There’s another pair of new “old” camera on the block, and it’s Sony’s Alpha NEX-3 and NEX-5 combo. Another, because lately cameras in this format seem to be popping up with a bit of buzz almost every couple of months. They’re new because they’re high-tech and fancy, fitting high-res APS-sized CMOS sensors into “pocket camera” bodies. And the cameras I describe are “old” too because they’re capitalizing on the trend that was popularized in the 1960s when camera makers worked to make 35mm film cameras into pocket cameras without sacrificing image quality and manual control. That’s what cameras in this category—referred to by some bloggers as DEVIL cameras (because they are Digital Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens cameras)—strive for, and it would appear that the Sony Alpha NEX-3 and NEX-5 deliver. The most interesting thing as far as I’m concerned appears to be the large interchangeable lenses that fit on the tiny cameras (Sony says they’re the tiniest when compared to other interchangeable lens bodies). I’m assuming the lenses seem larger because the cameras are so small, and also because they are larger to work with the APS-C sized sensors—which are a bit larger than many DEVIL cameras’ Micro Four Thirds sensors. The bottom line certainly appears to be that these two cameras can do quite a lot, packing considerable quality into a little package. I’m excited about these DEVIL cameras in general, so it’s exciting to see all of the new entrants into the category. Check out hands-on reviews of the NEX cameras at DPS and C-Net’s web sites, and then go shopping at Sony’s dedicated NEX microsite.

digital-photography-school.com

news.cnet.com

bit.ly/ctRgVe

Let’s face it, rainbows aren’t the most common of photographic subjects. But when you are fortunate enough to find one—no matter where you might be or what you might be shooting—how are you going to pass up the opportunity to try and make pictures of it? Photographer Ian Plant, who writes about shooting in the outdoors for his Mountain Trail Photo blog as well as the newly revamped Outdoor Photographer blog, is the ideal instructor to turn to when you’ve got questions about shooting in nature. His recent article on photographing rainbows is full of very practical tips on everything from how to find rainbows in the first place to the right technical approach to capturing them in camera.

ianplant.com

A few months ago I was fortunate to interview Saturday Night Live’s esteemed—if somewhat unknown—photographer Mary Ellen Matthews. The resulting Digital Photo Pro article called attention to her phenomenal body of work, and I noted many regular folks (i.e. non-photographer-types) who came out of the woodwork to say they’d always loved those photos on the show and were glad to meet the woman who made them. Well now Mary Ellen is getting even more recognition with a retrospective of her work at the former CBGB rock club and current John Varvatos clothing store in New York’s Bowery neighborhood. After a decade of toiling in relative obscurity (after all, her photos aren’t seen in print so often as they’re seen during commercial breaks—with no room for a credit), it’s great to see this phenomenal photographer receiving so much well-deserved attention. Read about the show at the Wall Street Journal, and check out more of her work at her Jed Root web site.

blogs.wsj.com

www.jedroot.com

There’s a new world record holder. The title of “largest photograph in the world” now belongs to the same place that can boast the tallest building in the world. It’s Dubai, home of the 2700-foot-tall Burj Khalifa skyscraper and subject of the 45-gigapixel panoramic cityscape. Equivalent in size to 100 billboards, Gerald Donovan’s photograph is a composite of 4000 images made over four hours. I don’t know that I have the patience to spend four hours creating an image like this, but I could probably easily spend several hours zooming in to examine the details in this image. I never get tired of gigapixel panoramas, and this one doesn’t disappoint. Though it appears a little hazy and not so densely populated as some European gigapans, it’s still worth a good exploration. After all, the haze comes from smog (rather than a poor exposure) and what it lacks in human interest it makes up for in human ambition. With this image, you can really see Dubai’s rapid expansion writ large in amazing detail.

gigapan.org

Every season seems to have an excuse to keep photographers from getting out into the world.

Wired magazine’s Jordan Ellenberg recently published an interesting piece about math.

Are you considering turning your D-SLR into an HD-movie-making machine?

Are you looking for a little more inspiration in your life?

High-Dynamic Range processing, known popularly as “HDR,” is a bit of a controversial topic.

Apple’s iPad has a lot to offer photographers—it may be the ultimate photo accessory.

The acronym “SLR” is increasingly less useful as a generic term for interchangeable lens cameras.