Casio EXILIM EX-Z280

“An affordable option packed with creative features.”

Steve’s Digicams has published their review of the affordable entry-level Casio EX-Z280, with 12.1M resolution (on a 1/2.3-inch square pixel CCD), 4x wide-angle optical zoom (26-104mm equiv.), 2.7-in. LCD (114K dots), Easy Mode, Auto, Scene Modes, Face Detection, YouTube Capture Mode, Dynamic Photo Animated e-Greetings, and HD Movie 1270×720 @ 24fps.

[ Read the Casio EX-Z280 Review at: Steve's Digicams ]

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Casio EXILIM EX-Z33

“For an entry-level camera, the image quality is very good.”

Steve’s Digicams has published their review of the affordable entry-level Casio EX-Z33 [QuickPrice Check], with 10.1M resolution (on a 1/2.3-inch square pixel CCD), 3x optical zoom (35.5-106.5mm equiv.), 2.5-in. LCD (230K dots), Easy Mode, Auto, Scene Modes, Face Detection, YouTube Capture Mode, and Movie 848×480.

[ Read the Casio EX-Z33 Review at: Steve's Digicams ]

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[ via Chris Brogan ]

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DSLR + External Flash = Fantastic pictures!

Did you get in line and buy that digital camera you wanted on Black Friday? Or, are you still in line on Cyber Monday?

Macro Lightbox

Moi, I finally got a carton box, tracing paper, and built myself the $10 macro lightbox for product shots.

A few pointers if you decide to build one too:

• Box should be at least 12″ x 12″ x 12″. If it’s smaller, don’t bother because it’s just too small to accomodate the item to be photographed and the seamless background. You’ll just end up redoing it. [Speaking from experience here .]
• Mine is 24″W X 13″H x 15″D and, as you can see from the picture above, the width is perfectly sized to accept a sheet of 28″L x 22″W posterboard I got from Staples (for about $1 CAD).
• Use a xacto knife with a sure handle. The last thing you want is for the knife to slip and cut fingers. [No, all my fingers are still intact.]
• Use a metal ruler. I have one with a cork back so it does not slip (too much). If you use a wood ruler, the sharp knife may just slice through it (and limbs).
• You don’t have to measure. On the small sides, I just place the ruler against each edge in turn and draw a line with a dark pencil first as a visual guide and to know where the lines intersect (so where to stop cutting). For the top, I use the sheet of tracing paper (14″ x 17″) as a guide and mark the edges to ensure I am not cutting the window too large for the tracing paper.
• When you make the actual cut, make a number of light straight cuts instead of one deep cut. This lessens the risk of the knife suddenly slipping and cutting fingers.
• Just be careful how you position yourself vis-a-vis the knife. Again you don’t want the knife to slip and stab you.
• The box tends to cave in when you are cutting at the open edge. This makes it easy for the knife to slip or for you to place your fingers too close to the edge and in the knife’s path. Close the lids (you know, one inside the other) so you have sturdier edges to cut through.
• Cut the lids last (so you can do the above). In fact, I left all four lids intact for now.

(Green) Cell Phone

And here’s the first product shot of my (Green, as in made from recycled parts) Cell Phone I took just using the daylight streaming through a window on the right. [I still have to get the lamps for even lighting from both sides.] Not too shabby for a quick first shot, eh?

This promo encourages you to vote for your favorite movie and then rewards you with a free ticket to see it again!

If you have already seen it [how else can you honestly vote it as your favorite movie?], then the incentive to see it again is low — and therefore the incentive to participate in the contest is low. OK, unless it is one of the TWILIGHT saga which, if I understand correctly, some [female of the species] have viewed MANY times, and would not mind viewing one more time.

Or, unless you vote for the movie that you have not seen yet but would like to so that if you do win the free ticket, then it’s a free ticket…

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The Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, first Governor of Puerto Rico, traveled to what is now Florida in 1513 searching for the Fountain of Youth [Wikipedia]. Little did he realize that said fountain has now been discovered and it is called… “Google.”

As many of you know — and unfortunately many still do not — once you publish something on the Internet, it stays there forever. Yes, read this again: FOR EVER!

Even if you delete the contents of your blog, remove the pictures from your gallery, unsubscribe from newsletters, and delete your accounts from Facebook, mypace and other social media venues — you’re still floating around in cyberspace, hidden on backup servers, cached content, and the hard drives of millions of home computers that have viewed (and therefore downloaded) your pages, pictures and words. Yes, in a sense, you are immortalised. Not necessarily young, but certainly as you appear in your picture the day you (or a friend) published it on the Internet.

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Flint Hannah has shared a tutorial on how to take the perfectly lit product photo, the simple way. And I have to say that it is in one of the easiest-to-understand tutorial we’ve read in a long time. It is described step by step and well illustrated so there can be no confusion.

It is a breath of fresh air to read a “real” tutorial as opposed to the drivel many publishes, illustrated with stock photos that they have not taken themselves.

[ Read the tutorial at: photo tuts plus ]