On recent TWiP podcasts, Alex Lindsay suggested a couple of cool product ideas:
- using a computer and one or more projectors to “paint” light onto a studio scene e.g. you could dial-in that you want a certain part of a scene (e.g. a model) lit with warmer light and the software would change the image that’s being projected with the desired light colors and shape. Of course, you’d need a lot of light out of the projectors to light any substantial set up. This idea, however, seems eminently doable. Throw in advances in LED lighting over the next couple of years, and there’s some good potential for a portable lighting configuration.
- a camera manufacturer that solely focuses on manufacturing the lenses and sensor and ships a simple body that puts the two together. In addition, it provides a slot to drop in your iPhone and makes available a simple, but comprehensive API, to control the hardware. Then, developers can develop UI’s to meet different classes of use cases e.g. HDR, time lapse, basic, etc. As they discussed on the show, the manufacturers have demonstrated a complete inability to design a good user interface in the menus or in the hardware.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, I did find the physical controls of the Minolta Maxxum 7D very compelling; the potential manufacturer would have to put in some creative thought on providing programmable physical interfaces on the barebones camera as well.
Post a Comment