Photo Accessory Reviews

Just as certain as the crocus and grape hyacinth that burst on the scene seemingly from nowhere, another sure sign of spring is my reliance on a few familiar gadgets to help me celebrate the season. Here are three of the accessories I’d be hard pressed to do without.

The unsung hero of our age is the rechargeable battery. Can you imagine using a cell phone, digital camera or notebook computer without high capacity, long lasting batteries? The battery technology of choice for the past several years has been Lithium Ion. Here are five things you need to know about it—for your own safety and convenience. 

Forget Photoshop for a few—let’s talk about three physical filters that you’ll fully enjoy while the fall foliage flourishes as well as later when the yearend holiday festivities finally flow in. In fact, you’ll find them fun to use anytime, frankly. 

Desktop photo inkjet printer release cycles are glacially slow compared to those of digital cameras so it was something of a surprise to learn Epson was going to launch the 13-inch SureColor P600 Professional Photo Printer this morning. While the printer model name has changed from Stylus Photo to SureColor to bring the line under a global branding umbrella, the P600 (P stands for “photo”) takes its place at the top of Epson’s 13-inch photo inkjet printer line, which continues to include Stylus Photo and Stylus Pro models.

I’ve had to replace a failing computer hard drive more often than I’d care to remember. Fortunately, I’ve learned my lesson: my workstation now includes external drives as both backup and primary storage. I routinely move content from the computer onto one external drive and back up to a second drive. (I usually prefer to transfer memory card files first to the computer, so that my backups will include these; then I move those files to the external drive when a project is completed, making sure that they are synced to Lightroom.) Unfortunately, the cost of all this may amount to the price of a second camera body or new lens, but it’s money well spent, as you’ll realize the first time a drive goes down.

No, we’re not cooking color slides and film negatives in a pop-up toaster like Eggo waffles. The FilmToaster is a device that enables you to create digital image files from virtually any size film or transparency up to 4x5. You supply the DSLR and macro lens. If you have a shoebox full of family negs like many of us do, prepare to bring those old images back to life. 

Until now I thought I’d experienced practically every flavor of geotagging device on the planet (“Geotagging Devices And Software: Now You’ll Always Know Where You Took That Picture,” Shutterbug, May 2009). So when I was later introduced to Foolography at a trade exposition, I didn’t pay too much attention to their new Unleashed. Until they offered to send a test...