Tag: <span>camera</span>

Retrotastic Camera Bag

DSC_5523I’ve been on a sewing kick!  Between starting the Spoonflower Instagram Cheater Quilt challenge and finishing this project,  the sewing projects are really keeping me busy.  This project was inspired in part by the Rhianna Indiegogo campaign that was delivered recently.  I love the camera, and the idea that there’s a bag to match is pretty nifty.  The fabric is printed by Spoonflower and is basically a pattern printed on fabric  of the bag complete with markings, directions, and a cute bonus key fob.  In addition to the fabric, there’s a really great tutorial by HappySewLucky here.

Overall, I found the sewing really easy.  Line everything up carefully, follow the directions and it’s a breeze.  One small change I made was to use fusible fleece instead of quilt batting since the instructions didn’t specify the quilt batting thickness (there are a variety of lofts available).  I was able to iron the fleece to the fabric which made it MUCH easier since I wasn’t dealing with extra pins or basting and the fleece then didn’t shift around since it was fused to the fabric.  The fabric info on the Spoonflower site says to order “Upholstery Weight Twill” which Spoonflower doesn’t make anymore – instead, they have Heavy Cotton Twill ($32/yd) and for the fat quarter needed for the project,  the cost is $17, plus $2 for shipping brings us to a total of $19 for the fabric.  The fleece I had lying around, so I have no idea what the cost would’ve been.  The puff of stuffing for the lens I snagged from a stuffed toy the boydog had mostly eviscerated (he won’t miss pulling out one teensy bit of stuffing, right?).  The velcro I did have to buy, and that was $1.99 for four sets of .75″ rounds, so only $.50 for the one set I used.  Total project cost was under $20 which isn’t too bad!  Between cutting out the fabric and sewing I think it took about an hour, and I’m no sewing expert.  The pattern is VERY well marked and the instructions thorough, so that helped make it go fairly fast.  The hardest part, by far, was turing the strap inside out which, in hindsight, I probably could’ve sewed right-side-out instead.

Overall?  I’m pleased!  The Rhianna fits very well inside the case, the stuffed lens bit does a great job of protecting the camera lens, and the bag is super fun to carry around.  Plus, there’s a satisfaction and pride in knowing that this is something I made with my own two hands instead of bought in a store.

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The Stereo Realist, Scanning, and You

I picked up an old Stereo Realist camera on ebay a while back and finally developed my first roll of film today.  Yep, I developed the film all by myself and didn’t fry it.  Took a little bit of a refresher course in the chemicals and dilution ratios, took a deep breath and popped open the canister post-final rinse.  It worked.  Beautifully.

Now, with dry film in hand, I sat down with my Windows 7 machine and trusty old Canon Canoscan 8400f.  The two have been having a disagreement (Scanner is TWAIN and Windows 7 is really primarily WIA, two differet protocols for image aquisition), but I finally managed to get things rolling after downloading the TWAIN plug-in for Photoshop (it’s not standard anymore).  Your scan driver/software should have a way to allow you to specify the size of the negative and to turn off any auto-correction (exposure, tone, sharpness, etc). Ideally, every scan should be exactly the same, straight from the negative. Then there was finding software for the 3d stereo vision setup.  The one most peple use, apparently, is StereoPhoto Maker.  Free to download, and the installation/set-up instructions are pretty straight forward.  The instructions tell you to also download something called AutoPano.  The version they tell you to download doesn’t comply with Windows 7, or at least it doesn’t right now.  However, AutoPano Pro is available here, found via google search and works perfectly.  You just have to plug in the path to the .exe file in StereoPhoto under Edit/Preferences/Adjustment.  I found it best to make sure my left and right images are both about the way I want them (cropped, adjusted, etc) before importing them into StereoPhoto.  Then let StereoPhoto run Auto Alignment, go into Edit/Add Fuzzy Border (turn the fuzz down to zero for a plain border), and File/Save Stereo Image.  VOILA!  Just cross your eyes a little (or look down at your nose) and allow a third image to appear between the two images and come into focus.  That image should be in 3d!

It’s been really fun going through the stereo images and now I can’t wait to go back out and burn through another roll!  Click Here to view my Stereo Realist set on flickr.

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