Photographer Brendan Barry was commissioned by the Exeter Canal and Quay Trust to turn a room in the Custom House in Exeter, U.K. into a large camera obscura.
Barry had a residency at the Custom House in Exeter and during his time, he used a variety of analog cameras to capture images of Exeter Quay. Of his work, Barry says, ‘My work aims to challenge our understanding of what a camera is, what it can do and how one can be constructed, taking the whole notion of what a camera might be, unpicking these preconceptions and creating new ways of inviting an audience into having a transformative experience in a space.’
Image credit: Brendan Barry
Brendan continues, ‘During my residency at the Custom House I will be transforming a number of rooms in the building into giant cameras and using them to capture images of Exeter Quay using a range of analog photographic processes and techniques.’ Barry created a very informative video of the experience, which can be seen below. In his video, Brendan shows the entire process, from his approach to building a camera obscura and the equipment he uses to create large prints.
As you can see, Brendan required a lot of equipment for his project. After getting his equipment into the upstairs room, he must create a large frame with a backboard to hold the photographic paper. Next is setting up the lens holder in the room’s window, blacking out the rest of the window and setting up a holder for a graduated neutral density filter to ensure a balanced exposure.
Image credit: Brendan Barry
This is not Brendan Barry’s first foray with making a large analog camera. You can check out Barry’s previous projects in which Barry turned his shed into a camera, as well as an older project wherein he turned a skyscraper into a camera obscura.
If you’d like to see more videos from Brendan Barry, be sure to check out his YouTube channel. To see more of his work, visit his website and follow him on Instagram.
The post Canon: Has The Sleeping Giant Awoken? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.
The Canon camera and lens lineup is now looking formidable.
The recent Canon launch saw the release of two new cameras, the Canon EOS R5 and Canon EOS R6. We all already knew the specs, and they are huge.
The R5 has all the headlines, 8K internal recording, and 4K 120p. But the R6 shares so much of its DNA, such as 8-stop in-body image stabilization and a blazing autofocus system.
Canon is back. The sleeping giant has awoken.
Canon has always been a name synonymous with photography. Ask a non-photographer to name a camera brand, and they will probably say Canon. Even if they don’t, they will possibly refer to photographers at sporting events with the big, white lenses.
Canon changed the game with the 5D Mark II. But since then, releases have been less groundbreaking and have offered more incremental upgrades. Canon felt like a giant who was happy plodding along because nobody was really challenging it.
Even now, Canon still has a monopoly on camera sales. However, in 2019, Canon’s sale value fell by 11%, whereas Sony saw a 14.5% increase in sale value in the same period. Sony’s sales success came in the form of their high-end mirrorless cameras.
Along came mirrorless
Canon (like Nikon) seemed to almost bury their head in the sand as mirrorless cameras came to overtake the DSLR.
Canon’s release of the EOS R and RP seemed to be a reactive move. A way to get something out so they had a mirrorless camera, rather than a way to remind the industry who’s the boss. This complacency allowed Sony to not only gain a foothold but, in the eyes of many, to become the dominant player.
It was Sony who released the new, exciting products. Sony’s sensors were the cream of the crop. Meanwhile, Canon felt like the old-school company that was sure mirrorless was just a fad. When reality (and the figures) hit them, they were ill-equipped to react. The EOS R felt like a product that was thrown together, rather than a genuine contender to Sony’s mirrorless crown.
It’s not that Canon EOS R is a terrible camera; it isn’t. But the lack of a second card slot (yes, we can argue about the importance of this in the comments), combined with an autofocus system that was nowhere near as competent as Sony’s, meant that many people started to be lured away. Sony pushed the boundaries of technology and became the company the others all had to chase. And it wasn’t just Canon; Nikon’s trajectory felt incredibly similar.
With the research and development of a new camera taking years, Canon’s only plausible response was to begin to put out lenses, which is exactly what they did. This glass was amazing. Canon now had some of the best glass out there for mirrorless, but they simply didn’t have a body that many pros could see themselves using, or one that was as good as what the competition was offering. People began to move away to other systems.
But then the rumblings started.
The R6 does not feature the top-line specs of its bigger brother. But, to quote Han Solo, “She’s got it where it counts, kid.”
They’re coming
Rumors started about Canon working on a new mirrorless. A true 5D replacement.
Then spec leaks began, and it seemed there would be a lot more than simply dual card slots.
8K? No way!
4K 120? Not going to happen (or at least not to a usable standard).
IBIS? 45 Megapixels? There had to be a catch.
It felt like the photo community had become used to Canon doing something to ruin things (Motion JPEG codec, anyone?). These comments showed how far Canon’s reputation had dropped.
Even so, people were excited. Many were hopeful. Could it be happening? Would Canon realize the errors of its recent past and actually release a groundbreaking camera?
As it turns out: Yes, they did. But why release one amazing new camera when you can release two?
8K, yeah, right! Oh, wait, the rumors were true.
The champ is here
When the R5 and R6 were announced, we saw Canon launch themselves back toward being king of the industry. The spec rumors were all true, and despite a launch that felt cringe-worthy at times (it can’t just be me), Canon was taking mirrorless seriously.
This launch felt, to many, like the 5D Mark II did all those years ago.
Now, this praise is based on reading pre-production reviews, and obviously those who were given these models to test are not going to bite the hand that feeds them.
But the R5 and R6 look good. Actually, scratch that; they look amazing.
Amazing IBIS stabilization, those Canon colors, and amazingly fast autofocus that includes impressive face and eye detection.
8K video. (Okay, for most there is absolutely no need for 8K, but like in the megapixel wars, video resolution looks to be going towards the bigger is better mantra). Not only 8K, but internal 8K.
This is before you get to the R6. A camera that appears to share a sensor with the flagship 1DX Mark III and shares IBIS and AF systems with its more expensive bigger brother. 20MP may not wow in the megapixel race, but the potential for low light performance is huge. You only need to look at the revised DxO scores for the 20MP 1DX Mark III for proof of this.
If you were to ask for the perfect camera in 2020, at least some of the specs are featured on this one. For many (me included), it felt like an exciting camera, a game-changing camera, and one that will surely bring anyone who was thinking of switching brands back to the Canon fold.
The professional glass has been here a while. Now the cameras match up to it.
What took you so long?
It didn’t take long for the negativity to start, though.
Canon EOS R5 overheating issues, based on leaked documents and pre-production models, are popping up everywhere. When Peter McKinnon spoke about overheating in his YouTube video, it saw social media explode. The R5 instantly became unusable for video professionals, another example of Canon getting it wrong, etc. That’s before I even mention the 20MP sensor on the R6.
You can understand some of these concerns, but they are not new and really should not be unexpected. 8K means putting a huge amount of information through a tiny camera (with no fans) constantly. To record 53 minutes of 8K raw footage, you will go through one terabyte of storage. That being possible on a camera the size of the R5 is mind-blowing. Yet some people seem to be complaining that you can’t do unlimited recording on it. The fact you can do it at all is a feat of amazing technical expertise.
Canon hate is now strong in some parts. Canon now must appeal to those who moved away to (mainly) Sony. Switching to a different camera system is something that people really don’t do lightly. Those who moved to Sony from Canon are now facing the reality that Canon just gave them what they wanted, but it is too little too late.
It goes deeper than that, though. Those who moved away from Canon, the team they once loved, will always tend to be harsher critics. Not simply because of their newfound loyalty, but also the fact that they had their hearts broken.
That is not in any way to say Sony hasn’t released some amazing cameras. They have, but people will always struggle to cheer for a brand they just left. There are also a lot of big YouTube influencers on Sony’s payroll, which will definitely result in a certain narrative from a portion of the photo community.
Let’s look at the R5 specs
If you were looking for a high-end camera and it did the following, what more would you want?
45 Megapixels
8K RAW
4K/120 fps
Autofocus in all video modes
Beautiful high-resolution viewfinder
Animal, eye, and face detection autofocus that is as good as, if not better than, any current camera
Up to 8 stops of image stabilization
12 fps shooting with the mechanical shutter (20 fps with the electronic shutter)
5 GHz WiFi
Gigabit Ethernet (via the optional grip)
New sensor with the ability to resolve greater detail than the previous 50-megapixel camera
These are the specs of a camera that is looking to take down all competition in 2020.
You may feel the price tag seems high, but this is a flagship mirrorless camera that has everything most professionals will want in a camera for the next five-plus years.
When fitted with the optional grip, the R5 gets Gigabit Ethernet.
The bigger picture
With this release, Canon now has a formidable line-up of cameras (not to mention lenses) at the top of their range.
Canon 1D X Mark III
An amazing DSLR for sports and news professionals. Yes, it’s 20 megapixels, but for many professionals, that is a perfect number. A true professional workhorse.
Canon EOS R5
An amazing mirrorless option for portrait and wedding photographers. Add in the crazy video specs and you will have the ultimate hybrid camera which will find its way into huge numbers of camera bags.
Canon EOS R6
A low-light powerhouse and another amazing all-rounder. For those who aren’t consistently printing at huge sizes, the lower megapixel count will free up hard drive space and allow older computers to hang on for longer. You also get 4K video that is perfect for the majority of people, so there really is a lot to love here.
Canon’s current lineup easily rivals Sony’s offerings, and really has put Canon back in the position of pushing camera technology to the limit.
But there’s still a lingering question.
Although the megapixel count is lower than some, do not underestimate the R6.
Is there an Achilles’ heel?
Will these cameras live up to the hype?
We will only know for sure when production models make their way into the hands of reviewers and the public. On paper, the cameras look outstanding, but only time will tell. I personally can’t see Canon dropping the ball here.
The more obvious issue so far is also one of the most important: battery life. The giant may be back, but it seems to have spent a lot of energy getting here. The R5 is limited to only 320 shots, much fewer than the 530 shots that the Sony A7R IV can manage.
You can lower the screen refresh rates and get up to 490 shots per charge, but Canon has gone for backward compatibility with the 5D Mark IV and EOS R over pure battery power.
The ability to use older batteries (with fewer shots per charge) will ease the transition of those using the 5D Mark IV, which is a huge target for Canon with this camera. However, battery life is essential for many, and not matching Sony’s battery capabilities is a small misstep.
So is Canon back on top?
The question is:
Are these new cameras enough to win people back to Canon?
And honestly, I don’t think they are. The new cameras are amazing, and don’t doubt that Canon, the sleeping giant of the last few years, has awoken. It seems hungry to flex its muscle and eager to destroy those young upstarts that have been stealing its thunder.
However, time has passed, people have moved on, and while this is an amazing pair of releases that will keep Canon shooters happy, many have already left.
Tired of waiting for the Canon launch that would finally bring them hope, people left for different shores.
And as wonderful as these releases are, I can’t see many turning around and sailing back.
The post Canon: Has The Sleeping Giant Awoken? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.
Photographer and DIY camera-extraordinaire Brendan Barry has shared a how-to video showing how you can turn a room in your home into a camera, and how to record the images it creates. Throughout the 30-minute video, he shows whole process from finding a suitable room and picking a lens right through to making the exposure and then creating a positive print. Although he shows the process using black and white photographic paper he also explains how pictures can be made using digital cameras.
‘It’s a bit of fun really’ Brendan explained to DPReview, ‘and a fun way to do something creative if you are confined to the house during this Coronavirus outbreak. I love the process as it playfully breaks down how pictures are made and allows us to see photography in a different way.’
In the video Brendan shows the effects of a series of lenses mounted onto a blacked out window, including a lens from a pair of glasses and a magnifying glass, but says if DPR readers want to get the best possible quality they should be picky about what lens they use. ‘In the video I quickly show a process lens. If you have one, this is what will give you the best results. They are designed to make very big prints and will allow you extra clarity and resolution. They don’t have to be expensive, and decent ones can be found on auction sites. If you measure your wall and find it is 2 metres across you’ll need a 2500mm lens, but you don’t have to make prints that big!’
‘If you are going to use a magnifying glass find a good quality one, not one with a cheap plastic lens – and the bigger the better. If it turns out to be too big you can always reduce the aperture by cutting a circular hole in a disc of card and sticking it over the lens. This will control the amount of light passing through it on a bright day. In the video I show a very roughly cut-out hole, but a smooth and even hole will produce better results. You can also buy great meniscus lenses from Amazing Camera Obscura that are ideal for making a room-sized camera.’
The projected image from the window shown from behind on a sheet of diffusing material
The tutorial shows Brendan mounting a sheet of photographic paper to make a paper negative that, once processed, is then contact printed with another sheet to create a final positive print. ‘I really like this process, and making the contact print while the original negative is still wet creates a beautiful soft look that can’t be got back once the negative has dried. However, if you’d rather shoot using a digital camera you can photograph the projected image from behind, as I show in the video, or you can project the image onto a high quality smooth white surface and photograph that from the front. Position your camera right next to the lens mounted on the window. You won’t be able to shoot it absolutely square-on, but you can fix the distortion in software afterward.’
‘Blacking out the window and mounting the lens only takes about an hour, but there are days of entertainment to be had once you get going.’
Making a room into a camera is one of Brendan’s more straight-forward projects; in the past he’s made a camera from a melon, another from a loaf of bread and one from a slab of cheese. He also has a shipping container that serves as camera and darkroom all-in-one.
You can see some of the other cameras Brendan has made, and how he made them, on his web site.
Photographer Brendan Barry, founder and director of Positive Light Projects and creator of numerous unusual cameras, recently transformed the 46th floor of NYC’s 101 Park Avenue skyscraper into a massive camera obscura. The camera was part of the larger Skyscraper Camera Project installation that was live from May 13 to 16 in the iconic Manhattan tower.
Barry, accompanied by photography students, looks over a negative captured as part of the Skyscraper Camera Project.
Barry has crafted different types of cameras out of a variety of unexpected materials, including a medium format camera built in a pineapple, a 4×5″ camera that incorporates a log and a 35mm ‘butternut squash camera.’
According to the CBS affiliate WLNY, Barry gathered with 20 photography students on Saturday, May 11, to blackout 160 windows in the 46th floor of 101 Park Avenue. Lenses were installed in the dark space, enabling the team to project large images onto screens inside of the skyscraper. Below is a short feature WLNY created on the project:
The project was conceived by Favorite Child Creative founder and director Nicholas Kalikow, according to The Phoblographer. The 46th floor of the skyscraper was available during that time, offering a 360-degree view of the Manhattan skyline and the unique opportunity for this installation.
One of the many images captured with the skyscraper camera obscura.
During the workshop, Barry and participants produced what may be the largest analog photographs of New York City; they measure up to 45″ x 93″. The photos were developed in an on-site darkroom. In addition to transforming the floor into a large camera, the team also created a functional camera replica of the skyscraper.
Below is a collection of behind-the-scene images from the project that Barry kindly shared with DPReview:
Long Acre Farms in Macedon, New York, has unveiled the autumn 2018 pattern for its Amazing Maize Maze: a giant Kodak camera. The design was created for Kodak’s 130th anniversary and Long Acre Farms’ 25th anniversary; it features a vintage camera, large flash, a finger capturing an image, and a strip of film.
One of Long Acre Farms’ owners, Joan Allen, explained the reason for the design to WXXI News, saying the farm has provided guests with an opportunity to create memories and capture images of them for decades:
You know we all think of, maybe, I’m pretty sure it’s worldwide, to think of capturing a memory with a Kodak camera and given that that’s our neighbor right her[e] in Rochester this seems like an appropriate theme.
Long Acre Farms shares images on Instagram and provides information on tickets and more on Facebook.
At one small point on the United States-Mexico border, where two towns named Tecate are separated by a fence, residents of both countries sat down to the same picnic at a gigantic table printed with ‘The Eyes of the Dreamer.’ This new event, held on October 8th, comes just weeks after the artist rolled out a massive 65-foot-tall photographic installation of a toddler peering over the fence from the Mexico side.
Thanks to all the daydreamers that joined us yesterday ? #PicNicAtTheBorder pic.twitter.com/Y2H1ZJOf4w
— JR (@JRart) October 9, 2017
“GIANT PICNIC at the border today in Tecate … people eating the same food, sharing the same water, enjoying the same music (half of the band on each side) around the eye of a dreamer … we forgot the wall for a minute …” says JR in a Facebook post.
Amazing souvenir of the picnic at the border … @chopemdownfilms pic.twitter.com/pCL0iHkh5E
— JR (@JRart) October 11, 2017
Picnic-goers sat down to the same meal at one big table for the single-day installation, which was apparently pulled off with the help of a sympathetic border guard. A band played, with some of its members sitting on the U.S. side and others on the Mexico side.
I often found an « angel » that helped us make the impossible possible … The picnic today was clearly forbidden and yet possible… pic.twitter.com/YzjJ4fatfH
— JR (@JRart) October 9, 2017
JR is well known for these black-and-white photographic installations, which are put up all over the world, often without official permission. The subjects of his portraits are usually everyday people who live in the area. The TED Prize winner says he aims to use art to “turn the world inside out.”
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Tall, dark and brooding, the infamous Maine-Montparnasse Tower is an unexciting skyscraper, especially by Parisian standards, but that could all change if MAD Architects converts it into a city-scale mirror. Their renovation proposal employs clever optical tricks to reflect and invert the surrounding cityscape.
When it was built, Montparnasse was the tallest building in France and heralded as a technological achievement. But unlike the Eiffel Tower, which was controversial at first but became a symbol of the city, this skyscraper never gained iconic status — in fact, it led urban building heights to be capped at seven stories. Some quip it has the most beautiful views in the city, in part because those views don’t include the building.
MAD Architects aims to change perceptions of the tower and its role in the city using concave glass panels tilted at an angle to create reflections of the surrounding built environment.
Viewers would be able to see surrounding streets, roofs and buildings in its mirrored facade. In a way, the resulting design both blends into the environment while also highlighting the beauty of the French capital and showing it from generally unseen angles.
“Today, we cannot really demolish this building and the historical regrets it stands for,” explains one of the architects behind the proposal, “but we can establish a new perspective to re-examine and think about how humanity can co-exist and interact with the tower and its environment, to bring meaning to our hearts.”
Perhaps unfortunately, while the firm was shortlisted in a redesign competition, another team was chosen to renovate the structure before the upcoming Olympic Games. Still, the design idea is out there, and another city might have its own ugly tower in need of transformation.
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One industrious Lumix GF7 owner named Eric Strebel has solved his camera’s overheating issue with a pretty intense DIY hack. Namely, he added a massive heat sink to the back of the camera…. problem solved.
The entire hacking process is detailed in a video that Strebel uploaded to YouTube, where he explains that his camera would, at times, warn him to let it cool down due to overheating while shooting video. The heat sink, which is attached to the camera using piano wire, is very effective at keeping the camera cool for long recording sessions.
The GF7 features a hinged display that can be flipped up, leaving the back of the camera flat and exposed. It is on that portion of the camera that Strebel mounted the heat sink, which he harvested from an old PC. A drill press was used to machine the heat sink to size, while piano wire was bent and utilized as a removable attachment point for mounting the heat sink onto the camera.
The entire project, explains Strebel, took about 4 hours to complete.
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Construction is in full swing on Chicago’s new Apple store by Foster + Partners, revealing a surprise design feature that wasn’t visible in the firm’s early renderings: a gigantic MacBook for a roof. When the project was initially unveiled in 2015, the drawings depicted a sleek two-story structure with river views, glass walls and a slimline roof canopy that looks like it’s precariously balancing on slender supports. But construction crews recently added a shiny metallic silver finish to that canopy – and a familiar white Apple logo.
The store is a relocation of Apple’s Chicago flagship, and will measure about 20,000 square feet. The glass walls range from 14 to 32 feet in height, but there’s little danger of breakage, as they consist of four layers of half-inch-thick glass melded with additional layers of thicker laminated glass. The carbon fiber roof is made of a similar material as yacht hulls, which is what gives it that iconic sheen. It’s four feet thick in the center and just four inches thick at its tapered edges.
You can see this unexpected addition in action in the video above. DNA Chicago reports that crews affixed the logo and left it in place for no more than 60 minutes before removing it again, but it seems likely that it’ll return, especially since the Chicago Tribune reported back in March that the logo would be part of the design. The Tribune has more photos of the construction process.
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Looking and working remarkably like the robots in the 2009 movie Avatar, the 1.5-ton, 13-foot-tall ’METHOD-2’ by South Korean firm Hankook Mirae Technology has officially taken its first steps. Engineers and reporters watched the robot navigate the company’s facility on its massive mechanical legs, traversing about ten feet before reversing. It appears to be remote-controlled for this exercise, while previous videos have shown how it functions with a human ‘pilot’ sitting inside.
The idea is that METHOD-2 will be able to help people reach the kinds of hazardous destinations that are currently too unsafe to navigate, and it’s easy to imagine this thing walking down the street like a superhero after a disaster. It sounds like the company is currently working out the mechanics of the robot itself, and it’s unclear whether it’ll ultimately be able to climb over obstacles, negotiate uneven terrain or withstand harsh climates.
Its first planned expedition is into the space between North and South Korea known as the DMZ (demilitarized zone), the world’s most dangerous border, but it’s still got about a year of planning and tinkering to get it into shape. Right now, it requires a tether for power. Its arms weigh 300 pounds each and are controlled by the pilot’s own limb movements.
Unsurprisingly, the robot was designed by Vitaly Bulgarov, who previously worked on the Transformers films and helped design Boston Dynamics’ bipedal robots. Yang Jin-Ho, chairman of Hankook Mirae Technology, says the robot is still taking its ‘baby steps’ but ultimately aims to “bring to life what only seemed possible in movies and cartoons.”
METHOD-2 is already getting lots of interest from companies who want to purchase one, and the price tag is expected to run around $ 8.3 million. The final version is expected to be ready for potential buyers by the end of 2017.
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