Photography

It has been a while since we covered the OWLE, a device made to harness the video capturing abilities of the iPhone 3GS. Back then, the OWLE (Optical Widgets for Life Enhancement) was in a concept stage, but the OWLE Bubo is ready for pre-order.

The Bubo has a hotshoe mount with LED lights, with four tripod mounts. It has a standard 37mm lens that is threaded so you can put other lenses on it, besides the one that the Bubo already comes with. I believe that it also comes with a front-facing microphone.

So what are we looking at, some new way that video bloggers can gain better video footage? I certainly hope so.

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This isn’t the first time that we have reported on Eye-Fi products before, and chances are, it won’t be the last time. I finally tried it out for myself, and was fortunate enough to get my hands on the Eye-Fi Explore Video 4GB version.

For those who are not familiar with the Eye-Fi line, this is a memory card that allows the user to upload photos to their computer without any USB cable. You might be wondering how that is possible, and, truth be told, so am I. I can’t deny that it works, though. After a quick setup with my computer, I was able to view photos from my camera on my browser screen like magic. Of course, the user to be very specific about where the photos are to be sent, or it is very easy to wake up to find photos from your Eye-Fi floating all around your computer where you cannot retrieve them.

As for the video function, I found that it took quite a while to upload video footage. Not only that, it had to do this operation uninterrupted. That means if you have a video camera with the Eye-Fi Explore Video, then you better make certain you can leave it on for extended periods of time. Because if the battery runs out while the video is wirelessly downloading to your computer, then you have to do it again.

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What you are looking at here isn’t some miniature all-in-one desktop computer with printer, but the Epson Address Expert.

This is a printer that is set up to postcards, and that looks like all it can print. I have to admit that it has been a while since I have sent a postcard, but they are still popular in Japan, so I’m told.

The Epson Address Expert series come in two forms: the E-800 and E-600. Each of them have a 7-inch LCD display with 5760 x 1440 dpi resolution, and are PC and Mac compatible. The E-800 includes a wireless keyboard so you can compose your well-wishing messages.

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The Battery Wizard promises it can recharge even disposable batteries.

Although initially more expensive, the advantage of rechargeable batteries has always been that they cut down on buying more batteries and they cut down on depleted batteries clogging our landfills. And as anyone who has tried it can testify, trying to recharge a disposable battery usually ends up in a chemical spewing explosion. But the Battery Wizard claims it has overcome all those obstacles.

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See that picture to the left? Beautiful, isn’t it? Believe it or not, it wasn’t shot by a million-dollar satellite, but a simple handheld camera by two M.I.T. students who haven’t been to space, yet.

Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh didn’t have Dennis Tito’s $20 million dollars to go into orbit, but what they did have was a weather balloon, a styrofoam cooler, hand warmers, a GPS enabled phone, and a Canon A470 point and shoot camera.

They cut a hole in the bottom of the cooler, and positioned the camera inside. They put the hand warmers and GPS-enabled phone inside, so it would not freeze in the upper atmosphere. They tied the contraption to their weather balloon, and the rest is DIY history.

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The JOBO GPS data logger goes right where it belongs, on your camera.

Most photo gps data loggers sit in your pocket. But the JOBO photoGPS fits right where it should – on top of your camera, thanks to your hot shoe. And like all other GPS data loggers, it logs it’s GPS location every few seconds. Then, after a days photography, the included software marries the JOBOs GPS data with the EXIF photo data of each picture.

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The world's first open source camera?

Makers are trying to make the digital camera much like the personal computer, something to tinker and custom build with parts taken from here or there to get just the right combination for the kind of pictures you want to take. But will it fly?

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If there is one thing that I cannot stand about taking pictures, it is the time-consuming process of uploading them to social media sites. Lately, I have been doing a lot of video footage, and YouTube’s upload system, simple as it is, seems like a middleman just waiting to be eliminated.

Camera companies have been responding to this consumer needs with supposed “YouTube” ready features, but this is not enough. Social media addicts are demanding that their pictures be uploaded to their Facebook and MySpace sites through the camera itself.

This was the subject of a presentation by Cerevo at the CNET Japan Innovation Conference 2009. The company Cerevo plans to release the CerevoCam, a camera with Wi-Fi and 3G, designed so that photos can be easily put on their photo sharing site known as CerevoLife.

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