Belkin USB Adapter with Kodak Picture Upload Technology 
When a few guys in a lab at Kodak came up with an automatic way to transfer image files to a computer, hardly anybody was watching. But we were. And this month, Belkin is offering that automatic file transfer solution (called Kodak Picture Upload Technology) with a USB adapter for $50. Read
our report to find out what the product does and why it matters.
Bottle Cap "Tripod" 
If I had a dollar for every time I've wished I had a tripod handy, but didn't schlep one along because it would have been too bulky, I'd be retired already (and you wouldn't be reading this). Reader Jake Ludington wrote in with news of a nifty little product that turns an ordinary 2-liter soft drink bottle into a temporary "tripod", that looks like it could be just the ticket to pack along to picnics, concerts, ball games, etc. Better yet, Jake also did a
nice little article about how to make a do it yourself version. As I write this (in July, 2004), there's an outfit
selling them through a yahoo store (the link for which may or may not remain valid in the future), but
Jake's how-to article should be around for a good while to come.
The Great Battery Shootout! 
Right after the camera itself, and having a large enough flash card, batteries are probably
the most important element of your digicam "kit". In the AA-powered world, there's been a flood of different makes and models of NiMH rechargeables hit the market in the last year, with wildly varying claims of performance. I've been tinkering with battery testing as a background task for the last year, and have finally gathered all the data together into a massive "battery shootout." The results are interesting, to say the least, with some batteries rated at lower mAh capacities performing better than others with higher mAh ratings.
ColorVision Spyder2PRO 
ColorVision's Spyder 2 Pro product is the one that we eventually settled on for in-house use here at Imaging Resource. It consistently did a good job calibrating the monitors we tried it with, seemed less prone to getting lost in the weeds with difficult-to-calibrate monitors, and also provides a good capability for matching multiple monitors to a common standard. No product is ever perfect, but we found the Spyder2PRO to be better than most and it offers a flexibility found in few other monitor calibration solutions. Read
our review for the all the details.
Datacolor Spyder3 Elite 
We've always
used Datacolor Spyders for monitor calibration, but we never really
liked them. Until the Sypder3, that is. The newest Spyder fits a large sensor in a smaller package and can recalibrate twice as fast as it can calibrate. We never complained about our older Spyders but we never reviewed them either. Each one had some issue that seemed to require duct tape to resolve. But not the Spyder3. Datacolor seems to have gotten it right this time. Read
our review for the all the details.
Digipower's DPS-9000 
What makes this unit unusual is its packaging (it screws onto the tripod mount of your camera), and also the
wide range of cameras it can power. - Digipower lists nearly 200 models on the compatibility chart, including no fewer than five different adapter cables to fit them all. The DPS-9000 is no slouch when it comes to power capacity either. I don't have a formal test for external power packs, but it managed to power a Nikon Coolpix 5700 in its worst-case power drain mode (capture mode with the rear panel LCD lit) for nearly four hours. (!) All in all, one of the nicest external power packs I've seen, and already available from our affiliate Ritzcamera.com.
GE/Sanyo Eneloop AA Rechargable Batteries 
The NiMH rechargeable AA battery is still a favorite for entry-level and long zoom digicams, both. But it's always suffered from a rather poor shelf life. Until recently. We picked up a set of four GE/Sanyo Eneloops on our next trip to the mall and gave them a try. Read
our report for the whole story.
Klikk Camera Stand 
For a long time, we've been addicted to a genre of gadget we have to call tripod substitutes. It's a healthy addiction. You come home with sharp shots. But we have to say we've never used a tripod substitute as unobtrusive and yet as useful as the Klikk camera stand. You don't even have to be shooting to find it useful, we found. Read
our review to see just what makes it stand out.
Lensbaby 2.0 
It may be a gadget lens, but it's a lot of fun. And if you think about it, isn't this the way we
actually see things. Read
our review for the whole story!
Lensbaby 3G 
We only had two complaints about the Lensbaby 2.0. But the Lensbabay 3G takes care of both of them, making this fun lens even easier to use. Read
our review for the whole story!
Maha/PowerEx C-204W 
Longtime readers of this site will know that my favorite charger for NiMH AA cells has been the Maha C-204F for some years now. I liked its charging capabilities, and its provision for discharge-conditioning batteries, something that I consider essential in a general-purpose NiMH charger. Maha has just recently updated the C-204 design, calling the new model the C-204W. The new unit has a number of improvements, including an
internal international power supply, which means that it needs no "wall wart" transformer (better portability), and can be used pretty much anywhere in the world that has AC power. All in all, a very nice little charger, and my new favorite for AA cells.
Maha/PowerEx C-401FS 
Maha has now developed the C401FS as an extension to the 204. The new 401FS sports four completely independent charging "channels" (basically four individual battery chargers in a single housing), so it can optimize the charge for each battery individually. This insures the best possible performance of your battery packs, and guards against cell damage due to mismatched cells. The 401FS also has a fast/slow charge switch on it, so you can choose whether you want a fast (yet safe) ~100 minute charge, or a slow (and super-gentle) ~5-8 hour one. If you're looking for a very capable little charger for your AA or AAA NiMH (or NiCd) cells, check out the C401FS!
Maha C-801D Battery Charger 
Maha Energy, the makers of my long-time favorite NiMH AA cell charger (the
Maha C-204W) has come out with a new model, capable of charging or conditioning up to 8 cells at a time, with a separate charging circuit dedicated to each cell. The new charger works for both AA and AAA cells, and either NiMH or NiCd battery types, and sports both rapid- and soft-charging modes. If you have a lot of AA batteries to manage, the
Maha C801D could be just the ticket! Read all about it in my
Maha C801D review.
Malibu Scope 
Somewhere between the 10x magnification of a long zoom and a 60x entry-level telescope is the spotting scope. Designed for terrestrial viewing, you can easily mount a camera to it, making it a tempting accessory. The affordable Malibu scope includes a carrying case (because it's small enough to go with you, like a large zucchini), tabletop tripod and a camera adapter. Read our report.
Nikon Coolpix Converter Lenses 
The Nikon Coolpix 880, 900, 900s, 950, 990, and 995 models enjoy not only an excellent internal zoom lens but an extensive line of optional lenses. These lenses range from a fish-eye to a 3-time teleconverter.
Check it out!Pantone hueyPRO 
Pantone has an inexpensive solution to monitor profiling called the huey (a playful extension of the word "hue"). And they've recently bulked up the software with the new hueyPRO. We took the hueyPRO for a spin this week. Read
our review for the full story.
Pandigital PanTouch Photo Frames 
The PanTouch series of frames features one big advance over previous Pandigital frames: a patent-pending touch sensor that is sensitive enough to work behind multiple surfaces. Read
our review for the full story.
Pandigital Photo Frames 
Pandigital has managed to build a full-featured digital frame (card reader, 128-MB storage and a bright display) while keeping costs surprisingly low. And you can find their frames at many retail outlets, too. How good are they? Read
our review for the full story.
Photoflex Digital Lighting Kit 
In photography, lighting is half the battle. (Some would say 9/10ths of the battle!) Newsletter Editor Mike Pasini took a look at a nifty little lighting kit from Photoflex, and
liked what he saw...
Photoflex First Studio Product Kit 
Photoflex has recently introduced its LiteIgloo kit, a nylon tent in three sizes, and bundled the medium-sized one with a couple of lights and stands to make up the $249.95 First Studio Product Kit. We give it a test drive and report
our findings.
SanDisk Combo SD Card/USB Pen Drive 
Some very interesting things can fly under a reviewer's radar. SanDisk's Secure Digital card with a split personality is one of them. This combo SD card/USB pen drive been around for a year and half, but it isn't entirely obvious how to use it. We reveal all in
our review.
Sony Cyber-shot Station CSS-HD1 
The Cyber-shot Station CSS-HD1 isn't Sony's first dock, but it's the first one to offer component output to high definition television so you can enjoy your images in all their glory. We popped a T100 on it and ran a few slides shows and movies on both an HDTV and little 13-inch standard set. Read
our review to see what it looked like (there's a movie of the HDTV slide show).
Ultimate Light Box 
At PMA in Las Vegas this year, we stumbled on what looked like a Sto-fen designed by NASA. It uses a custom black adapter that slips on your flash head and a particularly attractive diffuser that snapped on to that. But it doesn't stop there, much to our delight. It's actually a
system of diffuser accessories that can turn your flash into a soft box, too. We like systems. And we like soft boxes. So we asked Harbor Digital Design to send us its Pro Pack Plus for our Nikon SB-800. Read
our review to see how we liked it.
Wacom's Intuos2 Graphics Tablet 
Wacom recently reinvented its popular pressure-sensitive graphics tablet, revealing the Intuos2 at Seybold San Francisco in September. We've had a chance to get intimately acquainted with the 6x8 tablet and tell all in an expanded illustrated version of our earlier newsletter review.
Read our review for more details!
Western Digital MyBook Studio II Hard Drive 
Like any other "stuff," image and movie files always seem to expand to fill all available hard drive space. Western Digital may have an answer though: They've updated their popular MyBook line of hard drives with the new MyBook Studio II models. With maximum capacities of 1 and 2 Terabytes (that's a million megabytes) and an option for RAID 1 mirroring for increased reliability, these huge drives could be the just the ticket for space-constrained photographers. We took a look at one of the new drives, found it fast, quiet, cool-running, and able to connect to just about any (Mac or Windows) computer system. Check out our
Western Digital MyBook Studio II review for all the details!
WhiBal White Balance Reference 
White balance is one of those rarely discussed issues in digital imaging that deserves a full airing. Your camera is always guessing at it when you set its White Balance mode to Auto. And many sources of artificial light just don't neatly fall into the incandescent or fluorescent categories. But there's a simple (and affordable solution) called the WhiBal. It's a plastic card that is certified to be neutral and light enough for a camera sensor to make sense of. Read
our review to see how to guarantee your images will have accurate color.
Zenon MagneFlashCT Midi Pro 
Taking product shots without special equipment can be challenging. You have to somehow diffuse your light source and balance it with reflectors, at least. Zenon's Peter Louden has developed a unique solution with some compelling advantages. The Zenon copy table uses three light panels based on his MagneFlash technology. By using powerful strobes whose light is diffused over a large panel, the copy table lets you hand-hold your camera and shoot at high shutter speeds, capturing the shine on metal objects.
Read our report.
Zenon MagneFlash 57Plus 
Our disdain for the flash units built into every digicam (and proliferating like a virus into some dSLRS even) is so strong that we think of them as inherently defective. So when newsletter subscriber Bill Stocks put us on to Peter Louden's Zenon MagneFlash, we begged for one to review. Peter sent us a review unit and we've been playing with it for weeks now.
Read our report.
Discontinued Accessories Harbortronics DigiSnap 1000 
The DigiSnap is a wired remote, or electric shutter release that can be used as a trigger for a single picture or for time lapse photography.
Check it out!The Iomega Clik! drive 
Infinite photo storage for digicam owners on the road! - The Clik! is a slick gadget that lets you offload images from your memory cards to small removable disks. We found that the Clik! drive had a
huge impact on our picture-taking!
Check it out!Kodak Smart Picture Frame 
When we first saw Kodak's Smart Picture Frame, we thought "Oh yawn, another $350 photo gadget." The more we dug into the product though, and played with it, the more we realized that this is a really cool product!
Read our review!Maha/PowerEx "PowerBank" External Batteries 
Maha's two-model PowerBank line is marketed under the PowerEx brand name. These units are available in both NiMH and Li-Ion flavors, pack a pretty powerful punch, fit most cameras on the market, have a handy "gas gauge" LED readout, and can be charged on the go from a cigarette lighter.
Read the review for all the details, these gadgets look like winners!
Maha/PowerEx C-204F 
The C-204 is cheap, versatile, and actually does about the best job of packing a full charge into NiMH AAs of anything we've come across.
Read the review if you must, but if your camera uses AA batteries and you don't get one of these, you'll have only yourself to blame for half-dead batteries that quit way before they should. Just go buy one and thank us later. ;-)
Maha/PowerEx C-2000 
This unit not only charges the usual digicam AA cells, but handles a wide range of camcorder battery packs as well, regardless of battery chemistry. (It charges NiMH, NiCd, and LiIon packs.) We found that it really needs to be used with a trickle charger to top-off NiMH cells for maximum capacity, but used in that mode, it offers a very gentle charging solution. (The batteries stay fairly cool.) If you have both a AA-using digicam and a camcorder in the house, the C2000 would make a great do-everything choice. Slick product, a real
jack-of-all-trades charger at an attractive price!
The Minds@Work Digital Wallet 
Run out of space often on your memory card? The Digital Wallet has 6 gigabytes of portable storage space, all right at your hand. It even works on both PCs and Macs. Definitely worth reading
our review!
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Digital Cameras Accessories Reviews 
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