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.

• Okay, our banner with “R.I.P.” may be a bit over the top, but it really is the end of an era. Kodak, one of the most venerable photography companies in the world, has filed for bankruptcy. If only they had tried to live up to the spirit shown in this video:
• Speaking of things closing, online photo editing service Picnik is shuttering as well. The service, bought by Google, will shut down on April 19, 2012.
• Kodak may be in its death throes, but Olympus, despite its myriad troubles, is soldiering on. 43rumors has the leaked gossip on the revival of an old and loved Olympus brand, the “OM” cameras, in digital form. It’s called the OM-D and they’ve got a pic.
• We’ve made the comparison between Fuji and Kodak before; now, The Economist does it too.
• We can’t help but think that Kodak would’ve been more successful if it had done a better job of playing off its film roots. Take, for example, apps like VSCO Film. Jeremy Cowart has a great sample gallery on his blog and the company has a good video about it, embedded below. If only Kodak had thought of something like this…
  
  VSCO Film: An Overview from Visual Supply Company on Vimeo.
• And speaking of companies responding to changing times, good news! Adobe has reconsidered its ill-advised upgrade policy for CS6. Now, CS3 and CS4 users have an upgrade path to CS6 without having to buy CS5.5 first.
• Sony NEX users, rejoice! $400 now gets you use of a Canon EF lens with aperture control for your NEX camera. No more lusting after the awesome primes Sony hasn’t gotten around to making for the NEX system.
• More new stuff: Rode introduces two new microphones – with integrated audio recorders.
• 

  HDR on the front page of the Washington Post

  HDR haters and lovers: Ready? Aim! Fire! The Poynter Institute raises questions about the Washington Post’s decision to use an HDR image on its front page.

• And finally, for the significant others of photographers everywhere, the spouses of famous photographers sound off about what it’s like to be married to a professional shutterbug.

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 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.

• Don’t know if you guys heard, but there’s a new Nikon camera out. No biggie.
• Of course, like it wasn’t enough to announce the D4, Nikon’s site accidentally teased the D800, too.
• 

  Canon G1x. Image courtesy Canon.

  On the subject of new gear, CES kicks off today, and there’s a number of new items of note. The one garnering most of the attention right now is Canon’s new G1x, a big (almost APS-C-sized) sensor point and shoot.

• Fuji hasn’t announced it – yet – but the specs and pics of the upcoming X-Pro1 are all over the place. As usual, PetaPixel does a great job of rounding stuff up.
• Switching gears for a bit, how about this for new time-lapse tech: move your camera through 3D space – without physically moving it. Video of the how-to below.
  
  Camera projection timelapse test – breakdown from Patryk Kizny on Vimeo.
• Here’s a neat little app to create stereographic projections (hit the link for a sample).
• Lighting geeks, listen up. Popular Photography has a nice piece on understanding Flash Falloff on their site.
• While you’re lugging around your new D4/1Dx/Fuji/whatever, remember to pay a bit of attention to your health, too. Kevin Kubota talks about his experience with photography-related pain on his site.
• And finally, to top things off with a bit of humor, via FStoppers, a trick that every fashion photographer ought to know about slimming models.

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. Things have been quiet over the holidays, but there’s still a bunch of neat things around the web.

• We’re gonna start things off by quoting Popular Photography magazine here: “If you think your eyeballs are on fire after a marathon session editing in Photoshop, consider sorting through 1,200 rolls of film with slides, a loop, and a light box.” Check out the video below – and yes, that IS Joe McNally in a mustache.
• Speaking about a blast from the past, here’s how spy satellite photography worked in the days before digital imaging. Hint: They used film. Really.
• Now here’s an interesting twist on things. The folks over in New Hampshire have proposed a law that would lead to criminal charges against TSA screeners if they tried to prevent you from recording them at airport checkpoints. Yes, you heard that right. It’s a law aimed at increasing traveller freedoms, not decreasing them. Go New Hampshire!
• They may be down, but they’re not out – yet. Olympus is besotted with legal and financial issues, but that doesn’t mean it’s not working on new stuff. According to TechRadar, they’re working on a revolutionary new camera with an “epoch-making” viewfinder.
• Of course, Olympus will have competition from Fuji, which is still working on its interchangeable lens camera. Petapixel has the latest leaked image on their website.
• From the “he did that how…?” department, photography Anthony Chang made an awesome image of a liquid rose.
• Remember that awesome time-lapse of the planet from the International Space Station we showed you a while back? Here’s how it was made.
• Look, we pack heavy when we go on photographic trips – we admit it. But what would we carry if we had to go into a war zone? Well, here’s what one Reuters photographer decided to lug along.
• If you followed our FaceBook page, you saw this mentioned, but here it is again: The winners of National Geographic’s 2011 photo contest.
• We leave you with a warm, feel-good story. An AP photographer tracked down a wounded Marine to give him a memento of the battle that led to their meeting.

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.

• We love creative stuff like this Canon Commandos vs Nikon Terrorists video. That Canon 100–400 makes for an awesome shotgun!
• It’s here! Issue 2 of Kelby Media Group’s “Light It” magazine has finally been approved by the Apple App Store. Technical difficulties with memory leaks and other issues held up the release of the magazine’s second issue, but it’s now here.
• Okay, so it’s not precisely photography-related, but it’s worth mentioning. Artist Miguel Endara made an image of his father with over 3 million dots, all created using a pen.
• So this was on our Facebook page earlier, but it bears repeating: Awkward holiday photos FTW!
• What does a monkey riding a bull look like? Time magazine will show you as part of their “Most Surprising Photos of 2011” piece.
• 3D photography may or may not be your thing, but if it is, this patent from Olympus might make you Micro 4/3 shooters out there salivate.
• Canon 1Dx lovers, you have competition. Nikon Rumors revealed the upcoming D4 specs and it looks like the upcoming Canon flagship has serious competition.
• We’ve all heard about the problems Olympus has encountered of late. Now it looks like another venerable company might just be their white knight. Rumors are circulating about a Fujifilm buyout of Olympus.
• And finally, to round things off, our favorite new timelapse. Tom Lowe is one of the icons in the industry and we’re thrilled to see his film, Timescapes, is now out. The thing is practically feature-length and is jaw dropping. Take a gander at the trailer…
  
  TimeScapes 4K from Tom Lowe 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 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.

• Okay, this was published a while back, but I don’t think we’ve mentioned this yet, so here it is: one of our favorite timelapses.
  
  
  Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.
• For all you retro film buffs out there, Photojojo has your Twin Lens Reflex fix. It doesn’t get any cooler than showing up for your next film-photographer’s photowalk with your very own DIY TLR camera.
  

  DIY TLR camera from Photojojo

• Speaking of retro, how’s this for DIY: a digital Lomography-style camera made from the guts of a crappy Vivitar digicam and an old Olympus lens.
• And, while we’re on the topic of new cameras, Nikonians rejoice! D800 pics and specs leaked, courtesy of (who else) Nikonrumors.com.
• People continue to push the boundaries of what’s considered photography. Aaron Hobson takes Google Street View photographs and converts them to fine art pieces. Some of them, I have to say, are pretty darn good.
• They say audio is at least 50% of any motion picture experience. This piece from Oliviatech.com is a useful insight into audio capture.
• Don’t like your day job? Neither did Ansel Adams, so you’re in good company. He felt his commercial work was cutting into his art too.
• Wanna learn how to freeze liquids with light instead of a freezer? Check out this new site from Alex Koloskov. Amazing stuff, especially when you consider how much he likes to achieve in-camera.
• It really is the photographer, not the camera – and Annie Leibovitz adds to that sentiment. Her favorite snapshot camera – the iPhone.
• And last, but not least, images of Fuji’s upcoming interchangeable lens camera have been leaked. Fujians, it’s your (our) turn to rejoice.

The FaceBook App for iPad. Image courtesy FaceBook.com

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 16.

1. Facebook releases iPad app: Why should photographers care? Well, apparently, it makes your photos bigger. And bigger, as they say, is better.
   http://www.photoweeklyonline.com/facebook-ipad-app/
2. Thailand floods, Nikon affected: The floods in Thailand have reached Nikon’s factories there, the company says. Price hikes on Nikon products to follow, rumors say.
   http://nikonrumors.com/2011/10/10/thailand-flooding-reaches-nikons-factories.aspx/
3. Everyone – including 500px – has an app: Just a few days ago, a third-party company released an iPhone app for 500px.com, the popular photo sharing site. Now, the company has its own app for the iPad.
   http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/500px/id471965292?mt=8
4. Ouch: This is why everyone needs to wear a GoPro. Yes, we know. It’s textbook schadenfreude.
   http://www.photoweeklyonline.com/cyclists-collision-with-hartebeest-filmed-with-gopro-helmet-camera/ 
5. New Canon and Nikon cameras soon: From the “We’ll believe it when we see it,” category.
   http://www.petapixel.com/2011/10/12/canon-and-nikon-may-both-announce-new-dslrs-by-months-end
6. And we ask again: Fuji, will it focus? Fuji announces pricing and availability of the “Baby X100″.
   http://www.dpreview.com/news/1110/11100710fujifilmx10price.asp
7. More from the “Want it!” category: One camera plate to rule them all.
   http://www.petapixel.com/2011/10/13/the-m-plate-one-camera-tripod-plate-to-rule-them-all
8. Film is going away. Again. Really, this time: Chalk this under the “Haven’t we heard this before?” department? For the record, I still shoot some film.
   http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/film-fading-to-black 
9. Kickstarter, part 1: Not just for cool iPhone and iPod accessories, Kickstarter can also fund some awesome photographic projects. National Geographic photographer Gerd Ludwig goes to Chernobyl on a crowdfunded budget.
   http://blog.photoshelter.com/2011/10/success-in-crowdfunding-the-long-shadow-chernobyl/
10. Kickstarter, part 2: They asked for $20,000. They got just under half a million. Here come the Cineskates.
    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jj1/cineskates-camera-sliders?ref=live