The 2012 Olympics are over. And, chances are, you didn’t win a gold medal. Luckily, thanks to a bit of Photoshop trickery, you can make anything in your life gold. More »
The Curiosity rover sent to the planet Mars earlier this month has been snapping photos since it first set down upon the surface, creating now a 130 photo panorama of the crater in which it currently resides. Here we’re seeing some surprisingly sharp photos taken with the cameras which we learned about last week, each of them lovely in their own respect. As the Curiosity rover travels through the Gale Crater it will continue to create individual shots as well as a larger panorama – one at first, then more as it moves through its environment.
The landscape here is barren, of course, and red as the nickname the planet retains. Here you’ve got 79 images making up just part of the full 130 photo panorama stitched together by NASA and the camera aboard the rover. The rest of the images are currently headed back to Earth, the delay having to do with the data limit NASA is bound to – see the camera post linked above for more information. You’ll be able to see the full stitched image by clicking the preview here.
The full panorama was photographed back on August 9th in relatively quick succession. Each of the photos are being sent one after the other to NASA and the full image should be constructed by the end of the week. Meanwhile the rover continues its mission to study the planet with readings of the environment and samples of material from the atmosphere and surface.
Check out our Curiosity timeline below to see what else this lovely Mars rover has been up to in the short amount of time it’s been on the planet, and give a hand to NASA as they continue to make their way – and our way – into space!
[via NASA]
New Mars photos add to 130 photo Curiosity panorama is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Taking long exposure photographs at night and painting within them using an iPad may be old hat, but building your own light painting rig? That could earn you some serious geek cred, and according to Adafruit, it isn’t even all that hard. In a new walkthrough, the team fashioned such a contraption using a Raspberry Pi, a python script with under 60 lines of code, some open source software and a handful of electronic components. Not satisfied with the typical light wand, they decided to spice things up with a circular fixture built from PVC pipes and a hula hoop to hold the ribbon of LEDs. After being attached to a bike and paraded around at night, it created the 3D effect in the masterpiece above. If you’re itching to make your own works of art, check out Adafruit’s tutorial at the source link below.
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Adafruit builds Raspberry Pi-powered light painting rig, takes trippy photos originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 03:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Slit-scan photography works much like a rolling shutter does—the sensor continually collects image data but the shutter never actually closes, hence its use in determining a “photo finish”—whatever crosses the camera’s view first, appears first in the photo set. Or at least that’s how its supposed to work. More »
Cameras gear is not fun to carry around. Any enthusiast with a lens fetish—or any professional with places to be and a shit-ton to carry—already knows that taking the weight off the shoulders is worth more than steady work shooting supermodels. More »
This week the folks at Nikon have bestowed upon the world their newest fun-loving digital camera by the name of Nikon 1 J2, and it’s up for pre-order starting today. This camera will cost you between $546.95 and $796.95 and will be arriving at your door with either just a 10-30mm VR Lens or a 30-110mm VR lens as well. Pre-orders for the camera are up right this second for the 10.1-megapixel HD digital camera in three colors – white, deep red, and silver.
This lovely beast of a camera will eventually be available in six lovely colors including black, pink, and orange as well. The Orange you see may be mistaken for red if you’re rather far away from it or have a display that’s not color-calibrated, but we assure you, it’s a rather brilliant blast of color. The device is 106 x 61 x 21.8 mm in size and is paired with a fabulous 10.1-megapixel CX-format CMOS with EXPEED 3 processing.
Inside you’ve got ISO 100-3200 (6400) and the ability to snap still photos at up to 3,872 x 2,592 pixel resolution. You’ve got Full HD video at either 30p or 60i, and burst photography is ready to go as well. With AF enabled you’re able to get 10 frames per second, while with first-frame AF lock you’ve got 60fps. You’ll be seeing it all on the device’s 3-inch 921k dot LCD display on the back.
Prices quoted in the first press release from Nikon included an WP-N1 waterproof housing for this unit priced at $749.95. The 1 NIKKOR 11-27.5mm f/3.5-5.6 lens seen in many of the photos of this device will be coming later this month for $189.95, and the quoted price for the Nikon 1 JS with just its 10-30mm lens was $549.95. These prices differ ever so slightly from what we’re currently seeing on Amazon, which has the camera for just a couple dollars cheaper than quoted.
Grab one right this second! And check out our Nikon portal as well for all the camera action you can handle here and into the future!
Nikon 1 J2 up for pre-order is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Just like a camera, the best tripod is the one you have with you. There’s no point in spending hundreds of dollars on a carbon fiber set of sticks if they’re inconvenient to carry. So the tiny Tiltpod Mobile is designed to attach to your keys, ensuring it’s always close at hand—or at least somewhere in your pocket. More »
Life moves in mysterious ways. (And yes, you caught me, I totally stole that line from a song.) One moment you might feel like you’re on top of the world, then something happens to bring you down to your very lowest.
Before you start thinking that your life sucks or that your world is about to end – take a second to look at the world and life through someone else’s eyes.
Why? Because it just might give you the perspective you need to push past whatever it is you’re going through right now. And also to show you that hey, the world’s still spinning around, and whatever problem you have – no matter how big or small – doesn’t spell the end of it.
You can do just that by checking out This is Now, a site that displays Instagram photos from five major cities of the world as they’re posted in real-time. The project was thought up by Marcio Puga, Mauricio Massaia and Per Thoresson and uses Instagram’s API to access and display them for the whole world to see. Here’s how they describe their project, in their own words:
The This is Now project is a visual composition which uses real-time updates from the ever popular Instagram application based on users’ geotag locations. The tool streams photos instantly as soon as they are uploaded on Instagram and captures a city’s movement, in a fluid story.
Get out of your shell and see the world in other’s people’s eyes on This is Now.
[via CNET]
So you’ve gotten tired of using your iPhone’s flash. It does its job alright, but it’s nothing compared to a Nikon speedlight. That’s why the Paparazzo Light might make sense. It will make your iPhone a whole lot bulkier, but at least you’ll be able to take decent pics at night.
The Paparazzo Light is powered by a 300 Lumen LED that has two CR 123 batteries and has three different modes for brightness settings, for use in photos and vids. The examples that the team behind the flash have shown are quite compelling, so it definitely has some uses if you use your iPhone a lot. It snaps onto the base of the iPhone 4 or 4S, and can be easily removed and tossed in your bag when not in use – though it doesn’t look like it will work with most third-party cases.
The project was launched through the Kickstarter crowdfunding site. At the time of writing, it had amassed $4,500 out of a projected goal of $50,000 with 27 days to go. A pledge of at least $45(USD) will get you one of the first Paparazzo iPhone lights.
[via Ubergizmo]
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
