Slashdot Mirror

http://www.dpreview.com/

or

http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/

http://www.fredmiranda.com/ has a great Buy & Sell forum. Hundreds of items are sold on there every week, and the items are usually in excellent condition and a great bargain. I posted a message indicating I was looking for a specific lens and had it paid for through PayPal a few hours later. I received the lens and it was in immaculate condition, with the original box, warranty card--even receipt. I was not surprised to find I was the third owner. Photography people tend to take care of their equipment.

absolutely, i totally agree. prices are coming down on the equipment, and a lot of the educational material is freely available on the net. and to boot, many professional (and hobbyists capable of making professional results) photographers on the net are really nice to newcomers and very helpful.

i recently got myself a canon dslr, and have been frequently visiting http://www.fredmiranda.com/ and http://photography-on-the.net/, both excellent resources for people wanting to take their photographic skills to the next level.

wal-mart will definitely be shooting themselves repeatedly in the foot not wanting to develop pictures for a better equipped and possibly more educated generation.

I'm a Canon shooter, but for you Nikon people, here's some links to keep you updated:

Nikon D2X white balance encryption
Nikon saying you don't need Photoshop

There are other packages out there, as well, like Intellisharpen

Again, not that these things are killer apps for Digital Zoom as opposed to optical, buth they are damned good.

Large, fast flash cards like this are good for high-quality (no lossy compression) portable audio recording too.

Even at 24/96 stereo, live audio needs less than 600 KB/s sustained write speed. Recording in 3D Ambisonic surround takes only double that. This page claims that a CF-compatible Microdrive cartridge can write at over 4 MB/s, so it should have no problem with data rates typical of live audio capture.

You do still have a point about durability however.

Actually, I just bought one at $199. Here or here.

I will then replace it with my 512 cf card, and sell the now solid state player to a friend for $70 (even though I could sell that cf card for more on ebay). Not a bad deal. And I get a 4gb cf card out of it for $130. Seems like a steal to me.

Instructions, experiences, and photos here and here.

I know, I know, not freeware. Yet everyone seems to have a copy.

a creative pro article about correcting barrel distortion, and one at Fred Miranda.