16 Channel DVR CCTV Ultimate Mini Series D1 Realtime Security

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $975.99
Sale Price: $585.00
Today's Bonus: 40% Off

I started with a Swann DVR, then later a Zmodo DVR gave up on them (both failed within 1 year). This one blows them all away. Great features that allow many ways to set up your system to do what you need it to do. Motion detect works well, dual streams (with different quality) for normal record, alarm input, and motion detect modes. Sub stream to view many cameras over the internet at a lower resolution. Ability to take snapshots and send to a network drive as a backup data location. Very configurable to do what you want. Great customer service for technical help. You can select 1 channel to email you or trigger many cameras to record (at higher resolution) and it records all video at a lower bit rate until motion or alarm is detected and it jumps up to higher quality..... All configurable. Professional Security System software is truly professional grade software to do what you need it to do, easier to find motion footage or events on while viewing multiple cameras. Buy it! you will love the features and have the freedom to configure as you need it to function in your situation.

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Epson Artisan 1430 Wireless Wide-Format Color Inkjet Printer

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $299.99
Sale Price: $299.00
Today's Bonus: $0.99 Off

Update #2 Almost nine months after my original review and Epson STILL hasn't released the ICC profile for their Ultra Premium Luster paper. If you are using anything other than their Ultra Premium line you really aren't getting your money's worth on this printer. And as a photographer I can't give my clients work printed on glossy! Unfortunately, Epson doesn't seem to even have a timeline for giving their consumers proper ICC profiles. I just cannot understand why they have profiles for every other paper besides their most popular?

Update I am adding a few stars onto my original review for a couple of reasons. One, because Epson customer service is actually one of the better customer service experiences I've had to deal with. They are very quick and courteous with their responses. And two, because after a month the banding problem I was having has randomly fixed itself. I'm hoping it was only a problem with the printer being so new, and will not happen again. But I will certainly update my review if this is not the case.

Original Review

Let me start off by saying that if you can get this printer working correctly, it will produce some incredible prints. Epson's Ultra Premium photo paper, combined with the amazing Claria Hi-Def ink is sure to exceed your expectations on print quality. That is IF your printer decides to work properly.

Out of the box the initial installation (Mac OSX 10.6) was quite easy, and everything worked smoothly. I then tried to connect my printer to wi-fi which is when my problems began. Although I followed the instructions to a T, wi-fi just would not install on my printer, despite the fact that this printer advertises a wi-fi connection in "seconds". A few days, countless hours, and a couple phone calls to Epson did not solve the problem, I was basically told they didn't know what the issue was. Having to connect my computer and printer with a cable every time I needed to print something was a bit of a pain, but certainly not something that was worth the hassle of returning the product. I then started printing some images to complete client orders I had lined up, and I noticed banding on every single image. I followed all of the steps listed on Epson's website, as well as took the advice of a printing instructor at my school, taking every step to rectify this problem. Nothing worked. And weeks later my printer is still banding. I have changed the ink and lost a full pack of Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper, wasting a ridiculous amount of money in the process. Now my printer will no longer even respond to the "clean the print heads" command.

Another big problem with this printer is that Epson has not completed the ICC profiles for some of their own paper, most notably the Ultra Premium Luster. This paper of course being the favorite of photographers. And if you can't print on Ultra Premium paper there's not much purpose in purchasing the overpriced Claria inks, as their full potential will not be reached using mediocre paper. I contacted Epson and they said they don't know when the ICC profile will be available.

Epson's paper is, in my opinion, the best on the market and as a photographer I hate giving my clients work printed on anything less. But nothing is worth this much hassle. Epson should invest some more time into producing quality printers that are worthy of the paper and ink they use.

*Just a note, this printer does not come with a USB cord, so if you are thinking of purchasing this product and don't have an extra one laying around, I suggest buying a USB cord along with it since your wi-fi may end up not working. Otherwise, you'll still need access to one for initial set-up.

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Panasonic DMC-LC1 5.2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

Customer Ratings:

So here's the scenario that led me to purchase this camera. After years of photography with a Contax RTS II system, I dropped photography almost completely for 10+ years. The problem? Enjoying the medium without the expense, overly complex process and lugging around 18 lbs of equipment. So I recently started to look at digital photography to completely replace my film equipment. I didn't want an SLR because a)while $1200 buy's a 20oz. technological marvel, it's still made like a disposable $100 EOS Rebel and b)I would be back in the trap of buying lenses and overcomplicating the process. I wanted to get back to simple pure photography withough relying on fancy equipment.

Here was the problem though. There are virtually no non-slr digicams that offer full manual controls in a user friendly, old style manor. Even the SLR's all rely on LCD displays, cheesey dials and buttons.

There was only one (two including the Leica branded version) camera made that offers a rugged classic rangefinder design, an APERATURE RING!, a SHUTTER DIAL!, and manual FOCUS! and ZOOM! rings. While some of these are only emulate mechanical linkages, the end result is a camera that feels exactly like a Leica "m" or other traditional camera would. Oh and by the way did I mention it comes with a fantastic bright Leica f 2.0 lens?

In all honesty, I am not embarrassed to say that it boiled down to style and build quality. Sure there are histograms, program shifts, multiple spot and zone metering/focusing options, a bounce flash (neat feature), 30fps video mode, RAW image format, etc. etc. etc. blah blah blah. All $1000+ digicams have lot's of features, and franklly they are all capable of fantastic images. In the end if you want a camera that is SIMPLY designed the way cameras were made 20-50 years ago with all the bells and whistles if you want them, this is the ONLY choice.

Are there problems? Sure... The low light focusing capabilities leave something to be desired as with most EVF cameras. There is no RAW buffer so RAW images take a few seconds to store. But my initial feeling for this camera is that it is a joy to use.

This is not a cheap camera! With a list of $1599 and a street of $1099-$1399, it will be hard for some to justify not getting a Nikon D70 and 2 lenses in order to get this instead. It will be a certain type of buyer (you know who you are) that will buy this camera regardless of what I write. If you are a poser, buy the Leica Digilux 2 for $1850 street price and throw away $750. It is identical but the body on the Panasonic has a beautiful rubberized surface with just enough of a grip at the right to be effective. The black finish is very nice as well. It does however come with a few extras that would easily add $100+ to most DSLR's like an electronic cable release, a lense shade and filter.

So in the end I got exactly what I wanted and if you are like me, you will not be dissapointed.

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Drift Innovation HD 1080p Digital Video Action Camera Camcorder

Customer Ratings:

Got this setup from my wife for Christmas. I like it! Batt life is a little short. If you intend to leave the camera on for an all day ride, I recommend three batteries. Not recording the entire trip, just on standby waiting for a record signal. With the camera mounted to the top of your helmet, I don't think that you could hear the start beep with an engine running. So far I've mounted the camera to the right side of my helmet and used the suction cup to the sled's windshield. Mounted on the windshield, you can see the tiny status led quite well. Video is surprisingly steady. The remote works well even with gloves, just be sure to give a long press. The sellers description is not real clear, this kit does contain 2 batteries. 2 16gb cards maybe over kill for 1 day of sledding but, for a multiple day trip, just right. The supplied quick start guide leaves some to be desired. Go to drift and dl the .pdf manual. In the settings, frequency is not mentioned, set it to 60 if you are in NA. When mounting the camera, you will want to aim it some higher than what looks correct. The suction cup mount holds surprisingly well. I also bought a drop-in charger for the batteries (3, I bought an extra). That's too many to try to charge in the camera, overnight. They could at least include 1 of the usb wall wart chargers to go with the camera's usb cord. With the on board display, you can change settings and review video/pictures in the field/mountain/meadow/trail/diner.

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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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Leica DLUX 6 10-megapixel Digital Camera

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $799.00
Sale Price: $759.89
Today's Bonus: 5% Off

I purchased the new Leica D-Lux 6 as a replacement for my Canon S-90, which I've owned for three years. The Canon S-90 is a fantastic camera, and according to many of the reviews I've read, superior to the models that succeeded it: the S-100 and S-110. For this reason, I decided to look at other cameras rather than simply buying the latest version of the same model. While the Leica D-LUX 5 caught my attention (I had just bought a Lumix DMC-LX5 for one of my sons, who loves it), I decided not to buy it as I assumed that a new model would eventually be forthcoming. I also considered the Sony RX 100, however, I had concerns about the color palette being on the cool side based on some user feedback that I'd read. Instead, I bought a mid-size Canon model, the GX1 as this offered easier access to manual functions, a real deficiency in the S-90; however, I returned it after finding significant issues with photo clarity at longer ranges. When I saw that Leica was in fact coming out with a model to replace the D-LUX 5, I went for it.

While I haven't worked with the D-LUX 6 all that long, my initial impressions are quite positive. Keeping in mind that my basis for comparison is the Canon S-90, I find that the operational dials are intelligently placed and easy to use and the menu is also very easy to use. The camera has a nice weight and hand feel to it maybe a little too big to put in your pocket, but it fits nicely into a small belt pouch (the leather Leica case may look great but it's not the most functional around and is very expensive). The camera operated smoothly: the recovery time between exposures is brief, it is responsive in low light situations, the focus and zoom operations are nearly flawless, and the automatic program seems to be very reliable. Thus far, I'm extremely pleased with the photos I've taken. The clarity is excellent I'm especially impressed with the results with the zoom at mid-range and all the way out, where the S-90 can start to get a little bit muddy. The color palette is warm and natural; no concerns here at all.

While technical experts will have more substantive comments to make, and their guidance will be much more valuable to those who use their cameras in ways that reach way beyond what I do, I nevertheless can tell prospective buyers that this is a fine camera that takes very, very good pictures. In the meantime, for those who are looking for more technical information, I recommend a review posted on the red dot forum, which called the D-Lux 6 "a solid improvement over the D-Lux 5." The reviewer summarized by saying that "the D-Lux 5 was no slouch, but the improvements Leica has introduced make the upgrade an easy decision. Faster auto focus and operation, a gorgeous LCD screen, improved low light performance, better build quality, and full 1080p HD video are all I could have asked for and more. Sign me up!"

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New Pioneer Sealife DC1400 Digital Underwater 14MP Digital

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $529.95
Sale Price: $499.95
Today's Bonus: 6% Off

I bought this camera when it first came out. It has been a good camera for my first underwater camera and for the price. But dont let the cheap price fool you. It takes great pictures. Just pay attention to the focus, if you are anywhere near 3 foot or closer, put it on macro believe it or not it will take a better pict, something to do with the built in wide angle lens I think. I had a problem with the underwater housing zoom button, contacted Sealife off their website and they replace dit with no hassle and I had my camera back within a week. The cutomer service through them was super great

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Hammermill Color Copy Paper, 100 Brightness, 11 x 17 Inches, 28

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $37.99
Sale Price: $21.20
Today's Bonus: 44% Off

This is a great paper for the price, use it a lot for presentations and colors are sharp and pop off the page, Highly recommend! I find it to be a shame when someone gives a poor review to a product based on the shipping and packaging by another company, this has nothing to do with the product, leave a comment on the vendor profile so we know not to use them for anything they are selling not just this product.

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Sony DPF-V900 9-Inch Digital Photo Frame

Customer Ratings:

I looked at several brands of digital photo frames. Every time I came back to the Sony because it stands out for picture quality, sharpness, features (lots of features), ease of operation. Even if immediately you don't think you would use all of the features, pay the money and get it anyway. You'll be surprised how all of a sudden one or more of those features is a neat thing to have. The internal memory is large, slideshow, individual view, and picture selection from any source is so simple you can start using most of the features right out of the box. Even the owners manual is extremely user friendly. Yes the price was a bit much but put the Sony next to the others on the market and there is no comparison for picture quality. One downside: you have to use a power cord. I found a couple of portable power sources but power plug on the Sony is not the typical power recepticle found on most products. Thanks Sony....how about making a portable source available? I would love to place the frame on a table for display without having to find a place to plug it in. I found only one brand of frame with a built in battery but the picture quality was no where near the Sony so I opted for the Sony hoping that I could find a portable power pack or hope I will always have a place to plug it in. Price is starting to come down so be patient if price is your obstacle. It is well worth the wait.

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Nikon D100 6MP Digital SLR Camera

Customer Ratings:

I'm not a professional photographer. I don't make a living off of my pictures. Most pros I've seen would opt for the much more expensive D1x or Canon EOS-1D as their primary DSLR, but wouldn't hesitate to have a D100 in their bag as a backup. If you're a very serious amateur or have professional aspirations, look no further than Nikon's new D100. At 6.1 MP, it can easily compete with standard 35mm film cameras up to 8x10 prints and beyond. Most people in this market will be wrestling between the D100 and the Canon D60. I'm not wed to Nikon, so the deciding factor in my selection was availability, price, and overall feel. The D100 just felt better and more substantial--with better switchgear--than the Canon. In most head-to-head reviews they usually come out in a draw, leaving it up to you to decide. They each possess strengths and weaknesses that the other doesn't, which balance the reviews without a clear nod to one over the other. Generally, most reviews tend to favor the sharpness of the Canon for still or studio work and the Nikon for outdoor or action work. The easiest decision will be whether you're fortunate enough to already have an existing lens collection. If you do, then the decision has already been made. If not, you can't go wrong getting the D100. There simply isn't enough room for a detailed review of the D100 in an Amazon blurb, but you'd be well advised to check out sites like DPreview.com (especially) and a myriad of others like StevesDigicams.com, etc. I would recommend getting the MB-D100 multifunction battery grip too. It adds another battery and the ability to use six (6) AA's in a pinch, plus it gives you a vertical grip, shutter release, and duplicate controls when in portrait mode, as well as a mini microphone and speaker that allow you to record voice remarks for each photo if you desire.

Naturally, the D100's image quality is astounding. Mated with quality lenses and proper technique you are left with no excuse for not producing the best photos you've ever taken. Friends and onlookers will drool with envy where ever you go, because you just can't hide a D100 with an MB-D100 grip and a fast AF 80-200mm f/2.8 ED IF zoom in your shirt pocket--forget about candids.

It's big, it's heavy, and it's all Nikon--and everyone will know that you're serious about your picture taking.

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Samyang SY75MFT-B f7.5 Lens for Micro Four Thirds

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $349.99
Sale Price: $288.70
Today's Bonus: 18% Off

Not everyone need a fisheye. Foe me it is more a fun lens than a serious optical instrument.

When I got this little guy from Samyang, I was really surprised at how good the image quality is.

The build quality is very good , tight fit and smooth operation. Focus is a little fiddlely, but set at f5.6 infinity, it is pretty sharp all the way. Out doors , it becomes an ultra quick point and shoot, no focus lag at all. Perfect for arms out self portraits if framed correctly.

The distortion from a fisheye is expected, and can be used creatively for dramatic effects. Compared to my 7-14, it has almost as good sharpness and color rendition, but in a smaller and lighter package. The 7-14 is also quite wide but a more serious rectalinear lens and usuable under more situations and much more expensive.

Panasonic also make an 8mm fisheye at double the price ( have not tried) and My favorite is the DX Nikon 10.5 fisheye for Nikon DSlrs. This little guy on a GH2 will make fantastic GoPro style videos ( not water proof though)

The lens also come under other brand names like Bower and ProOptic. And looks more serious without the silly red stripe. Recommended......

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Samsung Galaxy S4, White (Sprint)

Customer Ratings:

UPDATE#1: The battery life seems great, better than on the S3 even though the screen is larger and has a higher resolution than the S3. When I had my S3, I used to lose about ~3-5% of battery every two hours or so but with the S4, I seem to lose about ~1-2% so that's awesome. The phone comes with a ton of bloatware and the only way to get a good battery is by removing all the bloatware. I was getting terrible battery life when I first got my phone but after reading online it seems that everyone suggests removing the bloatware for batter battery life. Like I said in my review, the snapdragon 600 uses very little battery when it is not being used so that's a big plus. I'm a heavy user and when I say heavy user, I mean heavy user. I do pretty much everything on my phone from taking a crapload of pictures/videos, watching YouTube videos, playing 3D games, phone calls and surfing the internet. At the end of the day the phone has about 30-35% of juice left. Also, one thing that I forgot to mention was the speakers on the phone. Samsung decided to move the speakers which used to be at the top near the camera on the S3 to the bottom of the phone which wasn't a good idea if you ask me. You can block the sound coming from the phone when holding the phone with your hand.

----------------------

It's been a week since I got my Galaxy S4 and this thing is super awesome. My previous phone was the S3 which I loved to death and this time I'm super excited to have the S4 in my hands. I had absolutely zero issues with the S3 but the S4 looks so sexy with the metal edges. I seriously don't understand why people buy an iPhone because let me tell you that the Galaxy S4 blows the iPhone 5 out of the water and every other phone out there. The Galaxy S4 wins hands down in every category compared to the iPhone 5. I was blown away by the performance of this phone. The Snapdragon 600 is blazing fast and uses far less battery than the S3. I can get through the day with a single charge and still have 30% left at the end of the day. I'm a heavy user so this says a lot about the phone. Even my family who loves the iPhone is blown away by this phone. My family just loves the big screen and the customization that it has compared to the iPhone 5. There are many reasons why I decided to go with this phone over the other smartphones on the market but the main reason is the screen size, camera, storage, processor and the battery life.

These are some of the things that the Galaxy S4 has over the iPhone 5 and other high end phones:

Pros:

-Screen: The Galaxy S4 has a nice 5 inches Super AMOLED HD screen that makes everything stand out when viewing it. The resolution on this phone is a nice 1080 x 1920 (441ppi pixel density) which makes everything look sharp. The Gorilla Glass 3 is also much better at preventing the screen from cracking and scratching. I tried to scratch the screen with my car keys and nothing happened to the screen, impressive. It has a significantly higher resolution than the iPhone 5 (640 x 1136). Also, the iPhone 5 is only 4 inches which is way too small for most people.

-Android OS: This phone ships with the most up to date version of Android, Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) which is the fastest Android version yet. Samsung has added many new features to TouchWiz which is great. I'm not really a fan of TouchWiz but it seems that they have made many improvements to the UI.

-Design: The design is sort of the same as the S3 which I have no problems with. The S3's design is sexy and very comfortable to hold in your hand and the same goes for the S4. If you loved the S3's design then you will love the S4's design even more, trust me. The phone feels a little bit lighter and thinner which is great. It has a nice feel to it that makes you want to hold the phone.

-Camera: The primary camera on this phone is 13MP (4128 x 3096 pixels) and the front camera is 2MP that takes some of the best pictures I have ever seen. The front facing camera is great when you are Skyping or even taking pictures of yourself.

-Battery: Samsung has decided to improve the battery capacity in S4 to 2600mAh that can easily last a full day with a single charge. I can get through a day with a single charge and still have 30% left at the end of the day. The battery life is one of the most important aspects when deciding which phone to buy for me because I travel a lot and I need a phone that can last a full day. My previous phone which was the S3 needed at least 2-3 charges to last through a day. The Snapdragon 600 does an outstanding job at using as little battery as possible.

-Storage: With the option of an external sdcard, this phone simply destroys the iPhone 5. I can store as many pictures and HD videos as I want and it will never come close to being full. I am the type of person who stores large collections of pictures, videos, and movies and this phone lets me do all of that easily. I also play 3D games that require a minimum of 1-2GB of space and this phone is perfect for that.

-Processor: The Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (Quad-core 1.9 GHz Krait 300) does an amazing job at keeping this phone lag free and blazing fast. I have never experienced a slow down with this phone. I have even tested this phone by playing intensive games such GTA Vice City on the highest settings and there were no slowdowns whatsoever. I am very impressed with the processor in this phone.

-Removable Battery: Who doesn't love this, seriously? This and the option of an external sdcard make this the best phone of the year. I always carry extra batteries whenever I travel somewhere and I can easily swap my battery with another one when the phone is low on battery. This is a big plus for this phone. Sucks to be an iPhone user!

Cons:

-None. As much as I want to think of something bad to say, there's simply nothing negative about this phone.

Overall, I can safely say that Samsung has another winner in their hands. It's a great phone and it doesn't disappoint. With the amazing 1080p resolution, screen size, battery capacity and storage, this phone puts other phones to shame. The Galaxy S4 will be the best phone of 2013, mark my words!

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Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR DX AF-S ED Zoom-Nikkor Lens

Customer Ratings:

I am really happy with this lense. After review an all other lense I purchased this lense. This is newely introduced by Nikon. night photography aslo work very fine. This is Truely VR lense.Its take Crystal and sharp and right digital color immage at 300mm as well.

Only issue that, its little bit heavy due to its base build by metal which is good.

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Onkyo HT-S5600 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver/Speaker Package

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $599.00
Sale Price: $579.00
Today's Bonus: 3% Off

I love Onkyo products (this is my second home theater in a box I have owned from Onkyo) but they have a quality control issue that they don't appear to be addressing properly. The subwoofer on this system started cutting out and then ultimately stopped working about 20 minutes after setup. I thought it was a settings issue or power issue at first but I tested the RCA cable that supplies the signal from the receiver to the subwoofer with a multimeter and discovered it had little to no continuity. That is, the cable had a break in the wiring internally even though I did nothing but unfurl the wire and connect it. A new RCA cable fixed the issue.

Out of curiosity, I conducted an online search and there are scores of people who are having subwoofer issues with similar Onkyo systems. Most of these consumers are under the assumption that their subwoofer is to blame, when in reality, it's probably just the wiring. I submitted a polite email to the company about a month ago and have yet to hear anything back.

Do yourself a favor: If you are buying an Onkyo system, add a good 15-20 ft RCA cable and a 100' spool of some decent -16 gauge speaker wire to your cart. The wiring that comes with Onkyo home theater systems is cheap, thin, and obviously of poor quality.

Another small thing that Onkyo has been doing for years that I do not like is the speaker connections on the back of the receiver. Unless you spend another $30 on banana connectors, the connections are awkward and difficult to secure.

Aside from that, the system sounds great and is fairly intuitive to use. I purchased the UBT-1 Bluetooth adapter which was a nice addition to the system. It would be nice if they created a home theater in a box package using the completely wireless TX-NR626 receiver.

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Bose SoundTouch 20 Wi-Fi Music System

Customer Ratings:

Lovely product. I am quite particular about sound quality, and I have a reasonably high end audio system. I purchased the Sound Touch portable, and found it to be the best sounding of all these small devices. Easy to setup and use, I can take it all over the house with me. I understand a software update in 6 months or so will give me Spotify access.

Although a little pricey, you get what you pay for. I doubt there is anything this small and portable with this type of sound quality.

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Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4 AT-X 124 Pro DX II Lens - Nikon Mount

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $599.00
Sale Price: $537.75
Today's Bonus: 10% Off

I received my Tokina 12-24mm DXII wide angle lens very quickly. I could not wait to put it through some paces even though I was hesitant at first to try anything but Nikon lenses. I use a Nikon D90 and this lens is flawless with it. The auto focus is very quiet and responsive. I ran it through the gamut of fstops at every setting from 12mm to 24mm. My results indicate that it is a little soft wide open but quickly sharpens as you progress through the settings. At 14-15 mm seems to be very sharp. The colors are true and vibrant. I took over a hundred pictures at church, mostly outside, both in the shade and sunshine. I did not see any distortion or chromatic aberrations. If there were any, my camera must have corrected them automatically. I probably should mention I compared this lens to my Nikon 18-105mm with VR, side by side and picture for picture, at all settings. The Tokina is actually sharper at 18mm than the Nikon 18-105. Up to and including 24mm, they both were very good. This was a pleasant surprise to me and I would not hesitate to recommend this lens to anyone who might being trying to decide whether to purchase it.

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Canon EOS M 18.0 MP Compact Systems Camera with 3.0-Inch LCD

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $849.99
Sale Price: $339.95
Today's Bonus: 60% Off

At this price the well known issues of this camera are easily overlooked. Get the firmware update that mostly fixes the focus-hunting and get your head around not having a view-finder and having to use the responsive touchscreen to do things and you have a superb tool that has astounding Image Quality for its compact size (with the 22mm prime lens). What a great walkabout camera.

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