Photography

I'm often asked for recommendations on what headphones to use with an iPod or other portable media device. Recently, there's been a trend towards questions about "traditional" headphones from people wanting to listen to their iPods at home or in the office. So how do we choose a traditional headphone that's comfortable, offers good sound quality, and won't break the bank? Here are factors to keep in mind.

Like a full moon on February 29th, there are some dynamic events that coincide with one another and produce some very compelling results. An example of which is the Las Vegas Photo Marketing Association expo in January, Germany's Photokina in September, followed closely by Photo Plus a few weeks ago here in Manhattan; these three events combined have been the platform for the release of a broad range of lenses of into the wild to the benefit of us photographers. So let's warm up the old ‘way-back machine' and take a look at the most interesting lenses of 2008 beginning alphabetically with Canon.

The Un-Rebels

Quick. Name a very cool camera that looks like a Holga, takes Holga-style pictures, and comes in colors. Stumped? How about a color Holga? Designed to capture 'artsy-type' pictures with dark fuzzy edges, these modern classics are now available in Blooze Brothers, Violet, Sunset Boulevard, Oscar, Twilight Zone, Pretty in Pink, Yellow Brick Road, Jawz, Casablanco, and Commando. Aside from their retro design, they also shoot a retro media – film*.

Morovision's MONOCAM adapter is a simple, yet ingenious, device that merges the immediacy and simplicity of digital photography with the covert surveillance capabilities of night vision technology. The MONOCAM is designed exclusively for the Olympus 1030 SW digital camera, and its tension-set clamp will accept a PVS-14 or an MV-14 night vision monocular. The MONOCAM concept is remarkably simple: it can be assembled, powered-up, and fully operational in seconds. Because the MONOCAM system relies upon the photographic genius of the Olympus 1030 SW, you don't have to be Ansel Adams to make the shot – all you have to do is point and shoot.

The MONOCAM set-up we received for review included a premium ITT NEPVS-14 night vision monocular. This state-of-the-art nighttime optic features a 3rd generation ITT "Pinnacle" intensifier tube rated at 64 lp/mm, manual gain control, an integral infrared illuminator, and it operates on a single "AA" battery.

Digital photography has forced professionals to rethink archiving of work. Physical negatives have transformed into digital files, which are only as stable as the media on which they are stored.

Hard disks are extremely delicate pieces of technology: a magnetic storage disc read by a mechanism that under normal circumstances never physically comes in contact with the platter. Problems arise when conditions are not normal; if the reading mechanism touches the platter… well, kiss the data goodbye. Computer hard disks are more reliable than they were a decade ago, but disk failure is still a fact of life.

So, it's not a matter of if a hard disk will fail; it's a matter of when a disk will fail. Armed with this knowledge, it's imperative that photographers implement a solid backup scheme for digital images. This article is going to cover one way of protecting data – RAID 1 storage.

Western Digital 1TB External Hard Drive

It is no wonder that bird watching is amongst America's fastest-growing leisure activities. A recent US Fish & Wildlife Service survey claimed that more than 50 million Americans watch birds. After all, it is a healthy activity that lets you commune with nature and connect with fellow birders; it affords the occasional thrill of a rare observation, and you can do it anywhere. Besides, it's good for your conscience: supporting birding is supporting environmental conservation, for all the bigger sport optics firms contribute to environmental organizations (it is in their best interests).

As digital photography reached all American households, with everyone of every age owning a point and shoot digital camera or three, photographing birds via 'digi-scoping' also blossomed immensely. The two go hand in hand.

Once you buy the basics, birding has practically no recurring costs. Bird watchers need binoculars, first and foremost, along with a hat to shade your eyes without inhibiting the use of the binoculars. Most birders also carry a journal and pen to record observations, and a field guide to learn the birds.

A handy pocket-sized (4.6 x 7") weather-proof journal we carry is the Rite in the Rain Journal Spiral Notebook , which goes hand-in-hand with the Rite in the Rain All-Weather Pen. For making positive 'id's in the field, we carry the Penguin Book of North American Birds, which has illustrations of over 600 native species and a special listing of 100 rare finds.