Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70 Digital Camera (Black) with 32GB Card

Customer Ratings:

At a price only slightly higher than just the camera, Cameta Camera adds some useful items. Let me briefly comment on each:

Kit includes:

♦ 1) Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70 Digital Camera (Black) -Reviewed in depth by others. It's a good 60x superzoom camera if you don't expect more than its tiny 1/2.3" sensor can deliver. A few similar cameras may produce slightly clearer pictures, but the FZ70 offers wider wide angle. That's unique.

♦ 2) Transcend 32GB SecureDigital (SDHC) 300x UHS-1 Class 10 Memory Card -Not the fastest card but fast enough for this purpose.

♦ 3) Spare DMW-BMB9 Battery for Panasonic -Charged spares are always nice to have in reserve.

♦ 4) Zeikos 50" ZE-TR26A Compact Travel Tripod -The equivalent version I got was Vivitar, a very lightweight tripod that would be challenged by a breeze. It can support the camera for group photos indoors, but don't expect a stable platform for 1200mm telephoto shots outdoors.

♦ 5) Zeikos 3-Piece Multi-Coated Glass Filter Kit (55mm UV/FLD/CPL) -Yes, it's glass, but the CPL filter shows no evidence whatsoever of polarizing light. It's more like a weak neutral density filter. Disappointing: CPL was the only filter I wanted, and it doesn't work. The box says that filters are multi-coated but I doubt it, since they show strong surface reflections. This is a dud.

♦ 6) Precision Design PD-C10 Camera/Camcorder Case -Simple but fully functional. It fits the camera and a couple of small accessories, such as the charger and the spare battery.

♦ 7) Precision Design USB 2.0 SecureDigital (SDHC) High-Speed Memory Card Reader -The version I got was made by Xit Photo. It measures only 1.5" and works well.

♦ 8) Precision Design 5-Piece Camera & Lens Cleaning Kit -Should be useful.

♦ 9) Precision Design Universal LCD Screen Protectors -You have to cut those to size, but they work well to protect the LCD screen from scratches.

♦ 10) Precision Design Memory Card Storage Wallet -Makes it slightly harder to lose memory cards.

♦ 11) ImageRecall Digital Image Recovery Software -Not useful to me, but one can download this software if needed. The Transcend memory card included a link to something similar.

My conclusion? The rating is mostly based on camera performance, which is very good, but can't compete with larger sensor cameras. What makes this camera special is the zoom: it delivers tremendous versatility in a relatively small package (size comparison to DSLR cameras with similar focal length lenses are downright funny). Ergonomics, camera settings & operation work for me. Image quality is adequate for this type of camera.

The rest of the kit is a mixed bag, but justifies a slightly higher price. Overall, I'm happy with the camera case, extra battery, memory card & card reader, screen protectors, and even the cleaning kit. These items justify the $25 premium (including shipping) over the camera alone. However, the filters and the tripod are simply inadequate.

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WD Red 2 TB NAS Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $179.99
Sale Price: $94.99
Today's Bonus: 47% Off

Here is a quote from a review at pcper.com

I'm going to let the cat out of the bag right here and now. Everyone's home RAID is likely an accident waiting to happen. If you're using regular consumer drives in a large array, there are some very simple (and likely) scenarios that can cause it to completely fail. I'm guilty of operating under this same false hope I have an 8-drive array of 3TB WD Caviar Greens in a RAID-5. For those uninitiated, RAID-5 is where one drive worth of capacity is volunteered for use as parity data, which is distributed amongst all drives in the array. This trick allows for no data loss in the case where a single drive fails. The RAID controller can simply figure out the missing data by running the extra parity through the same formula that created it. This is called redundancy, but I propose that it's not.

Since I'm also guilty here with my huge array of Caviar Greens, let me also say that every few weeks I have a batch job that reads *all* data from that array. Why on earth would I need to occasionally and repeatedly read 21TB of data from something that should already be super reliable? Here's the failure scenario for what might happen to me if I didn't:

* Array starts off operating as normal, but drive 3 has a bad sector that cropped up a few months back. This has gone unnoticed because the bad sector was part of a rarely accessed file.

* During operation, drive 1 encounters a new bad sector.

* Since drive 1 is a consumer drive it goes into a retry loop, repeatedly attempting to read and correct the bad sector.

* The RAID controller exceeds its timeout threshold waiting on drive 1 and marks it offline.

* Array is now in degraded status with drive 1 marked as failed.

* User replaces drive 1. RAID controller initiates rebuild using parity data from the other drives.

* During rebuild, RAID controller encounters the bad sector on drive 3.

* Since drive 3 is a consumer drive it goes into a retry loop, repeatedly attempting to read and correct the bad sector.

* The RAID controller exceeds its timeout threshold waiting on drive 3 and marks it offline.

* Rebuild fails.

At this point the way forward varies from controller to controller, but the long and short of it is that the data is at extreme risk of loss. There are ways to get it all back (most likely without that one bad sector on drive 3), but none of them are particularly easy. Now you may be asking yourself how enterprises run huge RAIDs and don't see this sort of problem? The answer is Time Limited Error Recovery where the hard drive assumes it is part of an array, assumes there is redundancy, and is not afraid to quickly tell the host controller that it just can't complete the current I/O request.

Here's how that scenario would have played out if the drives implemented some form of TLER:

* Array starts off operating as normal, but drive 3 has developed a bad sector several weeks ago. This went unnoticed because the bad sector was part of a rarely accessed file.

* During operation, drive 1 encounters a new bad sector.

* Drive 1 makes a few read attempts and then reports a CRC error to the RAID controller.

* The RAID controller maps out the bad sector, locating it elsewhere on the drive. The missing sector is rebuilt using parity data from the other drives in the array.

*Array continues normal operation, with the error added to its event log.

The above scenario is what would play out with an Areca RAID controller (I've verified this personally). Other controllers may behave differently. A controller unable to do a bad sector remap might have just marked drive 1 as bad, but the key is that the rebuild would be much less likely to fail as drive 3 would not drop completely offline once the controller ran into the additional bad sector. The moral of this story is that typical consumer grade drives have data error timeouts that are far longer than the drive offline timeout of typical RAID controllers, and without some form of TLER, two bad sectors (totaling 1024 bytes) is all that's required to put multiple terabytes of data in grave danger.

The Solution:

The solution should be simple just get some drives with TLER. The problem is that until now those were prohibitively expensive. Enterprise drives have all sorts of added features like accelerometers and pressure sensors to compensate for sliding in and out of a server rack while operating, as well as dealing with rapid pressure changes that take place when the server room door opens and the forced air circulation takes a quick detour. Those features just aren't needed in that home NAS sitting on your bookshelf. What *is* needed is a WD Caviar Green that has TLER, and Western Digital delivers that in their new Red drives.

End quote and back to reviewer.

I've got 5 of these in a Synology DiskStation 5-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage (DS1512+). It is really a sweet setup.

The Synology software has a S.M.A.R.T. test that can do surface scans to detect bad sectors. I have their Quick Test check every disk daily and the Extended Test set to automatically run on each of the 5 disks every weekend. (The Extended Test takes about 5 hours per disk so I separate the tests by 12 hours.)

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Nikon SB-600 Speedlight Flash for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Customer Ratings:

This is the first time I have ever purchased a dedicated flash. I have used the Superb Vivitar 283 and 285 strobes for years with no complaints. However, after buying the Nikon D70, I felt the need for a TTL flash. The camera's built-in pop-up flash works OK, but I wanted something to get more control of.

The SB600 does 95% of what the more expensive SB-800 does for half the price:

Bounce Flash: Not only can you move the head vertically, you can rotate it 270 degrees to get some sweet sidelit effects. The iTTL makes bounce flash simple and accurate. When you manually zoom the lens, the SB 600 zooms the flash head to automatically match your focal length-and very quietly too.

Power: No problem here. It can easily light an average room. 4 AA batteries give plenty of juice, and the '600 powers itself down to energy saver mode. More important, it powers back up quickly when you're ready to shoot.

Goodies: You can manually dial the flash power down to 1/64 full output, and everything in between. This is perfect for fill flash. It comes with a built in diffusor for ultra wide angle settings. Nikon thoughtfully includes a little stand with tripod socket in case you want to use it off camera. The really nice part is that the SB 600 can be triggered remotely by the D70 or D2H's on camera flash! This gives you a "studio in a bag" using one flash and a Nikon DSLR. Very cool.

Ergonomics: Nikon's D70 set new standards in ergonomics, and the SB-600 matches that. The latch for the bounce head has a handy large rubber button to unlock it. All buttons are soft touch, backlit, and very responsive. The TTL display is lit as well. There is a smooth locking device to secure it on the hotshoe.

Instructions: Nikon includes a cool, full color book showing what you can do with the Sb-600 and 800. Each lighting setup has a corresponding page number for the 600 or 800 manual to tell you how to do it. The book is very helpful and very well printed. These are the kind of extras Nikon users have come to respect. I wish all digital cameras were as well documented as Nikon!

Summary: for the price, you can't buy a better flash for the D70. While less expensive than the SB-800, the SB-600 is lighter and recycles faster. This is more than worth the money, and a perfect mate for your D70.

ADDENDUM. Three years on this is still a great strobe for any Nikon DLSR made. I recently used it to demonstrate the off-camera remote control function built into most better Nikon DLSRs. The class I was teaching were amazed and the Canon shooters were left wanting. Check out the spontaneous group portrait I made of some students with this thing. Everyone wanted a copy!

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Sony Alpha SLT-A65 DSLR Digital Camera with 18-135mm Lens

Customer Ratings:

Very valuable package. Camera and filters are fantastic. Good battery life.

Just do not like the teleconverter, loose a lot of image quality with it.

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Canon VIXIA HV40 High Definition Camcorder

Customer Ratings:

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Over ten years ago I bought Sony's legendary TRV-900. It was a consumer camera so good and so ahead of its time that it remained on the market for four years an eternity in the consumer electronics industry.

Canon has a similar product in their HV series HDV camcorders. They released such an outstanding camera two years ago with the HV20 that the two new models since (the HV30 and now the HV40) are really just small refinements of a mature and well designed product.

**NEW FEATURES**

So let's get one thing out of the way up front: There really isn't much of a difference between this camera and last year's HV30 (which was a small upgrade on the superb HV20). As an HV20 owner, I felt right at home when this arrived and I powered it up. Video quality is about the same, they look pretty much the same, and overall performance is the same too.

What is different is the addition of true 24P recording which offers a more film-like frame rate over the standard 30 frames per second. It should be noted that prior versions of this camera (as well as Canon's AVCHD models) also shoot 24P but that mode requires additional software to get to "true" 24P video when editing. You'll want to check to ensure that your editing software supports true 24P footage as it's not a configuration that is on many consumer cameras.

**AVCHD OR HDV?***

If you're reading this it's likely that you're in the market for a new camcorder. It's also likely that you're confused over the multitude of different formats currently available: hard disk, flash memory, tape, etc. etc.

Despite the many recording mediums, the current crop of consumer cameras can be delineated into two camps: AVCHD (the hard disk and flash based cameras) and HDV (tape based).

HDV cameras have two advantages over their AVCHD counterparts. The first, while not as compelling a reason as a year ago, is compatibility. HDV was the first consumer HD format and is almost universally supported by just about every video editing software package released over the last three to four years. In addition the HV40 can also shoot in the older standard definition DV format, a format so old that even software and hardware from ten years ago can work with the footage.

Another factor to consider is the firewire port. Want to record directly to your PC or Mac? Or perhaps do a live broadcast to UStream or Stickam? HDV cameras like the HV40 stream compressed video in realtime over Firewire, something the AVCHD cameras don't do.

Still, Canon's AVCHD cameras are now recording at a higher bitrate and with a more advanced video compression algorithm that makes for better image quality. Canon's flash based cameras, like the outstanding VIXIA HFS100, are mostly solid state and lack the complex (and delicate) machinery of a tape-based camcorder like the HV40.

**CONCLUSION**

Canon's HV20 was a very mature product right at launch and that maturity continues in this iteration. Still, there's nothing so compelling in the HV40 that makes it a necessary upgrade for HV30 or HV20 owners. For first time buyers, if you're able to pick up an older model at a lower price you won't be making much of a sacrifice in terms of features. It's a great camera, just not any greater than the prior versions!

For most consumers HDV cameras are old technology. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the HV40 is the last tape-based camcorder Canon releases to market. AVCHD has matured to the point that I am now recommending that to friends over HDV based cameras. AVCHD's lack of moving parts combined with the very low cost of flash memory makes it tough to recommend the bulkier mechanical alternatives like the HV40.

If, however, you're using an older computer or need to stream video live the HV40 is one of the best (if not the best) HDV consumer cameras on the market.

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Ikelite Underwater Camera Housing for the Sony DSC-W5 and DSC-W7

Customer Ratings:

I had a sony DSC-w7 camera already. This housing is pricey at $270, but the cost of buying a new camera with housing was just as much or more.

The housing allows full control of all camera features and buttons and is expandable with Ikelite strobes and lenses (filters, macro, and wide angle), so it leaves plenty of room for expansion. The housing is big, compared to some of the housings that you buy with specific cameras, but the bulk is nice for getting a good grip (especially with 5 mm gloves, necessary for Northern California diving).

All in all, it's a great housing if you already own the camera!

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Nikon COOLPIX P330 12.2 MP Digital Camera with 5x Zoom (White)

Customer Ratings:

Just a few thoughts after a week of limited use.

I wanted a point & shoot camera that would fit in my pocket to carry at all times. I am a pro photographer but don't want always to be hauling a bag of heavy DSLR's around. But the camera had to have the following:-

1. Small and well made.

2. 24mm equivalent lens at the short end. Didn't care much about the tele end so 120mm was more than enough for my needs.

3. Need WiFi connection so could fire and view what camera was seeing from my cell phone or tablet.

4. Needed RAW file format.

5. GPS nice addition but not the most important thing for me I could live without it.

Well the P330 has all the above and I can tell you that can be hard to find in a small point and shoot (I consider the Canon G15 too big and besides I have a G11).

Noise levels seem low at 400 ASA I have not tested at higher ISO's but hardly ever use them. In Photoshop CS6 the noise in a blue sky looked good and with noise reduction applied it then just about disappeared. I have the noise set to LOW in the camera as didn't want to softern the image although that may not happen with this camera. There is a LOW, MEDIUM and HIGH setting for noise.

I found setting the aperture hard to figure out as I kept mis-reading the book. In Apperture Priority or Manual the aperture is set by turning the 4 way controler on the back of the camera and I was pressing different sides of this wheel.

The ON/OFF button is flush with the top of the camera body so it is best to turn on or off the camera by using a finger nail tip rather than the pad of the finger. It is designed this way (I guess) to stop the camera being accidently turned on or off during use.

Images seem sharp and what you see on the view finder (no viewfind eyepeice) is what you get as far as exposure goes.

I put a 64GB SanDisk 45MB/sec card in it and that works fine. Thats about all I can contribute for now. I am sure more detailed reviews will appear shortly. But I'm happy with this well made and good looking camera.

Oh, I do have one issue with Nikon. There appears to be only the limited VIEW NX2 software (that came on CD with the camera) to convert the cameras RAW files (NRW format, not NEF) into TIFF or JPEG. I think Nikon could have updated CAPTURE to co-inside with this camera launch. It does not even appear to be included in the next Adobe Camera RAW conversion update for Photoshop. Too many RAW formats nobody can keep up apparently even the camera manufactures. That's as of today April 2, 2013.

Correction: As of today April 4, 2013 Adobe have just released Camera RAW update 7.4 and included the NRW format used by the Nikon P330yea!!! It appears to see the camera as the Nikon P6000 but looks to be making the corrections OK. My earlier information was incorrect. Life just got a whole lot better for NRW shooters, which is the only way to go for serious picture takers. JPG's are fine for snapshots.

New Update June 14, 2013: Adobe just added the P330 to their ACR lens corrections a few days ago (around 6/7/2013). I took the camera to Thailand and used it daily where it replaced DLSR's and tripod some days unless I was planning something serious. I set the ISO to Auto, something I would not do for serious photography but liked the results better than flash, which is unpredictable for quick pickup and shoot pics. I know many would disagree and that's OK but as a pro I find I have to take several shots before the flash lights the subject just right, unless you get lucky. I have a very high regard for this little dude. Of couse it's not perfect what is?. It may not be your personal first choice but with its W/A lens (24mm on 35mm camera) and slips into pocket unnoticed, I'm just glad I laid my money down.

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Sony 50mm f/2.8 Macro Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Camera

Customer Ratings:

The Sony 50mm f/2.8 Macro lens is one of the best lenses you will ever put in your camera's mount.

I will provide the pros and cons of this lens along with my experience with it.

What most people want to know right now is whether this lens is sharp, it is. You could cut cheese bars with how sharp it is.

The fast aperture of f/2.8 allows you to use aperture to isolate your subject from the background or use it when you work under low light. It closes down to f/32.

This lens gives you a reproduction ratio from 1:4 to 1:1, that 1:1 ratio is the one that will let you take pictures of bugs or tiny things and make them look big enough on the picture with enough detail resolved to let you crop if you need to.

It's common belief that a macro lens works wonders for macros but not for normal shooting, such as portraits or landscapes. This is not true, you can use macro lenses for both purposes with excellent results. Especially from this lens.

The focal length of 50mm applies to full frame cameras (A900/850), in APS-C cameras (from the A100 up to the A700) it will yield a focal length of 75mm, which it may be an odd length to use since it borderlines on telephoto. It's not really a problem when shoooting up close but if you shoot portraits or landscapes, you may need to take a few steps back to compose, depending on what you want to display in the image.

This lens has a metal mount, a DOF scale which let's you determine how much of the subject in front of you will be in focus depending on the subject's distance and the aperture used. Something to keep in mind here: 1: The scale is tuned for Full Frame, not APS-C, and the scale is set to show in focus subjects at f/16 and f/32. Unless you shoot frequently at these apertures going for maximum depth of field, I don't think you'll find this scale useful. The best thing you could do is to look at your optical or electronical view finders (for all those new A33/55 users out there) and engage the DOF preview button (if your camera has the option) to check how much of the image will be in focus at the selected aperture. For those of you with no DOF preview option, my advice is to shoot at different apertures and get familiar with how much in focus things get when using small apertures or how less things in focus you have at wide apertures.

At f/2.8 the lens has a shallow DOF, however, wherever you set the focus point, it will be real sharp, the rest of the image will be fuzzy if you look at detail at 100% magnification (a.k.a pixel peeping) but this is normal, shallow DOF yields few things in focus. Closing down the lens makes things sharp all over the plane. The best sharpness can be obtained at around f/5.6 and f/8, beyond that things won't change too much.

A handy feature this lens has is a focus limiter switch. The switch lets you use the whole focusing range of the lens or limit it at a range you chose so it won't go beyond that while trying to focus. If you're shooting landscapes or portraits, you don't need to go beyond 1:4 magnification and if you are shooting macros at 1:1 or 1:2, the last thing you need is the lens to go at 1:4. This speeds things up when focusing, either manually or automatically.

The lens has a focus hold button, which helps you to retain focus where you set it if you're using AF instead of having the camera look for focus again. In the A100/700/850/900 you can set this button to work as DOF preview instead of using the camera's button. For some, this will be more comfortable ,so it's a handy option as well. I don't know for sure, but I assume this will also work with the new A33/55/560/580 since those have DOF preview buttons too.

The lens is mostly build of plastic, but it doesn't have a cheap feel. It's solidly built. I would just advice to be careful with the filter threads, because those are plastic too, and if you use filters or special add-ons for macro lenses, you could wear them off with frequent use. Maybe a step-up or step-down ring will be a good idea to attach to the lens and use the threads of the ring to mount filters or other things. The thread size is 55mm.

This lens doesn't have a hood, but it doesn't need it. By design, the front element is deeply recessed into the lens, be it completely drawn in or completely extended, so there is no need for a hood. If you need one, use your hand to block light rays.

The focusing ring is wide and has a good grip, unfortunately it carries the same ribbed grip that all Sony lenses carry which is a dirt magnet and hard to clean. I wish Sony dropped this and used the smooth rubbery grips Minolta used to have or the Tamron ones.

The lens focuses real fast thanks to the wide aperture it possesses. However, be careful. When using the lens for portraits or landscapes, focusing won't be a problem, the AF mechanism will do it fast and swiftly. Where it may get annoying is when using it for macro and close up shots.

The focusing axiom you need to know and always remember when shooting macros or close ups is: The closer you are to your subject, the more careful you got to be with distances, in some cases, if you move just 1 mm, you will lose focus completely.

If you think this is exaggerated, try to shoot flowers or something really small while using manual focus and breathing. You'll see that as you breathe, the subject goes from focus to out of focus.

Therefore, you shouldn't expect this lens and camera to *know exactly* where you want to focus when shooting up real close, because there is no way they will know. You can AF at 1:1 magnification, but most of the time it will make the lens hunt for focus and go all the focusing range. Also keep in mind that the closer you are, the more focusing points the camera has to choose, so you can drive the AF nuts with this.

The best way to use this lens when doing macro, is to focus manually. That will ensure you will focus on the right exact spot you want without waiting for the camera to figure out where you want it to focus. Like I said, you can use AF with it, but the lens will be prone to hunt for focus a lot, THIS IS NOT A LENS OR CAMERA MALFUNCTION. It's just the laws of optics and photography.

If you really insist on using AF with this lens, I suggest you use spot focusing and select a focusing sensor so the camera will focus with only that one, I suggest using the central sensor.

One thing you need to determine if you're considering this lens is if you will be shooting near and static subjects or subjects that will let you get close or if you're going to need to shoot from a distance and you can't get close. If you choose the first option, then this lens is for you, if you chose the latter, then I suggest you give a look to the Sony 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens or third party options, like the Sigma 105mm Macro or the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro lenses. Why do I bring this up? Because if you're shooting things from a distance, this lens won't give you enough reach. I've gone through this before where I want to shoot things I can't get close to like dragonflies but I can't reach them as I want to because the lens just doesn't have enough length for it. There are several options for the Alpha mount of macro lenses which will give you reach for far subjects, but if you don't really need it, then go for this option. If I recall correctly, this lens is a bit sharper and has more contrast than it's 100mm brother.

The colors and contrast yielded by this lens are superb, images will have a color punch that Canon and Nikon users crave for but can't get from their system.

Aside from the possible short reach of this lens, the other con I can think of is the sound it makes when focusing, while it's not loud like a zoom, it does have a sort of loud deep noise when it focuses. For situations you need it to be silent, you're better focusing manually. But will all due honesty, this is nit picking.

This lens will open up worlds you never knew that existed at distances you could only dream of when using a kit lens. There is a difference between being close and being CLOSE.

If there is one lens that will not disappoint you and be versatile for macros, close ups, portraits, landscapes and whatever else you can think of (except shooting at long distances), is this lens.

I strongly suggest you look the review done by Kurt Munger of this lens, it will provide other technical information I may have missed to mention.

Price wise, it may be a bit expensive, but it's worth every penny. Unless you really need the reach, look into the other options I mentioned, just be aware that price may increase from this price point.

Otherwise, take the plunge now and treat yourself to a wonderful lens.

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Tamrac 5552 Black SpeedRoller 2 Rolling Photo/Laptop Case (Black)

Customer Ratings:

Great design, suitable for air travel and most overhead storage. The rolling wheels are well balanced and roll smooth. The 'laptop' area is not very well padded and rather large good for just bringing the laptop from point a to point b, though I wouldn't check the bag or store for long term with the laptop in there. Material seems to be durable, the extendable handle is sturdy and collapses smooth. Would definitely recommend.

Photo of my gear in the bag:

After going through a few bags over the years, this is probably my most favorite. Though not a replacement for a backpack if you plan to hike this is definitely great for keeping in your car, moving from job to job, traveling, and general storage.

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10 x Lot CR123A 123A Lithium Camera Battery - 3 Volt

Customer Ratings:

CR123A batteries are expensive, but these are very reasonable. I have not used one of these all the way through yet, but upon initial use, these batteries seem the same as the expensive ones. Only down side is that the shipping cost of one lot of 10 cost as much as the batteries themselves, but still they are cheaper than buying 10 at the neighborhood store.

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LaCie d2 USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series 4TB External Hard Drive

Customer Ratings:

LaCie's 3TB Thunderbolt/USB3 drive has very easy and clear setup utilities. I plugged it into a new iMac, using the included Thunderbolt cable, and the setup utility came up right away. They offer options to partition with shared Windows and Mac formatting, or all Windows, or all Mac. I decided to have 250 GB with Windows format and 2750 GB with Mac format -since I sometimes run Windows 8 using VMWare and it will be handy to access the Windows partition to share more files between Mac and Windows. The big Mac partition is used as an alternate drive for Time Machine backups, saving multiple virtual hard drives for running different OSs in VMWare, manual backups for Lightroom, and a scratch drive for Photoshop.

The setup utility also offers an option to install (1) LaCie's backup utility, (2) a utility that enables you to access encrypted drive content from anywhere on the Internet, and (3) an encryption utility. The utilities are also available if you use a Windows machine. All of the utilities and the drive itself have good documentation in multiple languages, with the option to access up-to-date documentation from LaCie's site on the web. I decided to skip the backup utility, since Time Machine does a good job for what I need, and OS X 10.8 allows Time Machine to use two drives and alternate backups.

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New Canon EOS 60D DSLR Camera with 3 Canon Lens Pro Pack:

Customer Ratings:

Everything came as expected, great buy. I won't give it 5 stars because they use the image of a Trascend SD Memory Card but the one that came with the bundle was not Trascend, it was from an unrecognized trademark. Everything else was pretty amazing.

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Korg microKorg 37-Key Analog Modeling Synthesizer with Vocoder

Customer Ratings:

I have another video review for the Korg M50 61 Key Synthesizer Workstation which is similar to this video review so feel free to check it out if you get chance.

I purchased the microkorg more for the vocoder than the soft-synth but I have to say that both elements are equally stunning. Now this video review of the MicroKorg only covers the very basics think of it as an overview from someone who has had enough time to play with the keyboard, but has yet to fully get into the deep side of the programming. I haven't even skimmed the surface of what this keyboard can do in terms of sound and versatility.

The synth sounds themselves are amazing as you will hear from the video, and that's despite me using the camera's onboard mic to record. And the vocoder is every ELO fan's dream!

Really for the price there's nothing on the market and it should be in every keyboard musician's toolkit, whether you're a studio performer or a live player. I feel that even the 'sequel' to the MicroKorg, the MicroKorg XL,is less useful as it relies more on connection with a computer than hands-on in the field programming that the MicroKorg can do.

Anyway have a look at the video and see what you think. Personally I love it!

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Lilliput 7-inch LCD monitor with HDMI, YPbPr interface

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $261.04
Sale Price: $170.10
Today's Bonus: 35% Off

I read a positive review on this monitor for use with DSLRs, and since it is priced so well, I had to try it. First of all, the company ships (at least my monitor) form Southern California, which is where I live. So I ordered the monitor on a Wednesday and it arrived the next day! I've been playing with it non stop since I got it. I think this monitor is perfect for anyone looking to expand their video production capabilities. I had a hard time keeping focus during a lot of movement/live events with the little 3" monitor on the 7d, and I've never been a viewfinder type of shooter. This 7" is the cure for that. My immediate reaction was "Marshall who?" There is virtually no reason to spend as much as $1600 on a field monitor when you can get this for $200. I messed with the settings a little to get the brightness to match the canon lcd, but I really didn't even need to do that. I am simply using this to better compose and focus shots. I'll update if I find any negative issues, but for now, I'mm still in new purchase afterglow, so it gets all 5 stars from me.

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Tokina AT-X 100mm 2.8 AF Macro lens for Konica Minolta Maxxum

Customer Ratings:

I am new to photography but dove head first into macro photography. The Tokina AT-X 100mm for Minolta is my first dedicated macro lens I bought.

I can't really get into the specs and how they compare to other lenses, there are many online reviews to get into that, but this is my opinion so far:

1. Durable. The lens is heavy and feels like you could run it over a few times without any issues. (Though I would not suggest it) I bet this lens will outlive me.

2. Nice crisp pictures. I have a few lenses.. This one has the best quality of all the lenses I have. It's hard to compare what it can and can't do, so I posted a few of the pictures I took with this lens on my Sony A390

3. Affordable. If you do some hunting around on other 100mm macro lenses, you'll finds it hard to beat the price. I got mines at 265.00

4. The working distance of 100mm has been great for me. Last lenses I had I was almost hitting the bugs with my lens.... the 100mm allows for distance. Much needed for skittish bugs.

The downside?

This one is pretty big for me. I did a lot of research for the Tokina AT-X 100mm. It had very high praise but I could not find any reviews for the Minolta specific lens. All other reviews I read said the Macro lens was 1:1 so I took those reviews as being the same for the Minolta version.

It wasn't until I received it that I realized the Minolta version was a 1:2 macro.

I still love the lens but after all that research I really thought this was going to be a 1:1 macro. Once again this is a 1:2

So price wise I think you can compare this to the older Sigma 90mm which is also a 1:2.

Still the best lens I have in my arsenal though. Well worth the price.

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Canon EOS Rebel T3i 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera w/ 18-55mm IS

Customer Ratings:

The package came with everything it said. Nevertheless, I think the quality of some of the items was pretty disappointing, for instance the two additional lenses, which are completely useless, and the bag, that's not good either. Everyhitng else is great!

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Kindle Fire HD 8.9" Tablet

Customer Ratings:

Let me start out by saying that I am new to the tablet world and have had no experience using any tablets prior to this purchase. That being said, I spent a great deal of time fishing around through reviews and specs of what seemed like countless tablets for months. The obvious cliche conclusion led to all fingers pointing at some variation of an iPad, yet for me, I do not see much sense in purchasing a tablet (regardless of brand) for around the same price as a cheap yet descent laptop that will have more potential.

Enter the Kindle Fire HD.

I will spare you the story on my process of how I ended up choosing a Fire HD and get right to what you all want to know: my thoughts and experience thus far with the product.

Picture: (10/10)

I will start with this since obviously that was the first thing i noticed. In a word, incredible. Now its not "eye popping" or anything out of this world, but i can honestly say it exceeded my expectations and i was (and continue to be) impressed by this piece of hardware's capabilities. I tested out just a few minutes of TV shows, trailers, videos, and films from Prime Instant Video, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Flixster, and Youtube (through the web browser since an app is currently unavailable) and everything looks as it should (and beautiful to boot)! Books come out crisp as well (both in text and picture) and the same goes for basic website visuals, apps, and games. Overall I am very impressed.

Sound: (10/10)

This is probably where i was most impressed. I have seen some of the reviews on here that are 3 stars or less putting down the audio or claiming they don't hear the big deal. Not to be a jerk or anything but i recommend those people check in at an ear clinic and have their hearing tested. I was literally amazed at how I was hearing sounds from various distances and angles. From up close it felt like i was hearing a high quality home theater system and not just for one flick but everything. From website audio to music, Netflix to Audiobooks, this tablet sounds great!

Book/Reading Features: (10/10)

At first this was not my primary reason for purchasing a Fire HD, but after toying around with a few things, I am truly impressed at how well Amazon has integrated the ability to find, purchase, read, and even listen to literature. The lending library for Prime users is a nice added touch allowing you to borrow from a rather extensive list of books. Not to mention many timeless classics are available for free (such as Dracula, Gulliver's Travels, Little Women, The Iliad, The Jungle Book and many more) and of those titles, many come with free audio! If you do not feel like spending the money on audio (or if your book has none available) the text-to-speech feature is surprisingly well done with minimal error. With all this being said, I can honestly say that I am excited to start reading again.

Web Browsing: (8/10)

The only reason I do not give this a 10 is because web browsing (with what is given out of the box) lacks Flash support which limits the capabilities. However, with a bit of research I was able to find forum discussions on how Fire HD users were able to work around this by downloading an app called ES File Explorer and then a separate browser called Dolphin that gives you Flash capabilities, so this is an easy fix that even a monkey could figure out how to do as long as they are patient. Though don't get me wrong, Silk is fast and beautiful and i use it for the majority of my web surfing, but occasionally Flash is needed. As I am sure you have read by now in other reviews, the fact that the Fire HD does not automatically come with Flash support is not Amazon's fault yet rather Adobe for pulling he plug on their involvement with tablets. Again, as long as your network is put together well, browsing the web is very fast and up to par with dare I say some computers.

App Availability: (8/10)

To me, this is the only area where the Fire HD lacks. I would rate lower here but I am trusting that over time and after updates, the lineup will have grown. Once more, with a bit of research you can find discussions on how to "sideload" apps from your computer and other devices, but that could be a bit too advanced for the average user. Though for what it is worth, the selection it does currently come with is top notch. Just to name a few, some important missing apps include: YouTube, Dropbox, and SiriusXM. Still, as far as I am concerned, this certainly is not a deal breaker and I am sure that as things progress access to these will become available.

Look/Feel: (10/10)

The 8.9" model that I own and am currently reviewing was a lot lighter than I expected and it is true what they say ( it is just right to fit in one hand). Out of the box/pre-case the Fire HD looks great and is very thin, sleek, and dare I say...sexy? The only minor gripe I would have (that I noticed other reviewers mentioned) is the volume and power buttons are sometimes hard to find and do not always register, but after a while you get use to it. Aside from that, I love how it appears and functions.

Overall: (56/60)

There are a few things that by now you may know, such as how out of the box the Fire HD does not come with a wall charger. I know that is a bummer but if you don't already have one roaming around your house from a smartphone or if you cannot tolerate simply charging from your computer, Amazon sells them at a fairly reasonable price.

Bottom line? I have purchased over 500 items on Amazon and I rarely feel the need to review a product, but I genuinely felt my voice needed to be heard ( or read rather) with the Kindle Fire HD 8.9. I strongly recommend purchasing this product and if you have any questions, feel free to comment and hopefully either me or someone else can assist you!

P.S. This took me forever to type on the Fire HD but it was good practice and hopefully worth it!

I would highly recommend a screen protector and a case

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