Sorry for the bad news, but this is the LAST RAWtalk....of the year: Episode #114

Download this weeks RAWtalk Right Here.

It’s that time of year again, by that time of the year I mean the end of the year. This is officially the last episode of 2014 and I know some of you may be upset but it’s only for a few weeks.

This week we have Christmas followed by Stephen going away for the end of the year and than we head to Vegas for CES. We know how much you guys love waking up every Monday to a new RAWtalk but we will be back very soon with new episodes in 2015.

Show days can be interesting days depending on which side of the bed I woke up on. I have those mood things, the ones where you can be down or you can be up but on show days the show must go on. I think this week I was a little thrown off by my gmail not working properly which turned out to be an issue with Gmail and not with my e mail which was a relief.

Regardless of my mood, once we get into the flow of the show I am ready to go which ever way the news and questions take us. Speaking of Photo News am I wrong with my little rant on the mini Teleprompter kickstarted?

I got to fly solo one more time to end 2014 with some challenge questions and others infuriating but that comes with the territory.

The NEW Wheel Of FRO got one more SPIN to take us out on a high note with a nice prize as always. What a cool addition to RAWtalk the Wheel Of FRO has become.

To finish the year I want to thank each and every one of you who enjoy RAWtalk every week. Wether you watch it on YouTube, your TV, listen to the audio podcast or enjoy it any other way, THANK YOU.

Thank you to Stephen for coming on board this year and taking RAWtalk to the level of quaintly it has attained. Thank you to Sutter for taking on a little sidekick ROLL over the last six or so months. And finally thank you to RODE and Atomos for believing in the importance of organic advertising. Having you guys understand the importance of letting me have fun with your plugs makes the readers and listeners more apt to listen to our message.

Happy Holidays and have a Happy and Healthy New Years from all of us here at FroKnowsPhoto. By all of us I mean the Stephen’s and I.

Here’s all of the photo news stories in detail:

Researchers Can Detect Who Was BEHIND The Camera Via Camera Shake

Researchers are saying that camera shake could one day be used to identify the person behind the camera. They say that footage captured by wearable cameras (ie. GoPros) contain a “motion signature” that’s unique to the wearer — sort of like a hidden “fingerprint”. The test was done by scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel where they  asked 34 people to wear GoPro cameras on their baseball caps, and then had the participants record video with the “hat cam.” They then took 12-second clips of each person wearing the cams and ran it through a computer algorithm, which resulted in a unique “motion signature” for each person. They did this by examining the vertical and lateral motion of the camera, as recorded in the frames. They then re-shot the videos, and were able to compare and correctly point out (88% of the time) who shot what video with the results from the first test. The researchers say that this technology could be used for much more than just identifying people behind anonymous videos too. It could also be used for things like limiting wearable cameras to specific people so say if the cameras don’t detect the right motion signature, they won’t work (ie. police officers). Now the question is, what happens when your have a stabilized rig or lens? (via Gizmodo)

Seagate Announces New 8TB HDD For Less Than $300

Some storage news for this week: Seagate announced a new type of HDD that features 8TB of data storage for just $260. Now break the price down, that means you’ll pay about three pennies a GB! The new 3.5-inch harddrive is a part of their new Archive HDD line which achieves that much data storage on the spinning platers by using a special new technology called Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR), which lets them put 25% more data on the discs. The caveat however, is that they only spin at a max speed of 5900 RPM with a transfer speed of 150 MB/s, since like the name suggests, they’re archive drives. The new drives are expected to be available by Jan. 19, will you be getting one? (via TC)

Photographer Captures 9 Whales in a Single Image, Sets Record

Australian underwater photographer Darren Jew has set a new Guinness World Record by capturing nine whales in a single photo. He got the shot when he was swimming off the coast of Tonga when he saw the fleet of humpback whales (an island near Australia). His previous record was seven whales in one image. There’s a video slideshow of all the images from the shoot which you can view below: (via PP)

Canon Rumored To Release High Megapixel DSLR

Here’s one from the rumor mill: Canon Rumors reports that Canon will be releasing a high megapixel DSLR in 2015 are spreading online. Canon Rumors has “confirmed” that it’ll feature a resolution of 50 megapixels and will come in a body similar to the 5D. Due to the small body shape, it’ll supposedly cost less than $4,000. This will be the first camera that will also be between the 1D and 5D series. What will it be called though? The 2D, 3D or 4D?

Man Clones Himself 100x on an Airplane Via New Self Portrait

A man named Timothy LaBranche cloned himself 100 times in the cabin of an airplane via a new self portrait. The composited image was done simply because he had the access: he’s an airline employee who works for JetBlue Airways in Houston, TX. He finally had the opportunity to do it when he had a plane stay in his station overnight. However, one thing he wishes he could have done differently is had a wardrobe change in between each shot, which he plans to do next time. Check out the image below, what would you have done? (via PP)

Woman Awarded BIG Money After Being Arrested For Taking a Picture

A woman who was arrested for taking photos outside a military base back in 2009 was awarded $1.12 Million in damages. Photographer Nancy Genovese was taking pictures of a display helicopter outside the Gabreski Airport Air National Guard in Long Island for a “Support Our Troops” website when she was confronted by a deputy who warned her that she’d be arrested on suspicion of terrorism. She then went to drive away when a local police officer arrested her and confiscated her camera and memory card. Genovese spent four days in jail and later posted a $50,000 bail and was charged with misdemeanor trespassing (which eventually got dismissed). Let’s hope she at least got the shot! (via TG)

New Picture Format Offers JPG Quality at Half the Size

There’s a new picture format that’s apparently equal the quality of a JPG, but at half the size. The new format–called BPG, which stands for Better Portable Graphics–was designed by French programmer Fabrice Bellard. The programmer put up some side-by-side images compressed in both JPG and the new format at the same file size, with the BPG clearly winning. Now we just need browser developers to incorporate this in every browser…See the comparison below, with the JPG being on the right and BPG on the left: (via PP)

New Teleprompter Is So Tiny, It’ll Fit In Your Camera Bag

This week in Kickstarter news: there’s a new mini teleprompter called The Parrot now up for funding. The teleprompter is tiny and portable, and uses your smartphone as the display for text. It measures in at 4x4x3 inches and weighs only about half a pound when combined with most smartphones–small enough to just throw in your camera bag. It will retail in stores for $150 but early adopters can get it for $100. The developer got it down to this price by clearly making it smaller than normal teleprompters and by using an acrylic 2-way mirror which makes it 6x stronger than glass and apparently improves image quality (which is hard to believe). However, it does cut down in light with only 70% light transmission. The Kickstarter has already exceeded it’s goal too, currently at $37,000 at the time writing this article, with its initial goal being $30K and it still has about three more weeks to go. Will you be supporting this? (via PP)

George Eastman House Teaches You the History of Photo Processes Via New Photo Series

This is my favorite news piece this week: the George Eastman House released another six videos to go along with their history of photography photo processes video series. The museum initially released six videos back in 2012 showcasing different photo processes. Now with there being 12, the videos range from the Daguerreotype, all the way to early digital photography. Click the screenshot below to give them a watch, definitely worth about an hour of your time for the full series! (via PP)

Rare Phenomenon Occurs at Grand Canyon, Offers Up Treat For Photographers

A rare occurrence at the Grand Canyon last week: a phenomenon called “total inversion” took place, which is when the canyon fills up with clouds. The National Service Park employees documented the scene with a number of photographs now on their Flickr page. They also released a timelapse video which makes it look like the clouds are literally waves crashing into the rocks. Total inversion occurs when cool, damp air gets trapped inside the canyon by warm air floating above, creating the fog-like effect. It apparently only happens once every few years too! (via LS)

Woman Gets Thrown From Horse Wearing Her Wedding Dress

There’s new footage of a bride-to-be being thrown from a horse at a recent photoshoot; ouch. The shoot was conducted by photographer Jarrett Hucks on a beach, when a group of equestrians rode by. The client saw the horses and wanted a photo of herself riding one in her wedding dress. She got on the horse and it just went nuts and threw her off. Luckily, the shoot was five months prior to the wedding and it was towards the end of the shoot with only 30 minutes left of daylight. Apparently the horse was scared because of the fabric from the dress. So take note ladies, don’t ride a horse on your wedding day… (via PP)

Get Your Logo Printed On Your Body and Lens Caps

A company called LenzBuddy is offering up custom lens and body caps. This time though, you can add personal branding such as logos, text, virtually whatever you want on the caps. They’re available for both Nikon and Canon lenses and bodies with prices ranging from $10 for generic caps, to $15 for customized ones. Is this something you’ll do for your gear? (via PP)

Nikon Warns That There Are Fake D800E Bodies Selling Online

Nikon is warning that fake D800E bodies are being sold around the web, mostly eBay. Apparently people are taking D800 bodies and replacing the outer shell with D800E covers. Nikon says that it discovered the problem when D800E owners sent their cameras in for repair. After examining the cameras, the technicians discovered that they were simply D800 DSLRs with their covers swapped with the D800E. To detect if yours is a fake, Nikon recommends using the image playback feature to check: “Display an image captured with your camera in the camera monitor. When the overview* display option is enabled in full-frame playback mode, the name of the camera used to capture the image is displayed in the top right corner. If “NIKON D800E” is displayed, your camera is an authentic D800E. If any other name is displayed, your camera is a fraudulent D800E.” Hopefully you didn’t get caught up with the scam! (via NR)