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Sandisk Ultra, Sandisk Extremes Apparently Popular

American-based Sandisk’s cards (and I’m going on a limb and guessing particularly the Ultra and Extreme III / Extreme IV series cards from them), seem to be quite popular among the readership over at Digital Photography School, with them snagging a notable majority after 2 weeks on the poll.

Survey Results Captured on July 22, 2009

Survey Results Captured on July 22, 2009

And, while it doesn’t hurt our feelings any to see Sandisk doing well, they’re a wonderful company, Roberts should point out these polls shouldn’t dissuade you from Kingston (my card of choice right now, actually), or Lexar (very popular among pro users). All three of those companies produce very reliable cards these days and should be considered equally.



A Touch for Summer

School is out for some and will be for almost everyone soon. Now comes the time of vacations, summer jobs, camping or leisure. Now is the time of the year for Nikon Digital Camera sales in Indianapolis! I am a big fan of the new Nilon S230 point and shoot digital camera. With five colors: Jet Black, Cool Blue, Plum, Warm Silver and Gloss Red you could have a Nikon Digital camera for any mood. But I’m not here to talk about color, I’m here to tell you about what this digital camera can do better than any of others that I’ve tried (and I’ve tried a lot of digital cameras out Indianapolis!). Heck, even Nikon has had a couple of other touch panel models themselves, but this camera is what I like to call a hybrid. No it won’t get you better milage on your way to Key West, it might get you better pictures quicker. I call it a hybrid because it still has some physical buttons on it as well as virtual touch panel controls. The two buttons on the back of the camera are “camera/video/scene” on top, and “playback” on the bottom. There is also a physical toggle zoom control under the shutter button on top. Having just these three controls makes this the fastest, easiest touch panel The physical zoom button instead of a virtual one speeds the procees of framing your shots immensely. Pressing the ‘camera’ button brings up a set of options: Auto Mode, Scene Mode, Smile Mode and Movie. Tapping one of these icons on the panel then brings up that settings mode or scene options in the case of the scene mode. Other options are right on the screen if you want them by touching DISP (display) to show or hide them. Pressing the play button ionce brings up your shots, pressing twice shows options to edit, copy or modify them or options to view by dates or just show your saved favorites. Fun, fast, easy sure sounds like summer to me. Want to hear the even better news? This week Roberts Distributors sin Indianapolis and Carmel are running Nikon’s Dads and Grads sale, and these honeys are $30.00 off their regular price. The fastes easiest Nikon Digital Touch Panel Camera is now (for a limited time) under $200. Add one of our Kingston or Sandisk flash memory SD or SDHC memory cards and you are ready to touch your way to albums full of awesome summer images!



Memory’s cheap, kid

I have a steal for you – for $149.97 (plus shipping) you get a Hitachi Microdrive equipped with a cyclopean 2 gigabytes of storage. That’s a basement price $.074 a megabyte.

Shudder.

I’m not kidding about having Microdrives lurking in our warehouse (I think I’ll start referring to them as the Great Old Ones), gathering dust (or inspiring early twentieth century horror). My E-410 will take a Microdrive, but even my chimp-heavy shooting habits beg for better than 2mb/sec transfer rate. And how could I excuse that, what with our steal price of $39.97 for 4gb Ducati CF cards and persistent rebates on Sandisk extreme III and IV cards. And we’ve just added a new family of what I think I’ll have to call candy SDHC cards from easystore (no caps, really).

The easystore SDHC line consists of 2, 4, and 8gb cards for 6.97, 9.97, and 19.97 respectively. That makes for a wallet-busting $.0035 a megabyte on the 2 and $.0025 a megabyte on the 4 and 8 gigabyte units. Ouch.

I understand that they’re rated as SDA2.0 class 2 devices. I figure that means unless you’re the proud owner of a D5000, D90, or Rebel T1i and keen on using that video function or you really like continuous drive -these cards are A-OK for throwing in the bag as a back-up. Or at your 75 year old grandmother who owns an AE-1 and a Kodak Easyshare so old it’s got pictures of your last two ex-girlfriends on it…not that I know anyone like that.



Mighty Micro Monster

I was playing with it just the other day. I was impressed by how far it it goes with just a few turns.  Lightweight, compact and might in reach the new Lumix 45-200 F4.0-5.6 Micro 4/3rds zoom lens from Panasonic is a beauty.  With its 90-400, 35mm standard equivalent focal length it really gets out there. When coupled with the Lumix G1 Panasonic Digital camera system the speed of focus is amazing, and since stabilization is built into the Panasonic digital SLR camera system, there is no extra charge for clear clean shake reduced images. This lens is a must have foe your Panasonic DMC-G1 and DMC-GH1 camera platforms, where else are you going to get a 400mm equivalent lens with stabilization and F5.6 gathering?
Lumix G Vario 45-200
Remember that the micro 4/3rds system works with the recently announced Olympus micro 4/3rds camera and offers an adapter for the regular 4/3rds cameras so you can use this lens on the entire Olympus Digital Camera platform too.  Also remember that Roberts has the best prices on digital camera SD cards in Indianapolis, so stock up on Sandisk or Kingston SDHC cards while you are here.



Sony Innovation

So if you are new to higher end Cameras, or have old incompatible manual SLR camera equipment you might be ready to step up to your first DSLR system. If you are ready but confused by all the choices, you might just buy what your neighbor bought, most likely a Nikon or Canon Digital SLR Camera. They are great cameras that’s why they trade the #1 and #2 spot all the time. Still I might suggest that you look at Olympus and Sony Digital Cameras before you “Just keep up with the Jones’”.   Olympus and Sony  are doing some amazing innovative stuff to get your attention, maybe you should look their way. I’m going to focus (no pun intended) on Sony for now.

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It’s in the Cards


Take it from me, a guy who plays a “little ” poker but doesn’t really like to gamble, there is nothing like having a sure thing.  It is reassuring know you are sitting pretty with the right cards.  When you have an almost unbeatable hand you can play without taking as many risks. It’s the same way when you are sure you have the right cards in your DSLR too.
Here at Roberts Imaging we carry a few different brands of Compact Flash Memory cards. Sony had their own line, so does Hoodman, then there’s
Kingston and Lexar Cards, add Sandisk and you have five players at the table. Let’s Play cards!

The straight flush in this deck is our close-out on Sandisk Extreme Ducati Edition Compact Flash 4 GB cards. These cards are UDMA enabled, come with a life-time warranty and a zippered card case, but the thing I like as much as any of that is the “full size” Rescue Pro CD that is included. As a lap-top computer user that only has a slot loading DVD/CD I could never use the mini-CD versions of Sandisk’s Rescue Pro software at home or on the road. Having that software on the laptop also adds peace of mind -like having 4 aces at the gaming table.  At only $39.97 while supplies last, I say no need to check, Ante up and double down!



Take Our Survey!

OK, so, because I’m something of a corporate maverick, I’m not going to use this post to try and make you buy any new Canon digital SLR cameras (though it won’t hurt my feelings any if you decide to anyway), nor will I be hocking Nikon flashes, Panasonic camcorders, not even Sandisk compact flash cards.

No sirree, I’m going to spend this post trying to convince you instead to take our 2009 survey. Wait! Don’t leave so fast! Give me five minutes to make my case?

OK, I’ll settle for one minute:

By taking your survey you’re helping us know exactly what we need to do to make our online site work better for you. This isn’t a formallity, we really really want to know. Seriously, I’m checking the feedback live as it comes in so we can get changes underway. So, really, this is for you. Oh, right, and we’ll knock $4 off your shipping charges on the next order you place with us if you help us out by taking the survey. So, please, spend a few minutes so that we can give you a year of better service:

Take Our Survey


Nikon Demo Weekend

We are upon the threshold of another big demo weekend. Friday and Saturday we should be hopping downtown. Saturday there will be extra Nikon experts in the store to help those with questions, suggestions and technical assistance. If you don’t get the Indianapolis Star newspaper you have probably not seen all the specials and deals we are running. Click the Visit Our Homepage now if you want to see some of our offerings. Roberts Imaging has specials on Nikon Binoculars, Nikon Lenses, Nikon Coolpix Cameras, and every current Nikon Digital SLR camera. We have a great supply of Nikon Flashes including the new SB-900. We are giving away a 2 year Nikon extended warranty and a Nikon case with every Nikon Coolpix Camera.  For you Interchangable lense shooters, Roberts Imaging has a package deal with an extra battery, 4GB memory card, a 3 year Mack Warranty extension and a Nikon camera bag for $99.00 with any Nikon Digital SLR Camera purchase. There is also a $ 40.00 savings on Capture NX2 editing software when bought with that new Nikon Digital SLR Camera.
Need a Flash memory card? Sure you do. We have 2 GB Kingston SD cards for $4.97.
We have Extreme III Sandisk Cards with rebates in the form of Visa prepaid cards, in both SD Memory cards and CF memory cards. Stock up and save is the new mantra here at Roberts Imaging because the rebates grow as you buy two and even more for three.
Worried about inventory? Dont be I ran dowstairs and took a “snap” earlier today and  here is just some of the Nikon’s on our shelves instead of in your hands.
Nikon Warehouse
Hey, I think I see your new Nikon Coolpix Camera there in the back behind your next Nikon Digital SLR!
See you this weekend.



Vacations are great!

Well I was off all last week so if you missed I’m sorry. I spent a week in sunny, warm and wonderful Florida. My parents live on the gulf side right on the Suawnee River, and my daughter lives on the Atlantic side in Port St. Lucie (about 40 miles north of Ft. Lauderdale) and I divided my time between them (and in the car) all the while clicking away with my trusty Stylus 1030SW Olympus digital camera. The 1030SW is a 10.1 megapixel camera, and shock and waterproof, plus it will operate down to 14 degrees. Thankfully I didn’t have to test the low tempeture capibility.
Before we headed home we went up the coast with our daughter to New Smyrna Beach just south of Daytona.
While I was on New Smyrna Beach I clicked off a few shots using my camera tripod, one of the little Bogen Manfrotto Tripods to be exact, and did a lot of hand held shootiong as well. I even got the camera in the salty water a few times with full confidence that it would continue to produce wonderful images. I have a few shot I think I’ll let the lab guys put on some Epson wide format paper after they pull them off my Sandisk Cards (yes they sell xD memory cards too). Below is a full frame and zoomed in close up I shot with that little Olympus digital camera.
sea gull full frameThe full frame (corrected for horizon a little).
Hand held and zoomed in, otherwise not modified. I like my Stylus 1030SW Olympus digital camera. A lot! It was perfect for this vacation.



Understanding SD Memory Speeds


So, if you’ve used a camera in the last, oh, five or so years, I’m sure you’ve dealt with the joy of memory cards. I’m here today to help you understand the fairly cryptic and confusing ways popular cards, such as Sandisk cards like the Ultra II pictured to the left, tell you how fast they are. This time around we’ll look at SD memory cards (this also applies to SDHC, which is just the High Capacity version of SD).

So, let’s take a look to our left again. See the 15 mb/s printed on the label. It’s really nice when manufacturers give us this, this tells us the fastest the card can write information. If you see the little partial circle with a number in it, in this case “4″, this indicates the SD card’s “class.” The Class tells us the absolute slowest the card will ever write our data, and it’s a pretty easy system. Class 2 SD memory cards will write no slower than 2 MB per second. Class 4′s no slower than 4 MB per second, and of course Class 6 no slower than 6 MB per second.

Now, there’s one other way people will tell you the speed of their cards, and that’s X speed. I’m sure you’ve all seen cards marked like “60x”, “100x”, or “133x” (this system is used for compact flash, as well). In this case one “x” means “1.5 KB per second maximum write speed.” These days, KB are yesterday’s news and we’re on to MBs, so this isn’t the most useful number ever. If you’re confused by x-speeds, just take it times .15 to get the MB per second, which is way more useful. 100x = 15 MB/s, 133x = 20 MB/s, etc.




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