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
Too shy to ask a stranger to take a picture of you in San Francisco? Afraid to give to someone your camera because they might take off with it?
Quikpod to the Rescue! Simply mount your camera on the Quikpod, set the timer on your camera to 3 or 10 seconds, extend the Quikpod, look into its small mirror below (so the camera will actually capture you and not someone else) and wait for the timer to go off. It is that easy. Sure, it looks dorky, but if it works for you, why not?
Quikpod also released a bigger, sturdier version for a DSLR. The new Quickpod DSLR can do double-duty as a monopod.
Quickpod: $29.95, Amazon: $17.37
Quickpod DSLR: $49.95, Amazon: $43.95
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
Recently CameraBits released version 4.5.3.1 of its popular PhotoMechanic software, which is optimized for very fast downloads of images from your camera to a PC or a Mac. Various metadata speed improvements were implemented in addition to speed improvements in the Navigator. As always, a number of bug fixes were implemented as well. The new version adds RAW support for the Canon Powershot G9, Nikon’s D3 and D300 as well as the Sony DSLR A-700.
This is another development of image transferring software from CameraBits. Various changes have been implemented such as improved file reading speed and a re-acceleration of image transplantation from your camera to computer.
From previous tests of this new software, this new and highly developed gadget is able to download images from O2 mobile phones as well, most specially the latest units.
Price: $150
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
Certainly a mouthful for such a small accessory, but this one deserves the praise.
Question: If you mount a leveling base on a tripod and level it, then your tripod head on the leveling base and the camera on your tripod head, is the camera level? Perhaps, but more likely than not, it isn’t. That’s why I slip the Bubble Level into the flash hot shoe and level my camera with the help of this gadget, just to make certain. Of course, I could straighten my images in Photoshop, but why go through the hassle, if you can keep your camera level in the first place?
The Manfrotto 2-Axis Hot Shoe Double Bubble Level might not look like a lot, but it certainly is worth the money!
Recommended!
List Price: $36.00, Amazon: $29.25
