Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

PhotoFast G-Monster X Drive USB 3.0 Review

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The PhotoFast G-Monster X Drive is a USB 3.0 enclosure for CF cards and 1.8″ hard drives.  Essentially, the G-Monster X Drive turns a CF card or micro-sized hard drives into an ultra-compact, high speed hard drive.

Recently, I added a USB 3.0 PCIe adapter and an external USB 3.0 hard drive to my desktop PC as a media drive for video editing.  So far, it has worked very well – with no discernable difference in performance from my internal hard drives.  I have since become a big fan of USB 3.0 tech and was glad to hear about the G-Monster X Drive from Photofast. [Read more…]

 

Canon 5D Mark II and 7D Get Locking Mode Dial Upgrade Option

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Canon has announced the availability of a locking mode upgrade for the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D, which will prevent the settings from accidentally being changed.  For now, the service upgrade has only been announced for Japan and will cost 10,500 yen (roughly $125 USD).

No word yet on the availability of this service upgrade in the US or other markets.

Is this a feature that you would want?  Will you pay for the upgrade if/when it becomes available in your market?

[Canon Japan via Rob Galbraith]

New Compact Flash Specs Proposed by Sony, Nikon, SanDisk

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SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB CF Card

The future of camera memory cards may be a new CF card that offers transfer rates of 500 MB/sec and capacity in excess of 2 TB. The development of these proposed specifications were announced today as part of a joint effort among Sony, Nikon and SanDisk.

Nikon, SanDisk and Sony have submitted these high-powered specs to the CompactFlash Association in hopes of a future standardization of the format.  The new card specifications are based on a PCI Express interface (in order to achieve a 500 MB/sec transfer rate) instead of the Parallel ATA interface used in current generation cards.

According to the statement issued by SanDisk, Sony and Nikon, the new cards will be similar in size to existing CF cards.  Hopefully, that also serves as a hint that the new cards will do away with the pins inside camera, which are so susceptible to being bent.

Complete details of the announcement are below. [Read more…]

Lensbaby System Bag

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In case the name didn’t quite give it away, the Lensbaby System Bag is a custom bag that is designed specifically for the Lensbaby optic system.  It is compatible with all Lensbaby lenses and has additional pouches and sleeves for stowing memory cards or other accessories.

The Lensbaby System Bag retails for $39.95 and is available at Lensbaby.com and B&H Photo.

More details in the press release below. [Read more…]

Black Friday Camera and Photo Gear Deals

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While I’m not one to get up at the crack of dawn the day after Thanksgiving, I recognize that chasing the Black Friday deals has nearly risen to the same level of tradition at Turkey Day itself. As a result, I’ll be breaking down the camera and photo gear deals that are popping off the pages of the Black Friday ads.

I’ll also try to point out cases where deals aren’t all that great at brick and mortar stores when compared to the likes of online retailers like B&H Photo and Amazon. And, if you are doing your shopping online, you can find Black Friday deals all week long at the following links:

B&H Photo Holiday Deals

Amazon.com Black Friday Page

If you are trying to come up with the right gift idea, don’t miss Photography Bay’s 2010 Digital Camera Holiday Shopping Guide.

Check out the rest of the Black Friday deals below, organized by store.  Happy hunting. [Read more…]

Firmware Friday: Nikon Compacts, Pentax K-5, Panasonic G2 & Zoom H4n

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Camera Firmware Update

Below you will find this week’s firmware updates.  Hit the manufacturer website links for more details and download instructions for the firmware.

Nikon Coolpix S6000 version 1.1 – “When the self-timer, flash mode or macro mode setting was accessed but then closed without adjusting the setting after applying exposure compensation, the exposure compensation setting was reset to 0.0. This issue has been resolved.” [Nikon Website]

Nikon Coolpix S8000 version 1.1 – “When the self-timer, flash mode or macro mode setting was accessed but then closed without adjusting the setting after applying exposure compensation, the exposure compensation setting was reset to 0.0. This issue has been resolved.” [Nikon Website]

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2 version 1.1 – “added a function for recording 3D pictures. added a function for playing back 3D pictures. Improved operability of AE lock by maintaining the setting even when touch shutter function is used.” [Panasonic Website]

Pentax K-5 version 1.01 – “Increases the number of continuous shot at RAW format and High sensitivity shooting. # Improved stability for general performance such as exposure range on HyP mode.” [Pentax Website]

Zoom H4n Handy Recorder version 1.70 – “Added the function that recording level of INPUT1 and 2 can be set individually.” [Zoom Website]

Firmware Friday: Nikon P100 & S8100

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Camera Firmware Update

Below you will find this week’s firmware updates.  Hit the manufacturer website links for more details and download instructions for the firmware.

Nikon P100 version 1.1 – Numerous bug fixes [Nikon Website]

Nikon S8100 version 1.1 – “When Sequence display options was selected from the playback menu and Individual pictures then selected, pictures previously shot continuously were displayed one at a time, but only the key picture for a series shot after the setting was displayed. This issue has been resolved.” [Nikon Website]

Photo Mechanic Review

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Photo Mechanic is solid piece of photo organization software.  It is not an image editor, but it’s just as critical to your workflow if you shoot a lot of photos.  Camera Bits (the maker of Photo Mechanic) says, “Photo Mechanic sets out to be the most useful Photo Workflow Software on the market today.  It does this by being logical in operation, intuitive in use and, most importantly of all, performing its functions as quickly as possible.”

All those things are true, but that last part “. . . as quickly as possible” is what makes Photo Mechanic such a hit for me.

Ever shoot a few hundred or a few thousand images in a day?  Do you shoot in RAW format and hate waiting for the those 100% previews to load in Lightroom?  Do you need to view your photos faster?  If you said “yes” to any of these, then you will see an immediate benefit to putting Photo Mechanic in your workflow. [Read more…]