Pelican 1495 Black Computer Case with Foam (Black)

Great product. I took my 17in Alienware to Afghanistan in it and didn't have a problem with it. The case was in my Stryker when we had a roll over and my laptop was fine. With stood a year of dust, dirt, and high temps without issue. I used it as a stool at times and never scratched my laptop. There ARE issues though on the civilian side. The case weighs 11 lbs or so, then you have to add the weight of whatever you put in it, my laptop weighs 13 lbs, so you can see it's heavy. Next, it's pretty much too big to carry on a plane, it doesn't fit in most over head bins and it does not fit well under the seats in front on you. I ended up putting mine on the floor and then resting my feet ontop of it. Realise the deminsions and the weight. Short of that mine survived an IED blast so I think you'll be safe.

This case Fits a 17" monitor. Since I have a 15inch I have room for a spare battery, travel mouse and small periferals. Secure and crushproof. I can stand my 200lb self on the lid and it only bows 1/4 of an inch. Haven't had the guts to try it with a two tonne truck......

My ONLY gripe, and the reason I bought a slightly less pretty case {from the same company} is that in one dimension it won't make all airline travel space restrictions.

Accept no substitutes. Or "How much is YOUR data worth?"

Buy Pelican 1495 Black Computer Case with Foam (Black) Now

Although it was a little bigger than I realized, it worked out perfect for me as I could also place other accessaries such as a camera and charger in the case. I'm in the military and when I go on a deployment I need a case that can be packed and tossed at a moments notice. The Pelican laptop case is nothing but proven durability.

Read Best Reviews of Pelican 1495 Black Computer Case with Foam (Black) Here

I use this case to store my collection of handguns. It is solid and protects them well. The lock is of good quality. The foam inside works well to keep my guns in place. The military uses Pelican cases for everything in some very harsh environments so obviously they can withstand the abuses encountered here in the States. I recommend to purchase.

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As a US Marine who goes out in the field, this case protected my Toshiba Qosmio laptop from the harsh elements of the mojave desert. I was running power from my light armored vehicle's power inverted and storing my laptop in this case. We did a ton of bumpy off road driving that would've destroyed my laptop if it had been in perhaps a backpack.

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Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer

I have been using camcorders since 1985 and I've used almost every possible format available to consumers. As of Oct. 2007, I can firmly say that this is by far the best camcorder ever, in terms of the picture quality, convenience, and the price. Although there are some limitations in the AVCHD format (I don't want to repeat here again), the convenience of the hard drive made me choose the HG10 and I have absolutely no regret at all.

First of all, I would like to clarify other reviewer's information that might misguide some folks. The HG10 does include the software to transfer and to edit the video footage for a PC. It comes with Ulead DVD MovieFactory SE for editing and burning DVDs and AVCHD-DVDs (can be playable on some blu-ray players and Playstation 3. It's a dvd that has HD pictures). If other reviewers have only a Mac, their complaints are valid, since the HG10 only includes a picture browser to handle the still pictures, not video for a Mac.

For the most consumers like me, the DVD MovieFactory works pretty well. I just burned a standard DVD (yes, an MPEG2 DVD that you watch everyday) with the DVD MovieFactory and am very satisfied with the result. Converting HD pictures to the SD format does not degrade the original HD quality much and I was impressed by that. I added chapter marks, made menus, and did little editing. Editing the AVCHD format needs a ton of processing power. If you don't have a fast computer (dual core, 2 ghz or faster), it will be extremely slow. I was using a Pentium 4 3.6 GHz, 2 gigs RAM, Windows Vista Business PC to make a DVD and it worked OK. Making an AVCHD-DVD is faster since it does not need to re-encode the video files. If you don't do a complicate editing job and want to merge video clips from the HG10 and burn a DVD, you could use a slower computer for that purpose. I have experience using Adobe Premiere, Ulead VideoStudio, and iMovie (for Mac). Although DVD MovieFactory might not be the right tool for the professional work, it is quite good for a home use. I surprised my friends with the DVDs created from it. My only gripe is a complicated software activation process. You should read the software instructions carefully to avoid the hassle (specially the web link in the last page). I wasted 2 hours just to activate the software.

Yes, the HG10 does not have an IEEE1394 (or firewire, or iLink whatever you call it) port. However, it does not need one. All the footages are already stored in AVCHD format and you only need to transfer those files to your computer. If you have to capture the video and encode it to a file from the magnetic tape (MiniDV), you might need an IEEE1394 port. However, for the HG10, you don't need to do that. If you look at other hard drive based camcorders, they don't have it either (they mostly have a USB port). Right before the HG10, I used a Sony DCR-SR100 and it does not have a firewire port, either.

The HG10 has a mini HDMI (type C) port, so if you want to connect the HG10 via HDMI, you'll need to order a mini-HDMI to HDMI (type C to type A) cable. The HG10 only includes a composite A/V cable and a component video cable. My minor complaint is that it does not come with a shoulder strap. This toy costs $1,000, so a nice looking shoulder strap should be given (I am using one from an old Canon ZR camcorder).

I was told that the HG10 uses the same optical mechanism as Canon HV20, which is known to be the best consumer HD camcorder on the market (it records in HDV format on tapes, not AVCHD on the hard drive). So I expected that the picture quality would be pretty good and I was right. If you have a full 1080p HD display, you will be amazed. Personally, I use a 720p projector at home and am quite impressed by the quality of the picture. Unlike Sony AVCHD camcorders, the sound is recorded in 2 channel Dolby Digital format (Sony records in 5.1 channel Dolby Digital). The good thing about 2 channel recording is that it does not record my breath. With 5.1 channel recording, you can easily hear your breathing sound, since two of the mics are catching rear sound.

For the low light performance (like indoor shot), the HG10 is comparatively better than any other consumer level camcorder on the market that I have seen. However, don't expect too much. It cannot be compared to the low light quality of a $3,000 camcorder. My impression is that its low light picture quality is closest to a decent 3CCD high-priced consumer level camcorder.

I have been waiting for long to have an excellant hard drive based AVCHD camcorder. There are many hard drive based camcorders on the market now and none of these have caught my attention for some minor reasons, such as no external mic jack, no usb port on the camcorder, or the poor low light performance. Finally I found the right one and am so happy that I waited.

Thanks to Canon for introducing good equipment at the right price (under a grand). I hope this review helps some people who have waited like me.

== Update, as of Feb. 12, 2008

As of today, I have been using the HG10 for more than 4 months. I have taken so many precious moments and this camcorder never disappoints me. The best moment I had was the day I brought this camcorder to my friend's home for a party. I connected it to Samsung LNT4065F 40" 1080p LCD HDTV and showed a junior high soccer tournament game. Everyone, I mean everyone, in that house said "Wow." The picture quality coming out of this combination was AMAZING !! I felt like I was watching an HD documentary from BBC or National Geographic. As I said in the review, I use an HG10 with a 1080i/720p projector (Epson Cinema 400, 3 LCD projector), but the HG10 picture coming out from the Samsung LCD TV was truly exceptional and far superior (very bright and way more crisp). I have never seen such a good picture coming from any other consumer level camcorder. Although the indoor shots have some grainy pictures (I tested some indoor video shots, too), the outdoor shots are flawless. Most of my friends who saw it wanted to buy the HG10 and I started to dream about having the Samsung LNT4065F LCD TV ever since. :)

The only drawback that I have found new from the HG10 is that if you want to transfer video files from the HG10 to a computer, you must have an AC adapter (correct me, if I am wrong). Sometimes, I want to transfer video to a friend's computer right after I take it. However, if I don't have the AC adapter for the HG10, it simply refuses to do it (it asks me to hook it up). This is very cumbersome to me.

I just heard that the new Sony hard drive camcorder has a 120GB hard drive. However, the 5 hr 30 mins of video in highest quality that I can take from the HG10 is still pretty good.

If I had to choose a camcorder today, I would choose the HG10 again. I can't wait to see what the next version of the HG10 can do.

== Update, for the Mac users, as of Mar. 29, 2008

I recently bought a MacBook and found out one thing that I want to share with other Mac users. First of all, the HG10 does work with iMovie '08 and Leopard OS (10.5) on intel Macs. If you connect the HG10 to the Mac, all the importing process will go very smoothly. You should be patient, since the Mac converts AVCHD files from the HG10 to their propriety format (it increase the size of the original files to 7-10 times). However, iMovie '08 does not import .mts or .m2ts files directly. iMovie can only import AVCHD files from the HG10 or the storage space (external hard drive) that exactly has the same directory structure like the HG10. I mean, it does not import individual .mts (.m2ts) files. I have searched through many apple discussion forums and have not found solutions for it.

If someone only saves .mts or .m2ts files without having the original directory structure (it means, no meta data, video files only) like me, he/she has to use the conversion utility like Voltaic to convert .mts or .m2ts files. If you have a non-Intel Mac, you can import AVCHD files this way (converting through the utility like Voltaic) only, though. This conversion process takes significant amount of time and the storage space.

I wish iMovie can directly handle .mts (.m2ts) files soon. Until then, I should stick with the bundled Ulead software on PC for my old video backups. Disappointed...

== Update, for the YouTube lovers, as of May. 22, 2009

I still love the HG10. It is the best. Probably you already know about this. YouTube allows to upload the .mts or .m2ts files created by AVCHD camcorders. So, you can upload the file directly without any conversion process on YouTube and it is HD. I cannot thank YouTube enough about it.

Import works great with the latest version of iMovie on a Mac. Transfers are fast thanks the hard drive. Editing and transfer to other formats (AppleTV) are very convenient but then my Mac is very fast. I was nervous going with the hard drive over tape but the convenience of it easily offsets any quality loss for the type of recording I'm doing (family and personal). Menus are intuitive and the scroll wheel approach works pretty well (it could be better, but I do prefer it over a joystick). USB 2.0 seems plenty snappy not missing the firewire.

The hard drive makes it very easy to get out and shoot no worry about if you are overwriting a keeper tape or if you are going to run out of tape. Its also extremely easy to delete unwanted footage in the field right when you've captured it. This is such a pain on tape that I never do it which results in a lot of wasted time later.

Drive is completely silent. Shoe provides for a shotgun mic which I'll be trying out shortly. Headphone jacks for monitoring sound are there and I've found that to be very important on past units. Construction is solid. Automatic lens cover much easier than having one on a lanyard that you always have to stow. Stand by mode gets you shooting in 1 second which is very nice.

Looking forward to trying the still capability. While the resolution can't match my pocket cam the 10x optical zoom is very nice to have.

On a Mac with the latest iLife and Leopard no software is needed. Drive mounts on the desktop. Movies automatically import into the new iMovie. Absolutely wonderful.

Buy Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer Now

The Canon HG-10 is a superb follow-on to the top rated and highly acclaimed Canon HV-20.

We could not be happier. This is a gem of a camcorder. Obviously each reviewer has their own specific reasons for purchasing such an advanced camcorder.

This is our third camcorder and we have been shooting family events, vacations and even hurricanes for close to 20 years. We burn our captured footage on a number of DVD's and share with family members (many who live a great distance away). We have two HDTV's and are about to buy a Blu-ray player. Our Sony camcorder died in The UK this summer and instead of buying another SD camcorder, we decided it is time to step up.

Why now?? Although SIMPLE HD capture and burning software and inexpensive High Def DVD burners are behind the curve at the present time, they are going to happen. Sony, Panasonic, Canon and all the rest...will make it happen. This is too big a potential market to ignore -so we decided to shoot in High Def now, save the backed up video on our hard drive and/or offline storage, and burn in Standard Definition now. When the software makers and DVD burner makers decide to catch up and make it easy to burn family movies, we will have our (saved) high def files ready to convert to Blu Ray or HDDVD or both.

There are a ton of very technical reviews on the HG-10 on this and other websites. CNET and Amazon provide a great deal of information, Camcorderinfo.com and smartguider.com are just two of the many others. We think any buyer should review them all and also do a web search on

"Canon HG-10 reviews"

After days of reading reviews virtually every web review and visiting at least 7 retail stores we came away with some interesting observations. You are not going to get much technical help at the major retail outlets. You can get hands on and see what works for you. When comparing the HG-10 to the CanonHV-20, there was no comparison as to the ergonomic superiority of the HG-10.

For the technical data you will have to hit the web as the folks in the stores just do not have the depth you need to help you make this kind of buying decision.

We found a few very helpful "gems" in selecting this camcorder.

1) We went to the Canon website.... and downloaded the HG-10 manual in .pdf format (yes it is 118 pages) but if you print the pages in short batches, you will have an excellent and VERY readable document to review BEFORE and after you purchase the HG-10. The manual that comes in the box is very small and hard to read. It would also be a VERY wise idea to also download the .pdf file for the Corel Application Disc Version two.

2) This Corel Guide is a much shorter manual -just 16 pages long. You really want to read this one cover to cover before you buy, and particularly Page 3, where they discuss needed PC systems requirements. You may want to talk (or email) with Canon and/or Corel regarding your PC versus their "recommended size of the PC system". We have a Core 2 Duo Dell so the Corel software posed no problems.

3) We called Cannon Tech support while reviewing the manual. You will be delighted to find out their 800 number ( 1-800-828-4040) is located Virginia, they are very well trained and if you have a problem..they can immediately lay their hands on an HG-10 and go thru a process step-by-step with you. They were even available on a Saturday afternoon.

4) We cannot say enough good things about Canon support. Having spent untold hours since the early days of the IBM PC, on support lines, trying to get help with hardware and software, we think Canon really got it right. A couple short calls to Canon to clarify some questions made it easy for us to choose the HG-10.

On the HG-10 --all the controls were when we really liked them. The HG-10 borrows a lot of its technology from its tape driven HV-20 sister but after living with internal tape transports in many worldwide (hot, cold and dusty) climates and situations over the years, the hard drive was a very logical choice. The 5 and ½ hours of HXP (full 1080) highest format is plenty for any vacation. Realistically, how many folks want to sit through even a three hour home movie? We have learned from Hollywood.. Keep it short..Keep it snappy..Keep it interesting. Five and ½ hours of High Def video gives you a ton of material to work with from any vacation. When you get home, the Corel software that comes with the Canon allows you to immediately back up your video files and you are ready to initialize (format) the Hard Drive and you are ready to go with a fresh 5 ½ hours of HXP.

Going through the HG-10 manual provides many happy surprises the camcorder has more features than you can believe and most reviewers do not have the time or space to address all of the abilities of this camcorder. This camcorder takes better still photos than our Sony Cybershot H-5 (which suffers from chromatic aberration in certain situations).

We purchased a 1 GB (Canon recommends no bigger than 2GB) Sandisk mini-SD card that also comes with an SD adapter. If you already have Still Photo capture and edit software, you may not need to load the entire very voluminous still photo (Digital Video Solution Version 27.0) software that comes on a CD with the HG-10. We went through the manual for that disc and it was all about STILL photos. Having more still photo software than we can ever use already on our PC, we skipped that installation.

Why not get a USB-based Media card reader for your PC (if it does not have one) for under $25. When you take still photos just remove the card from the HG-10 and insert it into a USB media card reader. While, we did not by this camcorder for still photos we are more than delighted with the stills that we can capture in Camera mode.

Regarding connections (page 83 in the HG-10 manual) we love displaying the HXP High Def. video footage on our HDTV. We connect the HG-10 to the HDTV via the (optional) mini-HDMI to HDMI cable. The Canon manual calls this an optional HTC-100 HDMI cable. Sony sells a VMC-15MHD HDMI Mini to HDMI that works very well. Canon does not provide this and you will not find these cables in most stores at the present so you may have to order one over the web.

As many highly regarded reviewers have noted, use the HDMI connection whenever you can for the best quality.

Our HDTV had only one HDMI input (already being used) so we purchased a Belkin HDMI 3 to 1 Switch box that allows us to now plug in HD Cable, the HG-10 and a future Blue ray player. We keep the HG-10 HDMI cable always plugged into the home system and by attaching the mini HDMI to the camcorder we can see 1080 HD home movies in an instant.

A couple of user plusses on the HG-10 are the LCD display and the image stabilization. Both are excellent. The size of the HG-10 is amazingly small and it is incredibly light. We cannot believe they pack that much technology into such a small package. The electronic reminder messages on the screen are quite helpful as we all make mistakes. We like the quick start and the Instant auto focus features. We would suggest buying the optional carrying strap and also a second battery when you order an HG-10.

We plan to add more information to this review regarding burning video and creating AVCHD discs but at this time we think this is the perfect camcorder for our needs.

Read Best Reviews of Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer Here

I've tried other AVCHD camcorders and was hugely disappointed. I think it's wrong they are allowed to call this High Definition. First, most of these camcorders down-res to something like 1440 x 1080, even though they advertise meeting the full-HD spec of 1920 x 1080. Second, the compression used to accomplish this is fierce, and has very visible artifacting.

So, in essence you have a class of camcorders, advertised as HD-quality, that can ONLY produce true HD in very good lighting with almost no motion. Think test patterns here, or landscapes. Poor lighting and motion in the picture give most of these camcorders fits, as the AVCHD codec just can't handle the extra work imposed by video noise from low light situations or any motion-induced artifacting.

What to do? Well, in typical Canon fashion they sat back, waited to see what everyone else produced, and then released a product that is the best of the genre. Sure, you can get larger drives on the Sony -up to 80GB. The Sanyo may tout it's tiny form factor, and make exaggerated claims about its' image quality. I owned the Sanyo HD1000 and promptly sent it back; both the quality of the device itself AND the quality of the images it produced were lacking.

The Canon gives the best image I've seen on an AVCHD product. Though not perfect and nowhere close to their own HDV-based HV20, I wanted something non-linear to make working with video a little simpler on my Macs. The HG10 has great image stabilization, wonderful optics, intuitive controls (I especially love the multi-speed zoom control), superb colors, and less of the AVCHD nasties than any other AVCHD camcorder I've seen. It also works superbly on my Mac with both iMovie and Final Cut Express 4. It is phenomenally easy to work with non-linear video; in my case this probably overrides the loss in quality to HDV.

So, if you must own a camcorder that uses AVCHD, this is the one to have! On absolute terms I'd give it three stars, but compared to other AVCHD camcorders it's a five, so four stars overall felt about right...

[UPDATE ONE: Canon has just released new AVCHD camcorders -the HF10 and HF100 -that record at the full HD 1920 x 1080 spec. They will offer improved quality, but the bitrate is less than the comparable Canon HDV units, so there will be some losses to compression.]

[UPDATE TWO: one issue with the HG10 regards the use of external microphones. I just recorded three hours of interviews with an external mike mounted to the camera's "flash shoe" accessory attachment point. There is a a low level noise present, which is caused by the microphone picking up the noise from the hard drive. I can probably minimize this in editing, but be careful about your choice of external microphone -and mount it off-camera if possible!]

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I've had this camera for a couple of weeks, I've tried it indoors, at night, outdoors under bright sun. The image quality is superb. I was using it to shoot some scenes at an amusement part, and the videos are good, I was worried about the motion artifacts in AVCHD encoding, but it's not as bad as I had imagined. The low light performance is good, nothing to write home about. Things start get a little grainy indoors in the morning if I go to the shady part of the room.

The controls are pretty easy to use, I didn't read the manual, and it took me maybe 30 min to go through all the menu's including all the manual controlls and figured out what they did.

The software that came with the camcorder is nothing to write home about. I only installed the Ulead software, and didn't bother with the backup utility disc, or the photo software. The installation process may be a little too complex. The Ulead software needed an activation code, which I had to obtain from their website, by creating an account and entering the serial number of the camcorder. The information was available in the manuals, but it wasn't obvious where to find it. Without knowing that creating the account on Ulead website was necessary, and if I had felt suspicious about going to some software company's website and creating a user account, I would've hit a dead end with the activation process.

After that, he 1st thing I wanted to do is to get the AVCHD files off the camcorder. With a PC, and the Ulead software, it was very easy, just plug in the USB cable, a few clicks to select videos segment to download, and directory on the PC to put them, and it was done. The USB cable is a standard mini-USB cable, so I just plugged it into the mini USB cable that I already had connected to the PC for my digital camera. I transfered ~1 GB of video (7-8 minutes long). It was done quickly, in just seconds, it was definitely quicker than I expected, so I didn't really time it.

Once the video is transfered, I could use the Ulead software to make a standard definition DVD, which I tried, it's just like any simple DVD authoring tool, nothing fancy. The encoding was pretty quick, but I have a new quad CPU machine, so YMMV. The encoded DVD looks OK on my 42" HDTV, but I can definitely see the difference between that and the original HD content, which I also played on the same TV through the component and AV cables (2 separate cables, both are included), and a mini-HDMI cable (not included). Both worked fine. The hookup using the mini-HDMI is a lot easier. The included remote came in pretty handy in playing the video on the TV.

I also tried to burn AVCHD on a DVD, but I don't have a player that can handle it. My Xbox 360's HDDVD add-on does not play it. But it does read it, and the disc was labeled BD****, so I figured it's a Blue-Ray format disc. The Xbox can see some directories and files on the DVD, but can't play it. I'm thinking about getting Ulead's Video Studio plus so I can write it to HD-DVD, that still costs ~$100 now, and I can't seem to get the upgrade price ($60) with the software that came with the camcorder.

Pentax Optio RS1500 14MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom and Interchangeable Face Plates (White)

We've been using this camera for a couple of months. We bought it as a backup camera that we can keep in my wife's purse because we often forget the bigger camera. We also let the kids use it to take their own pictures. We weren't looking for anything high end when we bought it. That being said, this camera works well. Outdoor pictures come out bright and clean. The flash is a little intense and the response time isn't great, but compared to any camera in this price range, I would rate it high.

Olympus PEN E-PL5 16.1 MP Digital Camera Body & 14-42mm II R Lens (Black) with 32GB Card + Batt

The camera itself is great, as are most of the items in the package (the backpack is pretty neat you can wear it as a backpack or as a sling, and it's roomy enough to fit almost all the supplies included).

That said, the 45x Wide and 2.5x Tele Lenses that are included are kind of junky the telephoto lens didn't fit onto the camera properly, and had to be forced off, which led to the lens getting broken (thank goodness the camera and the real lens were unharmed!).

Overall, though, the package is probably worth it, just for the inclusion of the SD card, extra battery, and bag!

Love it. Wonderful image quality. Point and shoot ease of use in auto mode with kit lens or any Oly/Pan M4/3 lens. Having tons of fun trying out older lenses in AP or manual mode (with proper adapters)

Buy Olympus PEN E-PL5 16.1 MP Digital Camera Body & 14-42mm II R Lens (Black) with 32GB Card + Batt Now

Nikon COOLPIX L24 14 MP Digital Camera with 3.6x NIKKOR Optical Zoom Lens and 3-Inch LCD (Black)

It is with regret that I must edit my review on the Nikon L24.

Because of a weak design on the battery cover door I cannot recommend this camera. However, I am leaving the original review below this addition because everything I originally wrote about the operation still stands. The 1-star rating I'm now leaving reflects the inadequate closure design and Nikon's refusal to replace the battery cover under warranty.

The battery door cover on mine broke just like the others who have written about the L20 / L24 series Nikon cameras. My defect made itself known to me after 6 months of use. There was never any abuse, no drops, no bumps, camera was kept in a case except when I was taking or transferring pictures.

The lip on the inside of the battery door gave way as I was taking a picture the door popped open and the batteries dropped at my feet. It took me a minute or two with reading glasses to see exactly what happened and where the breakage/weakness was.

For those interested, I have close-up pictures of the broken area and they can be seen on this page:

[..link removed..]

When I contacted Nikon about this, I was instructed to send in the camera for evaluation. I did (it was worth a $6 gamble). After they got the camera, I was told that the repair would cost approximately $50. I replied back stating that I felt that it was a design flaw and that the repair should be covered under warranty. In a subsequent reply, I was told that the issue is not repairable under warranty but the repair itself would be warrantied for 6 months in case another similar failure occurred.

I chose to NOT pay $50 to repair a $100 camera and will attempt a repair myself later. In the meantime, I'll tape the door closed with electrical tape.

Again...

*** I cannot recommend the purchase of this camera due to the weak design of the battery door ***. The cover is under constant pressure from the battery springs and the design of the plastic lip is inadequate to take this pressure.

My advice to existing owners whose cameras have not broken YET is to take the pressure off of the poorly designed door that is subject to breaking by stretching a piece of good-quality electrical tape to secure the door.

Other than the flimsy battery door design, this IS a good camera. Nikon really should be covering this repair under warranty and I'll be sure the check for similar design flaws if I ever consider another Nikon camera purchase.

--------------------------------------------

Original review below

--------------------------------------------

Disclaimer: This particular review isn't being written from an avid photographer's point of view.

I needed a small, inexpensive, good-quality, easy-to-use camera for my job. My main use for this camera is taking good, clear indoor before/after photos of various electronic devices and related components. My requirements are a large LCD viewer, the ability to use common AA batteries, have my settings (date/time, photo mode) retained after batteries were removed and replaced, and a quick way to transfer images to my PC's that doesn't rely solely on a USB cable.

Preferring not to have to deal with camera angle or cumbersome tricks to reduce flash reflection from shiny surfaces, I was hoping to find something that would allow effective non-flash settings where a semi steadily-held camera could take clear, acceptable indoor pictures as required by the companies that I do work for.

As much as I tried, I could not get good, consistent results with the e510 but I seem to have found that camera with the L24.

So far with the L24, I've taken pictures of HDTV televisions (displays powered both on and off), PCB boards, product labels, macro shots of venting capacitors, etc. *all without flash*, using only ambient room lighting.

For me, time is an important factor and with these onsite job shots, I do not have the time or desire to do pre-shot adjustments or after-processing like resizing, gamma-tweaking, or cropping. The shots I take need to be ready to be attached to an email or be uploaded to technician portals. The settings that I have found that work for me is the "white balance" and "motion detect" set for auto, resolution set for 1024x768 (for email-ready small file and dimension), and flash set for "off".

As long as my subjects aren't in the shadows, the camera is held relatively steady, and the images framed properly, my pictures are clear and all I have to do once I return home is transfer to my PC, attach and send. The settings as described above allow clear pictures for my uses in both regular and macro modes.

The camera remembers my settings with its AA batteries out and its 3" LCD viewer lets me verify a good shot (they've all been pretty good so far).

Connectivity:

All of my PC's have a card slot that accommodates the SD type, so if the included UC-E6 cable isn't handy, I remove the SD card from the camera and transfer images that way. If I needed more of these cables, I can get them for $4 each on eBay.

You don't have to use a SD card (camera has 17MB built-in) but I do recommend using a card for the extra storage and image-transfer/connectivity options.

When buying a SD card, consider the card-reading compatibility with your existing equipment if you intend on using using the card to transfer images. Some card readers do not read SDHC (high-capacity) cards, I was aware of this potential compatibility issue beforehand and bought a standard SD 2GB (not a SDHC) card.

I'm sure once more people buy this camera, more features than I covered will be discussed. There are settings on the L24 that I will probably never use. In my quick tour through the menu settings (haven't read the manual yet haha) I didn't see where you can manually adjust aperture or shutter speed independently but there is an exposure control. The lack of manual settings might be a minus for serious photographers but like I said before, photography isn't a hobby for me I just want to take good pictures easily and quickly.

I purchased this camera for quick access during vacation and travel. Although the camera cannot zoom very far it still is a very good camera. Takes very clear pictures and can be slipped into your pockets very easily into my pocket. Transferring pictures is very easy just hook up the camera into the computer and click the you want and drag to the desktop. The only problem i have with the camera is that it has a hard time focusing on small texts. For example i want to copy a receipt and send it to the manufacturer it would come out blurry.

Overall this is a great camera and i would highly recommend this for travel or for quick takes

Buy Nikon COOLPIX L24 14 MP Digital Camera with 3.6x NIKKOR Optical Zoom Lens and 3-Inch LCD (Black) Now

Bought this camera for my daughter. One month later, the battery compartment door retention pins break, rendering the unit useless and there was no way to close the door-not even with tape. I learned of this in July as she was away at school, but it is 'guaranteed' for 1 year! Yay! I followed Nikon's directions to return to them. They advised me that they did not consider this covered as it was possible we may have dropped it or forced the door closed. I calmly explained that wasn't the case AND that we had a friend with the same camera and same problem! ALSO, you can read the reviews of this camera on various sites (or the L-22) to see that it's a common gripe. They would not fix it and wanted $93. After the postage/insurance to ship it to them, I could buy a new camera. But I will not ever buy another Nikon product. I am sticking with Canon as they have covered their product for me in the past OUT of warranty!!! You've been warned.

Read Best Reviews of Nikon COOLPIX L24 14 MP Digital Camera with 3.6x NIKKOR Optical Zoom Lens and 3-Inch LCD (Black) Here

Although I haven't used all its features yet, I love this camera! The photos are sharp and clear, and it is so easy to use that I just took it out and started shooting. If I could post just one of my dragonfly photos in which you can see every vein in their wings there could be no doubt as to the quality of the photos. My 75 year old father saw how easy it is to use and the quality of the photos and asked me to get one for him. QED

Four stars, though, because the auto focus when using the macro function has difficulty focusing on objects that do not take up enough of the field of vision. It could use a manual focus or an easier way to manipulate the auto-focus.

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I didn't see that others were having the same problem until today. I didn't have the camera a month when the battery door latch broke. I finally got around to sending it in for repair, knowing that it would be covered on the warranty. But today I received the bill for the repair--$73.30 for the repair since it's NOT covered by the warranty. What a joke!

So I decided to warn others--and then I see all these reviews from folks with the same problem. You'd think that Nikkon would admit that it was a faulty design problem so that they don't lose customers. I'll never go back to a Nikkon!

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Sony Alpha NEX-7 Digital Camera Body & E 18-55mm OSS Lens (Black) with Sony 32GB Card + Battery

The camera is terrific! Can't say anything negative about it (and no, I haven't hit the dreaded record button yet, though I can see how someone could), and it's even smaller than I expected. If you're looking for a smaller-than-DSLR size, easy to carry, easy to hold camera, with a picture quality 2nd to none, this is it. As far as the kit: the tele and wide-angle lenses are 'usable' but really just for using/practicing with until you get real tele and wide-angle lenses; the camera bag on the other hand while well made is unusable because you really can only squeeze the camera and kit lens in and I do mean s q u e e z e. For example, you can forget about adding the included tele and wide-angle lenses in the case, or something like a 55-210 (frankly, I gave the case to my 10 year old daughter for her Sony point and shoot which it really is for and am using an old Lowerpro case I had laying around); lastly, the tripod is really just a piece of junk. There is no other way to describe it. It's junk from the word go. If you like the camera you won't ever use this disaster-waiting-to-happen piece of %@#$. Bottom line: with the exception of the bag and tripod, everything else in the kit is pretty good and usable.

Panasonic BL-C210A Internet Security Camera

Bought this camera through one of Amazon's Gold Box Deals for $130. For the price, it's a great camera. This is my second Panasonic network camera. A few years ago I bought their BL-C1A model Panasonic Network Camera and Pet Cam (BLC1A). The BL-C210A is a much nicer camera. The picture image is several times better, especially when motion is involved. You have the option of pan and tilt to look around. You can disable the indicator lights on the camera that lets you know the camera is on. You can also disable or override the privacy mode button on top of the camera. You can configure the camera to email you a picture when it detects motion in your house. Now how's that for peace of mind while you're away? And my favorite is that the camera is powered through the network cable which eliminates the need for a power outlet near the camera. The camera has a threaded mounting hole in the back that can be used to mount the camera to a standard tripod or an optional wall mount. The cube design is nice because it allows you to just set the camera on a shelf or table. The camera is light, so a tug on the network cable can bring it crashing down if it's not secured.

There are limitations with the camera. If you want to view an entire room, you'll need to mount the camera in a corner. It can only pan 41 degrees to the left or right, 10 degrees up and 32 degrees down. The camera is powered through the network cable, but it doesn't support the industry standard PoE. Luckily it comes with its own power injector. You'll need to purchase two network cables to use this camera. One cable connects the camera to the power injector and the other connects the power injector to your router/switch. The cable between the camera and power injector must be shorter than 98 feet. The box says you can only view still images from a cell phone. The website says you can't listen to audio with a cell phone. I haven't tried either. The software works pretty good, although I have found a few minor bugs in it. You have the option of viewing multiple cameras on one screen, but the max resolution for multiple cameras is only 320x240 and not the 640x480 max camera resolution. You don't need a computer onsite to use the camera, but you'll need one to do the initial setup.

Panasonic has nicer cameras than this model, but the prices also get outrageous. $185 (current Amazon price) is not bad for one camera. But after you buy one, you'll want more so you can monitor the rest of the house. That's when $185 per camera starts adding up. If the price drops again, I'll definitely buy another.

Note: The zoom function is not obvious. There are buttons on the screen to do everything but zoom. I discovered you can right-click on the top half of the video to zoom in and right-click on the lower half to zoom out. You can also use the wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out.

Update (March 9, 2010): I did a little research on the camera model (BL-C111A) that the BL-C210A replaced. This camera has a larger CMOS sensor but the same resolution. The old model can pan 50 degrees to the left or right while this model can only pan 41 degrees. The old model can tilt down 40 degrees while this model can only tilt down 32 degrees. The old model had a 10x digital zoom while this model only has a 3x digital zoom. The digital zoom is not very good. If you have a need to zoom in on objects, you'll want a camera with an optical zoom. Some new features added are SSL data encryption for secure viewing over the Internet, power through the network cable, H.264 video compression, and the ability to operate the camera with some models of Panasonic flat screen TV's.

I bought another camera from Amazon to monitor the back door and kitchen area. It comes with mounting holes on the back of the camera so you can slide it down on a couple of screw heads. It frustrates me that you can't mount it flat on a wall and pan 90 degrees to the left and right. I ended up purchasing mounting brackets VideoSecu Ceiling Mount Bracket for CCTV CCD Box Body Pro Camera 2-6 inch Adjustable MCB1w 1A2 so I can mount the cameras in a corner. Again, I really like the ability to power this camera through the network cable. I have the cameras and my network equipment all plugged into the same UPS. This way I can still monitor my house in the event of a power failure. If you're looking for a camera to monitor the baby's room, this is not it. You can't see much with only a night light on in the room. You're better off with a dedicated baby camera. We've had good luck with a baby camera made by Astak Astak 2.4 GHz Pan & Tilt Baby Camera with 2.5" LCD Color Handheld Monitor with Night Vision. It can pan and tilt to see the whole room, can see very well in the dark even with no lights on, and comes with a handheld color monitor. The monitor eats batteries so we just turn it on when we hear something or want to check up on the kids. It also comes with an AC adaptor for continuous monitoring. Another reason why a baby camera works better for monitoring babies than this camera is that you don't have to fire up your computer in the middle of the night to see if your child is awake. A word of warning, many baby camera's operate on the same frequencies as your wireless network. You might need to play around with the channels on both the baby camera and your wireless network until they don't interfere with each other.

A year or so ago, we installed an Ademco burglar alarm which we found we could not hook up to a monitoring service because we had dropped our landline. There are services that will monitor your alarm system through the cell phone network but they are expensive. So I decided to make a project out of this. I would find a way to monitor the alarm system with zero net monthly cash outlays. I spent idle hours wondering how I might cobble together some homemade piece of equipment that can capture the alarm signal off the Ademco and fire a programmable event on one of our computers through a USB port or something like that. Tricky stuff. Iffy.

Then I discovered the fact that this ip camera (as well as many others) have e-mailing functionality. After a little research I bought a couple and they are now in service. I connected the bell circuit on my Ademco, through a relay switch, to one of the two open alarm circuits on the Panasonic and now whenever the Ademco sends an alarm, we receive an e-mail with an alarm message plus, as a bonus, a photo of what the camera is seeing at the time. When we get the e-mail, we can go online either with a computer or our cell phone and see what is going on in the house. If the situation merits, we can then call the police or we can ask the neighbor to peek over. This is intelligent alarm monitoring as opposed to the automated kind you get when your alarm system sends a signal to the monitoring station every time the system is tripped for whatever reason (I read that almost all reports sent to the police by these systems are false and are placed on low priority). I am going to document this system and send it to my insurance agent asking for a premium discount in line with the standard discount you get with automated monitoring. We have achieved our goal of a no-cost alarm notification system.

Two very good features of this unit are that you do not have to have a running computer to make it work and it receives its power over the ethernet cable. As long as your run is less than 98 feet, you can snake cable through your walls to your heart's content without worrying about how you will power the camera.

Since this camera has, in addition to its ability to take a signal from your burglar alarm, its own internal motion-heat-sound detectors, you could also use it as a sort of burglar alarm all by itself. But it does not have the capability to act as a perimeter alarm as would be the case if you have an alarm system with door and/or window sensors. And it does not turn on sirens to 1.) wake you up, 2.) scare the intruders away or 3.) if they are not scared away, heighten the level of insanity that is already going on in their minds.

Like the others, I find that the camera does not perform well in low light. But I have several lamps in our home that are hooked up to X-10 switches. These X-10s are programmed through the burglar alarm to turn on when the alarm goes off. I have not tested them with the camera yet but I am hoping that they will provide enough light to let us see what is going on in the event of an alarm.

There is one glaring vulnerability in all of this: your camera gives you notification and visual access through the internet; your house connects to the internet through a wire; burglars know how to snip a wire with a wire cutters and the more experienced burglars are going to do this before they attempt to break in. I circumvented this problem by changing my ISP. My new ISP connects the internet to my house wirelessly and that fixes that. If you do not have the wireless option, however, this issue needs to be addressed. Many alarm systems now can be fitted with an auxiliary backup device that calls you and/or the police through the cell phone network if your wire is cut. They cost extra both for the equipment and the ongoing use of the cell phone network.

We got a lot of value for our money here. It proved to be an elegant solution to our problem and added many more features to boot. I love gadgets and my heart sings whenever I see it up in the corner of my living room ceiling with its lights blinking down on me. What other people might think is 'beyond the scope of this review'.

ON PANASONIC SUPPORT: I'm not going to lower the rating on this camera because I think it is a fine product. But I will say that Panasonic support falls far short of the mark. In trying to get the camera viewable over the internet, I talked to 4 different representatives each of whom offered a different solution all of which were wrong. I wrote them a letter a week ago with no reply so far. So I did what I should have initially done which is to learn a little networking, specifically port forwarding. After my research and armed with some actual knowledge, I set up the cameras properly and they are now humming along. I can credit the reviewer who praised Panasonic support. However, that was not my experience. All these people had to do was to ask the right questions and then tell me what to do to configure the system properly. It took me, an amateur, a couple of hours to figure it out on my own and yet all four of these professionals failed to come up with the correct solution. And yes, I am fully aware that this is partly a result of a lack of committment on the part of management and not entirely the fault of the individual on the other end of the phone. 1-14-2011 UPDATE: Yesterday, I came across a puzzling issue having to do with sending sensor messages from the camera to our Panasonic Viera TV. Since I already know how good they are at fielding support requests over the telephone and through the postal service, I thought it might be interesting to send them an e-mail message via their website. The model of the camera was stated in the e-mail by way of the e-mail setup fields and I gave the model of the TV in the body of the e-mail. Later that day, I received this reply which I quote in full: 'Thank you for your inquiry. What is the model # to your cameras? If you have any additonal questions or concerns, please contact our technical support hotline at . Thank you for choosing Panasonic.' Additional questions indeed.

SETUP NOTE: If your network sits behind two in-line routers (one connected directly to the internet through the phone or cable TV wires, the 'outside' router; the other sitting between the outside router and the LAN: the 'inside' router) and you are having a hard time of it, identify both the public and private IP address of the inside router. Do a little googling to get yourself squared away on what the public and private IP addresses of a router are. Then, when you are setting up port forwarding on the outside router, you need to forward requests to the public not the private IP address of the inside router. Then use the private IP address of the inside router as the Default Gateway in your camera settings. There are other pitfalls but this particular one was my mine.

Buy Panasonic BL-C210A Internet Security Camera Now

I would change the rating to 2 and would not recommend purchasing if you need LOW Light like a nursery. I absolutely do not recommend this or the 230a for a nursery!

Review updated on 2-27-2010. I will start by saying this was a very difficult to set-up camera on a Mac using Snow Leopard with VM Fusion and Parallels. I was not able to get it to work on VM Fusion and Windows 7 and eventually switched to Parallels with Windows XP I finally got it to work. I also have Trendnet TV-IP422W which was simple to configure.

Pro's

1. Comparing the picture in bright light using Parallels, IE and H.264 the picture is AMAZING. I will use the word 'Shocking' to describe how clear the picture is. Compared to Trendnet it is laughable how clearer the Panasonic picture is.

2. Web interface is great and is not limited for Mac users like Trendnet

3. The P/T is Very quick and much quieter compared to Trendnet

4. Unit size is very nice and the POE is well thought out.

Con

1. Night 'vision' is completely worthless. In the nursery with only a nightlight the TV-IP422W switches to a b&w view and we can see basic outlines, blanket vs child is a bit of a challenge. However, turn on the night vision IR's and you can. No switch to the panasonic setting next to the Trendnet, NOTHING. When I say nothing I mean, you can't see anything just a black room. No joke!

2. The range of the P/T is very limited and I haven't figured out how to zoom.

3. It appears H.264 compression improvements only work on IE and Windows. You do not see a benefit with H.264 on FireFox or Mac browsers.

4. I found it very difficult to setup on a Mac and feel free to leave comments if you are having trouble and I will see if I can help walk you through what I did

I received a 4 pack of Synology surveillance License and it works great. You can P/T and detection appears to work. I'm using the latest beta firmware on a Synology DS 409.

Final

Bright and I mean bright light the picture is amazing. Dusk the picture is not as good as the Trendnet and in very low light there is NO picture! If you have the need for Low Light pass on this camera! I also bought a 230a wireless and I used the same approach and was easy to set up and will put details in comment response. I'm returning the 230a as it doesn't work in low light of a nursery.

Read Best Reviews of Panasonic BL-C210A Internet Security Camera Here

Has been playing with this network camera for 3 days and here's my opinions:

1. Setup is easy. As long as your router support DHCP, it's just a matter of popping the setup CD and click on 'Camera discovery'.

2. Good built-in software. I have another Panasonic BL-C111A network camera and both of them can show up in the same page.

3. Need two ethernet cables separately: One goes to your switch and one goes to the camera. They both connect to a proprietary PoE injector.

4. Tons of features: Motion trigger, Time trigger, Upload images to ftp, send images by email, remote access, etc.

Let's talk about the image quality, as it's probably the thing most people are interested in learning. In short, if you need a camera for mission critical monitoring (business location, identify a thief, etc), this is probably not your camera. The sensor of this camera is only 1/4" CMOS, which means it will be performing badly in low light situations. If you are looking for a camera for your business, then get a camera that have sensor size of at least 1/3", those cameras cost at least $400 or more. However, for basic monitoring, or use it as a gadget, then I think it should be fine.

Comparing my older BL-C111A and this camera, I came to the conclusion they perform almost identical, i.e. suck in lowlight, decent in bright light conditions. For the BL-C210A though, the overall image is sharper but it also gives a lot of 'mosquitoes' noise. My older BL-C111A has a softer image, but with a lot less noise. So it really depends on your preference, I find the 'mosquitoes' noise annoying, even though the image is sharper.

Another thing is, they advertise this camera as 640x480 30fps capable. This is another one of those advertising gimmicks. The camera image looks the best when they are 320x240. In 640x480 mode, they just extrapolate or enlarge it from 320x240, hence, the noise is even more pronounced in 640x480 mode. You will not see any more details in 640x480 mode than you will in 320x240. But again, this is a $130 (or $180) camera, so this is to be expected. If you need more detail in your images, then consider a 1/3" sensor camera.

In conclusion, I think (just my IMHO) the image quality of this camera is no better or worse than generic Chinese made IP camera you can get on ebay (they all use 1/4" CMOS sensor). However, Panasonic wins out in terms of support and the software features/quality. I would give this camera a 3.5 star for the image quality, and a 4 star for the value.

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The MPEG-4 and H.264 are very clear (as clear as 640x480 can be). If you need more than 2 people to be able to watch it, you'll have to not use H.264. The MJPEG is quite a bandwidth hog on LAN, so if you expect to monitor this remotely you would best try to use the more efficient H.264 or at least MPEG-4.

If it bothers you to have to switch resolution every time you open it, then set it the way you want it (640x480, etc), then create a favorite and/or desktop icon with the big long address box contents and it will open that way every time.

The low light isn't spectacular but it's better than I get with my Logitech Pro 9000 webcam. It's better to see some things really grainy than to see nothing.

The zoom is client-side, you can see when others move the camera but not when others use the mouse wheel to zoom in, it's not an optical zoom..

The audio works great and there is a configuration for 3 microphone sensitivity levels. Programming the presets sent me to the manual but it's not hard once you see how to do it (the Program button above the presets, when logged in as admin).

I have not, and will not, install any included software, so my review is limited to what you can do just accessing the camera via a web browser.