The power button and volume rocker are typically the only physical controls you’ll find on a smartphone as almost all functions are accessed via soft-buttons on the touchscreen these days. The Pressy button is a new accessory that adds an additional programmable hard button to your Android device. It slots into your smartphone’s headphone socket and once inserted is hardly visible. Learn more
Tamron has announced pricing and availability for its 16-300mm F3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro 18.8x superzoom for APS-C SLRs. The lens, which was announced in February, will go on sale in mid-May at a street price of $ 629. The 16-300mm F3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro will offer an unusually wide angle view for its class (24-450mm equivalent), while also allowing close-up shooting with 0.34x magnification. It has an ultrasonic-type autofocus motor, splashproof construction and optical image stabilization. Learn more
As part of their continuing video series, Photo District News has released an interview with James Estrin, founder of the New York Times ‘The Lens’ blog. Estrin provides a series of tips for the aspiring photographer. While many of these aren’t groundbreaking, the video has some real gems. Notably, in his advice to photographers looking to document strife or crisis in exotic places, he says to pursue stories that are closer to home. Learn more
creativeLIVE is hosting a five-day course on the fundamentals of digital photography presented by John Greengo. The course is free to watch live, and runs through tomorrow, Jan 24th. Some of you may remember John as one of the expert photographers that contributed to our Cyber Monday ‘DPReview Live’ broadcast. Click through for a link to the course at creativeLIVE.
Sony has announced firmware upgrades that enhance the features of its QX-series ‘lens-style’ cameras, which clip on to the front of your smartphone. The update adds Full HD video recording and an expanded ISO range for both the QX10 and QX100, while the latter also receives a shutter priority mode. Sony’s latest PlayMemories Mobile app has more seamless photo browsing and dramatically improved performance on iOS devices. Click through for more.
Lensrentals’ Roger Cicala has beaten us to testing the Nikon D610 for oil and dust accumulation – concluding its ‘certainly no worse than other cameras.’ Cicala has had an initial look at 25 D610s and a further look after the first ten of them came back from being rented-out, making him uniquely well-placed to comment on the phenomenon. Click through for a link to his article.
The Royal Air Force’s annual photographic competition invites photographers employed in the service of the RAF to submit photos in eleven categories. Winners are recognized in an awards ceremony and finalists’ photos are available for viewing online. Take a look at a selection of our favorites. The images are a captivating peek inside the RAF on the ground and in the sky. See gallery
[ By Delana in Art & Installation & Sound. ]
Some London residents have recently acquired an incredible ability to scale walls with ease. They climb the facade of a building, sit quietly on windowsills, and simply enjoy their ability to see the world from a different angle.
The illusion is made possible by a large-scale installation called Dalston House, created by Argentine artist Leandro Erlich. He painstakingly recreated a London house facade, complete with brickwork detail and ornate windowsills. The facade doesn’t stand up vertically, however. It lies flat on the ground.
A huge mirror is positioned at a 45 degree angle from the “house,” allowing people playing and climbing on the facade to look up and see themselves seemingly performing incredible gravity-defying feats.
Passers-by probably also experience a moment of bewilderment as their gaze is first drawn up toward the standing mirror and the people hanging there in impossible positions.
Some visitors to the temporary installation at the Barbican Art Centre‘s Dalston Mill site have gotten very artistic with their interactions. These videos demonstrate just how creative one can be given the ability to leave gravity behind.
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[ By WebUrbanist in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]
The shape is a familiar classic – a central post pointing toward different destinations, sometimes near and other times a world away. This evolved version, however, replaces static locations and fixed directions with interactive ones.
Designed by Breakfast of Brooklyn, Points lets you input a query and receive both a written response and an orientation to go with it, giving distance and location along with other information.
The device is programmed with API data from real-time sources including regional public transit and, more broadly,Twitter, FourSquare and RSS feeds.
The resulting database gives passers by up-to-the-minute info as requested, displayed on 16,000 LED lights. It can also potentially display default local information automatically – about current news, events, performances or venues – when not otherwise (manually) engaged.
The intention here is to go beyond a simple touch screen, creating something recognizable at a distance, familiar to pedestrians and interactive both digitally and physically.
Aside from the creative challenges, fitting the required mechanisms for a smoothly-rotating effect into such a small space proved difficult but the designers are close to a finished product.
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What happens when you give Google Glass to a skilled photographer? Richard Koci Hernandez is a San Francisco Bay Area-based photojournalist and prolific iPhone photographer who’s recently been trying Google’s new wearable technology to capture his surroundings. See how his style translates behind Google Glass, today on connect.dpreview.com.