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Is IKEA's Cardboard Camera the New Lomography?

04.28.12 @ 6:30PM Tags : camera, cardboardcamera, ikea, lomography

As if low-cost furniture and a TV set weren’t enough, it looks like IKEA has created their own still camera. Probably the greenest still camera ever made, it was handed out at a design expo in Milan. Supposedly this will end up being sold in stores (whether that includes U.S. stores or not isn’t clear), but the fact that they’ve simplified and reduced the cost of something as complicated and expensive as a digital camera shows just how far we’ve come, as it’s no thicker than a folded piece of cardboard. More »

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Panasonic GH2 Hacked Further, Now Records to Advanced 176Mbit Codec

10.13.11 @ 1:47PM Tags : camera, codec, firmware, gh2, hack, panasonic, panasonicgh2

The Panasonic GH2, arguably the most aliasing-free, highest-resolution hybrid camera out there (pictured here with the $500 ReWo GH2 cage), natively records to a 24Mbit Long GOP codec. “Long GOP” means that redundant information is retained across moving frames, which is a very efficient way of compressing video, but can also leave behind compression artifacts. In addition to the original hacked firmware by Vitaliy Kiselev, a new hacker named Driftwood has managed to drastically increase the bitrate of the GH2, in addition to switching the codec to a 176Mbit intraframe codec, which could offer even better image quality with less artifacting. More »

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The Panasonic GH2's Firmware Has Been Hacked; New Features on the Way

07.6.11 @ 7:00PM Tags : camera, dslr, firmware, gh2, hacks, panasonic-gh2, panasonicgh2

Programmer Vitaliy Kiselev recently got ahold of a leaked firmware update for the Panasonic GH2 and has now hacked it successfully. This could lead to new features, as we saw last time around with the GH1 hack. While this brand new GH2 firmware hack is very much in beta, features that are at least working partially include the 30 minute clip length limit being removed (for PAL versions), a PAL / NTSC menu function, new audio bitrates, AGC selection, 720/25p, 1080/25p, and 1080/60p (the latter two currently freeze the camera). If you’re feeling adventurous or want to help with the further development of the hack, here are the installation instructions for PC users (Mac users are instructed to use this): More »

1

DSLR aliasing: not seeing the forest for the trees

12.4.09 @ 12:55PM Tags : camera, cinematography, dslr, red

I unpacked my brand new Canon 5d Mark II a few months ago and excitedly clambered onto my Manhattan rooftop to put it through some tests. Within minutes I discovered the nasty aliasing artifact seen above, wherein the uniformly brown brick building down the block seemed to have a pattern of gray concentric circles overlaid across its surface. I knew about, and expected, the DSLR aliasing problems, and even wrote that I had some ideas about how to defeat them (on the rooftop that day, I tested several contrast and softening filters in an attempt to defeat the oversharpened look, to little avail). But I knew what I was getting into, and for the price, I’ve learned to (more than) love the one I’m with. More »