Monthly:May 2014
When I tried The Impossible Instant Lab, I used the corresponding iOS app to choose the digital images I wanted to create instant photos from as well as the exposure time for the instant film material I used. The app let’s me create analog images with the instant lab, which basically is just a housing case for the instant film cartridge and the iPhone while exposing and is manually operated. But the app also works the other way around. It […]
With affordable 4K displays around the corner a higher resolution than the offered 2K frame-by-frame scanning would be nice for my 8mm film, since products like ARRISCAN provide up 6K/4K. The question would be, whether this makes sense at all, taking the natural resolution of the 8mm motion picture film format into consideration. The filmstrip of the format is 8 millimeters wide, providing the name for the 8mm film. Super8 has a larger image area than Normal 8 due to its smaller perforations, 5.79mm x 4.01mm (0.228” […]
I recently tried The Impossible Instant Lab at the Apple store in Hamburg during their creative workshop tour around Europe (recently being February 2014, but I didn’t get around to writing anything about it).Here are some instant photos I created on that day: They look quite nice and the image quality totally surprised me, since I clearly remember many not so decent photos from my childhood.
In 2012 the kickstarter project for the instant lab got funded. It let’s you create instant photos from digital images on smartphones and was developed by The Impossible Project. They develop new instant film material for Polaroid cameras since 2008 and basically saved Polaroid instant film from extinction. “Some images are just too good to be buried somewhere on your mobile phone. With the Impossible Instant Lab you can now transform any digital image into a real, one-of-a-kind analog instant […]
Don’t do anything that someone else can do. Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible. “The Vindication of Edwin Land”, Forbes magazine, Vol. 139 (4 May 1987) p. 83 Happy Birthday Edwin Land, today is as good a time as any to take a look at his life and appreciate his vision about the Polaroid instant camera. Not only did he co-found the Polaroid Corporation, he invented in-camera instant photography.
With sonar focussing, Polaroid introduced an instant auto focus system for their SX-70 instant film cameras. It is described in the user manual as follows: “As you begin to press the shutter button, your camera releases sound waves to the central part of the scene. The frequencies are far beyond your range of hearing and travel at the speed of sound. The split second it takes for the sound to reach your subject and the echo to return is fed into […]
I started testing a Polaroid SX-70 instant film camera with sonar focusing, which Polaroid advertised as the ultimate in one-step photography. Polaroid implemented an active autofocus system into the instant film camera with ultrasonic sound waves. The distance to the object is calculated by measuring the delay between emission and reflection of sound waves. Therefor this system can also be used in darkness. To my knowledge, it was the first consumer autofocus SLR system. Various SX-70 models were available between 1972 and […]
Toto announced the release of 35th anniversary tour concert film: 35TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR – LIVE IN POLAND. It is available on CD, DVD, and Blu-ray as well as digital download since April 29th 2014. The band members in this tour are Steve Lukather (guitars, vocals), David Paich (keyboards, vocals), Steve Porcaro (keyboards) Joseph Williams (vocals), Simon Phillips (drums), Nathan East (bass, vocals), Mabvuto Carpenter (vocals), Amy Keys (vocals). That’s quite a setup with Williams and Porcaro rejoining the band. I enjoyed this setup for the past few years. Unfortunately […]
