The ultimate camera support!

I got my very very cool camera support a couple of days ago, unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to play with it until earlier today. Here are my initial thoughts.

1. Sturdy: I put my D700 with AF-S Zoom NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8 lens and SB900 flash on this mini tripod and there is nothing mini about its ability to support heavy camera systems. It handled it without any problems and didn’t give the feeling that it was going to fall over or collapse.
2. Well made: its machined gun-metal aluminum with rubberized rings supports are impressive. Look cool too!
3. Holds up to a whopping 11 pounds!
4. Weighs 1.1 pounds. Won’t break your back.
5. Can be used both with or without a third party tripod head, I have a Giottos ball head on mine.
6. You can wrap its legs around a pole, tree branch, assistants neck etc… and it will bend anyway you can think, its like a Gumby for your camera bag!

I am looking forward to taking it on the road and putting it to the test. I’ll keep you all posted. You can get more details on this wonderful product by visiting Joby. If you’re interested in getting one, drop me a line and I’ll hook you up.

Gorilla Pod Focus

Wow! That pretty much sums up what I think of this amazing new gadget that I picked up last week.

What it does is very simple, but its results are absolutely amazing!

In a nutshell, you stick it onto your TV screen, run the accompanying software and after about 15 minutes of following simple instructions, viola! you end up with a perfectly calibrated television.

The product was designed for people who have the latest LCD, Plasma or Rear Projection Big Screen television sets, but I thought it would be interesting to see if it could do anything with my 11 year old 32″ Sharp CRT TV.

So I installed the software, ran the application and followed the instructions which were very easy to follow. The hardest part was figuring out where I put the remote control for the TV. I use the best all-in-one remote, the Harmony by Logitech, so I don’t usually need to know where my remotes are. I spent more time looking for the original remote then I did performing the calibration.

Well, as I’ve already said, the results are so good that it is mind boggling. I have improved contrast, the colors are accurate and, black is black, not dark grey. It almost looks like a new TV. Now I have to admit that it occurred to me that maybe it’s all in my head and I’m seeing what I want to see, but my daughter came into the living room to play on the Wii and she says to me, “dad, what did you do to the TV? it looks so much better then before!”

In summary, the Datacolor Spyder 3TV is an amazing product at a very reasonable price, for under $200 you can bring new life into your old boob tube, or make your new TV display movies and games the way it should for the $$$ you spent.