Photo

Some thoughts on the L16 Camera

October 9, 2015 By Robert Occhialini

The L16 from Light, pictured above, is all over the web this week. You can reserve one at a reduced price by putting $199 down by November 6th. It’s an Android based, slightly-bigger-than-phone sized camera that looks to replace DSLR cameras by utilizing an array of cheaper and smaller cameras carefully orchestrated by software.

I’m a sucker for things like this in the gadget space, but I am having a hard time convincing myself to put down the money now for something I won’t get until Summer 2016. All this without an chance to try the device myself, or even have someone I trust with hands on experience vouch for it. The movie in the Core77 article provides a little additional information, but I think i will be debating this until the November 6th deadline.

I have been debating selling my whole Canon DSLR setup of late. I am not using it nearly as much as I used to. I wonder if I wouldn’t be better off with the smallest nearly equivalent camera.

Source: Game-Changing Product Design: Small L16 Camera Replaces an SLR and a Bag Full of Lenses – Core77

Snowflakes, NYC

December 17, 2014 By Robert Occhialini

Drone Photography

April 18, 2014 By Robert Occhialini

This weekend, I was reading Twitter, minding my own business, when I ran across this tweet by Nick Bilton. It had this picture taken from a drone attached to it.

drone picture

I saw this picture, and I was intrigued. A longtime lover of photography, I am really interested in the perspectives you could capture with a drone that you wouldn’t normally be able to capture without a helicopter, or even without a helicopter. As I do, I started searching for more information about using drones for photography, and discovered a few sites/posts with some great information. First, this post on the National Geographic web site. Later, I found skypixel.org which seems to be a very actively maintained blog with some really striking drone photography on it. It also features this awesome getting started guide. If you are at all interested in this stuff, this seems like the page to bookmark to get started.

I have gone ahead and ordered a practice drone. Before I spend too much money on this, I want to be sure that it’s something I enjoy doing, and that I can actually fly one of these things. Even the bare bone drones plus a GoPro camera will end up setting you back a thousand dollars. Although it looks like rentals are going to be available soon, keep reading.

A couple of days later, Jason Kottke posted this Drone selfies post and the web exploded with drone photography interest. The drone selfie video, which I have embedded below, was take at the same time as the shot above that Nick Bilton posted to Twitter. It seems like this meme has exploded in the last few days, this led to more drone selfies, or dronies. Personally, I am more interested in taking high quality stills from unique perspectives than the videos, but I probably will reconsider once I have gear.

Amit Gupta, who took the Drone selfie below, has added Drone Photography gear rental to his awesome photography gear site, Photojojo. Go here to check that out and sign up for more information. Looks like they are launching on May 15th. There’s also a great guide to “How to take a perfect Dronie” on that page.