Welcome to Cool Stuff, a weekly feature where we post our favorite links from the past week, including our favorite articles and how-tos, videos, images and more.

• 

  The Nokia Pureview 808

  Nikon announced a 36MP D800. Did they just get one-upped by Nokia’s 41MP cameraphone monstrosity? PetaPixel has untouched photos from this thing.

• Photoshop Touch for Android tablets has been out since last year, but they didn’t get any buzz until they released it for iOS, apparently. It’s out now, for $9.99.
• Popular photo-sharing website 500px got a whole new look, and a new marketplace for photographers to sell their work.
• Speaking of makeovers, looks like Flickr is due to get one soon as well.
• And speaking of beautiful things, time-lapse photography has turned into an addiction of sorts for us. Here’s the latest, called “Temporal Distortion,” by Randy Halverson.
  
  Temporal Distortion from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.
• But wait! There’s more! Jarbas Agnelli adds a nice twist to his timelapse of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro by using a tilt-shift lens. The results are… well, see for yourself.
  
  The City of Samba from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.
• More prettiness: A new venture, called SeaView, aims to do for the ocean what Google Street View did for land. Check out some amazing imagery at the SeaView website.
• And just in case you thought we were going to end this list with just pretty things, we’ll switch gears to a business topic and mention that the folks at Photoshelter have released a free workbook on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for photographers.

That’s it for this week’s Cool Stuff. If you have something you think should be included, let us know! Email us at [email protected]

Welcome to Cool Stuff, a weekly feature where we post our favorite links from the past week, including our favorite articles and how-tos, videos, images and more.

• Lightroom users, rejoice! Adobe has a public beta of Lightroom 4 for you. Loads of new features, including video support, localized highlight and shadow controls, and more.
• Speaking of new releases, the X-Pro1 we mentioned last week is now official, with an ouch-inducing pricetag of about $1700.
• Sigma debuted a new 180mm Macro lens with Optical Stabilization. Then, one of only two pre-production lenses in existence was stolen from the CES show.
• Steadicam was also out at CES, and unveiled a new Merlin 2 stabilizer for camcorders and HDDSLRs.
  

  Photo etched into metal. Image courtesy Pixiq.com

• From the “That’s… cool?” department, Petapixel has a story about some really off-beat self-portraits… in a tub.
• You’ve all got (or seen) smartphones with cameras. Now Polaroid wants you to have a camera with a smartphone in it. If it works (and if it’s a decent camera), it’ll be a really neat idea.
• Our friends at Digital Photography School have an awesome roundup of 289 “Best photos of 2011″ blog posts. That’s right. 289 of them.
• The folks over at DPS also have a great piece on shooting video with DIY lights made from Home Depot parts.
• Speaking of DIY, here’s how you can make a DIY beauty dish for small flash.
• For a bit of a throwback, here’s how to etch your images into metal.
• And finally, one of the most impressive panoramic images I’ve ever seen: There’s guns, Camaros, a Lotus, helicopters and explosions, all in one single 360-degree panorama. Check out the behind-the scenes video embedded here…
  
  The Chase – BTS from Eric Herrmann on Vimeo.

That’s it for this week’s Cool Stuff. If you have something you think should be included, let us know! Email us at [email protected]

Welcome to the Weekly Recap. Today’s post recaps new and newsworthy items related to photography from around the web for the week ending on October 30.

1. It’s not news, but it is newsworthy – The folks over at The Photoletariat have posted an awesome video about vendor-client relationships. Many of our customers here at BorrowLenses.com will connect with this right away.
2. Burn, a riveting documentary about firefighters in Detroit was filmed using helmet-mounted Contour HD cameras (much like the GoPro cameras we rent). The documentary needs funding, however, so go over to the project’s Kickstarter page and help out if you can.
   BURN – Footage shot with Contour HD helmet cameras from Tom Putnam on Vimeo.
3. Here’s your slo-mo video of the week: Waves, shot at thousands of frames per second..
4. Adobe Photoshop 6 might just go with a Lightroom/Aperture-like theme. AppleInsider has a sneak peek into the next version of the popular image editing software.
5. Google+, which is getting a LOT of love from photographers, is now giving some love back. Google has introduced the Creative Kit, which allows you to add filters to your uploaded images.
6. The folks over at Phaidon press have released the third in a series of one-minute tips from National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry. McCurry took one of the most iconic photographs in the world, the June 1985 cover of National Geographic, called “Afghan Girl”.
7. File this under the “What? Why?” department. Nikon is reportedly looking at acquiring the WebOS operating system from HP.
8. Look! Up in the sky! It’s… a ball? No, it’s the future of aerial camera systems, says Petapixel. The Japanese ministry of defense has apparently gone off and invented a spherical flying device. Amazing.
9. APhotoEditor.com has an interesting read on shooting with your conscience. It’s not the first time that a photographer has turned down a client on principle, but it’s always interesting to hear about it anyway.
10. And, because it’s Halloween and we can’t very well leave this recap without a costume-related piece, here it is: A working Nikon camera costume.

Welcome to the Weekly Recap. Today’s post recaps new and newsworthy items related to photography from around the web for the week ending on October 9.

1. 

   Apple.com, in tribute to Steve Jobs

   Steve Jobs, 1955-2011: The greatest visionary of our time passed away last week. You’ve already read this all over the web, seen it on TV, but no news recap would be complete without mention of the passing of this icon.
   http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/
   

2. Staged Photojournalism: How much of the photojournalism you look at is staged? Photographer Ruben Salvadori takes a hard, critical look at that question in this provocative and very disturbing video.
   http://iso1200.blogspot.com/2011/10/is-really-photojournalism-real-behind.html
   
3. California photographers, pay up – quick! Didn’t pay your model as soon as the shoot was done? Tsk tsk. You might just get sued, thanks to an obscure labor law in California.
   http://www.petapixel.com/2011/10/05/photographer-looking-for-people-to-do-their-job-without-pay/
4. Adobe announces stuff. Everyone’s happy. Everyone’s mad. Just another Monday? Adobe announced a slew of new products at the MAX 2011 conference. Some things made people happy (Adobe Photoshop for tablets! Yay!).  Other things made people mad (Adobe Photoshop for tablets! Boo!). Adobe’s own Terry White has a nice roundup here:
   http://terrywhite.com/techblog/archives/8848
5. Google+ for photographers: A really good set of videos, courtesy of Scott Kelby. Definitely worth a view.
   http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2011/archives/22120
6. Yes, but will it focus? The guys at Fuji are planning a competitor to the Micro 4/3 format. Because we don’t have enough competing small-factor interchangeable lens formats.
   https://twitter.com/#!/fujiguys/status/121950934426337280
7. It’s real! No it’s not! One of the best demos we’ve ever seen of inserting 3D items into an image. Bad Photoshop jobs might be a thing of the past. PR departments at BP and in Iran rejoice.
   http://www.photoweeklyonline.com/rendering-3d-objects-into-photographs/
8. Is that a microscope in your pocket? More cool stuff from the “must have now even though I have no earthly use for it” department. The geeks at UC Davis have turned the iPhone’s camera into a microscope. No, you don’t need to upgrade to the 4S – unless you want Siri to tell you what horrible disease she sees in the magnified images.
   http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/uc-davis-iphone-tweak-turns-camera-into-disease-spotting-microscope/
9. Cancer is cruel and unforgiving, and now it looks to take Photojojo founder Amit Gupta too. Minorities are underrepresented in bone marrow donation banks. Please help.
   http://tumblr.amitgupta.com/post/11102689089/two-weeks-ago-i-got-a-call-from-my-doctor-who-id