ken zirkel

I can say that the Wintec G-Rays WBT-201 has worked with my iMac and MacBook Air, reliably and consistently, for over a year. It claims to operate for up to 8 hours, and I think that’s about right. I sync the .gpx file with my Mac using the free Houdah GPS software. Here are some [...]

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The basic idea is that any GPS logger that exports a .gpx file can be used with any digital camera. Assuming the clock on your camera is correct, during post-production you sync the .gpx data file with your photos using Lightroom or other software. Your location data is matched to your photo based on time [...]

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Someone on Flickr noticed that I uploaded some photos using the Sigma 50-200mm f4-5.6 DC OS HSM lens, and asked me what I thought about it. I always find it so hard to answer these kinds of questions. Obviously, a $160 lens is not going to be as sharp as an “L” lens, or as [...]

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People are always asking me what kind of point-and-shoot camera should they get. They want the best! So, I immediately start thinking of some great cams in the US$400 and up range. Then they come back with, oh, it has to be under US$150. Um, right. So, here are the standard links I send folks [...]

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Because I’m completely crazy, and because I have kids, and because I enjoy paddling sports, I was attracted to the idea of getting one of the new underwater cameras. I love my Panasonic DMC-LX3, and the Panasonic DMC-TS1 just came out, and seemed to be getting better reviews than the Olympus, so I bought a [...]

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Every time a new camera model is announced, people flood the online photo discussion boards, wondering, “once the new model comes out, the price of the old model will plummet, right?” My sense from watching these things has been that this is rarely the case. However, I didn’t have any empirical evidence to back this [...]

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I used to own a Widelux panoramic camera. I bought one in the early 1990′s, then sold it when I got a digital camera (and, truth be told, I was unemployed and needed the money). I don’t really miss it much; scanning the film was such a pain, and you can of course approximate the [...]

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I was looking for a lightweight tripod for travel, something that would fit in a suitcase and be reasonably compact and light to carry, but still be sturdy and usable enough to support a DSLR with 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. For quite some time I’ve owned a Manfrotto 3021PRO, which is an inexpensive aluminum tripod and [...]

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I ordered my Russian-made Zenitar 16mm fisheye lens on 4/22/08 from www.rugift.com. I received it 6/10/08. That’s about six weeks. I didn’t quite realize it was actually shipping from Russia (to the Eastern US). Apparently there were some problems with Customs; the lens got returned to the facotry and had to be re-shipped. (why? doesn’t [...]

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If you have Bridge and Photoshop CS3, why would you want Lightroom? Lightroom is a complete workflow solution. You can do everything from assign metadata on import to process your photos to manage your printing. Lightroom does everything Bridge does, but easier. Lightroom does a lot of things bridge does not: 1. manage your printing. [...]

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