Velvet Cartel

Sorry for my extended absence, but I’m back. And posting in style!

The past few months have been crazy, and there’s been a lot that has happened. Sarah and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary, and I’m enrolled back in college, and I’m enjoying it. That’s just a little snippet, but I won’t bore you with the rest.

I’m just glad to be back.

The legendary Nikonos was created by Cousteau and Wouters in the 60s. Built for submarine photography, it could stand a Kraken’s bite. Later, Nikon turned it into an SLR. But this US Navy SEAL’s camera wasn’t an ordinary Nikonos.

This Nikonos was a total mystery. A secret that not many people knew about until recently. In fact, its existence was repeatedly denied by the manufacturer, even after the US Navy published this photo, showing a member of SEAL Team One equipped with one and the following caption:

980608-N-3236B-003 NAVAL AIR BASE CORONADO, California (June 8, 1998) —Navy SEALs attached to SEAL Team One, Naval Air Base Coronado, CA, conducts training using the Nikon/Kodak DCS 425 underwater digital camera which can send real time digital images to decision makers, and an LPI LPD tracking device uses brevity codes to send both mission status and precise longitude/latitude. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer Mate 2nd Class Ted Banks. (RELEASED)

A digital Nikonos? Nobody had a digital Nikonos. Digital Nikonos just don’t exist. They didn’t exist in 1998 and they never ever existed. Nikon never manufactured them. In fact, Nikon cancelled the Nikonos in 2001, three years after this photo was taken.

So what the hell is this “digital camera which can send real time digital images to decision makers”? It is a Nikonos, but with different guts, modified by Eastman Kodak Company Commercial & Goverment Systems. The model name was the DCS 425 M, a black and white DSLR made for the military. According to Jarle Aasland—who investigated the origin of the puzzling beast—Kodak officially denies their existence:

I’m sorry but those cameras never existed here at Eastman Kodak. We never made cameras for that specific use. The information you have is incorrect.

Jarle’s information wasn’t incorrect, however. It was later confirmed by Jim McGarvey, Kodak’s lead engineer on the DCS cameras who said that the division would take commercial camera designs to adapt them for special needs in limited runs.

It’s too bad that Nikon cancelled the Nikonos. Not only it is a beautiful camera that requires no casing for diving, but it’s a perfect camera to take into any environment with no protection needed whatsoever. [Nikonos via Nikon Rumors]

February 18, 2010 – For anyone wanting to transfer large files over a short distance without a local area network, having to do the USB stick shuffle is a huge pain. Load, unload, delete, repeat. Sure you could buy a higher capacity stick, but they’re expensive and still have limitations. Infinitec is looking to bust through the memory barrier with its new USB streaming technology.

Rather than storing a handful of gigabytes on each stick, the Infinite USB Memory device (IUM) stores zero gigabytes. Instead, it creates an ad hoc wireless network between your laptop and whatever other USB enabled device you want to connect to. You can stream movies to your PS3 or Xbox 360, send images to your once non-wireless printer, or even transfer files between computers by making your whole hard-drive available on the network. Best of all, there are no drivers to install – aside from a one-time “pairing” process that installs the awesomely titled “Infinite Portal” onto your computer – and it works with all operating systems.

Of course, the fact that it’s wireless means you can only transfer files within the IUM’s range, so there will still be a use for regular old flash memory sticks. There’s still no word on pricing or technical specs, but we’ll keep an eye out.

Source: Link

This video shows the seamless use of a green screen in television and movies.  Although there are certain shots that you can tell (if you look closely), the majority of these are pretty remarkable.