GoPro HERO3+: Silver Edition

If you missed the boat on the last iteration of GoPro's HERO3, don't fret, you waited for just the right amount of time. With the HERO3+ Silver Edition, you'll find a reduced size and weight, faster Wi-Fi, enhanced low-light quality, a reduction in distortion, and a battery with 30% longer life. Good things happen for those who wait. Compared to the last HERO3, the HERO3+ Silver Edition has been reduced in size by 15%, and the camera weight was also reduced by 15%. In fact, the HERO3+ now tips the scales 2.21 ounces. The camera body retains the black backing treatment, and the front still boasts GoPro's accessible and progressive user interface. The new housing also enables the camera to be waterproof up to 131ft/40m. The lens makes features the same flat design with a waterproof housing. It's what GoPro calls a six-element aspherical lens. What does this mean? Simply put, the lens has been designed to operate evenly across more light conditions than ever before. For the camera nerds; it's an f/2.8 - 6.0 lens. So, you'll experience sharper image quality whether it's blisteringly bright or the sun has nearly disappeared. And with this iteration of the HERO, GoPro improved the camera's capturing quality in low-light conditions. Additionally, GoPro has taken steps to reduce distortion, while also improving image sharpness. The new lens also allows Ultra-wide, Medium, and Narrow field of view modes, and you can operate the White Balance in either auto or manual modes (3000k, 5500k, 6500k, Cam Raw). Now, you can expect crystal clear resolution from sunrise to sunset. And speaking of resolution, the HERO3+ Silver Edition boasts ultra-high resolution video modes with a processor that's twice as fast as the HERO3's. The frame rate is sharper than the HERO3, capturing at 1080p60, 960p60, and 720p120fps. Basically, if you love slow-motion shots, the HERO3+ is a godsend. And did we mention that all of these rates can be run from Ultra-Wide mode? Awesome. For ti...

• 15% smaller and lighter housing (waterproof to 131'/40m)


• 2x faster image processor enables 1080p60 and 720p120 fps video


• Enhanced low-light performance


• 30% longer battery life


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CUSTOMER REVIEW



Be aware when purchasing that there are some aspects to the new "improved" lens that may not be for everyone. This week it has been fairly well documented (and confirmed by GoPro) that while the new lens produces much sharper images under 4', they are blurrier at distances greater than 4'. It does NOT focus at infinity. For reasons not fully explained, they moved the focal point of the lens in close and sacrificed distance clarity.



Update at bottom.



You will get great shots under 4' and soft focus beyond that. Depending on what you want it for, this camera may not be for you and the regular H3 might be a better bet. Since this is an effect of the lens it applies to both stills and video. On the other hand, it's still a decent small action camera, and if you take a lot of video in motion you may not notice this at all. For YouTube uploads and streaming it may not matter, I haven't tested this myself. If you want better clarity in your images the 3B is a good choice. I personally will play with it this week before deciding if I should return it. (Update: it's going back.)



It boggles the mind that they have produced a camera that claims to have a better lens and ignored the fact that it is in fact worse for 90% of what you'll be filming. Great clarity on your handlebars but not so good on the scenery.



Edit: other pluses- the color is much better with the 3+ than the 3. Low light shooting is also better, although sometimes lens flare from lights is a little worse, sometimes better. No more chromatic aberration (yellow/purple fringing). Just do some reading before buying this, they made some trade-offs in the new lens.



Updated 10/17:



Well after comparing the two (3+B and 3B) this week, there are some more problems that have had me downgrade this to a 3 star. For one, the right and left sides of the images on the 3+ are smeared. I mean really distorted, and I'm not using SuperView. Additionally the contrast seems to be set too high, causing some loss of detail in the shadows and blowing out whites a bit. This at least is changeable with a firmware update if they choose to do so. The blurry edges put me over the edge and I'm returning it. It's too bad, it's almost a great camera, with some nice improvements, but the lens is a definite problem, and not necessarily an improvement... certainly not 33% sharper.



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Ion Air Pro Compatible with iPod/iPhone/iPad/Android Devices

CUSTOMER REVIEW



I own both this camera and a Go Pro Hero 2.



The good:



1. Easy to use: Slide switch forward, it records, slide switch backwards, stops recording. Nice and simple.

2. Has a standard 1/4 20 tripod mount. YES!!!!!!!

3. Doesn't need a separate case to make it waterproof.

4. The narrower shape of the camera is nice for mounting on things that are narrow like a bicycle top tube where you don't want your knees hitting it.

5. Good battery life (but battery is built in)

6. Auto Rotation - I frequently mount my camera upside down and it's nice to not have to flip the video in editing, but see the bad about this below.

7. It's lightweight.

8. Cheaper than my GoPro was.

9. Nicer looking than my GoPro Hero 2.

10. Solid feel



The okay:



1. Video quality is a decent, maybe not quite as good as my Hero 2, but close.

2. Audio is muffled but better than JVC Adixxion and Drift Innovation (both have horrible wind noise). Better than Hero 2 in its' waterproof case, but not as good as Hero 2 in its' skeleton case.

3. Must change settings (1080p/30fps vs. 720p/60fps) using PC software.

4. The helmet/handlebar mounts are fine, but I don't use them. I use RAM Mounts.

5. Tripod hole isn't quite in the center of the camera (length-wise) but it's okay with the mounts I have now, was rotating with a lousy handlebar mount I had.



The bad:



1. The Mac version of the software does not work so if you don't have a PC, you can't change the default settings on the camera and I don't remember what those were. I know I have it now to record 720p 60fps.

2. It records two files (one large high quality and one small lousy quality) every time you record a clip. This is super annoying as I never use the small files and need to delete them all before importing or with iMovie, where it's hard to tell prior to import, I need to import everything and not use the low res ones, which is super annoying.

3. The longer shape of the camera doesn't work well if you wanted to mount it on your body (like with a GoPro Hero chest mount).

4. Picture taking isn't straight forward.

5. Battery is built in. If out in the field, you can't pop in another battery, you need to find some place to charge the camera which takes 3 hours.

6. Twist off rear hatch is too easy to lose. I misplaced it once while charging the camera, but found it, however, I think it would be awful easy to lose for good.

7. Auto Rotation - there are 4 orientations this camera recognizes. If the camera is upright or upside down, the video comes out right side up and as you would expect. If the camera is at 90 or 270 degrees, the video comes out right side up, but is way narrow - like you get when you record while holding your iphone vertically instead of horizontally. Very annoying. I wish it recognized just right side up and upside down and not on it's side. Also, don't use Auto-Rotation if you're going to begin recording while you're moving - if I am riding my bike on a trail or rough road and have auto-rotate on, at least half the videos come out on their side - and I mean on their side - the camera thought it was on it's side, but it wasn't so it's really messed up. So - nice idea for a feature, but I always turn it off.



Despite all the bad, I find I'm actually using this camera way more than my GoPro because I find it easier to put on my bike, easier to use with the one slide switch rather than all the buttons on the GoPro and I like not having to put it in one case if it's rainy and another if it's nice, just so many pieces with the GoPro. This is nice and simple. I'm looking forward to getting the wifi version where hopefully you can change settings using the iPhone app - assuming it works.



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Danby DAR259BL 2.5-Cu. Ft. Designer Compact All Refrigerator, Black

CUSTOMER REVIEW



Bought one of these for my office to keep beverages cool and lunches fresh. Amazon Prime got it here (for free!) in 2 days in great shape. Plugged it in 7 months ago and have never had a single issue with it since.



Interior layout is pretty good - no freezer! Lower shelf is somewhat shallow, but top ones are plenty deep. About 1/2 of the door is designed to hold 12oz soda/beer cans, so if you don't have any, some space may be wasted. With all the shelving pulled out, the surfaces are pretty even and easy to clean.



Temperature adjustment is a simple knob. Seems to cool pretty quickly, and accidentally setting it too cold demonstrated that it had no problem freezing things. Hasn't apparantly struggled with the occasional 90 degree day.



In a shared office with half a dozen people, running computers, etc, it's virtually silent except for a half a moment of quiet whirr and gurgle when it comes on a few times an hour.



Door is easy to open from the top-mounted handle and looks reversible. Magnets stick to the sides, but not the front. Top is sturdy enough to stack other things on. Has had no issue staying cool being crammed into a corner, pushed within 1" of hitting both walls.



4.5 stars - minus 1/2 for the soda-can holder design.



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Belkin Grip Candy Sheer Case / Cover for iPhone 5 and 5S (Gravel / Black) (Wireless Phone Accessory) newly tagged "iphone"

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Case Logic TBC-302 FFP Compact Camera Case (Black)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



I recently purchased a Canon S90 to complement my 5DmkII on a safari in Tanzania. Throughout the trip I had the S90 on my belt for quick and easy access; the case isn't bulky and seemed to protect the camera well enough from the occasional knock as the land cruiser hit big bumps.



On my last day in Tanzania I was walking through the streets of Arusha when suddenly I felt a hard tug that almost spun me around. I turned to see a man starting to flee. I started off in pursuit--concerned more about the memory card than the camera itself--but after a few steps realized the camera was still at my side, only a slight rip in the strap indicating anything had happened.



Recommended as a sturdy carrying case with a reasonable amount of padding for impact protection (you won't want to drop it from very high or expose it to strong blows).



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Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS25 16.1 MP Compact Digital Camera with 20x Intelligent Zoom (Black)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



I just got this camera in time for the first nice weather weekend on the East Coast and we went to NYC with the family for a nice day in Central Park.

I purchases a ZS10 2 years ago and skipped last year's model to buy the ZS25 this year.



It is a very fast camera from start up time to auto focus time and shutter release. I can't even tell the difference in speed compared to my DSLR (5 yrs old)



Lumix is known for superior lens quality - I read an article that they have a very close working relationship with Leica which speaks for itself. So I wasn't surprised at the image quality - even at max zoom. BTW keep in mind this is a 24 mm to 480 mm lens - meaning that 24 mm is a nice wide angle - comes in handy for indoor and nice group shots.



The reason I sound so exciting is the video capability of this camera. We went to a school concert the other night and I took some incredible videos of our little girl on stage. Just make sure you switch the recoding mode to MP4 - the default setting is on AVCHD the compression mode that no computer can read!

The videos I took were great - not too noisy even though it was real dark.



I am very pleased and feel this is a great little camera that is compact but gives you lots of shooting options.



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Dropcam Wi-Fi Wireless Video Monitoring Camera

CUSTOMER REVIEW



My review is focus on one aspect so as not to be too long, but still useful. **Please note the updates at the end**



The Dropcam is a very good, very easy to use device. Many of the top rated reviews here do an excellent job of listing the pros and cons. Also, the firmware has been updated since many of the negative reviews were posted, so there have been subtle improvements (not enough) with motion detection, and also the iOS and Android apps are now easy and great.



The best use case of this camera, by far, is indoor remote surveillance of a kids room, a family room, or a workplace.



Here's the real, overpowering negative about the device for me: it uses about 60GB of upload data capacity each month. The camera transmits its HD video feed to the DropCam cloud servers ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. The cloud service is what makes the user experience so easy, and what allows you to view your camera from multiple places, phones, tablets, all with just a userID and password. It's good in that you don't have to learn about firewalls, IP port forwarding and such just to make it work. But, that also means that it sends enormous amounts of video of a room with nothing at all happening in it. If your ISP has a quota or a limit to how much you can send per month, this camera WILL DEFINITELY USE A LARGE PORTION. In Canada and with some US ISPs, the limit is 50GB...i.e. less than this camera sends!



- Lots of ISPs offer a quota of 250GB, so this camera won't put most US customers over their limit. Just know that this will soak up a good portion of your allotment.

- Each additional camera will add to the bandwidth you use.

- Consider that you are also downloading the video feed from your ISP, so if you are in the same place as the camera viewing it, it doubles the bandwidth used. Yep, that's right, your video goes up to the cloud server, then back down to you.

- FYI, the upload rate is about 400-600 Kbps

- The camera does use excellent compression, so the HD video is as compact as it can be in 2012.

- If you have anything less than awesome Internet service, the camera will slow down your uploads of other stuff, like photos, attachments, etc. Upload speed is always much slower than download on consumer Internet service, and that's what this camera uses.



So, take this important point into consideration. It may still be a great product for you, but you need to know the costs. For me, I planned on using this at a lake house with slow Internet, so it doesn't work for me. I'll have to find another use for it.



****Update, September 2012

The camera has just received a software update that lets you switch between SD mode and HD mode. All DropCams that are turned on and connected to the Internet will get the update automatically. The standard definition mode uses half the bandwidth of the HD mode. Overall, there is a big improvement regarding the problem I cited in my original review. The update has other benefits in motion detection, etc.



As for me, the 30GB a month is still too much, so I will continue to use the available software switch to turn the camera on and off, and only enable it when I want to watch.



****Update, May 2014

Dropcam keeps on adding features that improve the camera. This is the upside of a cloud service. They can update features on the cloud, and then you get them, even on your older Dropcam. Lately, they've added ACTIVITY RECOGNITION, which is really great. This means that their servers storing your video can recognize certain patterns that tend to occur on your camera, and then distinguish those patterns going forward. An example would be a camera pointed at a front door with the street in the background. The Dropcam cloud might identify cars moving on the street as one activity, and a person walking up to the door as another, and a person walking away from the door as a third. You can then go into the web site, name the activities, and then set up alerts and search on each individual activity. Thus, you could quickly find all instances of somebody walking up to your door, or get a notification each time it happens. Or you could wonder "What time did the kids leave" and then filter only by people walking away from the door. Good stuff.



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