Great color. Easy to use. Manual is online. Takes crisp photos and the zoom works well. Be sure to buy Lithium Batteries and a larger SD card. You will want to keep these pictures!
Showing posts with label digital camera for underwater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digital camera for underwater. Show all posts
Logitech Wireless Presenter R400
List Price: $49.99
Sale Price: $34.99
Today's Bonus: 30% Off
Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Anyone looking for a solid, easy to use wireless presenter will be more than pleased with the R400.
From an ergonomics perspective I think it is, as Goldilocks would say. "just right". Some of the smaller presenters often require a lot of fidgeting. At the same time, you do not want to be holding a brick in your hand when standing in front of an audience. This unit is large enough to be easy to use, small enough to be discrete. The rubberized surface helps ensure it will not go flying due to an over-zealous hand gesture.
Set up is very easy, plug the dongle into a laptop and you are ready to go. I have used this on a variety of laptops and it has always worked flawlessly.
If you are a facilitator or do a lot of presentations, you should consider the upgrade to the R800. Once you adopt the practice of using a vibrating timer, you will never want to be without this feature. Likewise, the more powerful laser on the R800 makes a big difference in large or bright rooms. The R400 is a good choice for 75% of presenters, but at least look at the 800 before making your final choice. You can not go wrong with either.
Yamaha CD-C600BL 5-Disc CD Changer (Black)
List Price: $379.95
Sale Price: $318.99
Today's Bonus: 16% Off
Bought the Yamaha CD-C600BL as a replacement for currently offered Denon DCM-390 5-Disc changer which I listened to everyday for 2 years. The Denon, while excellent, is bested by this Yamaha in most ways. However, the differences in sound quality between these two players, while discernible, are less than 5% according to my ears. That being said, I would characterize the Yamaha as being fuller in the bass and smoother in the vocals and highs than the Denon. Additionally I would say the Yamaha has slightly better timing and cohesion of sound staging. The only thing the Denon has going for it that the Yamaha doesn't is the HDCD decoder which isn't a big deal because few discs are recorded with the HDCD embedded code that allows a 20-bit resolution playback.
My office stereo system is a pair of Wharfedale Diamond Standmount speakers, with a Yamaha RX-797 100watt receiver with high quality interconnects & bi-wired speaker cable. I play jazz, new age, pop, vocals, etc all day long as I am a massage therapist. When you listen to music all day long as I do, that 5% difference in sound quality makes a big difference in taking the edge off listening fatigue--I really appreciate it.
Functionally, the Yamaha's changing mechanism is faster, quieter, and more graceful changing discs than the Denon. I disagree with one reviewer who thinks this player is slow. All the 5 Disc changers are sloooooow. This one is relatively fast in my estimation. The Yamaha remote could be a little better: The disc skip and the track skip are quite a distance apart and the labeling is small for my 46 yr. old eyes.
The really, really, big deal about this Yamaha is the front panel MP3 player USB port! This was the feature that sold me. I can load 300 cd's converted to MP3's loss-less format onto my iPod Nano (16Gigabytes) and enjoy a cd quality playback without ever having to change a single cd in the changer. The Yamaha takes the data from the Ipod without using the Ipod's inferior DAC/amp/preamp circuits and uses instead the cd player's superior DAC (digital-to-analog converter)for playback. The Ipod is fully a high fidelity component in my system! My how times are a changing.
This piece of equipment is a delight at the Amazon price. I got it sent overnight for a mere $4 shipping upgrade with Amazon's free 30-day trial offer: Free second-day-air-for-a-year-program for $70 per year. Heck, the clerk at FedX told me it would have cost approximately $100 to overnight this shipment. I got my money's worth in the first shipment so now it's free 2nd day air for a whole year anytime I order through Amazon. What a bargain! I'm thrilled all the way around. I highly recommended this Yamaha CD player and Amazon. Thank you Yamaha!
Casio WQV3D-8BNDL Camera Wrist Watch
I'll admit it up front: the camera watch is tons of cool, but it's expensive and you may not use it as much as you'd think. Of course, it's a watch with alarms, so at least you are not spending your hard-earned money on a gadget you would use only once every 6 months. As a watch it's pretty basic and accurate, but also pretty large, so if you have small wrists, this product will look ridiculous and ridiculously bulky on you. In other words, this is a gadget for grown men with big wrists.
Of course, the reason you'd buy this product is the built-in digital camera, which sports a resolution of 120x120. This isn't much in today's world with 6 megapixel cameras, but we are not talking a professional camera here, or even a prosumer one. 120x120 is not too bad when you remember that most webcams have native resolutions of about 170x140, so this is just a bit less refined than webcams, in a package 1/5 the size or smaller. You can take up to 100 pictures, which you'd then transfer via the built-in IR to a PC. Unfortunately, you'll need to buy a separate IR sensor and upload software kit to do this, although some online shops give this away for free.
How's the image quality? Obviously you have to keep your expectations reasonable. After all, this is a cool gadget, not the digital camera to bring when you go on exotic trips. You need plenty of light, I think it's rated at 100 lux minimum. You also need to learn not to move the watch when you press the shutter button, or the picture will come out blurry. It's a focus-free camera, so everything will be in focus as long as you are at least 1 foot away from the subject (or is it object?). Finally, be sure not to take pictures of people from an angle that's too low, because most of us don't look great with our chin in the most prominent part of the picture.
Since it doesn't have flash, you can rule out taking pictures in a bar or club; besides, do you really want to snap the moment when you are drunk and look ridiculous? Not really, in my experience. So you'll probably use the camera only occasionally. For me, I caught a few heart-breaking moments on mine on Sept. 11, when the World Trade Center collapsed. Those blurry pictures caught the frenzy moment of a country in crisis, as well as the heroic efforts of New York's bravest and finest. Of course, you can't (and don't want to) expect to run into crises like this, so you can probably use the camera to spy on that cutie in your office (don't over do it!), or catch your friends in awkward manners (and risk losing their friendship!). Anyway, you can be creative, and that's what's ultimately cool about this gadget which you can carry everywhere, even in bed.
Of course, the reason you'd buy this product is the built-in digital camera, which sports a resolution of 120x120. This isn't much in today's world with 6 megapixel cameras, but we are not talking a professional camera here, or even a prosumer one. 120x120 is not too bad when you remember that most webcams have native resolutions of about 170x140, so this is just a bit less refined than webcams, in a package 1/5 the size or smaller. You can take up to 100 pictures, which you'd then transfer via the built-in IR to a PC. Unfortunately, you'll need to buy a separate IR sensor and upload software kit to do this, although some online shops give this away for free.
How's the image quality? Obviously you have to keep your expectations reasonable. After all, this is a cool gadget, not the digital camera to bring when you go on exotic trips. You need plenty of light, I think it's rated at 100 lux minimum. You also need to learn not to move the watch when you press the shutter button, or the picture will come out blurry. It's a focus-free camera, so everything will be in focus as long as you are at least 1 foot away from the subject (or is it object?). Finally, be sure not to take pictures of people from an angle that's too low, because most of us don't look great with our chin in the most prominent part of the picture.
Since it doesn't have flash, you can rule out taking pictures in a bar or club; besides, do you really want to snap the moment when you are drunk and look ridiculous? Not really, in my experience. So you'll probably use the camera only occasionally. For me, I caught a few heart-breaking moments on mine on Sept. 11, when the World Trade Center collapsed. Those blurry pictures caught the frenzy moment of a country in crisis, as well as the heroic efforts of New York's bravest and finest. Of course, you can't (and don't want to) expect to run into crises like this, so you can probably use the camera to spy on that cutie in your office (don't over do it!), or catch your friends in awkward manners (and risk losing their friendship!). Anyway, you can be creative, and that's what's ultimately cool about this gadget which you can carry everywhere, even in bed.
Rokinon 85M-P 85mm F1.4 Aspherical Lens for Pentax (Black)
List Price: $349.00
Sale Price: $249.00
Today's Bonus: 29% Off
Pros:
Image quality from wide open
Bokeh
Handling
Construction quality
Value
Video use
Cons:
Image quality doesn't improve a lot stopping down the aperture
Included 72mm lens cap is junk
Hood not positive feeling
Focusing at 85mm f/1.4 is difficult
About 1/3rd stop darker than my other 85mm lenses
Bottom Line:
Buy this lens now if you want a superb manual focus long portrait lens of modern design and don't want to empty your pocket book. It performs like a name brand 85mm f/1.4 at a fraction the price. You must be proficient with manual focus to use this lens at f/1.4 (or be willing to learn).
Review:
The lens produces nice usable portraits from wide open. There is a pleasing softness too it, but the eyes appear nice and sharp and the bokeh transitions are smooth. Specular highlights in the bokeh are smooth and fairly uniform with minimal rings or donuts. The modern aspherical lens design takes care of most spherical aberration. I bought this lens solely for f/1.4-f/5.6 usage. If I want to use the f/4+ range I will use my f/4 zoom, so wide open performance of the 85mm was critical too me, otherwise it added nothing over my slower zoom. I would not be afraid to use this lens at f/1.4 for portraits.
Wide open it does show a small amount of purple fringing around very high contrast subjects, but it almost has to be blown out next to a darker object for it to be noticeable. The lens also has your typical green/red chromatic aberrations (CA) visible in the bokeh, which I think is longitudinal CA. This is actually fairly typical of large aperture lenses, even good lenses. It is generally not intrusive. The lens is also a tad darker than my other 85mm lenses, maybe 1/3rd f/stop.
Focus is critical at 85mm f/1.4 as the depth of field is shallow, and most dSLR focus screens are designed to focus for f/4. I think the one in my K-7 is a bit better but still doesn't show the true DOF at f/1.4, so it is impossible to focus totally precisely less than f/2 or so, but with practice you can get really close. Also, for slower subjects live view is useful. The focus feel of the lens is excellent with a heavily weighted focus ring that feels high quality.
Lens construction is equivalent to any Canon L lens or Pentax DA*. It is a metal body at the base with a quality feeling plastic focus ring/upper body (this feels like the Plastic in DA* or Canon L lenses). The only part that feels cheap is the rear lens cap, the front lens cap, and the hood. At least they only cut costs with the non-critical items.
This will make an excellent manual focus video lens too, because of the pleasing bokeh wide open and the shallow depth of field. This is one of the reasons I wanted the good bokeh wide open.
Overall, this is a great lens for a superb price. The maker is Samyang, but it is sold under the Vivitar, Opteka, Bower, Rokinon, Polar, and other names. Image quality is supposedly the same between any make, but accessories might differ depending on what the brand wants to include with the lens. The Vivitar Series 1 lens has a slightly different look to it.
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM SLR Lens for EOS Digital SLRs
My take on this lens is that it is an "L" quality optic in a fine, non "L" package. There is nothing else on the market to compete with it (nothing at all), and it produces supurb images. It isn't an f/2.8 lens, but it is close enough for most uses. The competition from Tamron is a full stop slower, not as sharp, and is awful in dim light compared to the Canon 10-22 lens (sorry, Tamron fans, but the Tamron lens isn't even playing in the same ballpark).
I use this lens on a 30D body, and I always keep it on hand if I'm doing any indoor, or tight group photography. It is the perfect solution to the perennial problem of not having enough room to capture all the kids at a birthday party in one shot because your back is up against a wall. This lens will just about get your toes into the picture at the widest setting, yet delivers tack sharp, colorful, and contrasty images. The auto focus is spot on, silent, and fast. It is a must have lens for the active amateur, or any pro using a 1.6 crop factor camera. You simply can't beat this lens with anything available on the market today.
That beng said, do not try to convince yourself that this will make a good "walkaround" lens. It isn't. Even at max length, it is far too short to live on your camera as a standard lens. You need this lens, even if you don't know it yet, but it should not be your first lens, as it will only be used 15 to 20 percent of the time. At those times, it's performance simply cannot be equaled by any other zoom lens on a 1.6 crop factor camera. You will be amazed by the quality of this lens. It rivals the performance of modern prime lenses, presents a bright viewfinder image, and delivers the goods in tight situations.
This is not a casual assessment, nor a Canon "feel good" moment on my part. I developed my first B&W contact prints in 1964, in my own darkroom at the age of 9 (my parents were concerned:)), and have been an avid photographer ever since. Small, medium, and large format cameras and lenses have passed through my hands over the years, and Canon has become my favorite small format brand. Still, Canon builds some trash lenses that should be avoided. The 10-22 USM is not one of them :).
Before you go out and buy this lens, you should already own the EF-S 17-55mm IS f/2.8 lens. That is the king of 1.6 crop factor standard lenses, and includes the awesome Canon IS feature. It will end up being mounted on your camera 80% of the time, and keep you smiling after every shoot. Get that lens first. Then, get the 10-22mm lens. Then, let your imagination run wild, and plan on serious telephoto lenses for the future. Trust me or not, the two lenses mentioned above will provide you with photographic tools that will astound you. Get them in your kit as soon as you can afford them.
A little warning about either lens.... Some here will argue the point, but with either lens, get a GOOD quality UV filter that is multi-coated on both sides, and built extra thin to avoid vignetting at wide lens settings. A good filter will cost a little less than one hundred Dollars, and can cost up to one hundred forty Dollars. The minimum brand would be Hoya Pro 1 multi coated filters, and the ante goes up from there.
Everything else is garbage, including the Canon "sharp cut" filter that costs less than fifty bucks. No kidding, no conjecture. If you use cheap filters, you will never see what your lens can really do. Ever. No doubt that many will respond with claims that their twenty Dollar filter works just fine, but they simply don't know any better, and have never used their expensive equipment to it's full potential. It's akin to a Chevy owner passing judgement on a Mercedes Benz. The Chevy might feel real good, but until you own the Mercedes, you just have no clue.
Bottom line.... Make sure that the quality of your filters exceed the quality of your lenses. Yes, at a hundred bucks a pop for a 77mm filter, it hurts, but you will never regret it. Also, Amazon does not stock lens hoods for all non L Canon lenses. The price is stupid high for those hoods, but they make a night and day difference in in picture quality. Whenever you order a non L Canon lens, find a web seller who has the hood in stock, and get it right now. Again, you will never regret owning it.
That's it for my review/rant. Buy this lens. Buy the 17-55 IS f/2,8 first. Buy the lens hoods for both. Toss any "kit" lenses that came with the camera in the trash bin (where they belong), and be very happy.
I use this lens on a 30D body, and I always keep it on hand if I'm doing any indoor, or tight group photography. It is the perfect solution to the perennial problem of not having enough room to capture all the kids at a birthday party in one shot because your back is up against a wall. This lens will just about get your toes into the picture at the widest setting, yet delivers tack sharp, colorful, and contrasty images. The auto focus is spot on, silent, and fast. It is a must have lens for the active amateur, or any pro using a 1.6 crop factor camera. You simply can't beat this lens with anything available on the market today.
That beng said, do not try to convince yourself that this will make a good "walkaround" lens. It isn't. Even at max length, it is far too short to live on your camera as a standard lens. You need this lens, even if you don't know it yet, but it should not be your first lens, as it will only be used 15 to 20 percent of the time. At those times, it's performance simply cannot be equaled by any other zoom lens on a 1.6 crop factor camera. You will be amazed by the quality of this lens. It rivals the performance of modern prime lenses, presents a bright viewfinder image, and delivers the goods in tight situations.
This is not a casual assessment, nor a Canon "feel good" moment on my part. I developed my first B&W contact prints in 1964, in my own darkroom at the age of 9 (my parents were concerned:)), and have been an avid photographer ever since. Small, medium, and large format cameras and lenses have passed through my hands over the years, and Canon has become my favorite small format brand. Still, Canon builds some trash lenses that should be avoided. The 10-22 USM is not one of them :).
Before you go out and buy this lens, you should already own the EF-S 17-55mm IS f/2.8 lens. That is the king of 1.6 crop factor standard lenses, and includes the awesome Canon IS feature. It will end up being mounted on your camera 80% of the time, and keep you smiling after every shoot. Get that lens first. Then, get the 10-22mm lens. Then, let your imagination run wild, and plan on serious telephoto lenses for the future. Trust me or not, the two lenses mentioned above will provide you with photographic tools that will astound you. Get them in your kit as soon as you can afford them.
A little warning about either lens.... Some here will argue the point, but with either lens, get a GOOD quality UV filter that is multi-coated on both sides, and built extra thin to avoid vignetting at wide lens settings. A good filter will cost a little less than one hundred Dollars, and can cost up to one hundred forty Dollars. The minimum brand would be Hoya Pro 1 multi coated filters, and the ante goes up from there.
Everything else is garbage, including the Canon "sharp cut" filter that costs less than fifty bucks. No kidding, no conjecture. If you use cheap filters, you will never see what your lens can really do. Ever. No doubt that many will respond with claims that their twenty Dollar filter works just fine, but they simply don't know any better, and have never used their expensive equipment to it's full potential. It's akin to a Chevy owner passing judgement on a Mercedes Benz. The Chevy might feel real good, but until you own the Mercedes, you just have no clue.
Bottom line.... Make sure that the quality of your filters exceed the quality of your lenses. Yes, at a hundred bucks a pop for a 77mm filter, it hurts, but you will never regret it. Also, Amazon does not stock lens hoods for all non L Canon lenses. The price is stupid high for those hoods, but they make a night and day difference in in picture quality. Whenever you order a non L Canon lens, find a web seller who has the hood in stock, and get it right now. Again, you will never regret owning it.
That's it for my review/rant. Buy this lens. Buy the 17-55 IS f/2,8 first. Buy the lens hoods for both. Toss any "kit" lenses that came with the camera in the trash bin (where they belong), and be very happy.
Sony HDR-CX100 AVCHD HD Camcorder with Smile Shutter & 10x
List Price: $599.99
Sale Price: $349.99
Today's Bonus: 42% Off
This camera is amazing. Once I charged up this puppy and fired it up it looked awesome. I filmed my dog and you could see every strand of hair on his body and the texture of the hair. It also has the smiling sensor technology that is really neat. Put it in video mode and when someone smiles SNAP!....a photo is automatically taken (you can set it on or off). I like that its flash memory as well (hard drives dont survive drops so well). I gotta say Sony put out one sexy stylish camcorder. It looks great in the hand and it definitely got some peoples attention. Once you get this camcorder you'll never want to go back to SD recording. Here are my PROs and CONs:
PROS:
+ Amazing quality video
+ Lets you take a photo while filming
+ Smile detection
+ Ready to film once screen is open
+ Small and compact
+ Very good looking camera comes in three colors
+ Flash memory (bad/good you decide)
+ HDMI support
CONS:
Not just any HDMI cable will work
Proprietary memory stick format (memory sticks are expensive)
Low 10x optical zoom
3 hours recording time
Love this camera and highly recommend it.
Acer Aspire V7-582PG-6673 15.6-inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Cold
List Price: $849.99
Sale Price: $793.71
Today's Bonus: 7% Off
Hi, I just received this new Acer Aspire V7 from Amazon.com. I am typing this review from my new laptop and would like to share the first review. I have owned plenty of other laptops from various manufacturers in the past, including Apple, Toshiba, Asus, Acer, etc. I was drawn to this particular laptop because of the Generation 4 Haswell processor. As of this writing, this is one of the first laptops to offer the Haswell chipset. The keyboard is fairly spacious and the keys are pretty tactile and responsive.
I am happy to report that my wifi has been working flawlessly so far. No hangups or dropped connections! The new sony pro 13" and macbook air both have/had their share of wifi problems. I'm glad that this computer is working fine out of the box!
The trackpad is probably the only minor downfall (besides windows 8), the track-pad is a little fidgety when it comes to scrolling pages up and down. Otherwise it works decently. I will be purchasing a new Bluetooth mouse anyways, so this wont effect me too much.
Pros:
Generation 4 Haswell Intel Processor
8GB of Ram standard (most still offer 4GB)
Less than 1 inch thick
Under 5 lbs
7.5 Hour battery life! (I have not had this laptop long enough to verify this. But I will update when I get some more battery only usage).
Sleek, clean professional look
Backlit keyboard
Excellent price ~815.00 as of this writing.
Relatively small power brick and cord. NOT apple magsafe small, but still smaller than other PC laptops. The power brick is about the size of a pack of cigarettes.
Super tight and strong hinge. The screen will not budge and is very firm.
Loud speakers, (I'm not saying they sound good, but they are loud!)
Perfect display, no dead pixels etc.
Lots of HDD space
Very fast for 90% of all computing tasks (not for gaming though)
Runs cool and quiet. The bottom of the unit gets warm, but nothing too uncomfortable.
Cons:
Windows 8 ( I really dislike this OS., I much rather use Mac OS or Win 7)
Cheap packaging,
Horrible manuals and documentation. Pretty much nothing included.
No backup disk of any sort
Most of the ports, including power is on the back of the unit! the only ports on the side are 1 USB on each side, 1 headphone and 1 SD slot.
Tons of stupid bloatware (useless free software).
Crappy low resolution front camera, but its fine if you just want to skype.
Tiny power button located on the side. Not a big deal but it could get bumped in a bag or case.
I hope my review helps you when making a choice, I took one for the team and ordered this without any prior reviews. Glad its working out so far!
++++UPDATE++++
The external power button on the side of the unit is not a problem. When the laptop is off and the lid is shut, the power button is inactive. So you don't need to worry about it accidentally turning on while in a laptop case/bag.
Unit boots up in about 12 seconds! (from fully off)
Wifi still working very well. Strong signal bars, solid connection off of my AT&T u-verse wireless router.
SanDisk SDSDQUA-064G-U46A Ultra 64 GB microSDXC Class 10 UHS-1
List Price: $99.99
Sale Price: $43.88
Today's Bonus: 56% Off
I haven't had to buy a microSD card in a long time. The last time I bought one was for my cell phone over 2 years ago. But since my cellular contract was up, I knew I would have to get a newer card in addition to my new phone, the Samsung Galaxy S4. Reason for this is because I knew my small 16GB microSD card wasn't going to cut it.
Doing research on the Galaxy S4, I wanted to get the best card possible that had decent capacity (32 GB or greater). This led me to find that the Galaxy S4 supports the microSDXC Class 10 UHS-I card, which is the fastest possible given that class. Searching for that specifically on Amazon gave me results of only 3 vendors (as of April) that makes these microSDXC Class 10 UHS-1 cards. They are Sandisk (the majority), Samsung and Lexar. Nobody else makes these that are sold on Amazon.
Seeing how SanDisk is a pretty good name out of the 3 (I've used them the most), I decided upon the SanDisk because Lexar was overpriced and the Samsung one was overpriced (as well as not eligible for Amazon Prime).
But the scary thing is that when you filter by the SanDisk, you literally get DOZENS of options. All of them have different model numbers, different sizes, etc. Then there's that confusion of what's the difference between SDHC & SDXC?
SDHC vs SDXC:
SDHC stand for "Secure Digital High Capacity" and SDXC stands for "Secure Digital eXtended Capacity". Essentially these two cards are the same with the exception that SDHC only supports capcities up to 32GB and is formated with the FAT32 file system. The SDXC cards are formatted with the exFAT file system. If you use an SDXC card in a device, it must support that file system, otherwise it may not be recognizable and/or you have to reformat the card to FAT32.
FAT32 vs exFAT:
The differences between the two file systems means that FAT32 has a maximum file size of 4GB, limited by that file system. exFAT on the otherhand, supports file sizes up to 2TB (terabytes). The only thing you need to know here really is that it's possible your device doesn't support exFAT. If that's the case, just reformat it to FAT32. REMEMBER FORMATTING ERASES ALL DATA!
To clarify the model numbers, I I hopped over to the SanDisk official webpage. What I found there is that they offer two "highspeed" options for SanDisk cards. These are SanDisk Extreme Pro and SanDisk Ultra. SanDisk Extreme Pro is a line that supports read speeds up to 95MB/sec, however they are SDHC only. To make things worse, they are currently only available in 16GB & 8GB capacities. Since one of my requirements was to have a lot of storage, I ruled these out.
The remaining devices listed on Amazon's search were the SanDisk Ultra line. But here, confusion sets in because SanDisk separates these cards to two different devices. Cameras & mobile devices. Is there a real difference between the two or is this just a marketing stunt? Unfortunately I'm not sure but I do know the price difference between the two range from a couple cents to a few dollars. Since I wasn't sure, I opted for the one specifically targeted for mobile devices (just in case there is some kind of compatibility issue). To find the exact model number, I would go to Sandisk's webpage (sandisk.com) and compare their existing product lineup. From there, you get exact model numbers and you can then search Amazon for these model numbers. That is how I got mine (SDSDQUA-064G).
As for speed tests, I haven't run any specific testing, but copying 8 GB worth of data from my PC to the card literally took just a few minutes.
One last note is that Amazon attaches additional characters to the end (for example SDSDQUA-064G-AFFP-A vs SDSDQUA-064G-U46A). The difference between the two is that the "AFFP-A" means "Amazon Frustration Free Packaging". Other than that, these are exactly the same. If you're wondering what I got (and want to use it in your Galaxy S4), I got the SDSDQUA-064G-u46A and it works like charm.
Leupold SX-1 Ventana Spotting Scope Kit, Black, 15-45 x 60mm
List Price: $439.99
Sale Price: $330.34
Today's Bonus: 25% Off
Very Clear optics... good shock resistant... only down side is tripod as it is tippy... overall good product and great price... I would recommend to anyone...!
Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD LD Aspherical IF Macro
List Price: $633.00
Sale Price: $490.49
Today's Bonus: 23% Off
If you need a lens that will get you through many different types of photo situations this is the lens for you. It is good for events, nature, sports to name a few situations.
Tamron SP 70-200MM F/2.8 DI VC USD Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon
First off, I am an amateur and don't get paid for the pictures I take. For this reason, I figured I would give the Tamron a try and if I didn't like it I could always return it and consider getting one of the Nikon 70-200's instead. I'm using this lens with a D600, and have admittedly never used the Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR I or II, or the new 70-200 F4. Maybe ignorance is bliss in this case, but for an amateur like me I found it very hard to justify the premium of the 70-200 VR II over the tamron (even with the recent $300 discount).
Build The build of this lens seems very solid. It's not quite up to the standard of the Canon L white lenses, but I would say it's very close to all of the nice Nikon G lenses...mostly metal some hard plastic. Thankfully I don't have to take my gear into rough conditions, but if you did, I think this lens would hold up very well.
VC The vibration control/reduction on this lens is fantastic. When looking through the view finder it really grabs the image and reduces nearly all camera shake. Occasionally it has a bit of a jitter before locking in on the image, but I have yet to see this affect any of the images, only my view through the optics. I can easily hand hold shots at 200mm down to 1/20 and lower if the subject itself isn't moving. I even did some shots down near 1/4 of a second and they were actually very usable, but I wouldn't depend on that unless I absolutely had to.
Image Quality So far the color, contrast, and sharpness of this lens have all been superb. The lens might be just a hair softer at 2.8 than it is at 4.0, but that's only when pixel-peeping at 1:1 and even then it's an extremely close call. For anything beyond 4.0 the lens is extremely sharp, and I would have no hesitancy shooting at 2.8 unless you're going to take a 100% crop and expect the hair on someone's head to be prime-level sharp.
Autofocus The autofocus is fast. I would imagine that unless you're a pro sports photographer whose job depends on getting every shot, this lens's autofocus is plenty fast. It will certainly be fast enough for an amateur like me to shoot sports, fast moving kids, dogs, etc.
Overall, I would highly recommend this lens. I've only had half a week to shoot with it, but so far I am very impressed. If you're like me, the ~$800 saved over the Nikon VR II means the ability to add another very nice lens to your bag. I can't imagine that the VR II would enable me to get any shots that I can't already get with this lens. And so to me that makes it a winner. I'll update the review if my opinion changes as I continue to use this lens.
Build The build of this lens seems very solid. It's not quite up to the standard of the Canon L white lenses, but I would say it's very close to all of the nice Nikon G lenses...mostly metal some hard plastic. Thankfully I don't have to take my gear into rough conditions, but if you did, I think this lens would hold up very well.
VC The vibration control/reduction on this lens is fantastic. When looking through the view finder it really grabs the image and reduces nearly all camera shake. Occasionally it has a bit of a jitter before locking in on the image, but I have yet to see this affect any of the images, only my view through the optics. I can easily hand hold shots at 200mm down to 1/20 and lower if the subject itself isn't moving. I even did some shots down near 1/4 of a second and they were actually very usable, but I wouldn't depend on that unless I absolutely had to.
Image Quality So far the color, contrast, and sharpness of this lens have all been superb. The lens might be just a hair softer at 2.8 than it is at 4.0, but that's only when pixel-peeping at 1:1 and even then it's an extremely close call. For anything beyond 4.0 the lens is extremely sharp, and I would have no hesitancy shooting at 2.8 unless you're going to take a 100% crop and expect the hair on someone's head to be prime-level sharp.
Autofocus The autofocus is fast. I would imagine that unless you're a pro sports photographer whose job depends on getting every shot, this lens's autofocus is plenty fast. It will certainly be fast enough for an amateur like me to shoot sports, fast moving kids, dogs, etc.
Overall, I would highly recommend this lens. I've only had half a week to shoot with it, but so far I am very impressed. If you're like me, the ~$800 saved over the Nikon VR II means the ability to add another very nice lens to your bag. I can't imagine that the VR II would enable me to get any shots that I can't already get with this lens. And so to me that makes it a winner. I'll update the review if my opinion changes as I continue to use this lens.
Aiptek 3D-HD High Definition 3D Camcorder (Black/White)
Being a big 3-D fan, I was very excited when this product was announced and, because the price was so low, I pre-ordered it right away without having seen any reviews (because no reviews yet existed). I wasn't entirely sure if I was buying a novelty gadget or a truly useful device. To save myself from being disappointed, I expected the former and hoped for the latter. It turns out that the camera is much better than a novelty gadget, but don't expect to throw away your "normal", digital, point-and-shoot camera or your "normal" camcorder. You'll still need those when you want a perfect, printable photo and a lot of extended video. However, when what you want is a 3-D picture or short 3-D video, the Aiptek 3-D camera is a great, practical, and inexpensive option.
The first question I had was: "does it really work?" I'm happy to say that the answer is a big yes! The resolution of the parallax-barrier display is pretty low, but the 3-D effect is really great and the display serves the purpose very well. I expect the Aiptek 3-D photo frame, with its higher resolution, will be much better (it's still backordered as of this writing, so I don't have one yet). Please understand that when I say "low resolution", I'm speaking about the resolution of the built-in display, not the resolution of the actual images/video, which is much higher. 5 megapixels for images (2592 x 1944) and 720p for video (1280 x 720) doesn't sound like much nowadays, but you'll almost certainly NOT want to print the images you take with this camera anyway. Doing so would require you to convert to the Red/Blue (anaglyph) format. This works, but it's far less than ideal. Rather than that, I believe you should expect to only view these images/videos on the camera itself, the corresponding 3-D photo frame, or a new, 3-D TV. When you decide those are your primary viewing vehicles for the content you create with this device, the resolution becomes far more palatable. Indeed, the resolution of the images exceeds the resolution of the camera's display and even the resolution of the 3-D photo frame (800 x 600). For this reason, I think Aiptek was smart to use a relatively low resolution in order to keep the price so low.
The image and video quality is acceptable, but as I said earlier, if won't replace your existing camera for those times when you want very high quality. The image quality is about as good as the very best cameras being put into cell phones (which also don't compete with a dedicated, "regular" camera). I'll reiterate though: the quality is completely acceptable considering you're getting images in full 3-D. Other than the 3-D feature, there aren't a lot of frills: no image stabilization, no optical zoom, no flash, etc. It makes sense though because that's the only way you're going to get 3-D at this amazingly-low price-point. The camera has a tripod mount so, if you really need supplemental light, you can pick up one of those little LED lights that screw into tripod mounts for not very much money. As for video, it does record in 30 FPS, but if the action is moving quickly, it doesn't look like it. It looks like 10 or 15 FPS (it may still be recording 30 frames per second, but I'd guess 2 or 3 of those frames happen to be identical). I've noticed the reduced frame rate is a bit less pronounced if there is more ambient lighting. FYI: I'm using a Transcend, 16 GB, class 10 SD card. That's probably not as fast as a SanDisk class 10 card, but it should be enough to accommodate everything the camera can throw at it. It may sound like I'm speaking only negatively about this camera, but it's definitely not my intention to discourage the purchase of it. I just want you to be clear on what it *doesn't* do so that you have appropriate expectations. In reality, I'm thrilled with the quality of the camera and it exceeded my expectations.
I've quickly learned a trick to taking 3-D video and photos. It has to do with framing the images; I'll try to explain it here, but it's a little difficult to articulate. If what I'm about to say doesn't make sense, just ignore my ramblingsha. First, realize that everything in the image has a position along the Z-axis (the direction toward you and away from you [as opposed to left/right and up/down]). Next, realize that the frame around the screen itself has a position along the Z-axis. What this means is, some parts of the photo appear to come "out" of the screen and more distant objects appear recessed "into" the screen. The frame surrounding the display is somewhere in the middle. If the part of the image that extends out of the screen is cut off by the frame surrounding the display, it can hurt your eyes a little and look a bit confusing. This makes sense; how could an object (the frame) block the view of a subject if that object (the frame) is more distant than the subject? That's a logical paradox that my brain translates into confusion and/or eyes that have a hard time focusing. The trick is to not allow anything "in front" of the frame to be cut off by the frame. If you adhere to this, the 3-D effect looks much more natural. I'm sure I'll continue to learn effective ways to frame 3-D images as I become more experienced. In fact, that's part of the fun!
I'll sum everything up here: The camera is really good and the 3-D effect is outstanding. I believe it to be much more than a gimmick/novelty. To keep the price low, the camera sacrifices some other "standard" features you might be used to, such as optical zoom and a flash. For me, the tradeoff is well worth it: I get to take my own, good-quality, 3-D video/images for under 200 bucks. I'm not sure what I'm more impressed with: the technology or the price. I suppose it's the combination of the two that make this a strongly-recommended "buy" in my book.
[UPDATE: October 20, 2010]
As Reynato U. Barrera kindly pointed out in his review, there is indeed a (buried) firmware update and it does indeed fix the slow frame rate! This is great news. I don't believe Amazon will allow external URLs or I would provide a direct link, but if you go to the Aiptek EU site (use ".eu" instead of ".com") you can find the firmware update within the product page. I purchased the camera in the U.S., but because the camera will let you define the refresh rate (60Hz vs. 50Hz), I wasn't worried about using the firmware I downloaded from the EU site.
[/UPDATE]
The first question I had was: "does it really work?" I'm happy to say that the answer is a big yes! The resolution of the parallax-barrier display is pretty low, but the 3-D effect is really great and the display serves the purpose very well. I expect the Aiptek 3-D photo frame, with its higher resolution, will be much better (it's still backordered as of this writing, so I don't have one yet). Please understand that when I say "low resolution", I'm speaking about the resolution of the built-in display, not the resolution of the actual images/video, which is much higher. 5 megapixels for images (2592 x 1944) and 720p for video (1280 x 720) doesn't sound like much nowadays, but you'll almost certainly NOT want to print the images you take with this camera anyway. Doing so would require you to convert to the Red/Blue (anaglyph) format. This works, but it's far less than ideal. Rather than that, I believe you should expect to only view these images/videos on the camera itself, the corresponding 3-D photo frame, or a new, 3-D TV. When you decide those are your primary viewing vehicles for the content you create with this device, the resolution becomes far more palatable. Indeed, the resolution of the images exceeds the resolution of the camera's display and even the resolution of the 3-D photo frame (800 x 600). For this reason, I think Aiptek was smart to use a relatively low resolution in order to keep the price so low.
The image and video quality is acceptable, but as I said earlier, if won't replace your existing camera for those times when you want very high quality. The image quality is about as good as the very best cameras being put into cell phones (which also don't compete with a dedicated, "regular" camera). I'll reiterate though: the quality is completely acceptable considering you're getting images in full 3-D. Other than the 3-D feature, there aren't a lot of frills: no image stabilization, no optical zoom, no flash, etc. It makes sense though because that's the only way you're going to get 3-D at this amazingly-low price-point. The camera has a tripod mount so, if you really need supplemental light, you can pick up one of those little LED lights that screw into tripod mounts for not very much money. As for video, it does record in 30 FPS, but if the action is moving quickly, it doesn't look like it. It looks like 10 or 15 FPS (it may still be recording 30 frames per second, but I'd guess 2 or 3 of those frames happen to be identical). I've noticed the reduced frame rate is a bit less pronounced if there is more ambient lighting. FYI: I'm using a Transcend, 16 GB, class 10 SD card. That's probably not as fast as a SanDisk class 10 card, but it should be enough to accommodate everything the camera can throw at it. It may sound like I'm speaking only negatively about this camera, but it's definitely not my intention to discourage the purchase of it. I just want you to be clear on what it *doesn't* do so that you have appropriate expectations. In reality, I'm thrilled with the quality of the camera and it exceeded my expectations.
I've quickly learned a trick to taking 3-D video and photos. It has to do with framing the images; I'll try to explain it here, but it's a little difficult to articulate. If what I'm about to say doesn't make sense, just ignore my ramblingsha. First, realize that everything in the image has a position along the Z-axis (the direction toward you and away from you [as opposed to left/right and up/down]). Next, realize that the frame around the screen itself has a position along the Z-axis. What this means is, some parts of the photo appear to come "out" of the screen and more distant objects appear recessed "into" the screen. The frame surrounding the display is somewhere in the middle. If the part of the image that extends out of the screen is cut off by the frame surrounding the display, it can hurt your eyes a little and look a bit confusing. This makes sense; how could an object (the frame) block the view of a subject if that object (the frame) is more distant than the subject? That's a logical paradox that my brain translates into confusion and/or eyes that have a hard time focusing. The trick is to not allow anything "in front" of the frame to be cut off by the frame. If you adhere to this, the 3-D effect looks much more natural. I'm sure I'll continue to learn effective ways to frame 3-D images as I become more experienced. In fact, that's part of the fun!
I'll sum everything up here: The camera is really good and the 3-D effect is outstanding. I believe it to be much more than a gimmick/novelty. To keep the price low, the camera sacrifices some other "standard" features you might be used to, such as optical zoom and a flash. For me, the tradeoff is well worth it: I get to take my own, good-quality, 3-D video/images for under 200 bucks. I'm not sure what I'm more impressed with: the technology or the price. I suppose it's the combination of the two that make this a strongly-recommended "buy" in my book.
[UPDATE: October 20, 2010]
As Reynato U. Barrera kindly pointed out in his review, there is indeed a (buried) firmware update and it does indeed fix the slow frame rate! This is great news. I don't believe Amazon will allow external URLs or I would provide a direct link, but if you go to the Aiptek EU site (use ".eu" instead of ".com") you can find the firmware update within the product page. I purchased the camera in the U.S., but because the camera will let you define the refresh rate (60Hz vs. 50Hz), I wasn't worried about using the firmware I downloaded from the EU site.
[/UPDATE]
Sony KDL65HX729 240 Hz 65-Inch Class (64.5-Inch diag) LED
List Price: $4,098.00
Sale Price: $2,398.00
Today's Bonus: 41% Off
I've now had this TV for about 3 weeks and absolutely love it. Beautiful and thin design with lots of cool little apps though to be honest, you'll end up using your iPhone or iPad over them. The true reason I got this TV was for its HD quality and 3D capability and boy do both shine. Whether I'm watching an HD show, Blu-ray or 3D, the colors are always vivid with no bleeding, especially of reds. Black are deep and the brights are bright but realistic bright.
A lot of times, people are fooled by fake bright which might seem "brighter" but isn't actually real. This TV is part of a few TV's that I've seen show real colors. If you enjoy HD content, have Blu-ray movies, this is the TV for you. An extra bonus is the edition of 3D which I enjoy quite a bit, especially when gaming with the PS3.
Dell All-in-One Wireless Printer (V515w)
This printer is horrific. I purchased it from the Dell website when buying a new tower for my desktop. The worst feature is that the ink cartidges last for about twenty pages. Print a couple of articles and a couple of map quest directions and you're done. The next worst is that the wireless feature doesn't work much of the time. One has to reboot both computer and printer to allow them to find one another. You won't receive an error message every time often simply nothing will happen. Or you will receive an error message even though the indicator light shows the printer is connected to the network. To top it off, good luck finding cartridges unless you go to Staples or some other specialty store. Places like CVS only carry HP catridges. Literally, I wouldn't even give this printer to a impoverished friend in need of one.
Sony VAIO T Series SVT14124CXS 14-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook
List Price: $799.99
Sale Price: $699.99
Today's Bonus: 13% Off
Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program When I first received this laptop, I had mixed feelings it looks beautiful, but it seemed slower than it should have been given the hardware specs and the hybrid drive. After a week of using it, I can say now that absolutely love it it is quiet, runs smooth and cool and feels very zippy. I don't love windows 8 but the laptop itself is dead quiet and stays nice and cool and very responsive. It wakes up from sleep almost instantly (I don't ever shut it down unless I have to, mostly I just let it go to sleep the power LED will flash when it needs to be plugged in, another nice touch) and it has a long enough battery life so that I don't have to keep it plugged in all the time.
The brushed aluminum finish on the cover is absolutely gorgeous it looks and feels like a high quality laptop, exactly what you would expect with the Ultrabook designation. However, I'm not sure about the ultrabook qualifications I read that the minimum specs for that designation was a 5 hr battery life and this one falls a little short of that (that's why I dinged it a half a star). It's also a little bit thicker and heavier than what I would have expected from an Ultrabook. However, if it were too much lighter I think it might feel kinda cheap and flimsy, so the weight is good for me.
I think the initial feeling that it's performance was not up to par for the hybrid dive was because it takes a little time to build up the cache on the ssd portion of the drive which means that it gets faster as you use it longer. After a week of use, you can really tell the difference that the hybrid drive makes in speed almost as good as having a pure SSD drive, but you get much more space.
This screen on this bright and crisp videos and pictures look fantastic, as do web pages. And I really don't notice much difference between the 14inch screen and the 15inch screen I had before, but overall, the 14 inch actually seems like a much better size for portability. The touchscreen is nice and responsive, but unfortunately when you look at it with the screen off, you can see where your fingers have been all over the screen. not sure much can be done about that.
I will say this DON"T EVER BUY A WINDOWS 8 COMPUTER WITHOUT A TOUCHSCREEN! It is just too hard to get around and to get the charms bar to pop up without a touchscreen I've tried setting up other peoples laptops running windows 8 without a touchscreen and it was a complete exercise in frustration. This one is much easier to navigate around because of the touchscreen.
Apps in the windows 8 store are pitiful tho, very few official apps (google, facebook, pinterest, etc) and the ones they offer instead are cheap cheesy homebrew versions. The kindle app also appears to be broken in the latest release says it encountered an error trying to register. The lack of quality apps is really disappointing, as is the fact that you can no longer sync google contacts and calendars with the windows apps. As is Microsoft's decision to make you toggle between the touch interface and the desktop very kludgy sometimes I will download and run something from the browser and think it is not responding only to toggle back to the desktop and see that it is running there novice users will have a hard time with this I'm sure. I am hoping they will release a windows 9 soon that fixes all the horrible awkwardness of windows 8, or that Google will release a stand-alone Chrome/Android install for PC's (and I have read that Windows 8.1 is inn beta and hopefully that will fix some of the shortcomings). I have a feeling that this laptop would absolutely fly if it were running Chrome.
My only complaint, and it's a minor quibble, is the corners are kinda sharp and not rounded, so sometimes I stab my wrist on the front corners.
This laptop is also cooler and quieter than any laptop I've ever used. Even under heavy processor load, the bottom doesn't get very warm at all, and the fans run very quietly even when kicked up to high.
Overall, I give this laptop a 4.5 out of 5 stars, particularly at this price point, with the only deduction in half a star being for the slightly shorter battery life than you would expect from an Ultrabook. This is probably one of the nicest ultrabooks you can get for this price.
*** Update just for fun I ordered the Corsair Vengeance 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory for sale here on Amazon for $35 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006EWUP4Y/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) to up the total RAM on this to 8gb and it is noticeably faster now. Install of the memory couldn't have been easier, Sony was kind enough to leave the top RAM slot open, so I just unscrewed the small square on the bottom (middle towards the top near the screen) and slid the memory right in (memory slides in at a slight angle then you snap it down into place). Took a whole 30secs. I mainly did it just to see if it was worth it, since memory is so cheap, and I would have to say yes it is definitely worth it, as the laptop practically flies along now, and for $35 bucks it's hard to argue with an extra 4gb of memory and a boost in speed.
PTC 25ft Premium Gold Series HDMI Cable (HH-26-25E)
This is a great cable at a great price.
There is one problem that may potentially affect you though. The height of the HDMI connector is quite high (ie it is thick). Whereas many of these connectors are around 1/4 inch tall, this one is 7/8 inch. There is some a/v equipment out there that doesn't have enough room for this connector. My SONY LCD projector falls into this category.
What I ended up doing was to get a small (1 foot) m-f HDMI cable extender, and this ended up with a male plug small enough to fit into the projector connector.
This probably won't affect you, but measure your input connector area just in case.
There is one problem that may potentially affect you though. The height of the HDMI connector is quite high (ie it is thick). Whereas many of these connectors are around 1/4 inch tall, this one is 7/8 inch. There is some a/v equipment out there that doesn't have enough room for this connector. My SONY LCD projector falls into this category.
What I ended up doing was to get a small (1 foot) m-f HDMI cable extender, and this ended up with a male plug small enough to fit into the projector connector.
This probably won't affect you, but measure your input connector area just in case.