Category: Cameras & Equipment

Four compact photo printers under $150

By John Watson
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I hate printing photos at home. Every time I do it I’ve got to fiddle with printer settings, change the paper, do a test print, yadda yadda. It’s always been a pain in the neck. But, at least partly, I think that’s been because I’ve never owned a dedicated photo printer. I’ve always had my main document printer do double duty. Not only was it a pain, the results weren’t all that great anyway. Which is why I think I was so fascinated when I discovered compact photo printers.

I’d heard of them before, of course. Maybe it’s the price. Maybe it’s the new form factor. But something about this latest generation just clicked with me. Here is a class of printers dedicated to doing one thing and one thing only: print 4×6 snapshots. No fussing with loading the right paper. No worrying about running out of ink for your documents. No connectivity to a computer required.

I narrowed my final selection down to four: the Epson PictureMate Dash PM260 ($139), Canon Selphy CP760 ($77), HP A636 ($116), and the Canon Selphy ES30 ($136).

… Continue reading Four compact photo printers under $150

Camera Bag Options

By Ray Davis
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Carol Kozak left a comment  asking, “Can you recommend a “safe/secure” camera bag for an slr?  [I’m] looking for a main bag for all my gear + a “day” bag.”  Keep in mind that no bag is a completely safe/secure way of storing a camera and Photodoto recommends you treat your camera with the love and respect it so clearly deserves! That said here are a few bags that will do their best to keep your camera safe & dry:

The Green Option.
Get off to an environmentally friendly start with the Primus AW or the Primus Minimus AW from Lowe Alpine. Both are rugged, abrasion resistant, water resistant, and made from recycled materials.  The Primus is designed to hold a DSLR with an attached lens (up to 70-200mm), 1-2 extra lenses, accessories, & some outdoor gear (e.g. a light jacket). The Primus Minimus takes a DSLR with a medium zoom lens attached, plus 1-2 extra lenses, and accessories (charger, extra memory cards, flash, etc). Or if you want to throw your laptop in too try the CompuPrimus AW  which holds a DSLR with lens (up to 70-200mm),

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Tiny Time-Lapse Digital Camera

By John Watson
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Pet

This is kind of a neat idea. It’s a camera called the “Pet’s Eye View” that you clip to your pet’s collar. It takes still photos on an interval timer, like a security camera, so you can download them at the end of the day and see what your pet has been up to.

That might make a neat time lapse video.

They say it’s for pets but I bet it works equally well on children. Let’s see… if I stick one to each kid maybe I’ll finally find out who’s been leaving the kitchen such a mess…

Pet’s Eye View Digital Camera

… Continue reading Tiny Time-Lapse Digital Camera

Review: The Flip Mino HD Video Camera

By John Watson
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I really like the Flip video cameras. I reviewed the original Flip Mino back in June and recommended it for anyone who wanted to shoot more than a couple of minutes of video at a time or who wanted to reserve the space on their camera’s memory card just for pictures. The Flip Mino is a handy, compact, easy to use video recorder. And the Flip Mino HD (Amazon) is virtually identical in every way except one—it records 720p HD video.

Everything I liked about the Flip Mino I like about the Flip Mino HD. The body and controls are identical. You can’t even tell them apart visually except for the “HD” logo on the back. They operate exactly the same and feel exactly the same in my hand. Everything I wrote in my earlier review about the Flip Mino applies to the HD version. So let’s get on to video quality.

The video and sound quality are quite good. Video is recorded in H.264 format at 30 frames per second. Audio is recorded in AAC format at 44.1 kHz. The average bitrate is about 9 Mbps which lets the Flip store about 60 minutes of video on its internal 4 GB memory.

… Continue reading Review: The Flip Mino HD Video Camera

The Canon Selphy: A portable photo printer in a bucket

By John Watson
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In a what?

It’s so weird, I don’t know how I missed it when it came out. I was out buying ink today when I stumbled across the Selphy. Somehow, those wacky guys over at Canon had the brilliant idea that portable photo printers ought to come in bucket form.

The Selphy CP770 (Amazon) is a playful little 4×6 dye-sublimation photo printer that comes in a plastic bucket big enough for its accessories, paper, and cables. The printer itself becomes the “lid” of the bucket and latches on with two large green plastic clamps. And you carry it around by the handle. On the bucket.

CNET Editors gives it a “very good” rating citing excellent photo quality, fast printing, and ease of use.

I’m still a little boggled. And yet I am intrigued. Would you dare bring this to a corporate or any other kind of “serious” environment? You’d have a hard time getting anyone to take you seriously. But, whip out this fruit tart of a photo printer at a child’s birthday party or family social gathering and fire off some 4×6’s at grandma and I predict you’d be the hero of the moment.

… Continue reading The Canon Selphy: A portable photo printer in a bucket

Review: Nikon D90 first impressions

By John Watson
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On semi-impulse I bought a Nikon D90 kit last Thursday from Amazon after nearly four years with my trusty D70. I sat down with the manual over the weekend and got to know it a little better. There are plenty of great in-depth reviews of the D90 out there with tech comparisons and sample photos. This is not one of those. I’m just going to give you my first impressions of the D90, especially things about it that made me smile, from the perspective of a D70 upgrader:

  • Live view! Giant LCD! 6.7x image review zoom! Awesome. The D70 screen looks like a postage stamp now.
  • It is perceptibly faster and lighter.
  • I turned on the viewfinder grid, turned off the focus beep, and switched to selected area for focus because that’s how I roll.
  • The default image processing settings are fairly neutral and true to life. In Flickr terms: boring. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but I’m not particularly interested in absolute truth, photographically speaking. I prefer my photos to have a little more pop so I adjusted the default to Vivid which boosts both the contrast and saturation.

… Continue reading Review: Nikon D90 first impressions

Reverie: Just in case you needed more convincing…

By John Watson
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…on the whole DSLR + video thing:

Click to watch: Sample Video: EOS 5D Mark II

This video was shot with a pre-production Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR. The files used to create this video were not manipulated in any way, only re-compressed for 1/4 resolution display on our website. To view Vincent Laforet’s comments and behind-the-scenes video on the making of REVERIE, please visit his blog: blog.vincentlaforet.com

… Continue reading Reverie: Just in case you needed more convincing…

Hey! You got video in my DSLR!

By John Watson
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Personally, I’m really excited about the Nikon D90, not only because it looks like a great camera and a nice upgrade to my trusty old original D70 (I must like odd numbers), but because it’s got this great high-def video feature. I’ve always liked video but I’ve always hated video cameras. I have a Panasonic DV camera around here somewhere… probably on the floor gathering dust. Too big. Transferring video from tapes. It’s a chore. But video in my DSLR? That can be recorded without the use of disposable media? At 720p? In a device I have with me everywhere already that can also record 12 megapixel stills? Heaven!

Of course, Canon announced video capability in their new Canon 5D Mark II. They’ll undoubtedly include it the next generation of their Rebel line as well. The Mark II is also a very nice camera and does 1080p. It’s just a bit pricier, though.

I can think of a bunch of fun things to do with a video camera with interchangeable lenses. I almost bought one today on impulse, the kit with the new 18-105 VR,

… Continue reading Hey! You got video in my DSLR!

Review of Canon Zoom Lens EF 100-300mm

By Ray Davis
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To be honest I bought this lens because it was on sale for $100 in my local camera shop and the longest lens I had was 85mm. My main requirement in a zoom lens was that it let me capture some reasonable wildlife and landscape shots while I was on my travels through some of the National Parks of the American Midwest and Western Canada. I knew the likelihood of it getting broken before the end of the 6 weeks of travel was fairy high (as a combination of road-trip and backpacking it wasn’t exactly gentle travel) so there was no way I was going to spend several hundred (or even thousands) of dollars on one of the high-end lenses.

The Canon EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Telephoto Zoom Lens (as it is called on the box) usually retails for between $250 and $300 so I figured if I could pick one up for $100 it would be worth it even if it only lasted a couple of weeks. But I didn’t exactly have high expectations which might be why I’m so happy with this lens. First off it has proved to be a hardy little bugger, I don’t have a camera bag large enough to hold extra lenses so I used a spare toiletry bag which was waterproof but offered little else in the way of protection.

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Review: Wacom Bamboo Fun graphics tablet

By John Watson
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I'd purchased one of the original Wacom Graphire tablets a long, long time ago and it served me well. I remember I'd tried a different brand first because it was cheaper but returned it immediately because writing on it felt like crap. The Graphire had a very natural pen on paper feel which I liked a lot. As I said, that was a long time ago. The buttons had fallen off the pen and the surface was heavily scuffed and, let's face it, it was the only patch of light blue in my manly, all-black office space. An upgrade was in order.

So a couple of months ago I decided to try one of the new Bamboo Fun models. I simply can’t justify the expense of the large Intuos tablets for myself (though I’d love to have one if you, kind reader, are feeling generous).

The Bamboo line from Wacom essentially replaces the old Graphire line except for the Graphire Wireless 6×8. The Bamboo comes in two models: The Bamboo Fun and the Bamboo (business version). They are identical except that the Bamboo Fun comes with a wireless mouse and with some old software: Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 Win/4.0 Mac,

… Continue reading Review: Wacom Bamboo Fun graphics tablet

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