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Posts Tagged ‘Squeeze’

The Lensbaby Spark 2.0 lens makes you squeeze and tilt it to focus

30 Oct

Lensbaby has announced the Spark 2.0 lens and its design draws inspiration from the original Lensbaby launched in 2004. The new lens allows you to adjust the ‘sweet spot’ of focus by physically bending the lens across a wide range of angles. You can adjust where the spot of focus is across the entire frame.

The Spark 2.0 is a 50mm lens with a maximum f/2.5 aperture. With respect to the angle of tilt, Lensbaby states that it is 46mm. The manual focus lens can focus as close as 15″ (38cm). The lens includes a pair of elements in a single group and its total weight is 6.5 oz. (184g).

Image credit: Lothar Adamczyk

Lensbaby founder Craig Strong recorded a user guide video for the Lensbaby Spark 2.0, which can be seen below.

The original Spark 1.0 lens came out in 2012 and had a fixed f/5.6 aperture. The Spark 2.0, on the other hand, comes with the Sweet 50 lens attached, which has an aperture range of f/2.5-f/22, with its respective sweet spot size increasing as you decrease the aperture.

Image credit: Sharon Covert

Strong notes that you may need to enable shooting without a lens in your camera’s settings to shoot with the Lensbaby Spark 2.0. He recommends shooting in aperture priority mode. While your camera won’t communicate electronically with the lens, the camera will read the amount of light coming through the lens and set the exposure settings accordingly.

To focus the Spark 2.0, you squeeze the lens. If you pull the lens straight back toward the image sensor, the sweet spot of focus will remain in the center of the frame. As you tilt the lens, its area of focus moves toward the edge of the frame.

Image credit: Lee Manston

The Spark 2.0 is the first flexible Lensbaby lens available for mirrorless camera systems. The Spark 2.0 is available for a wide array of lens mounts: Canon EF (DSLR), Canon RF (mirrorless), Fuji X, Micro 4/3, Nikon F (DSLR), Nikon Z (mirrorless), Sony E (mirrorless) and Pentax K (DSLR). The Lensbaby Spark 2.0 ships with the Sweet 50 and costs $ 200 USD. You can view and purchase additional optic swaps here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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UC Berkeley researchers have created a drone that shrinks to squeeze through small spaces

09 Aug

Since drones entered mainstream consciousness, people have gotten creative with developing new ideas for how they can be used. Drones can deliver food and other small items. They can even bake cakes or play instruments when configured properly. Now, a team of researchers at UC Berkeley’s High Performance Robotics Laboratory (HiPeRLab) has created a ‘Passively Morphing Quadcopter’ that can temporarily shrink down to squeeze through small spaces.

While this isn’t the first drone that can compress its shape mid-flight, it is the only one that can shift its shape without using any additional hardware components. This feature helps preserve battery life, enabling the aircraft the fly even longer. Engines enable the arms to rotate freely and constant force springs provide the momentum to change shape. When no thrust is applied, the springs pull the arms into a folded configuration.

When the drone approaches an opening smaller than it can fit, it can plot a course that allows its arms to retract as it’s flying through a small small space. The rotors shut off and after the drone passes through, it loses a bit of altitude as it powers back up. While this set up can offer up a number of useful real-world applications, like inspecting hard-to-reach areas, there is still work to be done by the HiPeRLab team for it to work in any other scenario where there isn’t a wide open area on the other side of a small space for the drone to squeeze though. Nevertheless, when perfected, it could make for an innovative filmmaking tool.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Squeeze to Zoom: No Need to Fold this Egg-Shaped Analog Map

04 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

egg shaped map design

Tapping into the natural expansion of a squeezable ball under pressure, this urban micro-globe provides both big-picture views and detailed streetscapes on one continuous surface.

squeeze color coded map

Hungarian designer Dénes Sátor created the rubber EggMap ball in response to both traditional paper maps and newer digital equivalents, wanting a to pack more information into less space without relying on external energy or connectivity.

squeeze eggmap zoom out

squeeze eggmap zoomed in

The spherical solution addresses classic issues with other geographical guides. Folding maps wear out over time, are susceptible to weather and conspicuous to examine publicly in unfamiliar places. Online maps may fail for lack of battery or internet.

squeeze map legend

Color-coded city sections let you easily spin and locate places on the map; a quick squeeze then reveals street names, specific locations and transit details (illustrated in the legend above).

squeeze to zoom map

squeeze ball egg map

Made to be robust and portable, the air-filled ball easily resists rain, wind, mud or snow and can be tossed in a pocket or backpack when not in use. And if you still manage to get lost, you can always throw it against the wall in anger – it will rebound.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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Man With a Camera – The Big Squeeze

10 Dec

International superstar and iconic tough guy Charles Bronson stars in this gritty, action-packed TV series. Bronson portrays Mike Kovac, a New York City freelance photographer who specializes in getting difficult shots other lensmen cannot. Assisting law enforcement and insurance agencies, he invariable winds up acting as a private eye and gets himself into plenty of trouble!
Video Rating: 5 / 5

 
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Posted in Photography Videos