This is how it works:

• To operate, slide the front face open and insert your mobile phone.
• Turn the lens to select which lens effect you want.
• The Slow Photography camera has three lenses; fixed focal length, macro and fisheye. Carefully compose your shot by looking through the viewfinder and push the shutter release to capture your shot.

Designer: href="http://www.dmccourt.com/" >David McCourt

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But unfortunately most of the time we’re either in a hurry, pushed for space or can’t afford all the necessary accessories we really need.

Luckily there’s an increasing market of small cameras and video cameras that are not only compact and lightweight, but they’re practical for everyday use, travel or even special occasions.

From the tough and expensive, to the bright, cheap and cheerful, we’ve collected together some new and old favourites:

Pixiq has a great write up on the similarities and differences between the human eye and a camera. Apparently, we’re the same in image focusing and light adjustment but different in lens focus and sensitivity to light. What else? More »

The NX10, Samsung’s first mirrorless camera, was smaller than a DSLR, but it still looked like a DSLR. The NX100 does not—it’s all flat surfaces and gentle curves and even sticks a manual control on the lens itself. More »

Now dating site OK Cupid has proof.

According to OK Cupid’s survey of 552,000 user pictures, digital SLRs make you look more attractive, Panasonic cameras make you sexier than Nikons, while using a flash will make you look 7 years older, and large-aperture lenses make you hotter.

And iPhone users have more sexual partners than BlackBerry or Android owners. By age 30, the average male iPhone user has had about 10 partners while female iPhone users have had 12. By contrast, BlackBerry users hover around 8 partners and Android users have a mere 6.

As the blog’s author’s wryly observe: “Finally, statistical proof that iPhone users aren’t just getting fucked by Apple.”

That should give iPhone and iPad users some comfort for being considered ‘selfish elites,’ as another recent survey found.

OK Cupid has been analyzing the behavior of the site’s millions of users for some time, and has discovered many interesting tidbits: People tend to lie on their profiles, people’s political preferences change as they age, and men can increase their chances of getting a date by being open to older women. The site’s massive dataset, huge volume of activity, and interesting slicing and dicing combine to produce some keen observations on human nature.

But for gadget heads, there’s no more pertinent observation than (hard) data. The Panasonic Micro 4/3 camera will make you look far more attractive than a Canon DSLR, which in turn is better than a Nikon or Sony DSLR. And forget about cameraphones: Android, Nokia, BlackBerry and Windows phones all make you look less attractive, with Motorola phones at the absolute bottom of the list.

Similarly, the type of camera you wield makes a big difference. There’s a dramatic illustration showing how the same woman looks photographed with a cameraphone, a point-and-shoot camera, and an SLR. That makes sense: As we’ve explained before, larger image sensors give you better-quality images.

Along the same lines, a larger-aperture photo lets you put the background out of focus, increasing the apparent attractiveness of the person you’re taking a picture of.

So if you wanted an excuse to buy a fancier camera with a bigger lens, OK Cupid’s got all the rationale you need.

As for switching from Android or BlackBerry to an iPhone? Well, that’s up to you. Unlike with the photos, it’s hard to tell whether iPhone use is the cause, or the effect, of having more notches in one’s bedpost.

OkTrends, via EthanZ

Image: via OKCupid

Follow us for real-time tech news: Dylan Tweney and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Supersized panoramic photos of cities are the flavor of the season. After Prague and Dubai, it’s the turn of Budapest to get a detailed online photo that you can zoom in and out of and play around with–almost like Google Earth.

The photo shot over four days has 70-gigapixels. If the finished picture is ever printed, it would make a a poster 156 meters (511 feet) long and 31 meters (101 feet) tall. The amount of paper it would take would cover two apartment blocks at least 10 floors tall.

To shoot the photo, two 25-megapixel Sony A900 cameras were fitted with a 400mm Minolta lens and 1.4 X teleconverters and placed on a robotic camera mount. 20,000 test images later, the file was processed to create a single interactive photo.

Check out the Budapest photo here. It’s a tad blurry and sometimes pixelated if you zoom in too much but still fun to play around with.

See Also:

• Gigapan Robotic Camera Rig Goes Pro
• World’s Largest Panoramic Photo Is the Size of 1200 Billboards …
• 18-Gigapixel Panorama Offers Breathtaking View of Prague
• Hands-On With the Gigapan Epic 100 Panorama Robot

Photo: 70 Billion Pixels Budapest

[via Engadget]

GigaPan’s robotic camera mounts can help spit out pictures to create fantastically detailed panoramic photos. That’s what photographer Gerald Donovan has used to create what is being billed as the world’s largest photo.

Donovan has created a 45-gigapixel image of Dubai that, if printed, would be the size of nearly 1,200 billboards, says GigaPan.

The photo consists of 4,250 pictures that took about three-and-a-half hours to shoot.

“This was intended as a technical test,” Donovan said in a statement. “It was about exploring the limits of the hardware and software out there.”

Earlier attempts using the GigaPan Epic mount have resulted in an 18-gigapixel panoramic view photo of Prague and a 26-gigapixel image of Paris.

GigaPan launched its Epic Pro mount in March. The mount can handle a DSLR camera and lens combination of up to 10 lbs. Earlier versions of the mount were created for lightweight and compact cameras. The Pro, designed with a magnesium chassis and aluminum arm, weighs about 8 lbs including the battery pack and features such as the ability to adjust time between exposure, motor speed, aspect ratio and picture overlap.

The image of Dubai’s landscape was shot using using a Canon 7D camera coupled with the Pro mount. With the help of GigaPan engineers, Donovan stitched the thousands of photos into one very large image using the Autopano stitching software and uploaded it to the GigaPan.org site.

Check out the 45-gigapixel photo of Dubai. You can zoom in and out and get a great view of Dubai including the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khailfa. The picture isn’t crystal clear though. Donovan says the poor air quality in Dubai when he shot the photo is to blame.

See Also:

• Gigapan Robotic Camera Rig Goes Pro
• Hands-On With the Gigapan Epic 100 Panorama Robot
• GigaPan Releases Camera Rig for Automated Panorama Photos
• 18-Gigapixel Panorama Offers Breathtaking View of Prague

Photo: Panoramic view of Dubai/Gerald Donovan

If you take photos with anything other than a little point and shoot, you will have, once in your life, lost a lens cap. Shortly afterwards, you would have found out that a simple plastic disk can be sold for almost $20 (or even $40).

This stung, you will be particularly pleased with this little hack from Benny Johansson. It’s a lens cap saver, and unlike the annoying commercial products which dangle the cap from a cord stuck to the camera body, this one is elegant, functional and free.

The holder consists of two parts. First, you cut a hook from an old shampoo bottle and slide it onto the camera’s neck-strap. Next, you drill a couple holes in the edge of the cap itself and thread through a short elastic cord. Now, when you take off the cap you can hang it by this little elastic loop. Benny has thoughtfully provided a PDF template so you can cut the hook to make a snug enough fit.

A further improvement can be made if you only ever use one lens, or have a fixed lens on the camera. You still hang the cap from the plastic hook, but the cord can be permanently attached twixt cap and camera as an extra safety measure.

We prefer the version without the “cute” animal faces, and as soon as I get home from the Wired office, where they won’t let me near the scissors, I shall be making a couple.

SkottiRotta Lens cap holder [Benvelo via DIY Photography]

This wonderful piece of plastic sculpture isn’t just a Polaroid Land Camera. Take a closer look and you’ll see that it is a Polaroid Land Camera made from Lego. To see just how good it is, below is the original, from Flickrer Timmy Toucan.

That’s some rather creative Lego use right there, but the replica, showcased at the Lego-fetish site Brickshelf, prompts a rather interesting question. Why don’t cameras look this good today? Is is merely the retro-stylings of yesteryear which look so good to our eyes, bored as they are by the amorphous blobs of plastic that are today’s gadgets? Or is the Polaroid just a design classic, its beautiful lines obviously superior even when masked by the misty swirls of time?

Clearly something to consider as we end yet another year, and the instant nature of the extinct Polaroid is the perfect metaphor for, well, instant disappearing things. More importantly, is there anything around today which will look this good in the future? Thinking of cameras, I come up with the Olympus Pen, but that is based on an old design itself. Suggestions? Put them in the comments.

Lego Polaroid [Arvo/Brickshelf via Giz]

Polaroid Land Camera 1000 [Camerapedia]

Real Polaroid Photo: Timmy Toucan/Flickr

The camera is available in two versions of pink. The area surrounding the lens is decked out in Swarovski crystals and of course features the face of Kitty and her trademark bow. Spec-wise, this is a a solid camera. It has 12.1 megapixels and 3x optical zoom. There’s also intelligent Auto Focus that can detect any subject and automatically adjust exposure and focus. In addition, the Dynamic Photo function has been tweaked making it both easier and faster to create animated greeting cards or any other digital creations.

Unfortunately, this camera is a Korea exclusive, so you’ll have to find an import site. But that shouldn’t be too big of a hurdle for Hello Kitty fans.The price tag, however, might be a little much to swallow. Expect to pay $500 to satisfy your Hello Kitty lust.

Via Aving.net