable – essential for traveling light where you don’t want every single gadget to come with its own tail.

The blurb says that Elecom’ reader is compatible with all things SD: SD, microSD, and miniSD, but it really looks like the tiny pinky-sized microSD cards would need an adapter or get lost in the slot, just like the last runty slice of bread gets lost in the toaster and burns on the hot elements.

Why use this? Pros in the field will appreciate being able to drop a whole shoot’s worth of cars into one reader and then go grab a coffee. Surely that’s worth the $48? Available mid-December in Japan.

Four-slot SD reader product page [GeekStuff4U]

See Also:

• ZoomIt: An SD Card-Reader for iPhone
• AirStash Wireless SD Card Reader: Perfect iPad Companion?
• Flush-Fitting SD-Card Reader Swings Both Ways
• Tiny USB Card Reader Packs 16GB, Is Smaller Than USB Port