Image credit: albertizeme (Flickr)

Think of the most iconic sporting moments of the past couple of decades and then try to find the one thing they all have in common. That's right, it's the camera flashes. Like popcorn kernels hitting just the right temperature, cameras in the crowd explode with light as fans try to record those breathless moments that they'll one day be telling their grandkids about. As an expression of cultural togetherness, these synchronized photography sessions are great, but there's just one little problem: every one of those flash-"assisted" photos was a bad one. Conventional flashes are only meant to be used within a range of about 10 feet, not from the third deck of a giant sports arena.

More recently, the rise of the cameraphone has brought about its own baneful consequences, worst of which is the habit of recording video in portrait orientation. I watched the Olympics opening ceremony in a state of distress as LeBron James walked along the athletics track, joyously recording everything for posterity with an upright iPhone in hand. Why, LeBron? What on earth are you going to watch that 720 x 1280 video on, your 90-degree-rotated plasma TV?