Camera Blog

Rollei Powerflex 440 and 450 Cameras

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Rollei is presenting the first two models in its new Powerflex product range just in time for the start of the New Year: the Powerflex 440 and the Powerflex 450 for demanding and cost-conscious photography newcomers. The name ?Powerflex? is most definitely fitting, above all due...

- DigitalPixels.net

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Casio EX-H5 Review

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Looking for a travel zoom compact camera with a wide-angle lens, 12 megapixels and HD movies that won't break the bank? The Casio EX-H5 could be the answer, offering a 24-240mm focal range, 2.7 inch LCD, CCD-shift image stabilization and 1,000 shot battery life, all for under ?150 / $200. Read our expert Casio EX-H5 review to find if it's a hit or a miss...

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iClone4

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iClone4 is an affordable, real-time 3D animation tool, with stereoscopic output capabilities, that allows any Photoshop project to be turned into eye-catching 3D Stereo printouts. With this new and powerful addition to its arsenal of high-quality image production, the Photoshop...

- DigitalPixels.net

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ePod Diversity [Review]

A brief review of the ePod Diversity light studio tripod and laptop tray from Studio-Flash.com by Simon Pollock

If you’re going to place your laptop and camera on a tripod, you want it to be stable, you want it to be functional and you certainly don’t want it to fall over and smash the life out of your pride and joy / tools of the trade, right?

Meet the ePod Diversity from www.studio-flash.com

Weighing in at just under 3kg with the ball head, and able to easily hold up to 8kg of camera and laptop, the ePod isn’t a “carry around” tripod, it’s a studio tripod and a good solid one at that! Now, I’m not a studio photographer by any stretch of the imagination, and I’ve only used a tethered setup a couple of times – once when I was doing some portraits for the company that I worked for, and totally forgot to bring my memory cards – stupid! and another time, just for fun. But having to keep your camera and laptop together and keep it all stable and still, I found that interesting.

You’ll note that’s not my set-up above, it’s Danny’s.. you all know I break out in a itchy red mess when I use Nikon (breath people, it’s a joke!) So, the ePod has a working height without the ball head of 0cm – 163cm and the Monopod working height is 54cm – 135cm, again, without the ball head which adds about 8cm

The tripod has three section legs that bend in many (two) directions and are finished with rubber feet and / or spikes, depending upon what you’re in to! The legs can be set so you’re shooting from as good as on the deck, flat, lying down… OK, so you have most of the spec now, you get what this tripod is used for, you’ve seen a couple of pictures – but is it any good?

Well, The first thing you don’t want your tripod doing is sliding down / over when you stick your kit on the top… So, what was the first thing I did when I took it out of the box? I slid down it like a crazy, Canon shooting pole dancer! Did it move? NO, was it graceful… certainly not! Sturdy it was, yes. A very solid piece of kit with a set of spirit levels built in, the ePod diversity is a very well built bit of kit. Easy to adjust and, for some crazy reason, has a compass built in too! (maybe you want to take all your photos facing north, I don’t know)

The laptop tray has a rubbery goodness to it that will hold your laptop nice and tightly, and the ball heads are very precise, so you could as easily use this tripod for macro / still lifey / product type shots… and, I guess anything else that you’d choose to shoot tethered? Who shoots tethered, why? I’d love to know in the comments below.

ePod Diversity comes as just a tripod, or as a kit if you buy it all together – as “just a tripod” it is a very sturdy studio tripod, but when you add the platform it’s like a mobile work-bench. ePod comes with a zippered nylon carry case and is available on special right now for £125.00 (for the tripod) £150 with the beam / platform (down from £199.00 (be quick?!)

There’s much filler and bumpf you could write about any product, but honestly… it’s a tripod – it does what a tripod should do, it does it very well. The tray / arm set-up works very well. If you want a very well priced, light studio tripod… check it out.

Based on functionality, price, build and quality… the ePod Diversity picks up 5 of a possible 5 tripod legs (like stars, but different)

Find out more about it here.

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Thanksgiving: Weekly Photography Challenge

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Image by ckirkman

Many of our readers are, as they read this, recovering from one of their biggest holidays of the year – Thanksgiving.

While I know not all DPS readers are in the US I thought the theme of Thanksgiving was something we all could participate in as we do this week’s photography challenge. We did this last year also and it was a great theme.

The challenge is to photograph something that you’re thankful for OR to share a thanksgiving shot that you took over the last few days – and then to share the shot in comments below.

Use your imagination and feel free to interpret the theme as you’d like. You might like to take a picture of a person, object or do something symbolic to show what you’re thankful for. Anything goes – all we ask is that you keep your shots to a family friendly standard.

Once you’ve taken your photos – choose your best 1-2, upload them to your favourite photo sharing site either share a link to them even better – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so.

If you tag your photos on Flickr, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag them as #DPSTHANKS to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

Also – don’t forget to check out some of the great shots posted in last weeks Environmental Portrait Challenge.

I am looking forward to seeing what you’re thankful for!

Post from: Digital Photography School

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Relaxing Traditions The Morning After Thanksgiving

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For the last several years, I haven't managed to bake a cake or pie in time for Thanksgiving dinner, so I've made the most of slovenly my ways and created a new, much more relaxing tradition: Morning-After Thanksgiving Cranberry Upside-Down Cake.

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