A Better Mouse Trap?

Anyone serious about photography will quickly discover the joy and the magic of shooting with large apertures (also known as small f-stops). Backgrounds blur away to bring your subject into focus and turn the world into a kaleidoscope of color. The lower the f-stop, the greater the effect. However, the laws of physics make it impossible to go far beyond f1.2, much lower than that, and lenses run into problems. “That’s why we made the F-Zero Camera – the incredible, complete system that lets you shoot at effective apertures of f0.3 to f0.6,” said Salazar. “The F-Zero range is a completely different universe. Images and videos take on a three-dimensional quality, unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. The F-Zero Camera opens up entirely new ways to tell stories. And the results are pure magic.”

How does it work?

The mechanism behind the F-Zero Camera is straightforward. Like a depth-of-field adapter, it contains three components: an objective lens, an intermediate sensor, and a taking camera, each encased in its own sealed, perfectly aligned unit.

For a deep dive into how the physics of this all works, we highly recommend watching “The Impossible Lens” by Media Division, which explains the principles quite beautifully. Also, check out a similar project called “Building a Next-Level Camera” by DIYPerks. Those projects were inspirational, but it was frustrating to see that you could buy nothing off the shelf to create these kinds of images until now.

Salazar has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help raise awareness and funding to take his invention to the next level – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nicksalazar/f-zero-camera-capture-the-impossible