Love of Zephyr* Store.

Apple’s Mac Pro, in opinion from a user.

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:15:45 +0000

Given that is the computer from which I am writing … to list the qualities of the machine technology is not enough space and frankly more than copy from the Apple site …
I have a special relationship with my computer that I regard as almost a person … you know, maybe I am somewhat ‘diverted, but Apple is so … or love him or hate …

I always say that computers are used and the only way you can make evaluations are … advertising and graphic web designer, working 12 hours a day … always with him … sometimes I find with 6 programs open simultaneously and he does not show is any failure of memory, no program closes suddenly, leaving at best .. re like crazy for a job not saved and a half left.

250 Mb HD, dual-slot CD / DVD, 4 USB ports, utilities already have systems that in some cases (to me has always happened) does not even require you to read the installation of new peripherals …

DVD burner, fast processor technology with Intel Apple that honestly do not know what it means, but the computer is much more I have of Apple and that has only one processor …
My opinion is something to that user from the technical to say that you maybe see them on the official site specifications … if you do a job like mine or similar is the ideal computer is a little … ‘but them is worth all …

“Very Impressive” iMac MB420LL/A 3.06 GHz 24-Inch Desktop!

admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:11:11 +0000

This review is by someone who knows little about computers- which is why I am so impressed by the product- It functions perfectly virtually right out of the box- none of my numerous PC’s have ever done that.

As someone who has only owned windows based laptops from various manufacturers over the past decade- I was shopping for exactly the same thing. I thought I would look at what Apple had to offer and walked out with this- the 24"- I opted for the $1799. version and could not be happier. It has taken some getting used to – but Apple has offered excellent telephone support so far- and I have found that even an ignorant about computers as I am that the O/S is actually easy to adjust to.

I am a very visual person, but demand function over form if a choice has to be made- luckily I found this iMac- Form AND Function all in one.

Along with his iMac 24" I purchased the wireless keyboard and wireless mouse- make it even better- one wire for the entire system. I also went ahead and went all the way on my first tip down the isle with a mac and got the Time Capsule- works flawlessly as an automatic backup and wireless network all in one. LOVE IT!

by John Henry Haggard

“Best Digital SLR Under $5,000” Nikon D700 Review!

admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:00:42 +0000

Nikon D700 12.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)

My first DSLR was the Nikon D50, then I upgraded to the Nikon D80. When the D700 was announced, I was patiently waiting for the yet announced Canon 5D replacement and was waiting to join the Canon side. Then when I saw the specs of the D700, I was floored. But what about image quality??

I’ve had the camera for a week, and took 3,000 pics, and it is amazing. I paired it up with a 50mm f/1.4 and the results are magical. Colors are vibrant, lowlight is ridiculous good. All around an amazing camera. Light years ahead of the D80 and the 5D. I did a shoot where I was able to compare images between the 5D and the D700, and it’s just not even close.

Don’t know what then next 5D will be like, but the D700 is a winner, and worth every single penny.

Nikon ML-L3 Wireless Remote Control Review

admin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:43:26 +0000

review by Thomas D. Jones Jr., an amazon.com customer.

Well…its a remote.

I use it with my d50 and it works to about 30 ft. When I get the shot composed, I press the timer button 2x to get the camera ready to shoot, press the button and step out, or sit down and press the button during group shots.

In bulb mode I do the same. Press the timer 3x to get it ready, press to start the shot and step away. Come back and press the button again and it stops the shot.
Works just like it is supposed to.

One thing to remember is to set the camera’s time to receive the signal. The camera automatically turns the IR off after a certian amount of time. If this happens, it won’t accept it until you turn it back on. If you’ll be taking a lot of shots, just change the camera’s setting to look for the remote for 5 minutes or so.

Canon EOS Rebel T1i, A wonderfully full-featured camera at an unbeatable price!

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:14:41 +0000

Canon EOS Rebel T1i review by Rimesh Patel, the amazon.com customer.

I’ve had the T1i for about almost week now and after some extensive use, here are my thoughts:

1. 15.1 megapixel sensor. Yes, the high megapixel count is impressive, but keep in mind that, as you approach higher resolutions, you need to ensure the lens on the SLR can resolve that much detail. Sadly, the included 18-55mm IS lens is functional, but the high resolution really shows the so-so quality of the lens. Even if taken at the proper focus, pictures can appear soft with this kit lens. Shots I have taken with Canon EF-S 17-85mm and EF 70-200mm L lenses are crisp. I don’t have any gripes on image quality. There are some issues with noise on the higher ISOs that don’t seem to show up on the Nikon digitals, but overall, the quality is amazing for the price. Skin tones, textures, colors are reproduced very accurately.

2. Digic 4. The Digic 4 processor appears to process/save the 15 megapixel images in the same time (if not faster) than the Digic III processor on the XSi (even in RAW+Jpg mode). I have also noticed that at higher ISOs, the sensor and the Digic 4 produce images with less overall noise compared with its predecessors.

3. LCD. The 920,000 pixel LCD screen is large (3"), crisp, vibrant and fully visible even in bright sunlight. In comparison, the Canon XSi SLR (which the T1i replaces), also has a 3" LCD, but with 230,000 pixels. The viewing angle is great as well and the LCD can easily be seen nearly 180 degrees around.

4. ISO 12800. Canon and Amazon are correctly identifying that the T1i maxes out at ISO 3200. Some less reputable dealers are listing an ISO 12800, which you should disregard. The ISO 6400 and 12800 settings are expanded ISO settings. The pictures taken on these two settings are ISO 3200 images pushed to ISO 6400 or 12800 by the Digic 4 chip before saving to the memory card. These pictures are extremely grainy and contain a lot of noise to the point of only being usable as for snapshots or adding an artistic effect to certain compositions.

5. Penta-mirror. That Canon is still using one in the T1i is disappointing. The penta-mirror viewfinder image is functional, but still noticeably darker than that of the penta-prism viewfinder in the Nikon D90 (which is the T1i’s main competitor). I really would have preferred if Canon had kept the XSi’s 12.2 megapixel sensor, forgone 1080p video altogether, and maybe upped the cost of the camera slightly to cover the production cost of using a penta-prism in the T1i. Honestly, unless you are massively cropping your images, or creating large photos, the difference between 12.2 and 15.1 megapixels really is negligible.

6. Size. This is the same body as the XSi, and therefore a bit on the smaller side compared to other digital SLRs. I have small hands, so the T1i is comfortable for me. If you have big hands, I can see this being a very difficult camera to use over an extended period of time. If you haven’t handled a Canon XT, XTi or XSi, I would suggest you go to a store and hold the T1i yourself before purchasing it online. (I will upload a picture of the T1i in my hands to the user gallery for a size reference.)

7. HD Video. Yes, the Canon marketing department made a horrible marketing decision and pushed the T1i onto shelves limiting the 1080p recording to 20fps (frames per second). Recognize this as a marketing gimmick that allows them put a 1080p sticker on the camera box. The 1080p @ 20fps is fine most times, but seems a choppy if you have a lot of action in the frame or are panning quickly. The T1i’s 720p video is recorded at 30fps and is clean, smooth, and sufficient for all but the most discerning consumers. One major criticism though is that the sound is recorded in mono, AND there is NO input for an external microphone.

A lot of pre-production reviews of the T1i criticize its inability to automatically autofocus while recording. I wouldn’t put much weight in this criticism, mostly because neither of the other two SLR cameras with HD recording capabilities (Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D90) can automatically autofocus while recording either. What you can do with the T1i is pan/zoom the lens and then press the AE lock (*) button to make the camera autofocus on the new subject (all while recording). A problem with using the AE lock button to have the camera autofocus is that the microphone for the camera is on the front upper left of the body near the lens mount. Therefore, the lens motor noise is picked up just as much as ambient sounds. Even with my quietest Canon USM (ultasonic motor) lenses, this lens motor sound is pretty loud in video playback. Although, remember, you can always manually turn the focusing ring on the lens to get your subject back into focus. It’s not easy, but after a little practice, it’s not all too hard, either.

Ultimately, you shouldn’t let the HD recording limitations sway you one way or the other. This is an SLR camera — not a video camera. The HD video is a great feature, but if you’re looking for something primarily to take video, look elsewhere. There are much better, cheaper VIDEO cameras out there which can record true 1080p.

8. Record button. For some reason, the record video button is next to the LCD screen (the same button used for direct printing). The first few times you take video, you’ll intuitively find yourself using the shutter release button used to take pictures. The reason for this switch is that you can take a still picture while recording video, although, doing so will interrupt the recording.

9. Battery life. My first fully charged battery only lasted about 250 shots (no flash), but all charges since have given me in the range of 500-700 shots per charge. I’m guessing the first charge had such a short life because I spent quite a bit of time learning the camera, its menus, and settings.

10. Live View. I honestly can’t review this as I haven’t used it too much yet — I prefer using the viewfinder. One feature I can say is nice is that, on the LCD, you can digitally zoom in (up to 10x) on a section of your shot to ensure it is properly focused. This, and the fine focusing, can really help if you’re into macro-photography.

11. HDMI cable. The T1i has an HDMI Type C output on the body to allow you to directly display pictures and video on an HDTV. A minor criticism is that the HDMI Type C cable is not included in the box. You have to buy it separately. It would have been nice if it were included, as it’s not an expensive cable.

Conclusion. The T1i is a bit on the light end, yet the construction still feels solid. For the camera’s price point, you’d be hard pressed to find any digital SLR out there which gives you all the capabilities and growth range of the Canon T1i. The camera is intuitive enough for those new to photography to pick and learn easily, yet configurable enough for advanced amateurs. If video is not a big deal for you, then get the Canon XSi. There is very little the T1i has (other than ISO 3200 and a sharper screen) that the XSi doesn’t. Plus, with the release of the T1i, you can probably pick up a used XSi for a great price on eBay. My wife recently gave birth, and I’m not looking to record endless (never to be watched) tapes of video footage of our son, but I do want several minute clips of him as he grows through the years. I’ve always been more inclined towards photography, so this camera gives me a very versatile digital SLR that I need with the wonderful capability of recording HD video that I want.

Nikon D90 Pros & Cons, Review for buying a good camera.

admin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:40:30 +0000

a review by E.Kim, an amazon.com customer

I am far from a professional photographer, but I take it as seriously as possible while still referring to it as a hobby. I take mostly pictures of people at events and many of my baby son without flash in low light situations.

I had been using a Nikon D40x for 1 year and very early reached my limitation with that camera. The Nikon D40x has very nice image quality, but the camera’s interface is not suited for a more serious shooter who wants quick single button or dial access to such shooting parameters such as white balance, shooting mode, metering mode, etc. I also felt very limited by the D40x not having an in-body focus motor that would allow me to use non AF-I/AF-S lenses (which are lenses without the focus motor built-in).
The Nikon D40x limitations were severe enough that I was about to consider purchasing a Canon 40D until the Nikon D90 appeared just in time.

PROS:

1. Fantastic set of separate buttons on the camera to control parameters like ISO, white balance, metering, autofocus, image quality, shooting mode, etc.
2. Two command dials
3. High resolution 920K pixel LCD screen (like the one on the Nikon D300)
4. 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor
5. Low noise high ISO capability (for low light shooting) I can shoot ISO 1600 with good image quality with this camera, while on my D40x I could only shoot with ISO 400 and obtain acceptable IQ. I will even use ISO 3200 frequently with very usable results!
6. Separate top-viewing LCD screen in addition to the rear high res screen, to show shooting parameters constantly
7. In-body focus motor which allows the use of Nikon’s non AF-I/S lenses, including wonderful and CHEAP prime lenses such as the Nikkor 50mm 1.8 (~$100 lens!)
8. Continuous shooting of 4.5 frames per second
9. Small size, although larger than the D40/D40x/D60, it is still substantially smaller in the hand than the D300/D3
10. 720p 24fps MPEG video shooting capability with incredible ability to use depth of field that I cannot achieve with my Sony High-Def camcorder.
11. Eleven auto-focus points (not as nice as the 51 points on the D300, but substantially better than my D40x with its 3 points)
12. GPS option
13. HDMI output
14. Enormous number of options to customize camera and shooting settings to fit your style of shooting
15. Fantastic image quality right out-of-box if you don’t want to do any post processing
16. Terrific build quality
17. Top notch camera ergonomics (but this will be a very personal opinion that differs for each shooter)

CONS:

1. "Rolling shutter" phenomenon while recording video: The D90 CMOS sensor has the same problem that other CMOS video recorders have when recording video. If you move the camera, especially horizontally, you get a "jelly" or "rubberbanding" effect where the image wobbles significantly. It is nice to have the video features, which looks very sharp at 720p, but it is NOT a substitute for a video camera. If you use a tripod, and do not do quick zooms/pans, the video quality is excellent. Without a tripod, however, you may get nauseous watching a wobbly video. The sound is also in monoaural.
2. 1/200 flash synch: Not a problem for me, but it might be for you.
3. No weather sealing: This is found on the Nikon D300/D3 and even on similarly priced models from other camera companies
4. The buffer will fill up after about 8 continuous RAW + JPG (FINE) shots. This number differs depending on the shooting parameters that you will choose. If you shoot primarily JPG, the buffer seems to allow a very large number of continuous shots, but I have not quantified this for JPG only.

TIPS:

1. Get the FREE Nikon ViewNX software from Nikon’s site as your 1st step in your workflow. This will let you examine your RAW images that you can process for either Nikon CaptureNX2 to do further RAW processing or just export to JPG or TIFF for a JPG/TIFF editor such as PhotoShop.
2. Recommend buying the Nikon CaptureNX2. It is a RAW converter (if you shoot in RAW) that will read the camera settings properly for export to JPG or TIFF. Capture NX2, however, is not as slick as the Adobe products and Capture NX2 requires a fairly powerful computer, otherwise it can run pretty slowly on a PC > 3 years old.
3. If you use JPEGs out-of-camera, consider increasing the sharpness above the default 3 or 4. Nikon uses a very conservative sharpening default setting. Nikon has also decided to change the default JPEG images to match the higher end D3/D700/D300 cameras which produce more neutral images. Consequently, the D90 images that are less punchy than the D40/D40x/D60/D80, so you may also want to turn up the in-camera saturation and contrast.
The Nikon D90 has all of the interface features that serious and even professional photographers need with wonderful image quality.

buy Nikon D90 with Nikon AF-S DX VR 18-105mm from amazon.com

Why I Picked the 13" MacBook Pro

admin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:28:26 +0000

by Cuyler, an amazon.com customer.

First of all, I love the aluminum unibody design. The fit and finish gives the whole unit a solid feel. Laptops get a lot of wear and tear and Apple’s rigid construction ought to take a lot of punishment. The silver matte finish with black keys looks nice as well.

The large glass trackpad also operates as a mouse button. The trackpad gives a nice response when pressed and I had no trouble clicking just when I wanted it. Right clicks are accomplished by pressing with two fingers instead of one. Fingers glide easily over the glass surface and multi-touch gestures can be used to expose and switch between applications. I have feeling I am going enjoy using the finger swipes over pressing Alt-Tab all the time.

All the MacBook Pros now have a built-in battery that provides long life between charges (up to 7 hours on the 13" model). The downside is that the batteries cannot simply be swapped out when they reach their end-of-life. Apple says their smart charging method allows up to 1000 recharges and batteries should last for up to 5 years. However, the inability to swap in a fresh battery could be a big issue for people that take long intercontinental plane trips.

The MacBook Pro’s LED backlit display provides a larger color gamut. This is a big improvement over the MacBook and is a major plus for art and photography applications. A lot of people complain the glossy display is hard to use outdoors — I like its sharpness and mostly use laptops under indoor lighting. However, I can see how this might annoy some users.

Other improvements over the previous unibody MacBook are the inclusion of a FireWire 800 port and support for up to 8GB of RAM. Currently, the cost of a full 8GB of memory is prohibitively expensive, but 4GB is quite reasonable. Eventually memory prices should drop and the MacBook Pro can be inexpensively upgraded to its full potential. The support for more RAM is a welcome feature as we enter the age of 64-bit operating systems.

All MacBook Pros now include the keyboard which automatically lights up as the room light dims. This isn’t an essential feature (especially for touch typists), but should be helpful for picking out the correct function keys after dark.

The MacBook Pro is a reasonable value for the money, but there is no question cheaper laptops are available. I’ll leave it to others to argue the merits of one operating system over the other. However, purchasers a new Windows laptop or netbook may want to wait for the release of Windows 7 in late October. New MacBook Pro purchasers can upgrade to Snow Leopard this fall for $9.95.

Because the Macs are Intel-based, they can still be used to run Windows, either through Apple’s Boot Camp or virtual machine applications such as Parallels or Fusion.
What don’t I like? This MacBook Pro does not have an ExpressCard slot which limits its expandability. Apple is probably right that most users will be satisfied with the SD slot, but pro photographers might prefer to insert their compact flash card.

3D graphic designers might want to consider one of the higher end MacBook Pros that offer a separate graphics processor. Hard core gamers should probably invest in a PC.
It’s no deal-breaker, but a writable Blu-ray drive is still on my wish list.

The 13" model is perfect for someone likes a light, full-featured laptop that’s easy to carry around. The MacBook Air is even more portable, but has less battery life and is not as expandable (plus the Pro’s built-in DVD is convenient). To work on a larger screen, it is easy to plug into standalone display turning the laptop into a desktop machine. I can tell you, I would have loved to have a MacBook Pro when I had to march 20 minutes to campus for computer classes.

buy this Mac from amazon.com and save $5.0 , also free shipping available.

Webkinz Plush Stuffed Animal Emperor Dragon

admin — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:18:19 +0000

Webkinz Plush Stuffed Animal Emperor Dragon
From Ganz

Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Ships from and sold by ToysNGamesEtc

20 new or used available from $8.75

Average customer review:

Product Description

Not recommended for children under 3. Emperor Dragon comes with a special internet code where your child can interact with it. They can name it, make it a home & even play games. Note* Due to limited supply; Webkinz orders are limited to 12 pieces per style per customer. Polyester.

Product Details

Amazon Sales Rank: #498 in Toys & Games
Brand: Webkinz
Model: HM178
Dimensions: .26 pounds

Features

plush-animal-toys
Unisex

Customer Reviews

webkinz dragon
Got this for niece’s birthday. She loved it!!! The tongue hanging out just cracked her up!!!

Webkinz Emperor Dragon
The Webkinz Emperor Dragon is not the softest Webkinz b/c it is made for different kinds of materials, but that in itself makes it quite adorable to look at.

Ganz Webkinz Emperor Dragon
The stuffed animal is very colorful and brought much pleasure to the three year old who received it.