11" Articulated Magic Arm V1 with Single Rod Clamp - 15mm (Two 1/4"thread) for Dslr Rig Support Sys

Solid construction, all metal parts, not extremely heavy. Attractive finish. I especially like the fact that wingnuts are metal as well, as opposed to other products from other manufacturers in this price range, which were plastic. Well worth the extra money.

HDE® Mini Display Port to HDMI Adapter Cable - 6 ft.

Works for Surface Pro. Lots cheaper than Microsoft. I wish it was black rather than Apple white, but that doesn't affect function.

Hooked it up, searched in youtube for relevant video to determine settings to send vid and audio to tv. Did not plug into my home theatre receiver yet only because it was just a quick hookup. Initially, without tweaking any settings on the mac all I got was the wallpaper of the mac. After viewing the youtube video, this is how I did the settings:

1) go to Systems Preferences, click on Display (the menu will be seen on the tv)

2) click on Arrangement and click on Mirror Display

3) go back to the menu and click Sound and select hdmi cable and that will get the sound through hdmi to your tv.

and that's all there is to it. The link I used was

And under $9 for the cable. Not bad.

Update 5/9/2012 connected to a/v receiver and watched a netflix streamed movie. Worked perfectly. A note of caution, if you purchase an extension to use with this cable you may not get the result you want. I got "unsupported signal...." with a skinny 10 ft cable. Other reviewers said the same thing for that cable. You might be better off opting for a longer mini display port to hdmi instead.

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It really works well. I did end up having to use an aux cord for sound, my macbook pro was purchased in early 2010. Apparently middle 2010 they updated the hdmi output thing to include sound. So just know that if you purchased your macbook pro early in 2010 or before you will need an aux cord too.

I'm very satisfied with the picture of the screen on my tv, I didn't expect it to look so clear!!

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Works for video but I can't get the sound to come through my tv. Although it should using my Mac....nothing has worked, so we use the laptop for the sound.

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I've been using this cable for about two weeks now in order to connect my mid-2009 macbook pro to my new LED-LCD monitor. It works great! The cable seems to be constructed decently and the ends seem to fit fine without much jiggle. I will say that on the macbook side of the cable, I'm using a cable clip to just relieve some potential strain that the cable could pose on the computer (this isn't necessary, but I just don't want to risk port damage over time).

I'll address one more thing. If you want to connect your mac to an HDMI monitor/tv, you could either use a cable like this, or an adapter like (http://www.amazon.com/DisplayPort-Female-Adapter-Cable-Macbook/dp/B008X6C4I4/ref=sr_1_18?m=A3V6BK4D0HKA8F&s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1362155897&sr=1-18). The only reason you might want to go with an adapter is if you already have an extra HDMI cable, or you frequently hook your computer up to projection/presentation equipment. Keep in mind that HDMI is a digital signal, so even a cheap cable should be fine. It's not like analog, where extra shielding can make a big difference).

Anyways, I'd recommend this cable highly.

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V 18.2 MP Exmor R CMOS Digital Camera with 30x Optical Zoom and 3.0-inch L

I bought it from Big Value. Arrived on time ands as expected. Now took many photos and videos. WAW... amazing pictures. its equipped optic and digital zooms will let you see in details objects far away from you, even read clearly a more tha 750m board. very good. still: with a full set of accessories you cant find easily. I am loving it and my with too.

thanks Big Value. keep doing good busyness

I was looking for a camera that could take great pictures without needing to switch out lenses (already have a camera for that). This camera takes beautiful pictures, simply. It's lightweight, so it's easy to carry. I purchased the camera in a kit that included everything I'll need to take pictures for a long, long time.

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Canon EOS Rebel T5i Digital SLR Camera & EF-S 18-55mm IS STM Lens with EF 75-300mm III Lens + 6

After determining which camera I wanted I found your canon kit to be the best for the price. I compared between Canon and a Nikon. Nikon gave such good reviews of the T5i that I decided that was the one for me. Your kit gave me plenty of lenses and filters to practice and develop my skill to improve my abilities.

JVC GZ-EX310 Full HD Everio Camcorder, 8.3MP, 1/5.8" CMOS Sensor, 60x Dynamic Zoom, 40x Optical Zoo

This is a great camera for the price. It is convenient, and the quality is good. The guy who claims his iPhone 5 takes better video is crazy. I have taken video with my iPhone 5 and it isn't even close... Anyway, it has great features and is easy to use with excellent video quality at a great price. There are better, but you will have to pay quite a bit more.

I bought this HD camcorder for its zoom and wifi capabilities. So far I've been very impressed. It is very light-weight, but seems to be well constructed. I recently tested it out while visiting Chicago and was happy with the HD quality of both indoor video at the Museum of Science and Industry as well as outdoor video at Navy Pier. The sound quality is better than I expected also. Well worth the $250 price I paid.

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I purchased this video camera when Costco offered it with a $50 discount several weeks ago. It went back to Costco a week later. Well, in this case, at least, I got somewhat LESS than I paid for, even at the discounted price.

The first thing I noticed was the odd ergonomics. I've owned 4 previous video recorders, including the Sony HDR-CX380 I bought to replace the JVC (from Costco at a $100 discount) and I've NEVER had any problems operating the record and zoom controls. I simply could not operate either control without shaking/jerking the camera. Using the controls on the touch screen was a little better, but doing so still added an unacceptable amount of shake, and was awkward, too, especially when using the touch screen zoom control.

It is possible that the shake issues were exacerbated by the really quite poor stabilization system. It was definitely substandard when compared to the optical stabilization systems on two previous MiniDV Panasonic cameras and even a 17 year old Nikon/Sony 8mm video camera. Shake was VERY noticeable even in wide-angle shots, something that JVC claims their Advanced Image Stabilization (A.I.S.) system is designed to address.

The image stabilization issues may have added to the really quite poor video quality. Video images looked very flat and artificial, with exaggerated, over-sharpened edges and blurry details. In fact, in the highest quality 1080 video, images of a hillside dotted with oak trees and tall green and golden grasses, the edges of the hills and trees showed significant over-sharpening and, at higher optical zoom levels, an unacceptable amount of chromatic aberration, while the grasses were blurred to a flat, solid mass of color with absolutely no individual details. BTW. I NEVER use digital zoom so I can't even imagine what a mess THAT would make of the sub-par video quality. Playback, too, was choppy on both a 1080P Sony Bravia TV and a quad-core 2.4gHz computer with a true 1080P 2ms monitor. Stepping was noticeable in both panning and zooming and appeared to occur at exactly the same frequency (about 2 times per second) in both.

Finally, a comment on lens quality... Granted, my three previous video cameras were equipped with Nikon and, on the Panasonic, Leica lenses, so one would expect the glass quality to be better than that on the JVC. However, JVC's (and other manufacturers) pursuit of ever higher zoom ratios ruins image quality at ALL focal lengths, introducing unacceptable chromatic aberration, the red/blue fringing surrounding sharp edges or high contrast images, that ranges from noticeable at short FLs to ridiculous at mid to long focal lengths. I've seen the same thing, to a lesser extent, on point and shoot digital cameras, even those in the $200-300 dollar range, although no manufacturer that had any concern about image quality would ever dare to put a 40x zoom on a mid-level point and shoot digital camera at least I haven't seen it...YET!

So, why give this video camera 2 stars, instead of 1? Well, if the user knows only cell phone and low resolution streaming video, then this IS a step up (albeit a small one). NOTE: After posting this review and looking at the JVC videos again, the quality is SO much worse than those taken with my year old Samsung Galaxy S3 mobile phone that the JVC deserves less than 1 star!

It seems that the "digital revolution" in music and photography has significantly lowered expectations of many consumers. Most (but fortunately not all) folks who know only cell phone camera video or still images and have only heard over-boosted digital music with small in-ear headphones really don't know what high-quality images and audio are. Unfortunately, it seems like many manufacturers are chasing impressive specs and features (wow, it has WiFi and a cell phone remote control app!) with no real concern for quality, knowing that many consumers will never know the difference. One can only hope that rapidly improving technology will reverse this "lowest common denominator" trend in the near future.

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I bought this camera because of the cool built-in Wifi features. The camera arrived fast as promised but I was very disappointed when I started using it. First it is made of cheap plastic, you feel you're going to break it every time you touch it. Worst of all is the video quality, my iPhone 5 delivers way better video quality than this. JVC was busy adding tons of features and forgot to pay any attention to the video quality.

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JVC VU-AM50KIT Everio-G Camcorder Starter Kit

I bought this for my Everio GZ-MG50 and I'm very disappointed.

The case is too basic. It has room for the camera and one additional small battery, but with the strap on the camera it becomes difficult to fit everything inside the case. There is no additional pockets, so you'll be unable to use it to carry other stuff, like lenses, charger or cables.

The battery is the same you get with the camera. It charges quickly but it only gives you an hour or less of recording time. I recommend a larger model as your second battery.

Summary: spend your money on some good case with lot of space and a BN-VF714 (2hrs.) or BN-VF733 (5hrs.) battery pack.

I bought this bundle for $4.97.

Actually I bought four of them, since S&H was the same whether I bought 1 or 4.

My JVC camcorder uses the same exact battery. (the case did not fit my particular JVC camcorder model, but I knew this prior to purchase).

I have the camcorder cases put to use with some of my other digital imaging products.

(A couple hold MP3 players, plus SD cards, plus batterties and charger. Another holders a palm size camcorder, the other holds my jumpdrives, etc)

The case is rather simplistic, but I was mainly buying this for the inexpensive battery part of the pkg.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PS-

IMPORTANT NOTE---IMPORTANT NOTE

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

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

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

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

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

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

So far, it is working OK.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Mobi MobiCam Audio Video Wireless Internet Kit

I bought this camera mainly because it had the internet feature so I could share my toddler's room with my out-of-town family.

The Bad:

1. The internet connection feels like a rip off. You only get TWO hours of monitoring per MONTH unless you want to pay $9.95/month! If I buy an internet hookup, I expect to be able to watch my monitor any time or have my family be able to watch any time as well.

2. The internet connection is awkward. You have to hook up the physical monitor to a computer constantly with a bunch of wires & adapters (see below). So, at night (when I actually use the monitor), I have a choice of having the monitor hooked up to my computer OR being able to watch the monitor next to my bed. Who wants a computer running next to their bed all the time with a tangled mess of wires? See below.

3. Hookup consists of a USB to your computer, going to some adapter unit which goes to stereo & video RCA jacks as well as an S-video, which then goes to an 1/8" jack which finally hooks into the monitor. This is not just a USB cable like it says! This is ridiculously awkward.

4. Software is cheap! You have to install drivers, reboot, hook up the camera, install the software, etc., etc. It took a couple of hours to get this up & running, which is pretty bad in a plug & play world!

5. Your monitor hooks up to your computer which broadcasts your monitor to their website. Granted, they make you set up a website & password to make you feel secure about it, but you cannot control anything other than if you have the camera hooked up or not (& of course who you give the website & password to).

Overall, I am sorely disappointed that I got the internet hookup. I wish I had gotten the extra camera instead for the same price.

This kit includes drivers, webcam software, and pass-through cable to connect the MobiCam monitor to your PC via USB.

An additional monthly subscription fee is required if you actually want to view your MobiCam remotely via the Web. They allow up to 2 hours viewing time per month, but with grandparents that live 7 hours away, 2 hours won't get them through a month. So, if you decide to get this, then pay the $ and allow grandparents to experience the child's life while they still can.

I began to worry when I noticed one of the requirements, as listed on their box, is a "steaming" internet connection. This shows a lack of attention to detail and poor quality assurance; I would have immediately put this thing back on the shelf and walked away after reading a typo like that on product packaging. How good could it really be if this is how they're marketing themselves? But, this was given to us as a gift; so, I tried it out. My fears worsened after I began to read the included manual my 9-week old son could produce a better technical document than what they put out...I was embarrassed for them.

I installed the software on my desktop, and was able to get it working after some trials & tribulations with my firewall. However, the web cam software (mpeg4decoder.exe) crashes consistently, taking Windows Explorer down with it. I decided to try the software on my laptop to see if it worked any better on a different computer. Upon installation, Avira AntiVir identified the webcam software as a backdoor server (BDS/Hupigon.Gen).

Also, the software can only be installed on one computer. We would like to use it on our desktop on occasion, so I can use my laptop to access the internet and view my son when I'm away on business. We would also like to use it on the laptop downstairs, when my wife & I are both at home and viewing the MobiCam monitor downstairs, while baby sleeps upstairs.

In summary: buggy software needs to be fixed; questionable virus/backdoor distributed with their software; software should be allowed on multiple computers (e.g. iTunes); fix horrible writing & typos in your documentation and on your product packaging show us you care about your product.

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I just tried to install the Internet Kit and the installer prompts to download files from the Mobi web site. When that was done, I ran the executable to install the files and found it to be infected with a virus from my scanner. Tried it again on a test pc with another virus scanner just to be sure it wasn't a false positive and sure enough, it is infected.

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I bought this thinking we could see the kids if we were out and left them with a babysitter. What I found out was in order to do this the monitor must be connected to the pc. We only have one laptop! We don't have internet on our phones. There is also a $10 month charge. Had I known exactly how it worked and there was a monthly charge, I would not have bought it.

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The picture is poor on the handheld device to say the least. When I connected to my 60" TV it was not much better and it was wavy! I bought this camera to use in my toddler's room at night. The night vision is awful. Can't see my son 10 feet from the camera!

The box misleads buyer into thinking you are buying a wonderful surveillance system that has motion detection that will text message you! You can view your child from your BlackBerry! Or you can monitor your children at home from your work computer! NO WHERE ON THE BOX DOES IT STATE THAT YOU HAVE TO PAY EXTRA FOR THESE FEATURES AND MUCH MORE!!

At night you can turn off the video monitor and just have sound. However there are two green lights on the front that never go off and light up my entire bedroom! I have quit using this system and will never buy another mobicam product. Huge waste of money!

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Velbon VS-443D 63.39" Aluminum Tripod with Geared Tilt Column, Ballhead & Case with Cleaning Ac

If you are nutball about the world of the tiny, consider this innovative design: The ability to swing the 'elevator' arm 360 and use a crank to fine tune your macro lense towards the subject.

Manfrotto has something simular, yet does not allow as much freedom as the Velbon does.

For video, SLRs can be a bit cranky about a zoom in. I believe this product will do the job.

It will take until the end of the month until this gem gets to Canada.

No bug or flower will be safe,after that, hehehe.

For the money, it seems like a great deal.

I'll let you know how it turns out

Pentax Optio WG-1 Rugged Waterproof Digital Camera

I bought this product for an upcoming trip to Hawaii and wanted a camera with underwater capability. I also bought the Panasonic Lumix TS3 to compare and ended up returning it. I am happy with my choice to keep the Pentax.

Here is what I liked:

The durability and the rugged feel of this camera right away impressed me. I felt like I was holding a camera that wouldn't break if I dropped it or tossed it into my purse. It was exactly what I needed for an outdoor/adventure trip. I was most excited to try out the Macro capabilities of this camera. They were among the first shots I took. All I can say is that they were amazing. Far and away, the quality was better than anything I have seen for a Point and Shoot camera. I could see individual bits of pollen when shooting a flower or individual pores on my finger. Even when I blew the images up and zoomed in, the clarity was amazing.

Once I got onto my trip, I used the camera underwater in various depths, from 3 feet of water to 250 (although I did not go down that far, this camera is only waterproof to 30 feet). The clarity of the images while zooming in in deep in water was great. I took a picture of a puffer fish that was close to 100 feet below me in 250 feet of water and the image turned out. I took pictures of sharks, dolphins, fish and coral. The pictures are clear and vibrant. The macro setting on some of the coral is to die for. I was so impressed with how these turned out. Had no problems with the camera being waterproof. After each underwater adventure (lasting from 20 minutes to two hours in the water, diving up to 20-25 feet deep for some pictures), I rinsed the camera with clean water and let it air dry before I opened any compartments. The color quality is spot on, no weird colors turning up. It is true to eye. The buttons are also easy to use and change to the best setting (outside, underwater, macro, auto, sport, etc). All of my pictures in daylight and soft light turned out great. The large screen on the back makes viewing pictures easy. The self-portrait assist was a cool idea and worked great.

Negatives:

The only thing that I was NOT impressed with on this camera was low light (nighttime, inside)/no light (nighttime, outside) conditions. Whenever it was dark out, the pictures often turned out blurry, even with the flash on. I may have had it on the wrong setting, because some of them turned out great, but others, not so great. Or it may have been user error (whenever I took the pictures, they generally turned out fine, the ones that are blurry tend to be when I asked random people to take a picture of me). I didn't play around with the settings at night too much mostly because I had a DSLR camera with me that I used in those conditions. I did take a lot of sunset pictures that turned out great on this camera. But once the sun was down....not so much. Also, I went for a night dive with this camera, the underwater camera is useless at night because the flash captures particles in the water and with no flash it's too blurry. However, the underwater video recorder worked great at night.

Overall, this is a great camera for it's price. The camera performs well under most conditions. I lugged it around on a dusty six mile hike, underwater, running, and everything else you can imagine. The camera is easy to wash off, waterproof and has a FANTASTIC macro ability that I have never seen on a point and shoot camera before. If you are expecting this to be a DSLR, remember that this is a POINT AND SHOOT camera. Even so, some of the pictures rivaled my DSLR camera. I highly recommend this camera.

Check out my updating youtube videos. I am user: "PentaxWG1" The good the bad the ugly. The over all feel of this camera is strong and gripable. I love having metal and rubber on my electronics. I have dropped this camera. It was on my lap in the jeep and there was a hornet. I jumped out and it threw to the ground. No problems. The removable circle around the lens (macro stand) has threads. They are 46mm and can screw on filters and caps. I got a cap, uv filter, polorized filter, and flourecent filter on e-bay for $6. So other than the sony TX10, this is the only camera that can protect the lens. Can't wait to buy a telescopic lens. My camera has been underwater about 15 ft. I've seen no problems with leaking. It has two openeings; one for battery and sd card, and one for hd/av hook-up. Both seem strong and sturdy to me. Battery cover does move ever so slightly but seems fine. Ok, thats the construction. As you have already heard, the macro/super macro is awesome. If you can get your specimen to sit still, you can get some pretty great material. The movie macro is even pretty cool, but you have to stay at a consistant focal length or it gets blury. I recorded a wolf spider in pitch black and the l.e.d. lights around the lens made it look like a monster movie! One bad thing about the macro is that when set straight down on the subject it will focus and take the picture on something as flat as a leaf or picture.... if it protrudes as much as a dime width or more it won't stay focused. But when I pulled back just a hair the dime did look awsome. N-E-Wayz, It seems the closer you are to the subject with this camera the better it looks. A closer shot of two people, shoulders and up, look really good. But further away not so much. pictures of groups of people (full body) or the shot of a pond or a... cow...I say the camera is about par. Not bad but not great. I have tried the cybershot TX10 and if you strictly want waterproof picture quality go that way or panasonic. TX10 was beautiful but not as fun. Back to the WG-1. With par pics I do feel the camera is more consistant than its predesessor w90. Better with stand, free hand not as good..but always the same. Never a crappy picture out of nowhere. I also feel it does much better in lower light than the w90. It gets noisey but I was getting decent lighted shots (no flash) in areas that where very dim to the naked eye. The l.e.d. lights are handy, too. Optical zoom works pretty well for pictures. You'll want a steady hand or stand if zoomed all the way in. Digital zoom sucks. The panorama is not sweep. You take 3 pics and line them up, then the camera stitches them. Not as convinient as the TX10 but it looks good and you can do tricks...As for underwater. Pictures and video where pretty darn good. Anti shake or wudever made it pretty smooth. With video underwater or above the zoom works but it doesn't refocus very well. But over all regular video was better than I expected. Once again when things are close it seems very virbrant. I got about a foot from a cow's face and the fur on his head got very HiDef-ish. Battery life....sucks, but I got and extra generic one when I ordered mine for 6 bucks. Over-all I really love this camera. I've been totally entertained for 2 days and havn't even gotten to time lapse phtography yet. Although I do think of the pic quality of the TX10 now and then. I would have been bored with that camera after one dip in the lake. I can get a 10 mp zoom camera for less than a hundred and fill in anywhere the wg-1 lack.

Buy Pentax Optio WG-1 Rugged Waterproof Digital Camera Now

We owned a Pentax's first waterproof camera (Optio W10) and loved it. So when it came time to upgrade we bought this one before our trip to Mexico. We choose this one because of its ergonomic design. We figured this would work wonders when splashing around underwater and be easy to hold onto. The ergonomic design is the only redeeming feature of this camera.

At first we were concerned about how loose the battery door was. The battery door stayed shut but it would slide partially open when closed and was very loose (not enough for water to actually get in but enough to make us concerned). Thinking it might just be the camera we picked up, we went back to the store where we bought it from. After looking at other ones it appears to be part of the design. This should have been our first clue that this is a horrible camera.

While on vacation in Mexico the camera froze several times requiring the battery to be removed to get it to unfreeze. Now this can be a true problem when you need to let the camera dry for about an hour before opening the battery door otherwise you risk exposing both the battery and memory card to water.

We also discovered small water spots on the inside of the display screen. Clearly it is not as waterproof as claimed. I am glad we were only using it while wading in the ocean and not actually snorkelling.

The battery life is extremely poor requiring charging every two days when the camera is moderately used.

We also found the image quality not that good. After returning from our vacation, we looked at old images from our previous camera (Optio W10) and they were much better even though it was only 6 megapixels. In fact the same picture taken with our iPhone 3Gs had a better image quality.

Pros

Great rugged looking design

Cons

Poor image quality

Freezes

Not completely waterproof

Poorly manufactured

Summary

Clearly Pentax designed a nice looking camera that gives the illusion of ruggedness; however, their production quality of this model is extremely poor. We've returned the camera and are looking for a different one (not from Pentax) to replace it with.

Read Best Reviews of Pentax Optio WG-1 Rugged Waterproof Digital Camera Here

I am currently deployed to Afghanistan and I am around some rough terrain all the time with different conditions. Hot, Dusty, Cold, Wet, Rocky and this camera hasnt stopped working yet. I have dropped it from about 8 feet high off of a vehicle and yeah it is scratched but still works perfect. I have had it get wet but havn't used it submerged in water for a period of time yet. But I will. So far everything is awesome. I especially like the Safety clip it comes with. I think that was a great idea but I would suggest possibly upgrading the clip if you are a big outdoorsmen. Other than all of that it is awesome and totally recommend it.

Want Pentax Optio WG-1 Rugged Waterproof Digital Camera Discount?

The most fantasticly durrible camera I have ever seen. I have litterally tossed this thing around just for the fun of it, and it withstands anything.

Performs great underwater. A few bubbles come out of the power button which scared me at first, but it's normal.

The battery charges only through an external charger (so it can have less waterproof ports I suppose)

I am using a 16gb SD card which works great in it. Screen is comfortably large and bright.

Digital microscope blew my mind with the clarity and detail that can be achieved. Zoom is reasonable.

Pictures have a dramatic feel to them with great contrast.

Software is easy to use, and took me about an hour to know every feature. Great photo editing software is BUILT INTO THE CAMERA to do whatever effects you need done.

Self-portrait mode is a little bit flaky but very interesting none the less. Who uses facial recognition anyway, really? lol.

The feel of the camera is phenomenal. Rubber and very hard grippy plastic cover the whole camera, and gives a very rugged and tough feel, but it is such a tiny lightweight package.

Manual zoom, focus, aperture, and ISO come in very handy.

All in all a fantastic camera, worth every penny. :)

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