DIY High Speed Photography

Makezine.com has an intriguing feature on do-it-yourself high speed photography - like capturing a balloon in mid-burst or a water drop as it just hits the surface of a container of water. Curiously, they used a disposable camera because its flash won't last as long as that of a commercial flash unit, which ends up letting the subject blur.

Hacking a Canon Point-and-Shoot

I wouldn't see myself doing this, but have to admire the determination and ingenuity of the people responsible. Lifehacker.com has an article on how to load low-level software (a firmware enhancement, if you know the term) into a Canon point-and-shoot, often achieving many of the following:

• added information on the display screen


• RAW image support, and not just JPEG


• exposure times of over a minute and shutter speeds over 1/25,000 sec


• automatic exposure bracketing

I am surprised and impressed by the claims - though I'm not quite ready to test them on one of the point-and-shoots members of my family own.