Cameras Reviews

I have bought ink catridges elsewhere for a while now because Amazon does not offer free shipping on this product anymore...

I put three of these ink cartridges in my shopping cart and Amazon was going to charge me 29.94 for shipping/handling. Needless to say, I canceled.

Good ink. I have tried other inks that are available and many of these have dried out or damaged my printer head. Right now this is my prefered black ink for canon. Why on five stars? COST it is about twice the cost of other black inks. But a Good ink.

On the color side I have found that almost any color ink is OK... Does not dry out. I have a Canon MP 360.

After reading all about this lens I was excited about getting it, however I'm not so excited anymore. I was in denial when the pictures weren't coming out sharp. But that's it, the pictures just aren't sharp. Then I took a picture of a gopher in a grass field, with center (spot) focus dead nuts on the gopher and guess what? The grass about a foot behind the gopher is in perfect focus. Now I have to send the lens in for warranty work. Can you say "hassle". Right now I'm wishing I'd have bought the Canon 28-135 IS USM instead. The price is about the same, the focal length is better and the IS can get you into some of the same places the constant 2.8 apperature can (not all). Anyway, I'm very dissappointed.

I purchased this lens to replace the one that came on my Canon Digital Rebel. It is a marvelous replacement. I used it extensively on a recent trip to Canada and was very pleased with the quality of the pics. It is nice to be able to stop down to f2.8. It does very well in low light also. I would definitely buy this lens again.

I was skeptical about the rave reviews and have had mixed luck in getting sharp copies of Canon and Sigma lenses but decided to give Tamron a try. I tested the lens on both a full-frame 5D (comparing to my Canon 24-105mm L lens) and on a cropped-frame XT (comparing to my Canon 17-85mm IS lens). I was very pleasantly surprised that once stopped down a little, this Tamron lens is ultra-sharp and the focusing is right on for both near and far objects. As carefully as I tried, I could not manually focus this lens any more accurately (even in the bright viewfinder of the 5D) than the autofocus and in most cases my best manual focus attempt was much softer than autofocus. Not only is the lens sharp, it has the same eye-popping contrast that is sometimes found on the best L-lenses. Details in the image have a 3D quality not usually seen in "cheap" lenses.

Comparisons:

28mm:
The Tamron has usable sharpness wide open at f2.8 but gets super sharp in one stop down to f4 and slightly better by f5.6. It is just as sharp in the middle as my excellent Canon 24-105 when wide-open at f4 but not as sharp near the edges on the 5D. At f5.6 both lenses are essentially equal over the whole full-frame on the 5D. At 28mm on the XT the Tamron sharpness greatly exceeds the Canon 17-85 lens at f4.5, 5.6 and f8 over the whole frame. The Canon lens is not soft, but the Tamron is just eye-popping sharp.

50mm:
Sharpness of the Tamron at f2.8 is less than at 28mm but still usable on smaller prints (maybe 8x10). Sharpness increases greatly by f4 and is almost as sharp as the wide-open Canon 24-105. Again, at f5.6 both lenses are essentially equal over the whole full-frame of the 5D. Comparing to the Canon 17-85 on the XT, the Tamron is slightly sharper at f5.6 and gets sharper still at f8 over the whole cropped frame.

75mm:
Here the f2.8 is quite soft in my opinion (maybe ok for a 4x6) but gets much sharper at f4. At f4 the Canon 24-104 is still definitely sharper but gets only slightly sharper at f5.6 while the Tamron gets significantly sharper, almost matching the Canon L-lens. At f8, the Tamron equals (maybe a tad better) the Canon sharpness. My copy of the 17-85 is strongest at the long end. At 75mm f5.6 it matches the Tamron sharpness and contrast but does not improve as much by f8 where the Tamron sharpness pulls away.

Overall, the Tamron appears to be an outstanding lens for either full-frame or cropped-frame (if you don't need wide angle). It does not have IS but does have a usable and fast f2.8 at the wide end. It becomes very sharp by f4 for 28mm, by f5.6 for 50mm and by f8 for 75mm.

I suspect that the Tamron is similar or better in performance to the Canon 24-70 L which weighs twice as much and costs 3 times as much. The Tamron matches the 24-105 across a full-frame when both are stopped down a little. The Tamron is about the same size as the Canon 17-85mm lens, costs about $200 less, but seems to have superior optical qualities, especially at 28-50mm. It also provides the f2.8 option for increasing shutter speed to freeze motion. The 17-85 is much slower (f4 to f5.6) but gets wider and slightly longer and has IS for static scenes in low light. It's a tough choice which depends on the camera and intended usage.

Never did find more than the one photo of this Monopod on the Internet so thought I would upload some since it arrived here..

Time will tell of course, but it does seem sturdy and the locks are very tight to start with etc. The mini ball head, while not the quality of one costing what the whole monopod costs.. seems to be capable and holds my heavy DSLR with grip firmly.
Again, we'll see what some wear does to it and edit this then.

Update after some use..

Well, working very well and clamps are still nice and tight, socket and ball are also doing just fine.

I find that I'm not going to leave the monopod screwed in my battery grip while I walk to next shot etc. It seems to put extra pressure on the grip to camera mount that you don't want.
But this is nothing that this Canon product does that another will not however. No problem if the camera is setting on the monopod, but best not to hold horizontal etc.

It works fine, but the Canon S2 IS digital camera sometimes feels a little heavy for the monopod.

I gave this monopod to my boyfriend, as a gift, and it's been perfect for his use. He videotapes his kids's baseball and softball games, and was tired of holding the camcorder for so long. He didn't want to deal with a bulky tripod when he was getting up and down, so a monopod seemed like a great idea. He has LOVED it!! He says it keeps the camera very steady and it's very easy to change the height so he can use it sitting or standing. He's no professional, but he uses his camcorder a lot, and he'll be happily using the monopod for a long time!

Some blue stuff came off the glass when I try to clean it. What does this say about the quality?

I feel that these filters are not required if you have digital camera the coze you you can do what ever you like by computer graphics programs only the UV protector is important.

Excellent performance, at a reasonable price. Highly recomend this product.

I love this camera the first day I received it I took 3 rolls of film. It has been the best purchase I bought this year. I got a real good price on it and i received it fast!

it looks good takes great pics and the ease of use is good for a film camera

I bought this a year ago and have taken many great pictures with it. It's light, has many features and can be used as an automatic when all you want to do is point and click. I can't recommend it enough.

I'm using a SD700 IS, S400 and S100. If you just want additional range the HF-DC1 works, but it seems to have problems when the additional light is not needed -- It is unable to shut off quickly enough and so overexposes. The skimpy and vague manual says, "Set the intensity switch to [MIN], [MID] or [MAX]. Take a test shot before recording an actual image to find the most appropriate setting. This is cumbersome -- So much for spontaneity! I guess this is Canon's admission that the HF-DC1 only compensates for the camera's flash over a limited range.

The manual position on the other slide switch only seems to control whether or not it responds to other photographers flashes. When in manual, you need to hold down a button in order to enable it. That way it won't fire every time it sees a bright flash.

If Canon (and all the other makes) would stop trying to put everything into one small unit, they would have a better system. My 25 year old 35mm Minox was just as small as the SD700, but had a separate small flash (smaller than the camera size) that mounted on a hot shoe for those occasions when a flash is needed. When you leave home, you just stick the small flash in your pocket if you think you might need it -- None of this nonsense and problems with slave flashes.

I have Canon's G3 and Speedlight 420EX, so I know Canon knows what a bad compromise this system is. I guess it is the result of their market research.

The unit performs exceptionally well. It truly lights up subjects that are 20 to 25 feet away, well beyond the range of the flash built into the camera. It is also suitable for hand holding a foot or more from the camera and fires with the built-in camera flash so as to avoid the "flat lighting" normally expected with on camera flash pictures. I have no serious complaints. My only negative is that the so-called "manual flash" does not work as I expected it to. The instructions could be a bit better on this point. Overall performance I would rate a 5 out of 5.

You will really enjoy the use of the extra flash. My photos have turned out beautifully.

I bought it at a great price during Christmas break. Since then I have taken numerous pictures with it and it is just great. Works like a charm and no one can ever tell the difference if is home printed or shop printed photo :)

The second great thing about it is that it accepts all types of memory cards. So I usually take my Sony memorystick pro card out and insert it directly into the printer. All my photos show up instantly which I review on the small LCD screen before printing. It saves so much hassle of hooking up a computer or reviewing pictures on computer before printing.

Oh, it is very light and easy to take around.

It is a great little printer, I have enjoyed using it. It is convient and prints out real good pictures and it is small enough to take along with all your other camera equipment.

This is great! No computer needed, but can be connected with one little cord. Slide your media card in the slot, your pics come on the screen. Select the one you want, how you want it layed out on the paper and push print....that's all there is to it. So great, even my "electronically challenged" hubby can use this. Buy the ink and paper kit to go with it, and you can print 100 photos! The color is great and looks spectacular. No more pics sitting around in the computer or on the digital camera cards....no they're finally getting printed out.

I've had this camera replaced by Linksys 4 times. The first time, was due to the camera crashing on a weekly basis. The second replacement worked fine until I upgraded my router and switched from WEP to WPA. After the switch the camera would not connect to the router, switching back to WEP, of course worked. Linksys has replaced the camera 3 times for this issue, and with the last support call confirmed that there is a KNOWN problem with WPA encryption and this camera.

Set up was straightforward, only glitch is that the instructions do not explicitly suggest that the set up needs to be done with a hard wired ethernet cable to your router.
Cnet has a nice step by step tutorial on how to perform the set up (with movies nonetheless).

I will probably get a couple more to monitor each floor of the house.

If you don't know too much about computer network, it could be difficult. Been using little more than 3 month so far, no problem. Used D-Link, Hawking, Axis, and Panasonic, but based on my experience, linksys had more funtions that was availabe than any other camera, plus, image quality is good if set it as best quailty picture, with best pixel. (Default is not set as best). I was able to remotely access my camera from Korea, Camera was in U.S., had about 3 seconds of delay on still images, but 3 second is good enough with today's technology. I'm not using Sololink to remotely access my camera (since it requires membership). Currently using 6 cameras in my C-Store in U.S., and all are viewalble at the sametime remotely, without any chopping or losing frame actions. People could complain due to customer serivce issues, and installation issues, but if you check on Linksys Forum, other users are far knowlodgeble than customer service, and their response is faster than customer serivce. BTW, WPA is possible if you upgrade the factory firmware to european firmware version.

I bought this one after reading the bad reviews of the linksys and the Dlink. It is easy to setup initially for the wired network, then kinda tricky for the wireless and then watching over the internet. The key is to understand your wireless router as UpNp must be enabled, the firewall on your PC during setup must be off and on some routers, things are blocked still unless you have something other than the default password setup and remote management enabled.
Then everything works reasonably well, but only at max of 15 fps. Also no sound. The Dlink and linksys have audio support, so if they get patched, they will become the better buy. Although in my case, talking to the kids, I realized one way audio won't do much good. Even if their audio would come back to me in a faraway place-I have to be on a phone to talk back anyway! So I find the panasonic a good middle ground right now cause I have the kids put my Panasonic portable phone with speaker next to the camera and we are all set.

If you're a Mac user ignore the warnings that this netcam requires Windows and Internet Explorer. Nonsense! If you have ever set up a wireless router on your network (and if you are looking at at an 802.11 camera then you probably have) then you will have no problem with this. There are two less-than-obvious things you need to do to get working: 1) hardwire the camera via an Ethernet cable for the initial set up (camera default LAN IP is 192.168.0.253) and 2) download the 114-page PDF Operating Instructions from the Panasonic support page. Ignore the included CD-ROM.

I am using several Macs with OS X Tiger and Firefox and every single feature (there are so many!) works flawlessly. This includes the live video, free DDNS service, FTP uploads, IR motion triggers, etc, etc.

I am a little spoiled by the auto-focused quality of some Webcams like the iSight, so the Panasonic's image quality loses it a single Star rating. But this is a true Network cam that requires no computer once it is programmed, and that makes it very, very cool.

Can't say enough about this camera. No specialized software needed, so you can access and control this camera from any computer on the network (or on the internet if you configure it that way). Camera buffers images captured from its motion sensor trigger - which is extremely handy if you've ever experienced those cameras that just capture continuous footage, or those that save triggered footage to the computer only (so you have to be at that specific computer, meanwhile running resource draining software to have the feature work). I use the camera to provide me a log of who came through certain entrances, liked the first so much that I bought a second...

I bought this from Circuit City & I love it. The only complaint I have is the price. I would like to see it down around $50 and I hope somebody else comes up with the same device for cheaper. Now on to what I like . . .

For those of you who don't understand what this is, it actually has little to do with the Slingbox itself. What this device does is turn your entire house (and every electrical outlet) into a wired network with ethernet ports everywhere. You plug the device into an outlet in your computer room. You run an ethernet cable from your router to the device. That's step one.

Step 2: plug in the 2nd "bridge" device anywhere in the house. You've just turned your outlet into an ethernet port. Now all you do is run an ethernet cable from the device to whatever computer device you want (eg, laptop, desktop, ReplayTV, TiVo, Slingbox). I actually bought this device for my ReplayTV (a better version of TiVo) and it works great. Can't tell if it slows the connection speed yet, but will have to test the speeds later.

Troubleshooting: I did have one problem setting it up. It didn't work straight out of the box, but after resetting my cable modem, my router, and my computer once it all worked perfectly.

I use it with my Slingbox with a little bit different configuration (it is not what was described in the User's Manual): the Slingbox and one Slinglink are connected to my router. Another Slinglink is connected to the NIC port of my laptop. This configuration started to work right away when I turned everything on.

I think they could be used for LAN or Internet connection also (instead of the wireless network).

Really nice and easy. I have my slingbox far away from my Linksys wireless router. So I followed the instructions and it worked with no problems at all. I could have used a wireless router to connect but this way is so much easier to use. Perfect.