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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 12.1MP

Askinas — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:12:47 +0000

The FZ35 records HD movies with 1280 x 720-pixel resolution. It uses the AVCHD Lite format to achieve higher image quality while storing less data than the conventional Motion JPEG. Plus, the FZ35 is equipped with an HDMI output terminal for direct transmission of digital image and sound signals.

Nikon D3000 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera

Askinas — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:12:47 +0000

Looking over several cameras and choosing one for someone who has outgrown point and shoots, I came back to the Nikon D3000. By no means will this model blow away the seasoned photographer, however it does cover the basics and more. We picked it up and tried it out over the weekend.

First time DSLR users will enjoy the Guide Mode. It literally walked us through different shoot scenarios via the fixed 3″ LCD screen. An excellent tool, its step by step instructions allowed my niece to move from the operating booklet in no time. After a few more runs, I am sure that she will feel quite comfortable shooting in the manual mode. The quick shutter release was a nice surprise.

Upon completing two days of shooting with the Nikon D3000, I walked away impressed. In manual mode, indoor shots were a balanced and perfect mix of shadow and color. As usual with shooting in low light, noise will make an appearance. However this system can be tweaked to deliver some outstanding indoor photographs. The bottom line is proper settings.

A basic fix is the VR (Vibration Reduction) feature located on the lens. This should be activated, especially indoors. A tripod will certainly help. In auto mode, just set the camera to night portrait and sit back and enjoy the rest of your flight.

Outdoor shots were vibrant, sharp and rich in color without editing. The onboard flash system was more than capable in meeting fill flash requirements. Without a doubt the overall performance of the camera, features and image quality is excellent.

With 10.2 megapixels to work with, I easily blew up a personal favorite my niece had taken to 16″ x 20″. Even though I don’t see myself trading in my Nikon D300 for this model anytime soon, this camera is by far an upgrade over any of the souped up point and shoots out there.

Its easy to see that the real jewel in this model is the auto focus system. With six auto mode settings (Landscape, Sports, Child, Closeups, Portrait, and Night Portrait) each and every photograph can be a keeper. Onboard editing tweakers won’t be disappointed with this model. It covers the basics. The D3000 operates with both SD & SDHC cards.

The Nikon D3000 is paired with a Nikkor 18-55mm AF-S DX lens. It will operate with any Nikkor DX and AF-S lens. Older Nikkor or similar AF lens is a no go when shooting in auto but will function in manual mode. Since this model is not fitted with the built in optical image stabilizer, I recommend switching on the Vibration Reduction (VR) feature located on the lens. Still the best anti vibration tool is a tripod.

Nikon makes it really simple with a thumb dial for tweaking aperture and shutter speed. Metering, focus modes, and exposure compensation are easily controlled via the menu. The D3000 does not shoot in video mode. This model easily shoots over three frames per second in continuous mode. The 3D tracking sensor operates quite well in low lighting.

The Nikon D3000 camera kit comes packaged with a EN/EL3e Li-ion battery, charger, USB cable, video cable. strap, eye cap, eye cup, software CD-ROM, 18-55mm Nikkor lens, lens cap, instruction booklet and a one year Nikon warranty.

Coming out of the gate, I still find this model a little pricey for a basic DSLR. I am sure heading into the fall and holidays buyers will begin to see a noticeable price drop. Even so, the D3000 is a fine tuned replacement for the immensely popular entry level Nikon D40. Newcomers to the DSLR community will certainly enjoy this outstanding alternative

Canon PowerShot SX20IS 12.1MP 20x Optical Zoom

Askinas — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:12:47 +0000

Review by: B. Massey, TX United States
Let me start off by saying that I’m not a professional photographer. My decision to purchase the SX20 IS was based on a desire to get an excellent still shot camera, with high capacity zoom, that also had HD Video (720p) capabilities. So, I began my research and spent many hours scouring the web to make an informed decision. I had narrowed my choice to the Canon SX20 IS and the Panasonic DMC-FZ35.

Here are some of the key specs of each camera:

Optical Zoom (Canon: 20, Pana: 18)
Still image files (Canon: Not Raw, Pana: Raw)
Articulating LCD (Canon: Yes, Pana: No)
720p HD video per 2 GB (Canon: 10 min 33 sec, Pana: 15 min)
Video file format (Canon: .mov, Pana: AVCHD Lite)
Battery Type: (Canon: 4 AA, Pana: Li-ion rechargeable)
Stereo Audio (Both)
SD Card Storage (Both)

In the end I decided to go with Canon for a few key reasons:

#1. The articulating LCD (pull out, tilt/move) was a key factor, as I wanted to be able to shoot from many different angles. It came in handy very soon–the second time I used the camera–I was able to whip out the LCD and get some decent shots at a football game when I had to raise the camera high over my head to shoot over the folks standing in front of me.

#2. The ability to easily share video files. The .mov file format is a more widely accepted format, which can easily be shared (without processing/conversion). The files are accepted on sites such as You Tube. The files can be played with Quicktime and other media players (e.g. VLC). Although the Panasonic camera uses a format which is more compressed and allows more data to be stored on an SD card, the file format is not as wide spread and not as easy to share with others, without converting the file.

#3. Consumer Reports rankings for last year’s model: Canon #1, Pana #5 (SX10 IS & Pana DMC-FZ28). I suspect the SX20 IS will follow the same trend this year when Consumer Reports releases their test results for 2009.

#4. Canon takes AA batteries. This makes the camera slightly heavier, but you’ll always be able to get economical batteries in a pinch, without the need for buying a proprietary lithium ion battery. May I recommend Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable batteries. I bought some new on Amazon. They are excellent. I haven’t charged them yet and I’ve taken 120 pictures and 40 minutes plus of 720p video. I’ve also played back the pictures and movies on my TV/Projector and transferred all files to my computer, using the same batteries, without charging them. And they are “..still going…”

Here are some sample pictures taken with the SX20 IS. Keep in mind that Flickr doesn’t display the full, original picture which was taken in maximum resolution (in auto mode).

I’ve taken some great up-close family shots and macro shots. They look great and are very detailed. I took some night/action pics (with the flash) and adjusted the shutter speed and ISO settings and the pictures looked great, given the conditions.

I apologize for the camera jitter in advance as I didn’t have a tri-pod and I was in a tight area in the Stadium when I took the shots.

I must admit that I am thoroughly impressed with the video quality/resolution. I shot sample video from my 1 year old camcorder (Panasonic SDR-H40, a standard definition hard drive camcorder) and shot the same footage with the SX20 IS. The difference in quality was amazing. Not only was the Canon much sharper, but the richness and vibrance of the colors was so much better. I sold my SDR-H40 on Ebay within two days. I now will have only one camera to shoot stills and 720p HD video–the Canon SX20 IS. The videos from the SX20 IS looked awesome–on both my 32 inch 720p LCD and my 100+ inch screen via a 720p DLP projector. I connected the camera with an HDMI cable and bam, I was ready to watch great video and view still shots “on the big screen.” See the above referenced links for video footage yourself. If I were given the opportunity to watch a football game shot in standard definition by ESPN or an HD version of the same game, shot with the SX20 IS (on a tripod, without my hand jitter), I’d pick the latter in a heart beat.

No buyer’s remorse here! If you are looking for an SLR type camera, that does awesome stills and great 720p HD video (both zoomable at 20x optical), you’d be hard pressed to get more bang for your buck then the SX20 IS on Amazon.

One minor issue I’ve noticed is that when zooming in/out while shooting video, you can here a slight “click” when you initiate the zoom and when you stop the zoom. There is NO noise heard while the lens is zooming/telescoping in/out; the “click” is only heard when the zoom is initiated and when the zoom is stopped. The “click” is not that noticeable. I had to shoot footage in silence, after the kids had gone to bed, in order to distinguish the “click.” In most shooting environments I don’t expect it to be much of an issue.

Best of luck with your purchase decision.

P.S. By the way, the owner manual states that you must use the Canon software to transfer images/movies from the camera to a PC, else movies will not transfer (frames will be dropped) correctly and images shot vertically may be transferred in the horizontal orientation. So, don’t just do a copy/paste of the files them self from the SD card. Keep this in mind as you view sample video on the web.

The New Chip from Intel

padmajani — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:24:44 +0000

Intel, which is famous with its great processor, has a new product. Intel will launch its new chip in August. Intel claimed that its new processor chip is suitable for all of the types of computer, from desktop, laptop, till server. Intel said that the new processor chip will use the micro architectural design named Nehalem.
Beside that, Nehalem also has some other strength. First, this chip is able to do more tasks than others. Even, it only needs less power consumption. In addition, Intel designed the Nehalem to overcome bottleneck problems which usually disturb processor performance.
Intel will use Nehalem architectural design to all of high quality notebooks and desktop next September. In the same month Intel will launch quad-core desktop processor. This company named this kind of processor with Lynnfield name code. After that, Intel will launch quad core notebook processor with the name Clarksfield a week after the launching of the first processor. Intel developed both of Clarksfield and Lynnfield by using 45 nanometer technology. Next, this company may will use the 32 nanometer technology to their processors.
Besides some processors I reviewed before, Intel also will launch processors chip which are suitable with ultra thin notebooks, such as Celeron 743 and Celeron SU2300.

The First Round Touchpad

padmajani — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:22:10 +0000

Most of the companies make innovations to their products in order to get the consumers as much as possible. Innovation here also done by Gateway. This corporate made a notebook which is facilitated with a round touchpad. Even, this is the first round touchpad ever had! Great! I believe the users will enjoy the unique touch on the round touchpad.
Gateway named this unique notebook with UC7807u. Now, take a look to its design. The UC7807u has a 13.3 inches screen which has 1280 x 800 pixels resolution. The display is able to present a sharp screen. However, you may will be disturbed with the display because it’s so flashy in the bright condition. The weight is more than 2.5 kg.

How about the processor? It runs on Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 2GHz processor. It is also facilitated with SATA 250GB 5400rpm hard disk and 3 GB RAM. However, the customers will not enjoy using UC7807u to play high performed games because of its fair Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) of Intel. It supports Windows Vista Home Premium from Microsoft.
The battery’s endurance is about 3 hours and 36 minutes. In addition, it also offers some facilities, such as microphone jack, headphone, 2.0 VGA USB port, and V.92 modem. This notebook supports Bluetooth and Wi Fi too.

Apple Killed Music Player Feature in the Palm Pre

padmajani — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:19:53 +0000

Palm Pre is the biggest rival of iPod Apple. The prominent feature of Palm Pre is its music player which most of the people love it. Apple of course doesn’t want Palm Pre defeats its product. Therefore, Apple did some actions. After being led by an iPod executive, John Rubinstein, Apple killed iTunes software in the Palm Pre. In addition, Apple also killed music player feature in the Palm Pre recent days. These actions done by Apple to limit the Palm Pre’s ability, so it can’t exceed Apple’s features.
If you are Palm Pre’s user, please check it out this information. You are still able to save your music via free Apple iTunes software. However, it seems that Apple has been updating iTunes nowadays. Consequently, there’s a big possibility that Apple will block the access into iTunes feature in the Palm Pre.
It’s proved by a statement from Tom Neumayr, an Apple spokesperson. Tom said that this update will also make another devices’ ability will not as the same as iPod’s ability, even the Palm Pre.
On the other hand, Leslie Letts from Palm said that this Apple’s action will effect to the users directly. In other words, the costumers will be disappointed with Apple synchronization. He also stated that the Palm Pre users are able to use the old version of Tunes, use music third party applications, or save music from our PC into the Palm Pre through USB cable.

The Botnet Attacked Symbian Based 3G Mobile Phone

padmajani — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:17:21 +0000

Virus and malware can attack our PC and cellphones. Now, there is the first botnet attacked mobile device. It is a research result done by Trend Micro, a company focuses on malware research. This botnet will attack Symbian based mobile phone. You can download the botnet entitled SYMBOS_YXES.B from a “bad” mobile. The SYMBOS_YXES.B malware is able to send spammed SMS into the users’ mobile phone. Therefore, it will connect into the “bad” web. In other words, this SMS is called as the botnet for the phone.
A Symbian Information Source file can collect the information related to users’ ID, mobile phone’s information, and cell phone’s network from the infected phone device. The botnet can connect the infected cell phone into a web for sending this information.
The appearance of 3G based botnet has been predicted by a senior security advisor from Trend Micro, Rik Ferguson. He said that this kind of botnet would begin to attack mobile phones which offer 3 G facility in 2009. He also proposed to all of the mobile device companies to protect their cell phones to block communicating network from ‘bad’ sites. Ferguson also proposed them to protect their products from data encryption, spammed SMS, and URL filtering.

Green Printer for a Better Future

padmajani — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:14:15 +0000

Green products are so popular nowadays along with the global warming issue popularity. Many producers try to develop green products which are suitable for all of the ranges of society, include for small scale industry. Fuji Xerox is one of the producers which pay much attention to green products for small scale industry. Therefore, it launched a green printer recent days, DocuPrint C1190 FS.
Fuji Xerox claimed that the DocuPrint C1190 FS has four strengths: better, faster, print more, and more secure. Let’s review the strengths one by one.
It’s called as better because the printer is one of the green products, so we don’t worry with our environment safety. Thanks to its EA-HG (Emulsion Aggregation) color ink. Toner can decrease the carbon dioxide emission into 35 per cents while its producing stage. In addition, the consumers also may minimize their energy using because this printer can change its mode into stand by or sleep mode

The DocuPrint C1190 FS is faster than the others because it is able to print 16 pages (using black cartridge only) and 12 pages (using color cartridge) each minute. In addition, this green printer also can print more than the others. The new printer from Fuji Xerox is claimed as the secure ones too because the developer facilitated the secure fax receive and secure print to handle the secret documents. Consequently, only ones know the password is able to get the fax or printing documents.

Beside that, the DocuPrint C1190 FS provides great features which can send fax from our PC directly.Great!

What if Human Corpses to be Robot’s Fuel?

padmajani — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:02:40 +0000

What if human corpses to be robot’s fuel? Do I joke? No, I don’t. Along with the development of technology, impossible can be possible. Pentagon has contracted a company in Maryland, Robotic Technology Inc. to develop a robot which can get energy from organic materials by themselves. The organic materials here include woods, grass, old furniture, even human corpses. The company named this robot as EATR (Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot). The name comes from its ability to get, digest, and extract energy from our environmental biome and other organic materials.

The working system of getting the energy is similar with filling the fuel traditionally with diesel fuel, kerosene, or gas. The energy from organic materials (ie. animals, plants, human corpses) is used to heat the water in the closed pipelines for arousing the electrical energy.

Pentagon wants to develop to EATR for military aims. This kind of robot is proper suitable to be used in the wars situation because it can move in the flexible ways to get energy sources and gat about for some years in the hard condition. Because of its ability to get the energy sources independently, the armies should not fill the robot’s fuel frequently.

Twitter vs Hackers. Who Will Win?

padmajani — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:58:54 +0000

It’s not a secret if some popular social networking sites are being the target of hacking. Now it’s the Twitter’s turn. But, don’t worry, there is no secret account related to Twitter’s services which is to be the target. The hacking system focuses on Twitter’s employees. The hackers stole the data from Twitter related to its internal documents. Croll, the hacker has done his mission since May. Croll disturbed an email account of one of Twitter’s executives. From this action, Croll could access some documents via Google Apps account.

The documents which are stolen are related to company’s meetings. In addition, he could know the details of Twitter’s security system. Croll also knew Twitter’s plans for its TV programs. After hacking, Croll published the documents into some new outlets.

Seeing this condition, many Twitter’s subscribers are panicked. Responding to it, Stone, a representative of Twitter, said that we should not worry about it. The hacker did not steal subscribers’ accounts. Actually, there is a screenshot of a customer which’s stolen, but Twitter has contacted to him to change the password. Stone added that this hacking is not related to Twitter’s services, but related to a hacking to an employee which’s followed with the stolen of company’s secret documents.

Therefore, if you are one of the subscribers of Twitter, don’t worry.