Panasonic Pro AG-HMC150 3CCD AVCHD 24fps Camcorder

I received my 150 a little over a week ago. Bought it because I wanted to move up to HD and get out of the tape business. It did not come with an SDHC card. Bought an 8 GB to carry me over until my 16 GB cards arrive via Amazon. I am still on the learning curve on it. Especially liked the large comfortable color view eye piece. I was also amazed by the clarity of the video play back on my 48" LCD screen. Used the three cable output first, that came with the camera( Video, Lt. Rt. Audio )

Very clear video, much clearer than my trusty old Canon GL-2 It does not come with an HDMI cable. Bought one locally and tried it. Plugged one end into the HDMI out port on the camera and the other end into the HDMI port of my TV. I was blown away by how clear it was !! The video was clearer than some of the stations I view in HD.

On playback, you are given a thumbnail of the first frame of each scene you shot when you turned the camera on. On playback, you can skip around the scenes you want to view , or delete if needed. The focus assist is another nice feature. When you use it, it momentarily zooms in on the middle of your next shot so that you can fine focus if needed.

It has many other features that I have not tried yet. On editing, bought the Pinnacle 12 Ultimate because it is set up to handle the AVHCD format and a PC with the AMD quad Phenom processor with 3 GB of RAM. Waiting for a more powerful graphics card to arrive before trying to edit in this new format. The battery that came with it is small. Would recommend buying the larger battery as soon as you can to balance it out. Right now, it feels a little out of balance because of the smaller battery. Also liked the solid magnesium body. No plastic anywhere ! Overall, I am impressed with this camera.

Panasonic AG-HMC150

I shoot weddings and I have used The HMC150, the Canon AH1.

From the beginning let me first tell you where my opinion is coming from price tag: $3500

First off, neither of these cameras are brilliant in low light. They have 1/3 imagers. I don't care if they are made of gold and there are ten of them.

1/3 imagers are too small to gather enough light, even if you attached the Hubbell telescope to them.

To put such tiny sensors in a $3500 is poor, cheap engineering especially when SLR have larger sensors, shoot HD and don't cost this much.

Who are these camera angled at?

Videographers and indie filmmakers.

As a videographer what are you most concerned with Low light.

Why? Because you cannot control lights at weddings at parties, etc. So your camera has to be able to handle it.

As an Indie filmmaker what are you most concerned with The ability to look like film. It does, with 24p and film gamma, it's about all you need. But you are paying a premium. But for me, equally important to film look as 24fps is lens choice. Here you get none. While 24fps is what is ingrained in the everyone's consciousness as what film should look like, they also don't realize that shallow depth of field and variety of lenses is too. With these camcorders you get no choice, a 13x zoom with extremely wide depth of field at most every focal distance, because it's a zoom and because the imagers are tiny.

Good news The AG-HMC150 can handle most lighting situations.

Bad news AVCHD codec, is noisy in even bright sunlight afternoons. The image is made of blotch.

Measuring image integrity by zoom factor at 100% AVCHD compression is clearly visible. 200% the image is a swarming, infected mess.

Although the Panny can holdup in low light. I shot in a dark club and there was still something to see.

It has a very weird auto iris mode, that brings in more light, even when you do exact settings in manual.

Don't know if there is a magic switch, didn't have it long enough to work everything out.

The Canon uses HDV and instead of compression codec noise, you get digital noise; unpleasant grain (not like film), and washed out video at 100%. At 200% it's like looking at a digital still from a 10 year old point and shoot. And trust me, once an image is washed out and grainy, there is very little you can do (Some gamma correction will bring the shadows back to life, but that noise is there to stay. And the drop down to SD doesn't do it any favors.

Bottom line the Canon sucks in low light, especially in anything other than auto mode. I shot in a low light room and the image was garbage. Despite some settings tweaking, which leads me to Canon's second biggest problem and a problem with these camcorders in general.

The LCD and the Viewfinder are too small to see how your image is holding up. Everything looked fabulous on the Canon's 2.7 LCD...and then when you get it back to edit. Noise city. So you can only use the LCD for just basic image checking.

The HMC150 has a 3.5 LCD, but the brilliant engineers made it a 4:3 ratio! You have black matting in the image! The camera can only shoot 16x9 and they put a 4x3 LCD on it...so in the end you only get about 2.7" of real estate and you see as much as on the Canon, unless you are in focus assist mode which zooms in and uses the whole LCD.

So you have to know your settings and be shutter/iris paranoid, hoping for the best image. What you see is not what you get, you have to know what you want, like with film and set the camera accordingly, knowing which settings will get you want in the END, not what you are looking at through the camera.

The HMC150 definitely benefits from the higher rez. The Canon is 1440x1080. You can see the difference.

The Canon is more professionally built. Both plastic, but the canon feels more professional, and weirdly the HMC feels like a Tonka Toy, hard textured plastic, but like a light and chunky toy. I can hear the optical stabilizer clunking around in it. The Canon aesthetically looks more professional.

Audio on the Canon is better, it has much better limiter, I don't even think the HMC's is useful, but if you plug one xlr mic into the Canon...the onboard becomes unusable. HMC lets you assign channels for the onboard. Bad news is the onboard mic on both sucks, the Canon sounds better because the HDV format has higher rez than the compressed AVCHD codec.

The HMC and it's tapeless/AVCHD codec does not save much time, the transcoding takes almost as long if not longer than real time (HDV tape) and sometimes there are errors, especially transferring from camera, the footage speeds up, the audio remains constant and you have shorter clips. Happened constantly. My guess, USB and it's non constant data rate. Another cheap short cut by Panasonic. The Canon has a firewire, which speed is constant, and they need it for the HDV tapes.

The HMC wins out with higher rez, native progressive imagers, resulting in two true progressive modes, 24fps, the other mode/rez are wrapped in pulldowns. The Canon's 24f, etc modes are fake and you can tell. Everything is interlaced on the Canon. I hate interlaced.

This review isn't structured very well, but I don't have the energy, since I'm so unenthusiastic about both, so they're not worth more time. But I thought I would let potential buyers know, the ones who think these two cameras are the Holy Grail. They aren't, and they aren't worth the high price tag, they are worth $2000 not a penny more. But the problem is, what else is there?

I returned the HMC, and I didn't the Canon wasn't mine, but would have returned it too.

I'm going to try the Canon SLR route. The closest thing you can get to film without shooting it.

Annoyingly these two manufacturers and Sony...are all sticking it to us. Instead of advancing things, they are taking baby steps, giving us one desired function at a time for a price.

If Canon can put a full frame sensor in their 5d II and can give it 1920x1080 30fps shooting, why can't they put that sensor in a camcorder, with a SLR interchangeable lens mount, with XLR inputs?

Because they want to sell camcorders AND slr cameras.

These camcorders are just big consumer cams. They don't have enough image improvement to warrant $2500+ more in cost. You are paying for features, limited manual adjustments, not image upgrade.

But of course I didn't have it for very long, two weeks.

I just couldn't get over the price versus video quality, and workflow.

They don't justify the price, especially when I think we are very close to getting some real breakthroughs in HD imaging.

Buy Panasonic Pro AG-HMC150 3CCD AVCHD 24fps Camcorder Now

One thing you need to keep in mind is that editing AVCCam/AVCHD is a P.I.T.A. I'm using CS4 on a 2.4 quadcore with 8gig of RAM and Vista64 and it's sluggish with frequent lockups. I'm getting Cineform ProspectHD v4 when it comes out to compensate. Vegas 8.0c and Edius works well I'm told, and FCP need to convert it to ProRes (or whatever it's called). I think Avid needs to convert it to a native codec as well. Panasonic does offer a free converter to DVCProHD on there website

[Update 6/5/09... Premiere CS4 4.1 update is out, and editing is much easier. Also, Prospect v4 is out, and editing with the demo I've been trying has been a joy]

That said... the camera itself is awesome. Really. I'm coming from the DVX, and this is leaps and bounds above that (which is saying something). The images I'm getting are beautiful. I'm planning on going out now on my days off to shoot just for the fun of it.

I really can't add anything that hasn't been said already by others. But if you're looking at the HVX200a or HPX170 (they all share the same chips, and the HMC shares the same glass as the HPX), but don't want to deal with the costs of P2 or need all of the features of the HPX or HVX, I would HIGHLY recommend buying this instead.

Just be prepared for some editing headaches at first (the problem with bleeding edge technology is sometimes you need to get stitches).

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I knew I would have to do it sooner or later. Even shooting Super 16mm is (a) too expensive and (b) too heavy. I have seen so many good documentary films that originated on HDV or AVCHD based camcorders that I thought I should really make an effort to go digital.

As it happened, I attended a Panasonic seminar that convincingly touted the value of a modern H.264 type codec for the "filmakers" vision. So the Sony and Canon alternatives were effectively eliminated as options by the smooth presentations given by Panasonic. This left the choice of cameras down to the HMC40 (cheaper and lighter) or the HMC150. Both can do the things I need to do (24P being a requirement)and both are designed to create a "film-like" look to the image.

My choice of the HMC150 was based on the feeling that 3 1/3" imagers are going to be less noisy than the 3 1/4" imagers installed in the newer HMC40 camera. I did not do any side-by-side comparison testing but I am guessing that I am correct in this assumption although the degree of difference may not be noticeable in the final image.

It has been about two months that I have been using this camera. What it can stuff into a tiny SD memory card is amazing to me. The images have been outstanding for a television camera and really not too bad for a cinema camera. I miss interchangeable lenses and controllable depth of field but I don't miss changing the magazine after a few takes and I dont miss heavy battery packs and Nagra sound recorders.

I did find that the manual iris control on the camera is impossible to use while shooting and that manual focus is also clumsly and can create sound noise while filming if you are using the on-board mic or even the mounted shotgun. The simple solution was a Vari-zoom remote and that fixed the two biggest operational problems I had.

The camera was packed with GVG's Edius Neo. That works a treat with AVCHD and as long as you have a decent modern laptop with sufficent speed and memory, it is fast enough to operate and to render out edit files to disk or SD card. I prefer to have the final finishing completed by a real editor (probably using FCP) but I can manage the rough edits with Edius without too many problems.

So, I am not sorry. This is the first digital cinema type camera that I have purchased and it will probably be the gateway drug to a Red One or something like that. I miss film but if you are not making a feature film with multiple rented 35mm cameras (paid for by someone else), why not use a camera like the HMC150? The cost of the hardware is more than offset when compared to running a S16mm camera to create 60 minutes of finished projectable film. SD cards are cheap. Digital projectors are getting better and DI from inexpensive digital cameras to 35mm film neg is possible if the content is good enough to justify the cost.

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Much has been said, but I'll add a bit. We use this camera for live events and produced videos. Here's what we've learned in 6 months.

1) Buy the 150. We also have the 40 which does what the 150 does, but for pro use, the features are slow and cumbersome to access on the HMC40.

2) Great if you use Adobe Premier C6. Not so much if you use Final Cut Pro 7. We have both. Premier is native to AVCHD. With Final Cut, the transcoding is almost worse than tape ingestion. With Premier, you can preview the videos easily, edit them easily, and you aren't so dependent on rendering.

3) Watch the errors. We had one interview error after 45 minutes and lost it. It's the first in 7 months of usage, but we lost about $4000 worth of footage. Panasonic has a recovery tool, but it didn't work. We were using a Transcend card (cheaper) on that shoot, so we won't do that again. We'll go back to Sandisk.

4) Low light is much worse than SD, but I guess all HD is. It works for us because we light everything. Wouldn't work if you don't have lighting control.

5) We really wish it had a 20x zoom. The 13x is a compromise from our old 100A's.

We'll probably buy another one, but we're waiting to see if Cannon comes out with an SD card based HD camera.

Macally Air-AlarmI D.I.Y. Wireless Home Alarm System Kit

The purchase of this product was a knee jerk reaction/purchase to being broken into last fall. The choice of having nothing vs having to subscribe to an alarm service was not pleasing. A relative has a similar DIY alarm system and said they were happy with it and this provided a middle ground.

As stated, the instructions are a little hard to digest at first, but once you understand it, it's fairly easy to program the unit and sensors. (The picture shows the alarm having an extendable antenna as well as the sensors, but the unit received did not have any.)

The supplied no name batteries didn't last very long. The one motion sensor that is in a high traffic area died with in 3 months and the replacement battery is not doing so well (brand name). So don't be surprised if you have to replace the 9V battery twice or three times a year in high traffic areas. The remote control battery is an odd ball size that I only found at Radio Shack (didn't look online, it was actually stocked). I purchased extra motion sensors and the door sensors I have not mounted yet. Keep extra batteries for the sensors around and check the sensors that they are working.

The unit is suppose to have a battery backup, but I have yet to see how that works. If you have to manually switch it over, then it's pointless (only skimmed the manual). I unplugged the unit expecting it to keep "alive" and it went off. If I want it to last/work during a power outage, I might as well get an uninterrupted power supply they use for computers. Also, when the unit is plugged into the phone line and you are using it, it makes a beeping or chirping noise that is heard. If the phone is plugged into the unit, it actually hangs up on you! Factory says this isn't right, but I don't want to sent it back and NOT have protection.

I purchased two units, giving one to a friend who has experienced multiple break-ins. Since then, he has been broken into once since it was installed. The unit did call him and his kids and he called me to check his home (less then 5 min way). He also did not use the door sensor, only relying on the supplied motion alarm. The alarm will scare people off, but be warned, there is still time between activating and actually getting someone thereat least 5-7 min or more. If you want a faster response time, then pay for a monitored alarm service. (Or purchase the external siren to alert neighbors quicker.) Once I walked into my house forgetting to disarm the unit with the remote control, it went off using the motion sensor and called me with in 5-7 seconds of going off. I test my sensors at least every 3-4 months to make sure they set the unit off and to make sure it calls me.

I have experienced one false alarm. The unit went off and called. Upon inspection of home, the unit reset it's self (I didn't memorize all the codes for remote operation)all doors and windows were secure. Unit was still armed when entering (used remote to disarm). It is unclear if it was a malfunction, or if the motion sensors detected a movement. We have never had any issues with drapes and heat vents in the past, but we suspected it. Unless someone was trying to jimmy a sliding glass door and brushed up against the blinds creating movement(?)but I have not tested that idea.

It was recommend by local law enforcement that an external audible siren be also used. The internal alarm and unit going off is enough for 'noise' inside the home, but for an alarm to work effectively, an external siren is suggested to alert neighbors of any problems. (I maybe ordering more internal plug in sirens or one or two external battery powered sirens.)

Would I recommend this alarm? Yes and no. Does it work... yes, but not perfectly. Are there better out there, I'm sure there are. Do your research, see what is available. I have it already, so I'm making do.

(Alarms are just one tool to help secure a location. It is not a substitute for not having good door locks/dead bolts. Next step in home defense is to install cameras to record the exterior and any visitors. That way, intruders 'risk' being identified if they try.... Multiple layers of protection will HOPEFULLY deter intruders from choosing your home. And yes, dogs are part of that layer also!)

PS-

IMPORTANT NOTE---IMPORTANT NOTE

IMPORTANT: When using an alarm system that does NOT call a security monitoring service, DO NOT tell people that. It's better to make people think it is a MONITORED service. If you tell "friends" and the word gets around, the wrong people could find out. And then the wrong people know that they have "time" before someone actually shows up. Right?

There are a lot of instructions on this product, although complicated at first, if you follow the instructions correctly and take your time to read them, it will work.

The package come with the included sensors already paired with the base, so, all I needed to do was to change the passwords and include my phone numbers.

When it calls me, I can hear what is going on ONLY if the alarm is in the silent mode, since it has a pretty loud noise coming from the base (where the mic is).

The door sensor works pretty good, every time I forgot to disarm, it goes off. The motion detector, it is not the most reliable, but it also works, I believe the reliability has to do with the fact that it seems to read the environment every 5 seconds or so.

I live in a small apartment, and I don't know what is the actual range of these devices and cannot say if they work well in large houses/apartments.

So far, it is working OK.

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The instructions for this product are terrible and make little or no sense. The "chapters" follow no logic and it was written by someone who does not speak fluent English as seen by the multiple spelling and grammar mistakes.

Though I was able to get the basic features to work with this alarm, I was not able to program the phone features. You cannot remotely access the alarm by phone if you have a home answering machine.

On two occations the alarm went off for no reason(not armed) most likely due to radio frequency interference.

The entire unite shuts off without an alarm sounding if you simply unplug it from the wall, so I am not sure why it has rechargable batteries.

Nobody answers the toll free customer service number and they have yet to respond to my voicemail.

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DO NOT BUY THIS THING!! Has got to be the worst piece of crap I've ever owned.

Agreed with most other reviewers the instructions (esp. syntax of commands not to mention the English grammar) are HORRIBLE! But the main problem overall is that it is simply God-awful UNRELIABLE! I've had it for about 6 months and have experienced at least 3 false alarms. Not armed, sitting there in my family room just watching TV and all of a sudden one of the sirens starts blaring for no reason. Another time my wife and I were awoken in the middle of the night with the thing ringing. We did NOT arm it at night. Not only that, but it won't always shut OFF reliably! 3AM and my wife and I are frantically pushing the disarm button on the remote, siren still blaring away. Sometimes the remote works, sometimes not (yes, it and everything has fresh batteries oh, but they discharge within a few months, even name-brand). Then, the range is terrible. We don't have a big house, single story, but some of the further away door sensors don't trigger the alarm. I also (regretfully) bought the outdoor siren. Works maybe half the time, and it's only about 30 feet away from console. Then there are the motion sensors, which only sense a motion every 5 seconds. I can walk past the range of one easily within 5 seconds and the light never flashes. Sometimes to get it to flash I have to stand in front of it and wave my hands wildly. (I suppose if a burglar did that it might ring...) I'd give this piece of junk 0 stars if I could.

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I don't write many reviews but this alarm system is such junk that I felt compelled to warn everyone way from it because, at least for me, it took a bit before it started acting up. And it's only after I've had mine for little over a month now that it has reached the point where I just hate the thing. The funny thing is that at first I was somewhat satisfied with it due to the ease of installation. I bought the system and additional motion sensors and door/window sensors to cover the entire house from a popular electronics warehouse. The sales guy at the store told me to buy fresh batteries because the ones supplied were most likely dead and shouldn't be used. So when all tallied up was a pretty hefty price tag. But installing was a breeze and even though the instructions were difficult to understand I managed to get it installed in only a few hours. Unfortunately the thing is totally unreliable because of numerous false alarms. At first only one false alarm per week but now three or four times a week and it's only a month or so old. At least their support is reachable and I've tried their suggestions to no avail. I guess the next step is to swap it out. Still, I wish I had read the negative reviews here before purchasing this home alarm system. To me, the system definitely isn't worth the pain of the constant false alarms. My take on it is to pass this one by and try another system.

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HooToo® HT-IP207F(White) Indoor 0.3 Mega Pixel RJ45 Wireless IP Network Surveillance Camera (802.1

This camera met most of my criterion for outdoor (see caveat below) monitoring.

Setup was a breeze, connected it first to the wired network, you do not need to install any of the s/w which comes with the box if you know how to locate the IP of this camera on your router.

Once you have the IP from the wired connection, use chrome (other browsers may need video add ins) to directly http into the camera.

Setup the wireless connection, disconnect the wired IP and power off/on, the camera comes back on the wifi (of course with a different IP),

After this, I installed outside (CA weather is mild, and it is protected from rain).

Works perfectly, setting up automated emails upon motion detect is also easy provided you know your email provider's server and port details.

It does have a tendency to false trigger (ex. shadow of an object moving outside the capture zone, some of the times the pictures captured (6 snapshots sent for every event) have no one in them, so I have to play with the sensitivity and capture delay setting.

Default camera setting seem to work well for day or night (switches automatically).

They have a handy calendar option for enabling snapshots only for the days/times that you want.

My issue is that the angle of view is somewhat limited, so I have to play with "patrol" option and see how well the motion trigger works after that

Cannot seem to limit the range of the "patrol" motion, all or nothing

I have not yet set up FTP or DDNS access but do not expect it to be that difficult given the experience so far

All in all, great starter IP cam for the price/performance this offers

Caveat:

This camera was stated to be an indoor/outdoor in the description "Water-proof structure best for outdoor installation", not sure if this means it was already water proof or it needs a waterproof enclosure!

Foscam FI8904W Outdoor Wireless/Wired IP Camera - 3 Pack

It was touch & go to start with. Could not get it to work for like three days. my son-n-law came to take a look. It took him two days but he got it up and running. I put them up at our vaction home. Now I check every day to see whats up at the beach. They record when they detect movement. There is a begal a cat that run thourgh the yard form time to time. Anyway not very user frindly to put in but once it is up and running Alsome. Its nice to keep an eye on the vaction house from home. And i can tell when the grass needs to be cut.

I actually love my camera's! The picture quality is fantastic! I would have given them five stars but the mounts could be much better. Great camera but terrible mount. That makes no sense to me. Easy enough to fix/change if you the least bit handy yourself.

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Have 4 of these around the house and hardly ever an issue. Like most have said the brackets that come with it are crap so go buy a $10 mount and u will be totally happy. Easy config all 4 were up within 15 minutes. People that complain about setup must not know a single thing about there one network and honestly should probably not run one but have someone do it for them. Again love them thinking of buying another three pack to replace the dlink dcs3420 that I have that are 4 years old

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I'm not very happy with my purchase. I had previously bought three of the model FI8905W. I wish I bought more of them instead of buying model FI8904W. The main issue is that I have not been able to make them work on my dns website. They work fine with Blue Iris, but I can't view them on the web like the other ones. The other thing I did not like about these ones is that you can only mount them from underneath. The other ones have mounting options from the top or the bottom. I wanted this model because it is a wider viewing angle, but the 9105s were so much easier to set up. I wish I'd picked up more of those instead.

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Did have problems with one that took a couple of weeks to resolve. Ended up, with Foscam support on the phone, to determine there was a problem with the wireless. Foscam does not pay for return shipping. Noticed while this was going on that the serial number of the camera did not match the box. Makes me think the company is re-shipping returns. Did not appreciate that. Replacement camera works fine.

It appears this style camera is sold under different brand names. (I've tried a couple of others) Foscam brand seems to be the best. Instruction manual needs to be written better for all of them. To get full functionality of the software you have to use Internet Explorer (32 bit) and allow ActiveX. Don't like that. Software was obviously written by programmers and not driven by consumer. A major complaint is that when you get ready to leave the house and want to activate the camera alarm, you have to log into each camera to arm it. There needs to be a central piece of software that you can click to activate the motion alarm on all cameras in the network.

Setup is fairly simple if all you want is a live picture. I would suggest you give the camera a static IP address so every time there is a router reset (power dip) you will get the same IP address again. If you want to have remote access then you will have to learn a little networking to set up port forwarding. You can use a company server that is in the far east somewhere for remote access. I choose not to do that. I access the cameras via remote by direct IP address.

Over all I am fairly satisfied with the Foscam brand camera. It would be better if it were more of a wide angle. I will give Foscam a thumbs up for support. My experience is other brands have no, or hard to reach, support.

GTMax 10FT Micro-HDMI to HDMI Cable for Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7 inch , Kindle Fire HD 8.9 inch / Ki

Got my hubby the Kindle Fire HD for Christmas. This cable allows him to see things from his Kindle Fire on his TV. Great for games or Netflix.

This is the best accessory that I have purchased so far for my Kindle Fire HD! The length is perfect for streaming to your HD TV. The quality is exceptional! Highly recommend this item!!

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The cable performed flawlessly! The 10-foot length is perfect. I easily attached it to my LCD-TV and to my Kindle.I was able to sit at my couch and operate my Kindle with ease.

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I have the Kindle Fire 7" HD small screen a hoped that this would connect me to TV's with an HDMI input. A waste of money chose this one beacuse of the reviews but never got it to work. I tried it on a Sony, Dynex, Vizio, and LG all with the same results, the Kindle could not make the connection. The Sony got it once but when I paused/shutdown the movie and came back it would no longer connect? Kindle gave error message stating input connection was not there? I'm still trying to get to a person from Kindle support to check it out.

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Better cable than I'd been using on my Kindle HD. 10 foot length gave me a lot of options for placement from my TVs HDMI port.

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Canon VC-C50iR Reverse-mount Communication Camera

I recently purchased this camera thinking it was IP compatible. It was not and unfortunately had to return it. However, I have used this product before and found it very usful for building security and monitoring.

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HDE Pinhole Mini Wireless Camera CCTV Security Video Surveillance

doesnt work,, the camera heats up so fast and has no picture. its not worth the money, dont buy this item,, waste of time

Very poor sound recording. too much background noises. Video is hard to tunning and picture is not clear even in close range.

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For $23 this little camera works very well. Becareful not to lose the litlte spring that goes inside of the antenna.

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works pretty good til you get like 30 feet then its blank but then i pic up the reciever and it comes in not bad for price think im gonna get another 1

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I love it. Hooked it up to my computer, adjusted the receiver and started recording. I would recommend it to anyone needing covert home security

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Levana 32108 Era Advanced 2.4 Digital Wireless Video Baby Monitor with Picture Capture and Digital

Having a baby monitor with a camera sounded exciting. We could check on our little guy on the monitor before coming in the room to make sure he was really awake and not just talking in his sleep. Checking on him if he was too quiet would have been nice also. Unfortunately, we did not have the great experiences the other reviewers had. Although we really wish we could have said the monitor was super, we cannot.

First, the monitor came to us broken. It had a white screen and only could be turned off by taking out the battery. I called the customer support line a few times and they were trying to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong to give it a white screen. On my third call, I finally got them to send me the return authorization form by email so I can get the monitor repaired. I promptly filled it out and sent it to them (having to pay the postage myself).

Did someone email me to let me know if/when I would be getting my replacement? No.

Did I have to wait over a month to get my replacement? You bet!

My monitor came back to me without the piece that is used to load the pictures on a computer. Disappointing, but it gets worse.

When we tried the monitor out it was really cool. The monitor worked for about four days before breaking again. We turned it on one night only to find a big black blob in the middle of the screen. Only the bottom 10-20% of the screen was barely visible and the top was whitewashed, save for the big blob.

I emailed, waited two working days (they are supposed to get back to you within one day) and then called. I was told it looks like the baby monitor was dropped and has a crack in it, so the warrantee would not cover this. I told the lady that it did not fall but she told me "you have to see it from our point of view that it looks cracked."

Let's imagine it did fall. Would falling on a thick carpet really damage this monitor? And if it would, is this the type of product you really would want to have? Of course, no one tries to drop their cell phone, but if they all broke from falling once, we would be more than dissatisfied with the quality and durability.

We currently own a Lorex LW2002W Portable LCD Wireless Surveillance System (White). I was looking for another camera because one of our sons still naps in our room. Here is what I found:

Instillation was fairly intuitive. The battery was already partially charged on the monitor so I was able to plug in the camera and get an image right away. Lorex is easy enough, too, but with Lorex you have to pair the camera with the monitor, and it takes a bit of time to read the instructions.

The Levana camera is small and pivots and rotates quite well, giving you a lot of flexibility with placement; but darn if it didn't give us the angle we needed, which was to be placed high on a shelf aimed down into our son's pack `n play. We settled on placing it on a night stand and seeing through the side netting. Lorex actually does well on placement, too, but not quite as many option as the Levana.

The Levana has a zoom lens, but don't make this your buying point. The zoom feature doesn't work like a camera zoom. Here you press a button and the monitor thinks for a long moment and then zooms in super close into the center of the screen and probably not where baby is, or what you even want to see; I'll never use it.

When you put the Levana monitor on audio to hear if baby is crying, talking, etc, you have to crank up the sound to hear properly. We have a sound machine playing in the background, but our Lorex is able to give us clear audio of our son when he's awake even at the lowest setting.

The Levana monitor is quite clear, even at night. Our son looks like he's bathed in sunlight even though it's completely dark in his room. Both Levana and Lorex have good night vision pictures.

The Levana model you can use to talk to baby... but not really all that great, it sounds muffled.

Levana has music options to sooth baby to sleep; not all that great. The three songs sound like there's static, and there's an annoying buzzing sound to all the songs that would actually keep me awake. This makes me think there is something wrong with the speakers on the Levana monitor they need to work on the sound quality.

You can take pictures with the Levana that are stored on the camera. The pictures are okay, but don't expect picture quality.

You can pair the Levana to multiple cameras, as you can with the Lorex monitor.

You can turn on the nightlight from the monitor, as you can with the Lorex. The Levana nightlight seems a bit softer than the Lorex.

The Levana includes a temperature gauge so you can see what the temperature is in baby's room not all together accurate. It usually registers about 9 degrees off from the thermostat in the bedroom. Still, this is a nice feature.

The sound indicator on both cameras is good, but the Levana shows sound so easily. For example: our sound machine is on all the time in the kids room, so the Levana monitor constantly shows sound like the kids are talking. The Lorex model doesn't pick up the sound machine, only when the kids talk and make noises.

Battery life on the Levana monitor lasts longer than the Lorex but it's a turn off for me. It takes a LONG time to charge the Levana monitor, and for the length of time to fully charge the battery it should last a lot longer than it does. If I had to guess, I would say it takes a solid 6 hours to charge and lasts about 90 minutes. I do notice that sitting off the charged the Levana monitor will drop down to 2 bars pretty quick. It beeps at you when the battery is about to die.

You can turn the Lorex camera off to conserve battery life when not in use. You CANNOT turn the Levana monitor off to save the battery. You can turn the screen off, and you can turn the screen and audio indicator off, but if you do this when the camera isn't plugged in, and go to use it again, the battery will be dead and you will have to plug it back in. I really dislike this. As it is, I have to keep the camera plugged in all the time and there isn't a docking station for it.

THREE STARS: Overall the Levana is a nice baby monitor. It does what it needs to do, which is help you keep an eye on baby. If that's all you need then this is a good monitor. But the inability to turn it off and save the remaining battery life for future use really turns me off, because sometimes I forget to plug it back in, or am not in a place to plug it in; being able to turn it off would be a great help. Also, the audio is kind of poor and the temperature guage though nice, isn't accurate. I'd suggest looking at other models for the price, but if your set on this monitor you'll probably be happy with it.

Buy Levana 32108 Era Advanced 2.4 Digital Wireless Video Baby Monitor with Picture Capture and Digital Now

For the price, this definitely has a lot of features and is a good value. You can add more cameras to this set up and have a total of 4 cameras. It can play lullabies, take pictures, talk to the baby with PTT, temperature monitoring, timers, nightlight, etc.

Here are the pros and cons I found with it.

Pros:

The setup is extremely easy. After charging the handset, I was able to turn it on and be connected to the camera right away.

The night vision is actually pretty good quality and I was able to see my baby in pitch black.

The overall quality of the picture is decent. It is clear enough that I can tell what my baby is doing.

The LED sound bar is a very nice feature. If you have the volume turned way down, the sound bar will still come on and show colors depending on the intensity of the noise. If the baby is crying out loud, the color would be red.

You can expand the system and buy additional cameras.

You can mount the camera to the wall and it was easy to angle it so it will show the baby in the crib at the proper angle.

It can also be a camera and you can take pictures of the baby.

You can play lullabies for the baby. My baby doesn't really care for the feature but it's a nice feature to have.

It comes with a SD card so you don't have to buy one for storing pictures.

Cons:

The battery life is horrible. Even with the power saver on that would turn off the screen after 1 minute, we were lucky to get 4 hours. Imagine the first night when we didn't have the handset on charge and waking up to realize that it was dead. If our baby had made any small noises, we wouldn't have heard it.

While the PTT is a nice feature, the quality of the voice coming through the camera is not great. It almost doesn't sound human and the first time I tried it, my baby seriously seemed scared of the voice.

The temperature monitor, while a good idea, seems to be always off. We would have the A/C set to 69 and the temperature would still show as 86 even after the A/C running all night.

There's not really an easy way to take pictures of your baby. You have to go to the menu to turn the camera feature on and then proceed to snapping the picture. This can mean missed moments.

The digital zoom, while a nice feature, takes about 5 seconds before it will zoom in and it can only zoom in so far and zoom back out. Also, in the 5 seconds that it takes to switch views, the sound is off so you can't hear what is going on in the room. This isn't as big of a deal but I like to be able to hear everything while she's sleeping.

Reading the manual, if you do decide to expand the system, you can only talk to baby on camera 1 and none of the other cameras. It would be nice if it gave you an option to choose which camera you would like your voice to come out at.

Overall, there are a lot of nifty features in the device and for the price, it is a great deal. However, do realize that some of the great features are fair in quality.

EDIT: A little bit after 1 month, the screen on the monitor started to fade and disappear. You could not see the baby anymore. It's pretty much overexposed and we tried to turn it on and off but still, even the logo is white washed out. I had to change the star rating because it is defective. We tried to contact customer service and they are making us pay to return their defective unit to them, wait 2-4 weeks for it to be researched and then we will get the unit back and return postage will only be paid for if they find it to be defective. Unfortunately, we have determined it's not even worth the trouble especially when that means we would be without a baby monitor for almost a month. We will be looking elsewhere.

Read Best Reviews of Levana 32108 Era Advanced 2.4 Digital Wireless Video Baby Monitor with Picture Capture and Digital Here

This is a wonderful baby monitor. It has tons of features and worked just right out of the box. I didn't have to pair them as it does it automatically.

Pros:

+ You can have a two-way communication when the baby wakes up. I think this is a big feature to have in a baby monitor. That way you can assure the baby that you are there if you are in the bath room or somewhere where you cannot attend to the baby immediately.

+ Video is clear and in color.

+ Automatically switches to night vision when it is dark.

+ Long range signal. I tried it on from the 2nd floor of a brick building while I was inside my car parked at the back of the building. The video came out clear although starts to skipping frames and choppy audio.

+ Sensitive, I can hear anything happening in the baby's room at night.

+ You can control most of the functions through the parent unit which is the size of a cell phone. You can activate the LED light (with changing colors), start the lullaby music, change the volume, and take pictures.

+ The parent unit can be carried through your pocket with its own built-in battery.

+ SD card is included.

+ You can charge it even on a PC or any standard USB charger.

+ Expandable to 4 cameras.

+ 100-240V

Cons:

The battery is only for quick sojourns around the house, a couple of hours on the porch, in the kitchen or in the bathroom; it is not intended to be left on throughout the night.

The battery compartment cover is almost impossible to open. I needed a bread knife to help me open the top and place the battery.

It doesn't have control via the parent unit to move the camera angle.

You cannot view it on the internet.

The sound from the tiny speaker on the camera is puny

Interface is fine but can be improved. My definition of a perfect interface is that you won't need a manual to operate.

Considering all the cons that I listed are mostly available to higher priced cameras, this baby monitor is fully featured and does a great job.

Want Levana 32108 Era Advanced 2.4 Digital Wireless Video Baby Monitor with Picture Capture and Digital Discount?

We have bought this monitor twice. Both monitors did not charge. Levana will take orders all day, but when it comes time for someone to help you try to fix it, they aren't there. They won't honor their warranty....actually, they honored their warranty by telling us to buy a new one. Don't waste your money on this company that won't stand behind their product!

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Meade 0610-03-10 ETX -LS Telescope with ACF Lightswitch Technology

With scopes a buyer has to approach with patience and the right expectations. There are plenty of articles out there describing what you can expect and what types of scope you can use for different types of viewing and it's well worth reading up on this before buying any scope.

I bought this scope because of the LightSwitch feature. This means the onboard computer uses a combination of GPS, digital compass and pattern recognition to figure out where the scope is and to align it so it can find objects stored in it's Go-To database and so it can track objects as they move across the sky. Go-To scopes without LightSwitch require some knowledge of the location of different stars and manual alignment steps before you can use them to locate and track objects.

The advantage of LightSwitch is that instead of slewing the scope to the vicinity of the object you choose to view, leaving you to do final adjustments, it will put the object in the eyepiece every time.

The other attractive features of this scope are it's portability, the always excellent Meade optics, ACF which reduces distortion in the image and the price which is a grand lower than the less portable 8" LX200 without LightSwitch.

Being an early adopter of this scope I have battled through a few bugs and shortfalls in the design, but bottom line when this scope does what Meade intended it to and provided you have the right expectations it's very rewarding and very easy to use.

If you're thinking of buying this scope or you have one and it's giving you problems you might find some points from my own experience useful:

*The scope's primary interface is fairly rudimentary a single-line LCD on the hand controller and can be extremely frustrating, especially when the scope does not seem to be functioning properly. However this scope has an RCA video output which can be used to display additional information: multi-line menus; status info (such as GPS signal stength); error messages; on-board Astronomer Inside media collection. I found the video display makes this scope *much* easier to use. You'll need to provide your own monitor. You can buy dedicated field monitors, I use a cheap portable NTSC DVD player with an AV-in.

*The scope can be powered by 8 C-type batteries in the internal battery compartment. IMHO Meade should have omitted this entirely. Battery life is short and if it goes in the middle of observing you'll have to replace them (in the dark) and go through the alignment process all over. Apparently though two batts in the compartment nearest the eye-piece will ensure that internal state, like time and location, will remain after the scope has been switched off. I use a portable 12v DC power supply purchased for less than $100. When updating the firmware you should use a constant power supply since this takes a while.

*The scope has an SD card slot but the manual is not entirely clear about what type of card you need. It's actually a mini-SD card, I use a Toshiba 2Gb MiniSD card that comes with an adaptor. It must be formatted as FAT32. The slot for the card is a little awkward and you should use care when inserting/removing. When upgrading the firmware of the scope put the card in *before* switching on, When using the SD card to store pictures insert it *after* switching the scope on otherwise you'll just get a blank display.

*Take the lens cap off the CCD finder carefully. Meade did tell me that the CCD can be twisted when removing the cap which could cause it to fail later. The computer uses the CCD finder to snap pictures of the sky so it can locate stars for alignment, if the CCD doesn't work LightSwitch won't work.

*Before taking the scope out it's worth testing the CCD camera to make sure it's functioning properly. Just use the Snap and Store function from the menu with the lenses cap off and the formatted SD card in I simply took snaps of the inside of my apartment then load the SD on your computer to view the pics.

*Heavy light pollution and clouds or other objects blocking the view of the sky can also cause the CCD finder to fail to do it's job, make sure you're going to use this scope in a darkish open area.

*The mount for the red-dot finder on the early models was somewhat flimsy and the finder was prone to movement during shipping. Make sure the red-dot finder is secured tightly with screws as in the newer iterations. Before taking the scope out you'll want to align the finder by centering an object a few tens of feet away, then adjust the finder so it points at the same object. Don't forget to switch the finder off, if the finder battery dies it's replaceable by sliding it sideways out of the center of the finder where it says in tiny letters "Battery".

*Some of these scopes have a problem obtaining the correct location using GPS. These scopes shipped with firmware version 1.07 and this problem was fixed in version 1.2g. You can download this from Meade and save it on the SD card, insert the card and switch the scope on to upgrade.

*The accompanying AutoStar software suite can be used to control your scope from a laptop, *but* the driver is *not compatible* with Windows Vista or Mac OSX. I use Windows XP 64bit installed on a virtual machine (VMWare Fusion) on my Mac laptop. After the driver has been installed, go to the hardware manager and look at the Meade USB device properties to find the COM port it is simulating. Then in AutoStar make sure the set the same COM port under the "Telescope" menu and away you go.

*This scope does not have an option to use an equatorial mount at this time, so it's not practical for astrophotography with exposures longer than maybe a minute or two. Most astrophotography requires very long exposures *or* many shorter exposures in the same orientation which requires an equatorial mount. Since it is a single-fork design it's possible there never will be an equatorial mount option or if there is it might not be very stable.

*If your scope has the correct GPS coordinates and the CCD finder is able to take pictures but the scope consistently fails to align this could be due to drive inaccuracies or misalignment of the CCD finder. There are menu options under the "Setup" menu to align the CCD finder (Center Finder) and to train the drive.

*If you've read all the above and your scope still doesn't function properly send it back and get a replacement. Make sure the supplier gives you free shipment because this scope weighs 30lbs without the tripod.

In summary employing a video monitor and 12v DC power supply and going over as much verification of the scope before heading out can mean the difference between an extremely disappointing/frustrating night out in the cold and a fantastic rewarding journey through the Universe.

I had three LS6s fail on me and it was a terrible experience.

My first LS (when it was still known as the ETX-LS) had a faulty GPS that was replaced by Meade. The second

one is not the best either, and suffers from at least 5 problems, which

I list below.

1. GPS sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, all from about the same

location (by this I mean front yard compared to say, pavement in front

of front yard). GPS on my phone works great and picks up something like

7 satellites. ETX LS, half the time, picks up zero and asks for my

manual input. That is unacceptable. Why would I buy a GPS scope

otherwise?!

2. Scope has slewing problems in manual alignment mode. This happens

especially when it slews to a target star in manual alignment mode and

asks me to centre the star. I cannot do so because the slewing has

mysteriously been disabled.

3. Scope has slewing problems in normal GOTO mode. Sometimes I ask the

scope to goto an object and it does that, albeit unsuccessfully. So I

have to do a manual adjustment using the slew keys. Nothing happens. I

adjust the speed of the slewing to the maximum speed and still the scope

sits still on its base.

4. The scope has displayed albeit only once levelling problems.

Once, the scope thought that "level" was 30 degrees below the horizon

and promptly stayed there. I promptly aborted the operation and directed

the scope to shut down. Well, it carried the mistake in levelling over

and came to a rest 30 degrees past its normal vertical resting position.

5. The audio sometimes shuts down mysteriously. Not that I care much

about a talking telescope, but sometimes after I ask it to go to an

object (again the alignment doesn't work, as mentioned above), it does

so and starts talking about the object. Or, should I say, attempts to do

so. The screen shows "Press A/V to cancel MEDIA", but there is no sound.

I had done nothing with the volume and the scope was speaking on

start-up.

6. Auto-alignment and manual alignment are both hopeless. One caveat is

that I am in quite a light-polluted area (Cambridge, MA) but can still

see some stars in the sky on a good clear day. When the scope slews to

its first alignment star, say Vega, it is way off when I can the star in

the sky. And because I cannot correct the slew sometimes, the bad

attempt fixes. Once, after "alignment", the scope happily informed me

that Jupiter was below the horizon when it was high up in the sky!!

Basically I've spent hours

outside trying to get the scope aligned and seen objects rise and set

behind trees. I think 80% of the time I am with this scope is spent

figuring out what is wrong with it.

This second scope was sent back to Meade. The third scope surprise, surprise had a faulty GPS too. Now, Meade said that the latest firmware would solve the problem. I waited for that, and that didn't work. So I sent the third one back for a full refund.

Since then I have reverted to scopes which do not claim to auto-align for you. I find that one great thing about these older scopes is that you can manually slew the scope if necessary. With the LS6, you cannot. You are reliant on the controller and if that fails, the scope is not movable. Sure, you can try to force the scope to move, but it feels quite tight and I am not sure it's meant to do that.

Bottom line is this: the LS6 promises much, delivers little.

Buy Meade 0610-03-10 ETX -LS Telescope with ACF Lightswitch Technology Now

I bought a Meade LS-6 and it was delivered before Christmas 2009. Right out of the box the unit had a firmware read error and would not start up. Meade had me return the unit and promised to ship a new one immediately. I just received my new scope today, Jan 11, 2010. This new scope will not find GPS satellites. I am out in the middle of my back yard under clear skies. My Meade LX200-GPS is sitting 10 feet away and it finds GPS immediately. My hand held GPS finds 6 satellites with strong signals in under 30 seconds. But my brand new LS-6 with the latest ver 1.3 software will not find GPS. How sad.

This leads me to the following conclusions:

1. Meade is manufacturing a lot of junk. What are the odds that I would get 2 defective scopes unless the factory is simply manufacturing a lot of garbage?

2. Meade has no testing or quality control. It is one thing to make junk but how can you possibly ship these units to a customer? They did not even bother to turn the units on. This is inexcusable.

3. Meade customer service is terrible. They do not accept Email so I wrote them 2 paper letters regarding the first scope. I did not even get the courtesy of a response. Of course you have to wait 5-6 days before you realize that you've been ignored.

I have been a Meade customer for 20 years and I will never buy another one of their products. This is a company that has a manufacturing facility that is simply out of control and they simply don't care.

Read Best Reviews of Meade 0610-03-10 ETX -LS Telescope with ACF Lightswitch Technology Here

Great product idea but very poor implementation. Customer support is a nightmare. The telescope came with a defective firmware. I spent many hours and even days researching online for a solution with no success. The customer support refused to send a replacement before "troubleshooting" is done. They promised to send a replacement firmware maybe a dosen times, and never did. I bought the scope in December 2009 and there still no solution and no help from Meade, more than half a year later. Over $1500 spent on a non-working product. Shame on them and buyers beware!

Want Meade 0610-03-10 ETX -LS Telescope with ACF Lightswitch Technology Discount?

I have been stargazing since 1996, and I own 2 other telescopes from 2 different manufactures, so I've been around and I know what good telescope is capable of. The 6" optics on this ETS-LS will provide you with plenty of objects to view, its a perfect size for easy transport too. I had the fortune of owning the ETX-LS 6 ACF and I enjoyed the scope so much, I eventually upgraded to its bigger brother; the LS 8 ACF. I have no doubt that the newer LS 6 ACF has matured into a wonderful unit capable of a lifetime of stargazing. The ETX-LS 6 ACF had wonderful optics, and as a primary visual stargazer, that was extremely important. Go for the ACF optics, I have visually compared side by side with standard scopes, and I really like the ACF, it has tighter star images to me. The GOTO worked wonderfully for me, I even interfaced it with a number of freeware programs such as Stellarium, to permit me to select objects on my computer and have the scope slew to them, a super feature. I routinely placed objects within the field of view of a 14mm eyepiece once I did a sync to a deepsky object, and type of accuracy is very good. The intermittant GPS issues have been resolved by Meade with the latest firmware. And even though I did experience some of the GPS issues with early firmware, to me it wasn't even a big deal when it had no GPS fix. Once you entered in your date, time, city, it would slew to the first star, you center it, press Enter, and go to the next. Thats all that is involved even in the manual alignment. The bottom line is that there will be times that you will want to do a manual alignment, such as when your views are blocked or in my case, when your doing some sidewalk astronomy and there are just too many lights or buildings around. That was one bit of misinformation out there at the initial release of these scopes, that if you didn't get a auto-alignment, your done. Well, that is simply not true. I have done almost all my alignments with auto, but a few with manual just to test and like I previously said, sometimes it will be the preferred method.

The Astronomer Inside was a very fun, and downright educational tool. I must admit, I wasn't expecting that to be of much use for me, with some years of stargazing underneath my belt. But it proved downright fun and informative, and a great "wow" from first time stargazers during the times I took the scope out to public events. There is one recommendation that I will make to you considering this scope, get a external power supply like a PowerTank. Running off of batteries just doesn't cut it much, you will drain them very quickly. Also, if your going to use your scope at home, get a AC adapter too.

I have always recommended a 6" scope to those looking to get into astronomy, or those looking for a 2nd scope. The ETX-LS, and now the LS 6 ACF, has matured to a wonderful scope capable of a lifetime of happy stargazing.

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Kodak DC280 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom

I am a photographic and computer enthusiast and having these two elements come together is a delight for me. So, I have all the very expensive stuff, including KODAK's $20m commercial digital cameras. So, I know what quality is and how much it costs. Bottom-Line as starters, the DC280 makes great color shots with very suprising Hi-detail. The Advertisments say "good" for 8x10 photos, however, as a very picky guy, when you get past 5x7 print sizes, the pictures start to turn fuzzy. But the 5x7 prints are shockingly clear with brilliant colors. But, so what, how many prints does one make larger than 5x7 anyway. This camera is easy to use & small, and I carry it on vacation locations, when I don't want to carry my larger and heavier commercial camera. I was truly shocked at the excellent picture quality of the 280. ALSO, KODAK includes great software, so after a picture taking day/nite, one can easily connect to the yellow video plug on your TV (or Hotel TV) for a slide show of the days activities. I would recommend purchasing a 64MB memory card with the camera purchase, so you'll get plenty of picture opportunities (75+ shots) without having to worry about using up memory. In other words, since you can erase shots you don't like, take MANY, MANY shots and pick the best ones you like for printing or e-mailing. I bring my laptop with me on trips, so in the evening, I can copy the photo-files to the hard disk, and erase the camera memory card, in preparation for the next days photo activities. KODAK provides serial, USB cables, and software to accomplish this simply. Definitely do NOT buy a digital camera with less than 2,000,000 pixels. (The older models, presently having good sale prices, are technology of 2/3 years ago, and you'll wish you spent the extra money for this camera). Since KODAK has been the color business for 100 years, (well...50+years) its no surprise that they have created an electronic imager (the CCD Chip) with the BEST Color quality and detail. This is a must have, you'll not be dissappointed. If you have another few hundred dollars, check out the SONY or OLYMPUS dye-sublimation printers, which produce actual photo quality continuous tone prints up to 4x5 sizes; These printers are not dot-matrix's with all the little dots. The camera and the printer makes for a great combo family gift for under $2m, that anyone in the family can use without having to even turn on a computer, as the printer prints directly off the camera memory card. SO that you don't make yourself craze, and since its slightly different than a typical film point and shoot camera, be sure to read the instruciton booklet, before pushing all the buttons. The documentation KODAK gives you is very easy to understand, so take it slow when you open the Box for the first time. It's so intuitive to use, after the first 2 outings, you NOT need to keep going back to the booklets. JLW/991203.

For the money you just simply will not beat the performance of the Kodak DC280. I have had mine for a couple of months now, and it has literaly replaced my regular 35 mm camera. I love the convience of taking pictures then making any edits i need from my computer. The software is easy to install, and only has about a one hour learning curve to master. Very good and fast usb connection. With a fully charged set of NI-MH, AA batteries it gets fantastic long life. And the 2.0 Megapixel image is nothing less than photo film perfect, must be seen to belive. I also like the smart card memory media included, I have upgraded the 8 mb, to a 24 mb card, and on the 24 mb, I can snap over 100 photos in the best quality mode on the lower size setting, and 34 of the highest quality photos in the huge mega resolution setting. Another great feature is that this camera is very easy to use compared to the other brands I have tried. I did not even have to read the instructions, (though I would read them if I were a beginer). Try the Kodak DC280 out if your in the market for a fantastic digital camera!

Buy Kodak DC280 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom Now

Although it sometimes feels like we're all still beta testing various digital imaging technologies, including digital cameras, products like the Kodak DC280 make me believe the "dark ages" might be coming to an end.

This is a good mid-range digital camera, perfect for those who want to capture images that will look very good on the Web. The biggest plus of the camera is image quality; this is the best camera in this price range that I tested, with two-megapixel resolution. Having quite a bit of hands-on experience with various Sony cameras, I and my partner were actually stunned by how clear the DC280's images were in a variety of lighting conditions.

There is very little to complain about in terms of interface and usability. I scanned the manual, and then just started using the DC280. The menu system and buttons are quite intuitive. One minor quibble is that one is pretty much forced to use the DC280's viewfinder left-eyed; otherwise the LCD screen smudge factor so common to digital camera will rear its ugly head. However, I use the LCD for the majority of my shooting, so this isn't a huge factor.

The DC280 uses a USB connection to transfer images to your computer. The camera mounts as if it were a hard drive, and one can preview large thumbnails of images before copying them over to your hard drive. While I was able to open the images directly into Photoshop, Fireworks couldn't get into the camera; this may have been a problem with how I have my file associations set up, however.

The camera comes with a number of features and extras. The bundled software, Adobe's PhotoDeluxe and Pagemill, are more than adequate for editing images and creating Web pages. Various simple visual effects and borders can be applied in-camera, and you can run a slide-show right out of the camera using the supplied video cable.

The DC280 includes four rechargeable AA batteries, a recharger, and four AA alkaline batteries. You can get started right out of the box. My camera sucked the alkalines dry after about 50 photos and a couple of downloads; I would suggest buying an extra set of rechargeables to carry around with you, and an AC adaptor.

This is not the perfect camera for all applications. For one thing, there are few manual controls on the camera for focus, aperture or shutter priority, and the optical zoom limited to 2X. This will mean that photo enthusiasts might want to look at something the next step up, such as the wacky-looking Nikon Coolpix 950. As others have reported, low-light shooting is not at the quality that one would hope for from a camera at this level.

All-in-all, the DC280 is an excellent camera for the price, perfect for Web photos.

Read Best Reviews of Kodak DC280 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom Here

With this camera, you will get great colors on your screen. I tryed the same picture with the three different qualities and with all I got excellent pictures. It has all the basic features you might need in any camera. It has a good zoom, the 'physical zoom' is not that good, then I discovered the digital zoom which is great.

It consumes a lot of batteries, but you have more than enough with the rechargable batteries and of course, the battery charger included in the camera. I bought an additional charger because I never found that the camera came with its own, so don't buy another charger.

I'm more than satisfied with the 8MB flash card. It is true that you can only take 12 pictures with the highest resolution (1800x1600) and higest quality, but with standard resolution(800x600) and the medium quality you still have very good pictures and can get about 52 pictures, which is good for a weekend. If you have a long trip and don't have a pc to download the pictures, then you might consider another flash card.

BAD THINGS: It weights a little bit more than a traditional camera of the same size, but still, it's much better that other big cameras. It doesn't come with a camera bag. You have to buy it appart.

In summary, a great camera.

Want Kodak DC280 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom Discount?

I finally upgraded from my original 2 year old Digital Camera a Casio 5000SX that was great except for a poorly designed battery door. The Kodak DC280 Zoom is better in every category clarity, features, memory capability, analog zoom, except for one the delay in the time from pressing the shutter until it snaps the picture. Keep in mind, that the processing time is quite fast the Kodak is ready to take your next picture quite quickly, thanks to some in-memory processing, but the delay from when you click the button until the action is captured is quite lengthy. I find it nearly impossible to get good action shots with this camera. For example, I take quite a few pictures of sand volleyball on my weekends. Only the highest flyers the guys that can jump out of the sand and hang like Vince Carter were captured in the air, and only with me clicking the shutter button at least 2-3 seconds *before* they jumped. However, if you don't have to take a lot of action shots, well this this is an excellent camera for the money for both amateur and professional alike.

Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera with 2.7-inch Vari-angle LCD (Body Only)

Summary:

Outstanding (absolutely stunning) image quality, especially in low light and difficult lighting (high dynamic range) situations

19 point-and-shoot auto modes great for beginners new to D-SLR

Extremely easy-to-use menu system

No compromises feature set not stripped of high-end features

Bright vari-angle screen with LiveView for hard-to-reach shots, but don't consider this a replacement for the viewfinder for most situations

Nice compact body easier to travel

D5000 vs. Nikon D60:

Dramatic improvement in low-light and difficult light image quality

Improved auto white balance (but still not perfect)

Slightly bigger (taller and deeper) body, slightly heavier

11 autofocus points, 3D matrix metering, Auto D-Lighting

Faster continuous shot performance (4fps vs 3)

Up to 63 JPEG/11 RAW images in continuous burst mode (the D60 can capture up to 100 JPEG/9 RAW images)

RAW+JPG with choice of JPEG compression

Full feature set including bracketing

13 additional auto / scene presets

Additional in-camera editing including perspective control and fisheye

Slightly smaller viewfinder, but adds optional grid line support

LiveView with HD Movie Mode

Multi selector supports diagonal movement instead of 4 directions

Quiet shooting mode reduces shutter noise in quiet situations

support for optional Nikon GPS unit

HDMI output

same outstanding 18-55VR kit lens

D5000 vs. Nikon D90:

Equivalent image quality, altho D5000 tends to underexpose capturing all detail vs. D90 tendency to overexpose high contrast shots

D5000 LiveView mode adds subject tracking

Easy to use auto / scene presets along with context sensitive help

More sophisticated interval shooting and time-lapse mode

Additional in-camera editing including perspective control and fisheye

Significantly more compact, lighter body

No autofocus motor in body for older or more professional lenses

No top LCD; must use back display to review settings

No depth of field preview

Lower resolution screen than D90 but vari-angle allows you to compose hard-to-reach shots

Slightly slower continuous shot performance (4fps vs 4.5)

Up to 63 JPEG/11 RAW images can be captured in continuous burst mode (the D90 burst is limited to 25 JPEG/7 RAW images)

Quiet shooting mode reduces shutter noise in quiet situations

.78x Pentamirror viewfinder vs. the D90's brighter .94x Pentaprism

Single command dial means more access to Menu for changing settings

Built-in flash cannot command external flash units with Nikon Creative Lighting System

No option for extra battery grip

Kit lens only 18-55VR vs 18-105VR

D5000 adds Airflow Control System in addition to dust reduction system

Better value, especially body only

Detailed Review:

Having bought my first D-SLR (a Nikon D60) last November, I was intrigued with the announcement of the D5000. At the time of my D60 purchase, I was considering the D90, but after holding both in person, I chose the D60 for its the much smaller form factor, lighter weight, and much lower price tag. I have been largely happy with the D60, although its low-light performance while dramatically better than my old point-and-shoot camera still wasn't fantastic.

Given the D5000 uses the same sensor and imaging sensor as the D90, but in a smaller lighter case, I decided to upgrade. And I must say I'm exceptionally pleased with the D5000.

What is to like over the D60?

1) Stunning Image Quality even in Low Light, without a tripod or fast lens

The D5000 takes exceptional pictures, especially in low-light and in challenging lighting scenarios. The D5000 is the first camera I've owned that can take a picture at night and capture everything (and in some cases more than) my eye sees. And this is in Automatic mode (flash off), without a tripod, using an average-speed (f3.5-f5.6) Nikon VR lens. Truly impressive.

I went back and took the same night shots in the same settings with the same Nikon 16-85 VR lens and the results are noticeably better on the D5000 vs my D60. The difference between the D5000 and D60 is almost as dramatic (in low light) as the difference between my D60 and point-and-shoot camera. I've posted a few example images to illustrate.

Images captured even at ISO 1600 have exceptional detail and very low noise. Even when you zoom to 100% the D5000 renders these tough shots beautifully.

Highlights are controlled and not blown-out, while even low-contrast areas of the picture are captured.

2) Ability to capture details in challenging light, automatically

The D5000's ability to capture all details of an image, even at night, with areas of highly contrasting lighting is even more impressive than it's low-light performance. As some have noted, the D5000 has a tendency to slightly underexpose these pictures to preserve detail. (The D90 tends to over-expose these shots, illustrating that the D5000 is not entirely a "D90 in a small case".)

In one example (posted to the customer images), a night-shot of the famous Castro Street theater the D5000 captured the bright neon signs, architectural lighting of the facade, and even the mosaic tile and billboards in the very dimly-lit entry. All again in automatic mode, no tripod, F3.8 ISO 800. When I post the sample pictures they will tell the story better than I could ever describe.

I can only think that this performance is related to a combination of improvements over the D5000: 11 autofocus points, 3D matrix metering, next-generation Active D-Lighting, latest Nikon EXPEED processor.

3) No-compromises feature set that is still easy to use for the beginner

One thing that annoyed me about the D60 was its lack of some features (eg. bracketing) intended to "dumb the camera down". The D5000 has every control you would ever want, yet its menu system remains extremely easy to use even for a beginner.

Example features the D5000 offers that are not available on the D60:

RAW-JPG ability to select JPEG quality (Std,Basic,Fine)

bracketing (useful for HDR post-processing)

and I'm sure there are many others I have missed.

The D5000 also includes a number of additional SCENE modes (a total of 19) for the beginner used to point-and-shoot simplicity. Everything from Night Landscape, Sunset, Food, Pet Portrait, Sports, and more.

4) Useful Live View and Vari-Angle Display for those hard-to-reach shots

A first for Nikon, the D5000 includes a "vari-angle" articulated LCD. Despite the specs on paper (230,000 pixels vs the 920,000 pixels on the D90) the screen quality is outstanding very bright and easy to see even in sunshine.

Using the Live View mode, you can take pictures in hard-to-reach angles such as above a crowd, or looking up from a low angle, or taking a self-portrait. What doesn't work so well in Nikon's implementation is that the hinge is on the bottom of the camera, so if you're using a tripod your choices are limited.

New to the D5000 LiveView (not on the D90) is subject tracking, which keeps focus on a moving subject within the frame.

As others have pointed out, the D5000 LiveView autofocus performance is very slow. The more that I have used it, I must say that LiveView performance is probably worse than your point-and-shoot camera. Some other owners on the Nikon forums have reported complete failure of LiveView autofocus, although on my D5000 it works.

As it is, I compose 99% of my shots in the viewfinder, which gives you the super-fast response of a DSLR in the first place. For me the ability to use LiveView in hard-to-reach situations is a nice feature.

What could be improved?

Well, first of all, the video is more of a marketing idea the sound is monoral, you can't change auto-focus once you start recording, and the video has the infamous "jelly effect" when moving from side to side

Although the case is much smaller than the D90, it's still over 1/4" taller than my D60, and doesn't feel nearly as comfortable in my hands.

The tilting screen is great, but the bottom-hinge design is of limited effectiveness when using a tripod.

Live View autofocus is very slow for a D-SLR (even worse in some situations than a compact digital camera)

Auto White Balance just doesn't get it right with certain lighting. But it's easy enough to correct with a custom white balance (if you have the time when taking the shot) or post-processing the RAW image. I just don't understand why my $300 Canon SD870 does auto-white balance so much better.

All in all, however, the outstanding image quality especially in low-light, and features offset the very minor areas that could be improved. For that, the D5000 gets my 5-star vote.

I got this camera back on July, its serial number is inside the range of the recall. But mine havent failed yet after 2 months of full time use.

So I just wont send it to repair until it fails, crossing fingers here though. Anyway if it ever presents a problem I will just send it to Nikon since it has full warranty and Nikon's policies are to repair the unit no matter the time or when it fails, could be a lot of time, they will repair it fast for free.

Ok now to performance, this camera performs as good as the D300 or D90 step up brothers IQ wise. High ISO performance is top notch, a few reviews over the net show that it has less noise than D300.

This little consumer grade camera will do just about everything than other more expensive DSLR's. Like full manual settings, high exposure shots, D-Lighting, in camera editing, etc, etc.

The little screen is just perfect, the size and weight too. The menu is user friendly, everything it has looks like a true 2009 model. 5 stars, cant find a flaw.

This camera lacks an integrated autofocus motor, but that feature is for use of older lenses and some exotic ones. So it has 87 variety of Nikon and aftermarket lenses to choose from,

that is one of the reasons I bought this camera, saving money discarding a feature that I wont ever use since Iam new to phootgraphy and Iam just starting making my own lens collection, with only new AF-S type of lenses that come with their autofocus motor. It doesnt have a top LCD display but I really dont like them, they look old. They are usefull, but really not a need.

It has the video feature, wich it isnt as a camcorder quality but way better than a Cybershot, and its a DSLR so I wont go deeper about its video performance, wich anyway is HD 720p, for short clips is perfect.

The 4FPS continuous shot is quite good, not professional but works pretty good, almost no different or noticeable than the 4.5FPS on the D90.

The thing I like most, is the lightweight, coupled with my 70-300vr its ironic how light it is next to a ton of weight from other cameras with heavier lenses.

Cant go wrong with this little camera. This is a great choice if is your first DSLR, or if its your 2nd body. Because if you are serious about photography, for more money u can get a more solid, body with more features, that are usefull for the professional photographer. But for everyone else, this 12.3 MP sensor is the same as the D300 or D90. The Image quality brings a tear to the eye, Period!

Buy Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera with 2.7-inch Vari-angle LCD (Body Only) Now

If you're looking at this camera, my guess is you've done your home work and figured out that if you want a good DSLR on a budget, your choice is pretty much down to D5000 or Rebel. I came to that conclusion fairly quickly but making that decision was not easy. On paper Canon had better specs for the price but both cameras looked close ...

There are numerous reviews comparing those cameras. Most of them are long, detailed and come to the same conclusion both cameras are good not really helping much at the end. So here I'll try to keep it focused and tell about the key differences which helped me to set my mind.

1. Low light shooting. Recently I went to a party and a friend of mine gave me his Rebel. What I didn't realize before is in order to autofocus the Rebel needs to pop up flash and fire it a few times. Of course, it's not at full power, but still it ruins everything because you can't take a picture without distracting people. You catch some interesting face, point, shoot and those few flashes totally distract the person. Nikon has a white lamp, it's enough to focus but most people won't get distracted. So if you plan to take pictures of people in party like set up Nikon gives you an advantage. (well, to be fair you can get an external flash which has a lamp for autofocus assist, but we are talking about the cameras here)

2. Tilting LCD. Rebel has bigger and better LCD. However, I'm not a paparazzi, but time to time i need to shoot over a line of people in front of me (parades, street performance, small crowded room etc). With the tilting LCD you can raise the camera above your head and still be able to frame the picture. I found that very useful and Nikon has an advantage.

3. Extra preset modes. Probably like the most people I used to keep the dial on "Auto" most of the time. And it worked ok most of the time. But I never could quickly figure out how to take a picture of my daughter blowing birthday candles or perfect sunset or something white on white etc. So when I tried the extra "Scene" preset modes on Nikon, I was really surprised how much better can those pictures be comparing to the "Auto". Try them out and keep in mind Rebel doesn't have many of those modes.

4. Feel. Nikon has very solid feel in your hands. Maybe it's subjective, but I do like this feeling.

So overall, Rebel does have a lot of specs slightly better than Nikon. It's smaller, lighter, the screen is bigger and has better resolution, it has more megapixels. Yes, it's all nice to have but this is a choice between good and even better. However Nikon offers some things Rebel just doesn't have (see above). So I bought Nikon and feel happy about it.

A few side notes. The cameras are getting better and better and in a couple years you'll be able to buy a much better camera for the same price. The lenses and flashes on the other side are not changing much and hold value really well. So if you have a choice, try to buy the best lense (and for an expensive lense don't forget to buy a protective filter) and flash you can afford and maybe save some money on the body and upgrade it in a couple years if some new cool technology pops up.

Hopefully my review will help you to decide one way or another.

Read Best Reviews of Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera with 2.7-inch Vari-angle LCD (Body Only) Here

I did a lot of research before I decided to go with D5000 including going to BestBuy and other camera stores and handling the camera to make sure it feels right. In the end I got the best deal through Amazon (even though a D5000 kit at Costco had an unbelievable deal). I choose not to buy a kit because I wanted specific lenses with the camera. I wanted one lens that I can travel with without the need to change lenses and another that I can use primarily in doors in low light conditions. I got the Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM IF Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras and Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras lenses. I also got a Nikon SB-600 Speedlight Flash for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras and an Eye-Fi 4GB Pro SDHC Wireless Flash Memory Card EYE-FI-4PC to wirelessly upload pictures to my laptop (D5000 has built in support for Eye-Fi SDHC cards). Last week Eye-Fi came out with Eye-Fi 8GB Pro X2 SDHC Class 6 Wireless Flash Memory Card EYE-FI-8PC that has more features and almost the same price (bummer!). I also got UV filters for both lens to protect the expensive lens glass.

The cameras I compared before buying were, Nikon D90, D60, Canon Rebel iTL, xTi, etc.

I have used it for two weeks now with great results. Camera is very easy to use, I still have not looked through the manual and have been able to find advance setting easily. The auto-focus with both the lenses is very fast (faster if using the view-port than using LiveView). I still have not been able to find a camera case that I feel good with that is compact enough to easily carry around and I can get my essential accessories in.

One big factor for me for selecting this camera was the swivel lens. Being a big guy, I run into scenarios where I do not have clear line of sight to the subject I am capturing and have always wanted the ability to move the camera higher or away from my body to take great shots and the swivel LCD does a great job at it. My tipod mount has not had any problem with restricting the swivel movement, but I have seen it at a store, where the tripod mount was huge and restricted the LCD movement.

Again overall highly recommended camera.

Want Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera with 2.7-inch Vari-angle LCD (Body Only) Discount?

Having had the D5000 for a few months now, and having used it with a few different lenses, I figured I'd better chime in here, in hopes of pushing this one's rating just a bit higher. It's certainly deserving. One of the reasons this camera got a bunch of bad reviews all over the place at first was because of the recall. Definitely a bummer. But by the time I received mine, the problem had been dealt with, and I received a perfectly working model. So how is it?

In a word: fantastic. I've owned one other dSLR in my life, and it was a Canon, and it was a while ago. Needless to say, this was a HUGE step up for me.

In getting truly serious about my photography, this camera has been the tool I've dreamed of having for a long, long time. It's fast, light, takes wonderful pictures, and is reasonably priced to boot. The menu system is well laid out, and there's a very useful info button if you want the quick-and-dirty of what a particular setting does. I've used this camera with Nikon, Sigma, and Tamron lenses, and with all of them it has just performed seamlessly. Of course, now that I know everything there is to know about this camera, it only makes me want a D3X that much more. But parting with 7k for a camera is more than a little crazy, especially at my level.

So my parting advice is this: if you really, really know what you're doing, you'll probably be a little disappointed and somewhat limited by this camera. While it does an admirable job at higher ISO's, it's no $7000 camera. In fact it's no $3000 camera. Meaning that you will see noise at the higher settings, plain and simple.

But if you're not expecting miracles, then this little gem of a camera might just surprise you with a few.

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