Raynox DCR 150 - Converter Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this lense in a package that came with both the Raynox DCR-150 and the Raynox DCR-250. Both lenses are excellent when snapped on the front of my Panasonic FZ8. Really any camera with a decent zoom should perform well.
Having both the Raynox 150 and 250 allows for some comparison. To be honest, I like the 150 better. I use it exclusively when I'm out in nature, the 250 has a much shallower depth of field, and is too hard to use handheld. The 150 gets a great macro, as you can see if you look at the customer images above, and the depth of field is much more forgiving. I have had far greater luck using my 150 in real world situations than my 250.
The lense takes a bit of getting used to. Some people will only shoot on manual focus, but I find this frustrating. Most cameras focus fast enough, I know my FZ8 does, and I have no problems at all. In general you just have to get into the right range (about 6" or so), and your camera will focus just fine.
In all I definitely recommend this product, especially if you have a nice super zoom camera like the Panasonic FZ8.

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Explores the world of MACROPHOTOGRAPHY with your Digital Camera and Camcorder... The lens includes a snap-on universal mount suitable for 52mm to 67mm filter size. DCR-150 Super Macro lens obtains the maximum macro magnification power when set at the most telephoto position of zoom lens. The lens is made of high index optical glass elements which produce rich and razor sharp image.DCR-250 is also suitable to 3-CCD chip or mega-pixel Digital Camcorders.All of Raynox conversion lenses are proudly made in Japan. At Raynox's wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary, every stage of production is rigorously checked and tested so that the lens elements compensate effectively for astigmatism, distortion and spherical aberration.... for an excellent image quality.

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Sony GPS-CS3KA GPS Digital Imaging Accessory (White) Review

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(More customer reviews)This makes geo-tagging easier.
I had a different GPS logger before which was Windows-only. It worked well but the software was a bit kludgy. It did things I didn't care about. All I want is the GPS coordinates in the photo's file. It was trying to be a photo-organizer. When I moved to a Mac I saw the Sony GPS logger and the fact that it doesn't require an OS and does everything on the fly and thought, "This is what I want - it's just shy of actually having the camera do it but it's getting pretty close."
This GPS logger includes Windows software for organizing your photos and importing them and showing them on a map, etc. I haven't tried it.
Anyway, the basic deal is this: You synchronize your camera to the clock in the display of this device (which is better than my old one which didn't have a display - you had to synchronize it at the computer or using a separate GPS or some other synchronized timepiece). You go out and take pictures and carry this logger with you. At the end of the day you slide your memory stick or SD card into this device and it will add the coordinates to each of the pictures. Nothing more you need to do. If you take those photos and load them onto Flickr then they'll show up on the map there.
Two annoying things:
- You have to open/close the back cover when you insert your flash memory. The back-cover is more like a traditional batter cover but there is a little switch there that looks to see when the cover is open or not and the unit will not function if the cover is open. I suspect that this is to stop someone from pulling the flash memory when it's updating but it seems like a needless extra step.
- It will only update photos in batches of 60. You leave the flash memory in the device (with the cover closed) and just cycle through multiple sets of 60 photos (it sees whether the photo already has the info and excludes it from the next batch). Still, kind of annoying that you can't just put the flash memory in and say, "do it!," and have it update the entire lot.
It uses a single AA battery which is nice as you can just take some rechargeable batteries with you and swap them out as needed and recharge them when you get home. My old GPS logger had a specialized internal battery, which worked fine, but I had to remember to bring something that would let me charge it each night (a USB mini-B cable and some kind of power source). With this I can just swap the batteries out when needed and, if I forget, I can just buy some AA batteries when I'm out.


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Ratoc Systems FR1SX FireWire to Ultra SCSI Converter (IEEE1394) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Ratoc FR1SX Firewire to Ultra SCSI converter works straight out of the box with my old Nikon Coolscan film scanner.
I am using Mac OS X and Vuescan, (Hamrick) scanner software.

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FR1SX turns your SCSI device into a FireWire device. The SCSI device works as a FireWire device eamlessly. Main Features Manufacturer : RATOC Systems International, Inc Manufacturer Part Number : FR1SX

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AGL3080: Amod AGL3080 GPS Data Logger (Windows and Mac Image Software included) Review

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(More customer reviews)With Apple releasing iPhoto '09 with support for geotagged photography I immediately wanted to utilize this new feature set. I do a lot outdoors: Geocaching, Boy Scouts, hiking, bicycling, so I saw a great way to track my "expeditions" through my photography.
I found this GPS Data Logger and it advertises heavily that it is MAC OSX compliant. I looked at the reviews for this device on Amazon and various other websites. Most of the negative comments didn't alarm me as they were for the most part due to a misunderstanding of what the device does or they didn't like a feature set.
What I have learned is this:
1. GPS Photo Tracker software - This software comes in the box from AMOD and embeds the GPS locations into the digital photograph JPEGs. This is written only for Microsoft Windows and does exist for Macintosh OSX. In fact if you have Vista 64 don't bother installing the software that comes with the device; it will crash. This is a known bug and AMOD has a fixed version on their website.
2. The GPS device looks like a thumb drive to any computer and the GPS tracks are stored in ASCII. This allows any computer to look at the data, there are no proprietary formats or synchronization drivers. This is what they call "Driverless" and is a in my opinion a very good decision.
3. Upgrades to the firmware must be run from Windows computers. If you don't happen to own a Windows computer, you're out of luck. This is not a very good decision when calling your product MAC compatible.
You might be asking; "So, if the photo-linking software supplied by AMOD does not exist for MAC computers and firmware upgrades only exist for Windows computers, how can they say it is compatible with MAC"?
The device itself is compatible with MACs because it looks like a thumb drive and has a third party software package that comes in the package to link the GPS tacks to photos. More on the third party software later.
I think that the firmware upgrades should be written for all operating systems that it is deemed compatible. For example to be called Macintosh compatible, firmware upgrades should run from a Macintosh computer. Garmin now supports MACs and did not claim to be MAC compatible until they had the support software for Macintosh computers.
To allow Macintosh users to link GPS locations to JPEGs, the AMOD is shipped with a JetPhoto Studio. Out of the box you can use this software to attribute the photographs with the GPS track locations. However I say attribute because the GPS location is not embedded into the JPEG. The location is kept in the JetPhoto photo album and assigned to the photo. What this means is that if you link the GPS location to the photograph in JetPhoto Studio and then send the photo to a friend the GPS location does not go with the photograph, it remains only in the JetPhoto album.
To actually embed the GPS location into the JPEG you must purchase JetPhoto Studio Pro for an additional $25. I was not happy about this, but I saw other features I liked in the Pro version that I like and purchased JetPhoto Studio Pro. I tested embedding the GPS location into my JPEGs and it works fine. But now I must run my photos through JetPhoto and then import them into iPhoto which takes extra time.
The only other thing that I think important is that when I first tried the device it worked, then I did a "Clean Disk" operation and that was the last time it worked. I tried installing the latest firmware, removed the batteries, etc. nothing worked. I made a quick call to Semsons (who sold me the product through Amazon) and they determined it was faulty. They replaced it and the new one has been working fine for the few days I've had it.
In summary; the AMOD AGL3080 will work with a MAC but to get the full features you will need to purchase JetPhoto Studio Pro for an extra $25, or find a shareware program that does GPS photo linking. I gave this 3 stars because firmware upgrades are written only for Windows and MAC users are not fully supported with the software included in the box which forces MAC users to purchase the Pro version of JetPhoto or start searching the web for software.

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Large data capacity - stores over 256 000 data records: AGL3080 Photo Tracker is a GPS-based data logger designed to provide location information for digital photos. Unlike other similar productsAGL3080 does not need driver to operate. When you plug AGL3080 into a computer via USB portit will simply appears as an external drive. The recorded log is standard NMEA format which is compatible with many online tools such as JetPhotoGPSVisualizeretc.

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Nikon Coolpix P5100 and P5000 Digital Camera HD² Professional Accessory Kit Review

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(More customer reviews)Nice for the price!!!! gets you stared without spending tons of money and it all comes in one package.

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Since it fits right over your camera's existing lens system a wide-angle and telephoto converter affects the full zoom range of your camera's lens. A wide-angle converter increases your angle of view - scenes include more of the landscape groups include more people and interiors show more of the room. A .45x wide-angle converter DOUBLES your angle of view allowing you to get twice as much in the picture (AND your telephoto setting also becomes wider; not zooming in as close). A 2.2x converter will double your camera's maximum focal length bringing things twice as close. An Opteka conversion lens can actually improve the image that your digital camera receives and it's about the only accessory that can. By eliminating flare and ghosting the ugly cousins of reflection and refraction before they get to your camera's original lens system your camera gets a much cleaner image to digitize. Plus an Opteka converter allows you to use a more optimal part of your original lens system resulting in more crisp imagery. Enjoy all of the benefits of the Opteka HD² .45x Wide Angle & 2.2x Telephoto Professional Lenses plus you get the Following Brand New Items: Opteka High Definition² Pro Filter Kit (UV Polarizing and fluorescent) a Lens/Filter Adapter for your camera Opteka Tabletop Tripod 5 Piece Camera & Lens Cleaning Kit 53" Deluxe Professional Video/Camera Tripod and a Deluxe Carry-All Camera Case. Increase your cameras capabilities with this full accessory kit! Opteka lenses and filters are covered by a lifetime warranty.

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