Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

So, you’ve found and purchased the camera that is just perfect for you. (If you haven’t, check out The Gadgetell guide to finding a camera)  You’ve been been playing with it, experimenting with it, and taking a ton of shots. Now what?  Well, there are quite a few options if you want your work seen or even sold.

There are lots of places on the ‘net that allow you to post your photography work.  Of course, there is the well known flickr, which seems to be used by everybody and their brother to post everything from little Johnny’s 4th birthday party to girls showing off their ass-ets, to some photos that really do have photographic merit.  But, if you are looking to have your work seen and critiqued by other photographers, you may want to look into some other sites as well. 

Read about all the options you have to get your work seen and even get paid for your photos after the break. 

MORE »

Looking for something to set you apart on MySpace?  Need a funky-fresh, dressed to impress photo?  Head on over to Pixisnap and use there free service to create your very own mosaics and Polaroid images.  The site is just a web application so there is no downloading.  Getting images to look cool is super easy.

This morning, I created the image above.  The site does not make users sign up, so it took all of two minutes for me to be in and out.  Simply upload a photo, choose the design (you can pick from several choices on the Polaroids, each choice adding more glimpses of the photo), then pick a background and decide where you want the image to go.  The site interfaces with MySpace so you can send it right there.

As a quick, easy to use photo generator, this site is great.  It does all that it says and does so well.  I am pretty sure a cat could get this site to work, it is just that easy.  The site is in beta, but worked without a hitch in my trial.

Head over and try it out: [pixisnap]

• Glimpse at the iPhone of 2012
• New .tel domain opens up
• Sony’s Home beta temporarily shuts down for maintenance

Sections: Imaging, Web, Web Apps, Websites

Nikon users get in line.  Everyone’s about to get enlightened.  A new training video titled “A Hands-on Guide to Creative Lighting” is on its way for Nikonians of all experience levels.

Two very knowledgeable photographers lead the training: Bob Krist and Joe McNally.  Both have done work for National Geographic and have a close relationship with Nikon.  Both are multi-award winners, authors/photographers of best-selling photography books, and have shot for major magazines and companies.  Both men also teach seminars and workshops.  It is without question these men know their stuff.  Who better to learn from than masters of the craft?

Read on for more info on the DVD…

MORE »

Photographers have been messing around with 3D photography for years.  It just hasn’t been a nice and easy, already developed for them, consumer-friendly, point and shoot 3D camera they were using to take the photos.  Some photographers were rigging up their own cameras to get the effect, some doing it in post-processing.  Some, used much less user-friendly four lens cameras that did exist out there, just not with the best picture quality.

Fujifilm is hoping to remedy all of that with their development of their 3D camera.  The way it accomplishes the 3D effect is to use two lenses and two sensors.  The lenses are about 6 to 7-cm apart, which is the width between the average person’s eyes.  These lenses and sensors take different pictures from different angles simultaneously.  Then, it combines the different pictures to create one image that is displayed on the camera’s 2.8-inch, 230,000 pixel LCD screen. 

Read more about 3D cameras after the break.

MORE »

Sections: Gadgets / Other, Household, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Imaging, Digital Cameras, Peripherals, Displays, Printers / Scanners, Web, Websites

When it comes to cameras, there is a great big variety to choose from, from camera phones to point and shoot to those fancy SLRs.  It seems like every company is trying to sell you on the fact that you need their model.  So, how do you know which one is right for you?

It’s about you

What it boils down to is what you are actually going to be doing with your camera.  Are you just going to be taking a few pictures to email to your friends of you guys hanging out in the dorm partying?  Do you want one that you can use to take shots of little Johnny playing soccer?  Are you into wildlife photography?  Do you want one where it does all the work for you, or do you want to have full control over the settings?

There’s plenty more after the break.  Gadgetell’s resident photography expert, Jodie Andrefski, lays it all out for you.  Plus, get some tips on how to make any of your photos better.

MORE »

Often us photographers think we did a pretty good job with optimizing our different picture files, but then when a text editor is used we are able to see that they still contain a ton of data that can actually be removed.  Yep, there are different programs out there that can be used to extract this information from the different GIFs, PNGs, or JPEGs, and still allow the photo look great, but many of these programs require a pretty specific knowledge to use them.  Unless the user knows what they are doing when it comes to command-line tools, they are pretty much out of luck. Until now.

Two members from the Yahoo exceptional performance team, Stoyan Stefanov and Nicole Sullivan, took what they knew of these tools and built a single application called Smush.it that does all the optimizations for you in just one place.  Completely cloud-based, it allows you to upload images, give the image a URL, or use it as a Firefox extension.  The program shows you how many bytes you’ll save, and then gives you the images as .zip file for you to replace them on your site.

MORE »

Sections: Computers, Software / Applications, Imaging, Accessories, Digital Cameras, Peripherals, Displays, Storage, Web, Downloads, Web Apps, Web Browsers, Websites

Casio is making this case: Every time you press the shutter button, your camera captures just one moment.  But was it the right moment?  For far too many of us, the answer is usually no.

Last January at CES, you might recall my excitement for the Casio EX-F1, a fantastic $999 shooter that captured still images at 60 FPS (frames per second) and movies at 1,200 FPS.  The benefit of this kind of speed is capturing *the* moment.  Not the one where your kid closed his eyes, not the one where you can’t tell if they hit the ball, but the very instant it happened.  It is like an instant recall in photo and video form.

The marketing team at Casio printed the 60 frames they took with the FX1 of a skateboarder doing his thing and put up the pictures for all to see.  In that one second, you could see some great shots and the other 58 or so were what I normally end up with: missed moments.  The FX1 could almost be considered a time machine allowing you to go back and pick the right moment.

Casio has done it again with the new EX-FH20.

Follow to see how Casio is changing the way we take pictures and video.

MORE »

Nokia has filed a patent that will allow a user to digitally write on the back of digital photos.  The patent allows a user to “flip” your picture over and label it.  This label can be written on a keypad, or, if your camera device has some sort of stylus, you can write on them just like a photo print. 

This patent has just been filed, so it is not known when it will be approved.  Something tells me that cell phone giant Nokia will probably find a way to get this program into the hands of the consumer and into one of its cell phones as soon as possible.  Once it does work, it will probably look something like a photo-viewer on the iPod.

MORE »

Compact, rugged, and with a price tag that won’t break the bank, the newest model of outdoor ready compact cameras by Olympus has a clever little feature that they invite users to tap into. Yeah, ok…so I’m sure by now you’ve figured out it has something to do with tapping, right? Well, correct you are.

Usually, one does NOT want to bump, bang, or ever tap their camera any more than necessary. In the case of the Stylus 1050 SW however, Olympus invites their users to “tap into worry-free fun”.  It means just what is sounds like. The camera uses an innovative tap interface where it registers taps on not only the screen area like some other touch screen cameras do; but also anywhere on the camera body. It uses an accelerometer so that it can read taps on different surfaces to control different functions just by tapping the appropriate area. Certain taps on the right side of the camera do one thing…taps on the left another. You can even calibrate the tap sensitivity to your liking. According to Olympus, it offers benefits in adverse conditions as well.

MORE »

With Google’s new nifty browser Chrome getting all the press, they’ve quietly put out Picasa 3.  Picasa is Google’s photo sharing service and it just got a whole lot of attention with some very exciting upgrades.  And like most of Google’s products, its free and striving to be as simple as possible.

MORE »

Sections: Imaging, Digital Cameras, Web, Web 2.0, Websites