"The destruction of music through YouTube is enormous."

That's what pianist Krystian Zimerman told an audience in Germany when he stopped his performance to demand a fan stop recording it with a smartphone.

But if you think the ubiquity of phone cameras is more than a little annoying, get ready for one that goes around your neck and can record automatically. … Read more

You can already buy an infrared camera, but only if you have hundreds of dollars to sink into the purchase. An inexpensive infrared-modified camera, originally developed by Public Lab to monitor damage to wetlands after the BP oil spill, is now available through Kickstarter.

The Infragram project has already handily topped its $30,000 goal and gives you several different options for obtaining a cheap infrared camera. You can do it yourself and modify your own camera for $10, buy a pre-modified bare-bones Webcam for $35, or buy a ready-to-use point-and-shoot camera for $95.… Read more

If you are the company you keep, perhaps it could also be said that you are the furniture you sit on. At least when it comes to this stool that looks like a giant dSLR lens.

The handmade chair, by Spanish design studio Monoculo, would give just about any space that touch of geeky je ne sais quoi, though given its attention to detail, I'm guessing it's most likely to seat a serious photophile. It includes focal length and aperture and even has an autofocus/manual focus switch on the side. … Read more

With all the recent advances in user interfaces and head-mounted displays, there's little reason virtual sex can't offer a truly 21st century, nearly realistic experience.

That's the sentiment behind VRSexKit.com, a set of sex simulators in the works from ThriXXX, a company that has been a leader in adapting technologies like Microsoft's Kinect for virtual-reality sex play.

Though ThriXXX was quick to figure out how to use the Kinect in virtual sex, founder Brad Abram now believes Microsoft's motion-control camera system doesn't offer a "granular enough" experience. … Read more

Any camera from the 1930s would probably get photophiles excited. But make it the cam that snapped the famed shot of the couple kissing in Times Square on V-J Day and you've got an OMG find.

That shooter, a 1937 35mm Leica Illa, sold at a Vienna auction over the weekend for 114,000 euros, or about $147,117.

Late photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt used the very camera to shoot his iconic image of a sailor kissing a girl in Times Square on August 14, 1945. Life magazine published the photo a week later. … Read more

The future of arguing a referee's call is upon us. On Monday, a tennis player used an iPhone to take a picture of where his ball supposedly landed.

At the French Open, Ukrainian tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky surprised the crowd with his impromptu display of photography skills during the first set of a match against Richard Gasquet. At one point in the game, Stakhovsky hit the ball and a line judge ruled the shot as out of bounds. To make sure, officials went to the line to examine where the ball hit and confirmed the ruling. Stakhovsky attempted to argue the call to no avail.… Read more

System administrator and photographer Jared Earle took some amazing photos of the recent supermoon, and he's willing to share his secrets with the world. He didn't have to break into an observatory or fly his camera to the edges of space. In true MacGyver fashion, he only required an iPhone and a telescope to pull off the photo shoot.

The telescope was a necessary part of the equation. While Earle said any telescope will work, he used a 5-inch Celestron spotter scope with his iPhone 4S. He also used a Magnifi adapter, a photo adapter case designed to attach an iPhone to most pieces of optical equipment, whether it's a microscope, binoculars, or a telescope.… Read more

The other day I told you about an app that lets you order Polaroid-style prints from your iPhone -- for 99 cents apiece.

Today, let's talk quantity. If you snap a lot of photos and frequently hit up, say, Snapfish or Walgreens for big batches of prints, I've got an interesting deal for you.

For a limited time, you can get a free 100-photo flip-book from Groovebook when you apply coupon code CNETGROOVE at checkout. That's a colossal savings of...wait for it...$2.99!

No, seriously. Without that code, a 100-photo flip-book would cost you exactly $2.99. Shipped. What kind of crazy craziness is this? I'll explain.… Read more

Step aside, home photo printer! The age of the 3D printer is just beginning. But then what are you supposed to do with all those digital photos sitting on your hard drive?

Well, thanks to Amanda Ghassaei of Instructables -- who showed us how to make a 3D-printed record -- you can try printing them in 3D. Using an Objet500 Connex 3D printer that prints at 600dpi, along with ModelBuilder library and the Processing open-source programming language, Ghassaei converted her photographs into a printable topography.

How do they work?… Read more