Canon Rebel XSi - 450DEvery year the photo industry whose aim is to make money just as the rest of us, is trying to seduce us into buying new gear and discarding the same equipment that was so hot just a year or two ago. Pumping out Megapixel monsters with features that rival those of pro cameras, they tell us that we have to have these wonderful new items. I admit, I am a sucker myself. Every time I open up a magazine and see the latest Megapixel monster staring back at me from glossy pages my heart beats faster. Of course, I read the testimonials from the "pros" (probably endorsed by the industry) who rave about the new technology. Looking at their fantastic images, we might think that we can only succeed with these tools. I am even thinking about upgrading my truly wonderful Canon. I am waiting for the 50D to hit the shelves and I might just buy the Rebel XSi in the meantime to have something new to play with, because I need toys to be happy.
On a more rational note, it is unnecessary to buy new equipment. Already the sensors of the last generation of digital cameras are pushing the limits of diffraction. The Rebel XSi will have a greater pixel density than any other camera with APS-C sensor size. This means that the maximum tolerable circle of confusion for this camera becomes smaller.

This means that we become more and more restricted to the minimum size of our aperture (largest f-stop). In order to boost Depth of Field, a small aperture is necessary.

What is the significance of this?

For once, the higher resolution is not going to make things worse. At the best case, we will get a picture that is 2 times better when the resolution of the sensor is 2 times higher, but in most practical situations, the lens or the optical resolution will limit us somewhat. I think at some point we will get to a point of diminishing returns in terms of resolution, but the camera industry will still taunt us with megapixel numbers for quite some time.

Another way to grow resolution is by growing sensor size (full frame). However, those are extremely expensive to manufacture are much more demanding on the lenses, since they require a larger image circle with the same perfection.

In the future, the industry should probably focus on more pressing issues like increasing the dynamic range of their sensors. If resolution is really all that counts, we can always resort to stitching.
 

P.S.: Don't worry if this discussion was a bit too technical to understand. I will soon elaborate these things in greater depth.

Edge Tech Corp. Digital Picture Frame
Size Comparison Ever since I have built my own DIY digital picture frame a while ago, I have kept an eye on the market for commercial frames. I have not bought any, due to the high price of large high-resolution digital picture frames (DPF). During this Christmas shopping season prices have dropped considerably, causing a run on these devices at my local Best Buy store. Therefore, I was looking forward to a new gadget when EDGE Tech Corp asked me to review one of their devices.

Canon 5D + 24 - 105mm L LensI love buying equipment at Amazon. Its convenient and I trust them. They have excellent buyer protection and are very responsive to claims.
I also buy at their Marketplace where people and small businesses sell their stuff. Amazon's protection covers this too, but that doesn't mean you should be completely careless, as they only cover you up to 5 times for life.
Unfortunately scammers have found out ways to use Amazon Marketplace steal your hard earned dollars.
Especially high priced electronic items (and that's what I usually buy there) are being used for this kind of fraud.
Obviously people lose all reasoning skills when something is being sold at incredibly low prices, although above all that should be the first indicator that something is wrong.
When I was looking at some items, I ran across the Canon 5D + 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens package offered at just $1400 (the next cheapest package price was around $3400).
The lens alone is easily worth almost $1100 at Amazon.
I was pretty sure this was just another scam, but I decided to send the seller an email and poke around a little to see what he would tell me.
I sent him an email asking about some more details. 

Me: I noticed that you are selling this camera with lens far below the normal price range. Is there anything wrong with the camera, is this a mistake ?

He promptly replied within the hour:

Fraudster: Thank you for your express interest in my Canon EOS 5D Camera. First of all i want to tell you that my products are brand new in box,with 12 mounths manufacturer warranty from Canon, with all the cables, accessories etc. The price for immediate purchase of 1 Camera is only 1400 USD and the shipping, handling and inssurance are included.i sell so cheapp because i have a stock liquidation. tell me if you are intrested to buy it so we can make the next step.

So lets see. He could easily sell this package for $1000 more within one hour. He made up some reason (clearance) to make the deal sound legitimate.  A bunch of spelling mistakes don't look very professional either. Lets poke a little more:

Well, I guess thats a bit too strong of a statement. I have bought many things on Ebay and I am very happy with most of my purchases (e.g. the backup server does great and was a steal). However I will not ever buy a replacement battery on Ebay again.

Background Story:

A while ago I bought to replacement batteries for my and Dani's IPAQ PDA. Those batteries are very high capacity Li-Polymer Batteries that look something like that when bought new:

After I installed the battery, the device worked for a relatively short period of time until it started to act funny. It forgot the CF expansion card and shortly thereafter, the screen started to develop black spots. I still wasn't aware of the problem and I thought that the LCD would have reached its end of life. Funny thing that Dani's IPAQ would start to fail around the same time.

Finally yesterday I realized that the IPAQ hat pushed its extension sleeve apart and the device was bulging like a balloon. The reason I hadn't noticed any of this earlier was due to the fact that it was sitting in its extension sleeve. After I took the device out (see first picture on this page) I realized that it was bulging.

I opened the device and the back panel almost sprung into my face. It was under a lot of pressure and completely deformed:

The battery which should be flat (see picture of new battery) was blown up like a balloon.

When you get it new, it is probably as thick as 2 or 3 credit cards put together. The one I removed from my (now deceased?) IPAQ looked horrible.

The bottom line: I should have known better then to buy a replacement battery on ebay. Let this be a warning to you in case you are thinking about it.

I won't buy any camera equipment on Ebay either after a horrible experience with a lens.

This week Apple rocked the world with the announcement of the iPhone. Despite the outrageous claims to be 5 years ahead of everyone else, the phone is a revolutionary hybrid between iPod / PDA and Phone. In this article I am going to compare some of the features to the T-Mobile SDA. Even though the MDA may be closer to what the iPhone offers, I am comparing it to the SDA since it primarily claims to be a phone. Both have very similar specifications but are completely different devices.
The iPhone was probably one of Apples closest guarded secrets. I knew my company was selling microchips to Apple, but I didn't know what products they would be in. It turns out our chips are in the iPhone and in the Apple TV. Not bad.

Today I finally uploaded some more Wallpapers. People have been asking for this for a while now, so I decided its time for another freebee. Since I also own a new monitor (see image), that is capable of a 1680x1050 resolution, I decided to up the standard on my wallpaper resolution. The new wallpaper gallery now has widescreen images of up to 1680x1050 (pretty cool eh?). Some of my readers have been very persistent in demanding the 222 Megapixel Peru image to be made into a wallpaper which I did now.

I bought my monitor (a Viewsonic) at Fry's a while ago. I should have headed over to Newegg and gotten it cheaper, but I didn't know. Currently Newegg is running some sweet specials (mail in rebates) on those monitors. Click the small monitor image to secure one for yourself.

The screen is pretty cool. It is amazingly bright. So bright, that each time I go back to my Laptop I find myself trying to turn up the brightness (which is at maximum already). The color rendition is really excellent. I'd say it can easily compete with much more expensive "professional" models. Of course I did my research before I bought it, since I mostly edit photos on this screen. The Viewsonic was suggested by many to have a very good color rendition (do not confuse this with bright and popping colors). I have actually adjusted the monitor to have a true color reproduction. You can read in my Spyder 2 Review / Tutorial how to do that. Most LCD are totally off the way they come out of the factory. They are great for showroom purposes (the colors are bright and pop) but what you really want is true colors (so your prints look like your screen) and the Viewsonic does not disappoint in the color department.

So why do I love widescreens so much? They are really good for Photoshop. I can easily place all the palettes and tools on the right side of the screen and work on the image (which has an aspect ratio of 3:2 for most cameras). Its much more comfortable than having to make the image too small to see what you are doing.

Unfortunately I am also the pitty owner of a Geforce 5400 (or something like that) graphics card. The Viewsonic comes with a DVI cable (digital video cable) already in the box (you need to buy this extra with most other manufacturers). Unfortunately the NVIDEA card I have (not the latest model) only supports DVI up to 1600x1000 (so close and yet so far, darn). A LCD needs to be run at the maximum resolution at all times, otherwise the picture will not look sharp (really bad for photo editing).

This is because it has a certain number of pixels and other resolutions need to be interpolated. In contrast a CRT (cathode ray tube) does not have "pixels". It has an electron beam that paints the picture and thus can make all resolutions up to a maximum number.

To keep matters short, you can also run exactly half the max resolution which I did with the DVI and it looks so much better than with a VGA cable, that I decided to switch my graphics card for a better model (its hard to believe, because it already looks really good with a VGA cable).

So in case you spring for the deal ($30 mail in rebate on an already cheap model, just click the monitor picture), make sure your graphics card is up for it or update it !

And if you already have a widescreen monitor, grab your free high res wallpapers and head over to Newegg to Win yourself a Charger Hemi, otherwise check out some nice widescreen monitors and slab on one of my free wallpapers to make it shine. It will surely impress the neighbors lady, but if you win the Charger she may be impressed even more.

Have you ever edited a digital picture on your home computer, possibly with a discount LCD display, sent it off for printing just to realize all the colors were somehow differnt then they were on your screen? While most people may blame the results on the photo processing lab, here is a surprise for you. It may actually be your wrong doing that made the image look all wrong.

I have found that most commercially available LCD screens have a greenish or blueish cast and pictures usually look somewhat "cooler" than they should. Most of us are not used to the idea that what we see may not be a good representation of our picture. We tend to trust our LCD screens. Some of us may have spent a lot of money on expensive equipment and we have bought a software like photoshop to "get the most out of our pictures". Adjusting a picture with such a screen "to look better" may actually lead to a deterioration of image quality as we unknowingly make things worse. Welcome to the wonderful world of color calibration and color profiles.

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In this tutorial I am giving away one of my secrets to finding good places for photos. It is actually quite easy to figure out. However this tutorial goes way beyond and shows you how to create Wayponts and even complete Routing Information to upload it to your GPS receiver.

While I planning trips to any large city in the United States, I find Google Earth a very valuable tool. Since I recently bought a Garmin eTrex Legend GPS receiver from Amazon, I quickly figured out a way to use the free Google Earth Client to create Waypoints for Navigation. The first part of this tutorial will be usufull for everyone, while the second part is particulary useful to people with GPS devices.