Digital Camera Fiend - A Camera Review

The first thing on my digital camera wish list right now is the Nikon 55-200mm VR camera lens. The reviews on this piece of equipment are great and I know it would be a fantastic compliment to my Nikon D40 SLR camera.

The D40 is great for events where I know I’ll want to take pictures—like vacation. But what I really need is a ultra-compact digital camera like the Canon Powershot 630 or some of the newer Nikon Coolpix….something I can stick in my purse and go anywhere with.

After all, you never know when a fantastic photo opportunity will present itself.

Nikon cameras are the best in my opinion, but I wouldn’t rule out a Canon or Olympus. Sony is also stepping to the plate, although I am not a firm believer in their foray into the world of SLR.

With so many choices out there, it’s important to study up before you make a decision and do some comparison shopping. Hold each camera in your hand, see what feels right. This is just as important as looking at the functions and features.

Many people find a brand of camera they like and loyally stick beside it. My advice—check out different brands and models each time you thinking of upgrading, especially if you are a beginning to intermediate user. This is a sponsored post.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superprinter!

After investing $1.4 billion over the last five years, HP has come out with the Photosmart 8250 printer. With 3,900 ink jets, this printer shoots out brilliant photos in just 14 seconds (for a 4″x6″ print). It’s supposedly the fastest photo printer in the world. It beat a top Canon printer by 30 seconds when printing an 8 1/2 x 11 photo when NY Times technology writer David Pogue put it to an informal test.
Other cool features: you don’t need a computer–put your memory card right into the printer and flip through your photos on a 2 1/2 inch screen on the printer. The 8250 also has the ability to read bar codes on the back of photo paper which tell the printer what size paper is being used and also if the paper is correctly loaded. This bar code paper, however, could start to fade in just one year compared to other photo paper which lasts more than a century.

The printer retails for as cheap as $80.

If you spend a lot of time in front of a computer at work, chances are you get to do a lot of web browsing. But after awhile visiting the same old sites gets kind of boring. That’s when, for some reason, I became hooked on celebrity gossip.

It started off innocently enough with a few visits to Gawker. Some of their posts mentioned PerezHilton.com, and so I started reading his gossip. That lead to X17, the paparazzi photo agency.

Now there is a new site, celebritygossip.com, that aggregates all of this celeb news in one spot. There are tabs to look up your favorite celebrity, and an entire index of celebrity photos. Visitors can vote on their favorite news and leave comments too.

Best of all, new posts are added quite frequently throughout the day, so there’s plenty of fresh content to read….er….if celeb gossip and photos are your thing, of course.

Just don’t let the boss see.  This post is sponsored.

Pentax will be releasing the Optio E40, its newest compact digital camera that boasts 8 mega pixel resolution, face recognition, and shake reduction features.

The Optio E40 is perfect for a first-time digital camera user…very straightforward and easy to understand. The Auto Picture Mode automatically determines the best settings for the shooting conditions, whether it’s landscape, portrait, night scene or normal.

The Pentax Optio E40 also has movie recording with picture quality that, according to Pentax, rivals a camcorder. No word on when the camera will be available at stores.

Most juries find it hard to dispute photographic evidence-and criminals know that. Not every Mom & Pop shop can afford fancy equipment and camera surveillance, but for just a fraction of the price you can get a fake security camera.

I saw this on a site called TV Products 4 Less.  To the average customer, it looks like the real deal. It won’t seal any convictions in court, but a fake security camera is a strong deterrent.

Other security devices offered on this website: Driveway Alarms, Security bars from Honeywell, and wireless home security alarm. This is a sponsored post.

Samsung is coming out with a new camera. Called the S85, this compact digital camera boasts 8.2 mega-pixel capabilities, a shutter speed of up to 1/2000 of a second, intelligent face recognition technology, 20 megabytes of internal memory, a 2.5-inch LCD screen, and 13 scene modes.

But the feature that really caught my eye is the built-in microphone that records a 10-second voice memo to be appended to any picture. That way, you’ll never forget the story behind a photo.

The Samsun S85 will be on store shelves at the end of August and will retail for around $300.

Visa came out with a new gimmick last week that should be of interest to budding photographers or those with a creative flair. It’s called PAYjr Visa Buxx, a pre-paid card for teens which is meant to help them learn how to manage money.

The cool part is that users can design their own card by uploading photos. There’s also a contest where users can vote for their favorite design — the winner will receive a new Apple MacBook. You could also be paid royalties if your design is chosen and used by other card holders.

Hopefully most teens won’t go for the prom photo card like the one above. We all know how fickle teen romance can be. This is a sponsored post.

A few months ago Sony released the Cyber-shot H7 and H9 — two “big zoom” company digital cameras that updated their popular  H2 and H5 Cybershot models from a year earlier.

DP Review just came out with a review on the H7, and their conclusion: spring for the extra $75 and get the H9.

“The H7 is what it is - a budget model that, unfortunately, performs like one,” according to DP Review. “It’s hard to see why anyone wouldn’t pay the extra for the H9 unless they were on a seriously tight budget.”

Neither camera is groundbreakingly cool, but the H9 has a bigger, brighter LCD screen, and night shot modes, which the H7 lacks.

You can find the H7 online for as cheap as $350, but why not invest a little more and get a camera that’s more enjoyable to use?

Some friends of mine just got back from Portland, Oregon and had this to report: the Pacific Northwest is a trove of photograph opportunities. There’s nature, and urban life. Mountains, and an ocean. Green forests, and brick buildings.

I have never been north of San Francisco, personally, but Seattle and Portland are on my short list of American cities to visit. Everyone knows it rains a lot, and although the rain can be a challenge for a photographer, it also creates some unique shots.

Think rose buds with pregnant droplets of rain, under soft sunlight peeking through gray clouds.

Portland is the sister city to Suzhou, China and as a result it has a phenomenal Chinese Garden built by master craftsmen from China. No camera tripods are allowed in the garden, and professional photographers must get permission before shooting, but for the amateur, it’s ripe for natural flower photos.

My friends spent the better part of a day there and came back with some lovely shots.

They said that Portland is a small big city, where the people are friendly, it’s easy to get around, and your stay is relatively inexpensive (compared to cities like San Francisco, or LA).

If anyone is thinking of going, I would suggest looking for Portland Hotels on Sidestep.com, a travel search engine which searches more than 150 travel websites for the best deals. You can read reviews and view pictures before booking your hotel. Sidestep also has city overviews, giving helpful suggestions for restaurants, nightlife, shopping, day trips and more.

Derek Jeter, originally uploaded by _mentat.

This photo, taken with a Nikon D80, is the stuff classic sports photography is made of. It seems like an intimate capture of one of the game’s marque players.

He is projected as alone and isolated on the field–a clever framing by the photographer–because in actuality, the photo was probably taken as he was warming up for his turn at the plate.

Might look even better in black and white.