GigaOM » Apple

iPhone SLR mount is kind of expensive, kind of awesome

Darrell Etherington — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:02:21 +0000

Is it wrong that I want this new iPhone 4 SLR mount from Photojojo so badly? The new accessory provides a simple case/adapter combo that allows you to use either Canon or Nikon lenses with your iPhone 4. It’s a bit pricey at nearly $200, but also potentially a very cool add-on for consumers looking to up their mobile photography game.

The aluminum case itself features a tripod mount and hooks for a pro camera strap, so you can wear it around your neck and take night shots like a true pro. Just think of how jealous your Instagram followers will be when you snap some quality wildlife pics with your $3,000 telephoto lens. You might doubt the ability of the iPhone 4′s 5-megapixel camera to deliver the goods, even with your expensive SLR lens collection attached, but the Photojojo demo pics are actually pretty impressive.

As with previous prototypes, this solution runs up against the fact that you can’t replicate an internal mirror system with the iPhone’s built-in camera. However, it should be better than just your iPhone 4 acting on its own, especially when you’re trying to use digital zoom to capture a far-away subject. You could probably also shoot some pretty cool HD video with this lens adapter.

As of this writing, the check-out process is down but a fix is in the works, according to a Photojojo.com service rep. Maybe it couldn’t keep up with overwhelming demand for the iPhone 4 SLR mount. Anyone thinking about a purchase? I have a bag full of seldom used Canon-mount lenses that suggest it might be worth considering.

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Adobe Bridge as a Better iPhoto

Charles Moore — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:00:52 +0000

iPhoto is OK, especially if you like lots of automation when managing your image files, but it’s not as likely to appeal to pros or serious amateurs. Some will use Apple’s Aperture or Adobe’s Lightroom, but there’s another photo management solution you may already have on your hard drive.

I’m talking about Adobe’s Bridge utility, a photo file browser bundled with CS3 and CS4, and in a slightly feature-reduced version, with Photoshop Elements 6 (PSE). I prefer Bridge’s more manual control and configuration options to iPhoto’s automation of how you browse, organize, delete, search, view, edit, and apply metadata to your image files.

Photoshop is too expensive for most, but its consumer version, Photoshop Elements, retains much of the power and functionality of the full version at a relatively low price. The Bridge version Mac PSE users get lacks only a few esoteric bits, like the “meetings” feature that supports project collaboration and the ability to apply camera RAW settings to groups of photos or to access the RAW converter directly.

When you access the Bridge from PSE (File Menu — “Browse With Bridge”), the Elements interface hides and the Bridge interface appears, allowing you to display folder icons or content thumbnails. Six interface layouts are available, with several panels — called Workspaces — that help you find and preview photos, review associated metadata, and so on. You can use the predefined panels, or create your own custom Workspace.

Another Bridge feature, “Stacks,” organizes your photos into stacks of images. It lets you keep each series of photos in a single spot in Bridge, making it easier and faster to find the ones you want. Bridge also lets you apply keywords to help organize photos in growing photo libraries. In the Keywords panel you can create and assign terms to photos, allowing you to instantly filter your library.

There’s also Collections, which allows you to save groups of photos for quick access, or to gather shots you want to use in a project. For example, if you have several cameras, you can segregate your library based on the camera used by organizing the photos from each into different collections.

Note that, unlike in iPhoto, when you move or delete a file in Bridge, you’re editing or disposing of the original copy. Bridge doesn’t keep backups, as it is purely a browser for finding and organizing files — one of the reasons I, being manual control-oriented, prefer it. Bridge is not a busybody app that second-guesses you.

Recently, a reader with a photography business asked my advice on a good Mac-based photo management system. His requirements included the ability to add the files’ EXIF to his contact info, details on where and why the picture was taken, copyright info, and keywords searchable by various image galleries he uses. He also wanted a tool that would leave his directory structure intact. Sounded like a job for Bridge.

The reader said he’d owned almost every version of Photoshop, from 5 to CS3, and checked out Bridge when it was first introduced, finding it slow and clunky, but would give it another try. He reported back that the current version is much better, adding that my suggestion might have just saved him hours of tedious organizing.

If you already have Photoshop CS3 or Elements 6, it’s worth taking a look at Bridge. If you don’t have one of those apps, Photoshop Elements at $89.95 has to be one of the greatest-ever software bargains, and inclusion of Bridge in version 6 is the icing on the cake.

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Search for What You See With GazoPa for iPhone

Darrell Etherington — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:00:46 +0000

Google has their voice search, and to some extent, SnapTell and Amazon Mobile can return results based on images, but only within a very limited scope. What’s to be done if you have a picture of something that isn’t a DVD or a CD, or if you only have a picture in your head of what it is you’re looking for, but no actual photo to back it up?

Brand-new app GazoPa (free, iTunes link) from Hitachi is here to help you out. It’s an odd little application, but I was initially intrigued by the fact that you could basically search your doodles for similar images. By that, I mean actually draw on your iPhone or iPod touch’s screen, and then search the web for other pictures that look close. It’s like TinEye.com, but with the added bonus of a built-in touch tablet.

The web-based service that actually finds and returns results to the GazoPa app is still in beta, so you’ll need to have an account to use it, but I was sent an invitation immediately after I entered my email address at their sign-up page. Once signed up, I tried it using my crude rendering of an NES controller, and the results I got were more fun than accurate, although I didn’t take into account the fact that GazoPa uses color to determine results as well as shapes. My attempts with an SNES controller returned mostly track lighting, but again, my skills as an artist might be more to blame here.

Trying out the camera and album modes produced even more bizarre results. A photo of me holding up my Apple wireless keyboard returned buildings and women in dresses, and a recent Threadless t-shirt design taken from the app Threads brought back a lot of Soviet hammer & sickle images. But I have to admit that after looking at them for a while, they were undeniably similar in terms of color, composition and geometry.

Finding those kinds of images, though maybe not so useful for someone looking to find the name of something specific, are very handy if you happen to work in graphic design or you’re working on an art project. Thanks to the Shuffle feature, which just returns a bunch of random image results, it’s also a great way to try to find inspiration or a visual prompt if you’re totally stuck for ideas. It’s not a bad doodling app, either, and it’s free, which is more than can be said for most others.

More and more I’m leaning towards these kinds of apps for the iPhone, the ones that do slightly ludicrous and whimsical things that are only possible using Apple’s unique hardware.

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iPhone 101: Save Images from Safari and Email to phone

Jenny Kortina — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:00:16 +0000

I emailed my brother a picture of us when we were little to use as the picture that pops up when I call him, but when he received it he wasn’t sure how to save it to his iPhone (which you need to do to assign to a picture to a contact).

To save a picture to your iPhone library from Safari or an email:

Click and hold on the picture you want to save to your iPhone
Click “Save Image”

Now when you navigate to your photo album your newly saved picture will be there to do with it what you please

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Flickery – The “iPhoto” For Flickr

Bob Rudis — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:35:15 +0000

Eternal Storms has released a public beta of flickery, an OS X (Leopard only) client for flickr. It bring a great deal of iPhoto-like functionality to your flickr.com account in the way it displays photos and enables you to tag & group your collection. You can also browse, view and comment on pictures of your friends or upload and manage your own photos and favorites, all from a clean and simple interface. You can also perform minimal editing functions pre-upload along with the option to e-mail your images via Apple Mail and even download them.

The view options are pretty nice: you can switch from a mini-overview (pictured below) mode to full-window mode to full-screen view (with slide-show controls).

Main flickery App Window

Full Window Mode

Flickr Metadata Info Editor

Flickr Search

Download Progress

The full download is a (again, Leopard-only) Universal Binary and expires on June 30, 2008. Remember, it’s beta software, and while it worked fine for me, your mileage may vary. Overall, it is a great addition to the various flickr apps for the Mac. While iPhoto & FlickrExport will still be my primary means of getting images into flickr, I can definitely see myself using flickery as a way to organize my flickr library and search for images of interest.

If you give flickery a try, drop a note in the comments!

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