Epinions Recent Reviews for majid

Custom Idea GeoPic II - Direct Connect Geotagging GPS Unit for Nikon &Fujifilm Digital SLRs GEOPICII... (GEOPICII2467): Best geotagging option for midrange to pro Nikon DSLRs

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:55:46 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author majid - Nikon DSLR bodies have had the ability to geotag pictures for ages (embed GPS coordinates inside the picture's EXIF metadata). Unfortunately, that required buying the inordinately expensive ($85) adapter cable that fits into the remote control socket,...

High quality light meter

Sun, 4 Jun 2006 16:42:14 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author majid - Note: this light meter is known as the Sixtomat Flash in Europe, and the user manual can be downloaded at: http://www.gossen-photo.de/pdf
/ba_sixtoflash_gb.pdf
The Gossen Luna-Pro digital F is a compact incident and reflected lightmeter and...

Nikon SF-210 Slide Feeder: Eats slides for breakfast

Sat, 3 Jun 2006 15:46:16 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author majid - Until the eighties or so, quality-conscious photographers would prefer slide film to color negative film. Most of my childhood pictures my father took are on slides. Slide projectors are going the way of the dodo, and you need to digitize them to...

Elgato Systems EyeTV 250 (DHDEYETV250): PVR on the Mac, now viable

Fri, 2 Jun 2006 17:03:55 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author majid - In 2003, I cancelled my TiVo subscription and sold it off on eBay because they started putting advertising in the user interface, implementing user-hostile DRM and otherwise taking the side of Hollywood pigopolists over that of their customers by...

Addlogix (ADCDVI-ADC-AB) Monitor Switch: Share an ADC display between ADC and DVI computers

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 16:24:30 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author majid - I have a PowerMac G5 with an ADC connector and a 23" Cinema HD display (the older kind with a plastic bezel and an ADV connector, not the newer aluminum kind). ADC is Apple's proprietary cable that carries DVI, USB and power in a single cable. Having a...

Symbol CS 1504 (cs1504i1000002) Handheld Barcode Scanner: Great little bar code scanner

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 04:22:27 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author majid - One of my cousins works for Symbol, the world's largest bar code reader manufacturer. The fashionable action today is in RFID, but the humble bar code is relatively untapped at the consumer level. The unexpected success of Delicious Library (a Macintosh...

Tiny but capable little power amplifier

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 19:54:49 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author majid - This is a review of the newer Zamp v3, which does not have an Epinions entry yet. I do more of my music listening while at my computer than in my living room, so I have been upgrading my audio setup there. I use a Benchmark Media DAC-1 connected to...

Oki Electric Industry C5150n Led Printer: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) users watch out

Sun, 31 Jul 2005 02:49:31 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author majid - I will keep this review short and sweet to avoid overlap with the other reviews. I bought this printer for home to use with my Mac. It is fast (startup warm-up time is very slow, however). Unfortunately, as of the writing of this review (July 30,...

Matias FK102 Keyboard: Nice clickety-clack feel

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 14:37:28 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author majid - Key switches are the electromechanical devices that sit under a keyboard's keys and register key presses. There are two main technologies options for computer keyboards: buckling spring and rubber dome. Buckling springs have a system of levers and...

Creative Technology ZEN V (1GB) MP3 Player: Slow as molasses

Thu, 9 Jun 2005 16:31:03 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author majid - I bought a CLP-550N for my company because I got sick of watching us throw money out of the window on an outside printing shop for brochures. We picked the Samsung because it had the lowest cost per page, a built-in print server and support for...

Solid SACD player

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 01:53:56 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author majid - This is actually a SACD player. If you are not familiar with SACD, it is a high-resolution format designed by Sony and Philips to supersede the CD, so far with limited success. SACD carries 4 times more data per channel than regular CDs. There are two...

Acratech Ultimate Ballhead with Arca-Type Quick Release & Rubber Knob (Requires Plate) - Supports 25.00 lb (11.34 kg): Featherweight pro ball head

Sat, 19 Mar 2005 06:01:13 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author majid - Tripods are underappreciated by amateur photographers. Shooting handheld inevitably induces vibration, and even if the camera shake does not result in outright blurred images, there is an impact on sharpness, specially when enlarged. That's why...

HDTV on a Mac is a joy to behold

Sat, 19 Feb 2005 15:49:50 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author majid - I had previously reviewed the EyeTV 200 on Epinions, and panned it. I eventually traded it for a Formac StudioTV, which converts analog SDTV to DV, rather than MEPG2. I have no such reservations about the EyeTV 500, which is an excellent product. All...

Image stabilization does not live up to its promises

Fri, 18 Feb 2005 05:55:43 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author majid - For marketing reasons, digicam manufacturers are cramming ever more pixels into ever smaller (and thus cheaper to manufacture) sensors. Something has to give, namely electronic noise, the equivalent of TV static when a signal is not strong enough (as...

Major time-saver

Fri, 24 Dec 2004 03:21:21 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author majid - The Nikon SA-30 is a scanner accessory that allows you to scan an entire strip of 35mm film (up to 40 frames) in one operation. I mostly shoot black & white (which I usually develop at home) and color slides (which I ask the pro lab I use to leave...

Leica throws a sop to M3 nostalgia

Sun, 14 Nov 2004 07:58:13 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author majid - This is my second Leica body. My first one is a M6TTL with a 0.72 viewfinder, and I needed the improved focusing accuracy of the 0.85x viewfinder for my 50mm f/1.0 Noctilux and my 90mm f/2.8 M-Hexanon. The MP is Leica's answer to Leica purists who...

Keyspan USB Server US-4A (d47710) Print Server: Share USB peripherals over your Ethernet LAN

Sun, 14 Nov 2004 07:36:20 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author majid - This device allows you to connect a Mac or PC to up to 4 USB 1.1 peripherals remotely over Ethernet, much as a print server allows you to access remote printers. It also allows sharing of USB devices between multiple computers. A simple idea that looks...

Apple 14 Bays Xserve RAID (M8668LL/A) Fibre Channel Drive Case: Well-designed and highly cost-effective storage

Fri, 12 Nov 2004 19:25:45 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author majid - My company is upgrading its ageing Network Appliance filers (see my E
pinions
review of them) for a trio of Apple's XServe RAID. We first ran a pilot project using one XServe RAID in a non-critical development...

Fine short telephoto lens for portraits

Mon, 26 Jul 2004 23:36:45 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author majid - This lens has been discontinued, and the only way to get one is used camera stores like KEH or eBay. I got mine from eBay. Telephoto lenses like this one are easier to make than wideangles. The light rays are more parallel and you have less aberration...

Versatile GPS unit

Thu, 1 Jul 2004 03:16:51 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author majid - The Socket Bluetooth GPS receiver is a tiny little device, smaller than a cell phone. As it uses Bluetooth, it can be used with a PC or Mac equipped with Bluetooth, or with a PalmOS or Windows CE PDA. This way, you only need to buy one device, not two...

The quintessential Leica rangefinder lens

Thu, 1 Jul 2004 01:01:39 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author majid - I am surprised no one wrote a review of this before, so here goes. The 50mm focal length for 35mm lenses is the "normal" lens, which is supposed to yield the most natural perspective. This has nothing to do with human vision - it's just that a typical...

Serviceable but expensive way to turn your Mac into a TiVo-clone

Sun, 25 Apr 2004 04:20:03 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author majid - Introduced a few months ago at Macworld, the EyeTV 200 is the first viable Digital Video Recorder (PVR/DVR) product for the Mac. It does away with the shortcomings of previous products by using Firewire rather than USB, and a built-in MPEG-2 compression...

Excellent Asian-influenced French restaurant on Nob Hill

Mon, 2 Feb 2004 23:01:07 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author majid - This restaurant used to be in the Mission/Valencia district but moved to Nob Hill since. Nob Hill parking can be very expensive, so be prepared, or take the California line cable car to get there. I live next door so parking is not an issue for me, but...

Rodenstock 3x 6x6 Full Frame Loupe: Get the Calumet version instead!

Sat, 22 Nov 2003 00:55:07 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author majid - The Rodenstock 3x 6x6 aspheric loupe has a list price of $350 and usually retails for $250. Calumet Photo (www.calumetphoto.com) sells the exact same loupe under their own brand for a mere $109 (they claim it is a $90 promo, I am not sure if this is a...

Hewlett Packard Scanjet 4670 Flatbed Scanner: Really slick design

Fri, 14 Nov 2003 15:06:39 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author majid - I don't actually own this scanner, but here are some first impressions after playing with one at my local CompUSA. The scanner has a striking and elegant design, suggestive of titanium and glass (when it is actually metal-colored plastic and polycarbon...