[RioRico]

Technology - Megan Garber - Meet the Digital Camera That Lets You Travel Through Time - The Atlantic

BlackBerry's image-capture system ... proposes to take away the singularity of the photograph itself. Cameras, bells and whistles aside, have tended to be blunt instruments. Milliseconds can divide a brilliant photograph (smiles! charm!) from a horrible one (red-eye! drool!). And here's the thing: That tension has been part of photography's appeal. Photos, as objects, take on the contingency of live performance -- the same kind of thing you get from theater or comedy or dance or speech playing out, precariously, in front of you. There's an element of fleeting reality, of blink-and-you-miss-it suspense -- of danger -- to the art that results. The whole, beautiful thing could fall apart in an instant.

And time being time, it will fall apart.

Unless a photographer, armed with a camera, good timing, and good luck, is there to save it.

But BlackBerry is proposing to do to moment-driven photography what pre-recording did to live TV: It's making the medium simpler, and quite possibly better, to use ... but it's also taking the serendipity out of it. It's proposing to remove the there-but-for-the-grace tension from images themselves, displacing them from the vagaries of historical happenstance. It's promising photos that have more in common with video than with photography.

Is "the decisive moment" obsolete? Is HCB grave-spinning? Should photography-as-we-know-it (PAWKI) be destroyed (again)? Was PAWKI already destroyed by miniature cameras (1880s), chimpable digicams (1990s), cloud-connected phone-cams (2000s) ??? Is creative destruction good? Have you been creatively destroyed lately?

[dadipentak]

My creative self-destruction has been in progress for quite some time--albeit at a much slower pace than many had anticipated. Blackberry has had no part in this, however.

[Eulogy]

So...basically this is another RIM ploy saying "Hey, remember us, we're that company that made smartphones a thing!" - This time, by stating that you can have in phone photo editing that's reliant on using up your phone's RAM temporarily to provide LV sequences that are superimposed over faces?...Meh.

Side Note: Does anyone ever own a blackberry anymore?(Seems like even business types are using iPhones and Androids now.)

[RioRico]

Side Note: Does anyone ever own a blackberry anymore?(Seems like even business types are using iPhones and Androids now.)

I recall reading that Blackberries are mandatory in USA government and for those manipulating it.

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Last edited by RioRico; 05-27-2012 at 12:08 PM.

[DeadJohn]

That Blackberry video is just a logical progression to me. We can already do something similar with hi-speed continuous shooting. Take a dozen photos or a video, then process with photoshop to select the best pose for each face. Granted, doing it all in one device is much easier. As technology continues advancing we'll see an increasing number of photoshop-like tools added to new cameras.

[wildman]

Just another trivial feature that some company's marketing people dreamed up to remain relevant in the market.

Edward Weston would not be impressed.

[steve1307]

Huh? RIM/Blackberry destroying photography?

I thought it was RIM / Blackberry that is the one about to slide into the abyss. (and take Facebook with you while you're at it.)

RIM Activist Investor: Split Company In Half For Sale - International Business Times

Prospects Dim for BlackBerry Maker - WSJ.com

Blackberry writedown leaves a bad taste for RIM#

BlackBerry maker RIM hires JPMorgan, RBC to 'review options' - May. 29, 2012

BlackBerry maker RIM sees operating loss, shares slump | Reuters

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Facebook phone by BlackBerry — wouldn’t that be fun? | ZDNet

[monochrome]

We can select a single frame out of a K-01 video and edit it as if it is a photo. Is that any different than what BB is doing?

[eddie1960]

given the way RIM is tanking again today blackberry won't be affecting anything for long

[normhead]

That' just funny. You know, I have seen some films shot in 35 mm, that had some absolutely stunning and amazing scenery for establishing shots.. and not once have I seen a book entitled "The best still photos taken from movies". I'm sure someone who was motivated could go through the billions and billions of still frames looking for great images, I have trouble getting through what I shoot now. Imagine if i had 30 frames per second. Thanks for the laugh RIM. Oh, by the way, hopefully the concept will help you laugh in the face of last night's news report that said you lost 13.5% of your value in one day. I'm sure a little humour will help with the stiff upper lip thing.

[RioRico]

I have seen some films shot in 35 mm, that had some absolutely stunning and amazing scenery for establishing shots.. and not once have I seen a book entitled "The best still photos taken from movies".

That's because most film stock hadn't the greatest resolution, and the frame size was what still-toggers called half-frame, about the size of an APS-C sensor. And the lenses weren't the greatest. When images are flickering by at 24 fps, great film and optics aren't needed. Our eyes just don't notice. That's why film productions had still-toggers around, with LF 'press' or MF cameras, to shoot stills for promotion etc.

[normhead]

I'm not talking to you right now,Rio, if memory serves me well you quoted Phil Ochs earlier today , and now I've been going around singing "I'm not marching anymore" all afternoon. If it wasn't you, I apologize for all the ill will I've been sending your way.

[RioRico]

I'm not talking to you right now,Rio, if memory serves me well you quoted Phil Ochs earlier today , and now I've been going around singing "I ain't a-marching anymore" all afternoon. If it wasn't you, I apologize for all the ill will I've been sending your way.

Corrected.

Yeah, that was me. Good thing I didn't quote DRAFT DODGER RAG, eh? That always got a lively reaction in the 1/5 FA barracks when I sang it. Phil Ochs was pretty popular in 1st Infantry Div -- bit not at the NCO Club.

If you ever get a war
Without the blood and gore
I'll be the first to go

EDIT: Wait, you've been sending me bad vibes?!?!? Is that why my teeth hurt now?!?!?

[normhead]

Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box.

Ya, they don't write them like they used to.

[RioRico]

Ya, they don't write them like they used to.

Country Joe McDonald. I had the original 'single' of that, the jug-band version without all the sound effects of the Vanguard recording. The 45 was an add-on to an issue of RAG BABY magazine circa 1965. My stepbrother broke it, the swine...

Remember that peace can only be won
When we're blowing'em all to Kingdom Come

It's amazing (?) how Phil Ochs and Joe McDonald and Ed Sanders lyrics from the mid-1960s translate all-too-well to reality a half-century later. Kill For Peace... isn't that still the goal? And the Masters of War own the media. [/me barfs]

ObTopic: Is PAWKI (photography as we know it) worth saving? Photos are frozen time. Moving images are short-lived, ephemaral, evanescent, each destroying the last. Is a still camera like an abacus?