GoPro HERO3+: Silver Edition

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

Be aware when purchasing that there are some aspects to the new "improved" lens that may not be for everyone. This week it has been fairly well documented (and confirmed by GoPro) that while the new lens produces much sharper images under 4', they are blurrier at distances greater than 4'. It does NOT focus at infinity. For reasons not fully explained, they moved the focal point of the lens in close and sacrificed distance clarity.

Update at bottom.

You will get great shots under 4' and soft focus beyond that. Depending on what you want it for, this camera may not be for you and the regular H3 might be a better bet. Since this is an effect of the lens it applies to both stills and video. On the other hand, it's still a decent small action camera, and if you take a lot of video in motion you may not notice this at all. For YouTube uploads and streaming it may not matter, I haven't tested this myself. If you want better clarity in your images the 3B is a good choice. I personally will play with it this week before deciding if I should return it. (Update: it's going back.)

It boggles the mind that they have produced a camera that claims to have a better lens and ignored the fact that it is in fact worse for 90% of what you'll be filming. Great clarity on your handlebars but not so good on the scenery.

Edit: other plusesthe color is much better with the 3+ than the 3. Low light shooting is also better, although sometimes lens flare from lights is a little worse, sometimes better. No more chromatic aberration (yellow/purple fringing). Just do some reading before buying this, they made some trade-offs in the new lens.

Updated 10/17:

Well after comparing the two (3+B and 3B) this week, there are some more problems that have had me downgrade this to a 3 star. For one, the right and left sides of the images on the 3+ are smeared. I mean really distorted, and I'm not using SuperView. Additionally the contrast seems to be set too high, causing some loss of detail in the shadows and blowing out whites a bit. This at least is changeable with a firmware update if they choose to do so. The blurry edges put me over the edge and I'm returning it. It's too bad, it's almost a great camera, with some nice improvements, but the lens is a definite problem, and not necessarily an improvement... certainly not 33% sharper.

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Olympus Tough TG-830 iHS (Black) + Floating Strap + Battery

Customer Ratings:

This is a great camera. All the functions are the best to take a great photos in your vacations. All the accessories are so helpful. I recommend this bundle because its all you need to take the best photos.

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Q-See QC804-1 Digital 4-Channel Network Video Recorder with POE

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $599.99
Sale Price: $533.97
Today's Bonus: 11% Off

I have purchased tons of stuff from amazon over the years, and this is the first time I have felt inclined to write a review, so bear with me. So, right up front, I tried hard to really like this thing. I have been wanting to get it for some time now, as I have two 1080 HD Dahua security cameras (for those that don't know, Q-See cameras and NVRs are just re-branded Dahua), which are great cameras for the most part, but that's a review for another product.

Let me first explain where I was before I got this NVR:

I have been using the FTP functionality on the cameras for about a year now, saving off the video footage to my PC. The problem was that it was REALLY bogging down my system with the constant writing to the secondary hard drive in my machine (the cameras don't have the best motion-sensing capabilities, so I had motion detection set so high that it was almost full-time record) at about 6000Kbps constant bit rate.

This is when I decided to save up for this thing and I was really excited when I got it. My friend (we are both engineers, by the way) had just ordered the 16-channel NVR and seemed to have mixed emotions after about a week's worth of using it. He has 5 Dahua cameras and we both did the FTP thing for the last year or so. I got the 8-channel, because I didn't think I would ever have more than 6 cameras or so.

Now that you know where I am coming from, let me summarize a few points on this thing:

The good:

1. Like any NVR, this thing is completely stand-alone and does a great job recording the video to the disk. It has TONS of options and you can tweak you camera settings from the NVR itself. As far as the recording goes, I couldn't be happier.

2. You can use the "Q-See QC View" iPhone and iPad apps to view the cameras, playback recorded video from the NVR, etc. (more on this later).

3. The model I purchased comes with a built-in 4-port PoE (Power over ethernet) switch, which is VERY handy if you don't already have a PoE switch for your cameras. This necessitates two power supplies (12V for the NVR itself, and 48V for the built-in PoE switch), which are both included, of course.

4. HDMI and RGB output. I have it hooked up to both my TV through HDMI (I am actually using a BriteView wireless HDMI transmitter in there, too and it still works great) and to a secondary computer monitor next to the NVR at the same time and that seems to work great as well, though I have not tried having them both on at the same time, but I don't think that it would make much of a difference.

5. The NVR finds the cameras really easily. If you have the cameras plugged directly into the NVR (using one of the four the PoE ports), it only takes as much time to find them as it takes the camera to boot up. Really easy.

The neutral:

1. A little fan noise. Not something to be TOO concerned with, but the NVR does have a built-in fan that can be a little annoying if you are sitting in the same room as the thing. It's not really loud, but just a little annoying unless you have the NVR tucked away in a server room of sorts, which is what I did.

2. The user interface was obviously designed by engineers (and, like I said, I AM one). It's not SUPER ugly (though they probably could have prettied it up some), it's just hard to navigate through. Like I mentioned above, there are TONS of options for this thing, and they decided to make all of these options available to you, which is good, but can be a little overwhelming.

3. This NVR may change settings on your cameras without warning you. Make sure you have your network settings set up EXACTLY how you want it before you plug your cameras into the PoE switch on the back of the NVR. I was using an external PoE switch at first and found the cameras easily with the NVR on the network. I had them configured with static IPs (192.168.x.x) for easy access. All of that changed when I moved them from my external PoE switch to the built-in switch on the NVR (which has a default gateway of 10.1.1.1). The switch on the NVR is completely separate from the rest of your network. In other words, I had my NVR's IP set to 192.168.0.200, for example. The switch is still in the 10.1.x.x space. So, when I moved my cameras, they were re-assigned a 10.1.x.x IP....and it was static. I couldn't access the cameras directly from my network anymore because they were now on a different network. Sure, I could probably change my subnet masks to be able to access them again, but it was just really annoying. Even after moving them back to my external PoE switch, they were still inaccessible. Just be aware of this.

The bad:

1. Try accessing this NVR from anything but IE and you're out of luck. IE? Really? C'mon, guys! I am even able to access most of the functionality on my Dahua cameras directly with the iPad, but not the NVR? C'mon. Also, you have to have the RIGHT VERSION of IE to be able to have it work smoothly, according to the different forums my buddy read. I am still running IE9, and am worried that if I upgrade to 10 that I might lose all functionality, just like with other browsers.

2. Invisible files? What the...? So, when I was saving off my video to my PC directly via FTP, it saves off the data into files that you can play back with some Dahua software, which was really nice, but has it's own drawbacks, of course. Anyway, Q-See claims that the NVR can save off these data files to your computer, and, when looking through the user interface (with IE, of course), sure enough, you can.....sort of. I, apparently, was not using the correct VERSION of IE to download these files from the NVR to my computer, because as soon as they were downloaded, for the life of me, I could not find them with Windows Explorer. I went back and tried to download the file again, but the Save As dialog showed that it was already there!! What the...? Back to Windows Explorer. Nothing. Do a windows search for the file. Nothing. Back to the Save As dialog? Still there?! That makes no sense! Hidden files? Nope. Permission issues? Nope. I could ONLY access the files locally by right-clicking on them in the stupid Save-As dialog. Perhaps someone can shed some light on this one?

3. Ok, at least I am able to watch the playback from my bed on the iPad....wait, did the app just freeze? Huh. Must have been a glitch. Close the playback window, open it again. Looks like it's playing fine aga---what?! Again?! Over and over and over again, the iPad app freezes during playback (this is not even mentioning the frequent 'out of memory' messages you get from the app on a regular basis, but that also happens in Dahua's IDMSS iPad app -which makes sense -they are essentially the same). And I am not saying it freezes after 5 minutes -try every 10 seconds of playback. Extremely frustrating if you are trying to look for footage from earlier.

The wrap-up:

Overall, this NVR is just not quite ready for prime time. It shows a LOT of potential, and I love that it will record 1080 video from multiple cameras, but accessing the video after it is recorded is just too much. I had hoped there would be firmware updates or something to address these issues, but I am seeing these issues mentioned in posts from a year ago and I still see no new firmware to fix it -after nearly a year of them knowing about the bugs. I am regretfully returning mine to Amazon due to these major flaws. I may just end up buying a NAS and enabling an FTP server on it to store my data. Sad day, indeed. I really wanted to like this NVR.

Oh, and in case you think it might be just my NVR? My friend had the exact same issues with his. It's just not quite ready for prime time. If you have solutions for any of these above issues (and please don't tell me to format the hard drive in the NVR -I've already read about all of that), I would love to hear them! Perhaps I would then keep it after all.

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Nikon 4809 SB-910 Speedlight Supplied with; AS-21 Speedlight

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $549.95
Sale Price: $499.95
Today's Bonus: 9% Off

I was a bit surprised when I saw Nikon had introduced the SB-910 relatively quickly given the old SB-800 was around for longer when the SB-900 introduced so my suspicion is they got very tired of dealing with the overheating issues that the SB-900 had. Granted for many people those issues were not THAT big of a deal since believe me, having to wait 10 minutes for a flash to cool down during an automatic "time out" is far better than frying your flash; however, for pros who are about to take that picture of a ring being put on a finger, or the first kiss, etc. this is a very big deal and the SB-910 addresses that.

Physically, you can't tell the two apart unless you look closely. The color correction gels on the 910 are also hard and better built. Internally, the 910 takes much longer to overheat and when it does, it slows down the flash rate (not sure about power) instead of just shutting down. I had fun playing with this flash (I don't own it yet since my current SB-800 is more than good enough) but if I were to buy one today, this would be it.

Who should get this?

If you do many events where power is important (bouncing lights off ceiling), rapid recycles, etc. get this.

If you do a lot of off camera CLS work, get this.

If you have an SB-900, I'd probably hold off.

If you have an SB-800 and don't need the easier controls, hold off.

If you have an SB-600 and need more power or a flash commander, get this.

If you have an SB-700 and need more power get this.

If you're just an average shooter who uses flash now and then at the kids' party or as fill flash here or there or just want an commander, the SB-700 is good enough.

If you're strapped for cash and don't need a commander, find a nice used SB-600...possibly used SB-800 if you can find it at $300ish, get that.

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Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only - Black)

Customer Ratings:

The XT is amazing. The battery comes partly charged so you can immedietly start using the camera (thank you Canon!) I've already shot about 200 pictures with it and the battery hasn't died yet.

I can't give you a comparison between the XT and the 20D as I haven't owned a 20D, I can tell you a few things you may wish to know before buying.

This camera, is TINY. Extremely tiny. I'm a woman in my early twenties and I have small hands. The camera fits just right in my hands, but honestly, I don't see how someone with bigger hands would be 100% comfortable holding this. If my hands were any larger, they would be slipping off the bottom.

I had tried holding a 20D at a camera shop once and it felt too large in my hands to grip. The camera size is perfect for me, but just beware if you have larger hands. You may want to look into the battery grip, or test out holding the camera at a store before you order it. See the picture I uploaded above to get a size relation and how the camera fits in my hands.

For anyone who is migrating to this camera from a standard point and shoot digital camera, you cannot frame the image you are about to take using the LCD screen on the back. You must look through the viewfinder. The LCD screen is soley for menu use and preview mode after the picture has been taken, nothing more.

Something I've noticed is the camera makes a ratteling sound when moved around. I couldn't figure out what the heck it was, and then I finally reazlized it's the hinges from the pop-up flash. It sounds like they are loose when the flash is closed. I went to Best Buy and looked at their display model, and yep, it has the same problem. Well, it's not really a *problem* but frankly something ratteling around like that sounds cheaply made to me. My Canon film SLR doesn't make that sound.

I use a 420EX Speedlite flash with my SLRs so the popup flash doesn't concern me, but it was something I noticed and thought I would share.

I love that Canon gave the option to have a black finish over a silver one.

The startup time is instantaneous which is absolutely wonderful.

The burst mode is excellent with 3 fps.

It's extremely quiet.

The image quality is excellent. You can get photo quality prints at 20x30, and even then I bet you could push it further.

I really can't elaborate more then what other reviews have said. If you are looking for a step into the digital SLR world, this is the ticket. Or you can even check out the newly reduced original Digital Rebel, but for the extra hundred bucks or so, I would just get the XT. You will not be sorry.

Two upgrades I would make right away: Get a Speedlite flash and the Canon 28-135mm lens.

Also, I don't know why people are submitting bad reviews grading Amazon on shipping for the Rebel XT. When I preordered the XT from Amazon (not from another 3rd party), it said it would be released March 20th. I got my Rebel XT in the mail yesterday (the 22nd) which if you ask me, is pretty darn good. Want something right away? Then walk into a store and buy it instead of ordering from the internet.

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Brother MFC-9440CN Color Laser All-in-One Printer with Built-in

Customer Ratings:

I am very pleased with my Brother MFC-9440CN. Here are some positive and negative points:

-Positive --

It is very easy to set up. I have it configured for access through Ethernet, and it was far easer to get set up than other network printers I've installed. Other setup options are easy to understand and set. It also supports USB and parallel connections. No printer cables are provided. Software installed quickly and without problems under Windows XP.

Black and white print quality is outstanding -as good as any printer I've ever used.

The print speed is very good.

Is a very solid machine (it takes two people to lift it). It feels like it is built to last. (see negative comment below)

Copying is easy, and there is an option to collate copies of multipage documents (they call this "stacking").

Toner cartridges are reasonably priced on a cost/page basis.

It has a front auxiliary paper feeder that can be used for envelopes or other media. I find this extremely valuable.

I haven't had any paper jams.

I have successfully printed color CD labels using Neato label material. It handled the thick material fine, and the image was good.

Faxes are easy to send.

-Negative --

It takes 30 seconds for the first copy to be completed when you do the first print while it's cold. I have an HP 2420d that gets the first copy out in 7 seconds flat.

The machine is heavy and large. Don't try to move it by yourself. (see positive note above).

The color saturation is not as deep as I would like. Don't misunderstand, the color is good, but when printing something like a bar chart with deep, solid colors, the colors aren't as deep as I would like. There may be some setting to adjust this, but I haven't found it.

The machine makes more noise than my HP 2420d, but the noise is not objectionable.

The machine draws a lot of power. My room lights dim when it is warming up.

Overall summary: Very fine color laser printer that is easy to set up, easy to use, fast, and solidly built. I have no regrets with the purchase.

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HP H470wbt Officejet Mobile Printer

Customer Ratings:

The HP H470wbt is HP's answer to the "on the go" printer. If you haven't read the spec you will see this particular incarnation comes with a battery for on the road use. The battery is charged while on the printer much like a laptop.

The overall quality of print is passable but not top of the line nor a good choice if you want nice photo-quality prints.

However, if you need to print normal text or perhaps a page from the internet, it does fine. The pages come out at a fair pace (better than one would expect from a small printer) and the quality is acceptable.

The footprint is relatively small and if you plan to carry around with you, expect to use something like a backpack or camera style backpack for your laptop and the printer.

The blue tooth that comes with it works well enough. Just remember to install the blue tooth drivers then deal with Windows itself (in that order).

The one real caveat relates to small printer small ink cartridges. One has to realize to keep this unit small and consume little power, the cartridges are on the small side. Fortunately, they are easily found at various merchants and not an odd special cartridge(s). There is the option to get slightly larger ones but again, the larger ones are also fairly small in output.

Last on the not so good list HP insists on some of their inkjets to use flimsy mechanisms for housing the ink cartridges. In this case they have some "wires" bent to work with the install assembly of the cartridges. This is asking for trouble sooner or later.

I have not ran enough paper through to experience any paper feed problems and thus, cannot comment on this. This is an important part and as those who have had laser printers and inkjets know this can be a problem that occurs over time.

Overall the unit is passable and in some respect very nice. I give it three stars rather than four because of the ink install assembly. The blue tooth, compactness, reasonable output are all to be appreciated.

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Switronix DSLR-PRO Camera Shoulder Support

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $279.00
Sale Price: $269.99
Today's Bonus: 3% Off

Good Product for the price! it feels a little weird in the shoulder but the fact that has that inverted U shape helps you rest more than others Rigs a have tried. The plate its not top quality but over all its a good product for the bucks. The fact that you can rearrange the distance of the camera lets you play good with a Viewfinder. If you are gona have like a big tele on the camera maybe its good that consider to put a counterweight. The one hand grip its great to focus with the other hand.

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Apple MacBook Pro MD213LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop with Retina Display

Customer Ratings:

UPDATE: 12/11/12

After following Anandtech and their WebKit beta benchmarking awhile back, I've been testing all the newer WebKit builds over the past week and the scrolling gets better and better every few releases. The Pinch to Zoom on text is actually MASSIVELY better than the current actual Safari release. I think it goes a long way in proving, the point that better threading, Intel 4000 drivers or GPU off loading or all the above making everything much snappier on Ivy Bridge SoC retina machines. Surely not too far from an actual Safari update. You can grab a webkit download for free and test it yourself. Updates come out nearly everyday or more often.

***

If you don't own the machine don't review it. You are polluting the purpose of why Amazon has these here in the first place. To all the people who have "tried" the machine out for 30 seconds scrolling web pages and claim the 15 inch Retina is a better buy you are wrong. The 15 inch model which I also use at work also depends on the Intel HD4000 for everything on the OS aside from video rendering, Photoshop GPU load or games. The UI performance and web browser scrolling is THE EXACT SAME on the 15 inch model if not worse. You have no business "reviewing" a product without using it for an extended amount of time.

If you are buying this you are paying for the display. That's all there is to it. I reviewed the 15 incher Retina when we received it at the office and just about everything I said there applies exactly as it does here. The unit I purchased with my own money direct from Apple has been configured with the option Core i7 and 256gb SSD. I will reiterate my standings. I am a daily news and sports photojournalist and also an IT Manager. I work long days and long hours on both. I work with Linux, OS X and just about every flavor of Windows desktop or Server. I need fast, portable and reliable machines for tearing through my .NEF images from my D3 and D700. I need something fast and friendly for accessing Windows via Bootcamp. This 13 inch Retina Macbook is exactly what I need. But just like all of Apple products, it is not for everybody. That is why Apple has such a diverse catalog of machines somewhere in there, you will find something for your needs at the right price.

PROS:

This is a Macbook Pro through and through. It has a speedy processor that blows through most tasks. Though it's only a dual core, unlike the quad core 15, I/O is still really fast: startup, Application launches, saving, exporting they are all blisteringly fast for something this small. I can process batches upon batches of RAW images in my now "old" copy of Photoshop CS4 with zero hesitation. It just wipes them out.

Size and weight are PERFECT. The 15 inch Retina is a freaking boat anchor compared to this. It's simply too wide to be truly portable. My 11 inch Macbook Air is a cramped pain to edit more than a few dozen images at a time. This 13 inch Retina weighs marginally more than a 13 inch Macbook Air but not enough that feels significant.

It has a chunky keyboard and comfortable palm rest area.

Who needs a CD drive anymore? Dirt cheap and fast USB flash sticks are quickly becoming the new swappable storage. If you do need one the USB superdrive isn't bad, but a normal 15" model may be better in this price range.

Speakers and sound quality are simply astonishing for a laptop. I can't hear half what I play on my 11 inch air, here, you can Smokey Robinson or Vampire Weekend boom throughout the room with a real attention to clarity and low distortion.

It's built like a vault and feels more expensive than you will ever pay for it.

The display is just stunning. It's silky and subtle you don't notice fully until you see something else. I had a field assignment yesterday and packed in the Macbook Air 11 because I don't yet have a protective case for this Retina. I about threw up in my mouth for how bad terrible even the display on that Air is compared to this. You simply cannot go back.

CONS:

Battery life isn't that great. The five hour range isn't out of the questions, but don't expect a whole lot more than that.

I prefer the Magsafe connector that is parallel to the chassis and not perpendicular like this. That's picky but most Apple users are.

8 gigs of RAM forever sounds scary, but with the fast SSD, it is far less important than it would be with a slow platter drive. The soldered RAM is more of a talking point than actual problem.

THis is not a gaming laptop. PERIOD. I have owned EVERY SINGLE form factor iteration of the Macbook and a good deal of the Pro line, even back to the freaking Powerbook 160. Yes a 160. I can say with authority, the 13 inch Macbooks have NEVER done gaming or video on any level more than passable. I have a fire breathing GTX 670, SSD and 16gb of RAM PC at home for games and we have MacPros at work for FCP and Video.

Though most things are snappy, because of the Ivy Bridge 4000 Graphics, expect Mission Control and some scrolling on graphic heavy websites to drop frames. You can tell there's a struggle to push all those millions of pixels. The 15 incher performs EXACTLY like this. The nVidia discrete graphics acceleration is only called for heavy lifting apps, it isn't used for OS navigation at all. The biggest issue with the graphcs power has nothing to do with Apps the slower UI navigation shows up most obviously in the "MORE SPACE" display res mode of 1680x1050. Same as the 15 incher. This not a deal breaker though.

If you like to use your machines for work this is a fantastic computer in most ways. If you like buying computers to stare at how quickly Launchpad comes up while pressing the button for it really fast, then this is an expensive machine for that. If you want a gaming laptop buy a Razer. This computer does just about everything well, save gaming, with a display that is just in a class of it's own. This is totally in line with Apple's product DNA going back the old late 90s Cinema Display driven off crappy ATI Rage graphics with 16(!)mb of VRAM. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

8/10

UPDATE 3:

After living with this machine day in and day out for some time, I am 100% satisfied with my purchase. I will address the "whys' Apple chose the supposed "cheap" Intel 4000 over another discrete unit. Agree or not, this is why:

Manufacture, dev costs and higher margins. Duh

Lower power, better battery

Apple is in love with integration. They are pushing Intel and trying to give them incentive for bulking up their SoC silicon.

High spec gaming is niche. Fact. Metro 2033 and Battlefield 3 are MIA for Mac and few designers or photographers I know even know they exist.

iOS devices have great integrated graphics and in two years after Haswell and later Broadwell, I would think discrete graphics are facing complete extinction for all X86 mobile computers. Time will tell.

UPDATE 2: Well I had to amend my review. Turns out this thing is in fact pretty good with video. Exporting and manipulating files in FCP is pretty swift. I would say gaming and the CoreAnimation performance are the only two relative weak spots.

UPDATE: Just some Geekbench numbers to toss out there. On the free 32-bit suite, my Retina 13" i7 kicks out a 7759 score, within striking distance of 8580 score for my homebuilt Sandy Bridge i5 3.3ghz quad core with SSD, GTX 670 FTW and 16gb of RAM. Pretty impressive. My Sandy Bridge Air 11" with i7 comparatively scores a 5870. So for the numbers people, this is a reasonable indicator that the machine is a performer. Just not if you're trying to run Battlefield 3 on Ultra in Bootcamp.

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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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ONA "The Union Street Camera and Laptop Bag" - Ranger Tan

Customer Ratings:

When I first purchased the ONA bag, my first impressions were just as positive as others' experiences. I don't have to repeat all the positive reviews, but I was very impressed that the bag was attractive and discreetly sized. It seemed to be very well made. Fitting in several lenses and a body made it tight and I wasn't able to fit much else into the front pocket. However, that forced me to be selective in what I really needed to bring. That's a positive thing for someone who typically overpacks.

The ONA has functioned for me especially well. Wearing a suit to work every day, I can bring my camera into work and still look professional. Some people have even told me they thought it was a work bag after they discovered that I keep my camera in it.

Anyway, I like to make reviews after I've put merchandise through its paces. My impression is not as positive as it once was.

The biggest disappointment is the design and stitching of the handle. There's only one handle on the bag and this causes the stitching holding it to the bag to bear the entire weight load. The weight of a loaded bag would add stress to the stitching. While walking, the bag comfortably tilts away from your legs.

After only 6 months of use, the stitching at the handle came undone. The last thing I want to do is carry expensive camera equipment and have the bag tip and come falling on the ground, no matter how well padded it is.

I contacted customer service and received this response, which I feel grossly inadequate, "we're very sorry to hear about the stitching on the handle of your bag. If we had known about your concerns on the handle beforehand, we would have informed you that the handle on top of the bag is a grab handle, intended for quick grabs, not for carrying the bag long distances. We've designed the bag with one handle because with the messenger design of the bag, having two handles would obstruct access to the inside of the bag."

They did not admit the design flaw, but did offer to repair it under warranty. They stitched the handle through the interior of the bag and the stitches are exposed on the interior making the bag less attractive. I'm not happy with that type of craftsmanship from the warranty repair. It solves the problem, however, for now... but I still worry about it occurring again in the future.

The only other complaint I have about the bag is the shoulder strap, which constantly becomes twisted at either end where it attaches to the bag. The "leather" at these two points bunch up frequently and makes the issue worse.

I'm not certain that the "leather" accents are real leather. They feel and seem like faux leather to me.

I still use the bag regularly, especially when on day trips or traveling on vacation.The bag doesn't scream for attention and that's what I like most about the bag. Well, that and it's a pretty bag.

Nonetheless, I am giving it a 3 star review, given the price coupled with the issues stated above. Although I am still satisfied with the bag overall and still use it, I expected better quality workmanship and customer service.

I will post photos in the gallery for others to see.

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Polaroid 900mm f/8 Mirror Lens & 2x Teleconverter (= 1800mm)

Customer Ratings:

Consider a few things first. I am an amature using a Canon Rebel, T3. You are not paying a fortune for this and such lens' can cost a fortune. Considering these and more I will say it works well. Focus can be tough at times but super fine tuning will get a decent result. The fixed f stop takes away from darker lighting but nice all in all!! I don't like these multipliers as I have a better one but multiplying will make focusing that much harder. Will produce very nice Pics once you have the shutter speed just right. I like it and would buy again. Great seller!!!!!

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Sony Alpha NEX-6 Mirrorless Digital Camera with 16-50mm Zoom

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $898.00
Sale Price: $748.00
Today's Bonus: 17% Off

The Sony NEX-6 camera and the new kit lens have exceeded my expectations. It is the sharpest, fastest digital camera I have ever owned and I have owned many including Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Fuji. It took some reading and playing with it to fully appreciate it and get it functioning the way I want to use it. There are enough options to assign functions to quick buttons so you don't have to go digging into the menu system to get the setup you want. It's amazing the capability they have packed into such a small camera and lens combo. The few negative comments I may have had are far outweighed by the results I am getting. The electronic viewfinder is amazing and has me shooting like I did in my days with an SLR. For a right handed person it is perfect. For a left handed person--learn to shoot right handed. The accessories packaged with this kit are great, especially considering this kit is priced only slightly more than the camera and lens alone. I especially like the wide angle and tele lens adapters. They are very useful and make me less compelled to go out and buy more lenses right away. Spare battery, charger, filters, cleaners are very useful. A lens hood and flash would be nice additions. The included camera case was quickly relegated to an old camera and a new one acquired for my needs. I tried my Canon Speedlight on the hotshoe. It does not function as an automatic flash synched with camera settings, but it does work fine in bounced mode. Perhaps a dedicated Sony flash is needed to be fully automated. I don't know if the accessory shoe would solve this problem or not. I could not get a direct answer to my question on the Sony Support Site. I know they can't guarantee their answers. I was just asking for help with their best guess. The wifi setup is extremely tedious and frustrating. A touch screen is definitely needed but not available. Keying in your wifi settings and passwords by scrolling thru a tiny table on the LCD screen is awful. Especially when you have to keep entering the information again when it fails. It took me 3 days to get the wifi working. When I finally got to the Sony site to download the apps I got the message the site was down for maintenance. It took me another 24 hours to get the apps. I think Sony at least should allow you to perform these functions while connected to a PC by a cable so you can use the keyboard. I would call myself an advanced amateur (50 years in photography) and did a lot of research of available cameras before deciding on the NEX-6. It is expensive but with this camera you can start off with no experience using the iAuto modes and get outstanding results. For the pro, it has everything you can ask for without stepping up to the size and expense of a DSLR. No one will be disappointed with this camera choice. Amazon and it's vendor are great--I had the camera in two days.

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Canon EOS Rebel T3i 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera and DIGIC 4

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,049.99
Sale Price: $649.00
Today's Bonus: 38% Off

Buy this camera has been my best investment, it comes with everything that has, by the way .... I have taken the photos are beautiful, amazing, just .... I love amazon

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3Dconnexion 3DX-700040 SpaceMouse Pro 3D Mouse

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $299.00
Sale Price: $295.00
Today's Bonus: 1% Off

I bought this device here from Amazon a few months ago and wanted to give it a real workout before I wrote a review. I can't even describe how painful it would be to try and model something without this on my desk going forward. It's literally like reaching into your monitor and grabbing a mesh with your hand while you work on it with your regular mouse. That's not to say its a completely natural thing to pick up right away I imagine it has about the same learning curve as a Segway, where at first you'd swear a sneeze would cause you to run over the nearest 6 yr old, but soon with a little practice you're chasing down geese around the park while that tour guide is yelling at you. It comes with a little training program that helps, and the software lets you setup sensitivites in various axes to tune it to your liking. Took me about a week to really settle in to using it 100%, and most of that was breaking old habits.

The main benefit is really time savings. Even with extra mice buttons and keyboard shortcuts, you really cant Pan and Orbit and Zoom simultaneously with a standard planar 2D mouse. This guy has 6 degrees of freedom and can handle all that no problem. Often you have to stop whatever operation you're doing to manuever your work object and then go back to that operation. With this thing, it's like the program doesn't even know you're handling the object. Also, its got like 15 some buttons you can program (incl one that pops up an on-screen numpad) so you almost never need to touch the keyboard. I can honestly say after months of use, I'm completing projects 2-3 times faster than I was previously... and if that's worth $300 to you then definitely buy this bad boy right now.

To be fair and balanced, here's some of the downsides. Make sure you go to their website and do a product search for which software applications you can use this for before you get it. For example, it would be genius if this thing worked in either Mudbox or ZBrush for digital sculpting and painting. I stink at both those programs and it works great in 3DS Max so no problems for me personally though I do tend to grab it when working in UDK and wonder why nothing's happening. I also wish it had a simple power switch on it somewhere... One so it doesnt draw power off the USB port when I'm not using it, and two cuz when I hop into a game of BF3 I often wonder why my guy has Parkinsons until I remember to crawl under my desk and unplug this device.

Other than that LED is nice and strong, it's never lost calibration, never crashed a driver, hasn't given me carpaltunnel and it doesnt bug me about software updates every 7 days. Best thing I have connected to my computer.

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Canon EOS 70D 20.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with Dual Pixel CMOS AF

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,999.00
Sale Price: $1,449.99
Today's Bonus: 27% Off

Great so far. The camera has more features than I have had a chance to learn or try yet, but I am very impressed with it. The included accessories are cheap but functional. Don't forget to add a filter, which is not included. But they have thought of everything else.

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Opteka 650-1300mm High Definition Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $399.95
Sale Price: $234.95
Today's Bonus: 41% Off

I used this lens quite a lot before I purchased a Canon 400mm prime lens. Although the Opteka lens is somewhat soft and has some chromatic abberation, the images are quite good if the subject has good contrast. I've used this lens with a 1.4X tele extender as well. The resolving power at 1200mm is about 85-90% that of the Canon 400mm used with a 3X tele extender(giving the same 1200mm). I used a test chart similar to the ISO12233 chart to check the resolving power. Where the Canon shines is that it has next to no color shifts in the shadows or on the edges of images. Small black areas will go deep blue and small bright areas (like an egret against a dark background) will have a litttle blue edge on one side and orange edge on the other with the Opteka, but this not normally noticeable unless the image is blown up. Normal subjects will not usually show the chromatic abberation, except on the edges of an image WHEN BLOWN UP.

The focusing on the Opteka is CRITICAL and gets difficult past 900mm, since the light gets prettty low. I made and put a Vernier scale on my lens and got pretty good focus by splitting the slightly out of focus near and far focus distances. I have some excellent hawk and egret images taken with the Opteka 650-1300 mm lens (email me at

harold-moore@sbcglobal.net for some images if you like). I also made some cardboard STOPS for this lens which work well. It is not practical to go much beyond F22 because of diffraction. A 2X tele is NOT recommended--F32 at max focal length--because diffraction is becoming significant and will blur the image AND, of course, the focus is very difficult. A high quality 1.4X teleconverter will give you 1800mm at f22 with fair images--but the focus is critical and DIFFICULT. If you learn to focus this lens--gets much more difficult past 650mm--then you can get some

pretty good images.

The Opteka is a good starter lens IF you cannot afford the Canon or long focal length Tamrons etc. The main advantage of this lens is its very low cost. The Tamron 200-500mm is close to $1000 and the resolving power is similar. I had fun with Opteka lens and now I don't need it since I have

purchased the Canon 400mm (I can stack 3X and 1.4X teles on the canon to get around 1700mm--again the focus is MANUAL and very difficult past 1000mm since the light levels are so very low (on both lenses). I have also put a Vernier scale on my canon, and it is handy for distant birds that are very far away and must be, therefore, shot at 1700mm. This works well IF THEY WILL JUST STAY STILL.

The Opteka is about 4 1/2 pounds and takes a litle time setting up on a medium sized tripod--this sized tripod will work satisfactory--although I like my heavier duty tripod with Cullmann ball head. Again the

lens is not as sharp as a canon, but similar to that of the Tamron. I compared test chart images of the Opteka at 650mm and my Tamron 70-300mm zoom with a 2X Tamron teleconverter at distances where

the image was the same size. The Opteka resolved as well as the Tamron, but I had to really get it in focus, which I did with the Vernier scale.

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