BlackVue Wi-Fi DR500GW-HD 16GB Car Black Box/DVR Recorder

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $339.99
Sale Price: $250.45
Today's Bonus: 26% Off

*** UPDATE November 2013 at bottom of review ***

youtube.com/watch?v=oITJ2xGBuT8 YouTube compresses video quality is actually much better than shown on YouTube.

I am new to dash cams but not to mobile technology.

Its pretty cool it has WiFi, GPS, 3-axis gyro, accelerometer, shock sensors and ambient light sensor. It records to a MicroSD card or you can download directly via WiFi to your iDevice or Android.

I bought this 500GW-HD about a week ago and I have been fiddling with it via Telnet/SSH/FTP, iPhone 5 & iPad 4 iOS app, Android app (rooted Kindle 2 running Jelly Bean 4.2) and the MicroSD card directly. I am primarily a Mac and Linux user on the desktop, although I loaded Windows 7 on my Macbook Air & iMac to look at the Blackvue Viewer Windows application (which is much better than the Mac version, BTW. More on this later)

My first impressions of the Blackvue DR500GW-HD are, by and large, positive. The 500GW-HD gets warm, but never hot. The camera mount is solid and very adjustable, the angle of view is excellent and the video quality is much better than I expected, even at night. Audio is crystal clear and in-sync. I expect that Firmware updates will fix/mitigate some of the more glaring defects discussed below.

It has some kinks, which is to be expected as this technology is still maturing. In particular, the firmware is not actually updated with any changes you make on the SD card (config.ini), the camera just reads the config.ini and uses that. But not always. Sometimes, after a power down/power up, the SSID and pwd will be forgotten or some of your other settings (timezone etc.) will be ignored. This may be a Blackvue Mac vs. PC application problem rather than a Blackvue firmware bug, although this did happen twice using the Windows app only.

My Firmware is in English and the latest version as of this writing version 1.003; I bought the 500GW-HD along with a Sandisk 32Gb Class 10 MicroSD card from Amazon. I also bought the Power Magic Pro (from eBay) and hardwired the Blackvue. The PMP is set to 12v & 48 hours and has been rock solid so far. A little background for anyone new to hacking the Blackvue 500GW-HD you can Telnet, SSH and FTP to the device via WiFi. The IP address is 192.168.8.1, login as "root", default password is "pt". FTP is ftp://192.168.8.1/Blackvue/Record/ to access all of your videos.

My config.ini is set to Normal, 1080p, Brightness 1, all flashing LEDs off, default LED colours, default sensors, voice on for everything except Events, custom SSID & pwd, custom root pwd, 1 minute record intervals, MPH and TimeZone to 174. I am in Houston, Texas, if that helps with the timezone thing. I tried setting the Blackvue to 802.11n by adding the line "ap_11n=1" to the [WiFi] section of the config.ini, but it didn't work. Fastest connection so far is 802.11g

Let me briefly discuss the Blackvue desktop Viewer applications for Windows and Mac. The Windows apps I am sure most of you are familiar with (and has been discussed many times elsewhere) so I won't spend any time on it other than to state that if you want to make changes that will persist over reboots, use the Windows application. Contrary to what others have stated, the Mac Viewer app does indeed have configuration settings, and they do write out to the config.ini but I would suggest you do not do this. Use the Windows Viewer app or manually modify the config.ini.

The Mac Viewer app looks identical to its Windows counterpart except for the configurations settings and video quality. Yes, you read that correctly; the Windows video quality display is better, on the same hardware. Go figure. I tested this on both a late model 27" iMac and late model Macbook Air, both running Mountain Lion on the Mac side and Windows 7 on the PC side (via BootCamp). Same files, same SD card, the Windows video looks way better.

Below are some screenshots of the Mac Viewer app. You will notice the similarities to the (superior) Windows app all the same functionality (Events, Parking Mode, Normal Mode, date/time, GPS mapping etc.), until you get to the configurations screens. There you encounter extremely limited TimeZone selection and if you save these settings, all bets are off as to what the Blackvue will actually do when it boots up using these settings (not what you expect, that's for sure). My advice; do not use the Mac app to make any configuration changes.

grond.tv/blackvue/blackvue4.jpg

grond.tv/blackvue/blackvue1.jpg

grond.tv/blackvue/blackvue2.jpg

grond.tv/blackvue/blackvue3.jpg

Let's move on to the iOS and Android apps, both also pretty rough. Both looked like they were written by a 8 year old, with an extremely poor and confusing interface, insane choices of font colours and sizes (very light, bright green on a white background!) along with confusing options. To get to the Live View, you have to swipe the top menu to the right (seriously?) and you cannot delete any videos on the SD card only copy them to your iOS or Android device. Copying a 1 minute video (about 55Mb) takes a while at 802.11g speeds so get comfy. You can configure the Blackvue via iOS/Android, which simply modifies the config.ini file and then you have to reboot the Blackvue for it to read the new config.ini. But given what I have said above (especially the font colours!), don't bother. There is no dedicated iPad app that will take advantage of the big 10 inch screen, just a iPhone app that you can double the size. It is actually better to do this than use the app on a iPhone as you can see the screen much better. The Android app is phone sized and looks fairly bad on the Kindle 2 but it is usable.

Parking Mode takes a while to both engage and disengage, but that can be tweaked via the motion sensors configuration. Event Mode, likewise can be tweaked.

Reading this review, it may appear as if I have been overtly negative towards the 500GW-HD, but that is not the case. As I started out saying, my impressions are largely positive. The Blackvue does what it was designed to do record video unobtrusively 24/7, and it does that very, very well.

The camera is remarkably configurable and very capable, far beyond my expectations. Video quality is par excellence for a 2mp CMOS.

I recommend the Blackvue 500GW-HD.

*** UPDATE November 2013 ***

Earlier in 2013, Pittasoft, the makers of the Blackvue, had updated their firmware to a max bitrate of 10mbps, which is much better than it was originally. Some of the other issues (802.11n etc.) were also fixed.

If you want even better quality video at a higher nitrate (15mbps or higher), you will have to turn to custom firmware. The Russian & Ukrainian guys do most of heavy lifting for the dashcam community. The custom firmware is distributed via Private Message so not to tread on the Pittasoft (Blackvue) copyright toes. Never post modified Blackvue firmware on a public venue please. Ask and you will be sent a link, they are a good bunch of folks over there.

Link

If Amazon mangles the link paste this into your browser. forum.dashcamtalk.com/forums/pittasoft-blackvue.6/

Please note that custom firmware will definitely void your warranty, or could potentially brick your camera, or cause other unforeseen problems. *Be warned*. Also, file size will be huge if you decide to go with a higher bitrate and you may have to move to 64Gb microSD card and use the HP SD Card Formatting tool (Windows only). The Blackvue will not recognize a 64Gb microSD card without special formatting.

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Sony HDR-AS15 Wi-Fi HD Action Video Camcorder Camera + 16GB

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $339.99
Sale Price: Price Unavailable
Today's Bonus: 33% Off

The company that sells this bundle is great to work with. I had a few questions prior to purchase and they were quick to respond. When the package came, it was missing the headband mount for the camera, but there were no issues getting this item mailed out to me in a timely manner. A+ for the company in terms of price, communication and shipping speed.

When it comes to the camera, the product is great. I haven't used it too much as of yet, but I don't think I'll have any issues. I am a big kayaker, hiker, skiier so this camera will be put through the paces. I did purchase the Sony AKA-LU1 Camcorder Cradle with LCD screen as I wanted to ability to also use this as a conventional camcorder. The only down side that I've noticed using this as a conventional camcorder is the lack of zoom.

Overall, highly recommend this product and the seller. This bundle (for the price) is a no brainer if you're considering this camera.

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Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Customer Ratings:

I don't even know where to start. This lens produces sharp pictures and great color and contrast. This lens is perfect for low light and/or action/sport photography (as this lens is famous for being one of the fastest lens together with its brother 50mm f/1.8). This lens is also perfect for portrait and other general purposes (macro etc). This is definitely a very versatile lens.

However, I think you should really consider buying the f/1.8 first before thinking to buy this f/1.4 lens (mainly because it is more than twice the price of the f1/8 and most of the time the f/1.8 version is fast enough in my opinion). Some examples where the faster f/1.4 lens might make a difference: low light wedding/concert or indoor sports photography (where the light is often low from the camera perspective) such as hockey, track and field, skating, gymnastic, basketball etc.

As much as I want to encourage everyone to buy this lens right away, let me mention some of the limitation that you would see (which I think will be helpful to go over before deciding to buy this lens):

First, being a prime lens, you will need to move your feet a lot to compose your picture. If you are used to zoom lens, don't underestimate this limitation. It takes me a while to get used to it, and sometime I still find people looking at me wondering why I am moving forward and backwards. the good news is that most of the time, they don't think I'm weird, but they are actually wondering if I'm a professional photographer.

Secondly, the focal range of 50mm, which is considered the normal lens and great for portrait lens. but on many DSLRs which is not full frame (unless you have a full frame Nikon DSLR like the D700 or D3, then 50mm is 50mm), this lens become a 75mm equivalent which is in the border of a short tele lens. I actually like the 75mm equivalent though I often have to move backwards when taking picture of a group of people.

Sharpness increases as you stop down to f/2. I actually prefer to use the widest most of the time and the results are still nice. Personally (when shooting low light action/sport), I'd rather use f/1.4 aperture settings than stopped down (e.g to f/2.8) and compensate with higher ISO setting which often gives me grainy picture. But if your object is not moving (static) then it is better to stop down to f/2 or more.

If you are wondering whether you should get a fast lens or a lens with VR (Vibration Reduction), here's my take: In overall, VR does help a lot (as it will reduce camera shake) and will produce better/sharper picture than equivalent lens without VR (especially if the object is static). If the object is moving (sports/action) then VR feature alone might not help (depending on how fast the object is moving and how much light is available), and a fast lens often end up being a far better solution, even without VR feature as it will allow much faster shutter speed to freeze motion. Using tripod (and a remote) will substitute for the need of VR feature. In general I would recommend getting a fast lens with VR feature (and usually it is expensive) such as the 70-200 f/2.8 VR, but if one can only get for one or the other, then find out what do you want to use the lens for and then use the guideline mentioned here.

If you are wondering whether you will get the benefit of buying f/1.4 lens over a f/1.8 lens, just remember that the f/1.4 lens is about 60% faster than f/1.8 at its widest aperture setting. With this information, you can decide if the additional speed will justify the additional cost. The bokeh is nicer as well in f/1.4 lens but I think speed is usually the main factor in deciding whether to get the more expensive f/1.4 lens.

Here are the summary of pros and cons for this Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF lens:

Pros:

1. Very fast (f/1.4)

2. Very sharp pictures (especially when stopped down to f/2 or more. very sharp at f/2.8)

3. Great for sport/action photography

4. Great for indoor and low light situation

5. Great for portrait

6. Bokeh is almost as good as many expensive Nikon tele-lens

7. Fast autofocus

8. Perfect for wedding photography (or no-flash event). However, or try the 17-35mm f/2.8 or 28-70mm f/2.8 lens)

9. 75mm equivalent which can be considered a short tele lens (I actually like the fact that it's 75mm equivalent vs 50mm in DSLR. if you need more zoom, you can get the Nikon 85mm f/1.8, or the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR). If you have full frame DSLR(like the D3 or D700), then this #9 pros is not applicable.

10. Sharper than its 50mm f/1.8 sibling (at equivalent aperture)

Cons:

1. Being prime lens, you need to move your feet a lot to adjust/compose

2. Some distortion at widest aperture

3. Plasticy build (though it has metal moount and internal part seems to be from metal)

4. Autofocus is not the most silent but very reasonable

5. 75mm equivalent with 1.5x multiplier on non full frame DSLR (many people find this is an odd range for normal lens. I actually like it). If you have full frame DSLR(like the D3 or D700), then this #5 cons is not applicable.

6. Autofocus does not work with D40, D40x and D60. The newer 50mm f/1.4G AF-S lens will autofocus with those cameras.

Bottom line: This lens is so versatile that I think everyone should own (either the 50mm f/1.4 or the 50mm f/1.8) in addition to all the lenses that they already have. Being a very fast lens, it enables me to take pictures in low light (sport/action photography) that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do.

Again, I would recommend everyone to get this lens (or the 50mm f/1.8). In some ways I can say that this lens will make you a better photographer.

Happy Photographing!

Sidarta Tanu

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Canon PowerShot SX260 HS 12.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 20x

Customer Ratings:

I received my SX260 last Wednesday and have taken about 700 shots and a few quick 5 minute video. Without writing a novel, here are the high/low points of this unit. In addition to this unit, I also purchased a couple of aftermarket batteries (and after market A/C adapters for about $5.00 each) for about $5.00 each and the batteries work fine. With the battery (original and aftermarket) I was able to get over 300 shots (50% flash) with zooming and playback and the battery meter still showed about 25% charge remaining.

Pro's

Zoom very long for a subcompact camera 20x optical, total 81x combined (yes 81 times!)

Image Stabilizer Excellent (far superior than the DSC-HX9V); Even at 81x the picture did not come out of focus, but of course not as sharp. I think it's still acceptable

Scenes A few scenes; I think the portrait, sepia, B/W works real well (the Portrait+ suppose to blur the picture a bit, but it's not to my liking) It has a few effects (fish eye, toy, miniature) that's very effective and can be fun for creative shots.

Auto Mode was able to pick the correct type of scene almost all the time; it has an easy mode, and smart auto. Not sure why they have an easy mode, but the smart auto works great

Size/Weight very compact and weigh's 8.2 oz. I would have prefer if the lens was flushed with the unit, but at 20x it may not have been possible

Uniformity the unit does not feel cheap, and beautifully curved; no sharp jagged corners

Grip the right side of the camera has a nice plastic strip for easier grip

Controls Dial extremely easy to use with one hand. The other buttons, if you're a previous Canon user, it's a no brainer; the menu and setup are practically the same across all their models.

Screen 3 inch TFT LCD screen very beautiful; nuff said

Processor Didn't notice that much difference between the DIGIC 4/DIGIC 5, but compared to the DSC-HX9V, this camera is like a Ferrari.

GPS Camera has it, but I never used it and probably won't; at least for the time being. Am more interested in a camera that takes excellent picture

Con's

Video compared to the Sony DSC-HX9V this Canon comes in a distant second; if you plan on using this primarily as a video recorder, look elsewhere. I think Sony has excellent lens on their camera but their processing technology is clumsy, painfully slow and unacceptable; whereas with taking videos, the Sony does not do any processing (not to mention it captures at 60fps compared to Canon's 24/25 fps) This is one thing I will miss dearly.

Flash not sure if there is a good place but I had to change my grip as the flash is on the top left corner. Couple of times, I had my left index finger on the flash and the camera gave some flash error message and had to power off and power on the camera to reset the flash.

If you're a casual or intermittent photographer (or a professional wanting an everyday point and shoot camera without carrying a luggage everywhere) that is interested in looking for a well refined point and shoot camera, yet has manual controls usually found on higher end DSLR (or higher end point and shoot camera), this is it!

UPDATE 04/14/2012 I paid $349 and today I noticed it's selling for $299, a 15% price drop in less than a month! I thought cars depreciate quick ...

UPDATE 04/18/2012 The Live Mode works great! For those hard shots (for example, taking indoor picture with fluorescent lighting and without a flash), you can view the screen and make the adjustment right then and there. You look at what you plan to take, compare it to the SX260 LCD screen and press the shutter button.

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WD 12TB WD Sentinel RX4100 1U Rackmount Small Business Network

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,999.99
Sale Price: $1,649.00
Today's Bonus: 18% Off

Nice unit, the only down side is the Microsoft OS 25 User Limit. Nice unit for the money... would be 5 star of there was no limit to how many people are allowed to connect. We are a school and wanted to use it to access general files for the students and staff. We just ended up using it for a backup to another file server.

UPDATE 10/16/2013:

NAS CRASHED, as I said in my earlier review we decided NOT to use this box as our primary file share(due to licensing restrictions), but rather as a backup server using MS DFS Services which basically syncs our primary file Dell Server to this NAS Server. Today it completely crashed with no chance of recovery! No warning, nothing.... WoW!! WD was did some over the phone testing and concluded we needed to do a complete OS restore. Only 6 months old! From their test, they could not find a reason, but concluded the hardware was fine!? So no Hardware Replacement... That we just need to do a COMPLETE Re-Install.

I don't know if this is a product to be trusted... I can say for us, no :-(

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CASIO Digital Camera EXILIM FC300S White EX-FC300SWE

Customer Ratings:

Excellent product, just the same as what the descriptions had said. I thought it would takes more time shipping from Japan, but I got this just a week from the day when I bought this camera online. Very satisfied.

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Tamron AF 18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II LD Aspherical (IF) Macro Zoom

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $898.95
Sale Price: $450.00
Today's Bonus: 50% Off

I originally owned a Tamron 28-300 lens that I used on my old maxxum film cameras. After many years of use, the zoom mechanism froze up (it has since worked its way loose). Still, I was in transit to the Far East on vacation and found a shop to sell me the Tamron 18-250 lens in LA. In the year and 3 months that I've owned it, I have shot over 5000 pictures with it in varied settings.

One of the problems with the 28-300 was the lack of wide angle that the 7d created with sensor crop. The crop factor on my 7d is 1.5 so the 18-250 is effectively becomes a 27-375 lens which makes it very useful in most travel photo situations. Obviously, my fixed lenses like a 90mm 2.8 are better for low light and a mirror lens has a longer zoom but for a general purpose lens, this is rather great.

There is some vignetting that occurs at the edges of some highly zoomed pictures but its seldom noticeable.

The thing is, I'm not a professional photographer, I don't spend an hour setting up a shot. I can't carry around 2-3 bodies with different lenses on them. When traveling, I give myself the best chance of getting the shot and that means being able go wide angle in one moment and zoom in tight the next. Can it possibly be blurry at 375? yes. However, if all I had was an 18-70, I might be so far away to not get the shot at all. I've learned how to shoot with this lens on the 7d and have had good success with it.

If I had the 12Mp Sony A700 (which I'm planning to get soon) being farther away wouldn't be such a big deal but with the 6.1MP 7D, digital zoom in Photoshop only goes so far without getting pixellated.

My hints for using this lens (and maxxum/alphas):

1. bracketing is your friend. I find that taking three shots of varying EV makes it more likely that one will be non-blurry, particularly at the long end of this lens.

2. Learn to watch the anti-shake sensor carefully and practice pushing the shutter release gently. Low light shots, even with low speed lenses are possible with practice. (see the 1/20th 160mm w/o a tripod of a Balinese dancer I uploaded as a customer image)

3. If in doubt, take the shot. Mb's are cheap, just discard if the shot isn't good.

So overall, I really like this lens for touring. There are some shots that you wouldn't want to take with it, such as portraits or action shots where you need to stop a baseball player in lower light. However, even with its limitations, it has found its way into my camera bag more often than not as of late.

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Panasonic TC-P65V10 65-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV (2009 Model)

Customer Ratings:

Pros: 65" is a great size for my living room, and the picture quality allows you to feel that you're there. A seated newscaster looks the same size as if they were on the other side of a window. The custom pro pic adjustments make any source look great!

Cons: As with all plasmas, the light reflection can be annoying. It is certainly watchable in the daytime with the shades open, but a bit distracting. The THX mode default is "HD Size 2" 100% scan, which introduces some edge noise with some sources (cable)

Summary: I've been waiting for months for the 65 inch V10 to become available. Almost pre-ordered it online several times, but was leary of ordering before it was in stock. Happened into Best Buy on Fri Aug 21 and saw the 58" on display. Asked about the 65" and found out the store had just received one that day and intended to set it up for display the next day. After a short negotiation I had secured this first set for $3899 ($100 off MSRP) and had it delivered free on the following Tuesday. First thing I did after setting it up was to switch the picture setting from Vivid to THX and the picture was amazing. Flipped through a few channels and watched some dark scenes from shows on my DVR that I had been saving just for this purpose. The clarity in low light scenes better than I had imagined. I have played with the custom pro picture settings some, but haven't spent enough time to get it looking better than THX yet. I have enjoyed the Viera Cast features, especially the weather and YouTube. I was watching a movie on cable and started wondering what other movies had the same director. I paused the show, switched to YouTube and looked up the director's name and watched a few clips of him taling about the movie I was watching and a few others he had directed, then went back and watched the rest of the movie. It was nice to be able to do this without having to pull out my laptop. I was also impressed with the picture quality from YouTube, even when I put it on full screen (I don't think most YT videos are prepared to be displayed at 65", but it still looked pretty clear!) I haven't rented a movie from the Amazon download service yet, but I'll have to try it. I can't believe that the picture will equal BluRay thoughwhich reminds me... For some reason it was nearly three days of watching this set before I remembered that I hadn't see a BluRay disk on it. I had been too caught up playing with the settings and Viera Cast and setting up my Harmony report (which is a little tricky to get set up for Viera Cast because I wanted the direction pad to control the DRV when watching cable and to control the TV when using VC, but I figured it out.) Anyway, I finally got around to putting in a BluRay disc and the picture went to a whole other level like nothing I'd seen before. Going back to Comcast compressed 1080i HD signal after BluRay was like looking through a mist. Now I can't rent BR movies fast enough. I almost want to stop watching my favorite shows on TV and wait for the season to come out on BluRay.

Well, if you're still readingI love this TV -I want to stop writing now, go close the shades and start watching.

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Sony Alpha SLT-A65 SLT-A65VL Digital SLR Camera with DT 18-55mm

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $998.00
Sale Price: $748.00
Today's Bonus: 25% Off

This bundle package was selling last week for $698. What's with the price increase on Cyber Monday??? Best package deal on the A65 at $698 in my opinion. Hope it goes back down!

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Sony NEX-3NL Digital Camera w 16-50, 55-210 Lens Essentials

Customer Ratings:

I love the camera and I love all of the accessories that came with it. It is very complete and I have been getting great photographs. The compact size allows me to take the camera in my purse everywhere I go. Having it with me all the time allows me to take pictures I otherwise would have missed.

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HP ENVY 14-1210NR 14.5-Inch Notebook PC (Silver)

Customer Ratings:

You might be wondering what the difference between this and the HP Envy 14-1110nr 14.5-Inch Relic Laptop PC Up to 3.45 Hours of Battery Life (Carbon) While this HP Envy 14 has a larger HDD and a slightly faster processor, the HDD is a lot slower (at 5400rpm instead of 7200rpm). This difference in HDD speed is worth going with the other laptop with a slightly smaller (640GB) but faster HDD and slightly slower processor. Plus Amazon has it on sale for $924.99 right now. However if that 110GB of HDD space is really that important to you, you could go with this laptop; just trying to inform people!

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Sony Alpha NEX-3N Digital Camera & 16-50mm Lens (White)

Customer Ratings:

I am just learning with lenses and I am very satisfied with this camera because I feel it was the best way to introduce mysefl in this new world. It has everything you need to work in automatic (when you do not have time) and to experiment and learn when you have time.

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ASUS VivoBook S400CA-DH51T 14-Inch Touch Ultrabook

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $699.00
Sale Price: $608.47
Today's Bonus: 13% Off

I have been using this laptop for the last few days and my initial impressions are highly positive. I bought it as a gift for my wife but I had to take some time with it before giving it up. She was using an older 17" Dell and was tired of carrying around an 8 pound laptop so I started my search. With Windows 8 coming out I knew I wanted a touch screen and the only model in my price range was this Asus. I have had plenty of experience with Asus motherboards and video cards and they have always been great products so I decided to take the plunge. So far it has been a wise decision.

When I opened the box I was impressed with how thin and light the laptop is. Compared to my Dell XPS 15 this thing is tiny but packs a screen just 1.3" smaller. While it is light weight it still feels very solid in your hands. The laptop weighs about 4.0lbs by my scale. Surprisingly the power brick is tiny as well, measuring about 3"x3"x1" and weighing 1.2lbs. My wife wanted something smaller to carry around and this fits the bill perfectly.

Opening the lid reveals a 14" touch screen with 1366x768 resolution and the keyboard/touchpad combination. The screen is bright and clear and the viewing angles are very good. Love it or hate it Windows 8 is included and having a touchscreen makes it even better. The screen responds well to your touch and the only time I see fingerprints on it is when the screen is off. The top of the laptop however shows more fingerprints than the screen. I was initially concerned with the lower resolution but on this size of screen it works well and my wife actually prefers it over the HD resolution of my Dell as it makes text easier to read.

The laptop has a Chiclet style keyboard that is not backlit. I have read about people having issues with the space bar on other Asus models but it appears to have been resolved because every key has been very responsive. The touchpad works well and supports multi-touch gestures such as pinch to zoom and two finger scrolling. After some use I like the touchpad and buttons. The touchpad and buttons are all one piece with the buttons slightly elevated to provide a click when you press them. You do not have to press very hard on the buttons and they do not feel stiff or mushy. In the center of the buttons is a line to show you left and right. I prefer the touchpad on the Asus over my XPS.

On the left side of the laptop are two USB 2.0 ports, a memory card reader and the microphone/headset jack. On the right side there is 1 USB 3.0 port, a full size HDMI port, a VGA port, an Ethernet jack and the AC jack. There is no optical drive but with high speed memory sticks and the internet I don't see this as a problem. If you really need it there are plenty of small, cheap external drives available.

We have had the laptop for a few days day now and the battery life is very good. Over the first few days we used it quite a bit and only charged it once a day. Tonight I unplugged the laptop from the charger (it was at 93%) and watched Netflix for the next 3 and a half hours and the battery meter says it still has 1 hour or 21% of the battery left. The brightness was set to about 30% for my test. I would guess 4 to 5 hours of battery life will be average.

Sound on this laptop is good but not to the level of my XPS 15. There are two speakers on the bottom of the laptop to the left and right sides, angled to bounce the sound off whatever surface the laptop is sitting on. I cranked up some music and the sound is clear at any volume with no distortion but lacked a little fullness in the low and mid-end. I listen to a lot of music while at work and I certainly would not complain if I had to use this laptop to do it.

The included wireless N adapter has good performance with speeds up to 7 MB/s when transferring files to and from my HTPC in the living room over 40 feet away. It connected to my wireless network right away and reconnects almost instantly when resuming from sleep. The wireless radio only operates on the 2.4mhz band and while Asus' webpage says that Bluetooth is included, I don't believe it is. I can't find anything in Device Manager for Bluetooth Devices.

Performance has been very snappy thanks to the dual core I5 processor and 24gb SSD caching drive. Applications launch quickly and boot times are minimal. Even my wife has noticed how much speedier the computer is than her old one. I have not done any gaming on it yet but will amend my review when I get a chance. I will note that there is some bloatware installed on the machine such as McAfee that you should get rid of as soon as you can. Windows 8 includes Defender by default so why Asus loads McAfee is beyond me. Asus Updater was also showing an error in the desktop when I booted but that cleared up after Windows 8 installed some updates.

Overall this is a fun little computer and using the touchscreen with Windows 8 has proved to be a great experience. This review has been my opinion so far but after finally giving the computer to my wife it doesn't look like I will get it back any time soon. Now that she can play Bingo Blitz with the touchscreen it looks like I will have to get one of my own! She summed it up to me in two enthusiastic words, "It's Fun!" And here I thought this was a work PC...

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Olympus PEN E-P3 12.3 MP Live MOS Interchangeable Lens Camera

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $899.99
Sale Price: $627.43
Today's Bonus: 30% Off

This is an excellent camera. It is very well made. With the camera based image stabilization, you can use any micro four thirds lens, including the Panasonic lenses as well as Olympus E Series lenses with the appropriate adapter. I used this camera with a Panasonic 100-300 lens at a Redskins game and found the auto focus and image stabilization good enough to capture action in the opposite end zone late in the afternoon when the light was fading. I would not consider getting this camera without the optional electronic viewfinder. The viewfinder is an extra expense and potentially easy to lose. I think it would be great if there were a way to lock it onto the flash shoe, so it does not fall off. The technical support at Olympus was excellent when I called. The choice at this price point and format is the Panasonic GH2 and the Olympus E-P3. the advantage of the Olympus is the camera based image stabilization and build quality. The Panasonic has an LCD screen that can be moved that allows viewing from different angles and has the advantage of a built in viewfinder as well. I own both cameras but would give the edge to the Olympus because of the built in image stabilization and build quality.

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EyeClops Mini Projector

Customer Ratings:

I have been delighted with the Eyeclops mini projector. It was purchased to watch movies and play video games on my ceiling at night and it serves this purpose in a satisfactory manner. The poor contrast and low quality resolution can make dark video games more challenging, but overall, it produces a fairly impressive image for the price. This is not meant to compete with high-end projectors, but then again, you do find it in the toy department for a reason.

Pros: Portable, reasonably sturdy, great price.

Cons: Low resolution, poor contrast, LED lamp requires near total darkness, patches of image are tinted red or green.

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TruPulse 7005025 Laser Technology 200 Laser Range Finders

Customer Ratings:

I work in the woods all year. Used for years without a problem. Does not work in fog. In freezing temps it is a little slow. I don't use it in pouring rain as a precaution. Good!

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Digital Camera (Black) 32GB Package 6

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $598.00
Sale Price: $548.00
Today's Bonus: 8% Off

1. For the price, I didn't expect much from this package, but I have to say that the traveler tripod is both lighter and sturdier than the cheapos I've bought in the past.

2. I also didn't expect much from the package camera case so I added a better one to my purchase. Guess what? I like the package case better, although I should tell you that I added some pre-gummed velcro to the flap so as to avoid having to constantly re-clasp the fastener. (I also bought the Swiss Leatherware Black Nylon Protective Camera Carrying Case and didn't like the awkward thickness of the design.)

3. The desktop tripod doesn't flex much so it's only good for straight ahead self timer shots, which is fine. It's tiny.

4. The extra battery charger is great! It comes with both a car charger and a wall adapter and it charged faster than the camera and didn't heat up at all.

5. The extra battery looks exactly like the official one, so either it is official, or it's a perfect copy.

6. The reader is traveler-tiny and gets the job done.

7. The cleaning fluid had a slightly loose lid so it soaked the cleaning cloth, but most of the fluid remained.

8. The lens protector gets it done quick and easy. Not much to it.

9. The 32GB SD card is as promised.

10. THE CAMERA IS AWESOME. I'm thrilled with this packages and the seller got it here faster than promised. All said, this was a great purchase.

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