Hauppauge ImpactVCB Video Capture Board (166) Low Profile PCI Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this card after reading another review on Amazon.com which stated that this is a good card for Linux. Well, it is a great card for Linux, but once it arrived in the mail, I was somewhat disappointed to notice a few things I didn't expect with the card.
First, this card has no TV coaxial in or out. The picture here on Amazon is somewhat deceiving as you only get a side view of the card, which gives us the illusion that this thing is loaded with all kinds of input connectors. Well, it's not. The four connectors you see in the picture are all video RCA jacks. Although this card DOES come equipped with an S-Video input (not visible in the picture), you only get four RCA jacks in addition to it, and nothing else.
Second, this card may be a pain to install. I had to bend the piece of metal that SHOULD have fit into my computer case like all my other PCI devices, but because it was too short, it did not. This was OK because the piece of metal was easy to bend using a cheap pair of pliers. I had to be a little creative in breaking the piece of metal that normally sits at the edge of a PCI slot with no card present, and fit the card's bent piece of metal over it with the ports exposed in order to keep the card in the case firmly; it took about 15 minutes in all, but I'm assuming that most people would not have the patience to work out a poor man's solution like this.
Finally, there is little or no documentation on this card inside the box. My card came with the card and a CD that contains drivers for Windows. The piece of paper included was merely an instruction manual on how to install the drivers in Windows. Luckily, my distribution of Linux had a preloaded capture card driver for this device and automatically recognised the card when I booted the machine. I fired up TVtime and was blown away by the quality of the picture after thinking that I had wasted my money on such a poorly manufactured card.
Yes, this card has a good picture quality. However, there is no audio input or output, and the card comes with no cables. You will have to purchase any extra cables you need, and if you want to use this card for playing video games or watching TV, you will definitely need to purchase an extra cable so you can connect your sound directly to the input on your sound card. This won't be a problem if you just want to play some video games; you will only be looking at about $3-5 for the right audio connector at your nearest electronics store. For watching TV, though, you may need to purchase a VCR or some device allowing you to connect a coaxial cable to it, and then output the video signal to this card and the audio to your soundcard via RCA cables. Could be much more trouble than it's worth.
So, unless you're fairly proficient with computers and electronics, and unless you really need a capture card for Linux, then I would skip this card and look into a better alternative. It just isn't worth the frustration of purchasing extra equipment to make it do everything you would expect. For me, however, this card works just fine. It's unfortunate that it wouldn't fit into my computer without resorting to crude installation procedures.

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Canon PowerShot ELPH 300 HS 12 MP CMOS Digital Camera with Full 1080p HD Video (Red) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a DSLR photographer who shoots professionally and has managed a camera store in the past. I wanted something I can take with me everywhere but still produces good quality shots. I also wanted a camera that could shoot good looking videos. I researched several models and after much deliberation decided on the Canon 300 HS. I'm very happy I did.
Image Quality:
I tested cameras and lenses all the time while managing the camera store so whenever I purchase a new camera or lens I always test it. The Canon 300 HS doesn't produce the quality of images my Nikon D7000 does but I didn't expect it to. The edges get a little soft with the 300 HS when looking at the image at 100% whereas the D7000 images are almost tact sharp.
Comparing the 300 HS to the Canon Powershot SD1000 from a few years ago, the 300 HS blows it out of the water. The SD1000 is a 7 MP camera. Shooting the same shots on a tripod with the same focal length on the lens the 300 HS uses its extra MPs well. When looking at the images from each camera at 100%, at the wide angle zoom setting and normal zoom setting both cameras have about the same relative slight softness on the edges. However the 300 HS has more MP so it actually produces much more detail in the image. I think it was smart for Canon to keep the MP at 12 because last years models while being 14 MP (SD1400) didn't give any extra detail from what I could tell than the 12 MP version (SD1300). The SD1400 was basically just creating larger files. When zooming in the telephoto setting the 300 HS clearly produced a sharper image than the SD1000. Often cameras have sweet spots in the zoom range in which it will produce crisper images. The 300 HS has consistently good sharpness throughout it's zoom range.
HS system and ISO:
The image processing with the HS system truly works to reduce noise at higher ISOs enabling people to produce better quality images in low light. The improvement in image quality gets more and more visible the greater and greater the ISO. ISO 400 with the 300 HS was almost as good as ISO 200 on the SD1000. ISO 800 on the 300 HS was a tad better than ISO 400 on the SD1000. ISO 1600 on the 300 HS was between ISO 400 and 800 on the SD1000. ISO 3200 on the 300 HS produced the same quality of image (noise) as ISO 800 on the SD1000. A 2 stop in film speed improvement is big.
1080p video and slow motion:
With good light, the 300 HS produces wonderful smooth 1080 videos. If you look at a lot of HD videos from compact cameras the video often looks jumpy. From what I've seen it wasn't until you got to the Canon G12 or Panasonic LX5 that the video looked smooth. Both of those cameras only shoot 720p whereas this camera shoots 1080p. The video also very good detail. It truly looks HD.
If you are wanting zoom and continuous AF with your video this camera is the one you want compared to the 100 HS which doesn't allow you to zoom. The continuous AF with face recognition is stellar with this camera in video mode. I was videoing my wife while she was driving. It focused on her face. I switched to the scenery outside. It immediately focused on that. I then went back to my wife and it found her face and focused on it right away. I even videoed her reflection in the rear view mirror and it found her face in the mirror no problem and focused on it. AMAZING!!!!
Commenting on a complaint I've read about the zoom being slow in video mode. If you like getting motion sickness whenever someone rapidly zooms in or out during their video this is not your camera. As smooth looking as the video is, the zoom is also. The smooth zoom creates nice looking transitions instead of warp speed ahead looks.
The slow motion is a fun feature that works well. You need to have good lighting though. In low light even with high ISO's it produced very dark videos. In a review someone commented that it should have sound with the slow motion video. I honestly don't know how that could work unless you want to listen to everything at 1/5 it's normal speed. I think it's a good thing that it doesn't have sound with the slow motion videos.
AF:
I commented on AF partially in the video portion of the review. It does have several AF modes for various situations. The face detection works great. If you have a person in the picture but want something other than the person to be in focus you will need to change AF modes from face detection. The reviewer that had the problem with the 300 HS focusing on things he didn't want the camera to focus on likely didn't have the correct AF mode for the shooting situations. The 300 HS does have a center AF if you prefer that.
Areas for Canon to improve on with the 300 HS:
The camera is so well thought out that I'm surprised Canon let this slip. I love having a wide angle zoom go down to 24mm. It's great for scenery and photojournalist type shots. If you shoot at the widest angle zoom and use the flash, the lens on the 300 HS blocks the flash's exposure on the bottom right corner of the image. The corner is completely black. If you zoom in a bit so you aren't at the widest angle setting when using the flash you will be fine. Still all Canon had to do is not put the flash so close to the lens.
When shooting video in lower light situations the video does start to get noisy and grainy quicker than some other cameras.
Conclusion:
All in all this is a wonderfully thought out camera with great image quality and image processing and it shoots stellar videos for it's compact size.


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The Canon 5097B001 PowerShot ELPH 300 HS Red 12MP Digital Camera with 5x Zoom and 2.7 In. LCD Display has a slim profile that will not only make you stand out from the crowd, but it will also deliver incredibly brilliant still images and amazing 1080p HD videos. Once you turn on the camera, be prepared to be amazed at how much is packed into one of the slimmest point-and-shoot digital cameras on the market. So let your imagination run free and let the HS SYSTEM, 24mm 5x Optical Zoom and 12.1 Megapixels help you achieve great images everywhere.

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS70S 7MP Digital Camera with 3x Image Stabilized Zoom Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a a very easy to use camera. I like that you can use the exposure control with the push of a button instead of going into de menu and the settings. So you can go from taking a picture under the shade to one with no shade and have the same exposure with a lot of ease and not looking around for the menu on the LCD display.
It has very good image quality and light, and has a image stabilizer that allows you to take pictures still even if your had shakes.
There is an normal mode: -intermediate users
It has a lot of options for different kind of displays en purposes. You have 4:3 ratio to display on standard TVs or monitors, thinking of slide shows or wall papers. It gives you different size options, up to 7.2 MP
It has a 3X2 ratio that is optimized for printing 4X6 pictures or bigger prints. Althoug this only gives 2 MP or 6 MP pictures.
It also has a 16:9 ratio for displaying or slide shows to be watched on widescreen TV's or Monitors. -This is my fave setting. But it only gives you 2 MP or 5.5 MP sizes.
You can turn on and off the digital zoom, in my case I don't like it so I turned it off, but you might like it and you may turn it off and while zooming in it will tell you once you start digitally zooming.
It has a basic mode: -beginners
It sets up everything automatically and with very basic options instead of size in MP it gives you options like email pictures, 4X6 or enlarge. With everyday language instead of techie language
It has a scene mode: -more advanced
This allows you to take pictures according to the lighting, weather conditions, portraits, sports etc. This gives you more control over how you want to take your pictures.
It Takes video in standard 4:3 format and 16:9 Widescreen format, which is not very common in this price range or in cameras in general. Still i prefer to have a camcorder to shoot video.
The only two things I don't like is the LCD screen which is bigger than the ones in my previos 2 cameras, is exposed to being touched, so you have to keep cleaning it if you don't want your finger prints on it. The battery life seems shorter than the Canon A75 that I replaced, but I guess that's because it records bigger files, has a bigger display and only uses half the batteries two instead of four. I'd recommend as with all digital cameras to get rechargable batteries as well as at least a 1 GB memory card. With 2 GB with the Widescreen at 5.5 MP it takes under 800 pictures, files are about 2 MB each so the 27 mb internal memory woulld barely allow me to take 13 pictures, less in 3:2 mode and even less on 4:3 7.2 MP format.
At this price range you won't find a better camera, even some 5 MP or 6 MP cameras are selling even higher than this one.
Before I bouhght it I did a lot of research and tried a lot of cameras of different brands and different MP size and this one was the one I like the best for quality image and options, most cameras don't have Widescreen option which I was very interested. This is good for beginners, intermediate or expert.
This is the same as the Lumix LZ7S except for the zoom wichi has a bigger range on the other one, but for 3X you would have to pay 50 bucks more.

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Item #: PANDMCLS70S.Customers also search for: Panasonic® DMC-LS70S Lumix Digital Camera

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