The Obsidian Stock Blog

Oregon’s premier photo stock agency, Obsidian Stock, has partnered up with Absolut Vodka’s Lomo campaign to bring you one of the coolest, hippest tools of the photo trade: the Holga camera.

We are raffling off 10 of these hot little gadgets in an effort to inspire, mobilize and spark creativity among Oregon photographers. The contest is FREE to enter and anyone can take part - aspiring amateurs and pro shooters alike.

To find out more about what the heck a Holga is anyway, and how you can get your hands on one, just go over to Obsidian Stock’s Lomo site and fill out the form for a chance to win.

And for a little Lomo inspiration, check out AbsolutLomo’s wall of pictures.

New York Times tech columnist David Pogue has an interesting article today about Nikon’s 18-200 millimeter “superzoom” VR lens.

He raves about the VR (vibration reduction) feature (Nikon says that the VR on this lens lets people take sharp pictures ‘at shutter speeds as many as 4 stops slower than they ordinarily could shoot.’ But I’d put it more bluntly. I’d say that this VR is—what’s the technical term?—magic.) and enlightens about the controversy of a couple of major camera manufacturers’ battle to even include a VR feature right into their camera bodies.

Interested in buying that sweet little lens? Get in line. Even B&H is sold out.

Oh, and something Pogue doesn’t mention: the lens sports a 3.5-5.6 aperture.

Via DP Review.com:

“Nikon Japan has started a teaser campaign promoting a new compact 10.2 megapixel digital SLR which will be announced on August 9th.

We can only guess that this would be the natural successor to the D70/D70s. The teaser gives away few details other than the fact that the camera will have 10.2 megapixels.”

See the teaser here.

From the Alien Skin press release:

“Alien Skin Software today released Blow Up, an all-new plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

Designed for both photographers and graphic artists, Blow Up offers the highest quality image enlargement available. Better than Photoshop bicubic and other third party solutions, Blow Up preserves the crisp lines and smooth colors in a source image. It can scale images up to 3600% — 6 times in each dimension — with no stairstep, halo, or fringe artifacts.

The software sells for $199 and is available for download on the Alien Skin website.”

Full Story here.

(Note: Obsidian Stock does not endorse any product or software it hasn’t thoroughly tested in-house beforehand. Any photographers who have tested a product though, are invited to send us their results and observations so we can share them with the rest of our readership.)

An abandoned airplane hangar. A huge piece of light-sensitive cloth. A pinhole, a quarter-inch or more in diameter. An exposure that could last from 5 to 12 days. Producing an image, 25 feet by 100 feet.

Such is the largest camera obscura ever conceived - and it’s an ambitious project by six photographers, collaborating to set a new world record.

Full Story here.

This is way cool:

FrameFree Technologies today announced the launch of FrameFree Studio, the first digital imaging software that allows for the creation of compelling movies from still photographs without a steep learning curve or compromising quality at any bandwidth.

Built on the world’s most advanced pixel-matching and interpolation engine, FrameFree Studio starts with two digital still images of any resolution, and through analysis, interpolation and morphing, automatically provides interactivity and smooth motion between them. The result is a completely new medium and style of visual expression.

A free 14-day Trial Version of FrameFree Express is available for immediate download from http://www.framefree.com.

Ladies and Gentlemen - the future has arrived:

DALSA develops 100+ megapixel CCD.

DALSA Semiconductor has today announced that it has developed the worlds first sensor with a total resolution of over 100 million pixels. To be more specific this single sensor, developed for astronomy, has 10,560 x 10,560 pixels, 111 million in total. The active area of the sensor measures approximately four by four inches and has a 9 µm pixel pitch. This sensor has been developed in conjunction with Semiconductor Technology Associates for the US Naval Observatory.

It’s going to be truly interesting to see just long it’s going to take for a sensor of this caliber to hit the pro photography market…

Incredible, somebody has found it necessary to develop a gadget that can neutralize and disable a digital camera.

From the Georgia Tech press release: Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have completed a prototype device that can block digital-camera function in a given area. Commercial versions of the technology could be used to stymie unwanted use of video or still cameras.

The prototype device uses off-the-shelf equipment – camera-mounted sensors, lighting equipment, a projector and a computer—to scan for, find and neutralize digital cameras. The system works by looking for the reflectivity and shape of the image-producing sensors used in digital cameras.

The small-area product could prevent espionage photography in government buildings, industrial settings or trade shows. It could also be used in business settings—for instance, to stop amateur photography where shopping-mall-Santa pictures are being taken.

Full Story here.

Via Reuters:

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Canon Inc. said on Thursday that it would consider halting development of new film cameras as it focuses resources on digital models, the latest sign of the rapidly fading role of film in photography.

A spokesman at Canon, the world’s largest digital camera maker, said it would consider whether it needs to continue developing both compact and single lens reflex (SLR) film models because the markets for both are shrinking.

Canon said it would continue to produce and sell existing models and make a final judgment on the business in the future while monitoring market demand.

Canon’s statement follows an announcement earlier this year by rival Nikon Corp. that it would stop producing most of its film cameras, expect for a few professional products.

Konica Minolta Holdings Inc., meanwhile, has said it would exit the camera and photo film markets, where it has been losing money amid stiff competition and weak demand.

The photographic film and film camera markets have been shrinking rapidly in the past few years due to the rising popularity of digital cameras, which can take and store photos without the need for film.