31 posts tagged “photography”
Photojojo Bottle Cap Tripod
Tripod Mount
Link: Photojo
Faithful listener Mike Gunn from San Francisco (who last suggested the GE 911 Emergency Light Switch in Episode 758) has suggested another gadget to Dick, the Bottle Cap Tripod from Photojojo. It is screwed on to the tripod mount on the camera, and has a cap that fits over a bottle cap. The bottle of water or drink acts as the "tripod" itself, or monopod if you like. It pivots up to 15 degrees in any direction.
Dick and Leo talk about Soupy Sales and how he informed Leo's own sense of humour. There's a Soupy Sales on Twitter, although no one is quite sure if Dick and Leo are not sure that's the real one. Always irreverent, Sales once asked children to get those "funny green pieces of paper with pictures of US Presidents" and mail them to him, which got him into quite a controversy.
Gadget Repatriation
Leo is off to China soon, and Dick reckons Leo can get a whole case of Bottle Cap Tripods for $10. Leo finds it funny that he will be repatriating a whole lot of gadgets like the iPod back to China, where they were made. Dick doesn't travel outside the US any more. He's done it all with Bill Gaines, including travelling to Hong Kong.
A Guest Appearance
After Amber MacArthur (Episode 77) and Henry Laporte (Episode 252), Dane Golden is the third guest to appear on the Daily Giz Wiz, playing the voice of White Fang.
Old Clothes
Dick reminds Leo to take his old clothes with him when he travels to China. This is a reference, often made in older episodes, to Dick's old habit of travelling with his old clothes and leaving them behind at the end of the trip. Go back to Episode 61 for Dick's first mention of this habit, which generated a lot of empathy from the audience.
It's A Brand New Generation
David Sanders from Fort Wayne complains about the decades of therapy bills he'll have to pay for his young children who, having been subjected to the Daily Giz Wiz in the car, may have been irreparably harmed. Now, as the children get ready for school in the morning, his 5-year-old starts singing "It's a brand new day, it's a brand new week, it's a brand new Daily Giz Wiz ...", while the 8- and 10-year-old complete the jingle. David needs a jingle eraser gadget, or else Leo should employ a younger generation of Jingle Singers.
Canon EF 2x II Extender
Lens Extender
Link: Canon USA
Mac Mini Home Theatre
Leo has a number of gadgets planned for future TTTTs. He's going to use a Mac Mini to build a home theatre, and will need a lot of accessories, such as a Zephyr cable channel changer and an HDMI over Ethernet video balun or a Belkin Flywire. And then there's always the Wild Divine Biofeedback system which is still eluding Leo.
Festive Letters Jingle
It's only April, but never too early for the Festive Letters Jingle.
Butter and Eggs Racket
Michael Hopkins from Hermitage, Tennessee, who in Episode 292 thought the Toothpick Bird smelled like a one month old salami, now has a podcast called "Take On The Titans". Dick and Leo have been talking about Petaluma's Butter and Eggs Day, but "butter and eggs" used to have other meanings, according to the Chicago Tribune, a numbers racket in the 30's and 40's, and before that a yokel ready to be separated from his money.
For more on eggs, read the Chicago Tribune's article "10 Things You Might Not Know About Eggs".
Listen to Episode 807
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eBay Rehabilitated
Clarifi
iPhone Case with Magnifying Lens
Link: Griffin Technology
One of the problems with the iPhone (Episode 352) camera is it doesn't focus very well at objects at short distances, especially text. Griffin Technology's Clarifi iPhone case, made of polycarbonate, solves this problem by having a magnifying lens over the camera lens to help you take a close-up or macro snapshot. Now Leo can use his iPhone to get Evernote, one of his favourite iPhone apps, to transcribe the text for him.
Butter And Eggs Day Parade
Dick and Leo have a plan for a new parade unit for what Dick calls the Fowl and Lard Day of Petaluma, which takes place on Saturday 25 April. This year's theme is "Recycle, Reuse, Remember". They're going to have Leo doing the Tech Guy radio show on a rickshaw being pulled by Dane Golden. And they're going to have "success" written all over the rickshaw.
A Giant Mouse Pad
Alessandro Abate writes in to recommend the PlayMat. While it is a mat for playing card games on, it doubles up as a mouse pad, big enough so that your mouse doesn't fall of the edge of the pad, about 19.5" x 15". Made by Ultra Pro, availabe at Amazon.
Never Give A Sucker An Even Break
Alessandro quotes writer/producer J Michael Straczynski's motto in his emails. Not "Never give a sucker an even break," as Dick suggests (the title of a W C Fields film). Nor "Cash up front," as Leo says. It's "Never Surrender Dreams". Rather like Joseph Campbell's "Follow your bliss."
Listen to Episode 797
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The Pod
Tripod Alternative
Link: thepod.ca
It comes in 3 sizes - for small cameras, bigger or DSLR cameras, and the largest for DSLR camera with big lenses. Each size comes in 2 models too, with a centre tripod mount, or off-centre tripod mount.
There is a sale on now, and Dick has asked the President Thom Pahmer to extend the sale period, to 18 April 2009.
A New Look for GizWizBiz
Dick's website has just had another facelift, and the Giz Wiz logo now has 3D effects. The original logo was done by Dennis Wunderlin, and the new 3D effect was done by Todd Bailey of 4m3d.com.
WTHII February '09
The "What the heck is it?" game for February ended on 15 March. Dick is not sure what the name of the product is, although it could be the "skullcap". It's a protective liner for kids to wear under their baseball caps - for those who don't want to wear helmets.
David Lara does not subscribe to satellite or cable, and gets over-the-air TV signals for his HDTV via a rabbit ears antenna, like Dick's in Episode 785. His father-in-law, despite his age, cannot comprehend how he can get TV over the air.
Mad Murders The Movies
Copies of it have arrived for Dane, autographed with a personal message: "To Dane, the soul of TWiT and the liver of the Daily Giz Wiz." You can get your copy at BuyMadStuff.
Images from the Space Station
Leo's ADD condition is getting worse. He was watching (and re-broadcasting) live images from the Space Station while recording the show.
Listen to Episode 793
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VIP Hybrid-8 SEG
Video Editing Machine
Link: biocomp
The Hybrid 8 SEG (Special Effects Generator) Video Duplicator from VIP (Video Interface Products) allowed the user to hook up 2 video cassette players as the inputs, to output to a 3rd video cassette recorder. You could edit your videos, and add special effects such as split screens and cross-fades. It even had a joystick-style wired remote control. You would end up with wires and cables all over the place. Not even Leo, who's always quick to click the BUY button online, wants to get it.
Dick spent thousands of dollars paying rent each month for the Gadget Warehouse and it's payback time. His warehouse contents are now worth hundreds of dollars ! Had Dick not made this long term investment, as Leo observes, we would all be much poorer in spirit now.
The Problem with Dick's Imagination
Dick's creative talent comes at a price. He can always imagine a need for a gadget which turns out to be another surplus to requirement. Hence the VIP Hybrid 8 and the accumulation at the Gadget Warehouse, which is in the process of downsizing.
Early Adopters
Gadget manufacturers count on the estimated 10,000 early adopters who want to be the first to try things out. They used to make an outlet such as Sharper Image or Hammacher Schlemmer the exclusive seller, say for the first 3 months, to maintain the price to allow manufacturers to recoup their costs, before releasing the products on wider distribution later (and when the price would start getting cut).
The GigaPan EPIC
Anthony Devito Junior, usually just Tony Devito, writes in to tell Dick and Leo about the Gigapan, and the GigaPan EPIC, a robotic camera mount for rotating and swivelling the camera sideways and up and down to take multiple pictures of a scene, to be stitched up in due course for making gigapixel panoramas, which you can then upload to the Gigapan website. The EPIC works with most point-and-shoot cameras (see list), and the EPIC 100 is coming soon which will fit larger point-and-shoots.
The GoldenPan
Dick doesn't have the Gigapan, but he has the George Foreman Gigapan frying pan with built-in memory. Leo is tempted by the GigaPan EPIC. He might use it for the Great Wall of China when he visits it in July this year. If Dick had the GigaPan, he would take a panorama of a railroad yard. However, Dick wouldn't be getting it, as he has something better - Dane Golden on a swivelling chair.
It's Just Another Name
Dick has been making up names for Petaluma's Butter and Eggs Day, such as Butter and Margarine, Wine and Swill, Food And Drug Parade. The latest is Rum and Coca Cola Festival.
Kodak APS Cameras
Film Photography
The film cartridges manufactured by Kodak were marketed as Advantix Film. In January 2004, Kodak announced that it would stop selling APS cameras.
Polaroid at CES 2009
Speaking of old-timers, Polaroid announced a digital camera at CES, the Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Camera. It's a camera and a PoGo Printer (Episode 683) in one. Little is known about the specs of the camera itself (apart from the PoGo printer capability). It seems Polaroid is still hanging on to the idea of instant prints.
Getting Smug
Steve Miller thanks Dick and Leo (especially Leo) for introducing him to SmugMug to which he has moved from Flickr. Now he is putting his old pictures and slides on to SmugMug.
All Things Obama
Mad has just had its 3rd Obama cover out, while the previous two are selling on eBay. Leo has been invited to the inauguration ceremony for his campaign contribution, along with the rest of the public, and has been invited to buy all the official Obama merchandise.
Listen to Episode 745
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Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Full-Frame Digital SLR
Link: Canon
The biggest buzz of the 5D Mark II, for the time being, is its capability to shoot 1080p H.264 Quicktime HD video at 30 fps, up to a maximum file size of 4GB (usually about 12 minutes), with HDMI output - one up over the Nikon D90's 720p video capability. Automatic White Balance and Autofocus work during recording.
For sample videos, go to Canon's website for the Vincent Laforet video (scaled down resolution), or Digital Photography Review for full resolution short clips. For Leo's interview of Vincent Laforet, check out The Tech Guy Episode 495, starting at 1:39:58.
Slow Down
It took a trip to Vegas for CB to catch up with the Daily Giz Wiz. Slow down, says CB.
Listen to Episode 742
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Yashica KC600/Kyocera DR350
Early Digital Camera
Link: Business Wire on FindArticles.com
DGW fan Pablo recently (in Episode 722) heard about Dick's first digital camera (the Casio QV-10, Episode 15) and wanted to donate the Yashica KC600 to the Gadget Warehouse. He got it for $300 but had to pay $150 for a 6MB CF card.
CES Reports on Stickam
Dick intends to talk about CES on Stickam from his hotel room in Vegas. Follow him on Twitter and TWiT Army to get the details.
Apple Quicktake
Three years before the Yashica KC600 was the Apple QuickTake 100, same resolution, 1MB storage for eight 24-bit photos, cost $750.
Dick and Leo surmise that at this CES, they will see 64GB USB sticks.
Leo asks Dick, if he could choose any time to have been born in, what time would he choose. 8.30 pm, says Dick. Leo would like to be born as late as possible, because he wants to see what the future holds. Dick wants to have been born in 1900, but with all the gadgets he now has.
Radio Leo
Jeff Royal from Braunfels, Texas (who last wrote in Episode 563) heard the request by a listener for a single weekly download of DGW (Episode 730), and thinks that there should be a single weekly download of all of Leo's podcasts. Not quite, but Leo already has something like that, an RSS feed of all of Leo's podcasts, all under one roof, called Radio Leo.
Listen to Episode 740
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Black Rapid R-Strap
Camera Strap
Link: Black Rapid
Some models, like the latest RS-4, has pockets for storing flash cards. Leo has the RS-1 which has no pockets. When a photo opportunity presents itself, just glide the camera up along the strap. See the demo below from blackrapid.com:
Chris Whitpan thanks Leo for introducing him to Levenger products (Episode 677). He found a brick and mortar store selling Levenger in Boston, and it was a good day for the economy. Chris works for the California Pizza Kitchen, and offers to pick up the tab should Dick or Leo visit the CPK. Dick asks if the offer is one time only.
Leo finds out from Google, including LinkedIn, that Chris is Manager of CPK, Owner/Chef of Chris's Culinary Catering, Former owner of Kildare Irish Pub.
Listen to Episode 727
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