Exact details are still forthcoming, but the impossible project announced that Polaroid is preparing to re-launch some of their iconic instant cameras and TIP will be manufacturing the film, at Polaroid's request. No doubt this will increase the ranks of their cult-like following, but will this second coming reverse what turned into a money-losing tech in our new digital age?
posted by revmitcz on Oct 13, 2009 - 40 comments

The True Love Project — People are exhorted to "say cheese" for the camera so their faces will approximate a happy look. Other emotional states, such as love, are far more complex and not easily photographed. Love is intimate and deeply personal, and its expression may be hard to share in a staged setting. Hypnosis opens a pathway into the unconscious, the neurological realm of emotional memory. In TRUE LOVE a group of volunteers worked with a professional hypnotist to reach, in trance, a point where they were able to visualize the camera as a beloved person. The resulting images captured people who were actually in love with the camera.
posted by netbros on Sep 22, 2009 - 42 comments

Digital camera sensor used to make direct digital holograms of blood cells
posted by vvurdsmyth on Aug 3, 2009 - 17 comments

Tokyo Camera Style "People who shoot film simply do because they choose to, and the Photo Culture of Tokyo is full of film camera users. When I meet them out on the streets I ask to photograph their camera, and usually post it here the same day"
posted by chunking express on May 26, 2009 - 19 comments

Camera attached to dog
posted by doobiedoo on Apr 6, 2009 - 39 comments

The owner of a camera stolen in Krakow and bought on E-Bay is reunitied with their pictures An amazing story about an international effort to track down the owner of a camera stolen in Krakow, Poland. The camera was bought on E-Bay and found to have 1100 pictures on it. Through some fantastic work by members of the Australian Photography Forum, the owner of the camera was found by analysing the pictures.
posted by Man_in_staysis on Mar 16, 2009 - 5 comments

Objective measurements of RAW images are an essential basis for any analysis of digital cameras, but such measurements were neither possible nor available until now. DxO Labs has developed a new scale for digital camera image quality performance, called DxOMark Sensor, to serve as an additional tool to help photographers rank and compare digital cameras. This scale is based on three underlying metrics, Color Depth, Dynamic Range and Low-Light ISO, each one tied to a real-life photographic scenario: landscape, studio & portrait, and photojournalism & sport. (This application requires Flash™ as it uses FusionCharts.) Hours of fun sorting the data by the various metrics, including $$$. [more inside]
posted by spock on Feb 4, 2009 - 39 comments

Justin Quinnell takes pinhole photographs[pdf] with six month exposures, for example: Bristol from the Winter to the Summer solstice, if you like them, why not try it yourself?
posted by nfg on Jan 9, 2009 - 31 comments

Wayne Martin Belger is an artist who creates pinhole cameras out of some unusual materials... like human skulls, for example.
posted by blaneyphoto on Jan 7, 2009 - 23 comments

More catcam goodness (previously on Mefi). Cooper the cat roams his Seattle neighborhood. Via Phinneywood, an excellent neighborhood blog about the Greenwood and Phinney neighborhoods in Seattle. [more inside]
posted by rossination on Dec 6, 2008 - 31 comments

The Thirties in Colour is a four-part series using rare colour film and photographs to give poignant and surprising insights into the 1930s. [Previously] [more inside]
posted by chuckdarwin on Nov 26, 2008 - 15 comments

RED's new DSMC (Digital Stills and Motion Camera) System is "completely modular and upgradeable in every way."
posted by chuckdarwin on Nov 14, 2008 - 41 comments

Exciting things are happening on the DSLR market: both the new Nikon D90 and Canon 5D MII can shoot video and now the first real footage is becoming available on the web: Chase Jarvis showcased the D90 a bit back and now Vincent Laforet demonstrates what the 5D MII is capable of (more on his blog, including behind-the-scenes footage) Laforet predicts these cameras will change the landscape rather rapidly: You can use your prime and zoom lenses (...) with it - and shoot wide open… so you can shoot films with fisheye lenses, 50mm 1.2 as well as the 200mm f2 or 400mm 2.8 that you may already own… [more inside]
posted by krautland on Sep 23, 2008 - 108 comments

Though their cameras have produced some of the defining photographs of the twentieth century, Leica have struggled in the new digital age. However there are still some aficionados for the Leica's 'kiss'.
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Sep 22, 2008 - 34 comments

The Early Television Foundation and Museum Website covers the nascent days of the nation's pastime, with interesting items like mechanical TVs and programming schedules from 1939.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim on Sep 9, 2008 - 11 comments

At the Beijing Olympics this summer there is a camera that follows divers through the air until they hit the water's surface in glorious high-definition. The DiveCam was originally invented by Garrett Brown, the inventor of the Steadicam, and was first used in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. What new technology made this innovation possible? The power of gravity and pulleys.
posted by HaloMan on Aug 14, 2008 - 21 comments

Andre Gunther Photography ― The galleries of photographs are certainly beautiful, but this site shines also for its technique tutorials and camera reviews.
posted by netbros on Aug 10, 2008 - 1 comment

Record player + video camera = Phonographantasmascope, animator Jim LeFevre's extension of the zoetrope. "It is all live action and works by using the shutter speed of the camera rather than the rather irritating stroboscope methods other 3D Zoetropes use."
posted by nthdegx on Jun 23, 2008 - 15 comments

An Illustrated History of Digital Cameras until 1998. [more inside]
posted by carter on Apr 25, 2008 - 26 comments

Cities at Night, an Orbital Tour Around the World was made when astronauts added stabilizers to the cameras on the orbital space station, allowing them to get sharp, crisp nighttime images.
posted by Dave Faris on Apr 8, 2008 - 39 comments

Film-maker John Downer fitted four elephants with cameras and set them loose. Many of the resulting photos are cute, and some seem made for photoshopping.
posted by spaltavian on Mar 24, 2008 - 34 comments

"Good afternoon, I attached this camera to the bench so you could take pictures. Seriously. So have fun. I'll be back later this evening to pick it up. Love, Jay / The Plug". Stranger Photos Have Happened.
posted by nthdegx on Mar 21, 2008 - 57 comments

One of the most amazing user-led projects out there, CHDK firmware turns cheap Canon cameras into photography powerhouses. You can take take time-lapse movies as in this stunning sunset example; automatically photograph lightening; easily make pretty HDR images and stereograms; have unlimited depth-of-field; and, perhaps most impressively, take photographs with shutter speeds of 1/60,000 of a second!
posted by blahblahblah on Mar 13, 2008 - 69 comments

As a photographer, you need to get close to your subject. But sometimes things get between you and your subject. Things such as state lines, restraining orders, and guard patrols that can keep you miles away from the people you want to shoot. What do you do at times like this? Get a bigger lens. [more inside]
posted by ardgedee on Feb 7, 2008 - 47 comments

The Land List: everything you need to know for and about vintage Polaroid cameras.
posted by fandango_matt on Feb 6, 2008 - 35 comments

Erika Gunderson got into a taxicab in New York City this past New Year's Eve and found a digital camera on the back seat. The cab driver had no information or interest in which previous passenger might be the rightful owner. Bringing the camera home, Gunderson's fiancé, Brian Ascher, took on the task of trying to find the owner. Using clues from 350 photos and two videos stored on the camera he was able to track down the owner, Irishman Alan Murphy in Sydney, Australia and return the camera to him. [more inside]
posted by ericb on Jan 27, 2008 - 36 comments

Like a YouTube for soldiers in the Middle East, this site boasts lots of large explosions, night vision footage, dawn raids, night-time firefights, desert shootouts, and convoy ambushes. There is one film of a failed IED that is breathtaking. Astonishing movies, whether you're for or against the war. [more inside]
posted by Sully on Nov 17, 2007 - 35 comments

While other children their age spend their days in school, forming friendships and worrying over their grades, these two young ragamuffins spend long nights camped out in front of hot night spots they won't be able to legally enter themselves for at least half a decade. Please open your hearts, ladies and gentlemen, to the littlest paparazzi. [more inside]
posted by maryh on Oct 8, 2007 - 29 comments

Science Daily reports that researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center, have built a low-cost robotic device that enables any digital camera to produce breathtaking panormamic images called Gigapans.
posted by Dave Faris on Oct 2, 2007 - 25 comments

In 1934, the FE Dzerzhinsky labor commune in Kharkiv began manufacturing a rangefinder camera that copied the German Leica. Though production has long ceased, FED rangefinders are still widely used and collected today. But the FED and its manufacturer have a tarnished history - some of which is due to a work force comprised of children and criminals, and some owed to its namesake: Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet secret police (NSFW).
posted by katillathehun on Sep 27, 2007 - 10 comments

[...] now they’re really interested in this one song– and they still won’t make eye contact, looking through their little lenses, taping this one song for their blogs or for their fucking YouTube [accounts] or whatever, [...] and it just pissed me off.

Band of Horses singer gives San Diego YouTuber the finger, prompting reactions ranging from sympathy with the artist to basically "stop whining, it's part of the job".
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jul 21, 2007 - 74 comments

Temple of Zoom. Adding a twist on Flash-based stick figure games and physics-oriented platformers like N-Game, comes Matsushita/Panasonic's followup to Toshiba's "Tobby" line of promotional games. Collect dots Pac-Man (Java) style, in addition to powerups resembling digital viewfinder icons. Jump atop camera lenses which double as elevators, while dodging the occasional Red-Eye sensor. Your "prize", should you choose to accept it, is a bottle of soda pop coupon for the new Lumix camera. via
posted by Smart Dalek on Jul 13, 2007 - 18 comments

Lucid Movement.
posted by hama7 on May 26, 2007 - 18 comments

The Long Take aka "The Greatest Long Tracking Shots in Cinema".
posted by Armitage Shanks on May 9, 2007 - 93 comments

The mother of all Mother Nature programs premiered in the US this weekend on the Discovery Channel. The 11-part series makes the most of three remarkable camera technologies: shooting in total darkness, counter-vibration stabilizers, and 1000 fps sequences. Here are some clips of: penguins sliding, baboons swimming, and birds of paradise mating. Finally, here's footage from the original BBC version (with the much preferred David Attenborough narrating) that shows, for the first time,a snow leopard hunting in the wild.
posted by phaedon on Mar 26, 2007 - 43 comments

Please now enjoy this ginormous gallery of slow motion videos from a high speed digital camera.
posted by loquacious on Jan 31, 2007 - 39 comments

Running From Camera The rules are simple: I put the self-timer on 2 seconds, push the button and try to get as far from the camera as I can. [via]
posted by Pater Aletheias on Jan 14, 2007 - 61 comments

Hi, mom ! Mars Orbiter takes a picture of Mars Rover on the lip of Victoria Crater with the HiRISE camera.
posted by y2karl on Oct 7, 2006 - 20 comments

Worried about your expensive camera gear (or other stuff I suppose...) getting lost by the airline? Be sure to pack a pistol.
posted by blaneyphoto on Sep 23, 2006 - 28 comments

Ice pictures. Not pictures of ice, rather pictures taken with a lens made out of ice. Alternatively you could use the bottom of a beer bottle
posted by Mitheral on May 29, 2006 - 22 comments

Another black eye for ID (youtube link): Zoologist Dan-Eric Nilsson of the University of Lund in Sweden explains how the complex human eye could have evolved gradually from a primitive light-sensitive eye-spot. Via Swift.
posted by flabdablet on May 10, 2006 - 50 comments

Marcels TV Museum Quite why some are pictured on the lawn is not clear. Videos, cameras, radios and 8-tracks too. [via]
posted by tellurian on Mar 23, 2006 - 10 comments

When good samaritans go bad, and find lost property they'd rather keep, they make up excuses like "but now he's been using it for a week and he really loves it and we can't bear to take it from him" and "we had to spend a lot of money to get a charger and a memory card". Stay tuned for vigilante justice.
posted by pivotal on Feb 18, 2006 - 131 comments

The Scanner Photography Project takes images with a large-format camera that uses flat-bed scanners instead of paper. The results can be interesting.
posted by I Love Tacos on Jan 19, 2006 - 31 comments

"I will make sure you will never be able to place an order on the internet again." "I'm an attorney, I will sue you." "I'm going to call your local police and have two officers come over and arrest you." FlickrNation's Thomas Hawk gets service from the manager of a New York City camera store. (via Digg)
posted by LinusMines on Nov 30, 2005 - 69 comments

The Radiant Vista is a new photography site on the web that offers photoshop tutorials (in Quicktime and PDF) and daily photo critiques (Quicktime). Not much here for non-photographers, but I know a number of members have some interest in taking pictures and might find something good here.
posted by TedW on Nov 15, 2005 - 14 comments

Toss your camera.
posted by spock on Oct 14, 2005 - 44 comments

Foil the paparazzi Georgia Tech researchers come up with a system that senses nearby digital imaging devices, and fires a beam of light at 'em, foiling attempts to take pictures of 'ya. More high-tech (but less entertaining) than having Sean Penn smash the paparazzi cameras.
posted by RonZ on Sep 19, 2005 - 29 comments

Photographing flying insects. Most of the pages are devoted to a very detailed tutorial, but pages 2, 4, 9 & 10 show the results of the various setups. Some spectacular hi-speed (bee wings frozen in mid buzz) stuff in here.
posted by jonson on Aug 19, 2005 - 31 comments

"Disposable" digital video cameras. Now available at CVS drugstores in the US, from the same company that last year introduced disposable digital cameras. The video is processed onto DVD at the store in an hour. But at $43 ($30 purchase plus $12.99 for processing) for 20 minutes of footage, is it really worth it? Walt Mossberg says, "Meh."
posted by me3dia on Jun 8, 2005 - 22 comments