Though jokes can be cracked about Detroit from afar, it doesn’t change the fact that there are real people suffering through the downfall of a once proud city. It’s terrible. It’s sad. And it doesn’t get more heart wrenching than these mashed-up photographs that show what a Detroit High School once looked like, normal and happy, and what it looks like now, abandoned and destroyed.
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The Light Blaster is a tool for creating instant, surreal backdrops when you don’t have a professional set-design team at your disposal.
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While concept behind the Instagram-themed smart camera Socialmatic is one so outlandish you’d expect it to stay conceptual forever, it’s become apparent this week that the creators of this machine are aiming for a real release relatively soon. Confirmed this week are two factoids not known before – one of them a confirmation of the operating system under the hood of this rather squared-off shooter: Android. Whether or not Google will approve is not yet known.
Though past iterations of this machine appearing in social networking pop-ups and conceptual board collections pointed toward a release time “in the future”, the team known as Socialmatic LLC has confirmed that “Pre-order available soon!” is the new most accurate answer for when it’ll be headed to reality. The fact that their newest one-sheet comes with a $299 price-tag is encouraging – an added note “suggested price” reminds us that we’ve not yet actually seen the physical product in any real-world photographs as yet.
The closest anyone’s gotten is a set of two rather realistic renders from ADR Studio Marketing and Communication which show the machine’s size with some rather fine 3D rendering and photoshop magic. The newest Facebook-bound communication from the Socialmatic LLC team shows the newest visions of the device in black and white.
This device is teased with promises of a 14-megapixel front-facing camera, and 2-megapixel camera at the devices, back, and a single (rather tiny) LED flash above the device’s main shooter. This device works with a front-facing LCD display with what the company calls “Mood Assistant A.I.”, reminding users – we must assume – to smile or frown, depending on the wishes of the photographer. It does not appear at the moment that this screen can be used as a second viewfinder for the camera – a much, much more user-friendly use-case.
Have a peek at the Samsung DV150F for the best implementation of a front-facing display on a camera we’ve seen yet.
The Socialmatic will be coming with a Zink instant printer for Polaroid instant-result physical photos, you’ll get 4GB of internal storage, and you’ve got a full-sized SD-HDC slot for external storage. And of course you’ve got full “compliance” with the Socialmatic Network as well. Gotta have that!
UPDATE: Additional press renders have surfaced via Socialmatic itself – have a peek at some additional possibilities in the development of this wild device!
Socialmatic retro smart camera promises pre-orders, remains mum on release is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It hasn’t exactly been a runaway hit with consumers, but on a technical level the Lytro camera
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The Galaxy S 4 Zoom offers a point-and-shoot style camera attached to the body of a smartphone, but if you’re wanting something with robust camera sensor that can be removed when you don’t need it, you’re not going to find it sadly. However, it’s rumored that Sony will be releasing a camera lens attachment with the same specs as the RX100 II that was recently unveiled.
According to Sony Alpha Rumors, two anonymous sources say that Sony will be releasing such an accessory at some point in the future, and while it’s essentially a clip-on lens, it packs a 20.2-megapixel Exmor RS sensor with a Carl Zeiss lens that uses your smartphone’s display as a viewfinder.
This basically means that the attachment is its own camera, but it needs a few more functions in order to take photos, and this is where the smartphone comes in to offer a viewfinder and change around settings for taking optimal photos. The lens also has a built-in battery, WiFi, and NFC. We’re not sure exactly how it will communicate with your smartphone, but we’re guessing it’ll use one of these wireless protocols listed.
It’s unclear whether the camera attachment will only be compatible with Sony’s Android devices or if it’ll work with all smartphones using an adapter, but we’re guessing that Sony might keep it exclusive to Sony devices at least for a little while.
The attachment does seem a little far-fetched, but sources say that they’re pretty confident that Sony will release it soon. As for a price tag, that’s not yet discussed, but seeing as how the RX100 II costs $750 (with the lens most likely being a big part of the cost), we’re guessing the attachment won’t be cheap.
SOURCE: Sony Alpha Rumors
Sony RX100 II camera lens attachment tipped for smartphones is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This is one of the crazier camera rumors we’ve heard in a while. According to some "top sources" at Sony Alpha Rumors, Sony is developing a unique set of lenses that actually contain their own sensors and batteries. Whoa.
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Every director has his or her own distinct visual mood, but does that mood extend to what types of faces they cast? Based on data pushed through a facial recognition algorithm, these images shows us the aggregate of every face shown in a handful of blockbusters from the past few years. As you might guess, Avatar is very… blue.
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This is it. My favorite annual Shooting Challenge of the year. You go out into the grass and muck and photograph bugs.
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Smartphone selfies come in a very limited variety of flavors: the arms-length shots that make your head look distended and blurry mirror pics. There are several self-timer apps out there, but it’s still difficult to snap natural-looking self-portraits or spontaneous group photos, especially if you are also trying to wrangle small children and pets. Now on Kickstarter, Shuttr is a tiny Bluetooth remote shutter release for iOS and Android devices created by Hong Kong-based Muku Labs to give smartphone photographers more control. It’s already met its funding goal, but the remote control, which starts shipping in fall, is still available for pledges starting from $29.
Shuttr was created by Hong Kong engineer Kevin Leung. When Leung was a small child, his family couldn’t afford a camera and as a result he has no family photos taken before he was a toddler. Leung’s mother died when he was a teenager, which makes him even more determined to capture as many snapshots of his wife and young daughter as possible.
Leung was frustrated when he couldn’t find a smartphone remote shutter release that he liked. Talking to his friends made him realize that there were plenty of other people who want to take better group shots and selfies.
“I quit my job to build the remote shutter that I believed was missing in the market,” Leung told me by email. The Oxford MBA graduate teamed up with electronic engineer Sea Zheng, industrial designer Boge Chen, production engineer Tom Zhao and logistic expert Scott Moore, and spent a year developing Muku Shuttr.
At 6-mm thickness, Shuttr is small enough to hide in your hand while posing for photos and can be stored on a keychain. The remote’s range is around 30 feet and no line of sight is needed, which means you can use Shuttr while it’s in your pocket.
Shuttr differentiates itself from competing products by manufacturers such as Belkin and Satechi in several ways. It’s smaller, less expensive and usually doesn’t need an app to pair with smartphones (though a Shuttr app is available for older versions of iOS or certain Android devices such as the new HTC One). The remote control is compatible with all iOS devices, Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4, Note 2 and Tab 10.1, LG Nexus 4 and many other Android 4.1+ devices with Bluetooth 3.0+. It also works with iOS apps Camera+ and 645 Pro so you can bypass the iPhone’s built-in camera.
“We did a lot of trial and error in testing almost all Bluetooth chipsets available to find the most compatible one, and fine-tune those firmware to maximize the compatibility and stability,” says Leung. “Shuttr is so rigorously tested in our approved modes we are confident that we can launch.”
Shuttr is the first product developed by Muku Labs, which Leung says will continue to create items that enhance the process of taking smartphone photos. The team is currently planning a line of snap-on lenses.
“We know that there are already lots of them in the market,” says Leung. “But we know that we can beat them by quality.”
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.
