I don’t know about you, but I’ve been in several situations (re-wiring or adding components to my Audio-Video system, same with my cobra’s nest of computers and cables and peripherals) on an annual basis, where I really needed illumination and holding or positioning a flashlight at the same time I was doing something else wasn’t an option. If I were handier (or handy at all) with home repairs, I imagine that there would be a whole other realm of uses for this; but, since the only useful things I can do are related to building or fixing tech stuff, I tend to focus on what I know.

So, when I saw that there is now a magnetic ball with twelve stalks and LED illumination, which you can attach to any surface to shed light on what you are doing, and cost only $7.98 per light, I thought ‘now that’s something useful!’.

It’s kind of like antacid tablets–you never think about them until it’s 3am and you have a burning in your gut but, boy, are you glad you have them in the cabinet.

You can get more details and buy them at Thinkgeek.

One of the downsides of the iPhone camera is that it is a fixed length lens. There’s no optical zoom – instead, you have to crop on your iPhone or PC/Mac for a zoom effect or use a digital zoom application such as Camera Zoom, with the typical problem of a digital zoom that its use results in degraded image quality.

We recently found some optical lenses for the iPhone, by a company called USBfever. They graciously provided us with a sample of their 2x Tele Zoom. Here are my thoughts about it:

Attaching the lens
It is very simple to “mount” the lens on the iPhone. It comes with two small magnetic rings with self-adhesive tape. Simply glue one of them around the lens of your iPhone and then “snap” the lens (actually, any of their lenses) on the iPhone. The magnet does a good job holding the lens in place. To unmount, pull off the lens, attach the lens cap and bottom. Done!

Using the lens
The lens is made of sturdy aluminum and since it is attached through a magnet, you can slide the lens around on the magnet for optimal coverage. One issue: Since it is round, it heavily vignettes (see screen shot below). There is no way to avoid this – I guess it would have been possible to construct optics to avoid vignetting, but that typically includes multiple lens elements and drives up the cost and weight of the lens. Vignetting can simply be cropped in post processing.

Vignetting very visible with 2x Tele lens

Optical Quality
The quality of the optics is surprisingly good given the low cost of the lens. I did not see any quality degradation. On the contrary, as the comparison image below exemplifies, there’s a lot more detail visible in the 100% crop from the image shot with the 2x telephoto than is in the regular image.

100% crops: The tele lens brings out the details nicely

Cleaning
The lens is small, but can be cleaned easily with swabs or your favorite lens cleaning solution. Personally, I use a LensPen, which works just fine on this lens.

Personally, I prefer optical zooms over digital zooms at any time of the day due to better quality pictures even if it means I have to deal with vignetting. Thus, since the lens is very small and light-weight, I started to carry it around with me in my bag. So far, I’ve used it quite frequently, since it’s so quick and easy to attach it to my iPhone and since I like the quality of the photos that I shot with it.

Verdict: Highly recommended

In addition to the 2x telephoto, USBfever also offers a fish-eye, a 5x tele and a wide-angle lens for the iPhone.

Weight: 6.6 grams, including lens cap and strap

Price: $16.99, directly from USBfever

I’m not a big fan of iPhone cases (add too much bulk), but if I had one, it would probably be the Griffin Clarifi. Why? Because it has a little built-in macro lens that can be moved over the iPhone lens. With Clarifi, you have a better chance at taking good and sharp close-ups and macros, since the slide-on lens reduces the closest focus range for the iPhone camera from 18 to 4.1 inches. This is especially useful for barcode and text photography or for some of the uses that are outlined in our post about other uses for the iPhone camera.

The Clarifi case is constructed of polycarbonate with access to power switch, headphone jack, volume controls and features Griffin’s EasyDock; remove the case bottom to charge and sync, put it back on when you’re ready to go.

Price: $34.99, Amazon: $21.00

If you are like me, you have a lot of old hard drives lying around – some of them still in use, some of them rarely used and some not at all. Whenever I have the need to quickly access one of them, the main question is always how to best connect them to my Mac or PC.

Vantec has a clever solution for this. Simply insert any 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA I/II hard drive into Vantec’s NexStar Hard Drive Dock, connect it via USB2.0 or to an eSata port and you are ready to view, transfer, copy, or backup files.

Price: $46.99 (without hard drive), Amazon: $36.97

Hi-Den launched the newest member of its Vision family, the Hi-Den Vision Tiny Photo Player. Measuring just 4.8(W) x 10.1(L) x 1.6(H) cm and weighing a mere 50g, this battery-operated projector can be carried everywhere with you. Simply use the USB port to connect an external hard-drive, thumb drive or any memory card via a card reader, then plug the unit into any HDTV and you can view your images at resolutions up to 1080p. The unit comes with a remote control which allows you to put on slideshows, select transitions, randomize or sequential playback aso.

Price: $42.00 directly from Hi-Den.

If you are like me, your memory cards lead a hard live. They’ve been sat on, washed in the laundry, lost, broken and had to endure much abuse. That is, until I discovered memory card holders.

The one featured here is the Lowepro Pixelpak. It’s small and compact, but can still hold 8 SD cards. One of the insets can be taken out, so you have space for a PCMCIA card adaptor or business cards. It protects cards from moisture and shock. It is made from plastic, but the cover is brushed aluminum, so you can find it easier in dimly lit places.

Size: 3.9W X 0.6D X 2.6H inches
Weight: 0.2lbs

Added bonus tip: Insert the cards with their label facing up before taking off on a field trip. When changing cards in the field, put the used cards back into the case with the label facing down. This way, you will always know which cards were used and which ones are still available for use.

Price:
Holder for 8 SD cards: $19.99, Amazon: $11.49
Holder for 4 Compact Flash cards: B&H Photo: $19.99

If your current USB reader seems to not ingest your images fast enough and you have a Firewire 800 port on your computer (many Apple Macintosh computers come equipped with FW800 ports), why not upgrade to a faster FW800 reader?

Among the number of manufacturers that offer not just USB but also Firewire 800 readers is Lexar. Specifically geared towards professionals and amateur photographers is their Professional UDMA FireWire 800 Reader. It’s based on Firewire 800 with a maximum of up to 800 Mb/sec and handles both regular Compact Flash and Lexar’s UDMA Compact Flash cards, Lexar’s series of professional Compact Flash cards that allow for 300x speeds.

The UDMA Firewire reader is stackable, so photographers can stack them, daisy-chain their Firewire 800 connections and download in parallel from multiple Compact Flash cards.

Price:
FW800 Reader: $100.80, Amazon: $61.24
UDMA 300x Compact Flash Card: $79.99, Amazon: $69.18

Do you miss view finders in today’s crop of digital point & shoot (P&S) cameras? Do you have problems correctly framing an image when holding the camera in front of you? So do I!

Our friends at Digital Outback Photo developed a great method to improve framing an image before you take it with a P&S camera. Simply use Hoodman’s HoodLoupe, which was originally developed to better view LCD screens on DSLRs, wear it around your neck, hold it up to your P&S’ LCD screen when framing an image and then take the picture.

Check out their article and then try it out yourself!

HoodLoupe: $79.99, Amazon: $79.00

Photographers have a need to connect many things to their PCs or Macs, from USB drives to media hubs to power cords to mobile phone chargers to card readers to all kinds of storage and viewing devices. Thus, our desks often look messy and keeping cables organized is next to impossible.

Keep-a-cable is designed to make keeping your desk half-way in order much easier. It is made from high density, flexible polyethylene with notched holes to thread your cables and keep them behind your desk. It features a 3M adhesive strip for mounting it to any surface and also has holes for screws if you want to make a more permanent installation. They are available in single wire, five wire and long strips to accommodate everything from a single cell phone charger to an entire rack of servers or other electronic equipment.

Price: starting at $5.00, Amazon: $7.45 for a 3-pack

Do you process all of your images on a Mac? Getting ready to buy one of the newest Mac desktops or notebooks, but are turned off due to the lack of a Firewire 400 port? Do not despair.

Let’s face it – Firewire 400 support is coming to an end. But Apple continues to put Firewire 800 connectors into its machines. How to then use your Firewire 400 devices? Through inexpensive cables or adaptors. Firewire 800 is backward-compatible with all Firewire 400 peripherals, so just plug a Firewire 400 peripheral into an adaptor and connect that to your Mac.

Some solutions:
Sonnettech sells a Firewire 400 to 800 adaptor (see image) for around $15.
Wiebetech sells a 3ft adaptor cable, called the 7380-0000-11, for $11.
Monoprice.com sells adaptors and cables that convert Firewire 400 to either Firewire 800 or USB.

One of the least expensive adaptor solutions, so you do not have to deal with messy cables, is SIIG’s Firewire 400 to 800 adaptor. $12, Amazon: $7.40