Pringles Can Macro Photography

November 12, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 14 Comments

macro_pringles1

Reader [Harald] sent us this sweet Pringles can macro photography hack from way back in 2005. Using a Pringles can and a standard Cannon 50mm MKII lens, they have produced some amazing results. The image above is the tip of a ballpoint pen. Not only does he go through the steps to make it, but then goes in depth on how to best set your camera and other good practices for macro photography. Pringles cans aren’t just for holding chips and making wireless antenna.

We’ve covered several macro photography rigs before, like how to do macro photography with your iPhone, or with a flip camera, and even how to build a massive laser controlled macro photography setup.

Easy High Voltage Power Supply

November 10, 2008 by Eliot 16 Comments

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[rocketman221] wrote up one of the simplest ways to build a high voltage power supply. This one in particular was used on his coilgun. Instead of building a custom circuit, he’s using flash charging boards from disposable cameras. Six 450V 470uF caps are wired in parallel to make up the bank. Two of the charger boards are wired to one switch to initiate the charging process. Four additional boards are wired two a second switch for the second charging stage. The part cost on this is incredibly cheap and it only requires a 3.3V input to reach 450V. The writeup has plenty of warnings about the dangers of high voltage; you need to clean off all flux residue to prevent arcing across the circuit boards. Embedded below is a video of the bank being discharged through several objects. Continue reading “Easy High Voltage Power Supply” →

Flash Sync Port Hacking

November 1, 2008 by Eliot 3 Comments

Reader [Adrian] picked up a couple cheap wireless flash triggers on eBay. Unfortunately, his Sigma EF-500 DG Super strobe doesn’t have the necessary sync port to make use of these. He popped the device open to try to figure out a way to trigger the device manually. The first idea was to use the test button to fire the device. Thanks to lag, it didn’t work for anything under 1/20th. The solution was to go straight for the optical trigger. [Adrian] has posted some teardown pictures that will help you determine the appropriate solder points for your own mod. The only bit that’s left is adding a 3.5mm mono headphone jack as a sync port. He also has a post on modifying the flash for greater head movement.

Canon 40D Hacked To Record Movies

September 23, 2008 by Joey Celis 29 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlKywUVFJW4]

Both Canon and Nikon recently released DSLR cameras that now include a feature that most consumer level digital cameras have had for sometime: the ability to record movies. What makes movie recording especially appealing on a DSLR is the wide selection of lenses available to get the look you’re after. If you’re an owner of Canon’s 40D you may want to follow [DataGhost]’s progress on the CHDK forum as he is currently working on bringing this function to the 40D.

While [DataGhost] has a working proof of concept he notes that there are still some issues pertaining to the camera powering down while recording a video, autofocusing, and writing to the memory card. Aside from this, [DataGhost] has made considerable progress and is considering adding custom user settings via the mode dial to really give some creative control. We’re excited about this hack and can’t wait for its release to the general public.

[via CHDK forum]

Control Your Camera Remotely With A DS

September 17, 2008 by Joey Celis 9 Comments

Using a custom built cable connected to the lower GBA slot and a copy of Canon’s SDK, [Steve Chapman] has come up with a very clever way of taking pictures remotely with a Nintendo DS Lite.

Currently the software supports bracket shooting as well as bulb mode. [Steve] points out that he is currently testing an audio based trigger system using the mic built into the DS and the software is still a work in progress.

While the weight saving benefits of using a DS instead of a notebook are obvious, there are things you do give up going this route. Traditionally, when you tether a camera to a computer the photos are saved directly to the computer where you can view the image on a much larger monitor. With the DS, it seems all you can do is remotely trigger the camera. Given the size and resolution of the screens maybe that’s all it can do.

[via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Flickr Photo Bike

September 15, 2008 by Eliot 3 Comments

Lifehacker’s [Gina Trapani] has one of Flickr’s photo bikes and wrote up how it works. As you ride, the bike automatically takes photographs, geotags them, and uploads them to Flickr. The handlebar unit contains a Nokia N95 cellphone. The rear is a solar powered charging unit. It has a custom python script that starts the photo taking sequence when it detects the bike is in motion using the phone’s accelerometer.

Most of the engineering seems to be for usability’s sake. We’re guessing they probably wanted to disguise that they’re bolting a $600 cellphone to a bike as well. Out of the box the Nokia N95 already does almost everything required. It has a 5 megapixel camera with an interval timer that can vary from 10 seconds to 30 minutes. It supports Flickr uploading, but with software like ShoZu you can streamline the geotagging and make all uploads automatic. Just build a solid mount for your N95 and you’ve pretty much got it, and when you park your bike you can take the phone with you.

Macro Photography With An IPhone

August 28, 2008 by Joey Celis 4 Comments

The camera lens on the iPhone is much like any other cameraphone lens in the fact that the lens has a fixed minimum and maximum focus length. If you want to get a little closer to your subject, you just might want to give [eastrain’s] macro camera mod a try.

According to [eastrain] both first and second generation iPhone cameras have a screw type focus ring that has been glued to infinity from the factory. This was probably set so that 99% of your photos were roughly in focus.

Gaining access to the camera lens requires the disassembly of your phone and will undoubtedly void any type of warranty you may have had. Once the lens is in view you will need to break the 2 glue points that hold the lens at its current position.

Using needle nose pliers you can then rotate the lens counter clockwise to increase the zoom or clockwise to decrease it. Enabling the built in camera app allows you to see in real time your changes. When you’re satisfied, just put everything back together. Of course the next step should be an externally mounted ring to allow manual zooming on the fly.