Oh! Gizmo

By Chris Scott Barr

If you’ve spent a lot of time behind a camera, you’ve no doubt discovered just how much of an impact lighting has on your pictures. Sure, you can make do with that built-in flash on your DSLR, but if you really want some great shots, you’ll need to cough up the dough for a decent flash. Once you’ve done that, you can pick up this awesome kit from Brando that will really let you do some cool stuff.

This kit includes 6 different flash accessories that will drastically improve the quality of your shots. I’m still in the learning process myself, and for $88, this kit certainly looks tempting.

[ Brando ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Did you ever play cops and robbers as a kid? Well I always thought it would be cool to be the cop that has a pair of pistols hidden beneath his coat. They always had that cool double-holster that kept the guns right up against their sides. Well if you’re a photographer, you can have that same feeling. Only with cameras, and they won’t really fit well under a jacket.

The RS DR-1 Double Strap is probably the most awesome way that you can carry two cameras. If you’re wondering why you would need to dual-wield cameras, this is not a product for you. This is for the serious photographer that doesn’t have time to be switching lenses and settings between shots. It’s also for someone that’s used to spending $130 on accessories for their camera, because that’s exactly how much this will set you back when it’s released next month.

[ BlackRapid ] VIA [ Coolest-Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

There isn’t any one secret to taking a great photo, but there are many things you can do to improve the quality of your shots. For instance, taking into account the color temperature of the available lighting where you’re shooting will help you avoid photos that end up with an odd tint. This can be done by adjusting your camera’s white balance pre-sets, or by carrying and photographing a gray card for color correction reference or creating a custom white balance setting. Both techniques have their advantages and limitations, but these baLens White Balance lens caps from BRNO seem to be an even better solution.

They attach to your lens like a standard lens cap, but feature a translucent plastic dome allowing light to still reach your camera’s sensors. With the baLens mounted to your lens you can easily snap a reference exposure that can be used to create a custom white balance setting in your camera, instantly improving your photos. (In terms of color that is.) The baLens lens caps can also be used as a replacement for your standard lens caps, meaning you always have them readily available. You can get them from Adorama in 52, 55, 58, 62, 67, 72 and 77mm sizes for $54.95 each.

[ BRNO baLens White Balance Lens Cap ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

By Evan Ackerman

I’m quite sure that nobody who buys the JingPeng E1181 cellphone would ever even dream of using its spy camera for any sort of nefarious purpose. You may be able to completely detach the camera and its rechargeable battery from the phone and place it up to 30 feet away and have it stream video back over RF, but that doesn’t mean you should use it to… Well, I’m not going to give you any ideas. The rest of the phone involves a 3 inch touchscreen, an FM tuner, and just about everything else you’d expect from a mostly generic phone along with support for dual-band GSM networks and dual simcards. It’s $155.

[ DealExtreme ] VIA [ Engadget ]

By Luke Anderson

When is a gift card more than just credit to be used at a store? When you get one from Target, it seems. Earlier this year they brought us the Speed Racer Flash Drive gift card, which was pretty cool. However, they’ve one-upped themselves for the holiday season by turning their cards into digital cameras.

Sure, this thing isn’t exactly a Digital Rebel or anything, but getting a free 1.2-megapixel in your gift card worth $50 or more is pretty sweet. You’ll be able to store up to 50 pictures on its 8MB of memory, and it comes with a USB cable and the drivers you’ll need to download your snapshots. Heck, Target is even throwing in 40 free prints. All of that, and it still won’t cost you any more than the value of the gift card.

[ Target ] VIA [ Coolest Gadgets ]

By Evan Ackerman

There are the casual bird watchers, who can appreciate robins and blue jays and stuff when they see them. Then there are bird enthusiasts, who buy binoculars and telescopes to spot more exotic types. And then we’ve got the actual bird voyeurs, who buy hardcore spy equipment to catch birds with their pants down. If you’re a creepy weirdo, a Handykam system is for you. It’s a nest box with a digital camera hidden inside the roof, letting you spy on the comings and goings of your feathery woodland neighbors.

Handykam comes in either wireless or wired versions, although why you’d want a wired version is beyond me since the thing is going outside. The cameras are full color, with 420 lines of resolution and sound, and will switch to infrared black and white mode at night using an array of IR LEDs to illuminate the hot, hot action. If you’re lucky, you’ll get an up-close view of a pair of tits. Great tits.

Handykam bird boxes start out at about $110 for a wired camera in a pine box, and the wireless version in cedar costs about twice that. Feeders with camera systems are also available, starting at $94. Sample video of what you might expect to see, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Luke Anderson

Last year I finally decided to bite the bullet and get a nice digital SLR camera. This has proven to be a worthwhile investment, as I’ve been able to capture images that wouldn’t have been possible with a cheaper device. I’m still far from taking professional-quality photos, but I’m getting better all the time. One issue that I’ll sometimes run into is keeping my camera level on certain shots. It’s usually not a big deal, as I can eye it, however, I can see where a professional might need to be more accurate than that.

This little Cube Hot Shoe 3-Axis Bubble Level makes sure that no matter which way you have the camera tilted, you’ll know when it is level. It fits into the same slot as your external flash, which means you’ll have to do without the extra light. Unfortunately it also means that depending on your camera (such as mine), even the regular flash would be rendered useless, since it wouldn’t be able to open. This little accessory will only set you back $11.

[ Brando ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I love my Nikon D70 as much as I did when I first took it out of the box the day it was released. But I have to admit that over the years I’ve become jealous of more recent Nikon DSLR models which feature considerably larger LCD displays. Rumors about the new D700 have got me itching to upgrade, but that’s unfortunately an expensive solution to the problem. If you’re in the same boat but can wait until tomorrow, Uniden will be releasing the UNX-8507 which is basically a 3X magnifying glass you can place over your camera’s LCD display allowing you to get a closer look at the image you just snapped.

The magnifier features a rubber housing which allows it to be placed over the LCD on the back of any digital camera (be it an SLR or a P&S) and also ensures it’s not going to scratch your display. While I don’t necessarily recommend relying on just the LCD preview to proof your shots (a DSLR can provide far more valuable image data with histograms and such) it could be particularly handy for those with poor vision. And like I already mentioned, it should be available tomorrow for about $47.

[ Uniden UNX-8507 Magnifier ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Jonathan Kimak

DXG has come up with the DXG-567V, a High Definition digital video camera that is just over 4 inches long and comes in four different colors (red, blue, black and pink). It records 720p using H.264 Video Compression (using the MOV format) and also has a built-in retractable USB cord and a web-upload feature that makes it easy to upload your videos to sites like YouTube.

The price is fairly good too, just $179 US.  But of course with the low price comes some serious sacrifices, like no optical zoom. Instead it has a measly 2X digital zoom, along with the extra-low flash memory of 32MB (it can take SD cards) and a 2 inch display on the back.

It seems rather crazy to have a High Definition Camera with 2X digital zoom. But hey, you’ll have the best looking blurry home movies on the block.

[ DXG USA ] VIA [ Electronista ]