Just discovered you can take '3D' pictures with Google Camera

Depthy extracts the depth map made by Google Camera Lens Blur photos allowing you to view them with a 3D parallax effect and changing of focus.

The picture in the post is just a shitty GIF export, it's way more awesome to play around with it yourself. Here is an example I made. Be sure to check out all the options in the settings.

Here is the Depthmap generated by the software, pretty impressive.

Google is now applying this tech to allow you to make 3D panoramas to view in Cardboard/VR: https://googleblog.blogspot.nl/2015/12/step-inside-your-photos-with-cardboard.html

I guess it's just a matter of time before we can get miniature drones that use this to automatically capture whole scenes in full 3D for you.

The Sony Alpha A7s allows you to turn night into day with its ridiculously high 409,600 ISO sensitivity

Almost unbelievable that this video was captured at night with only the moon for illumination. My brain just can't seem to process it, as its light sensitivity is so vastly better than my night vision, and its in full color too!

 

Super awesome, though a bit unsettling that while you might think you are hidden privately in the dark someone with this camera could clearly see you. I don't think the girl in the video knew she could be filmed like that :)

Here is another impressive video with some more variation and comparison between ISO settings.

High end smartphone cameras are approaching the quality of compact cameras

Just came across this article comparing the Galaxy S6 camera to the Sony RX100, a €350 compact. It's not quite there yet, especially when you zoom to 100%, but I'm very impressed with how close the results are. It's amazing how quickly these things have improved, though maybe not so surprising considering it is one of the prime features of smartphones being carried around by nearly two billion people.

With so much funding behind it engineers have managed to make all kinds of innovations tackling some of the seemingly impossible obstacles inherent in having a smaller camera. I'm convinced they will keep doing so and the gap will be negligible in a few years.

Even at this point I don't think I will be buying a compact camera again but will go for a high end smartphone instead. Besides the much better form factor a smartphone can also do things like GPS tagging, timelapses, 4K video, slow motion video, HDR burst. And there is a large choice of apps allowing you to get your favorite interface and features.

A top of the line expensive smartphone now also looks like a much better deal to me as it saves me from buying a compact.

Some CSI-level photo manipulation

A Computational Approach for Obstruction-Free Photography

Ireland, West Coast

I see your rainbow and raise you a waterfall :P

Rainbow from Ireland

First close-up of Pluto

More to come...

Amazing Interactive 360 degree video from a helicopter flying over the active Plosky Tolbachik Volcano

See it here

Bloody amazing

360 video, Plosky Tolbachik Volcano, Kamchatka, Russia, 2012
In early 2011 we developed a method for filming and editing 360 video shot by 4 Canon DSLR cameras and posted an article with technical details on our website.
Here you can see our first 360 video tests.
Something that was impossible for many years is now happening on your screens.
Now we would like to show the unique 360 video of the Plosky Tolbachik volcano eruption, Kamchatka, Russia which has been taken in December 2012.
Please note that in order to view 360 video online you need a powerful computer and fast Internet connection.

One Trippy Profile Pic

It made my brain hurt. And this guy looks a a bit like tha Douche

Photocrome pictures of Utrecht 1890-1900

I found these amazing pictures on this site. Amazing how little has changed actually. These are not true color photographs but created by the photochrom process.

Here is a much higher resolution version of the above picture I found.

Digging deeper I found the original source of these pictures and a few more which has very high resolution TIFFs. I put the high resolution photos together in an album here.

I also found out that in 1908 a tram line was built through the city that actually passed under the Dom tower.

Rainbow People

Time Lapse View from Space

Google Earth item collector

This guy got some collection mania, but it are some nice collages:

The Dark Side of Saturn

Source

More cool pics

Relevant

Shutter and aperture in slow motion

Eyegasm

The Biggest Mirror in the World

The Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometers, when rain covers it with water it becomes the biggest mirror on Earth.

Battle for Lybia: video made by a Lybian soldier

Space Shuttle and Space Station

How was it made? :-)