Sharp and extra battery and 64 GB SD card is good, plus filter came on time and well packed.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Nikon D7100 Digital SLR Camera & 18-105mm VR DX AF-S Zoom Lens (Black) with 64GB Card + Battery
Sharp and extra battery and 64 GB SD card is good, plus filter came on time and well packed.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Quick Pod, Arm Extending Self Portrait Device with Clips and Carry Bag.
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I took it to a party & the concept is great but after a few pictures the plastic broke where the top extender attaches to the clear plastic holder. It should be made of steel, not plastic. My camera is a Power Shot & very light. Disappointed!!!!!Read Best Reviews of Quick Pod, Arm Extending Self Portrait Device with Clips and Carry Bag. Here
The clear plastic part that attaches to the camera broke on mine (as it did on other reviewers) the first time I used it. If your camera costs more than this toy, don't attach it and expect it to survive being dropped. If the manufacturer wanted to make a quality product they would have fixed this design long ago. They just want to get rich on impulse buys.Amazon now has a similar device made of *real metal* at the same price. If you want one, I'd suggest buying that device; it can be no worse than this.
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It broke the first three minuted I had it, and I had two of them. A little glue here and there and it seems to work fine. Two stars because it's kind of cheap and now I am scared my $400 camera might hit the ground. The extra star because now I can play survivor man in the back yard.Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Casio Exilim EX-FH20 9.1 MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Zoom and 3-Inch LCD (Black)
The highlights: This camera has every shooting mode under the sun. It will shoot 9 megapixel stills, up to 7 megapixel stills at the incredibly fast rate of 40fps, HD 720p video, and slow motion video ranging from 30-1000fps. It also has a 20x zoom (although I find the zoom to be only slightly longer than my Canon S3 IS "12x zoom", but the wide angle is much wider).
The camera is very easy to setup and use, although I am still trying to figure out some of the more advanced features (like the ability for the camera to automatically take photos when an object enters the frame).
Image quality is pretty good, about the same as my Canon S3 IS. It does much deeper blues and reds than the Canon, and doesn't have as bad chromatic aberration, but it's greens are a little too blue for my taste, and the off-whites need some more yellow. Noise isn't as high as I expected, but do realize this is not a DSLR, it's a small lens and a small sensor.
Lighting seems to be key with this camera. In direct sunlight, it takes amazing photos and videos, but in low-light, the high speed videos begin to suffer. I haven't had any that I took under normal lighting conditions come out unusable, but a few that I took in a very dim office nearly are.
My only complaints are minor, but here they are:
When shooting video, even with continuous AF off, it will still occasionally try to refocus, I find this very annoying
I cannot seem to find the settings to turn on move-in CS (motion-sensor triggers the camera)
While the latest firmware drastically improved write speeds for video, shooting single stills seems to take a long time to write to my class 6 memory card
I really don't like the proprietary USB connection, it is very difficult to find the right angle to get it to plug in because it's so narrow
Pleasant surprises:
Unlike the S3 IS, it remembers your photo and video settings very well, and if you set photos to manual focus and then want to take a video, the video will "pick up" that setting as well
The big 3" screen on the back is beautiful, with the Canon I mostly used the viewfinder, not so with the Casio
Startup time is faster than I expected based on other reviews, from power on to first shot isn't noticeably longer than the S3 IS
The flash is very bright and VERY fast, up to 5fps
Editing videos on the camera is ridiculously easy, hands down the best video editing GUI I've seen on a camera, makes it very easy to just keep the part of the video you want
Build quality is very good, I especially like the rubberized grip, it's much more secure than the Canon, and easier to hold despite it's heavier weight
I'll post a further review after I've spent some more time with it, and hopefully a few of my little quibbles will be fixed in upcoming firmware.This thing is like a beefed up point-and-shoot. Don't expect the quality of a DSLR. If you do, you will be disappointed.
Pros:
Very nice HD quality (if you have good lighting).
Great outdoor photos.
Great high speed photos (if you have good lighting).
Cons:
Bad pictures in low light or indoors.
Bad video indoors.
Goes through batteries very very quickly.
One really frustrating thing is that you could have a really bright screen on the viewfinder, but when you go to take the picture, all the light just goes away. The picture gets really dark. My old casio (pocket point-and-shoot) used to have a best shot selection that corrected this, but I can't find it on this camera.
If you want to take pictures of you kid playing soccer, this is a great camera. Set the high speed and get all the action.
If you want to shoot in low light, or indoors, look for a DSLR.
If you do get this camera, get 8 rechargeable batteries so you always have four charged and ready.
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Let me just start by saying, aside from the amazing array of features on this camera, it's tons of fun. The SLO-MO is my personal favorite, well, that and the burst mode. While it does have brilliant stills, the video is amazing to shoot with. I love the 30-210 fps mode because it shows the drastic difference between regular speed (which is brilliant already) to slow motion, which really seems like you're entering a wrinkle in time, seriously.Yesterday I went to a gymnastics meet, and wow, did it blow my mind. Being able to look back and see the girls hurdling down toward the vault at normals speed (which sincerely looks like fast forwarding) and then click right over to 210 mid-shot for some mid air hang time. I can't even believe how gorgeous it is. I'm pretty sure I'm a cinematographer right now, and I won't stop!!
I am actually using this camera for work, as I'm working on marketing, and even while it's my job to hype it I LOVE it just as a p&s camera and easy video, for my own personal use.I wanted this camera to take pics of my daughter's basketball games, but my Nikon could not capture the "action" shots I wanted. To be fair though, I did not have a lens fast enough to capture the pics I wanted, and I did not want to spend a $1000+ to get one.
I saw a camera similar to this reviewed in the NYT by David Pogue, and was very interested since from his video demo it seemed like I could finally capture the pics that I wanted. After much research, and indecision I finally decided to bite the bullet. I received it Friday, I took it to my daughter's practice this weekend, and WOW, I have pictures that I could never have taken before. I can capture the shot of when the ball is just leaving my daughter's hand for a lay up, and she, the ball, and the basket are all in perfect focus caught just at that fraction of the second like you see in magazines. The 40 fps is amazing, and when you review the pics, it looks like those flip books that they use to sell at Disneyland. I like to take pics, but I am not the best photographer, with 40 (or 30,15, 10 whatever you want to set the fps at)even I can capture the shot I want.
The pics are sharp not DSLR sharp, but pretty darn good! Previously when I use to take pics, I would get blurred images, but now, I can see everything, its like that fraction of second captured.
The down side of this camera is that it can take a few seconds to write those 40 pictures to your card, and theoretically I could miss that next picture while waiting, but I have so many other pictures now that I CAN use, it doesn't matter as much as I thought it might.
The high speed video, and slow mo work as promised, and are a lot of fun. I haven't played a lot with it since I am more interested in the still side of the camera. What I have played with though is pretty amazing.
Some of the negative reviews that I have seen on the internet seem to slam the camera because there is a softness in the picture quality on some shots, but they seem to be comparing this camera to a DSLR which technically it isn't. For what I want it for action shots of kids (basketball and gymnastics), plus casual pictures this camera is GREAT!
This camera does eat through the batteries, so rechargables are my next purchase.I have been filming my golf swing since since 2004 with a standard Canon 30fps camera, and while it gave me great results for so long, it was time to upgrade when this model came out.
Yes, golf is my game, and this camera fits the bill perfectly. While it's not a very good still camera (my 3 year old 5meg Canon is much better), there is no other option for high speed recording.
The Casio takes pictures at 480x360 at 210 fps, which is the typical resolution I record at. Once in a while I mess around with 1000fps (like taking a nice close-up of the ball... fantastic for sand shots), but in reality, 210fps is what you want. You need a fair amount of light to record at 210fps, as you MUST have your shutter speed faster than that (for obvious reasons). The Fh-20 forces a minimum shutter speed based on your frame rate. If I recall correctly, 1/250 is required for 210fps.
I very much recommend the Fh-20 over the fc100, because you can manually adjust the shutter speed, while the FC-100 takes it's best guess. You can also adjust the ISO with the FH-20. So in lower light conditions, you can jack up the ISO (while getting a grainier picture), but keep the shutter speed at a fast enough speed to get a decent picture.
In good lighting conditions, you'll want the shutter speed at 1/2000 or faster. I generally keep it at 1/5000 during the summer in full sunlight. I've messed around with 1/20000, but there's really no point.
You then record to a memory card, and you can then play back on the camera. For a golf swing, I generally don't record more than 3 swings at a time, as it takes too long to fast forward through the swing. You can then trim the video to one swing, or get rid of the extra meaningless video. The Casio has pretty good playback ability on the camera itself, and the display is bright enough in full sunlight. I don't even bring my laptop to the range anymore.
As far as swing analysis, I then copy the videos to my laptop later and can view them with analysis software. About the only limitation is that when you record in 210fps, you cannot play back at 210fps. Therefore your videos will ALWAYS be in slow motion.
The lens is pretty wide, so you can set the camera up very close to the subject and get it in frame. Great for those tight quarters at the driving range. Of course, the closer the camera, the more parallax error there is in the video (google it!!).
A couple of limitations with the camera: There's a 4 gig file limit regardless of memory card size, which corresponds to about 11 minutes of 210fps high speed video in one take. IIRC, that's = to 18 min of high def video. If your intent is to set it and forget it while at the range, that won't work (beyond 11 minutes). It's not a big deal, but something to consider.
Secondly, the still camera is pretty poor. I didn't buy it for that, so I really don't care. There's a thread on which discusses this more in detail and I had uploaded a picture of the same object with my canon vs casio, and you can clearly see the difference.
This camera also features high def mode and standard video. They seem to work pretty well, but I don't have any experience with any other high def cameras to give a valid review on the quality.
Anyway, like I said, this is THE camera to get for sports analysis. You will NOT be disappointed.
Vivitar ViviCam 7500i 7MP 3x Optical Zoom 3" LCD Digital Camera (Black)
This camera does it all. Just look at its features:
1. 7 megapixel 3x optical; 5x digital zoom (Excellent picture quality... pictures taken at the highest resolution are extremely detailed. I zoomed in on my own face and could see every pore on my skin.
2. 3" LCD display... 3 inches! I have not found ANY other camera with a display as generous. It's really great to watch the videos you've recorded.
3. MPEG video recording -up to 720x480 at 30fps.... It's fluid recording at a resolution somewhat similar to what VHS offers. The microphone is OK; pretty much as good as you get with camera recorders.
4. MP3 player... You can store as many MP3s as you can fit on your SD-RAM chip. In my case, that's over 800 songs... it has a speaker built in, but offers a headphone receptacle so you can listen on your own headphones or auxiliary speaker system. It also allows you to browse any .avi, .mpg, .jpg, .bmp... most common file types.
5. Voice memos and voiceprints... You can annotate your photos with recorded sound. It's just nice to have that option. You can record aything with it.
6. Its size... Not even as deep as a deck of cards. This fully-featured camera is incredible compact. (Not fragile, though. No protruding telescoping lenses to collect dirt. All receptacles are intelligently designed and weatherproof with rubber guards.) It is 3.75" wide, 2.25" long, and .75" deep, as I'm measuring it right now in front of me.
Anyway, my wife loves it. When our friends' see it they are always fascinated by it, and it's just plain fun to use. The menu dialogue is perfectly designed, and I'm always finding new features. In fact, here's a list of customizable settings:
Mode settings, Quality (affects .jpg size), Voice Memo, Spot or Multi Metering, Single or Continuous Shooting, Adjustable sharpness, Effects (the usual, black and white, sepia, negative, etc), Frame (you can add a frame to your photos), OSD adjustments (grids, how much info you want on the screen, etc), Startup Images, Sounds it Makes...
I give it 5 stars for all the reasons above. Also, Amazon's price was FANTASTIC, over one hundred dollars less than the Sony equivalent of this camera, if you can call any other camera the 7500i's equivalent.
2011.11.06 EDIT: Four years later, and I still use this camera. I still think it's a good camera, and for its size, it's remarkable, but these days, you just have to get a camera with a high-definition video recording function.
2012.07.15 EDIT: And it's finally kicked the bucket. I went to turn it on and heard a loud pop. Something got fried. lol Oh well, it did me right, even after the battery door latch broke and the spring that kicks the memory card out fell out... I just purchased a Panasonic Lumix DHC-SZ1 to replace it.Let me be the first to say that this picture on the web does nothing for this little black beauty! It's even more gorgeous in person, TRUST ME. I loveeeee mine. It has a great sleek slim look to it and it just feels like a million bucks in your hand! lol The pics are EXCELLENT, I have no complaints about that. With the flash feature on for low light pics and darker pics, they still come out FANTASTIC! Very very detailed pictures. It has a whole bunch of great features inside such as picture settings, picture frames, video, mp3 player. YES, you read right! Its an MP3 player! AND A GOOD ONE AT THAT. The video feature is great for a camera that size and it takes lengthy videos so thats a plus! You can snap a video or a pic while you're listening to music and if you're like me...it will work to your convenience! It has face detection.The menu is soooo easy to navigate through. You dont have to be technology savvy to figure it out, its really easy and straight to the point. It comes with really good software also. You can edit your video and cut the video from start to end, put text and narrate your videos! Really nice. POINT AND SHOOT. I love it! You'll love it too, go ahead it's worth the money.
The cons?
Hmm...well, this is really small actually, but something you might want to know. You have to charge the battery seperately. Meaning you have to take it out the camera, so you cant use it while it's charging. Battery life is good though overall. It's a lithium battery.
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I had my Vivitar 7500i for two weeks now and have taken over 100+ photos & videos before I gave this review. As a semi-pro photographer, my main camera is a Canon dSLR. However, I need a P&S camera for times where carrying a large camera body is not appropriate or not allowed. I wanted a non-protruding lens and is capable of capturing decent video clips.Other candidates that I considered were made by Fuji, Sony, and Samsung. However, I decided on the Vivitar 7500i due to its features and mainly the price. No other decent brand can compete with the selling price. Furthermore, Samsung is the only other one (that I'm aware of), which is also a mp3 player.
I personally found that anything above ISO 200 will get noisy, as expected from a P&S equipped with tiny sensors. The Auto White Balance, anti-shake, and face-recognition are not effective as I wished. On the other hand, the macro function works great.
The focus lock is reasonable for a P&S. It will hunt for an AF lock in low light situations. Be sure to repeat pressing the shutter button half-way until the indicator turned green, before pushing the button all the way to take the photo. Be sure to ask the subject to hold still and be patient with you.
The camera starts up quickly (due to non-protruding lens), and reasonable delay between shots (slight longer if the flash is being re-charged). The non-protruding lens does not snag to things accidentally. However, there is no protective lens cover so it's easy to get finger prints on it when using the 7500i as a mp3 player. I keep a micro-fiber clothe in the camera case and use it frequently.
The non-protruding lens does get a fair amount of glare. So the user has to be aware of any bright light from an angle. The lens appeared to be multi-coated.
The layout of the buttons is intuitive and easy to navigate. The 3x zoom limitation doesn't bother me since I use it to take mostly candid moments and very rarely use zoom. Personally, I preferred it to have a wider lens, say 28mm equivalent.
I have not tried to use any SD memory card larger than 1 GB. I believe another reviewer reported problem using a 2 GB card. It would be nice if the next version takes advantage of the SDHC. For now, I have no problem emptying the card regularly. Using 1 GB SD, the 7500i takes approximately 54 minutes worth of the video or 280+ high quality photos.
I do find that 70% of the photos were too saturated for my taste. After adjusting the RGB (especially the red channel) curve and post-sharpening, the resulting photos are as good as from my Canon dSLR. As for any pictures that I cannot salvage, I process these photos into very nice black & white photos. The resulting photos are nice and clear. I silenced others who think Vivitar is a toy camera, with my photos.
The battery needs removal for recharging. Since I might use it as a mp3 player, I decided to get more batteries. Although I had trouble ordering the batter from Vivitar's Customer Service, I compared the specs and realized that the battery is the same as Fuji NP-40 battery. That is great because I was able to get batteries from online at half-price.
The mp3 player produces clear sound. It is at a reasonable volume and the player is easy to navigate. I have no success converting video clips with the included software to play in the 7500i, so I gave up.
The Vivitar 7500i takes okay video, if there is ample light. However for indoor clips, the video is noisy and jerky. I am a little disappointed with the (DIVX?) compression engine. In comparison, my wife's Casio Exilim produces a smoother video in all environments. But again, the Exilim costs three times more than my Vivitar.
I carry my Vivitar 7500i on my hip at all times now and have used it daily. I've captured many great candid moments and happy memories. Overall, I would recommend this camera, if you know what to expect and willing to post-process the photos.
Read Best Reviews of Vivitar ViviCam 7500i 7MP 3x Optical Zoom 3" LCD Digital Camera (Black) Here
I recently purchased this camera and have been happy with the camera itself. But, the enclosed software does not seem to work under Vista. So I went to the Internet (rather than the enclosed CD) to get the most recent version of drivers and software. I was surprised to find no mention of this model at so I sent an e-mail. The response was from Sakar International, stating that Vivitar is now owned by Sakar, and that there is no current support for this phone on the Internet. Their e-mail claims that any issues will take longer to resolve.It doesn't seem like a huge deal, as Vista itself should handle most of the functions of the included software. But, if the camera has problems, will Sakar be there for me? I guess I would not recommend this camera (or anything from Vivitar) until they figure out their support plan.
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Friday, April 25, 2014
CowboyStudio 1000W Continuous Video Lighting Kit with Stand, Bulbs, and Softbox
Check out the image here:Hope I helpedOk, I bought this after reading all the reviews good and bad. For the price this product is great. It is top quality? No. Is it the best soft box you can buy? No. But for the price it is a really good value. The stands are actually rather sturdy, and it does exactly what it is supposed to do. I cannot afford to drop hundreds or thousands on quality lighting equipment for my hobby. I like to spend a bit more on cameras and lenses, not lights right now. But this soft box represents a good value and is 100 times better than the desk lamps I was using. I got this one just to try it out and now that I did I wish I had gone for one of those 3 light set ups. The light it puts out is good bright and soft. It was not easy to put together, but it was not horible either. my advice is that if your soft box seems akward uneven or distorted make sure you have the little poles seated deep in the base. It does not seem very portable, so taking it up and down would be a drag, but that is not my application currently, I am going to just use it at my house and leave it together. I watched the video online and set it up in about 10 to 15 min. I say buy with confidence as long as you know what you are getting... this light set up is cheap and effective. just treat it with care and it will last a long, long time.
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If you have $80 to spend and need a continuous light source with a soft box and a stand, this is your only option. Let's be honest though, the soft box and light are of marginal quality and will not stand up over the long term, but as I said, if you have $80 this is it. One of the light bulbs arrived as non-functional and my purchase was discounted because of that.The other issue I've seen is that the color temperature of the lights is not true daylight, but if you shoot in RAW, you can fix that.
Would I purchase again? Probably not, but like many of you reading this, I was on a budget so this is what I have for now.I love this softbox and highly reccommend it to photographers or youtube people like me. It gives more than enough lighting. I don't even have to turn on all the lights and the price you can't beat!
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Recently started shooting videos of family and friends. I did not have any light other than what is in my house and was looking for an expensive set up for additional light. This light is just what I needed. The set up was pretty simple considering I have never put together a light box before. The seller provided me with online instructions on how to assemble and also included a video showing a guy putting this light box together. I am very pleased with my purchase.Monday, April 7, 2014
GTMax 6 FT Micro-HDMI to HDMI Cable for Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7 inch , Kindle Fire HD 8.9 inch / Ki
the hook-up is very simple and i can watch from my bed with ease. the only thing i might do over would be to order the longer version of the cable. i chose the 6 foot which requires me to get up to change control settings whereas a 9 foot would allow me ease to minipulate without doing so. a very good feature.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Olympus PEN E-P2 12.3 MP Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 17mm f/2.8 Lens
Next I bought a good pocket cameras, e.g. Panasonic etc and most recently the Ricoh GX200 which the E-P2 is replacing. These were nice. Picture-taking resumed but slow response compared to DSLRs and overall quality of the finished product always left a slight feeling of disappointment. With imaging chips of the size they use, this is only to be expected (just as compact cassettes by definition could not deliver decent audio).
Enter the E-P2 with its much larger sensor. I have had my E-P2 with 17mm pancake lens for a week now and simply love it. Responsive as an SLR, chunky but hardly larger than the Ricoh, it works like a dream in auto and more manual modes. (And who needs a zoom with this kind of resolution? Just crop the bit you want from the immense pictures it takes).
In brief, and avoiding tech talk, this is a quality piece of kit. Looks like quality. Feels like quality. Works like quality. It's an SLR in a pocket camera body. (And with apologies to the reviewer above I love the quiet chunky sound and feel of the shutter.)
I think I've found 'my' camera at last at the end of long, dollar-strewn trail!.Olympus `PEN' E-P2 is Olympus second micro four third system camera which is an improved version of Olympus PEN E-P1 12.3 MP Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 17mm f/2.8 Lens and Viewfinder (Silver). Both cameras has very similar body design and features. The main different is E-P2 has optional electronic viewfinder and external microphone while E-P1 does not. Because they are very similar, Many part of this review is applicable to E-P1 as well.
Olympus E-P2 main specs (shared with E-P1)
* 12MP Live Mos sensor 4/3 sensor
* HD 720p video at 30 fps with stereo sound recording
* Built In Image Stabilization
* Dust removal mechanism (SSWF)
* Eight Art filters for creative processing and fun (E-P1 has six)
* 3 frames per second continuous shooting.
* No built-in flash nor AF assist light
Below are new features that added to Olympus E-P2
* Manual focus and aperture control in video mode
* AF tracking (focus lock for moving objects)
* Magnified Focus Assist
* Tiltable hi-res electronic viewfinder with 100% coverage and 1.15X magnification
* Optional microphone adapter for better sound
BODY & CONTROL
Olympus E-P2 weights 385 g with memory card and battery. The dimension is 4.74in (W) x 2.75in. (H) x 1.37 in (D) / 120.5 mm (W) x 70mm (H) x 35mm (D) (excluding protrusions). It is significantly smaller than regular DSLR camera. Camera body is around 120g lighter than beginner DSLR camera. It feels solid and dense. If you are coming from compact camera, you will feel this camera a bit heavy. It is around 2-3 times heavier than advanced compact camera. If you are coming from DSLR camera especially from Olympus DSLR camera, you will love the reduction in size. However, this camera is not light. For comparison, E-420 weights 370g and E-620 weights 475g body only.
That being said, E-P1/2 is not a pocket-able camera (it will fits only in large jacket/coat pocket). You might find yourself carrying it around more than you carry a DSLR camera, but this camera can't compete with compact camera in portability.
Olympus E-P2 construction quality and design are worthy of praise. The outer shell are 85% metal. Plastic are still there for buttons and round dial. Design wise, it is very classy, retro style. I especially like the leather texture grip. However, some people might prefer more industrial design like Leica X1 or Panasonic GF1. It depends on each individual taste.
Olympus E-P2 has one thumb dial, one round dial, and four-way controller and two customizable function buttons. To change major setting such as ISO, AF mode, WB are very easy because there are dedicated buttons embedded in four-way controller. You can also access quick menu by pressing OK button. Unfortunately, the quick menu is unlike super control panel that I find in Olympus DSLR cameras. It is more similar to compact camera function menu.
Like E-P1, Olympus E-P2 does not have built-in flash. This is quite a blunder by Olympus because built-in flash is very useful for various scene, where you want to use flash to fill-in shadow or use it to light up an extremely dark room.
Ergonomically, it is very pleasing. The curves are in the right place. The protruding leather grip is really nice. Buttons and dials are placed within reach of your right hand thumb.
LCD SCREEN & ELECTRONIC VIEWFINDER
Olympus E-P2 has 3' LCD screen with 230k dots. It is basic compared to many other DSLR and compact camera which has 460k or 910k. However, it is good enough for basic review and composition. It is also quite clear for manual focusing.
The electronic viewfinder is very bright and big. It has more than 1 million dots. Manual focusing is very clear and easy, thanks to 10x full screen magnification. In low light condition, the viewfinder become grainy and it is harder to focus. Compared to viewing optical viewfinder, my eyes get tired faster when viewing EVF for a long time. In practice, you need to choose whether you want to use the rear LCD panel or viewfinder to compose a picture. You can't activate both.
Another criticism of the EVF is the built quality, it is has plastic shell which does not complement E-P2 metal body. It is also big and not very attractive. However, the EVF is stick to the hot shoe steadily. So you don't have to worry about the EVF slipping away from camera body.The EVF as compositional tool is not ideal, but it is good and practical enough to use regularly.
IMAGE QUALITY
Image quality I get from the camera and 17mm f/2.8 pancake is not very stellar. It is hard to get tack sharp image in pixel size although I have use small aperture like f/8 or f/16. For web sharing, it is perfectly fine. Many says that the 14-42mm (I don't have this lens for this review) is better than the 17mm f/2.8 which is disappointing because prime lenses are usually sharper.
Image in high ISO quality is quality is similar to Olympus DSLR in general. It is generally very good up to ISO 800. However noise is also noticeable in low ISO setting such as 400 especially in shadow area. Noise reduction will help to smooth out the noise at the expense of detail and sharpness. I don't recommend to use in camera noise reduction at all. ISO 6400 is available, but it there are too much noise and the image loss its fidelity.
OTHER FEATURES
One great feature Olympus E-P2 has is built-in stabilization. This is money saver and very practical to use. Unlike Canon, Nikon and Panasonic DSLR cameras, You can use image stabilization for any lens you mount with it. This is awesome for prime lenses. Although it has limitation such as you can't freeze subject with IS, but it is awesome for low light still photography.
When you record movie, there is also digital / electronic IS that help to keep the movie steady. You also can control aperture in movie recording mode. These are great in practice. The implementation of movie recording is better than some DSLR cameras with movie mode in the market.
In addition, there are a few minor things that I don't like about E-P2:
* Menu interface is a bit confusing because many abbreviation and some even only use a symbol to represent a menu item.
* Shutter sound is quieter than typical DSLR, but it is noticeable louder compare to compact cameras.
AUTO FOCUS & GENERAL PERFORMANCE
When Olympus E-P1 was launched, many people expect its auto focus speed will be as good as Panasonic m43 cameras. But it fell short. Unfortunately, E-P2's AF is the same as E-P1. In practice, AF performance is about the same as compact camera. It takes around 1 second to focus in good light. In low light situation such as inside restaurant, it takes 2-3 seconds. On the other hand, AF speed in Panasonic m43 cameras are very close to DSLR camera, around .33 sec.
In addition, changing auto focus point is a hassle. You need to go to quick menu and then change the points. There are auto AF and 11 AF areas that you can select. Fortunately, manual focus is easy to use and very practical because of automatic magnification when you try to focus with MF mode.
Other than AF performance, E-P2 general performance is very good. Start up and shut down is approx. 1 second. Shutter lag is almost none. Continuous shooting is similar to many beginner DSLR camera in the market, 3 frames per second.
ART FILTERS
Art filters create different effect or mood in the picture or video. It could really enhanced the picture / video if you choose it appropriately. For example, soft focus is great for beauty shot, diorama is good for landscape etc. Art filters are not photo processing after you take picture. The effect is immediate. You don't get access to original file and control on how it is being processed. I think Art filters are quite fun, but it is not a deal breaker because you can always achieve those effects by processing the image in your image editing software.
COMPETITORS
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 12.1MP Micro Four-Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with LUMIX G 20mm f/1.7 Aspherical Lens is definitely the main competitor of Olympus E-P2. GF1's AF performance is better than E-P1/2 but it does not have built-in image stabilization. Panasonic has better prime lens in their bundle, while Olympus E-P2 has better optional electronic viewfinder. GF1 also has built-in flash which E-P2 lacks. It is tough to choose, but I am leaning towards E-P2 but with Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens.
Panasonic DMC-GH1 12.1MP Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Camera with 1080p HD Video is also a four thirds system camera, but it is a lot bigger because it has protruding grip and built-in viewfinder which make this camera similar to beginner DSLR camera. Like GF1, it has better auto focus performance. The cool thing is this camera is bundled with versatile and quiet 14-140mm zoom lens.
Nikon D90 DX 12.3MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens is not a micro four thirds camera, so it is not as compact as E-P2. But it has a similar price range. D90 is better in low light because it has bigger sensor, and faster auto focus especially when tracking moving subject. However, Nikon D90's video feature is very basic and hard to use.
Leica X1 12.2MP APS-C CMOS Digital Camera is a compact camera that has DSLR quality sensor and fixed 35mm lens. Leica X1 is significantly more expensive than Olympus E-P2. The main advantage of X1 lies in the construction quality, lens, image sensor and prestige.
CONCLUSION
Olympus E-P2 is a handsome camera with many things to like and dislike at the same time. I like the design, built-in image stabilization, but I hate the fact that the AF speed is not improved from E-P1 and low quality 17mm prime lens. Currently E-P2 is $300 more expensive than E-P1. If you are used to compose picture with LCD screen rather than electronic viewfinder, you can save money by getting E-P1. Compared to Panasonic GF1, I am leaning towards E-P2 because of the built-in stabilization and overall design. However, I am surprised that Olympus 17 mm pancake lens does not deliver quality image. Therefore, I recommend you to get Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens instead. With that combination, it will be a great tool even in the most difficult light condition.
Subjective Rating Relative to beginner DSLR cameras released in 2009
Image Quality : 3/5 (with 17mm) 4/5 in general
Features : 5/5
Performance : 4/5
Body and Handling : 4/5
Value for Money : 3/5
Please visit my blog (you can find the address in my profile) for iso comparison, art filters and samples images.It is a very nice camera, but i would only talk about what i do not like it about since there are already many good comments on E-P1.
1. the back dial wheel is very hard to use unless you disable the up/down/left/right function.
2. is part of the camera body made of plastic?
3. shutter is a little bit noisy.
4. focusing is kind of slow.
5. last thing, i do not know how to carry the camera. I hope i can find a Zing pouch which can hold it.
I did not buy E-P1 since i want a black camera body, and i had thought the EVF would be a must for my Leica M lenses. But when i got E-P2 i realized that EVF does not make it faster to use a manual lens compared to back LCD. And the plastic EVF is so big (and brittle maybe), this made the camera body not good looking and not good handling because your nose touches LCD all the time when using EVF.
So if your budget is kind of tight, i would recommend E-P1 given the $340.00 ($450.00 price difference for the zoom lens kit!!!) price difference.This camera is awesome. The quality of the photos is just amazing from something so small and so stylish. I really like the whole idea behind micro four thirds. The video is also quite amazing. Overall the camera is fairly straight forward to use, it's fast and responsive (in the normal modes) and it's just really cool looking and a joy to bring around.
The things that made me return it however are hard to ignore. Firstly, the Electronic View Finder doesn't look great, and if you're at all serious about the experience of taking photos, this will ruin it for you. I would rather they didn't force this accessory on you and dock the price $150. However, the reason they force you to buy it leads me to complaint number two, the screen on the back also isn't that great. It's pretty hard to use outside if it's bright, and since there is no real viewfinder, this is the focal point of the picture taking experience.
My only other gripe is that the sound of the autofocus will be heard in your videos. It was so loud I had to switch to manual focus, but since the screen isn't that great, it's hard to tell when something is truly in focus, or kinda in focus which and make or break some videos.
Anyway, the camera otherwise is top notch. It's light, cool looking, there are lots of lenses to choose from now, it makes incredible images to compete with any DSLR and the video is good (provided you don't use auto focus and don't rely on the image stabilization either). That aside this would be the perfect travel companion on any trip, especially if you care about image quality, even though it's not the best in terms of the photo taking experience. I'd be tempted to get the newer model they released that's a little smaller and less expensive which I'd assume offers similar quality.The Oly E-P2 is overall a very nice camera. Compared to the Panasonic G1 (my other m4/3) it is a bit heavier. Image quality using RAW is fine at low to medium ISOs; marginally acceptable at 800 and above. The separately purchased eye-level viewfinder is of excellent image quality, comparable to the Panasonic. One great advantage of this viewfinder over the G1 is that you can tilt it up which comes in very handy when doing low-level shots.
The biggest weakness of the system is the focusing. Again, compared to the G1 the focusing is sluggish and at times a bit erratic. Since most of my photography is landscape photography, this is not a major drawback for me, but might be significant for somebody shooting action stuff.
Both the Oly and the G1 have a four-way switch on the back at the lower right. I often happen to accidentally press one of the buttons which brings up an in-viewfinder menu when I don't want it. Again, a minor inconvenience.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Optoma PRO250X 2800 Lumen XGA DLP Multimedia Projector
Great picture for nightly movies with dinner. Foreign films, comedy, everything plays well for a family of film buffs. Easy size adjust for various aspect ratios. Lacks focus control on remote, but fine for our ceiling mount.
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Loved this projector at first but after about a year it started showing a few dead pixels, which rapidly spread so that the picture was totally worthless. Replaced it with another of the same model, only to have the new one start showing dead pixels after just 2 months. Again, projector is great except for this problem, and this problem is supposedly rare for dlp projectors, but two out of two is not rare enough for me!Read Best Reviews of Optoma PRO250X 2800 Lumen XGA DLP Multimedia Projector Here
I'd recommend this. Though, I can't tell how durable it is until after years of use but operation and controls are very good, color is as good as LCD monitor, and brightness is ample even at lower intensity setting.Want Optoma PRO250X 2800 Lumen XGA DLP Multimedia Projector Discount?
These things claim great bulb life, And that may be true. But it doesn't look like I'm going to find out first hand. The rate at which these (white) dead pixels are multiplying... It's going to be like I'm watching Star Wars all the time within a week.Thursday, November 28, 2013
Glidetrack Shooter HD 21inch (0.5m) Heavy Duty Slider/Mini Dolly for DSLR Video, Anodized Aluminum
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Canon PowerShot A60 2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom
Here were my main areas of concern while I was trying to decide on whether to buy this camera (they'll probably sound familiar) and how my actual experience stacked up against my concerns:
1. "Low" resolution of 2 Megapixels:
Unless you plan to blow your shots up to poster-size, 2MP is ideal. Don't get caught up in the "my MP is bigger than yours" race, as another reviewer said 2MP is the sweet spot for photos. Just leave the camera at its max settings and it's perfect, the file size is reasonable yet you'll still get every amazing detail. For example, I took a shot of my cat and you can see every hair and every whisker, even a little bit of "sleepy stuff" in the corner of her eye since she had just woken up from her nap. And this was just the third shot I took after removing it from the box. Yes, it's that good.
2. "Not enough zoom":
I'll admit, this was a huge issue for me. I was bound and determined that i wanted a camera with a higher zoom capability, like one of the Olympus 10x models. But actually having gotten a chance to use it, i've found the zoom capability, while nice, isn't the holy grail I thought it would be. Certainly not enough to spend a couple hundred dollars more to get.
3. Size
The photos make the camera look tiny. I thought it might be better to get a bigger camera with big Tonka-toy buttons and that it would be easier to handle. Don't worry, the camera feels great in my hands, and i'm over six feet with big stubby fingers. I'm sure it will fit your hands just fine as well.
4. Other competing models in the Canon line:
This was another problem area. The A-series and G-series cameras all seem so good, that i wanted badly to get one of the more fully-featured (and expensive) models like the A80 or G5 to make sure i wasn't missing out on anything. And looking back now, most of the features I thought would make a huge difference don't seem to matter now. What seems important to you now when you're trying to make a buying decision probably won't be when you're actually out there using the camera. Out in the field, you'll want something which is relatively straight-forward and not tediously complex, but flexible enough to change a setting if absolutely necessary. This camera offers exactly that.
Trust me, when you're out in a picture taking environment, you're not going to be telling yourself (or wanting to tell your photo subjects), "hold on for a couple minutes while I put on the wide-angle lens."
5. Controls and the learning curve:
For a novice, the controls look a bit intimidating. And they can be, if you don't read the manual at all or spend any time going through the settings. But thankfully, the camera controls are well set-up, intuitive, and easy to learn. Yes, you can start shooting straight out of the box, but if you spend as little as 15-30 minutes reading how to operate the controls before you begin, it'll be well-worth your time. That won't be enough to learn everything the camera can do, but is enough to get you started on the right foot, and will put you weeks or months ahead of the game. I spent about 20 minutes learning about my camera after I got it, and my first pictures already looked better than the ones my father takes with his Canon G5 that he's owned nearly a year but never bothered to read the manual for.
THE BAD:
Shutter lag is perhaps my biggest gripe. Depressing the shutter fire button half-way focuses the camera, then depressing it the rest of the way fires the shutter. There's a brief but noticeable lag between depressing the button and the photo being taken, perhaps a half-second or so. Not a huge issue, but sometimes annoying, and can definitely get frustrating if you're trying to get just the right shot of a non-cooperative subject. Like with my cat, I'd wait for the exact moment when she was looking at me, I'd press the button, and the lag meant that she was no longer looking at the camera when the photo actually gets captured. I'm sure it would be more of the same if you were trying to take photos of an infant or child. Not a deal-breaker, but it can make for some frustration.
Inserting batteries in the dark can be a pain, unless you have memorized the pattern for which batteries go in which direction. Again, not a huge issue, but can be frustrating.
CONCLUSION:
If you're trying to decide between the A60 and either another manufacturer's offering or another Canon A-series, get this camera. This is a better camera than the competing Nikon, etc. and if you're thinking you'll need the additional features or MP of a more expensive model, you likely won't. If you did, you'd know that already and wouldn't be looking at this camera. So save your money and get this instead, it will MORE than meet and surpass your needs. You'll be very happy you did. I already have my Dad thinking she should switch cameras with me, and considering his costs about triple what mine did, that tells you that this little gem is a winner.I just had a chance to test my friend's A60. After taking several pictures, here are what I came up with....
Goods:
Fast start up time: less than 3 seconds. You are not gonna miss a quick shot. 3x optical zoom is also fast and quiet. The other nice thing is...it doesn't have a separated lense cap. This is what I hate about my Olympus C3040.
Good picture quality: A60 produces properly exposed pictures and saturated colors in several different light conditions.
Aperture and Shutter priority modes: you probably need this feature to take advanced shots.
Great macro capability: you can take a picture of flowers as close as 2-3 inches. Focus is also fast. Compared to my minolta f100 and olympus c3040, I love A60's macro better.
Improved night/indoor mode: this is what I don't see in canon s200 and the only reason I returned that little S200.
Movie w/sound record: this camera records and playbacks movie with sound in AVI format at 15 frames/second. It runs pretty smooth.
Lens adaptor: This camera can accept external wide-angle, tele, and filters.
Use standard AA batteries: I think A-series is the only canon line that support AA batteries. If you don't wanna spend [money]for a second propietary battery, get A-series. Four fully charged batteries seem to last very long. I took about 100 pictures with LCD turn on, it's still full.
Fast and easy USB connectivity: Compared to Olympus c3040 and Minolta F100, it takes very short for my windows xp to recognize this A60. In addition, you DON'T NEED a software at all.
Feels: this camera is not too big or too small. It just comfortably fits in my hand. The body looks like metal and the handle is plastic. It's a good combination since you don't wanna touch a cold metal camera in winter.
Low price
Bads:
Ocassionally, purple fringe is visible in very high constrat shots.
Poor auto white balance under tungsten light.
No 1280 x 960 resolution. It has 1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, and 640 x 480.
Small LCD: could be 1.8" instead of 1.5".
Rubber USB/AV port cap: with frequent uses, it can be broken soon.
Buy Canon PowerShot A60 2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom Now
Ok I've been looking for a digital camera for about a year now, I'm cheap so I waited until I found a product that had what I want for the price I wanna pay. .... the 2 mega pixels is just fine for ANYONE taking pictures and printing them.. 2MP Cameras print out great 8x10 photos so if you dont need to print anything bigger than that save your money and stay with a 2 mega pixel. In less than 10 mins i had this thing out of the box and taking pictures. It has some advanced manual features that I probably will not use because Im not a professional. The control are eays to use, the LCD display is fast and looked just like tv looking at the screen, the compact size fits great in your hand and doesn't take up much room.. Amazingly the batterys last for an very acceptable amount of time. I have a set of hi cap recharagable batterys from radio shack and i've been using it for a week taking movies and pictures and its just now getting low on batterys.. This is my first digital camera and Im very satisfied that I made a good choice first time around. There are many cool accessories (tho they are not cheap) like telephoto lenses and underwater cases too.. ....Read Best Reviews of Canon PowerShot A60 2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom Here
I bought the Canon PowerShot A60 as a replacement for my two year old Fuji Film 4700 Zoom, and I am extremely impressed. The camera at its highest resolution (1600x1200) takes gorgeous photos, with rich warm colors. No pixilation and very little purple fringing appear on the images. The camera itself includes some very advanced features for its price, all of which can be adjusted in manual mode. However, most users will never touch these options, instead opting for the simple Auto mode, which automatically chooses the perfect settings. The only downside to the camera itself is that instead of using metal, the casing is plastic, and therefore feels somewhat cheap. Nonetheless, the build quality is generally good and the buttons and ports are conveniently located. The camera is small, but is by no means one the smallest and lightest digital cameras on the market.Along with the camera, the box includes an industry standard puny 16MB Compact Flash card, that should be immediately replaced, and four alkaline batteries. The battery life is very good; the camera can operate for several days of heavy use without replacement. Nonetheless, I recommend Ni-MH Rechargeable batteries, which provide an even longer life. The included `Zoom Browser EX' software very easy to use and incorporates some fairly powerful features.
If you don't want to spend much money and want an easy to use digital camera with great image quality, look no further than the Canon PowerShot A60. However, if you want a camera that can take larger photos and has more powerful features try the Canon S45, S50, or the Canon G3. If you want a smaller camera you might want to consider the Canon S400 or the S200.
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Since there are already plenty of positive reviews, I will focus on the few lacks of this camera.Impossible to record the "date picture taken" on the image.
(Trying to pass for professional camera? :) Many simplier models have this useful feature).
Zoom lever is not most conveniently located. It would be easier if it was on the back of the camera.
Navigation buttons look strange being round instead of arrow shaped. This is changed in Power Shot A80.
Power on/off button is easy to be accidentally activated. Sliding type would greatly decrease the chances.
-Every time the camera is turned on, a lot of energy is used to mechanically extend the telescopic lenses. If they were fixed with attachable cap, battery performance could be improved; size, however, would definitely suffer. Reliability of lenses moving motors is naturally limited, which possibly could be the the cause for the famous Error 18.
-Ergonomics. "Set" button, could be better positioned somewhere near the side navigation buttons on the right, as set up on most cameras.
-Camera also doesn't come with sufficient memory card and reliable battery/charger, requiring spending additional money on accessories. This is, however, what keeps the price at its level.
-Side rubber cover can break if used repeatedly over a long period of time. Design could be more reliable if the cover would open freely.
-Very important issue batteries have to be removed every time they need to be charged, which places great strain on the plastic battery cover that would eventually break with extensive use. Cameras that enable batteries to be charged without removing them, greatly exceed the durability in the long period of use.
-Plastic tripod thread, less durable compared to metal ones.
Despite all the listed cons, this is a very modern camera with superior image quality and outstanding set of features and controls. I am very pleased with PowerShot A60 so far and would not hesitate to recommend it to many photo enthusiasts.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
HDMI Cable M-F Extension Gold Plated Connectors 3ft
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This extension was GREAT! And price very well! I needed about a 6 inch extension to properly center out television. I not only couldn't find one at these specialty stores, but if I were to order one, it was be over $50! Went on Amazon and got one for less then $10, S&H included.Great buy (and sorry for the late review).
Read Best Reviews of HDMI Cable M-F Extension Gold Plated Connectors 3ft Here
I bought a bigger TV and the HDMI cord was a bit short. Extension is just the right length so I didn't have to run a longer HDMI cord through the wall. Works great.Want HDMI Cable M-F Extension Gold Plated Connectors 3ft Discount?

