We all had that issue at some stage where we took an awesome picture and when we looked at it on our computers the important parts were out of focus.
I have been talking about a lens developed by Adobe here, but now there is a competitor that says they will have a competitively priced consumer camera will be coming out later this year. They are called Lytro.
They are working on a light field camera that captures the missing dimensions of the light that flows into a picture. These cameras have been around for a while now, but they weren’t commercially viable.
With their product you can focus on the background, the foreground, somewhere in the middle or just make the whole picture in focus. There is also the possibility to slightly change the perspective of the shot.
check out the video with examples from about 1:04
Pretty cool stuff and I hope it is going to be affordable, because I will get one.
you might have seen this already, but I somehow missed it in my post here.
I was send the video at the bottom of this post and it blew my mind. Looks like there was a working version of it at CES this year.
This camera (concept) takes the connectivity and application platform capabilities of today’s smart phones and wirelessly connects them with interchangeable full SLR-quality optics.
Being a “Hobby” photographer myself I found this article very interesting.
Stanford photo scientists are out to reinvent digital photography with the introduction of an open-source digital camera, which will give programmers around the world the chance to create software that will teach cameras new tricks.
If the technology catches on, camera performance will be no longer be limited by the software that comes pre-installed by the manufacturer. Virtually all the features of the Stanford camera – focus, exposure, shutter speed, flash, etc. – are at the command of software that can be created by inspired programmers anywhere.
this is not the latest news, but it is still worth a mention.
Ads in bus stops in Hamburg, Germany were erected that change their content when someone is looking at them.
How?
a built-in camera with eye-tracking technology can tell exactly when someone is checking it out and changes the content.
The Ad is an anti-domestic abuse message. When no one is looking, it shows a man hitting his wife. But when you look right at it, it changes to a picture of the couple looking happy and normal.
The images below may be the single reason I don’t buy a 3G iPhone and stick with my Nokia N95 for a little while longer.
Now I should say that I think the N95 and iPhone 3G are both very good phones. Many Amnesia staff have iPhones, but I’m yet to be drawn in despite beeing a total geek and gadget freak. Why? Now, forget the vastly superior iPhone interface and screen for a second, because they both have similar features (3G, GPS, wireless, accelerometer, + tons of apps for both).
The big problem with the iPhone is the camera. It’s a 2 megapixel camera with no flash, compared with the N95 5 megapixel cam with Carl Zeiss lens. These shots below are taken outside the Amnesia office from exactly the same position with good light.
3G iPhone (above)
Nokia 95 – Note the much greater field of view than the iPhone.
Now let’s Zoom in on the detail:
Above is a zoom from the N95 shot. It’s at the point where clearly the compression starts to become noticable, but you can read the street sign. There is detail in the shutters at the side and the red alarm bell on the right is distinguishable.
Above is the iPhone 3G. The detail is completely gone at the same zoom level. Not a single letter can be made out on the signpost.
Finally let’s look at the red car the red BMW. Well on the iPhone you can’t even see what brand of car it is, let alone read the numberplate. Good job this isn’t a crime scene.
iPhone 3G Nokia N95
The iPhone 3G camera in low light is a lot worse – and it’s not an easy camera to hold still whilst you press the button… so pictures in the pub get very smudgy. Admittedly the Nokia N95 flash is pretty ordinary but better than nothing.
So if you want a single device – camera and phone like me, and you want OK shots that you could print later, then the iPhone 3G has a long way to go. The N95 wins by a mile.
[Amnesiablog Review of the Nokia N73 Camera and sample image here]
Again from the Avenue A Razorfish conference/client summit 2008 here is a section of the 1000 attendees playing the arcade game breakout using their arms to co-ordinate the paddle to bounce the ball at the bricks. Controlled by a standard web camera, it’s pretty funny to watch but a great example of extending ‘group experiences’ using digital technology.
Amnesia Razorfish is a digital marketing agency headquartered in Sydney, Australia. It is the Australian arm of Razorfish, one of the largest digital agencies in the world.
We live and breathe digital and provide a range of services from strategy, media, creative, tech, social media, analytics and more.
