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December 06, 2007
[DECK THE HALLS WITH PHOTO GADGETS]
BUYING PRESENTS FOR THE KEEN DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHER is easy because there are some relatively inexpensive doodads of which you can never have too many. One being memory cards.
The price of memory has fallen so low in recent times that there is no excuse for your beloved to continue to make do with a miserable 32mb card that will hold only a few snaps. 2GB SD cards cost around $35 and 2GB CF cards are just a little dearer at about $50. (These are typical prices from advertisements in this paper.)
While on the subject of memory cards, if the loved one is
still downloading image files direct from the camera to PC then it is time for a memory card reader. There are two types – the universal that will read all types, and the dedicated that will read only one type. Card readers plug into a USB port and appear on the computer as an additional drive. The Sandisk Extreme USB 2.0 Reader has two slots to support CF , SD, and Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo. It plugs and plays with no external AC power. (RRP$49)
If the loved one has been really good this year Santa might consider a couple of useful software packages.
Last month Adobe released the latest version of Photoshop Elements, version 6, for Windows – not yet for the Mac. Elements just keeps getting better and now copes with just about every photo editing requirement. There is a vast price difference between Photoshop CS3 and Elements 6 which makes the smaller version a real bargain. (RRP $155)
This year we have got a big kick out of making slide shows for playback from a DVD player onto TV. Memories on TV is our slideshow creator of choice and can be downloaded from www.codejam.com for US $80. This is the Pro version that will make high definition slideshows to run on the super dooper plasma TV that Santa is putting under the tree.
A magazine subscription is the sort of gift that keeps on giving and any serious photographer would get a lot of information and inspiration from Photo Review A
ustralia. This quarterly magazine costs $35 for one year and who knows, you may be the lucky subscriber who wins the camera offered as an inducement. (www.photoreview.com.au)
Speaking of inspirations, the most inspiring photographic book to come our way this year is Alfred Gregory’s “Photographs from Everest to Africa” (Penguin). At $100 it is not cheap, but it is magnificent. Gregory was the official photographer on the Hilary ascent of Everest in 1953 and took the photographs that provided the world with its mental image of the triumphant climb. He went on to travel the world, taking photographs for Kodak, using their cameras and film. He now lives in Melbourne and Penguin Australia 
have done him proud with this volume of his collected work.
If you’re shopping for gifts for an owner of a digital single lens reflex camera then there are many useful gadgets to choose from. A polarising filter to fit the camera’s kit lens will gladden the digital snapper’s heart. Specialist camera shops carry circular (that must be specified) polarisers in various diameters for different lenses and, believe it or not, the price is directly related to the size. A 67mm Hoya Standard CP filter for a Nikon lens, for instance, will cost about $54 depending on where you buy it. We have found www.photobuff.com.au in Melbourne a good place for buying on line for rapid delivery by post.
One of the most useful gadgets in our bag is our cable release. We have the wired release for a Nikon and that costs about $50. We wouldn’t be without it. The natty little wireless unit for the same camera costs $29.
Our other indispensable gadget is the Giottos Rocket – a weirdly shaped and bizarrely named air blower that is the 
ideal thing for getting rid of pesky dust specks on the DSLR sensor. These days a lot of cameras have automatic dust removal from the sensor, either at start up or shut down, but there are still some cameras around that are plagued by dust getting into the space between the lens and sensor. The best way to get rid of the picture-spoiling dust bunnies is with a blower and the Rocket is the best. It has a big bulb, so you get a good blast of air. It comes in three sizes and we reckon the bigger the better. We bought our Large Rocket on-line from www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au for $20.
Finally, one of the discoveries that a serious digi-snapper makes very quickly is that there is never enough hard drive space to store the image files. The solution to the problem of too many pictures and not enough storage space is an external hard drive and the good news is that they keep dropping in price until now you can add an 80GB external drive for about $110. Look in the advertisements in this paper for the brands, capacities and prices. Most of them plug into USB 2 ports and some connect through Firewire.
Have a snappy Christmas.
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Posted by terry at December 6, 2007 01:36 AM
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