If you do a lot of printing and framing, you know how annoying cutting straight and seamless backgrounds with regular scissors can be. so it makes sense to make a small investment in a pair of rolling scissors that are very easy to use, safer than shears and guarantee straigt cuts.
OLO Rolling Scissors use a rolling action instead of squeezing to reduce hand cramps and fatigue. Twin precision roller bearings do the cutting so there are no blades or sharp edges and the contoured handle protects hands from paper cuts. The built-in guide assures accurate cuts at any length and after a cut is made edges are clean and smooth. Comfortable for right or left handed users.
Price: $9.99, Amazon: $6.98
Foolography (what a name!) announced Unleashed, a Bluetooth based wireless GPS Geotagging solution, which should be available for Nikon shooters later this spring. Simply put the Unleashed unit is mounted directly on the 10-pin port of the camera and connects wirelessly to any modern Bluetooth GPS receiver, which can be kept in your pocket or backpack. It passes the GPS data on to the camera and the current location is embedded in your photo’s EXIF data immediately. No additional steps are required at your computer. How cool is that! No wonder, Unleashed received one of the DIMA awards at this year’s PMA.
In case you do not have a GPS receiver, Foolography also manufactures the GeoTiger, which connects through a short cable the geotagging unit to a GPS receiver which is then slipped into the camera’s flash hotshoe.
Supported Cameras: Nikon D200, D300, D700, D2X, D2Xs, D2Hs, D3, D3X, and Fuji S5 Pro
Price: to be announced
If you want to protect your expensive camera’s LCD screen, look no further than Hoodman, maker of the Hood Cap. It is designed to snap onto the back of the Nikon D3 and protect the LCD from dust and scratches. But will it impact the visibility of your images on the LCD?
Friends of us report that it works exactly as advertised. And there’s no impact at all when it comes to viewing images on the LCD, not even in bright sunlight.
Available for the Nikon D3 as well as other cameras.
Price: $25, Amazon: $24.99
While its name sounds funny, ExpoImaging’s HonlPhoto Pro flash accessory system is anything but.
First, wrap the Speed Strap
velcro strap (pictured at the top right) tightly around the head of your flash unit. Since the bottom of the strip is rubberized, it will stick without any glue or rubber bands. Next attach any of the accessories to the velcro and start shooting!
Accessories include barndoors
(two-sided, one black, one white – pictured in the middle) to prevent stray light from entering your lens, a Speed Snoot
(pictured on the bottom right) to concentrate and direct the light from your flash exactly to where you want it (also works for targeted long-distance fill-flash in wildlife photography), honeycomb speed grids
in multiple sizes to narrow the beam of light from your flash as well as gel filter kits
Similarly, removal is easy. Just take off the accessories, then the SpeedStrap and put everything back into your bag or pack. Both setup and removal takes less than a minute.
Price: SpeedStrap starting at $9.95, Amazon: $9.95
One advantage of digital point & shoots with swivel LCDs over regular DSLRs is that you can take great shots with the camera down at your feet. Just swivel the LCD up and start shooting!
Now you can do the same by attaching a right angle viewer to your DSLR’s optical viewfinder. Hoodman is one of the manufacturers who have marketed right angle viewers for a ling time. Its H-RAV includes a built in diopter with 1X and 2X capbility, full 360 degree rotation and universal mounting attachments for many Digial SLR cameras. A storage case is included. Try it out – it opens new perspectives to you!
Price: $129.99, Amazon: $109.00
Not just another reflector, but one that allows you to operate it with just one hand. The Lastolite Tri-Grip replaces the traditional round reflector with a triangular design with a built-in handle, thus allowing for easy manipulation of the reflecting panel, with no stand or support needed. The Tri-Grip Reflector measures approximately 33″ on each side. Two recently released new reflective surfaces include SoftSilver and Sunlite. SoftSilver is combination of one strip of silver and one strip of white helps tone down (soften) the harshness normally associated with a pure silver reflector. And Sunlite contains two strips of silver for every strip of Gold, thus minimizing the risk of blown highlights in an image.
Colors: Gold/White, Sunfire/Silver, Silver/White, and Translucent/Diffuse
Price: $75.00, Amazon: $59.95
At PMA today, DataColor announced SypderCube, a new RAW calibration tool. According to their press release, the all-in-one SpyderCube provides fast and accurate whitepoint correction as well as bracketed adjustments for highlights and blacks. The White face of SpyderCube helps define highlights in relation to the catch-light; the Gray face measures color temperature and mid-tone response; the Black face defines shadows in relations to the Black Trap; and the Black Trap defines absolute black.
One advantage of SpyderCube will be that it does not require specialized or proprietary software to operate effectively and can be used with any RAW conversion software available today to precisely adjust all photos taken under the same lighting conditions.
Availability: late March 2009
Price: $59
Here’s one that you should always have in your Bag! The Bottle-top Pod, made by Adorama, is a simple holder screw that’s attached to a bottle top. Simply take a soda bottle, water bottle or any other bottle, screw the bottle top pod on and you have an instant tripod. For added stability, fill the bottle with water or, better yet, wet sand.
Price: $9.95, Amazon: $7.99
Macbook users have the MagSafe adapters, PC notebook users have… the Jerkstopper. If you are worried about ripping the power cord violently from your notebook, thus damaging your notebook’s power plug and possibly more, the Jerkstopper is the right product for you.
Each order comes with three plugs — one each for USB, modem and network ports. Installation is easy — put the plug into the desired port, slide the end part to the side, align the cable with the plugged in part and push the end part back. Very easy, takes less than a minute.
Once installed, the device does exactly what it’s supposed to do — it keeps your power cable in place. We tried to jerk it off, but it was impossible to do.
We tried the Jerkstopper on five (sub-)notebooks from HP, Lenovo, Dell, IBM and Alienware. While our preference was to connect it to the unused modem ports of these notebooks, all of them have their modem ports so close to the networking ports that the secured cable would have totally obstructed these, thus rendering the network ports unusable. For that reason, we ended up connecting the Jerkstopper to a USB port. However, given the dearth of USB ports on many notebooks, if you are unwiling to give them up, the Jerkstopper is also available attached to lanyards and other cables.
Recommended for all PC notebook users
Price: $9.95, directly from jerkstopper.com
Jobo has announced a new version of its GIGA Vu SONIC photo storage device.
The GIGA Vu SONIC features a card-to-device transfer speed of up to about 34MB/second, RAW file viewing, support for CompactFlash, SD/SDHC and other formats, hard drive capacities up to 250GB and a 3.2in (diagonal), 320 x 240 pixel color screen with various picture display options including multi-level zoom.
Available in March 2009
