:: Intrepid Spaniel ::

Those who know me know I am a big fan of Canon cameras, and have advised many of my friends and relatives to get one.

If you have a really old or broken Canon camera laying around this might be a way to upgrade it less expensively.

Customer Loyalty Program’s direct number is 866-443-8002.
You can call, find out what they offer, and call back later after you have decided.
This deal has been going on since 2006.

Note: Plus tax and $10 for 2 days shipping.

S45, S50, S100, S230, S300, S400, S500, SD110, SD200, SD400, SD600, SD1000, S1-IS, S2-IS trade for:
SD850 IS - $150
G9 - $250
Rebel XT Silver with 18-55 mm lens - $275

A40, A60, A75, A80, A610 trade for:
A560 - $89
S1000 - $100
SX100 IS - $125

Those who know me know I’ve been a big fan of Canon’s A series digital cameras. They offer a nice mix of size, point and click functionality and they take standard AA batteries so you don’t have to replace the $40 battery pack down the road when you get an new camera and want to give this one to a relative.

For those of you looking to upgrade your aging Canon A series camera for a great price this looks like a good deal. the Canon A560, which has Canon’s new, improved DIGIC III image processor, for $130. The deal might not last, but my recommendation for the camera will until next spring when something better comes along. http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=204230694 The A560 would be a great camera if you want to mostly point and click, If you are a more experienced photographer, or want to add more features like optical image stabilization, read on for my recommendations for upgrades. With the prices coming down and and an A570 available for less than $160, I’d recommend the upgrade (Read more…)

Today I came across this great article by Patrick McFarland, the well-known Free Software Magazine author, going into great detail on CD/DVD media. McFarland covers the history of these media from CDs through recordable DVDs, explaining the various formats and their strengths and drawbacks. The heart of the article is an essay on the DVD-R vs. DVD+R recording standards, leading to McFarland’s recommendation for which media he buys for archival storage. Spoiler: (Read more…)

A Canadian RC airplane enthusiast shows us some sweet unanticipated convergence between a model RC airplane and virtual reality gear.
With video googles and a gyroscope, the movement of the pilot’s head controls which way the camera looks, making you feel like you are the pilot and can look around from the plane. I hope this is not fake, because it is incredible! Watch the video!

read more | digg story

Have you ever had something similar happen to you?

While on vacation your digital camera runs out of batteries, and after replacing the batteries the card, which was full of your precious vacation photos, now shows up as empty. What to do?

I had a friend that recently had this dilemma, and I had hear of a free program called photorec which I had heard work well, so I thought I’d give it a try. Photorec is GPL software, and works on windows, Mac and Linux. Since my computer with the card reader runs Windows, that it is what I used. Though the tools I used are command line based, they weren’t too hard to use, so I hope to take you through the process here, but for those who can’t wait for the ending, it worked great, and the photos from multiple vacations were saved.
Read on to find out how to save your memories….
(Read more…)

Which photo format should you use with your new DSLR, Raw or JPEG?

Like me you probably happily shoot in JPEG for quite awhile - getting used to the myriad of options available to you. One day you look at that Raw setting and ask, “should I be using Raw for the best quality? What is Raw, exactly?”

Excellent question. First, let us define these two formats.

(Read more…)