Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve yet to see concrete proof that Apple’s portable media players will ship with a camera, but the new iPhone OS 4.0 beta shows Cupertino’s at least considering the notion for the iPod touch and even the iPad. It seems AT&T tethering wasn’t the only thing hidden in iPhone OS 4.0 beta 4 — 9to5Mac found a variety of telltale references to an a flash when pouring through the update’s source code. Does that mean that the iDevices will actually get cameras, let alone supporting light fixtures? It’s too early to tell… but we did spot an LED flash on that early iPhone HD, and a recent Vietnamese leak proves that Apple at least prototyped an iPod touch with a camera — though no flash, sadly — as well. Is Apple simply updating their error messages, or is there something to this? You make the call.

iPhone OS 4.0 beta 4 hints at LED flash, camera for iPad, iPod, iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is the Canon AE-1D. No, it’s not Canon’s latest retro-styled DSLR. It is an old Canon film camera hollowed out and stuffed with an Ixus 870 IS. It’s also the best hack I have seen this week.

The Canon AE-1 was a classic. First made in 1976, it went on to sell around 5 million units. It featured manual-everything, with the addition of a shutter-priority mode and an electronically controlled shutter. I never owned one, but I have used plenty, and it was a beautiful old camera.

This mod takes on of those 5 million bodies and makes room for the tiny modern digicam. The shutter is connected to the old mechanical shutter release, the opening film-back is replaced by the LCD screen and buttons, and it appears that the lens has been trimmed somewhat, presumably to prevent vignetting. The hack even adds a hinged hatch in the bottom for replacing the battery. Sadly, the viewfinder has been lost, but the camera has gained a pop-up flash.

Many people like the idea of just dropping a digital sensor into an old film SLR, giving the fantastically intuitive controls of a shutter dial and aperture ring and light, tough body, along with access to lots of old manual lenses. This mod, by an unknown hacker, comes as close as we’re ever likely to get. Now where’s my Dremel? Video below.

Clever Canon AE-1 Program Digital Mod [PetaPixel]

Canon AE-1 D [Canon Rumors]

Gallery/Discussion [DP Review Forums]

ThinkTank, the master of shifting photo-gear, is better known for its TARDIS-like airline carry-on cases than for smaller bags. The new Retrospective series may change that.

The Retrospective bags are stealth bags. The “pinestone” colored bags are especially normal-looking, fashioned from a mottled gray fabric that manages not to scream out its camera-holding nature, although the even the black ones are less conspicuous than ThinkTank’s own Urban Disguise series (which are in fact camera bags disguised as camera bags).

The soft-sided shoulder bags come in three sizes and will hold a big DSLR body and lens along with space for a few more lenses. Because they are soft, there is a lot more flexibility as to how you cram in your gear. The layout, though, makes quick lens-changes pretty easy: the lenses are kept upright for grabbing quickly.

The bit I like most, though, is the pair of expandable nylon pockets on each end. These are not padded, and they are big enough to slide in a strobe or compact camera where they can be secured by a Velcro flap. You also get either one or two DSLR body-sized pockets on the front, depending on the model you buy

The main section, too, is Velcro’d closed, but you can silence the ripping sound with some covering flaps. This is a fairly common feature these days, also found in Crumpler bags.

There are also a pair of lens-changer bags, so you can carry you SLR on a strap and just carry the spare lenses over your shoulder. These have a bunch of small accessory pockets, too.

These days I keep most of my kit in a Kata backpack or in separate pouches ready to be thrown into any old bag. The expandable nature of these bags, though, has got me considering yet another addition to my already embarrassingly large bag collection.

ThinkTank Retrospective 20 [ThinkTank. Thanks, Mr.Hobby!]

See Also:

• Flash Flood: ThinkTank Rain Cover For Hydrophobic Shutterbugs …
• Hands On: Kata 3N1 Camera Backpack
• First Look: New Lowepro Bags Big Enough To Carry A Baby
• Hands On With Lowepro's 'Stealth' Camera Bag

Canon has sold 40 million EOS SLRs. That’s a pretty good run, but the most amazing thing is that half of those are digital.

The EOS range was launched in 1987 with the EOS 650, a round-edged auto-focus camera that – at the time – looked like something from the future. I was there at the launch, a perk for me as I was a kid with a Saturday job in a camera store.

This first EOS was genuinely revolutionary. Up until then, autofocus SLRs were slow, with either big motors and spindles in the body trying to shift what were essentially modified manual-focus lenses, or they used special AF lenses with big plastic wedges on the sides which contains the motors. Canon had invented an ultrasonic motor (USM) which fit inside the new EF-mount lenses and was fast and quiet. Patents meant that Canon kept this lead for years.

In 2000, Canon introduced its first home-made digital SLR (previous models used Kodak internals), the EOS D30 (3 megapixels, $3,000), By 2003, 20 million EOS cameras had been made, 13 years after the first model launched. It only took seven more years to double that number, and an astonishing 10 million of those were sold in the last two years and four months.

Canon may not have been the first to make a digital SLR, but with the manual focus T90 (my Dad still uses one) and then the AF EOS range, it arguably invented the modern ergonomic SLR shape and the all-electronic button and dial user interface. Congratulations, Canon.

Canon celebrates production of 40 millionth EOS-series SLR camera [Canon]

Canon History Hall [Canon]

Image credit: Canon Japan

Canon EOS-D30 Review, October 2000 [DP Review]

Live in New York? Got a hankering to try out the “coveted” Leica M9 for a few hours? Got a credit card robust enough to take a big hit if something goes wrong? Then you’re in luck! Leica has teamed up with the New York Photo Festival to offer the Leica Photo Scavenger Hunt this coming weekend.

It works like this. Turn up at the NY Photo Festival HQ at Powerhouse Book on 37 Main Street, Brooklyn between noon and 7PM Saturday (5PM Sunday) and Leica will lend you the camera to use for the next four hours. You’ll need to bring your own SD card (or cards, if you’re serious). That’s it.

If you never shot with a Leica before, I recommend making time this weekend to try one. I used to have an M6 and it was frickin’ awesome. I loved that camera, and the only reason I sold it was because I has stopped shooting film (that and a small matter of overdue rent).

But beware. I have a feeling that the required credit card and ID is not just to stop you running off with the camera. It’s to make sure you have a means of payment when you inevitably head straight to the camera store to buy your own once the Leica bug has bitten.

NYPH 10 Events Schedule [NYPH. Thanks, Joe!]