Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 9, 2008 in
Camera Gear,
Photography 
Surfing the web I have came across a very neat gadget. It’s a lens accessory that has a cut-out on the side and a precision mirror inside. This enables you to shoot left, right, up, or down (it swivels 360 degrees), all looking like there were shot straight ahead. The concept? Point your camera 90 degrees away from your subject – and the mirror inside the attachment reflects the image to your lens.
This is an excellent accessory for shooting shy people, afraid of being photographed, or for street photography without being noticed.
It’s called (very funny) “Super-Secret-Spy lens” and it’s sold by Photojojo.com.
Specifications:
- Works with any SLR lens: Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Olympus, etc.
- You need lenses with diameter of: 37mm,46mm, 49mm, 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm, and 77mm. It has an adapter for each size.
- Works with zoom lenses (at least 50mm). If you use wider lens you will encounter heavy vignetting
- Swivels 360 degrees to let you take 90° candid shots in any direction
- You can use AF an any other lens or camera functions without being limited.
Be sure to check the images and video to see how it works.
Tags: Camera Gear, Lenses, Photography, Release
Posted by Constantin Chirila on Dec 7, 2008 in
Camera Gear,
Photography 
I was recently asked by a friend of mine these couple of questions: “Prime lens? Zoom lens?”. He wanted to buy a new lens and was a little confused by these 2 terms. After I explained to him, I decided to share this “lesson” with the rest of you. So here it goes.
What is exactly a Prime lens?
Well, a prime lens is a lens that has a fixed focal lengths. Some examples of prime lenses: 14mm, 15mm, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm, 200mm, 300mm, 400mm, 600mm, etc. (There are a lot more that i have missed). So bottom line there is no zooming involved. These are similar to our eyes, you cannot zoom with your eyes, you can only distinguish things at a relative close distance and depending on the size. And if you want to see something more clearly, you get close, exactly what you have to do with your camera that has a prime lens mounted on it.
What about Zoom lens?
The zoom lens it’s a different story. It has a range of focal lengths available in one lens. So you can have a wide and telephoto lens in just one lens. So you have the ability to zoom and take a shot. Some examples of zoom lenses: 18-55mm, 17-40mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, 18-200mm, etc (There are hundreds of lenses with different combinations).
Now I will try to put a ruff list of the advantages and disadvantages of these 2 types of lenses. Some people might disagree with me since this is more of a personal choice and you can see a lot of contradictory discussions around the web about how one outperforms the other (like Canon VS Nikon “wars”).
Read more…
Tags: Camera Gear, Canon, Lenses, Nikon, Photography
