Computer Reviews

Do you like to play games on MacOS? Well, if you do, get this controller, or maybe even two of them. The driver for this controller is great. You can have the device configured on a per-application basis. So, you can have one setting for SpyHunter and another one for WingNuts. Look in to getting two of them, then you can have your friends play against you. The force feedback technology is great, you feel the bumps when you drive over dirt or when you crash.

Just got this Gamepad, which by the way is the ishock ii. It is great! Works with 10.2 after downloading drivers from the macally website. Fully programable. A heavyweight gamepad with plenty of buttons, and very comfortable for an adult's hand. You can even program it to be a mouse, but the controls are hard in "mouse mode."

If you need a gamepad for the MAC, I definitely would suggest this one.

This seems to be the only gamepad out there with Mac 10.2 software for customizing buttons, at least in this price range. Believe me I've researched everything I can find from Logitech to Gravis.

Oh my god - i can't believe how i lived without this product.

Before - i used to spend countless hours trying to get those damn blank cd disc packeges open! - i mean god - its like they package the stuff up so tight that it can't come undone during shipping - sometimes i wish they would make it easier.

Thats when my friend Jethro introduced me to this new-fangled dohicky. God - the differances!!! - i can now open a new box of 100 disc cd's in under a minute now!!! (which believe me - with all my... uhhh... nature films.......... - i need to store all that i can - i go through 100 cd's in under 2 weeks) - now with this device - i can save my nimble fingers for........ well......... uhh........ other activities.........

Buy it now - or be the stupid kid who everyone laughs at!

You won't regret it!

So simple, yet so effective! That's the best way to describe the Maxell CD150 CD Disc opener. Think back to all the fingernails that you've broken trying to open that new CD. Well, this product eliminates that problem forever. Quick and easy, with the CD150 CD Disc opener, it's one or two quick zips and the CD is open.

You can't afford to be without two of three of these products. And, you'll probably buy even more after your friends see them lying around and ask to borrow them.

Great price - great product! Way to go Maxell!

How can one honestly review something as simple as this? Suffice to say, it does a nice job, it's convenient and I'd be lost without it!

Two words: shirt pocket. Are there files that you like to keep with you, and you want to be able to carry from the office, to home, and beyond?

USB flash drives are great, but if you have access to CD burners and want to keep files with you, this is a fantastic option--and at a fraction of the price of a flash drive.

I love these little toys. don't use them for just WAV files (or regular music cd files), that makes them a total waste of money. using them as MP3 cd's however is perfect. they're great because you can keep them in your glove box in your car, and if used as MP3 cds, you can keep like 3 albums on one disk. Plus, they're cool! it says so in the product description.

To tell the truth, I actually got the 5-pack of the cdr's, but i was very happy with them, where they may not have very much space on them, they are still very cool.

There are lot's of power strips out there. This one is a neat and safe one that has turned the jungle of wire behind our TV into an organized and protected array. Overall a good product with a nice manufacturer's Guarantee of performance.

It always made me nervous to go in my sons room and see all the outlets full, and extention cords being used "illegally". The Monster Cable MP AV600 has not only neatly and safely consolidated this hazard, [pricey] equiptment to which it attaches.

It serves its purpose at an affordable price. A must buy.

These are the most amazing cables. I just hooked this up to my Polk RT800I speakers, and my Kenwood VR-2080 receiver and the difference is amazing. The bass is more defined, the trebble is crystal clear. I also got the Z2 Bi-wire cable for my center channel and that made a huge difference also. The voices are alot more defined. Worth the money !

Cable that never let you down! Try it, only you know the different.

I've been using my Z2s for about 1 year now... boy, what a difference. I spent a few days "auditioning" these cables when I first purchased them and the difference was immediately apparent. Bass output is so much deeper and clearer! BIG difference with the low frequencies. Without these cables, my speakers sound muddy and undefined. I didn't notice this, until I used the Z2s. Also, they look great and add a professional touch to your system. If you're looking to add clearer lows and better definition to your system, these guys can even make cheap speakers sound good. I'm now getting ready to buy another set for my A/V system.

My setup is.... B&W CDM 7SEs front Sony STR-DA777ES amp (the rest of the setup probably doesn't concern this discussion)

This is indeed a very reliable PC card, which works in either 16 or 32 bit PCMCIA or cardbus slot. It is truly an integrated hot-swap to plug in even with your laptop on, and without the older and fragile dongle. Personally I cannot tell the difference in performance between the 16 bit (FA411) and 32 bit (FA511) cards (besides the price). If you buy a 32 bit card however, make sure you have a cardbus slot; otherwise it will not work in a 16 bit PCMCIA slot (found on older laptops). Many newer laptops today come with a built-in ethernet NIC. If your laptop doesn't have one however, you are better off (and cheaper) to just get a 16 bit PC card, and I would definitely recommend this card.

After my old Xyrcom card's external jack broke down, I wanted to try an integrated Ethernet RJ-45 network card. Netgear's FA411 looked like an affordable option, plus Netgear has a good reputation in the industry. Having Windows XP Pro installed on my laptop, another factor considered for purchasing this card was the XP compatibility stated in the product package.

Installation is simple, the card is hot pluggable allowing for installation while logged on to the OS. The XP driver is digitally signed and worked flawlessly. I found out that an updated driver was already available in Netgear's home page.
Drivers are also included for DOS, Novell, and older versions of Windows.

The card has two LED indicators, one for the 100 Mbps network and the other for the connectivity status.

Since this is an integrated card, there is no need for an external connector that can get lost or bent/cracked. One note of caution though, although the card actually occupies one Type-II PCMCIA slot, the integrated connector covers two. If you need the additional slot, then I'd recommend a card with an external RJ-45 connector. Also, the integrated jack protrudes about an inch beyond the slot, so you will also need to take this into consideration when storing your laptop.

If you need a simple, affordable card that does the job, and do not require 32-bit performance or an external jack, then purchase this card with confidence.

I have purchased cheaper solutions to net connections that failed terribly. This was only (a bit) more. It worked like a charm. I am actually connect writting this review with this item. I strongly recommend this product. I honestly don't know what the 16 bit means but, hey it works and works well.

I've been told that I bought a better wireless card than I needed, but I really don't regret it. This is my first wireless card, so maybe this is true of all of them, but it was a cinch to install and works great. I'm thrilled. And, believe me, if I think it's easy to use, ANYONE can use this thing. Connection speed is as though I was hooked up direct to my cable modem!

The Netgear WAG511 802.11a/b/g wireless card works great in any environment. I also have bought the WGT624v2 108 Mbps Wireless Firewall Router and I can connect with it up to speeds of 108 Mbps.

In summary, a good buy

This card is great if you have a 802.11b router at home and 802.11a or g at work or University.

It is true that it is more expensive than the others, but you get access to three standards instead of 1 or 2.

If you'll always be working in a 802.11g or 802.11a network, buy another card, buy if you need access wherever you go, this is for you.

This is a top-notch lens, tack sharp and fast (f/2.8) across it's entire zoom range. The built-in tripod collar will save a lot of stress on your camera mount, you'll see why when you lift this sucker - it feels like a brick. On the downside, auto-focusing can be a little slow. If you have an older camera body with an underpowered auto-focus motor it may not be able to keep up with a fast moving target. My N90s can handle it pretty well, but I don't do many action shots. If you shoot sports or other fast action, you should consider the AF-S version. It's internal motor eases the load on the camera and improves focus speed, but make sure you're body can use AF-S lenses.

If you're a casual photographer who generally uses fast film, this lens is probably overkill. If you're very serious and shoot slow film, it will help you squeeze out every stop possible. The wide aperture is also great for minimizing depth of field, very useful if you shoot through wire at the zoo and for isolating subjects against a busy background (think great portraits). If you do get it, do yourself a favor and get a good monopod, your arms will thank you! I can't stress enough that this thing is *HEAVY*!

This camera takes the most amazing photos. They are clear and crisp. No graininess when I enlarge to any size. I also have the Zoom lens Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6D with auto-focus. It is great!! I have taken the most amazing photos at concerts ( just make sure cameras are allowed) The photos came out like I was right up on stage!! I love this camera. It is easy to use, and once you feel comfortable with manual adjustments, they are easy as well.
I obviously am not a professional and have never taken classes in photograpy and I am amazed at the beatiful photos I have been able to take.
This is one camera you don't want to be without.

Just got back from a Bulls game: excellent close-ups of Pippen, you can even see a drop of sweat falling from his chin. So clear!!!

I used 80~200mm AFD ED Nikkor lens for the past four years on my Nikon F5 and FM2.One of the best lenses Nikkor has made, and may be the best among other brands of its range.I can enlarge its photos up to 28X18.5 inch and may be larger with V-good to excellent results.Its ED(Extra Low Dispersion)element/?s is/?are working perfectly.The only drowback of this lens is its weight specially when used with a heavey wieghted camera body.

First of all, let me say I am relatively new at scanning and that I LOVE the Coolscan V as a cheaper alternative to the Coolscan 5000 which I have also used. I recently decided to go through my father's 20,000 slides and scan the best ones before they, as many before them, disappeared into the hands of one of my 7 other siblings never to be found again.

After culling my father's slides I ended up with about 750 I wanted to scan. After culling my own slides I ended up with another 200 slides. And after that I decided to go through my color negative collection and scan the best of those as well. Just recently, my father in law enlisted me to go through his slide collection of about 1500 slides since he was blown away by the results I achieved on my father's slides with the Coolscan 5000.

Most of my father's slides, and all of my father-in-law's slides are Kodachrome. Much has been written about the inability of this scanner to scan Kodachrome slides and said about ICE4 not working with Kodachrome. Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The ICE4 does work, however, inconstantly with Kodachrome slides producing unacceptable artifacts in about 5 - 10 percent of the slides. It is a hit or miss proposition. I scanned with ICE (not ICE4) always on and then rescanned if I encountered unacceptable artifacts. I did notice that the scanner ICE feature was stumped by old Kodachrome slides where subjects were wearing shirts with stripes. Those stripes were really butchered by the ICE feature. The difference in scanning quality between the Coolscan 5000 and the V was negligible to this relative newcomer to scanning.

The GEM ROC and DEE (the other stalwarts of the ICE4 other than ICE itself) work on Kodachrome slides as well, but I found that the results were unpredictable and that I could achieve better results myself in Photoshop far more quickly. The GEM ROC and DEE features simply took too long and slowed down the scanning unacceptably. The results, for me, were not worth the additional scanning time. The V took even longer than the 5000, but in neither case, IMHO, did the results justify the time expended.

The good news: The scanner is does produce wonderful wonderful detailed scans, easily demonstrating the grain in the transparancies at 3000 and 4000 dpi. The Kodachrome slides were a challenge to the Dynamic Range of the scanner, but I believe that most of the detail in the shadows that is there was extracted. Unfortunately, Kodachrome, with all of its many attributes, does have substantial downsides including a very narrow exposure latitude and shadow detail is simply lacking. I think the scanner accurately reproduced the information including the colors on the Kodachrome slides, with perhaps a slight bluish cast noticed in some cases. I was unable to appreciate a significant difference between the two scanners in shadow detail even though the 5000 had a THEORETICAL greater dynamic range.

The V was slower than the 5000, but honestly the difference for the non-professional scanner, to me, was not worth the additional investment. The V represents a superb value giving you nearly all of the advantages of the 5000 other than speed for a substantially cheaper price.

It wasn't until I was finished scanning all of the culled slides that I undertook to scan my select color negatives. And this scanner really came into its own scanning color negatives. Don't even TRY to scan color negatives without ICE because the results are unbelievably bad. Even pristine negatives have scratches and dustthat magically are erased by the ICE feature. What a godsend. I only wish it had worked so flawlessly on the Kodachrome slides. The scanned color negatives were just beautiful with very accurate color rendition. But immediately I noticed much more grain in the color negatives (Royal Gold and Fuji Superia Gold) than in the scanned slides.

One note unrelated to the scanner itself. Until you've used a digital scanner to scan your color negatives you can't begin to realize how far superior Kodachrome, Provia, and Ektachrome slides are to color negatives insofar as capturing detail. Even the best color negatives have much more grain that Kodachrome. And the difference in color negatives is substantial too.

The included Nikon software worked fantastic for me. I downloaded a copy of VueScan which according to many reviews is superior to the Nikon software and found that for me the Nikon software was easier to work with and produced superior results.

The software did cause my computer to crash occasionally which was an aggravation, but a minor one when considered against its many attributes.

I can recommend this scanner without reservation. It is a phenomenal piece of equipment. If speed is not a paramount consideration and you are not a professional scanner needing the options (the auto feeder) offered by the 5000 then, in my opinion, the V represents an absolutely tremendous value.

Decade's collection of fading film this COOLSCAN can handle. You can obtain detailed images that are truly vivid, sharp, and better than the original then technology.

Batch scanning can be done with one click on the Scan button in Nikon Scan 4's firmware. The maintenance free red, green, blue, and infrared LED light source is gentle to film. The 4000 ppi optical resolution is an ideal start for outputting A3+ prints on the new crop of large format bubblejet and inkjet printers.

Reading the Nikon Scan Reference Manual in the Nikon Scan Reference Manual/Easy Scanning Guide CD would be your best learning tool to get the most out of your scanner. For the most accurate results, the first thing to do before scanning is to set your preferences by clicking on the Prefs button in the Control Area of the Scan Window.

When enabled, the Digital ICE quad Advanced software works well with most film. The Manual will explain that ICE, ROC, GEM, and DEE will not operate with the optional FH-G1 Medical Holder.

ICE will not work on monochrome film unless the film has been developed in colour. ICE will not work properly on Kodachrome, but will work on other brands of slides. Noise may appear if ICE is used on overexposed or very vivid images. ICE will reduce the overall sharpness of the image. ICE is not not designed nor does ICE advertise itself to remove all dust and scratches from film. ICE will reduce most of the dust and scatches, however. You will have to use a third party application like Adobe Photoshop to remove the remaining dust and scratches. ICE alone will double the scanning time of 38 seconds.

ROC may add colour to monochrome or grayscale images. ROC alone will almost double the scanning time.

GEM alone will almost triple the scanning time.

DEE works best when the image is cropped to exclude other unexposed areas of the film. DEE alone will almost quadruple the scanning time.

When enabled, Scan Image Enhancer (SIE) will automatically adjust hue. It does not work with darker images. In fact, the scan produces darker images. You are better off using DEE to pull out hidden detail in the shaded areas.

ICE, ROC, GEM, DEE, and SIE together will almost quintuple the scanning time.

Unsharp Mask can be created to all colours, or individually to red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, or yellow colours in the image. Deselect blue if you do not want to emphasize the grain in an image with blue sky.

The SA-21 strip-film adaptor only works for 2 - 6 frames. To save money by not having to buy the optional 1 - 6 frame FH-3 film holder, place a 1 frame negative into an empty cardboard slide holder and insert into the MA-21 slide holder. Remember to select Neg (color), and Calibrated RGB in the Control Area before scanning.

Along with a short USB 2.0 cable, included in the package is a Nikon View 6 CD, which is an application, used to organize saved pictures in TIFF and JPEG file formats only. According to the Manual, large files created in Nikon Scan may not show on Nikon View slide shows.

Before clicking on the Scan button, press Ctrl (MS Windows) and the Autofocus button. Then left click on a focal point in the preview image to ensure accurate focusing at that point. You can always change the focus point using the same method, or by using the Focus Tool in the Layout Tools palette. The palette can also be customized to suit.

If you have to use the Analog Gain palette to correct or adjust the colour values for each of the elements in the scanner's light source, your LED's may require repair. The probability of repair to the LED's is not specifically discussed in the Manual.

If desktop or cubbyhole space is an issue, the scanner can be placed with either the top or side vents facing up. Remember to provide the minimum clearances to the scanner for ventilation. The dual wrap around band of rubber feet will ensure a cushioned slip resistant footing.

After using the transparency unit on an Epson Perfection 1670 Photo flatbed scanner for 2 months, this COOLSCAN is the only economical equipment to use to obtain satisfying scans. It is amazing how much the original analogue images have improved.

If you have at minimum several hundred frames to archive, and the time to spend in front of your monitor performing adjustments and scans to each frame, then you will not regret overspending on this scanner.

Having worked with professional drum scanners (Hell Graphic Systems), I know a little about scanning. This Nikon Coolscan V ED is the first personal scanner I have worked with and am pleasantly surprised. I have inhereted the old familly slide collection and several of the slides are grossly underexposed, or darkened with age. The V ED has the sensitivity to pull out more image than I had hoped for, with very little noise. The provided software is no replacement for Photoshop, but can go a long ways to giving acceptable results without other image retouching software. I am eager to see SilverFast for the V ED however!

The only problems I've encountered is unexpected termination of the program, and mis-judging frame boundaries of negative strips. Negative scanning is a snap, an unexpected pleasure as thinking color in reverse is painful (on German drum scanners).

For the price, this is a very highly capable scanner worthy of your consideration. If your scan rate needs are high, consider the faster version, and a FAST G5 Macintosh. A 1.25 GHz G4 gets a workout on the tougher scans.