To prepare a magnificent time-lapse video of Planet Earth such as the one bottom, you will need only: six sunny days, a 121-megapixel camera (the iPhone is not a good choice) and a geostationary satellite.

Photos to the video we can enjoy were captured by the Russian weather satellite, Electro-L every half hour beginning on May 14th, and end on May 20th, 2011. The satellite is placed on a geostationary earth orbit, this is exactly 35.786 km (22.236 mi) above the Earth's equator and follows the direction of the Earth's rotation. An object in such an orbit has an orbital period equal to the Earth's rotational period, and thus appears motionless, at a fixed position in the sky, to ground observers.

Photos taken by satellite are a combination of visible and near-infrared wavelengths, depicting the Earth in a way not visible to the human eye. Dennis Chesters, GOES Project scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center explain the process: "The 3 reflected sunlight bands can simulate a conventional red-green-blue color picture. The near infrared channel is a vegetation indicator, since plants reflect near-ir as well as green. You can learn more about the basic characteristics of Elektro-L’s ten-channel imager, the Multichannel Scanning Unit (MSU), here".

And some interesting facts about the way they made those photos:

"The images are the largest whole disk images of our planet, the resolution is 1 kilometer per pixel. The images are "masked" by a circular barrier that blocks out the light of the Sun and other stars. This is to prevent damage to the camera by exposure to direct sunlight. City lights are not visible because they are thousands of times less bright than the reflection of sunlight off the Earth". 

See more Electro-L movies and full-size images at http://Planet--Earth.ca/

Source: http://planet--earth.ca/

123D Catch for by Autodesk is a great little app compatible with the iPad 2 and the new iPad. It allows you to capture the world around you in a whole new way. After you take some photos with your tablet, the app converts them into 3D models! In order to make it work you need to take photos of your object or person from as many angles as you can. Then the app submits them for processing on the Autodesk Cloud where they are automatically converted into a realistic 3D model. You can use your gyro to control the camera when viewing your captures and there's a cool gallery with many examples. To get great results you should avoid shiny or reflective objects and make sure the background isn’t uniform as 123D Catch uses reference points in the background of your photos to create your model.

Here's the full list of features of the app (via iTunes):

✓ Take photos with your camera-equipped iPad and submit them for processing on the Autodesk Cloud where they are automatically converted into a realistic 3D model that you can view, share, and download.

✓ Take up to 40 photos and upload them to the Autodesk Cloud for processing

✓ Connect with the 123D Catch Community Gallery to see the amazing captures other users have shared and to submit your own!

✓ Included example gallery to explore!

✓ Interactive startup guides you through the process!

✓ Use your device’s gyro to control the 3D camera when viewing your finished captures or simply touch the screen to use Multi-Touch view controls

✓ Receive Notification Center alerts when your capture is finished processing

✓ Email your finished captures to friends

What's even better, this app is 100% free so if you own an iPad 2 or the new iPad, make sure to download it (its available only in the US store at the moment). Here's the link.

Source: http://itunes.apple.com

Even though RED did not announce a new camera at NAB 2012, the company has something that can strenghten its position on the market. The game changer is the RED Dragon sensor that will bring 6K resolution to RED's Epic and Scarlet-X cameras! There is not a lot of info on the new product but here's what we know. The new sensor will be out this year (as usual, RED does not want to reveal the launch date at this point) and it will offer 6K resolution (obviously), 15 stops of latitude/dynamic range and 120FPS on an Epic and 85FPS on the Scarlet-X. The company will upgrade the Epic first, then it will be time for the Scarlet-X. Epics with the new sensor will be upgraded at a back to factory price of $6,000.

And here's a short video on the matter by Engadget:
 

Source: http://www.definitionmagazine.com | http://www.engadget.com

Ok, so you want to shoot a nice video from the first person perspective - wouldn't it be great to have a professional helmetcam? If you don't want to spend a lot of money on it and you have some spare time, here's the best solution. The guys at DakaKin made a very cool video tutorial showing in detail what needs to be done to achieve a perfect result. Just check it out below.
 

Just don't forget that you will need some additional weight for counter balance. Here's a short comment by DakaKin:

"It depends on the camera you put on it, but we ended up using 5 lbs for a 5D. If you were using something like a T2i/550D you wouldn't need as much. Use whatever makes moving your head around most comfortable and be sure to stretch your neck beforehand."

You can find the Manfrotto Tripot Head at Amazon (here). It is priced at $43.99.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/DakaKin

Philip Bloom is back. This time he invited three full frame DSLRs for the session: Nikon D800, Nikon D4 and Canon D5 Mark III. In fact, most of the time in this review is given on Nikon cameras but we know already his opinion on this Canon camera. To recall the review on the Canon 5D Mark III have a look here.

To see all the comparisons you have to devote half an hour of your attention but it really worth do it. Philip explains so long video in this way: "I go into a lot of detail in the rather long video below. I hope it will entertain and inform you for its running length. I show resolution and image issue tests, show off the full frame aesthetic, discuss features, and demonstrate how they all compare in low light".

Take a cup of coffee, sit back and look whether the difference between these three DSLR cameras.

Finally, one more comparison missing in the review : “The one bit I missed out of the test was rolling shutter issues. They are all the same. Very difficult to tell them apart!”

Source: http://philipbloom.net/

Some months ago we wrote that Apple acquired C3 Technologies (you can find this post here) - a company that created an amazing tool to present maps in 3D. Apple is working on an improved version of a traffic service and as we know the company also purchased Placebase and Poly9, another 3D mapping company. We also wrote, that we think that Apple will drop Google Maps and introduce its own system. According to 9to5Mac this can be the case and the website even states that iOS6 will bring the new application to Apple's devices and it will also result in dropping Google Maps. The new technology is simply awesome - just check out this image below - it is not a photo of San Francisco, it is San Francisco generated by the C3's technology!

All Things D reports that "sources describe the new Maps app as a forthcoming tentpole feature of iOS that will, in the words of one, “blow your head off.” I’m not quite sure what that means, and the source in question declined to elaborate, but it’s likely a reference to the photorealistic 3-D mapping tech Apple acquired when it purchased C3 Technologies."
 

Rumors say that Apple will provide some information on the matter during the WWDC conference that will take place in San Francisco in June. What's more, sources claim that the company might debut the app during the keynote. We'll keep you posted!

Source: http://allthingsd.com | http://9to5mac.com

Steve Jobs was a genius, we all know that. When he unveiled the iPad many thought that it was a bad idea - the device was often described as a bigger version of the iPod and many criticized it. Now tablets are on the rise and are selling like hot cakes. Apple was right when it was telling that the tablet is the best way to experience the Internet and a study made by Adobe reveals that tablet devices will generate more Web traffic than smartphones by early 2013 and that consumers find browsing websites on tablets nearly as engaging as on PCs!

The results indicate that tablets have become a channel very distinct from smartphones. While apps have proven a highly valuable and important component of a mobile strategy, companies would be well served to invest in optimizing mobile Web pages for the growing tablet demographic.

Here's the list of key findings:

• The share of website visits from tablets grew approximately 10 times faster than the rate for smartphones in the first two years after market introduction and grew more than 300 percent in the last year. This rapid growth is driven by both higher rates of tablet shipments and a disproportionately higher number of website visits per tablet than smartphones.
• Tablets’ share of website traffic will exceed smartphone traffic by early 2013 and reach 10 percent of total website traffic in 2014.
• Although consumers consider the tablet website experience to be nearly as engaging as that of PCs, they use PCs to visit websites three times as frequently as tablets.

This study significantly expands on the findings from the initial Adobe Digital Index report on the value of tablet users to retail companies released in January of this year, which suggested that in 2011 tablet users spent more per purchase than other online customers. This study analyzed 23 billion visits to the websites of 325 companies from the North America, Western Europe (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) and Asia (China, India, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand).

Source: http://eon.businesswire.com

There are films that changed filmmaking forever. Just one frame from 2001: A Space Odyssey is enough to return the mood created by Stanley Kubrick. Here is a two-part interview with Douglas Trumbull, the man who worked on special effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Douglas Trumbull headed up the VFX team on films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Blade Runner. In AIN'T IT COOL with Harry Knowles, he speaks not only about the past projects but expresses his opinions on the future of cinema as well. He sees several problems with conventional cinema like an outdated screens and a slow frame rates. On example of new productions like The Hobbit and Avatar 2, he discusses the impact of frame rates. One solution that Trumbull is working on is a hemispherical high-gain screen, with movies projected at 120 frames per second.

Douglas Trumbull says: “I think the movie industry now has to rethink itself, and develop a new kind of spectacle and showmanship to get people back into theaters – if that’s what they want. If they want to get people into theaters, it’s going to have to be truly spectacular and unavailable in any other form.”

Source: http://www.nerdist.com

If you have not own Leica is for sure you dream about, right? Last week, while we been interested in a new monochrome Leica M and the next generation of the Leica X series, at the WestLicht Photographica in Vienna, Austria auctioned was an older model of this cult brand. Collectors also have such dreams, and one of them paid around $2.78 million for a unique "Null-Serie" Leica Camera.

Only around 25 prototypes of the small-format 35mm Leica camera were produced in 1923 for test purposes. Just 12 of these cameras are known still to exist. "Null-Series" became the precursor to Leica's first commercially-available 35mm camera, which was released in 1925. Recently these devices reach dizzying prices during the auction so probably next sales record will be established soon.

The all-time record of camera sale price was broken on the last Saturday by the camera No.116! (it means number 16 starting from 100). 

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ | http://en.leica-camera.com/

Video tutorial ‘How to make your own 3D Printed Tilt-Shift Lens Adapter’ is intended for DIY but by the way it shows how the adapters work. There is also a fact of life including that you do not always have to spend a lot of money to reach the goal. The price of a professional tilt-shift lenses is a huge barrier to experimentation with selective focus and effects which makes objects look miniature and toy like. Is this a competitive solution?

To build an adapter to the camera you will need a caliper, 3D printer or access to one and 3D modeling program to develop draft. Joe Murphy made a plunger-type adapter to fit his Panasonic GF1 four-thirds camera using Autodesk‘s 123D software.

His step-by-step tutorial you can find on incredible.com and all files from the project are available here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: http://www.instructables.com