Right down the street from my favorite pho place, Gwartzman’s has been my go-to place for art supplies for quite a few years now. It’s a bit of a hole-in-the-wall, but they offer good breadth of products and friendly service.

They have sketching, painting and crafting supplies. I was just able to get a huge roll of paper to use as a photo backdrop for only $10. Great prices on artpads and art paper books.

Digital Photography Review has posted their own sample pictures using the Nikon D90.

Also, note that DPReview.com has started doing lens reviews. They’re a good source of comparative information for lenses.

Sorry everyone, but the D90 post-whoring continues as I am evaluating this camera for my next purchase. I found a nice set of test shots at various ISO’s that I was interested in to compare it’s low light performance. They’re at Imaging Resource here.

After the Canon 50D announcement last night, Nikon is following it up tonight with an announcement of their own. The new Nikon D90 features a new 12.3 MP sensor, a high resolution 3.0-inch screen like the D3 and live view. What is unique is that this camera can take both standard definition and high definition VIDEO - a first for an SLR.

I want one.

dpreview has a preview.
USA Today has an article.

One of the “best” netbooks out there is the Asus Eee, it was one of the first to market and now has expanded their netbook lineup significantly. It all started with the Eee 2G and 4G models. Priced at $299 and $399, these were “notebook alternatives” that featured a small size, but lacked processing power and features to effectively run Windows XP.

That’s all changed now, the new 90x and 1000x models feature 9″ and 10″ screens, new processors, more ram and much higher price tags. The top end 1000H model has a 10.2″ screen, better processor and memory but costs $713 at Canada Computers.

The problem is, for that price tag, most people can get a full featured laptop for less. Dell right now is selling their Inspiron 1525 for $499! This includes a full Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB memory and a 160gb hard drive. You lack the portability of the Eee but gain a lot in being able to use it for real work.

The Eee PC’s have their place. They’re going to be used by people that want something portable and already have a full laptop at home. They’re great for traveling and using the internet for a few minutes, but if you want to do some serious surfing or working, you’re better off with a full computer.

If portability is key, spend a bit more and buy a used Macbook Air or Toshiba Portege.

A lot of my friends want to buy digital SLR’s. Many of them want to become more serious about photography and they think that one of the first things to do is to spend $600-700 and get a SLR instead of a compact camera.

While I agree that an SLR has the capability of producing better pictures, for most people to get what they want out of them, they’re going to need far more equipment than just the SLR body and the kit lens. The kit lenses usually barely allow for much improvement than a good compact camera. A good prime lens and a TTL flash are requirements for most people that want to get the most out of an SLR, and thus begins the slippery slope of needing more equipment than just the base camera kit.

Photography has a lot to do with lighting and composition. Admittedly, my composition is horrible and I have an expensive SLR camera (and prime lenses and TTL flashes) - this results in horrible pictures! Some people have naturally good composition like my friend Andrew who tagged along on a model shoot and got one of the best shots with a Canon SD200 or something like that. It was just a natural pose with existing lighting but it worked.

Good pictures cannot be taken when you don’t bring your camera. An SLR can be unweidly at times. Even when I’m a tourist sometimes i don’t want to lug my SLR and big lens around the city and recently I just left it on the hotel and went out. A compact camera usually can fit in your pocket!

There are some fine compact cameras like the Canon S5 and Canon G9 that have more features than a normal compact but still retain a fairly useable size. THe S5 is a “superzoom” and features a very long zoom and Image Stabilization. It also has a flash hotshoe like an SLR. The G9 loses some of the zoom length but is a much more compact package. In it’s most recent version, the lens retracts completely into the body for easier carry.

So while an SLR has many features and benefits that provide the ability to take great pictures, don’t underestimate the advantages of having a good compact. When your skills take you to the level where you begin to hit the limits of a compact, then you can consider trading up and be assured you’re getting some value for spending over $1000 on camera equipment.

Global Pro GP-14 Cook's Knife

I’ve posted previously about my favorite knives - Globals. However, there is a line of knives made by Global that is only available for the domestic Japan market called “Global-Pro“.

I had a friend send me one from Japan and it’s a beautiful knife. The blade comes to an extraordinary sharpness at the tip, shown off by a very shallow bezel before the knife edge. It’s something you have to see to appreciate.

Unfortunately, the blade selection is quite small. Only French chef style knives are represented, along with some utility knives and sushi/sashimi knives. A santoku is glaringly omitted.

I keep waiting for these knives to be made available domestically but it doesn’t look like it will happen soon. If you want to “upgrade” your Global set, go for the “GF” series of forged Global knives.

Samsung was first to market with the large-screen 81-series LCD TV’s which featured an LED backlight instead of the normal CCFL. LED backlights have invaded laptop screens and offer bright, uniform backlights that are impossible with CCFL.

Now their second generation of LED backlight TV’s are out, the 950 series. Engadget lists features “feature 4-millisecond response times, down-firing speakers with a built-in subbie, an integrated NTSC / ATSC / ClearQAM tuner, four HDMI-CEC ports, a PC input, Ethernet socket and a pair of component jacks.”

Sony also announced LED backlights on their XBR8 models.

Now we have to wait for Sharp’s announcement.

In my previous post about the F-series car decks, I recommend not to buy them because of the numerous bugs being reported by users and even videos of it on Youtube.

Pioneer has responded by releasing new firmware for the models that hopefully will improve them. Specifically they address:

Pioneer has become aware that users of the AVIC-F90BT, AVIC-F900BT, and AVIC-F700BT may experience issues with one or more of the following: navigation voice guidance sound quality and reading of guidance information; brightness of display screen; Bluetooth sound quality and hands-free calling; parking brake warning; cataloguing time for voice recognition of iPod content; song order within an album for iPod content; playing of MP3 music files for USB content; volume control for USB and SD content; and, Spanish and French mode operation with an iPod and with navigation voice guidance.

With the new Pwnage tool you can jailbreak and unlock your iPhone. However you can only jailbreak your iPhone 3G. Grey market owners rejoice!

The blog has an update of available mirrors.