News in brief: Gaia - the billion pixel camera

I might’ve had enough of megapixels when it comes to camera phones and compact cameras, but I can probably forgive a billion pixel camera when its purpose is to map a thousand million stars across the galaxy, in 3D. (No, I won’t quibble with 3D here, either.) The camera’s called Gaia and it was produced for the European Space Station by e2v Technologies, based in the UK.

The camera is effectively a mosaic of 106 CCD sensors that measure 6 × 4.7 cm and are a few microns deep. They should be able to detect light from stars that are about one million times fainter than the human eye can manage. Or be accurate enough to measure someone’s thumbnails if she or he is on the moon and the camera’s on earth.

Want to know more? The European Space Station website has it all.

(Headsup to Engadget)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: The Fujifilm guide to restoring water-damaged images

I’ve heard lots of people say that if there were a fire in their home, something that they’d try to rescue would be their photos. (I’d be quite interested in getting out alive, although I can see how old albums can be important.) But what about the opposite of fire? What about water damage? It might feel a bit hopeless if you find troves of images that are encrusted with mud or sand, stuck together, or just horribly water damaged, but you might be able to salvage them. And Fujifilm has the perfect guide to explain what you need to do.

Depending on the type of prints that you’re trying to salvage (silver halide, dye sublimation, dye-type inkjet, or pigment-type inkjet) and how they’ve been damaged, you’ll need to use different techniques. Whatever the print, though, you’ll need a very decent dose of patience and remember to dry them in the shade and don’t use anything like a hairdryer.

Everything that you need to know is over at Fujifilm.

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Sony World Photography Awards - now in 3D

Oh hell’s bells. I’ve only read the press release and already my head is aching. Sony and the World Photo Organisation have just announced that they’re adding three new categories to the 2012 World Photography Awards. And the reason for my headache? No, it’s not because the list of categories is already breathtakingly long; it’s because the three new ones are all in, heaven help us, 3D.

There are two 3D photography categories: panoramic and still – the themes of which can be anything that catches the photographer’s imagination. Then there’s a 3D video category. Again, whatever floats your boat can be the subject. Whichever category you enter, though, your submission must’ve been shot in 2011 and on a camera or video camera that uses ‘true 3D technology’.

The deadline for entries is 4 January 2012, and as with the rest of the awards, winners will be announced at a swanky ceremony in London next April.

Lots more detail on the website.

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Fancy assisting Ben Watts?

We’ve just received word of a fabulous opportunity to work with photographer Ben Watts. He’s shot for Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and Conde nast Traveller. Now he’s looking for someone to join him in LA on a photoshoot for Treats! magazine. It’s pretty simple – you just have to submit a photo on the theme of energy – but you do have to move fast. The deadline’s 13 June.

The lucky winner gets travel to LA and two nights’ accommodation, plus credit for her or his work, which should feature in the magazine’s third edition.

As submissions are open to a public vote as well as the panel’s decision, the top ten entries receive a year’s subscription to the magazine.

Interested? You can check out more details here!

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: The most incredible night-time sky

The Photopic Sky Survey is a 5,000 megapixel photograph of the entire night sky stitched together from 37,440 exposures. Large in size and scope, it portrays a world far beyond the one beneath our feet and reveals our familiar Milky Way with unfamiliar clarity. When we look upon this image, we are in fact peering back in time, as much of the light—having traveled such vast distances—predates civilization itself.

Seen at a depth thousands of times more faint than the dimmest visible star, tens of millions of other suns appear, still perhaps only a hundredth of one percent thought to exist in our galaxy alone.

Incredibly!

Our Milky Way galaxy is the dominant feature, its dusty arms sweeping through the frame, punctuated by red clouds of glowing hydrogen. To the lower right are our nearest neighbors, each small galaxies themselves with their own hundreds of millions of stars.

Check out Sky Survey for the full story!

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Twitter + Photobucket = InTwit photo-sharing

Yep, they’ve done it. Twitter’ve announced that they will indeed be introducing their own photo-sharing feature so that you can share your morning coffee or make your followers jealous of the sunset you’ve just seen in a picture direct from Twitter.com. And as for their photo-hosting-partner-of-choice: it’s Photobucket.

They’re working on introducing the feature to all of their official mobile apps as well as figuring out a way to let people who’ve not yet succumbed to the allure of a smartphone be able to share images via MMS from their mobiles. Yay for a bit of technological equality there!

More about it on the Twitter blog.

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: 10 photos per second at Instagram

You know that crazy number of users that Instagram has, something like 4 million, which it built up in just over seven months? Yeah? Well it turns out that between them, they’re snapping and sharing ten photos every second. Uh-hmm, you read that right. Ten photos per second. That, my lovelies, is a lot of pictures.

Kevin Systrom, Instragram’s co-founder, announced this to the TechCrunch guys at TechCrunch Disrupt. When he was asked to put his finger on Instagram’s success, Systrom said: ‘It turns out if you make something that people want it spreads really well.’ You know, I can see the logic in that.

(Headsup to TechCrunch, obviously.)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: An infographic for newbie photographers

I was sent this photography infographic this morning, and whilst I don’t put much weight in the statistics because I think that the sample size was way too small to allow anything verging on meaningful analysis, some of the comments are worth bearing in mind if you’re just starting out. And probably not forgetting, either.

Shoot anything and everything: you never know with what you might fall in love. Get to know your equipment properly. And whilst we might not miss the faff involved with film, learning to use it will really teach you about cameras and photography. Click through to see the whole thing.

Click to Enlarge Image

Via:Online Printing

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Do people not have anything better to do with their money?

Why on earth would you pay $1,000 for a lens that you can’t use? Even if it is Leica and has been transformed into a work of art? Actually, especially if it had been made by Leica. Yeah some students at Leica, as part of their graduation project, made art out of a discontinued Tri-Elmar-M 28-35-50mm lens and a 50mm f/1.4 Summilux lens by splitting them in two. Valued at $4,500 and $3,700 respectively when whole, the Tri-Elmar sold for $995 on eBay. There are some things in life that I just don’t understand…

(Headsup to Engadget)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Cities, Time lapsed

It can be no secret that the crew here at Small Aperture are big fans of Timelapse photography… so when Dominic Boudreault created one of the finest examples we’ve seen in a long time, we decided we just had to share it with you!

Turn up those speakers, set your screen to Full HD, sit back, and gawp at this…

Timelapse – The City Limits from Dominic on Vimeo.

In his own words: ‘I shot this timelapse montage from late 2010 through early 2011, it’s one year in the making, and my goal was to show the duality between city and nature.’

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.