“Digiscoping”, based on methods of marrying your digital camera to a conventional optical device, is an off-the-shelf solution for TreeHugger closeups of birds, concerts, and sporting events. The better way is to adapt a decent digital camera, which you may already have and spent a lot of time learning to link to your computer, to fit with a decent spotting scope. Link and Link.
Digital microscopy systems can cost thousands of dollars but a very useful model can be assembled by using one decent compound microscope and consumer products that cost less than $150. Many hopitals and universities have retired micorscopes that can be adapted to this task. The plans found here show how to modify a commonly found microscope. Thanks Dan! Link.
Great how to…I still enjoy the aesthetic of black and white a great deal, and of course have tried to get the “look” I like in digital as well. Thanks to a lot of experimentation, some reading up, and tips from people who are a lot better at it than I am, I’m finally starting to see the kinds of results I wanted. In particular, thanks to Jim Fuglestad, aka Shutter at DPReview, who thought up the “dodge and soft light” technique described in this essay. Link.
This is awesome. Here’s how to build a rig using an iSight, Bluetooth headset, a backpack, and a dash of AppleScript that enables you to capture images on the go by simply speaking, “take shot.” Romain Guy shows you how to build it. Link.
When plain photography isn’t enough, sometimes I will resort to shooting stereo images, as was the case with my Douglas C. Newell Paperboy trophy. If you feel like really out-nerding yourself, you can apply the same camera-shifting stereo shooting technique to your VR object photography. Link.
Note to all you folks taking pictures of your projects- If you take photos that look too good, Wal-Mart won’t print them. The clerk said the photos looked like a professional had taken them, Helmick said. And no matter how much Helmick protested that she, an amateur, had snapped the shots of her son, she said the clerk wouldn’t budge. Wal-Mart sells high resolution “professional” quality cameras in their stores, just remember to take crummy low res photos! [via] Link.
We’re all hacking the CVS digital cameras, now we can hack $30 videocameras! — the world’s first single-use point-and-shoot digital video camera. CVS/pharmacy, the retail leader in digital photo and image processing, is exclusively offering the world’s first compact, affordable, one-time-use solution for creating and sharing high quality home movies on DVD. For under $30, consumers can now enjoy a DVD home video experience that compares to pricey DVD camcorders, which cost upwards of a thousand dollars. Link.
