Showing posts with label olympus digital voice recorder ws-400s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label olympus digital voice recorder ws-400s. Show all posts

Monday, November 17, 2014

HP iPaq 6945 Unlocked Cell Phone with Wi-Fi, GPS, MP3/Video Player, SD--U.S. Version with Warranty

HP iPaq 6945 Unlocked Cell Phone with Wi-Fi, GPS, MP3/Video Player, SD--U.S. Version with WarrantyI've had the 6945 for about two weeks now. So far it is performing very well. Setting up the email took a while to figure out. If you are like me, you hate all the clutter and useless software pre-installed on these devices, so it took me a while to clean up the view.

I don't use the Outlook Sync function, but it looks like it works well. The auto-sync function is something to be aware of. The first time I did auto-sync it wiped-out my contact list on my PC and replaced with the few contacts on my sim card. Luckily it only deleted the contacts to my outlook delete folder so it was easy to restore. Here are some PROs and CONs after about two weeks of use:

PRO:

1) Wifi or Cingular GPRS email works well. You will have to set up two different accounts one for your Wifi and another for when you are using GPRS, but that is easy to do. The reason you should do this is so that when you are on Wifi you can send via the Wifi server instead of the Cingular GPRS wireless network. I have set up both a work and personal home email account (both POP3). Looks like this device can handle several more email accounts if necessary.

2) Internet explorer works very well. This is not a lame mobile web browser that strips down sites. It is the real deal. Websites look just like they do on your PC or laptop only smaller. You can customize the view pretty easily. Favorites folder is easy to set up and the address bar is easy to use.

3) The screen is very nice. I find myself using both the built in keyboard and the on screen touch pad. Both work very well. Resolution is very good.

4) WM-5 is very nice. I've used the Work and Excel programs so far. They are essentially the same as on your PC. Why anyone would want to use an iPaq to edit a DOC or XLS file is beyond me, but if you need to do this you can. I have not had a chance to use the Powerpoint viewer yet, but I'm sure it works as well as Word and Excel.

5) I purchased a 1GB mini-SD storage card. That is very easy to pop in and out.

6) You can use MP3s or WMA files as your ring tone that's pretty cool.

7) The device is very solid. Not as big as you would think. Fits well in your pocket or on a belt clip. Looks like it will hold up well. The pen locks in the side and is also pretty solid. Not like the Treo, which I've heard is very fragile.

8) And now for the Phone It works very well! I was surprised because most people complain about the phone quality on these devices. I find the sound quality to be as good as my RAZR. The Cingular Sim-Card can be swapped in and out between my RAZR and iPaq, so if I am going to a sporting event or bar I and dont want to bring the iPaq I can just swap the sim-card right back into the RAZR and it works. I had to call Cingular and get them to change my phone to the iPaq. This was purely for data.

9)YOU DO NOT NEED TO PURCHASE THE "Treo Package". Don't let Cingular sell you that extra crap. I simply added the MediaNet200 package for $19.99 which gives you unlimited Media + 200 text messages a month. That is plenty of text messages and the unlimited data gives you all the web surfing and emailing you can do!

10) GPS navigation is pretty neat little function. You have to download the maps from Microsoft Pocket Streets, but they are free. The GPS sucks battery life like crazy, but if you are on the road in a strange city this can be very helpful.

11) Windows Media player works just like your PC. I added about 750mb of music, so the device is actually an MP3 player as well. It has an external speak or you can stick in headphones (be aware, using the media player sucks battery life).

CONS:

1) I'd say the biggest con is the battery life. If you are on just GPRS/Phone with stand by (no talking, emailing or surfing) it will probably last about 2 days. However, using the phone or emailing cuts that down to about only 12-14 hours. If you set up the WiFi as well as have the phone on, your battery life is about 8-10 hours. If you also have the GPS and Bluetooth on, I'd say 5-6 hours. My advice is to not use the GPS or Bluetooth unless you really need them. And, if you are going to be on WiFi, leave the device in the craddle. The USB charging is very slow but the AC adapeter chargest the device to full in about 2 hours. YOU CAN PURCHASE A BIGGER BATTERY and you probably should.

2) Cingular does not support the 6945. You will have to tell them you have the 6925. I called HP they are identical except that the 6925 is Cingular only and the 6945 is unlocked for T-Mobile as well. Obviously Cingular wants you to buy the 6925 instead, but the 6945 is the same. If you call Cingular for support, just tell them you have a 6925 to avoid even having to explain things to them.

3) The ring volume is not that loud. But, it does have vibrate.

4) Do not buy the leather case that Amazon sells with the device for like $. The device comes with a belt clip that works just fine. If you want something nicer, go buy it in person.

...All in all this is an excellent device. I use to carry a cell phone and my laptop on the road now all I need is this. Again, you can swap your sim-card in and out, so keep your old cell phone for times when you don't want to carry around the iPaq.

I only gave it 4 stars because of the battery life. That can be fixed by purchasing the more powerful battery, but that will cost you extra. Also, the device is pretty expensive relative to the Treo or Q or Blackberry. None of those devices have WiFi though.

I love this. Phone works great with Tmobile Prepaid. I use it to sync Outlook and Word between home and office. It's a great note taker. For extensive notes, it works well with Bluetooth keyboard. One thing they don't tell you. In the charging cradle, it does slide show of photos with time and date. So it's a photo picture frame on your desk. GPS rocks. And it's got a voice recorder. Bluetooth works with car kit. Adequate camera. It's smaller than past Ipaqs but the screen is still visible. Love it.

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I will keep it simple..

Pros.

*very good exterior design.

*qwerty keyboard feels nice when typing

*very good software package included

*keep all your info, contacts, emails, task, up to date with active sync

*GPS at your hand! (get GPS TUNER 5, excellent tool)

*wifi, easy set up, excelent connection speed

*bluetooh

*edge-gprs, easy set up, get your mms, wap, emails, via your cell phone gprs service.

Cons.

*Battery life sucks

*when you are running more than 3 programs at the same time, sometimes the the screen freezes.

*Camera takes up to 5 seconds to activate when the program is not on.

*Camera with no autofocus

*You need to buy micro sd card, (not included)

The gps in this ipaq is great, I downloaded The GPS TUNER , use my own maps for calibration and i was ready to go. I used my Ipaq gps on a commercial flight sitting by the window, and I got gps fix all the flight. It was great having all my flight info, speed, alt, avrg speed, ete, eta.

The phone feature was off, so my smartphone becomes a pda, and no one cant complain about it during the flight.

It it very nice to see your path later where your flight was.

Read Best Reviews of HP iPaq 6945 Unlocked Cell Phone with Wi-Fi, GPS, MP3/Video Player, SD--U.S. Version with Warranty Here

I just got my HP 6945; took chip from my T-Mobile MDA; and I was operational. Took no more time to get mail then any other Pocket PC. I installed Tom-Tom, 5-minute veterinary consult, Plumb's veterinary drugs, synchronized it with my calendar and numbers and I am in business. Using a Jabra bluetooth, I can stream my MP3's while doing everything else. The only feature missing was voice activated dialing, but I am adding MS Voice Commander to fix that. I get better reception and signal (and stability) with the HP 6945 than with my T-Mobile MDA. So, it was a great purchase. Picture quality is not what you want if you are a photographer, but it is a phone. In a pinch, a picture is still worth a thousand words. Beats carrying a phone, a camera and a PDA; since this is all in one. I find that my thumbs don't mind the keyboard, but it does take a little adapting. The numbers lock feature is nice.

rog

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OK folks, here is the info you have been waiting for, coming from the perspective of a hp 6315 owner:

First, ALL the bluetooth issues are resolved completely. You will no longer have to be concerned with reconnecting to headset constantly. Plus, NO MORE ECHO thank god! the echo problem is fixed. When using the bluetooth to answer phone, it answers imediately and you can talk the second you hit the button, no delay. Headset sounds crystal clear to caller. (I don't know why all these folks are claiming they can't get their headset to pair up. I had no problem)

Second, in comparison to the 6315, this phone is greased lightening. Its all a matter of perspective, but if you owned the 6315, you will love the speed on this 6945. ie. hit the power button and it shuts right off with no delay. I would say it operates at double to triple the relative speed of the 6315.

Third, no more hangs like the old days. I have been using it non stop for 48 hours utilizing remote surveylance software, installing lots of programs, using mini sd card, streaming with wmp, using internet explorer, using mail & phone, and even running wifi bluetooth and gps NO REBOOT REQUIRED YET. and memory bounces right back when closing programs rather than clogging up and requiring resets.

Basically, Everything that bothered you about the 6315 seems to be fixed.

Beware, to my surprise ther was NO included backup software but I installed sprite backup/restore and it works perfectly.

Yes, battery life sucks, get a car charger and get over it. Note that the bigger battery solves that problem. Alot of people are saying to get the bigger bat if you use your gps, but if you use gps you will plug into charger to keep phone from going into standby constantly so tell them to stick it:)

Note: With small Battery, I took phone off charger at 10:30am and using all features except gps under average loads (including internet surfing and streaming for an hour using wifi and gprs), it was at 62% by 4:30pm. it charged to 100% in about 30-40 min.

other Things to note:

MS voice 1.6 is AMAZING. It hasn't screwed up once. No comparison to older products.

You can now associate rings and photos to your contacts which is nice cause it pops the persons pic up when calls come in (I dont know if spb added this feature or it came with).

and this phone works perfectly on tmobile service. The only issue was internet access (I had to change the prefix on the internet server options from internet3 to wap).

SPB add on is a must!

You will have issues with screen resolution, but since win mobile 5 doesnt support the larger screen res anymore, you might as well get used to it. Plus, you know that new mobile 5 software will be modified for the newer screen sizes.

Anyway, that's about it.

In conclusion, if you have the 6315 and your thinking about an upgrade, DO IT!!!!

Monday, November 10, 2014

Vivitar Dvr518 Hd Digital Video Recorder, 5.1 Mp Camera

Vivitar Dvr518 Hd Digital Video Recorder, 5.1 Mp CameraI bought one of these digital camcorders and at first I was fairly impressed by how easy it was to use and the better than average video quality. Then I heard the audio... Or lack of it. Actually all I heard from the audio was a static hiss. Thinking I had gotten a bad camcorder somehow, I exchanged it for another. The second camera had the same problem. These camcorders either have a serious defect in the audio or Vivitar is using really low quality microphones in them. I returned that one as well, shelled out a little more money and bought a 2nd generation Flip Ultra 120. In the world of digital camcorders, the old saying "you get what you pay for" really is true. I got stung twice trying to pick out a bargain and it will be a long time before I try another Vivtar product. If you really want a decent digital camcorder, be prepared to pay for it because this one isn't worth the price.

I guess the old saying is true, you get what you pay for. Amazon's description (as well as many other site's) says this camera has "720p HD Video Recording". This is not true. The highest resolution this has is 640X480 interlaced. Neither the packaging nor Vivitar's site ever claims it's 720p HD, so I guess it's partly my fault for not doing my homework before buying. That being said, I've seen plenty of 480i recorders that shoot very good video. But, even at this camera's highest quality setting, the video is choppy and grainy, regardless of lighting conditions. The camera has 2 settings for frames per second, 15 and 30; all the software I have used after shooting video says the 15FPS setting is shooting at 7.5, and the 30FPS setting is shooting at 15 (in other words, half!). If all that weren't enough, the sound has a horrible hiss if there's more than a couple seconds of quiet. I'm very disappointed, but considering how cheap this camera was, I shouldn't have expected much more than what I got.

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Can't get another product with the same quality for the price. Works great and kids are loving it on youtube

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I got my Vivitar DVR518 Digital Video Camcorder via LiveSpan. I first had questions on shipping timelines. But, upon contact seeking that knowledge I was very impressed. Not only did I get (an) answer, I got (THE) answer. For a product of this quality, to sell for this price, is truly amazing & prompted me to enter (their domain) to see what else was their? Da' it's ON! This camcorder is everything that I want a camcorder to be. Very, easy to use and don't worry about walking over to your subject to get close-ups. Just stand there! With a 2"TFT LCD screen and 8X Digital Zoom, let your subject do the walking. Thank you LiveSpan for a wonderful piece of art & thank you for a price that I could afford. Amazon, you'll never know what a ideal match-up this will become.

P.S. we'll send a post card!

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Purchased this for our son and daughter-in-law who will be having their first baby soon. They absolutely love it!

Thank you!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

4GB USB Pen Drive Digital Audio Voice Recorder 70 Hours

4GB USB Pen Drive Digital Audio Voice Recorder 70 Hours
  • Memory capacity: 4GB
  • Recording format
  • Recording rate: 128bps
  • Recording time: about 70 hours

4GB USB Pen Drive Digital Audio Voice Recorder 70 Hours

This recorder works flawlessly. I can attach it to my cell phone and record telephone conversations both ways.

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This little item works exactly as advertised. Clear recording and easy to just transfer to your recordings to a pc

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I love this little thing. light weight, easy to "stash" places, and good sound. I love how there is little hiss and static if no sound is being recorded. It is great for EVP ghost hunting. I love it so much I have more than 1 now.

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The voice recorder has very good quality audio, though if you move it around you will hear static. For the price it's a great product. The only problem I had with it is the cap for the USB is difficult to get off, and required a small, hard object to open. I'm still giving it a 5 out of 5 because of the price and quality.

This works great, I had one that went threw the washer, that will kill the mic, everything on it I was able to retrieve. I use this for long meetings that last for hours and it record everything, I put it on the table in middle and it records I can hear everyone.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

GE 73311 15-Feet RG6 Video Cable, White

GE 73311 15-Feet RG6 Video Cable, WhiteThis cable is long and so you don't have to worry about it getting pulled out. It has a quality plug as well.

It is fine for what it is---not the highest quality as you would guess due to the price. It is what it is

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Good quality, have not seen any signal loss. Good for moving your your cable (Internet/tv) providers end point to a different place in the house. It is stiff like every other coaxial cable but once you bend it at an angle it maintains the angle pretty well, suitable for corner runs.

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Very good basic coax cable. The price was excellent and the free shipping I received tagging it on to another order made it worthwhile ordering.

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That's about I can say. It arrived quickly and it works. Much less expensive than at the big box stores.

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Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Polaroid 32GB High Speed SDHC CL10 UHS-1 Rated Flash Memory (P-SDH32U1-30-GEPOL)

Polaroid 32GB High Speed SDHC CL10 UHS-1 Rated Flash MemoryI've bought these SD cards because of the price, being UHS-1 they are really "cheap", I find no difference between Sandisk, Lexar or any other. I shoot a Sony A99 and an A77, not a lot of continuos bursts. They do what I need.

I have a gopro and bought it for that reason.

it is good quality and a fairly good price. COuld had been a little cheeper but whatever ... im satisfied

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Write speed is 35 mbps. Best you can get for this price. Compare with Transcend and sandisk...you'll see waht I am saying.

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Seems to write fast when I use continuous shot mode and transfers quickly through the card reader in my PC. Good card

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perfect speed, cheap price, fits exactly and snugly in its place, the quality is supreme, great deal and choice, A+

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Thursday, September 25, 2014

Sony DCR-SR300 6.1MP 40GB Hard Disk Drive Handycam Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom

Sony DCR-SR300 6.1MP 40GB Hard Disk Drive Handycam Camcorder with 10x Optical ZoomPros: Excellent picture quality! Ease of use, convenient 4 mega pixel still while in video mode, easy connect base, and mpg video format right from the camera!

Cons: Easy connect base (good and bad news), flash disabled with filters or lens, and a little slow to connect to the PC.

I wanted ease of use, high quality picture, and good still performance I got it all.

I did the tech research on picture quality and the SR300 seemed to be rated the best by most of the experts. The CMOS capture device is what is used in very high end cameras, so I was expecting a decent picture.

Here is the non-tech evaluation of the picture: on my Hi Def TV the picture quality from this camcorder is much better than normal TV picture and not quite as good as a high quality progressive scan DVD. It is better than I expected and I am VERY happy with the picture quality.

The SR300 is easy to use and that is what I wanted. Point it and shoot. In video mode, it does 4 mega pixel pictures. While recording, you can capture 3 stills only. If you are in video mode and not recording, you can capture as many as you like up to the limit of the hard drive and/or memory stick. In straight still mode, it is a 6 mega pixel camera. If you are looking for super high quality still camera, this is not it. I went from a 2 mega pixel camera to this, so I am pleased with the quality and I don't have to always carry two cameras around. I am using this to capture kids and this is just what I need.

The camera will record stills to the hard drive, so you do not need to have a memory stick. I purchased a 2 gig ultra II, kind of a waste since the camcorder can't write to the stick as fast as the stick operates, I could have saved some $$ with a less expensive stick, or no stick at all. A 2 gig stick gives you 600 pictures at 4 mega pixel.

I like the base, it makes it easy to have the camera ready to use. The thing I don't like is that you must use it to transfer video and stills to your computer from the hard drive (cable included). This can be a pain. You can connect the camera directly to the TV to watch video (cable included).

When you attach a filter or an auxiliary lens, I bought a wide angle lens, the flash is disabled. This I do not like.

Video from this camera is in mpg format, the same used for DVDs, so your DVD software does not have to convert the files. Also, this camera will write directly to a DVD recorder. I created a DVD with my , directly from the camera using the Disc Burn button and it included both video and pictures.

I am able to quickly make DVDs using Nero without converting the files. This cam also connects directly to a printer using Pict Bridge feature.

This is an expensive camera that had everything I wanted: easy to use; good quality video; compact size; and good still pictures. Sometimes you need to spend the extra to get what you want.

I also bought the Sony ACC-FH60 accessory kit that includes a camera case and a second battery, check it out.

I've been using it for a couple of days, and I love it. The harddisk is a gift, once you get used to it, you'll never want to use tape again. The USB 2.0 transfer to your computer works like a charm and it's pretty quick even for very large files, also because the video file types are mpeg, dvd authoring software doesn't take forever to compile a dvd, it's very quick.

There are a couple of simple, yet powerful editing features using the camcorder itself. The interface is pretty intuitive, and the touch screen is very accessible even for my thick thumbs. The video picture quality is excellent in medium light, but weak in low light still 'far better than my previous Canon ZR70 though'. The stand still camera is not that good, compared to my current Sony P8.

I love the slow motion feature, unfortunately it can only capture 6 seconds, also taking photos while you're video taping is an excellent feature, but you can only take 3 photos during shooting videos. All in all, I'm very happy with all it's features, also the surround sound works pretty well.

I didn't give it 5 stars because the camera doesn't come with a USB port, or video output options on the camera itself, I have to dock it in the docking station and then connect it to my PC, which leaves me with a choice to either put the docking station beside my PC to move the files, or beside my HD TV to watch the movies on the Camera, not sure why Sony at least didn't put a USB port on the camera directly, pretty annoying! Also, there is no way to capture video using this camera, although that was kind of a standard feature in any cheap mini DV cameras, now I have to think of getting a video capture card for my computer if I need to copy any of my recorder programs from my DVRs or previous tapes to DVD!

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I'm not a professional, so this camcorder is the best thing since sliced bread.

I'd rather write a review that someone can actually read and get some value from, so if you're one of those people that insists on comparing everything to an extremely expensive pro camcorder, just stop reading now and go away.

If you want something that will shoot crisp clear video footage of your family and life experiences, this is the camcorder for you. No, it's not HD but I honestly don't feel that it's worth paying 2x as much for the marginal (if even noticeable since this camcorder shoots video at 3.1 megapixels) difference in video quality. 6.1 megapixel stills are the icing on the cake, and I have yet to deplete the battery (if you're planning on shooting hours and hours of video, just get an adapter or the optional battery that will give you up to 6 hours of life).

Read Best Reviews of Sony DCR-SR300 6.1MP 40GB Hard Disk Drive Handycam Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom Here

The DCR-SR300 is a very good BASIC camcorder. It's basic in that it includes very few manual controls. The camera is designed for ease of use. With that said, it takes pretty good videos... not nearly as good as the high end high definition DV models, but still pretty good.

What is nice about the camcorder (and all of Sony's HDD line) is that you can treat the camera as a storage device under USB. Unlike other camcorders, Sony stores its data as mpeg2, so they are likely to be immediately useful (if you can play DVDs on your computer, you can use the files).

Another nice feature is the camera. This is probably the first mid-range camcorder with a decent still image capability, mainly because it boasts of a 6M pixel quality. The camera will allow you to store up to 3 camera stills at 4M pixel while filming (which is also a nice feature).

What's not to like? No microphone input apart from Sony's proprietary boot... so you HAVE to get your add-ons from Sony. Also you have to put the unit into its dock (included) in order to pull files from it.

The build microphone is only so-so.

Image wise, it's not a 3 CCD, it just uses a pretty large CMOS and does support Optical Image Stabilization. My thoughts on those features.. yawn. I'm sure it makes some difference, but it wasn't jaw dropping in my opinion.

The lens is an excellent Zeiss Sonar T* ... one of the best, but the optical zoom is merely 10x... if there is any good news, the camera only goes up to 20x digital zoom, but digital zoom is ALWAYS lousy, so this is actually a good thing (and you can disable the digital zoom of course).

The camera has a night vision mode. This is also a nice feature for shooting in complete darkness. If you don't mind the typical green night vision look, this can be really nice for capturing very hard to see things.

I purchased the larger capacity battery... one things good about an HDD camcorder versus DV-tape is that you can't shoot hours and hours of video... but IMHO, Sony ought to included the higher capacity battery because of this. Definitely a recommended upgrade.

Is this the best HDD camcorder out there? Possibly. Is it perfect? No. If you need the convenience of the hard drive, then I recommend this camera. If you want a really good quality camera, you might want to look a high definition DV like the Sony HDR-HC7 or similar (or their more expensive professional line of course). If you are a newbie (like me), then the simplicity of the SR300 is appealing... lack of features can equate to ease of use.

The SR300 beats the SR100 spec wise except on features where the SR100 (if you can still find one) has the SR300 beat... this is typical of most Sony devices (1st generation devices tend to be packed with features).

In conclusion, this is a good easy to use (if not a bit pricey) entry level hard disk camera. If priced a bit less, this camera would be easier to recommend.

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I have been shopping for over a year looking for a nice digital camcorder, and finally had decided to get the SR-100 only to find it was discontinued. Then I found this Sr-300, purchased, and have never been happier. I'll break it down for everybody:

40g Hard Drive is a dream come true. Instant orginization, instant viewing, and, if you so choose too, instant deletion. No media = no hassle, the only media you really need is a Computer with a DVD burner in it and a blank DVD and your set One Touch Burning is very quick and easy.

Image quaility is excellent, except in low lighting, however this has been a common problem for camcorders since the early days. The picture comes out a bit grainy, but overall does not affect the quality of the video. This problem can also be resolved with a simple video light. (See the pictures that I posted for examples.) I believe sony makes one that will automatically turn on if the lighting level is low. The camcorder also acts like a digital camera, in that you can choose you scene selection, anything from beach to snow to twilight. You can also do black and white as well as other neat settings.

Still Images are even better, 6.1 megapixels is awsome for a camcorder, and you can set it just like any other digital camera with scene selection, etc. Easily switches between camera mode and recording mode with the flick of a switch. The camcorder can also take 3 stills WHILE recording, without messing up the video. Awesome if ya wanna capture the moment on both film and pictures. This cam in handy for me when I was filming some seals at the Zoo the other day.

The one thing I have heard complaints about from many sites is the handycam station. This thing is actually a blessing, not a curse. It is very small, lightweight, and it extends the life of your camcorder. it does this by allowing you to plug into the staion itself for charging, transfers, etc, instead of plugging directly into the camcorder, which I think cuts down on wear and tear. The cam does have A/V output and a D/C input on it, so it is still possible to plug in directly.

Provided software is ok. Not very much editing power to it, would reccomend seperate software if you really want to edit your videos. the main thing is the one touch software, which is very nice if you wanna burn a quick dvd.

The touch screen is nice. Allows for easy navigation through all the menus, which all give an explanation for what each setting affects/does. Plus using a touch screen is really cool :D

The only other con is that the battery does stick out, however you must remember this is a small camcorder, they did the best they can, and it really does not get in the way at all. Sony does make a smaller battery thought, so there is some hope for that.

All in all, its great and I highly reccomend this to anyone wishing to just film life's funniest and awkward moments. If you are not trying to be a professional cameraperson, and just want something easy to use, the Sr-300 is it for you. If you are trying to be a professional, then they make a $3,000 one which would probably suit your needs.

5 stars for both quaility and price paid.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Philips GoGear Vibe 8GB MP3 Player SA3VBE08K/37

Philips GoGear Vibe 8GB MP3 Player SA3VBE08K/37
  • The small and sturdy GoGear Vibe MP3 Player hits the right notes with Philips FullSound to bring your music to life
  • Philips GoGear MP3 Player Vibe 8GB SA3VBE08K/37
  • Philips Product. Plus, soft rubber earbuds ensure comfy music enjoyment
  • Songbird for endless music discovery and easy synchronization. Plus, soft rubber earbuds ensure comfy music enjoyment
  • The small and sturdy GoGear Vibe MP3 Player hits the right notes with Philips FullSound to bring your music to life and
  • Songbird for endless music discovery and easy synchronization.

When my iPod Shuffle finally shorted out I began to look for an inexpensive and comparable replacement. The Philips GoGear Vibe 4GB fit the bill perfectly and with a lot more options than my old Shuffle. Great for on the go use (bus, exercise, work etc.) the Vibe provided me with just enough options to get me through the day with little to no hassle in use. Here are my thoughts on this handy little MP3 device;

Pros

+ Superb sound quality.

+ Comfortable and soft rubber ear buds.

+ Excellent auto-preset FM Tuner.

+ Perfect dimensions for an on the go mp3 player. As another review said it's about the size of a credit card and the depth of a Hershey bar.

+ Custom equalizer.

+ Free and optional install of Songbird software.

+ Plays video.

Cons

Ear bud cord could be a bit longer. An additional 6" would have been better.

No Audio Recording capability even though it's advertised as such. There's what appears to be microphone hole on the top of the device but no recording options available. This is the main reason I knocked off a star as I would have really used this option.

Limited video format support.

Small video screen and along with that comes rather poor quality/resolution (expected for the price). Hopefully most people don't plan on watching a lot of video with this player.

User interface could use some tweaking as it's a bit confusing at first.

Volume buttons are a bit too recessed for larger fingers.

Unfortunately the Songbird software consistantly crashes without reason despite repeated software updates.

All things considered this is a good deal for a low end MP3 player. For the price it's difficult to go wrong with this device. Is it perfect? No. Could there be improvements? Absolutely. As I mentioned earlier, my biggest disappointment was the lack of the audio recorder. I'm guessing this probably won't be an issue for most people however. Other than that I'm very satisfied with the Philips GoGear Vibe. Satisfied enough to consider purchasing the 16GB GoGear Muse.

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The specific model I am reviewing is the SA3VBE04K/37 which is important because all of the documentation I can find referring to the 4gb GoGear Vibe mentions audio recording capability which this specific model apparently cannot do. There is no built in microphone, hence, no ability to record audio EVEN THOUGH RECORDING AUDIO IS LISTED AS A FEATURE OF THIS UNIT. The manuals I've found show a different configuration (microphone hole on top) than this particular unit. If you're looking to record classroom lectures (I was looking forward to testing the quality of that) you just can't do it. This also raises into question the capabilities of the other Vibes. Which ones have this feature and which ones don't? Hopefully the Philips folks will fix their documentation and advertising and this won't be an issue.

Otherwise, this is a solid, pretty standard MP3 player. As advertised, it takes about 2-3 hours to charge the built-in, non-replaceable battery. I actually prefer non-replaceables since I don't spend all my time hunting for AAA or AA or button batteries, but you may prefer otherwise. I've had it running overnight and it still has a good charge, but that should be the case with any new battery. If it turns out this unit's battery has a short life-span (less than 1 year?) I'll add an update to this review.

The sound is solid, the interface is decent, the software is all pretty standard. At least, standard for a portable MP3 player not built by a certain company that starts with an "A." In fact, my most recent experience is with a second generation Apple Shuffle (postage stamp sized, no screen) and I prefer this GoGear Vibe to the smaller Shuffle for a couple of reasons. A lesser reason is the Vibe's screen which has a nice visible menu system and pretty easy to use controls. The second is more important to me: the built-in FM radio. I've had no problems using it to tune in to the local NPR station which I prefer listening to, rather than music, during my 2 mile walk to my bus stop. Personally, this is my favorite feature.

The size and weight are good, about half the size of a current Hershey's 1.55 Ounce Milk Chocolate Bar and about as thick as one candy bar. Check the comparative size photo I uploaded for this review. It does fit nicely in the pocket. The earphones are pretty decent for ear buds both in comfort and sound quality and I see no reason to replace them. It doesn't have a clip, nor did it come with a lanyard neither is a deal killer, but either would be nice!

The picture and audio/video display works as good as you would expect with the 1.8 inch display. Videos have to be in the MJPEG format, and are displayed on a 160 x 128 pixel format. The display is legible and clear, but this is a small screen. Because of the memory limitations of the specific unit I'm reviewing (4 GB) I wouldn't use it for video in any case. Pictures? Maybe. But we're still talking about pictures a little bit bigger than a postage stamp (albeit, a larger, commemorative US postage stamp).

Read the specifications carefully and make sure you know what you're getting (with the caveat that the specifications could be in error as noted at the outset of this review). This is, overall, a nice little unit, but nothing about it really rises above the fact that it's pretty much just a standard entry into the non-Apple MP3 Player arena.

UPDATE 22 MAY 2012 (over a year after acquisition): Durability is excellent. For the last year I've been constantly letting this rattle around in my car's glove box and in my pocket. Works just as good as when it was new over a year ago. It has some wear marks (what you'd expect) but has physically held up perfectly.

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(2008 HOLIDAY TEAM) Although Apple has set the industry standard for portable digital music with its iPod line, not everyone wants to pay the price or use iTunes to manage music. This little GoGear Vibe is a good choice for people who want a relatively inexpensive MP3 player that's about twice the size of the Nano but much smaller than Apple's other offerings. NOTE: I'm reviewing the 4GB version. The 8GB version comes with voice recording but this smaller capacity one does not.

This MP3 player is designed exclusively for Windows PCs because its Songbird music managing program does not work with Macs, even though there is a Songbird for Mac program available for free download. That said, I was able to download Amazon MP3s to the device, using it the way I'd use a flash drive by dropping files directly onto the GoGear. It worked perfectly, but I couldn't fill it with songs from my Mac's iTunes library, even when I located the files for them. The songs transferred but wouldn't play, suggesting that the GoGear Songbird converts the file kinds to be compatible with the device. When I connected it to a Windows machine, that version of Songbird immediately asked if I wanted to import my music from iTunes, so the GoGear can indeed do it, just not with a Mac.

The controls are relatively easy to use -once I found them. The black-on-black face, with little supplied documentation, made its use trial-and-error at first. The small screen is large enough to display an album cover but lousy for photos and videos. Some of the other models in the GoGear line have bigger screens, so if you want to display photos or video, you might want to investigate them.

The sound is slightly different than the iPod for the same songs played through the same set of earbuds. I can't say whether one was better or worse; the iPod has warmer tones, but the GoGear has crisp, clean notes.

The earbuds are comfortable, and they stay in place. Battery life is so-so, the one area of the GoGear that I didn't like. I took it on a trip with me, and more than once I'd go to listen to it, only to find the battery drained. I suppose I've been spoiled by the long life of my iPod battery. And the 4 GB capacity is too small for those of us who like to carry around a huge music library to enable a listening decision on the fly. I don't like Philips assumption that Mac users won't want to use a non-Apple product for music listening.

I also am not a fan of Songbird. Although it has some of the features of iTunes, I found its navigation to be somewhat clumsy. I didn't take any points away because of it, however, since it may be that I'm so used to iTunes that I expect other programs to approach it in ease-of-use.

The GoGear deserves five stars just for its value, but it falls far short of the more expensive iPod Classic and Touch. If you don't want to support Apple (and many people don't) or if you want a budget, solid-state player, then the 4GB GoGear Vibe is something you should consider. Otherwise, I recommend looking at the higher end products in the Philips line or at Apple's.

-Debbie Lee Wesselmann

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I very carefully studied the reviews of several mp3 players when my first one died suddenly. I had a player with a 2.8" screen but decided that it wasn't really necessary as I never used it to watch video. I had downloaded a few things when I first got it as it was a "new toy" but then as time passed, used it solely to listen to music. However, it was important to me to be able to view album art as I had spent hours downloading that for my songs ripped from cd's. So thank you to previous reviewers who mentioned that functionality in their reviews.

The Philips Songbird software was easy to use. It synced up with my music files immediately and downloaded everything flawlessly. Since the initial sync though, I prefer to just drag and drop any new songs I add instead of going through the syncing process. I have several songs that I don't want to transfer every time (for example, my husband's favorites and Christmas music). But it was an easy way to get started. Everything is organized by artist, album, and genre and I like the playlist feature. That allowed me to separate my regular music from the Christmas music that I had on the player during the holidays. You can create a playlist on the go, but I haven't used that feature yet.

A really nice feature that I didn't have on my previous player is the delete on the go option. If you find that you have a song you don't really want you don't have to wait to get back to your computer to delete it. You can get rid of it immediately!

I am taking a long trip this weekend and thought it would be nice to have an audio book to listen to along the way. The audible.com site that is listed in the manual charges a monthly fee for their books, so I thought I would see if I could use my local library instead. Worked like a charm! It will accept books in either mp3 or WMA format. My library uses the Overdrive Media software for downloads and it was easy to download the book into that software and then it had a transfer option that recognized the Vibe and transferred the books in seconds! The only negative is that they were downloaded into the music files so they are mixed with my music. To find them, I have to go to artist and then find the author's name. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm guessing that if you were playing random selections from your music file, your book files could be selected to play. But you would just skip to the next song, so shouldn't be a big deal if you want to listen to music while you have a book loaded.

I tried out the FM radio as well and it auto tuned all the stations the first time and does work well in my market as far as tuning in(Bismarck ND). I don't really use this feature though.

Battery life seems good as it shows near full strength after 2 3 hours of play. I haven't played it for such a length of time as to drain the battery fully (it will get its test with the audio book tomorrow as I intend to listen for over 5 hours straight).

Over all, I am very, very pleased with my purchase of the Vibe. If you want an mp3 player that plays music and audiobooks, you won't be disappointed in this one!

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Absolutely love it! Very easy to use and only needed functions. No waist of features and complicated functions. On screen symbols are simple and understandable. Well built device, not resembling any cheat replica of any popular players. Love the small portable size, you forget that you're even carrying a player at all. The screen size is small but has great backlight, makes watching quick videos or episodes fun and enjoyable. The battery life is great!!! Lastly, one of the best features is a sleep timer. No more killing your battery just because you fell asleep listening to your favorite songs. Very good buy for the non-technical, kids and older folks who want to keep up with the latest gadgets!

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Panasonic DVD-S35K Ultra-Slim Progressive-Scan DVD Player , Black

Panasonic DVD-S35K Ultra-Slim Progressive-Scan DVD Player , Black
  • Plays DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, CD-R, CD-RW, JPEG, and MP3/WMA CDs
  • Progressive-scan video output for seamless, flicker-free picture on high-definition and HD-ready televisions
  • Cinema Mode diminishes glare and improves the visibility of details in dark scenes; Depth Enhancer reduces image background noise
  • Bass Plus enhances bass when you connect the player with an optional subwoofer
  • Dialogue Enhancer boosts center-channel volume during Dolby Digital 5.1-channel presentations

The look and feel of the Panny DVD-S35K is very sleek and modern. We've placed it on a bookshelf in our bedroom, and the slim lines of the unit means that it does not "take over" and visually dominate the other items on the bookshelf.

This unit was so low-priced that I was not sure what to expect in terms of picture quality, but I was pleasantly surprised. The colors are accurate, the image is sharp, and I have not seen any visible video artificats in any of the numerous DVDs we've watched so far. Within the display limits of our television I have absolutely nothing bad to report about this DVD player. Overall, the picture quality from this unit is head-and-shoulders better than that from the flaky and unreliable 3-year-old Sony 530D DVD player I have in our living room.

(When reading my comments as to picture quality, please bear in mind that we are using this player with a Philips 20PF9925 20" LCD panel TV. As many of you already know, there are certain trade-offs in using LCD technology, e.g. lower contrast; and of course a 20" screen is not exactly widescreen and hence certain categories of defect are largely invisible even when they are or might be present in its input feed.)

This unit is also feature-rich. As advertised, it can play CD-R's with MP3's/WMA's and JPEG images. Frankly, I assumed that this would probably be poorly implemented and/or frustrating to use. But in fact I was rather startled to see how *well* it worked. I placed into the tray a CD-R made a couple of months ago which contained about 150 family pictures in three different directories. After only a few seconds load time, the player correctly identified the disc as containing photos, indexed all of them, and offered me the choice to begin a slide show. Very easy to operate and highly configurable, for instance if you want to show the whole disc or merely one directory. Easy enough that even the proverbial "grandma" could use it.

Final comments: in giving this player 5 stars, I am relating it to my expectations for a DVD player in the "budget" category. I think that if I wanted a progressive scan player for a dedicated home theater, or for a big-screen (43"+) HDTV monitor, I would probably look elsewhere and buy a more expensive unit with a more advanced decoder chip, SACD or DVD-A support, etc. But among players in its class the Panny DVD-S35K simply cannot be beaten.

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We've already got 3 DVD players at home. A 4 year old Onkyo DVD changer, a 3 year old Toshiba, and one of those portable Panasonic DVD players. Well the Onkyo went on the fritz, and I decided to replace it with a progressive scan single disc player, since we have an HDTV and the picture is supposed to be better.

Last time I checked progressive scan DVD players ran $... and up, yet here is the Panasonic on Amazon[.com] for under $. Well the price is right and the product is incredible. The picture quality is very impressive, definitely better than the old Onkyo. Plus the features are better as well.

Zoom is much better with complete flexibility to zoom to any level, not just a few presets. No signs of any artifacts or digital pixelation that I've occasionally seen on my other players. Very smooth transition during DVD layer changes, and excellent sound over my stereo. Plus this player is absolutely skinny!

It has all the outputs you would expect for video and audio(except perhaps audio coax, but I think the industry has committed to optical). Operation is simple, and my kids have no problem using it.

No way you can beat this for the money. I say go ahead and make the purchase.

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This is crazy, this professional type DVD player at this price .First off I use to work at a major Electronic store selling DVD players,so I've had plenty of time to look at all makes and models.Not including the 5 or six players i've owned and still do own.This by far is the best player i've seen made to date.I have other reviews on Panasonics 2001 and 2002 models and they both scored 5 stars.Why; you ask A few simple reasons Picture:as good as it gets.Sound:Better than most models.Durability:I,ve had 2002 model for nearly 2 years now not even as much as a githch,skip,bad audio,wont play disc,nothing at all none of this IN TWO YEARS,thats saying alot about Panasonic's durability.Also Panasonics owe so to easy to use own screen display features.

"NOW" lets get back to this years model dvd-s35.There's not much to say but "WOW" its everything like last years perfect model ecsept better,i didn'nt think it was possibell.First off it plays anything and everything you name it it plays it including JPEG (pictures taken from a digital source).Its ultra slim body looks great.One of my biggest problems with last years model was the remote,well Panasonic took that into considiration becouse the remote with this model is nearly as good as it gets with perfect button lay out,easy to operate in the dark.AlSO IF YOUR LIKE ME AND SIT 10 FEET FROM YOUR TV FEAR NOT THIS PLAYER IS LIKE STEALTH you cant here it playing unless you stick your ear up write next to the player.Its very,very quite.Now this is were it goes from 5 stars to six stars in the features or you could say Bells and whislels.Nothing has more "NOTHING" i COULD TYPE 10,000 WORDS ON THIS TOPIC BUT I'LL KEEP IT TO A FEW.First off say your watching a movie in subtitles (Crouching Tiger) and you say to yourself i wish i could move those subtitles to a diffrent part of the screen.Well now you can, you can put them literally anywhere.You can also brighten or dim the color of the subtitles.It has What Panasonic calls Cinema mode(you can see dark images on the screen better) you can choose one of 3 preset modes or custimize it yourself to get the best picture pssible.The on screen display is just plan simple to operate and its just plan silly how many features there are to play with,or not you can just hook it up let it run and you still have the best player out there.Here's a fact this is the best made Dvd player made yet regardless of price,its the new 2003 model and there always on sale when they first come out.This player wont be this inespensive for long.Do yourself a big favor buy this player dont even think of another trust me theres nothing better.Or you can waste your money on some other model for some reason or another,well thats your choice but you'll be wasting your hard earned money.Thankyou Panasonic I finally have the perfect dvd player.

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This DVD player gives you so many options that makes you wonder why it doesn't cost more. I've only just recieved mine, but found the entire set-up system to be extra fast (has a "Quick Setup" option that's practically fool-proof). The player is a full-fledged Progressive Scan DVD/CD player, for more versatile home entertainment. It'll give you breathtaking realism and impact of the cinema in your own home. Features Direct Disc Select, Disc Skip, Disc Program Play, Disc Random Play and Dolby Digital & DTS Surround Sound outputs. Also gives you the option for dialogue enhancement, which brings dialogue to the forefront and makes it stand out over the background music. Includes picture enhancement settings combines brightness control with picture noise canceling to provide better picture quality in certain viewing conditions. It lessens glare, giving you colors that are more cinema-like and picture resolution that is gentler to the eyes. Cinema mode also improves the visibility of details in dark scenes (more crisp) by automatically adjusting picture contrast, and helps to suppress color smearing, as well. The player offers Super Hi-Speed Scan up to x200. This feature provides crystal clear scan quality in five speeds, ranging from slow motion to high speed, in both forward and reverse. At the highest setting, you can search at an incredible 200 times the normal speed in order to rapidly locate desired points on a disc. Capable of playing Multi-Disc Playback DVD-Video, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, Video CD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW. And as for the playback--very crisp. One thing: Does not have a clock display when it's turned off (or maybe it does and I haven't figured it out yet...doubtful). But overall, a great player for the price;it will really serve your DVD needs.

I too had the H02 error after about 18 months of flawless performance.

Since everyone is having the same problem at about the same time, is it reasonable to suspect engineered, PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE? Maybe just poor product.. Panasonic wouldn't make so much money if you didn't spend $100 every 1-2 years on another DVD player. Think about it..

Like a few others, however, I am again watching movies on my S35S after taking it apart, blowing in it a bit, fingering and jiggling the gears a bit, and putting it back together (we were going to throw it out anyway, why not play with it freely beforehand? Make sure to unplug it first!). This solved the problem, at least for the time being may have to do it periodically from now on. I'm too poor to buy a new one every year, so I tinker.

The actual problem is that the spindle-motor stopped turning, thus the laser cannot read the initializing track of a disc to determine that a valid disc is indeed present. Hence, "H02"(Must be Pana-Geek-Speak for 'farked up'..), and finally "No disc."

To be accurate and honest, Panasonic should instead of "H02" have their DVD players display a scrolling marquee "P4n450n1k PWNES j00!1@!11one" because that's what they're doing to us with these cheap motors designed to fail at 1 to 1-1/2 years.

Upon opening and observation it was obvious that the spindle motor/flywheel thingy was unable to turn freely, too much friction to get started apparently, too "sluggish," it just simply hummed before disengaging and giving up. Perhaps it needs a bit of re-lubrication; just lightly touching the top of the spindle housing/cover (specifically, the white round thingy that resides above the disc) made it start spinning again.

3 stars for the great flawless performance for 18 months, minus 2 stars for the cheap/underpowered/etc. spindle-motor that goofs up at this time making me spend a couple of hours toying with it just to watch my movies. Luckily I have a PS2/dvd to hold me over for a while if this DVD player craps out for good. Maybe I should try TOSHIBA next time?

Friday, July 18, 2014

Polaroid CAA-03040 Digital Video Camera

Polaroid CAA-03040 Digital Video CameraI just picked up one of these and since there wasn't a real review yet, here are my initial thoughts. Considering the price, I bought this with low demands and expectations. It's very easy to use. I had no problem connecting it to my computer. Recording quality is good enough if I'm outside or in a well lit room but otherwise it's useless. This isn't for rooms lit with a lamp or two. That shouldn't be too shocking though. Still pictures are coming out blurry. This won't be replacing my digital camera anytime soon. The usb cover is held on by a very flimsy piece of rubber. That'll break off in no time. I like the screen. It flips around so you can see yourself as you record, if you're into that kinda thing. Sound quality was better than I expected. It picks up a lot of noise but it works. It only comes with 16mb of memory so unless you want about ten seconds of video you will need a memory card. When I got home I picked up a 1gb sandisk card here on amazon for about $15. great deal. Overall, I think I got my $79 worth. I think this would be a great starter camera for a kid, or for someone on a budget like me who just wants to share some nonsense online with friends. I hope to have fun with it on my trip out west.

What a disappointment! 20 seconds of video on the internal memory. The Flip video gets an hour! We bought a 1g memory card for 20 minutes of video. But the darn camera turns off if the memory card is inside!! Totally useless and I can't return it because I bought it in Sept for a Christmas present and the return time is over. Polaroid should be ashamed.

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I own the Flip Video and thought I would try the Polaroid because it allows for expansion via SD cards. The images were awful. It took a long time to figure out how to use it while the Flip had excellent quality in all light conditions and I was up and running within 5 minutes. The flip comes with excellent software and I can't even tell what the Polaroid software does because every time I opened it all it said was it could not connect to my device. Also, the Polaroid went through my batteries in less than 30 minutes and I had to change them twice. I was able to use the same batteries in my Flip video camcorder. For me, one is excellent and the other is garbage. Either I could not figure out how to use this or it is an absolute piece of junk. Assuming I did everything correctly then then I would say this product should not have been made. Maybe I messed up but I do not see where. I say get the Flip. It is fantastic.

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Whoever says this camera has good video/photo quality really has to have their eyes checked.

This is by far the worst camera I've ever laid hands on. Shame on Polaroid for putting their name on a piece of junk like this.

Not even my 8 year old wants it, that's how bad it is.

Do not believe anyone on here who says this is a pretty good or pretty decent camera, it's just not true.

My Panasonic DMC-TZ1 camera takes better videos then this with more detailed quality.

If you don't believe me go ahead and try this Polaroid joke. I bet you will regret buying it.

As for me, I'm getting rid of mine as soon as possible.

Hope this review helps anyone who really wants a "TRUE" review.

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This is a good basic video camera. Some problems I found are the resolution is no better than a digital camera and it can't use SD cards larger than 2Gb. This limits you to 15-20 minutes of video with an SD card. Internal memory is good for only 20 seconds of video.

I bought this with a 4Gb SD card. The camera tries to start but then just shuts down with no indication of what the problem is. I put the 4GB SD card into my Kodak EasyShare camera and it works fine. I used the 2Gb from my Kodak camera in the Polaroid and everything works. The video from the Kodak EasyShare is just as good, works better in low light and it supports larger SD cards for longer videos.

Last problem, the tripod mount is very shallow. You'll need several washers between the tripod and the camera.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Logitech B100 Optical Usb Mouse Comfortable Quality Optical Precision Ower Profile Shape

Logitech B100 Optical Usb Mouse Comfortable Quality Optical Precision Ower Profile ShapeThis mouse is really wonderful. I originally bought it for my boyfriend cause his old mouse died. However, I took it instead and he kept my old Logitech mouse (which is the same one as this). I love the scroll wheel and how it makes little to no noise. This way I can surf the internet without that loud scrolling noise to wake up my boyfriend while he's asleep. I play League of Legends and other games that require fast clicking and good mouse response and control, and this mouse exceeded my expectations. I learned that we should buy more Logitech brand stuff from now on.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Zmodo 8CH H.264 DVR Security Surveillance Camera System with 8 Sony CCD CCTV IR Security Black Came

Zmodo 8CH H.264 DVR Security Surveillance Camera System with 8 Sony CCD CCTV IR Security Black Cameras - No Hard DriveAlthough the price of around $230 is great for a nearly complete 8-channel surveillance system, one which only lacks a hard drive, the cameras included in this package are the worst I've used or seen in action. The cameras are claimed to be CCD, but if they are, the video captured through those CCD's is worse than through my 10 year old cheapo CMOS's. I only compared capturing video during daylight and indoors, yet I had problem recognizing my own son who was less than 10 feet from the camera. The main problem with these cameras is the extreme pixelation in the videos. I understand that pixelation may be observed when colors change from one object to another, but it is inexcusable to see pixelation over a large area with uniform color. How is that possible, you ask? Well, these cameras can't generate a pixel with uniform color throughout the entire pixel, and while one side of the pixel is one shade of a color, the other side is of different shade. This causes a grid-like pattern on large areas of the same color. Another issue I observed with these cameras was that my black couch had a yellowish outline. There is something obviously wrong with these cameras' pixels, and when it comes to capturing a crime on one's surveillance system, these cameras are not up to the task.

Since I already have a recorder, I did not bother testing the one in this package. I left it in its bag and sent the complete system back. Too bad, because I was excited to replace my old CMOS cameras with these and use the DVR as a backup recorder. I guess I'll need to spend a bit more for a more competent system.

BTW, I notice the remote control and the mouse included in this package differed from the ones pictured. Although the remote in the picture seemed basic and cheap, unbelievably the included remote was even cheaper. The mouse seemed of the same caliber as the one pictured.

Camera show appear to be less quality CMOS not listed CCD, have asked but no response as of date.

Big difference

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Saturday, May 31, 2014

Securityman ClearCam Wi-Fi Interference-Free Mini Wireless Color Camera Kit with Audio

Securityman ClearCam Wi-Fi Interference-Free Mini Wireless Color Camera Kit with AudioNormally video cameras have automatic gain control that turns up the sensitivity in low light. This camera does the opposite. In any light lower than bright office light it produces very dark and noisy pictures. In fact, instead of turning up the gain in low light it turns it down. I pointed it at a slightly dark area and then slid in a white piece of paper to see how the extra bright area affected the rest of the picture. A normal camera will reduce the gain when a bright object in introduced into the scene. In this case the background should have gotten darker when the white paper was put in the scene. But, it got brighter! It turns up the gain when the light level goes up! Either this camera was defective or it has a serious design flaw. In any case I'm returning it for a refund.

I couldn't really see how this cam works, because I dropped it from about 2 feet and it stopped working properly.

Be careful, this thing is fragile..too fragile I might say. Despite my general knowledge about electronics, I couldn't bring it back on line.Something went wrong with the ccd. From what i got to see, the angle of view is narrow, about 60 degrees.Receiver works ok.I guess for the money (around $50) seems like an ok product.

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Saturday, May 17, 2014

Sandisk 2GB Compactflash Card Type I (SDCFB-2048-A10, Retail Package)

Sandisk 2GB Compactflash Card Type IHow many pictures will it store? It is the most commonly asked question from digital camera enthusiast but usually the question that is the most difficult to get a straight answer about. Well, considering I worked in the memory industry for over 7 years I can help clarify this perplexing question and do so unbiased as I have since changed industries.

The Sandisk 2GB Compactflash Card Type I, like most 2000MB cards, will store on average 2275 pictures when used with a 2 megapixel camera, 1706 images when used with a 3 megapixel camera, 1024 pictures when used with a 4 megapixel camera, 819 images when used with a 5 megapixel camera, and 640 pictures when used with a 6 megapixel camera. These numbers are based off the assumption that you are going to shoot your images at the highest quality JPEG setting available for the camera and understand that they are estimates and may be off by as much as 10 percent due to numerous factors including the complexity of the scene being shot and the compression algorithm used by your specific camera.

One last thing to consider when buying a 2000MB card. Do not necessarily choose the least expensive card available. A 2000MB card should be an investment. You need to consider quality, reliability, and speed with a card of this capacity. Worse case scenario would be you taking this card (and only this card) on vacation with you overseas and for some reason it gets corrupted. Then what do you do? Purchasing a high capacity card changes the game a little, just be mindful of that before you hit the buy button.

I truly hope this review was helpful to you in determining whether this card is the right capacity for your specific needs.

I have been using 3 128mb, 1 -256mb, and 1 -8mb card with my 2.1 megapixel camera. That got me about 648 photos which has been great for vacations, etc. With the purchase of a new 7 megapixel camera, I found that my photo storage dropped to about 202 photos which was definitely not enough. With the 2gb card, I can take a minimum of 650 photos without changing cards. With my existing cards, that totals at about 850 photos. That number goes up if I use my macro or supermacro settings (they drop the image size to the medium setting). I have had no problems with any of my compact flash cards (all of them being sandisk), all have worked consistently and without issue.

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I purchased this card to use with my EOS Digital Rebel XTi (a/k/a EOS 400D). It works great and records images with great speed. Additionally, you cannot beat the price that Amazon offers it for.

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I own three different digital cameras and I use the Sandisk 2GB flash cards in all of them. I have had no problems and I never come close to using all the space. I have several other Sandisk products and have never had an issue with any of them.

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sandisk is the old stand by brand name. What can I say but I got a great price.

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Monday, March 17, 2014

Hands Free Action Video Camera - Extreme Sports High Def Digital Camera

Hands Free Action Video Camera - Extreme Sports High Def Digital CameraThis isn't an awesome camera, but for the price, it is a good camera. I use it on my bike and and boat. The quality of the video is ok and it is easy to operate.

My main complaints are:

The battery last less than 2 hours and the only option is to charge it with a cable. The batteries can't be changed.

The memory card can become unseated easily when installing and removing the waterproof cap.

The instructions for setting up the camera are poorly written and the interface is unintuitive.

Still, I gave the camera 4 stars because it works as advertised and it is so inexpensive.

I got this as I wanted a pov camera with ir/night vision for ghost hunting..... I got this and tried it out only to be very disappointed

1) there is no way to swap battery so after the battery would die it had to charge instead of being able to put in another battery like some cameras

2) the night vision mode is not truly ir/ night vision. Yes it does have a couple ir lights but it still leaves a few white led lights on as well. Thus it would actually light up the room ..... Not what I need and not truly night vision

Needless to say I shipped this back within a day

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Sunday, March 16, 2014

Samsung T139 Prepaid Phone (T-Mobile)

Samsung T139 Prepaid PhoneI got this phone for 4 bucks from Tmobile when they ran the special that comes with a free $ gift card. $ total). Obviously I have no complaints about the price. It's an ok phone. Nice size buttons and they are raised so you don't have to use your finger nail to punch in a number. Fairly decent display but only 3 or 4 wallpapers which are not so hot. Sound could be better but I'm still testing. Sound is the most important thing to me. But, since it has a camera, I began taking lots of pictures. Then I bought a data cable to transfer them all over to the PC. Turns out, this phone does not support data cable transfer even though Tmobile and Samsung and a bazillion merchants on the internet sell a data cable for this phone. Pretty crappy arrangement for a camera phone (not to mention costly). Without data transfer, it costs you 25 cents per picture to email it to yourself in order to get it on your computer. Just so you know the score and don't spend days (as I did) trying to get this matter straightened out with the seller, Tmobile and Samsung. The data cable that they sell for this model only functions as a charger, not data transfer.

Pros:

-Cheap-got at BB on sale for 20

-Good size keys for texting

-Small, lightweight

-Can sync contacts from T-mobile site

Cons:

-Old school graphics, fuzzy, and colors not bright

-Can't connect to your PC (when will Samsung get it and start using USB connection?)

-Camera is only 640x480.

The biggest drawback of this phone is that you have to "send" any pictures you take because there is no ability to connect to your computer. The phone advertises bluetooth but it is useless, except for using a headset but I don't use one...other reviewers have mentioned problems in general with the bluetooth. Texting options are limited and inconvenient for symbols, caps, etc. but I don't text much myself so that isn't a problem for me. Reviewers have complained about the phonebook not being easily accessible but all you have to do is push on the "down" part of the circular function area and it comes right up. The "up" button brings up your call records so you can quickly call any entry there. Only two steps to send a text message...press the center OK button and then "send message", couldn't be easier so I don't know why people are complaining that you have to go through multiple steps to get to these basic functions (some Cnet reviews). Even though the buttons aren't customizable, what else would you want to use these for other than phonebook and sending a text msg? Anyway, all in all for the price I paid, I'm happy with it.

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I have had this phone for a very long time, probably 3 years already it it has served me well. The reason I am writing a review is to clarify somethings that other people have said. First, you cannot compare this phone with a more advanced phone; it's only a flip phone, nothing else. This phone is really for people who only use it to call or text and the other things like the alarm which I used so the camera doesn't need to be superb and the screen resolution doesn't need to be clear either.

People have stated that this phone is flimsy but I can tell you, my phone has survived a great deal like drops but it's still intact. Some have said that the volume isn't very good but for me, it's loud enough, sometimes even too loud, then again, I'm not one of those people who blasts their music on their earphones.

Sometimes it does display low or no bars, but I have never dropped a call. I do wish that this phone was able to set the alarm to vibrate rather than just music so you won't disturb others when it goes off.

Overall, it's a good phone to keep around if you aren't into smartphones or texting because it provides the basics pretty well. The front screen displays the time which I use all the time. The battery lasts a long time, a week for me, if you don't use it too much for calling. It's a good little phone, great for a child who's given their first or second phone. Usually I don't write reviews but some comments I read were contrasting to my experience so I wanted to bring it up front.

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This is the worst phone I've ever had when it comes to signal strength. Dropped too many calls and always at one or two bars max. I put this one next to my old T309, I had one bar in this phone and two bars in the old one. Same network, same card, same place.

I would not recommend this phone even if you are looking for a basic phone as you'd probably find better ones out there. In short, DO NOT BUY.

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The phone was perfect for what I wanted it for (nothing but an occasional phone call or text), but after 6 months of light use the phone suddenly became unusable. In less than a 24 hour period, it began turning itself off and on and stopped making phone calls until finally the buttons completely locked on it rendering the phone unusable. It is now completely dead, in spite of the fully charged battery.

Unfortunately, giving zero stars is not an option in the ratings system here, but that is a fault of Amazon.

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Thursday, March 13, 2014

Wide Angle Lens 230 Degree 2.7" LCD Full Hd 1080p CAR DVR Camera Vehicle Hdmi F9

Wide Angle Lens 230 Degree 2.7' LCD Full Hd 1080p CAR DVR Camera Vehicle Hdmi F9
  • 100% brand new and high quality .
  • Wide Angel Lens 230°
  • G-Sensor Function
  • Display:2.7" LTPS TFT LCD
  • Port: USB 2.0/HDMI/TV OUT

Description was correct: it has 230 degree observation. When play back on PC it looks like a wide screen movie. Night time record is pretty good too. The only function should be added is ON/OFF for the microphone... it's ON at all time-that's why only 4 stars.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Transcend 8GB T.sonic MP3 Player 330 series (Pink)

Transcend 8GB T.sonic MP3 Player 330 series
  • Transcend MP330 digital music player
  • Supports MP3, WMA, WAV files
  • Pink edition
  • Includes functions like FM radio, line-in recording, voice recorder
  • Sports clip for hands-free convenience

Picked up this unit for a lady friend. Its small & easy to load with music in WMA, MP3, or WAV format, and also includes an FM radio with 20 presets, a voice recorder function, and it can also serve as a thumb drive. You can drag & drop you music onto the device, or you can use Windows Media Player/iTunes to import your songs. The white, backlit, OLED display is crisp and easy to read. Battery life is estimated at 12 hours, and it recharges from any USB port. The package includes headphones, a belt clip, lanyard, and instruction guide. Controls are straight-forward and easy to operate. My only complaint with the unit is I never could get it to load a playlist, even following Transcend's instructions. Most mp3 players automatically import the playlist to the device during a sync. This required some convoluted method of saving the playlist to the device with a specific file name, then importing it into one of the 10 available generically named playlists. Unfortunately it doesn't work. If you are cool with "shuffle all" it is great.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Sony MVCCD400 CD Mavica 4MP Digital Camera w/3x Optical Zoom

Sony MVCCD400 CD Mavica 4MP Digital Camera w/3x Optical ZoomThe MVC-CD400 is a new model of Sony's established mini-CD burning cameras, along with the MVC-CD250, replacing the CD200 and CD300 models. So why would Sony need to upgrade anything you ask? I was actually asking myself the same thing at first. I was getting ready to drop down the money for a CD300 model when I heard a new design was coming out, so I started doing some research. I found that Sony has done a nice job of directly addressing many of the failings of the CD300/CD200 units, and added some especially nice touches to boot!

The most noticeable change up front is that the built-in flash unit has moved from the upper right side of the unit to right over the barrel. This helps with avoiding shadow effects when taking up-close shots.

Additionally, they have addressed the single most commented-upon flaw of the 200/300 series: Viewing the LCD screen in bright sunlit conditions. They have added a clear 'strip' along the top of the LCD panel that allows ambient light to help back-light the LCD screen, and the results are frankly good, making the LCD significant more usable in all lighting conditions without having to buy the 'viewfinder attachment' that Sony sells for the Mavica CD model cameras.

The third significant change is the addition of a standard flash adapter, allowing one to use external flash units with this camera for better lighting when needed. It is important to note apparently it is critical to make sure you use a normal low voltage external flash instead of a studio-quality high-voltage unit, as this may damage the camera!

Like it's previous generation brothers, the CD400 includes a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens for high quality (professional?) photography without the distortions you may sometimes find in the 'corners' of shots taken through some lower quality digital cameras. It also upgrades the CCD from 3.3 megapixels to 4.0 or so, which means even more detail can be captured for folks who are interested in capturing everything possible.

The other unique addition is Sony's Hologram AF system, which uses a laser emitting diode to put a crosshatch pattern on your target prior to snapping the shot, letting the autofocus get better accuracy when dealing with situations that sometimes confuse traditional autofocus routines.

Sony's batteries also are decent, giving a typical user 2+ hours of uninterrupted shooting before needing replacement, and then recharging in ~45 minutes.

And of course the mail selling feature for most folks, myself included the photos are saved on mini-CDs, rather than one of the various memory stick/card units. Mini-CDs are dirt cheap per MB compared to memory sticks, and typically store ~150-200MB worth of photos, depending on make. Sony of course recommends you use only their branded disks, but many folks are reporting no problems using other manufactured brands. Depending on CD used, this translates into ~10 photos at the absolute maximum resolution 2272x1704 at maximum quality (TIFF) through ~1300+ photos at 640x480 at standard quality (JPG).

As an added feature, you can record movies with audio with the camera also, though the image and sound quality are not comparable with a digital video camera so if video is your passion, go look for a video camera, not a digital still camera. Otherwise, this is a nice little bonus.

I had resisted the urge to purchase a digital camera for a long time, waiting both for the photo quality to start approaching that which could be found with 35mm cameras, and for the means to get the pictures into a usable format on the PC to become cheaper or easier. Mini-CDs work in nearly all modern CD drives on computers, and I have not run across one yet that failed to work, though I admittedly tend to have relatively modern equipment at home and work. (Nothing older than ~3 years old at least in terms of CD drives.) The MVC-CD400 is an answer to every criticism I've had about digital cameras for the last few years. I'm enjoying mine greatly!

ONE NOTE: Viewing 'unfinazlied' CDs on a Windows PC only works if you have DirectCD installed, which is an application that comes bundled with pretty much any CD burner on the market. 'Finalized' CDs are readable pretty much everywhere.

I've used this camera over the past several years and I remain a true believer of both it, and its updated 5MP version, which I also own. The expanse of capabilities and options with the camera allows for taking excellent pictures under nearly any conditions. The manual as well as the shutter and aperature priority imaging modes allow you complete control over the imaging process. I've taken pictures of everything including northern lights at 2 a.m., my cats in near complete darkness, portrait shots of subjects in dark rooms standing in front of bright windows, and they've all turned out wonderfully. For printing, I've used both my home printer, and a professional photo store, and prints up to 11x14 have turned out perfectly with no degredation at all.

Several recommendations if you buy this camera. Don't waste your money on Sony's cd-r disks. I've used verbatim, memorex and k-hypermedia cd-r with no problem. They're certainly much cheaper, and they all hold 185 MB while the Sony's only hold 156 MB. I would also suggest that you buy the Sony external flash for the camera. While the hot shoe will accept other brands of flash, I've been very impressed with the improvements to my pictures since buying the sony flash. I would also recommend buying a small (3-6") expandable tripod that will fit in any case. This allows you to set up longer exposure shots for dark environments, as well as for using the timer function on less than ideal surfaces.

If you're looking for huge storage (and archive) capabilities, excellent images, and complete control over your picture taking (minues the zoom limitations), then this is certainly the camera for you. Everyday I think it is worth the price I've paid, and with a new baby in the house when first purchased, being able to take several hundred pictures in the first few days and email the "best-of" off to the grandparents is certainly a plus.

Buy Sony MVCCD400 CD Mavica 4MP Digital Camera w/3x Optical Zoom Now

I am a professional radiographer and photographer (25 years now) and I used both the CD400, CD300, as well as a Nikon Coolpix for this year's field research season x-raying mummies in Peru. This means the cameras were pushed hard.....blowing sand, huge contrast ranges, high resolution radiographs needed, fast manual control of radical light conditions, etc.....essentially most of the tough conditions and imaging requirements you can imagine. Here's what I found:

The Sony Mavica CD300 beat them all. It's not the most expensive or the best resolution but we all thought it did the best job.

Mavica CD400: best resolution but extremely slow recording time made it impossible to work with most of the time....the CD300 often got 3-4 shots while the 400 was recording one.

Mavica CD300: not the best resolution, but now that I've done some prints for publication from it's highest res setting I will not be buying any more 400s....just not a significant enough difference, plus it's not as heavy or bulky.

Nikon Coolpix: not in the running by comparison with the Sonys....although it is more lightweight....we are buying mini CDs for 33 cents each in bulk... and getting 140-180 high res images per CD.....they are so easy to format, initialize, and copy on any CD burner that I can't believe we even considered using memory stiks, or USB downloads.

The best features are common to both the Sony Mavica CD300 and 400 series though.....manual control of the images, excellent close up abilities, decent wide angle (which can be enhanced with add-on lenses if necessary), and both rapid video and automatic functions with night focusing for flash, etc., etc.

Finally! There is a great digital camera.

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This is a great camera. With the CD in the camera all you have to do is take it out and pop it into the computer. No hooking up a docking station, no buying memory sticks that are tiny and easy to loose. I can use this camera and download to our computer with no help from my husband.

I am an avid scrapbooker and I have found that this camera has saved a fortune in developing pictures that I would have never used anyway. I love being able to decide weather or not I like the shot right away. No getting home from a Disney vacation and finding out everyone had their eyes closed in the great shot with Mickey. You can take several shots quickly and delete the ones that you don't like right there, and on to the next attraction. No more spending $16 to get double prints and a CD. You can take well over 100 pictures and decide from the camera what you like. Plus you have everything saved on a CD already. You can then take it to a developer and have what you want printed, or upload to Shutterfly and never have to worry about going back to the store for pick up.

This is the perfect camera for those of us who have wanted an upgraded camera with all the bells and whistles and could not, and didn't want to spend hours learding how to work everything. A quick read through the book and you are ready to go.

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I am an amateur photographer in Florida, and this camera gets incredible wildlife shots and adjusts to all light conditions with excellent color. Saving photos on CDs is SO much better than dealing with memory sticks that only hold a few photos, as I can get 170 shots on a CD at the HIGHEST RESOLTUION, and the CDs are cheap too. It comes with a CD adapter that lets you slip it into your CD drive, but frankly, the adapter is a pain as you have to put the CD in it JUST SO. I use the USB port it comes with instead, and it is much faster. The camera is a little bulkier than most, but it is so well designed, I don't care. The is the first camera I am in love with!