Camera-Accessories Reviews

This DVD explains in details about what it takes on being a National Geographic photographer. The experience on being a National Geographic photographer is clearly elaborated by selected National Geographic photographer. Absolutely a good buy! I will watch it over and over again!

Not a "how to" dvd per se, I thought it gave more inspiration for the the budding photographer than anything. If you are into photography and especially photojournalism then I highly recommend this one!

Thrilling and insightful on the life and times of the NG photograther. It will make you appreciate what they do even more. Also motivating for those who are interesting in Editorial, adventure, or photojournalist photography.

! was about to complete my order on this item when i saw the shipping and handling costs, so I will now look to some other E business to buy this product.

If you have a coolpix camera and have not yet purchased this filter kit, I highly recommend that you do so. I have the coolpix 4300 and in order to use the filters, I had to purchase the UR-E4 adapter. If your camera needs an adapter to use these filters, then you will also need to get another lens cap to fit over them. If you go to nikonmall.com you can purchase the 28mm lens cap to fit, I think the model ID is LC-E900 (costs $2.50 + shipping), or something like that. But for the price, this is a must have, because I don't know about you, but i would rather need to replace an inexpensive filter than replace my entire camera. I leave the UV filter on at all times for a lens protector. I have taken many pictures with and without the filters, and I am hooked on these.

Take your photos to the next level.

Wow the things you can do with filters.

Lots of fun.

Well, despite the price (it's 499 dollars in my country) this is an excellent camera. If you are a newbie like me with digital cameras, you're starting with a monster.
This baby can take beautiful pictures, and offers options never before seen in P series. Manual control is superb.
Cons: It needs Memory Stick Pro to save video... agh!

It's my first Digital camera, and I must say, "It's perfect & worth every penny!"

With its 5.1 MP Sony lens, the photo quality is amazing! Crisp, Sharp, Colorful and very detailed.

I have to say, it works better than some CANON models! I took a photo of a same stationary subject with both cameras. I found out that the SONY's output was better than the CANON's. So I went for Sony.

The camera has various features to enjoy including Video recording and OPTICAL/DIGITAL Zoom.

Well done SONY! :)

I just bought this camera and I have had the best time using it. It takes wonderful crisp pictures and is easy and fun to use. It works great in all conditions. This camera was a great buy at 5 megapixels at a great price...better than other cameras that were more expensive at 4 megapixels with features that an everyday user would not need.

It's much better than I expected. It's sturdy and nice looking, with all the functions as the manufacture describes. It even comes with a piece of instruction to assist you to know this tripod better. With this kind of price, I am totally satisfied. Maybe just one little thing here: I agree with one of the reviews here: It'd be great if it comes with a carrying bag. Well, it's OK by me.

I was considering spending $95 for a sturdy tripod but felt it was too much of money to spend on a tripod so decided to check out this model.
Since this model was much cheaper than the one I had my eyes on, I was skeptical about its build quality. You shouldn't. This is a very well made and sturdy product. They even include extra quick release platform with bubble level (so you know if the camcorder is placed even). This is really handy if you have more than one camera or have both camera & camcorder. You can just quickly release camera without screwing/unscrewing from the tripod. I am sure you can find better built tripod but this unit does the job for a casual user like me. I highly recommend this unit and considering its price, it's a bargain!

I was amazed with the price tag and the features this tripod was offereing and immediately switched to this one when I read about it.
Its been one of my best choices in terms of quality, fetures and price. The extra quick release plate gives you a lot of flexibility if you have two photo devices. The high - tilt adjustment are superb.

Sunpack could have been more innovative with providing a handle to carry the tripod. Providing a carry bag would have been really great, particularly when others are offering the same. But thats too much to ask for this price.

Overall this is a must buy item.

I use this PC card all the time on my Mac PowerBook in the slot on the side of the machine. It works like a dream on OS 9, but the current release of OS X does not support it. (As I'm writing this, that release is only 10.04. I'm hoping that changes with the next release.) Your Smart Media Card shows up just like a PC disc inserted in to any drive. You need to have your PC file sharing extensions on. They are ON by default. I use it for my digital camera, but it would be also be really handy if you use Smart Media cards for an MP3 player.

I do not have this particular brand, but i have the same product. If you have a laptop (i run windows 2k) running win98 and above it is a must-have. Transfer rates are really fast, and for me there was no software installation required. It was recognized as a removable drive. In addition, transferring files in this method does not require battery power.

This SmartMedia PC Card adaptor is great. It means not having to have special software installed on the computer to access the photos, which is good when I've being taking pictures while travelling, say, and wish to show some on someone else's computer. It's also way faster and more reliable than plugging the camera into the USB port.

This 105mm Sigma macro lens with a fast f/2.8 aperture satisfies you in every department. First of all it gives you a 1:1 true life size macro and these macro images comes out truly amazing... extremely sharp, good color saturation and contrast(on Pentax ZX-7). The 105mm focal length is also suitable for taking portraits. Portrait results have also come out extremely well. The EX finish is aesthetically pleasing, scratch proof and has a metal alloy body for sturdiness. The hood which is provided along with the lens matches well with it. One can also use a 77mm dia lens cap which fits perfectly on the hood, so that the hood can remain permanently on the lens (hood is threaded so that it can screw on the lens like filters.)

A bit of a bother is the clutch mechanism which on has to engage/disengage while changing between MF/AF. But on the positive side, the focus ring doesn't move (in AF mode) and one is more at ease while holding the camera. The other thing is the long rotational travel of the focusing ring while focusing a subject and in AF mode this could sometimes take a while. This could be somewhat solved by using the focusing limiter switch.

Definitely, a well made lens optically and structurally and should satisfy one and all.

I bought this lens when they had a sale. It was [price] without shipping charge, and I think the price was the lowest anywhere.
I love this lens. It is a lot sharper than EF 28-135mm IS, which I use most of the time. Now I can take good pictures of teeth from my patients and also good portraits for my baby.
Overall it is very versatile and overall quality is excellent, and I would recommend to anyone interested in macro photography.

Sigma 105 EX macro is considered one of the best primes for its optical quality. MTF tests, which determine how sharp the lens is, place it just below the famous Canon 100mm Macro. The EX sign tells that the build quality of the lens is higher than that of a consumer-grade product. The big plus is a price. It is almost twice cheaper than Canon 100mm. ALso, it comes with the case and a hood and Canon does not. The drawbacks, however, include potential incompatibility with the future Canon camera bodies. I would highly recommend this lens for advanced amatures on a tight budget.

I ordered a Dual Battery Charger but received a single batery charger. However the single battery charger had a plug in adapter for a car cigarette lighter. This pleased me. Since this extra compensated me for getting the wrong thing

We bought it so that we could charge 2 batteries at once for the holidays and vactions. We have no complaints and my wife is putting it to good use with the new camera.

Compact, small, super-easy to use; small enough footprint; efficient. In retrospect, something that should've been "standard" with any Sony Cybershot camera. Hooking up my camera to an AC charger is too cumbersome and a pain. This device is so straight forward, with two "pockets" to insert batteries, that having one go dead on you while you're on the road shouldn't happen.

Well worth the price and less cumbersome than the TWO power cords that come with your Sony digital camera (one from your wall to the the charger, the other from the charger to your camera).

With this gizmo, you have just ONE cord. It runs from the wall to the charger. That's it. I always worry about charging my camera from the wall because there isn't enough clearance for the wire and the back panel to your camera. The result is your camera, during charging, is pushed upward at a funny angle, on one edge because the flimsy door panel to access the input jacks is flush bottom. This door feels it could break at the slightest mis-directed touch.

No such worries anymore.

My reasons for finally buying this accessory were different than those of the first reviewer, though I have to agree that when I have it attached to my camera, it definitely makes it look cooler!

In my case, I was just sick and tired of having otherwise great shots become less than great because I couldn't keep the horizontal in the horizon. The final straw was a lovely mood shot taken last summer in our drought parched wetlands. Birds were congregating in the one or two scum covered spots with moisture, and I shot a lovely silhouette of a sandhill crane surrounded by soft green. Of course, wanting to accentuate the height of the bird, I shot vertically--and the resulting photo looked tipsy.

Perhaps others have a steadier hand when shooting with the camera shutter, but mine invariably tips to one side. I added the vertical grip to my arsenal after learning such a thing existed while reading Arthur Morris's book on bird photography. He considers it essential as well. He was right. My vertical shots are now truly vertical, not angled.

The other cool thing the battery pack offers is, well, battery options. It can use the batteries from the camera, or will adapt regular batteries to power the camera, which can be an advantage when your batteries die and you aren't able to replace the camera specific batteries.

The only downside for me? I wish I'd bought it sooner. My great photos of the clock tower on Parliament wouldn't have been tipsy if I had!

I picked up a Canon EOS Elan 7E (EOS 30 in Europe, EOS 7 in Japan) because I wanted something fully-featured to begin studying photography with. The Elan 7E can do anything the bigger cameras can do, just not as quickly and minus the weighty weatherproof construction, and I was very happy with it for a long time.

After a while, however, I started noticing problems. Being in Japan, I would encounter hordes of elderly ladies and young men, clearly enthusiasts but not professionals, sporting the top-of-the-line cameras with heavy L-series lenses. When I would go to take pictures of an event - say, a parade - the professionals would elbow me out of the way at all the best spots.

Clearly, my equipment did not look cool enough.

Needless to say, big equipment provides plenty of psychological benefits and assuages those feelings of envy. But also, when you carry around a lightweight camera with a consumer-grade zoom lens, the professional photojournalists instinctively know at a glance that you are an _amateur_ getting in the way of their _serious work_. When you try to gain access to a venue, you need to first overpower the guards with the appearance of professionalism, if nothing else, and this is difficult to do when everyone else's camera is bigger than yours. People make snap judgments, and are easily fooled by big tools.

The solution? Step 1a: Buy a heavy-duty professional lens. Anything bearing the red ring of Canon's 'L' line or the groovy finish of Sigma's 'EX' line are both fine, but for photojournalism a 70-200/2.8 is ideal. Step 1b: Bulk up your camera body with this battery pack/grip. Professionals may still realize there's something amiss, but you'll probably get past the first couple glances and be able to sneak in the door. Step 1a does more to help, but 1b is almost as important and a heck of a lot less expensive.

So the most important thing is that it looks cool, but it also has a couple other interesting features. It provides a little extra weight and a better center of gravity for when you start playing with the bigger lenses. It has shutter release and exposure lock buttons so you can take portrait (vertical) shots in a slightly more relaxed position. It accepts AA batteries (alkaline, NiMH or Ni-Cad) or the usual CR123As through an ingenious little flip spacer thing. Unfortunately, powerful, lightweight, durable lithium AA batteries are verboten - "The initial voltage is high and it can may [sic] damage the camera's electronic circuitry." Since alkaline batteries are much heavier than lithiums and fail in extreme cold, the extended battery life (115 rolls with eye-controlled focusing at 20 Celsius, 0 rolls at -20) isn't too much of an advantage over CR123As. You can use rechargeables to save money, but they bleed their charges relatively quickly even when not in use, and CR123As last all year anyway as long as you're not constantly taking extreme time exposures of the stars.

So, ultimately, it gets five stars almost entirely on the coolness of its looks alone. Get one, get out there and shove a photojournalist back.

Works wonderfully...charges quicker than charging in the camera...a two-battery charger...charge batteries in the car or at home.

Excellent charger for the Canon BP-511 batteries I use for my Canon G1 digital camera. The Canon CR-560 charging light shows single flashes when the battery is less than 50% charged...double flashes when 50-75% charged...triple flashes when more than 75% charged...a continuous light when it is 100% charged. Also, when two batteries are placed in the charger, the first one inserted will begin charging and the second one will sequentially begin charging when the first one is fully charged and its charging light glows steadily. It takes approximately 3 hours for both batteries to charge...each taking approximately 1 1/2 hours to charge; charging times will vary from one user to another. You can charge batteries in your car...or...you can charge batteries at home with the inclusion of the AC cord that already comes with the Canon G1. You can also check the charge of a battery at any time by inserting the battery and checking the charging light/flashes. The battery can be charged at any time when it's not fully discharged, but I prefer to wait until my Canon Powershot G1 shows the flashing low battery indicator before charging my battery. You can also charge one battery at a time if you wish.

It has more than enough space for my Cannon EOS Rebel 2000 and all of the standard accessories. Excellent quality and it looks nice too! Terrific product.

The bag has nice, deep slots, about 1000 compartments and pockets, and a thick, durable flap that goes over the opening for extra security. It's a terrific, classy looking bag that appears to be durable, comfortable, and very convenient.

I've had mine for about a month, and I like it very much. I visited some shops and checked out many bags, being an obsessive shopper when it comes to camera equipment. I almost bought a Lowepro, but the Samsonites have a good plastic base, so that swayed my decision. I'm always putting the bag down in a damp place, etc. The padding all around is very good -- I feel safe with this bag.

I got this one instead of the next size up, because I'd rather squeeze things in and enjoy the benefits of carrying around a smaller bag. I can fit my Nikon N6006, a 3.8" zoom, 5.4" zoom, 6 rolls of film, cable, close-up lens diopter, battery, lens cloth, and handbook.

This morning as the sun was coming up, I was out at the Audobon reserve near an estuary here in Brunswick, Maine. It was about 10 degrees F, and the layer of ice/snow was covered with a newer layer of snow. After about 2 hours and many shots, I returned home with all the gear in good shape. The bag passed the test!