From Napkin Sketch to 41MP Phone: How the Nokia PureView 808 Came to Be
Nokia made quite a splash earlier this year by unveiling the PureView 808 — a smartphone with a large 41-megapixel sensor and a high quality Carl Zeiss lens. The 8-minute behind-the-scenes video above — filmed entirely with the phone, by the way — is the story of how this device was born, starting from a...
DIY Backpack OctoDome for Lighting Solo Shoots
When photographer Ian Spanier was assigned to shoot 4-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler at his home in Vegas, the budget wouldn’t allow him to hire an assistant. Still, this was an important shoot, the editor of Muscular Development had stuck his neck out to get him this gig, and he wanted to do as good...
From a Business Perspective I Think Facebook is Interesting Because…
Facebook’s stock price seems to be the story of the day for the tech world today. Henry Blodget has a story titled “Well, Now That Everyone Has Sobered Up, Let’s Figure Out What Facebook Is Actually Worth…” As far as Facebook’s stock price goes I’m not even going to begin to speculate — but I...
Pentax K-30: The weather-sealed SLR for the rest of us? (previewed)
The last few months have been a bit lonely for Pentax's flagship K-5 digital SLR. As the company has focused on its second mirrorless product line with the launch of the designer K-01, the K-5 has had to hold fort by itself as the only......
Pentax preps promised portrait prime for purchase
Earlier this year, Pentax Ricoh Imaging revealed new lens roadmaps for its K, Q, and 645 lens mounts. On the map for the K-mount--which is used by the company's DSLR models and its mirrorless K-01 compact system camera--was a new portr...
Pentax K-30 16MP weather-sealed mid-level DSLR previewed
Pentax has officially announced the K-30 weather-sealed mid-level DSLR. It's built around the same updated 16MP sensor and processor as the K-01, so should offer impressive image quality and borrows many of the features from the more expensive K-5. It...
Pentax launches smc DA 50mm F1.8 for APS-C cameras
Pentax has announced the DA 50mm f/1.8, an affordable telephoto prime lens for APS-C interchangeable lens cameras. The lens offers a 76.5mm equivalent field of view on the company's DSLRs or K-01 cameras. The lens is designed to look like Pentax's pre...
Tree Leaves as “Pinhole Cameras” During a Solar Eclipse
If you went outdoors to observe the solar eclipse yesterday, you might have noticed that the shadows cast by trees had suddenly become quite strange. The tiny gaps between leaves act as pinhole lenses, projecting crescent shaped images of the eclipsed sun onto the world below. Here are a couple videos showing the same thing:...
Think Tank announces a bunch of new bags – plus a review!
Tweet Pin It Tweet We try to help you find out about all kinds of gear around here at planet5D – and the folks at ThinkTank have several new bags they’ve announced. Three new Airport bags were announced in early May, plus the additional Retrospective 7 coming in May as well. I’ve had a ThinkTank...
The Camera Bag: Backer Capper Device Helps You Swap DSLR Lenses More Quickly
I may never drop another camera lens again thanks to a new invention called the Backer Capper Lens Swapping System from the folks at camarush. The device, which is shown in prototype in the image to the right, looks remarkably like a lens ...
Time-Lapse of Yesterday’s Solar Eclipse
Photographer Cory Poole created this time-lapse video of yesterday’s solar eclipse using 700 photographs shot through a telescope that filters out the sun’s photosphere and captures its chromosphere. Wikipedia has some neat photos of the e...
The Economics of Leica Camera Pricing
Have you ever wondered how Leica chooses its pricing for its high-end cameras? J Shin has written up a great post over at Leica Rumors that offers a geeky and lengthy explanation of the economics behind the company’s pricing decisions: Every time there is any kind of a product-related announcement here and elsewhere, there are...
