Considering maker, it's very high quality. Pictures are as expected quite high quality. It's hard to know if these high quality lens are that much better for everyday pictures.
Showing posts with label nikon slr digital camera prices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nikon slr digital camera prices. Show all posts
Nikon D5200 Digital SLR Camera & 18-105mm VR DX AF-S Zoom Lens
I'll begin by saying I've own the Nikon D80 Camera Kit bought through Amazon. I'm a return customer.
The Nikon D5200 Camera Kit, I researched this unit extensively. I now knew the featured I wanted in a digital camera.This kit had very thing I was looking for, including at auto focus and anti vibration features. Also the dual battery holder. I brought the Nikon to a family reunion.Everyone complimented me on the looks. My brother-in-law approached me and asked where I bought the components. He had bought a Nikon D7000 with two lenses only now he was looking to buy everything else. He was surprised when I told him I buy through Amazon. The only problem I have now is that I'm being invited to all the family functions to take pictures.
The Nikon D5200 Camera Kit, I researched this unit extensively. I now knew the featured I wanted in a digital camera.This kit had very thing I was looking for, including at auto focus and anti vibration features. Also the dual battery holder. I brought the Nikon to a family reunion.Everyone complimented me on the looks. My brother-in-law approached me and asked where I bought the components. He had bought a Nikon D7000 with two lenses only now he was looking to buy everything else. He was surprised when I told him I buy through Amazon. The only problem I have now is that I'm being invited to all the family functions to take pictures.
Sony NEX-5RK/B 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Digital
List Price: $773.00
Sale Price: $598.00
Today's Bonus: 23% Off
Small and light camera which produces quality photos and video footage.
Had a problem with the Vivitar replacement battery; it would not recharge in the camera. Focus Cameras agreed to send a replacement battery immediately after notifying them of the problem.
Canon 430EX Speedlite Flash for Canon EOS SLR Cameras - Older
List Price: $400.00
Sale Price: $319.99
Today's Bonus: 20% Off
The 430 is plenty of flash for many photographers. and makes a nice walkaround flash, backup, or outstanding slave flash for someone who gets bitten by the photo bug in a serious way. The only current flash model that can compete is the Canon 580EX, which costs about a hundred bucks more. Forget the Sigma flash. The 580 is a much better unit (I'll explain in a sec), but it is bigger, heavier, and again, more expensive. The 430 can do most of the important things a 580 can do that an amateur is likely to use, and then some.
Here are the important differences... The 430 is pretty powerful, but the 580 is much more powerful than the 430 (GN 58 vs GN 43 (meters)). That's a lot of extra reach, or extra bounce capacity. Again though, the 430 is plenty strong in it's own right. The 580 has a fun strobe feature that the 430 does not have. The 580 has much greater manual control than the 430, by virtue of being able to adjust it's output in double the number of increments compared to a 430. The 580 has 14 custom functions, while the 430 has 6. The 580 has an easier to use function wheel than the 430's "button wheel". The 580 head can rotate 180 degrees in either direction, and be set to less than 90 degrees to the lens axis, while the 430 can only rotate to 180 degrees in one direction, and cannot dip below 90 degrees to the lens axis. The 580 can control other 580's, and 430's as slaves via it's infrared optical control transmitter/reciever. The 580 covers all focus sensors on EOS cameras up to the 45 points used by the pro bodies. The 430 covers up to 9 sensors, which is fine until you get beyond the 5D body (the Rebel line, 10D, 20D, and 30D are fully covered). Both flashes include a pull out wide panel that will cover a lens as wide as 14mm on a full frame body, or as wide as 10mm on a 10,20,30D, or Rebel body, but the 580 also has a pull out "catchlight" panel designed to put sparkle in the subjects' eyes when using the flash in bounce mode. There are a few more things, but that should cover the big ones.
OK, the 580 is the knockout champion, so why did I rate the 430 with 5 stars? Because it deserves them. Canon was wise enough to pack very good power, and a FULL feature set into the 430 without screwing the prospective buyer by leaving out one or two important features that would force them to spend the extra bucks on a 580. The 430 is built well, looks sweet, works like the fine instrument it is, and is significantly smaller than the 580. The fact is, I use the 430 as my preferred flash more often than not. A trip to the car races, a birthday party, general photo fun, family stuf, etc. It is more flash than most people will ever need, at a good price. For those times that I need more, or want to use multiple flash units, the 580 heavy artillery is brought out, and the 430 becomes a second unit under the control of the 580. Both units come with a clever little "foot" that allows you to position them on any flat surface, so you can set up your scene lighting without having to use tripods to hold your slave flash units.
If the photo bug bites you, you will end up owning both flash units. Get the 430 first. If you never get into serious multi flash setups, the 430 will serve you just fine. I you do, you will end up buying it anyway :).
By the way, someone complained about cycle time on the 430. That was nonsense. Either it was a defective unit, or the reviewer was on the cheap, and used alkaline batteries. All flash units are very current hungry when they recharge after a full blast of light. Alkaline batteries are not capable of delivering high current levels more than a few times when they are new. Internal resistance builds up, and they begin to deliver such small current rates that you could sing an entire opera between flashes (no matter what brand of flash). Always use a high current technology battery like NiMH in a flash unit. You can buy a set of four 2700 MAh rechargeable batteries at WalMart for about seven bucks, or buy a brick of 24 of them online for about a buck each, and get a good charger for cheap too. With the right batteries, your 430 will recover from a full power flash in less than 4 seconds (about 2.5 in real life), and for less than full power shots (fill flash, etc.), you can take several shots in one second. Alkaline batteries will work in a pinch, but that is the only time you should use them. Lithium is a good technology for flash units too, but is still rather expensive. Buy NiMH for now.
Ricoh GXR Interchangeable Unit Digital Camera System with 3-Inch
List Price: $499.00
Sale Price: $479.95
Today's Bonus: 4% Off
As an avid photographer and gear collector for 2 decades, I have never a fan of Ricoh cameras until I own my very first Ricoh camera the Ricoh GXR P10 kit three months ago.
Outside of Japan, Ricoh has long been an underrated camera manufacturer as its camera department had been concentrating its manufacturing resouces on P&S or point and shoot rangefinder film and digital cameras. Otherwise, Ricoh has been relatively well-known in the imaging and document reproduction industry for its photocopier machines like Canon, Minolta and Fuji Zerox.
Up to recently, July 2011, Ricoh bought Pentax to built interchangeable lens camera business which may see it grow in the future.
It is known to few photographers, that Ricoh does make a series of high quality and excellent prosumer grade amateur cameras the GX, GRD series, which according to their marketing department is targeted at "serious female photographers and middle age male amateur photographers, which I fitted into the latter category.
To begin with this prosumer-grade camera, the GXR is quality built and a system camera, by design it is both quirky and bold at the same time. Its innovative design had surprised many a seasoned photographer and the gadget crazed hobbyist like myself.
The GXR is essentially, the camera body itself and works with the interchangeable lens and sensor modules which comes as an option. The P10 or 28-200mm zoom lens module comes as a kit option with my GXR purchase and I heartedly recommend this GXR P10 kit to first time owner of Ricoh cameras.
It is compact, extremely portable and delivers excellent image quality with superb (though not superior) optics in the P10 interchangeable lense-sensor module. According to Ricoh by building the lens and the sensor together optimizes the lens design and sensor capability in a single package and beats obsolescence (until Ricoh releases the next module, of course)
The GXR is a camera designed by photographers for photographers, a lot thoughts has been put into its design and it is really a class of its own.It is a camera to be owned experienced by its owner.
A picture speaks louder than words and therefore I posted some of my best shots taken with the GXR P10 kit in this Amazon.com page to share, it is most objective looking at the photos produced with the GXR to decide how good this camera is and to take it out on a trip to experience the joy of using it.
The Ricoh GXR is a feature rich camera which could easily beat the best Nikon P&S, the Nikon P7100 on superior built quality and lower price point. In addition, the GXR is a system camera with interchangeable lens, useful accessories and upgradable expandability.
People who really like the Ricoh GXR and made wonderful pictures with it will know it is their camera once they first feel the camera and test it at the nearest friendly camera retailer shop, period.
Potential owners should visit the Ricoh GXR site for detailed technical and system information. The best feature to highlight is the 1cm MACRO capability which allows for stunning close up shots of everyday objects.
Thank you for reading my humble user review, and my pictures made with my SXR P10 kit, I hope this review is useful to you.
Polaroid One600 Classic Instant Camera
I bought this camera at a going-out-of-business sale at a local retail store about a year ago. I thought the 'construction' nature of the camera would make it more durable, while still providing fairly good pictures. Little did I know that the pictures would be so good!
I never would have guessed that this camera would take such crisp, clear pictures. I have shot more than a half-dozen pkgs of film and every picture has turned out fine. Please understand...this is not a 35mm camera with all the bells & whistles. It is a Polaroid instant camera (w/ flash) that produces good, instant pictures. That being said, it is very rugged and durable and will tolerate adverse weather better than your 35mm will. I have taken pictures in the rain w/o problems you only have to remember to protect the film when it exits the camera. It needs to be kept dry & warm...just like any polaroid.
If you go into this with the correct expectations, you will not be disappointed.
I never would have guessed that this camera would take such crisp, clear pictures. I have shot more than a half-dozen pkgs of film and every picture has turned out fine. Please understand...this is not a 35mm camera with all the bells & whistles. It is a Polaroid instant camera (w/ flash) that produces good, instant pictures. That being said, it is very rugged and durable and will tolerate adverse weather better than your 35mm will. I have taken pictures in the rain w/o problems you only have to remember to protect the film when it exits the camera. It needs to be kept dry & warm...just like any polaroid.
If you go into this with the correct expectations, you will not be disappointed.
Nikon 24-120mm f/4G ED VR AF-S NIKKOR Lens for Nikon Digital SLR
List Price: $1,299.00
Sale Price: $1,296.95
Today's Bonus: $2.05 Off
Being a glutton for punishment, I've owned each incarnation of the 24-120. Honestly, the original was about the worst Nikon lens I've ever owned...I used to describe it as "how to turn several thousand dollars of camera gear into a $200 point and shoot". It was that bad...poor contrast, distortion, vignetting, slow focusing, etc. The only really bad Nikon lens I've ever owned. Thank goodness for eBay, and my condolences to whoever is using that lens today.
Then came the second generation 24-120. Not ready to give up the dream of having a 5x zoom for my (then) new D3, I took the plunge a second time.
The second-generation 24-120 was better than the original, but still not the sharpest tool in the shed. I'm lucky enough to own the "magic quartet" of Nikon zooms (14-24, 24-70, 70-200, 200-400) but I get lazy like everyone else and would like to have a single walk-around lens. Still, the difference in image quality was just too noticeable when I wimped out and took the 24-120 instead of the "real lenses". I'd go out with the 24-120 on my D3 and get some shots that would have been keepers with (say) the 24-70, but ended up disappointing with the 24-120. On my DX camera, I came to like the 16-85 the same 5x zoom range as the 24-120, but with much better image quality. Except maybe in very low light, I actually got better results with the D300 and the 16-85, versus the D3 and 24-120. I tried to convince myself otherwise, but pretty soon the 24-120 was mostly sitting home gathering dust. The second-generation 24-120 eventually landed on eBay, too.
Well, I guess I never learn...still wanting that 5x zoom for my FX camera, I took the plunge and bought the latest 24-120 f/4. I guess I'm a hopeless optimist, but part of me expected to be disappointed once again. Still, instead of disappointment, so far, I'm reasonably impressed with it. Really.
In a nutshell, this is a very different lens than either of the earlier 24-120 products. It handles differently, it's constructed more ruggedly, and it's faster all the way around. The best way to describe it is to say that it's very similar to the 16-85 in terms of image quality, but scaled up for an FX body. That is to say, it's sharp, offers good contrast and color, and not so much distortion that you can't correct it in post processing.
To be clear, the long end is a bit soft wide open, but entirely acceptable at f/8 or so. I'm finding the short end very sharp at 24mm, but with some noticeable distortion (that can be easily fixed in Capture NX2 or Photoshop). Color and contrast are very good, usually giving that "pop" you get with good pro-grade lenses, and for a complex lens, there's relatively little flare. The VR system, as usual for Nikon, works unobtrusively and very effectively. And it's that much better on a DX body most likely outperforming the 16-85 in overall image quality (and that's saying something). Though a slight step down from the best lenses, construction quality seems very good, and the lens seems to handle effortlessly on my bulky D3 as well as on my smaller D300.
Make no mistake, I'd never give up my 24-70 for one of the new 24-120 lenses. In addition to that extra stop (f/2.8 vs. f/4), the 24-70 is one of the world's best in its range...I feel comfortable stacking it up against anything, even those exotic Leica or Carl-Zeiss primes. The 24-120 is "good enough", but you marvel more at the way Nikon made all the design trade-offs, rather than feeling that you have a lens that's about no-compromise absolute top image quality. Still, the 24-120 is finally at a stage where you can carry it around on your FX camera and have no regrets.
I think Nikon finally has a keeper in the 24-120 family...at long last!
MobiCam Audio Video Baby Monitoring System
List Price: $149.95
Sale Price: $89.99
Today's Bonus: 40% Off
11/27/09 Update: I have posted my original monitor review below. Before, my only complaint was that it was "staticky" and I had to move the receiver around to positions where it wouldn't interfere with other devices. After about six months of use however, it made a loud permanent buzzing sound whenever I turned the volume on regardless of where it was placed. It was so annoying it was unusable. The only way it was tolerable if I turned on the video portion only but kept the sound off which didn't work for me since I'm not always looking at the monitor, especially at night when I'm sleeping!
I called Mobicam to see if I could get a replacement but the length of their policy is something pathetic like a month.
I ended up buying Summer Infant Deluxe Day & Night Handheld Color Video Monitor with 2.5" Screen Blue (Infant Deluxe Day & Night Handheld Color Video Monitor with 2.5" Screen) as a replacement which I'm MUCH happier with even though it as it's own drawbacks. I will also write a review for that.
5/9/09: Love/hate relationship with this monitor (Original Review)
We had our heart set on a video monitor (not just an audio one) and it was between this and Summer. We decided on this one because of the Internet option so we could see our little guy from work.
When the monitor works, it works FANTASTICALLY. We can see our baby both during the day and at night due to the infrared. I like being able to see his eyes -if they are closed, I leave him be even if he's whimpering/crying because it means he'll be able to go back to sleep on his own. If they are open, I go to to see what's bothering him.
That was the love part. The hate part is that there is static galore. The monitor flickers and buzzes even if you place anything near it -it doesn't even have to be anything electrical in nature, the screen fizzes out even if you put your hand by the monitor. If you have a wireless phone, it will crackle louder than the TV in Poltergeist. It is super annoying and I spent a lot of time finding the perfect spot to place the monitor where it wouldn't be affected by anything and where I could still see it.
We have our unit on continuous video monitoring so we always plug it into an A/C outlet, otherwise, we would go through way too many batteries.
I wish we could purchase another video monitor so we can leave one in our room and put one downstairs.
As of now, we haven't really used the Internet option. If that feature isn't important to you, I would try the Summer unit instead since that's the one our friends recommend and it seems to have pretty good reviews on Amazon.
Pentax K-5 16.3 MP Digital SLR with 3-Inch LCD (Black Body Only)
List Price: $1,099.00
Sale Price: $660.00
Today's Bonus: 40% Off
When the Kx arrived, K7 owners who were more than content with their current bodies coveted the superior high-ISO (low light performance) capability of the Kx. At least I did. And while the K7 was a capable tool, I often found myself compensating for its weaknesses (which were limited to high ISO and autofocus continuous (AF.C) performance). Not so with the K5.
I won't go into the specifications since those can be found elsewhere but I'll give my overall impression what I like and what could be better:
+ Great ergonomics. Love the compact, solid body which is identical to the K7 save for a heightened knob and elongated AF lever. I was even able to use the same split prism focus screen I had purchased for the K7.
+ Fantastic high-ISO performance clean and offering far more flexibility than the K7. I'd try never to breach ISO 800 on the K7 whereas the K5 is routinely pushed past ISO 3200. While I wouldn't give it equal footing to a full frame camera, it's arguably the best APS-C out there in this application.
+ Outstanding dynamic range -shoot in RAW and leave your graduated ND filters at home.
-+ Improved auto-focus, especially AF-C compared to the K7, but not quite on par with either the D300s or 7D in AF-C.
+ User-friendly, easy to navigate menu system white balance adjustments are a breeze.
+ Good WB and JPEGs "out of the box"
-+ Yes, 1080p video but at 25FPS vs. 24 -surely a firmware update in the future
Audio records at 32KHz sample rate
Only has a single SD/SDHC slot would prefer dual with Compact Flash
Limited to 1/180 X-Sync speed but this is ample in most scenarios
Images shot in portrait don't autorotate on playback but did on the K7(?) again, a likely firmware update
+ Blissful near-silent shutter
+ Compatibility with all those great manual K-mount lenses of yore.
Although I'm a long time Pentax user, I considered and evaluated both the Canon 7D and Nikon D300s without bias. While both are outstanding DSLRs, I preferred the Pentax K5.
An all-around excellent camera and a joy to use. A noteworthy upgrade.
Canon Pixma MX410 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer (4788B018)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I got this printer not as a replacement, but a supplement to the brother laser printer I already have. It also pretty much replaces my old Epson scanner, which is showing signs of aging.
PROS: Amazingly easy to set up. I own a Mac, and it's basically plug n play like most Mac compatible products. My OS immediately recognized the new hardware and prompted to download the necessary software which is very intuitive and easy to understand.
The onboard display is VERY easy to understand and most of the commands can come from the printer itself without having to open any programs on your computer. For example, you want to make a simple copy of something press "COPY" and it will do so within seconds. Scanning, same thing but it will automatically open the appropriate program for you after you press "SCAN" ... it works in reverse as well, so you can always open up the program manually.
It does seem to be an amazing value for getting a 3-in-1 deal. I have not used the fax feature yet, but I imagine that it would deliver similar results to the scanner and printer.
Scanning quality looks good. I do some pretty basic scans for web-view type of imagery so I think most scanners suffice for this purpose. If you plan on scanning things for larger blow up or printing, then this probably won't do it for you. The scan area is only a little bigger than letter size.
CONS: As far as amazing resolution, this printer will not necessarily give you that. For standard copies and documents it will get the job done and then some. If you are looking for a printer that can give you really nice images (something that you will use specifically for photo printing) then you might as well splurge and get something that will give you amazing resolution. While this printer is not bad at all, you will be much more satisfied with splurging a little more for DOPE resolution.
So, this combo is very nice. I honestly don't see myself using it to print (as in word documents) as much as I will use the copy and scan features. But, if you have a small office or even want this for your small business it seems like it will do the trick for you. At this price, it seems really hard to beat.
I own a fair number of Canon products now, and they all have stood up to their reputation. They are durable and seem to have lasted all this time without breakage. You can probably expect this one to last you quite a while.
PROS: Amazingly easy to set up. I own a Mac, and it's basically plug n play like most Mac compatible products. My OS immediately recognized the new hardware and prompted to download the necessary software which is very intuitive and easy to understand.
The onboard display is VERY easy to understand and most of the commands can come from the printer itself without having to open any programs on your computer. For example, you want to make a simple copy of something press "COPY" and it will do so within seconds. Scanning, same thing but it will automatically open the appropriate program for you after you press "SCAN" ... it works in reverse as well, so you can always open up the program manually.
It does seem to be an amazing value for getting a 3-in-1 deal. I have not used the fax feature yet, but I imagine that it would deliver similar results to the scanner and printer.
Scanning quality looks good. I do some pretty basic scans for web-view type of imagery so I think most scanners suffice for this purpose. If you plan on scanning things for larger blow up or printing, then this probably won't do it for you. The scan area is only a little bigger than letter size.
CONS: As far as amazing resolution, this printer will not necessarily give you that. For standard copies and documents it will get the job done and then some. If you are looking for a printer that can give you really nice images (something that you will use specifically for photo printing) then you might as well splurge and get something that will give you amazing resolution. While this printer is not bad at all, you will be much more satisfied with splurging a little more for DOPE resolution.
So, this combo is very nice. I honestly don't see myself using it to print (as in word documents) as much as I will use the copy and scan features. But, if you have a small office or even want this for your small business it seems like it will do the trick for you. At this price, it seems really hard to beat.
I own a fair number of Canon products now, and they all have stood up to their reputation. They are durable and seem to have lasted all this time without breakage. You can probably expect this one to last you quite a while.
Voigtlander Ultron 40mm f/2 SL-II Aspherical Compact Pancake
First of all, this lens is manual focus only, so, unless you're super experienced with manual focus cameras, you don't want to shoot portraits, wedding or pets with this lens. But if lack of AF doesn't turn you off, this lens is actually amazing.
EF35mm f/2.0 (the non-USM version) is an okay lens on full frame. It's not particularly sharp. it has rather poor chromatic aberration of magnification, so you get color in high contrast edges. The autofocus is slow, noisy and inaccurate. EF35mm f/1.4L is better in many regards, but it's not particularly sharp between 1.4 and 2.2. Chromatic aberration is also visible, though not as badly as the f/2 version.
You know what, Ultron 40mm is very sharp, shows almost no chromatic aberration, and produces nice smooth images in or out of focus. It is not perfect in the sense that it has some vignetting, some corner softness, some flare/ghost with strong light source, but it's pretty good for five hundred bucks. With no strong light in the view, the image is not very highly contrasty due to slight to mild flare, but it's not too bad.
These days, you can find 35mm f/1.4 manual-only lens from third party. They are reputed to be very high quality, but they suffer from the same shortcomings from EF35mm f/1.4L, namely, somewhat soft image. Ultron is sharper, yet produces soft out of focus blur. Another thing about Ultron is that it works with E-TTL metering. This is particularly useful for me, since I occasionally use a couple of 580EXII and 600EX flash units with pocket wizard. The other third party 35mm f/1.4 lenses do not have a microprocessor in the lens to allow E-TTL.
One suggestion. You have to manual focus with this lens, so I strongly recommend getting Ee-S or Eg-S super precision mat focusing screen for your 5D/5DII/6D. I would not recommend using this lens on 7D or 5D3 because the viewfinder screen is not interchangeable and it's not as nice to work with manual focus. There are third party screens that you can install in 7D, although it requires using some jeweler's screwdrivers. If you are okay with that, it'd be a fantastic lens on 7D as well. You can't really enjoy using manual focus lens using stock viewfinder screen! (This is true for TS-E 24/45/90mm lenses as well.)
The lens hood is kinda lousy. It does the job of protecting the front element, but not so good job of cutting stray light. Get a rubber hood with 52mm thread.
I didn't test the close up attachment. To me, that's kinda silly. If I had to do close up work, I'd use a different lens. But, I got excellent image quality at the minimum focusing distance without using the attachment.
EF35mm f/2.0 (the non-USM version) is an okay lens on full frame. It's not particularly sharp. it has rather poor chromatic aberration of magnification, so you get color in high contrast edges. The autofocus is slow, noisy and inaccurate. EF35mm f/1.4L is better in many regards, but it's not particularly sharp between 1.4 and 2.2. Chromatic aberration is also visible, though not as badly as the f/2 version.
You know what, Ultron 40mm is very sharp, shows almost no chromatic aberration, and produces nice smooth images in or out of focus. It is not perfect in the sense that it has some vignetting, some corner softness, some flare/ghost with strong light source, but it's pretty good for five hundred bucks. With no strong light in the view, the image is not very highly contrasty due to slight to mild flare, but it's not too bad.
These days, you can find 35mm f/1.4 manual-only lens from third party. They are reputed to be very high quality, but they suffer from the same shortcomings from EF35mm f/1.4L, namely, somewhat soft image. Ultron is sharper, yet produces soft out of focus blur. Another thing about Ultron is that it works with E-TTL metering. This is particularly useful for me, since I occasionally use a couple of 580EXII and 600EX flash units with pocket wizard. The other third party 35mm f/1.4 lenses do not have a microprocessor in the lens to allow E-TTL.
One suggestion. You have to manual focus with this lens, so I strongly recommend getting Ee-S or Eg-S super precision mat focusing screen for your 5D/5DII/6D. I would not recommend using this lens on 7D or 5D3 because the viewfinder screen is not interchangeable and it's not as nice to work with manual focus. There are third party screens that you can install in 7D, although it requires using some jeweler's screwdrivers. If you are okay with that, it'd be a fantastic lens on 7D as well. You can't really enjoy using manual focus lens using stock viewfinder screen! (This is true for TS-E 24/45/90mm lenses as well.)
The lens hood is kinda lousy. It does the job of protecting the front element, but not so good job of cutting stray light. Get a rubber hood with 52mm thread.
I didn't test the close up attachment. To me, that's kinda silly. If I had to do close up work, I'd use a different lens. But, I got excellent image quality at the minimum focusing distance without using the attachment.
Nikon D5300 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with Built-in Wi-Fi
List Price: $799.95
Sale Price: $796.95
Today's Bonus: $3.00 Off
The primary reason for me to upgrade from Nikon's D5100 to D5300 was new GPS location recording function. A secondary reason was hoping a sharper image without the low pass filter. With limited use so far, I would not say D5300 is a must have upgrade from D5100.
Pro:
* It is slightly lighter than D5100. I like it but others may not.
* LCD screen is bigger than D5100.
* There is an added single/continues/self-timer selection button. Although the button position could be better, but it is still better than D5100 has go through quick menu to change it.
* The image may be marginally sharper using Nikon 18-200 zoom lens, but because the sensor has different pixel counts, it is hard to say for sure without spend some effort look into it. But then again, if one needs to look so hard to find the difference. it shows the differences are really small.
* LiveView although still sluggish, at least it is much improved over D5100.
* It uses the same EN-EL 14 battery as the D5100. This means I can keep my spare batteries.
* Wi-Fi function was not important to me but with Nikon's Wireless Mobility Utility I can sync the camera's clock with my phone. This is important for using the phone as GPS logger. The utility also functions as remote with ability to turn Live View on/off.
Con:
* When I first got the D5300 three days after it was released, the GPS's performance is just awful! Then there was talk about update the camera's GPS file. With the update, the GPS function improved somewhat but there is catch that we the owner need to download and applied new updates every two weeks! I just came back from a week long trip to Germany and I found out even with the update, it is still near useless in the field! First, even with the update it still take time to lock on satellite signal! To make matter worse is even with the GPS logging function on, the camera will not maintain the lock once it goes to standby mode and upon wake up, it needs to rescan and lock! Further more, even after it locks, any movement can cause it to loose the lock even by just walking a few steps! I even have many shoots just seconds apart without moving and yet the camera still could not maintain the lock! I would say the outdoor shoots managed to get GPS data is only about 50% and one can forget any hope the GPS can track indoor or inside cars.
* As the GPS not able to lock quickly not bad enough, it is also not very accurate!! While some pictures that I shoot so far are accurate, most of them are at least 50ft-100ft off and many are even more than 1,000ft off!!
* Not only the GPS is close to useless, it also drain battery much quicker! With the GPS on, the battery can be drained with as little as 200-300 shoots! When changing battery with GPS "on", sometimes the GPS came back resumed to "on", but other times it came back as "off"! I found it very frustrating as most of time I need to change battery in a hurry and do not have time to check all the status.
* D5300 has an AF assist lamp as the D5100 and it has the same problem. While this lampmay be good for some cases, it is inappropriate for others. The way Nikon implements it is not very flexible. The default setting is have the lamp on all the time for Auto and PASM mode with some pre-programmed scene modes will disable it. The only way for user to turn it on/off for PASM is to go through custom setting menu and it applied to all modes. One cannot program PASM differently that made this function less useful or even annoying.
* Wi-Fi function was not important to me but it seems I have to use it for some functions only the wireless utility offers, it matters now and I was surprised to find out it can only be connected to smart devices with either Android or iOS AND with Nikon's Wireless Mobility Utility running. It does not connect to PC or router. It is a two stages job. First to connect the two with Wi-Fi and then start the utility on the smart device. For some Android devices that supports WPS, the connection is secure. Otherwise by using SSID to connect, it is unsecured with SSID broadcast wide open that some one else can possible to connect to the camera.
* The wireless utility has a function to use smart device's GPS tag which is very good. But, my test so far seems it will only embedded the tag as picture been transferred from the camera to the device not directly to the SD card in the camera. Although I can understand the logic in view of possible unsecured link, it is another two stages job first to transfer the image to device and then to PC or somewhere else. It also made this function not very practical to use when travelling as the smart devices' memory are much smaller than the SD card and the prolong use of Wi-Fi seems draining the battery quickly.
I will update this review after I have time to take a closer look at the pictures taken so far.
Edit 11/20/2013:
* Because of the AF assist lamp setting was so inflexible, I turned it off when I first got the D5100 and did not even remember it also has the lamp until I am comparing it with the D5300. Too bad Nikon has not done any improvement on the settings.
* Tried the GPS on another open space, it was even worse than before! It seems this GPS function is worthless as is. If GPS function is an important buying factor, I would rate the D5300 THREE STARS or less. If you are like me already have the D5100 or D5200 thinking about upgrading to D5300 for the GPS, you probably should stay with what you have.
* Added comments about Wi-Fi
Edit 11/22/2013
S. Fox mentioned SSID for Wi-Fi. Although I have seen it before, never thought I will use it because it is unsecure. But since Fox mentioned, I gave it a try and that is when I found out it can not even connect directly to PC or router!
Edit 11/23/2013
* Mercury Coach mentioned updating A-GPS data might help. Well, it did! Although the GPS is still inconsistent that took from 10s to 1 min. to lock on at same location, it is at least far more usable now. The problem is it seem we have to update this GPS file every two weeks to keep it happy.
* Tried Wi-Fi and the Wireless Mobility Utility a bit with mixed feeling.
* Although the GPS is faster now , it also seems less accurate. Those pictures taken before the update were very accurate but those taken after the update were at least 200ft off. I will test some more to see if indeed the update traded accuracy for speed.
Edit 12/1/2013
Just came back from a trip. I am very disappointed with the GPS even with the update! Most of the time it could not lock on or maintain lock to signal when we walk around a handful of cities in Germany. Not only it is useless for the trip, it also drain the battery much faster than I like or expect! I will give more details later.
Edit 12/3/2013
Added more details about the GPS.
Samsung BD-D6500 3D Blu-ray Disc Player (Black) (2011 Model)
List Price: $199.99
Sale Price: $199.00
Today's Bonus: $0.99 Off
I needed to replace an aging Panasonic DMP-BD35K, which had decided to become selective as to which BD's it would play( typically newer titles wouldn't load, I'm not sure if it's a question of a lack in newer firmware, of which Panasonic hasn't released an update in about two years, or if it just isn't working any longer.).
I had researched extensively on the purchase of the Panasonic reading many reviews from several websites, but on this purchase I just decided to take a chance with Samsung. I do own a Samsung television which I really like and the reviews of Samsung's 2010 Blu-ray player were also good. Nearly as good as the 'King of the hill' Oppo( according to cnet video test scores. ). I was also aware of the many negative reviews of the 2010 BD-C6500 and I also noticed that they were mostly in regards to the web enabled apps, and not in regards to video playback. I have an Apple TV which I use for Netflix streaming( it does an excellent job of that, 720p only, but no biggy for me ), and I don't really have any use for the other apps.
So in comes the BD-D6500, I unpack it and connect it in about five minute. The set up is basic with many of the menu selections being 'Auto'. I'm still playing with the set up to see if anything looks better/more accurate. I pop in a disc( Avatar ) and wow, it just looked better. I start going through several BD's and they all look great. The blacks are darker without an over zealous increase in contrast. I run it at 24Hz and it appears to do that better as well( it was always so-so on the Panasonic. ). The Imax shots in The Dark Knight look awesome. And all the while as I am going through several BD's I notice how fast this player loads the discs. Really fast compared to the much older Panasonic.
I'm really impressed by this player. I also played some old DVDs to see how well it upscaled and it did a great job. Again it clearly out performed the Panasonic.
Now as far as the Smart TV apps are concerned I did try to watch a movie on Vudu as it gave me a free rental, and after I selected a movie( Machete ), the player locked up. Maybe it didn't like the movie I picked, but it still shouldn't have done that. I did notice that after I registered the player, the Vudu, along with all the other apps that I went through seemed to work. Perhaps I needed to register the player before I was able to use the apps? And there isn't any built in memory for BD-Live which is kind of lame. You need to use an external USB drive.
In the end I am very happy with this purchase and to be completely honest, a part of me was hoping that this player would have sucked just so I could justify the $500 purchase price of the Oppo BD-93. But it doesn't. It's just a really good Blu-ray player and that's what I wanted. So if your not too concerned with Smart TV apps( which are now working for me ), or too worried about playing files off of your PC( which I think it does, but I haven't a use for. ) then buy with confidence, as I am sure that once the different review sites get their hands on the this new BD-D6500, the results will be stellar.
Sony NEX-5RK/WQ 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Digital
List Price: $899.95
Sale Price: $666.89
Today's Bonus: 26% Off
Great on every level. Would recommend the viewfinder if you will be taking lots of sun outdoor shots. Skip the flash its rarely needed and get the wide angle lens!!
Canon PGI-29 LUCIA Series Color & Monochrome Ink Tanks - Twelve
It is just an ink set for a high quality printer. I will keep it as a spare. However, it is overpriced somehow. It costs $335 for a $899 printer. I am not sure if this is the case for other printer inks.
Sony Handycam HDR-PJ650V 32GB 1080p HD Video Camera Camcorder
A simple and easy to use camera. The image stabilizing capability is amazing, the motion is smooth as if mounted on a moving tripod. Playback is crystal clear against
a wall or vertical surface.
a wall or vertical surface.
SWANN SW343-DP2 4-Channel Digital Video Recorder with 320 GB
the system is a very good for the money, I don't deal with electrical connections so I had someone install it for me. It works real nice but the connection cables are cheap ( cables that connect from dvr to tv) so you have to buy a better one. The camaras work very well and the resolution is very good even at night. The dvr is compact and easy to use with or without the remote. I recoment the system as long as you have someone to install it for you if you don't do electrical connections.
