You can now store 10,000 gigs of photos in DNA: RAWtalk 179

Just a small smear of DNA can store up to 10 gigabytes of Data, who knew. You might want to make sure you’re not drinking anything during the DNA discussion at 36:50 of this weeks show.

This weeks show brought you by LEXAR. We use LEXAR Micro SD, SD, XQD and Compact flash cards. We use the min everything and suggest you check them out for your card storage needs.

Lots of Photo News, Lots of Flying Solo and Lot’s of Meme’s.

Keep on enjoy RAWtalk and we will keep bringing you more.

00:00:16 – Show Start
00:00:18 – Jared’s Phillies Shoot
00:02:45 – Jared’s Soccer Shoot with the D5
00:05:50 – Random T-shirt Sale
00:08:50 – Lightroom 30 for 30 is officially LIVE
00:10:50 – Noah Replaced Joe!
00:11:05 – This Week’s Plug: Lexar
00:14:25 – Announcing Allen’s “Canon Ball” Event
00:16:45 – Photo News
00:17:20 – Stephen’s new iPad!
00:36:50 – Photos Can Be Stored in DNA?!
00:45:52 – Gear of the Week: Think Tank Production Manager 50
00:47:17 – Flying Solo
01:17:43 – Wheel of Fro
01:23:57 – This Week’s Memes/Videos

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

Photographer Robbed of His Pre-Production Model of the Canon 1DX Mark II

A photographer named Radomir Jakubowski was robbed of his pre-production model of the upcoming Canon 1DX Mark II along with all of his gear. The photographer says he stepped away from his car for about ten minutes in Spain to take some photos and when he got back, his back window was smashed, backseats down, and all of his gear taken from his trunk. He even parked his hatchback close against a concrete wall to prevent the trunk from being open. Totaling up to over $30,000 in gear loss, the gear includes his 5DSR on loan from Canon, the pre-production model of the 1DX II and about six L lenses and two extenders; ouch. Local police say that the thieves were part of an organized group that most likely were watching and following him for a period of time before snagging the gear (how else would they have known to go straight for the trunk on a random car?). Check out his blog post on the whole incident, where you can find all of the serial numbers for the stolen gear. He’s offering a reward of 10% of the recovered gear’s value to anyone with information about the theft. The worst part? The gear was not covered by insurance… (via KE)

“Photographer From Hell” Sued by Newlyweds for Bad Wedding Photos

A newlywed couple’s wedding day was ruined by an amateur photographer, and now they’re suing, calling her “a photographer from hell.” The couple, Paul and Chareen Wheatley, paid student photographer Chloe Johnston £500 to shoot nine hours of their big day, which was back in September. It didn’t start off great either, as the photographer didn’t confirm she was even attending the wedding until the night before. Then, she was 45 minutes late, without any additional lighting equipment including a simple flash—something they specifically noted. She even took the bride out in a wooded area where she had to trek through mud in her wedding dress, that left her beautiful white dress filthy. They say the groom couldn’t join them for the formals either because he couldn’t walk in that area due to his knee problems—something that photographer should’ve thought about. The couple also note that she only took 15 pictures at the reception, spending more time in the Photo Booth taking selfies of herself. They say the remaining photos were “grainy” without their faces even being shown (again, no flash available): “They are awful, most of them aren’t taken properly with some people partly cut out, the quality of the images were rubbish too.” The worst part? The couple says that when they complained about the quality of their pictures, Miss Johnston took to social media and complained about them online. Fast forward to December, the couple won their appeal for a refund at the small claims court at Leeds County Court and after enlisting the help of bailiffs reclaimed £605 just three weeks ago. Check out some of the pictures that Miss Johnston took over at the Daily Mail. The photographer says that if they expected better quality photos then they shouldn’t have hired a student photographer to take them… (via DM)

Impossible Project Reveals its Own Instant Camera

The Impossible Project is “reinventing the original instant camera” with their own instant camera—the first from the instant film company. Called the I-1, the camera uses Impossible type 600 film, which will also take Polaroid 600 film of course. It has an “advanced ring flash” which automatically adjusts based on ambient light and focus distance, along with a built-in USB rechargeable battery too, so no more relying on the film’s battery pack. It will act like an original Polaroid camera with little-to-no buttons on the camera itself, shooting fully automatic. Or, if you want to get fancy in today’s digital age, they also have an app for it which pairs with the camera via Bluetooth and gives you full manual controls over the cameras settings and additional creative tools. The camera is set to hit shelves on May 10 for $300.

Lytro Announces 755MP Cinema Camera That Shoots 40K Resolution

Lytro has officially left the world of consumer cameras and debuted “the worlds first Light Field solution for film and television.” Announcing their 755MP Cinema camera at NAB, which boasts the “highest resolution video sensor ever designed”. The camera captures RAW 40K resolution with 16 stops of dynamic range at up to 300fps—whoa! And get this: data wise, it shoots 400GB of data per second—PER SECOND! With this new camera, it combines 2D and 3D worlds by turning every frame of video into a 3D model. They note that you can do away with the green screen for good when shooting with this camera. It captures everything about the scene, from different perspectives, focal lengths, shutter speeds, framerates, apertures, and more. Essentially it’s a virtual camera that can be controlled in post-production, making it much easier to combine realistic looking CG objects into the frame. You can change everything after the fact in post, from the camera’s position—shifting it left or right—to the focus plane and more. Check out Lytro’s video introducing and explaining everything about the Lytro Cinema camera below and head to their official website for more information.

Photographer Attaches LEDs to Drone to Light Giant Landscapes at Night

A photographer named Reuben Wu used his drone not as a camera, but as an assistant: he lit giant landscapes at night by attaching LEDs to his drone. He mounted a prototype light by Fiilex called the AL250 Light onto his 3DR Solo drone. Flying it overhead, he created dramatic landscape images by lighting only certain sections of the landscape to highlight specific features for a more theatrical look. He took the photos with a wide variety of cameras too including a PhaseOne XF 100MP, a Leica M-P 240, and a Canon 5D Mark III. Check out the resulting photos here along with a BTS video on the project below; good use of a drone for a landscape photographer! (via PP)

Stream Live To Facebook Now From Your DJI Drone

Speaking of drones, Facebook has teamed up with DJI and made live streaming possible from any of their drones that work with the DJI Go app. DJI says the update will come by the end of April that will enable the drones to stream live on the social media platform.

Drone Racing Officially Coming to ESPN

One last quick thing about drones, Drone racing is officially coming to ESPN. The International Drone Racing Association teamed up with the sports network to broadcast their 3-day national championships live in NYC this August. The entire race will be live on the online channel ESPN3 before being edited down to a one-hour TV broadcast on an ESPN network. ESPN says drone racing “is poised to become the next behemoth racing sport alongside NASCAR and Formula 1.” The live stream will start Aug. 5th and run till the 7th, then they will live stream the Hawaii race in October as well. Is drone racing the Nascar of the future? (via TV)

Scientists Discover Method to Store 10,000GB of Photos in DNA

Scientists say they have figured out a way to store digital photos in DNA. Researchers at Microsoft and the University of Washington developed the new archive method, which allows data to be encoded, stored and retrieved using just DNA molecules, which they say can hold data millions of times better than current archival solutions. They note that 10,000GB of data can be stored in a single tiny smear of DNA found at the bottom of a test tube. Testing out the new method, the scientists have successfully encoded and decoded four photos in a snippet of DNA. They say, “Life has produced this fantastic molecule called DNA that efficiently stores all kinds of information about your genes and how a living system works — it’s very, very compact and very durable. We’re essentially re-purposing it to store digital data — pictures, videos, documents — in a manageable way for hundreds or thousands of years.” They add that current technologies have lifespans of only decades where DNA can preserve data for centuries. Check out their full research paper here explaining how they did it. Bye harddrives! (via Gizmodo)

Adobe Updates Creative Cloud Video Apps, Finally Brings Proxy Editing to Premiere Pro

Adobe has updated several of their Creative Cloud video editing apps including Premiere Pro and Audition. Updates to Premiere include proxy workflows—finally— being able to create proxies upon import, support for 8K and HDR media too. New enhanced Lumetri Color tools were also introduced including a HSL Secondaries tool, making color correction even easier for specific colors. It has new VR editing features and export flags as well. In Audition, they added a new Essential Sound panel which is like sound for dummies, quick shortcuts and presets with simple terminology. After Effects and Media Encoder have also been updated with several new features. Check out a list of all the updates here, along with a video explaining the new features below:

Photographer Nearly Gets Decapitated Trying To Shoot In-Bound Airplane

A photographer nearly got his head taken off while trying to shoot an in-bound airplane at St. Bart’s notoriously dangerous airport. A passerby captured a photographer hunched over as the plane is coming directly at him. In the video below, you see the photographer duck last minute while the plane flies literally inches above his head to land. The best part? All of this was captured in 360-degree video. The photographer notes at the end of the footage that the plane did indeed hit the top of his hand; scary stuff. (via PP)

Engineers Create Concept Camera That Bends & Is Shaped Like a Credit Card

Engineers at Columbia University have created what they’re calling a “sheet camera.” Shaped and sized like a credit card, the concept camera lets you change the field of view by simply bending the sheet. In the concept video that I posted below, they explain that the camera is similar to a piece of plastic where it will conform to whatever its attached to. They use a car as an example, wrapping the camera around the edge of the car, allowing the driver to see a 360 degree perspective of his surroundings, eliminating blind spots. Check out the concept camera video below which hints at numerous scenarios that this camera will be useful in: (via TX)