Software review: FolderClone a near virtual RAID solution

I experienced my worst nightmare the other day.

Recently I lost a terabyte worth of images and video on my Seagate 1 TB external USB drive. Thankfully, I have multiple copies of my media but there were still some images that I failed to properly backup. This is mainly because I forgot to copy it to my network attached storage drive (NAS). However, there's hope after this learning experience.

After I searched through the Internet and read some great reviews from CNET, I found FolderClone, which allows me to select a source directory and it will automatically copy any new data in that source directory to my target drive automatically. I can set it to run every few minutes, every hour, once a day, once a week, and everything in between. It is a virtual RAID like solution; however, without having the hassle of duplicating everything and I can selectively choose which directories to copy.

Questions or thoughts? Join us on the forums.

Inexpensive underwater case for Canon 7D

We have pointed out some cool underwater cases/housing for your Canon 7D DSLR in another post. But this new offering by Aquapac intrigues us and we will be looking at it in a few weeks to see if it actually works!

Questions or thoughts? Join us on the forums.

Review: What external hard drive to purchase for my camera?

There's a plethora of different options for external hard drives out there. But we're only going to recommend one today. So we searched the web for the most up to date, USB-powered, slimmest, cheapest, and most reliable external hard drive to purchase. The winner? The Western Digital My Passport Essential 1TB drive.

Pricing we looked at from Amazon.com on 7/31/2011:

Hewlett Packard HP Portable 1 TB USB 3.0/2.0 External Hard Drive ($125)

Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 3.0/2.0 Ultra Portable External Hard Drive ($89)

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1 TB USB 3.0 Ultra-Portable External Hard Drive ($91)

Reliability? Backed by 2 years warranty. Speed? Uses USB3.0 5gbit/sec connection -- if your computer supports it. On a regular test between our UDMA card reader and slow CF card, it was kicking in 12Mb/s transfer from the CF card to the USB 2.0 connected drive.

Here's some other pictures that we took to show you this awesome 1TB hard drive, thin as a sharpee!

We will probably update this page next year with hard drives that have bigger sizes! Who knows is 2TB self-powered external drives coming to the market soon? Let's see if Western Digital wins again.

Questions or thoughts? Join us on the forums.

Microsoft codec update -- supports viewing Canon RAW files natively!

Microsoft recently released Microsoft Camera Codec Pack for Windows 7 and Vista. This codec update allows your Windows operating system to natively view RAW files as thumbnails. This is helpful because you no longer need to install non-Microsoft codecs, or have to run third-party applications just to view RAW files.

Here is the link to the update:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26829

Questions or thoughts? Join us on the forums.

Motorized Sliders and Time Lapses

We've been very impressed lately with some of the motorized sliders (and cool timelapses out of it).

Here's a quick video of a motorized slider on YouTube:





While this isn't motorized, there is a fairly cheap slider available at Amazon:





Questions or thoughts? Join us on the forums.

Canon Store sale - 20% coupon

Canon recently sent us a flyer for 20% off their Canon Store products. Typically I see their products being overpriced compared to stores like B&H and Amazon; however, 20% is still a decent discount and we wanted to share this with you. The coupon code is PRES2011. They also have free ground shipping available temporarily if your orders exceed $100.




Questions or thoughts? Join us on the forums.

Film shot on Canon 7D bought by Paramount for $4 million

News has it that 27 year old, Drake Doremus, director for the film Like Crazy, has sold his movie rights to Paramount Pictures for $4 million.

Great job Drake! The film is a debut young starlets Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones. They are a couple in a long distance relationship. The plot involves modern storylines of student visas, immigration policies, and U.S. deportation. (For folks actually experiencing this in real life: look up K1 fiance visa)

So what does this say to the DSLR filmmaking industry? Low budget DSLR equipment can deliver the money.

Questions or thoughts? Join us on the forums.

Review - cheap fish eye lens for Canon DSLR: Vivitar - Fisheye lens - 7 mm

For Christmas, we got a wonderful fish eye lens added to our kit: Vivitar - Fisheye lens - 7 mm - f/3.5 - Canon EF.

Now don't let the Canon EF mount fool you, this is a manual focus only lens. But boy, what an experience! We set this baby loose on the hallways and the video effect is a wonderful addition. You could go with the "dazed" look if the script looks for someone that's drowsy or confused. Or dreamy feel. Lots of applications you can use this in for your film.

What a wonderful addition to our photography and videography kit! The lens sells for around $300, but it is definitely cheaper than the $500+ lenses that's for sale by Canon and other brands.



Questions or thoughts? Join us on the forums.