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Google I/O
Google’s yearly conference for developers that took place on May 28th included a keynote to kick it off that felt like an Apple keynote. Nearly all of the announcements were directly competing which was interesting to see. When companies like Google and Apple compete, we win. CNET has a great rundown list of videos covering much of the tech there. There was no mention of Google Glass or new Nest hardware. Listen to the podcast for more info!
Pixelmator finds it way to the iPhone
Howard will take some time to talk about his first experience with the Pixelmator app and what he likes and doesn’t like. The app is available now for $4.99.
Historic New York City and San Francisco Historical photo locations
Software engineer Dan Vanderkam has gathered thousands of old, historical photos and plotted them onto digital maps on his websites, OldSF and OldNYC. [LINKS] All you have to do is click on one of the dots and all of the historical photos that he’s found shot in or from that location appear. You can check out this amazing body of work and talk a walk back through time in these two great cities over at OldSF or OldNYC.
The Canon 5D line turns 10 years old!
The much famed and ever popular Canon 5D line of professional level DSLR cameras has turned ten years old. 10 years ago Canon released the original “5D” which turned into a hit. Just the right price for just the right amount of image quality, sensor size, and build, turned this camera into the first born child of the most popular DSLR camera to ever hit the market. The 5D MK II was the first DSLR to showcase full 1080p HD video (I’ve heard that large parts of scenes of the TV show 24 in season 7 or 8 were shot on the 5D MK II).
The 5D MK III was equally impressive as Canon finally introduced a truly professional focusing system into their 5D series and greatly improved the video functionality and also improved the low light capabilities and ISO handling of this DSLR. Now, while we wait for the 5D MK IV, Canon has dropped the 5Ds and 5DsR which boast an amazing 51 megapixels of image resolution and sharpness from here to next week. The 5D line has come a long way and will only continue to improve with each coming release.
Telescope uses ten Canon lenses worth $100,000
The Dragonfly Telephoto Array is a sweet collection of ten, $10,000 lenses assembled by University of Toronto to create an astronomical telescope which uses a grouping of professional grade camera lenses instead of a single “standard” telescope lens. Each of the lenses is a Canon 400mm f/2.8L IS II which comes in at a hefty $10k. That makes this things a $100,000 telescope.
It’s able to capture photos of galaxy action far, far away. A quote from Petapixel states:
“According to the university, the Dragonfly can actually see things that the “largest, most advanced” telescopes can’t thanks to the nano-coatings found on the optical glass, which helps to reduce scattered light that get in the way of details.
The multiple lenses — designed to mimic a dragonfly’s compound eye — also help overcome unwanted light interference since the images from each lens can be compared with the others. Scientists say the telescope is 10 times more efficient than its nearest rivals.”
The University of Toronto page on the telescope says that the Dragonfly Telephoto Array is therefore executing a fully-automated multi-year imaging survey of a complete sample of nearby galaxies in order to undertake the first census of ultra-faint substructures in the nearby Universe. Which means something like this array of lenses is what would be referred to as a “Survey Scope”, so it won’t take the highest quality photos of the galaxy like you or I would be accustomed to seeing, but rather it’s job it to detect very faint parts of distant galaxies and capture images of them. It’s not rocket science, but it’s darn close.
The Lomography New Petzval 58 Bokeh Control Art Lens
The brand new, coming soon, Petzval 58 Bokeh Control Lens is a brand new type of lens to carry the legendary Petzval name. It is a 58mm F1.9 lens that can mount to Canon or Nikon, and a cluster of other digital and analog cameras with the proper adapter, and provide you with truly unique background separation which consists of a swirling style bokeh effect. This lens also allows you to control the strength of the blur effect ranging from a gentle swirl to a full on, seizure inducing twister of photographic rage.
This looks like an incredibly creative lense and you can join the Kickstarter and pick one up for a mere $300-$500 depending on how quickly you support the Kickstarter. Hurry though, they’ve been online for barely two days and they have already raised over $350,000. It’s like a controllable, professional quality, tilt-shift- meets, freelensing on Lensbaby’s back porch and then it’s drenched in this beautiful brass coating that makes this lens look like it’s straight out of the 1930’s. I dig it!
Adobe Lightroom Dehazing Tool
Terry White gave a demo of an upcoming feature called “Dehaze”, previously demoed at Adobe Max. “The Dehaze tool helps you easily reduce or remove haze, common in many outdoor photos like landscapes,” Adobe writes. It appears as a new slider in the Develop module. Slider also can be dragged to the left to introduce haze. Coming soon to Lightroom and likely Camera Raw within Photoshop.
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