In LA

I made a couple of impulse Blu-ray purchases today, and am now looking forward to watching these fine films:

Time Bandits [Blu-ray] $7.99

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin [Blu-ray] $6.991

But I also showed some restraint. Here’s something I successfully resisted purchasing today:²

White Aphrodisiac Telephone (Salvador Dali, 1938)

1. features commentary by The RZA [↩]
2. probably because none were available for sale [↩]

If you’ve got an iPad and enjoy classic arcade games or have ever thought of building a MAME cabinet, you might want to jump on this deal. Bed Bath and Beyond is clearing out their stock of iCades for half-off, at $49.99. I haven’t tried this, but it may be possible to even bring the price down further — Someone online says “Sign up for emails and get a printable 20% coupon bringing it to $39.99!”¹

The iCade is a cabinet for the iPad that features an arcade-style joystick and eight buttons. It connects via bluetooth to the iPad as a wireless keyboard, and support for it is built into several gaming apps, including Atari’s Greatest Hits. Here’s one user’s review.

If you’ve got a jailbroken iPad² you can use the iCade to control imame4all³ and other emulators. It’s great to play such games with a real joystick and buttons. I’ve been using an iCade for a while, and still plan to replace its joystick with a real sanwa, which apparently isn’t that difficult to do.

I don’t know how long this deal will last, but I think it’s a good one.

1. Not my exclamation point, I should perhaps include a “sic” of disapproval. [↩]
2. jailbreaking the thing is very easy to do right now and is legal [↩]
3. just jailbreak and then install imame4all via cydia [↩]

I just happened upon a deal and figured I’d pass it along. If you’ve been thinking of getting a video-capable DSLR, you can now get a refurb T2i at under $500 shipped.

The Canon T2i is my bang-for-the-buck camera of choice. It shoots video that’s identical to that of their more expensive models T3i and 7D, and it’s also easily hackable to run the Magic Lantern open-source firmware. Magic Lantern gives the camera a ton of new useful features, such as time-lapse, HDR multiple-exposure bracketing, focus peaking, focus zoom, and more.

Canon’s discounted the price of some refurbished cameras by 15%. Which brings the T2i down to what must be its record low price.

The Deal:

• Here’s a link to the EOS Rebel T2i Body Refurbished – $475.99.
• They also sell it with a very good, cheap kit lens: EOS Rebel T2i EF-S 18-55mm IS Lens Kit Refurbished – $543.99.

According to the site at which I found the deal, “Shipping is $5 for $150+ purchases with coupon code SHIP11 [Exp 12/11]“.

Shoot right with this camera, and it can look ridiculously good. I bought mine back when the best price for the T2i body alone was $799 about a year-and-a-half ago, and have no regrets. It allows me to shoot video to a large sensor (APS-C size) using my excellent Canon lenses and even old Nikon lenses using an adapter.

A few clips I’ve shot on my T2i can be found here. They’re not best-of-breed, but should give some idea of what video from the T2i can look like:

• my first online DSLR video
• Looong Steadicam Merlin + Canon T2i shot
• On the streets of Hengdian, China

My first video shot on my T2i:

pizza and the dream of not being filmed from ZachFine on Vimeo.

My previous favorite bluetooth headset¹, the Plantronics 520, is on sale at Newegg until 10/22 for $22.99 with coupon code “EMCJKHK69″².

This Voyager 520 is great, I’d highly recommend it if you need a headset. I’ve gone through a few 520’s and have gifted a few over the years, but have never seen them priced this low. The 520 is small, has enough power for 180 hours of standby, cancels background noise well enough that in my experience the person on the other end of the line could rarely tell I was using a headset at all, and it has one of those futuristic blue LED lights that’ll properly mark it as very dated tech when your toddler comes of age and finds it in a shoebox in the garage.

I get no personal benefit or kickback from recommending this product, it just happens to be a headset I really like at an exceptional price. Get it here if you need such a thing. The coupon code expires on 10/22.

1. I’ve since gone on to a fancier, larger, and not necessarily better Plantronics model [↩]
2. sale price is $29.99 without the code [↩]

I’ve thought many a time about how much fun it’d be to have a very minimal but smooth little dolly, which I would use to move my DSLR in lines and curves on a smooth surface while shooting video. A number of products have popped up over the years. Here’s a list of the ones I’ve noticed:

Click any image thumbnail to see it embiggened.

Item	Price	Image	Note
The P+S Technik Skater Mini Camera Dolly	$5400		The one that started it all, I think. Costs a little less than the last used car I bought and undoubtedly moves more smoothly. Out of my price range until I start shooting for Spielberg.
Omni-tracker Slim-Line “LITE”	$495		The Omni-tracker looks a bit like a P+S Technik carved of purest PVC plastic and endowed with a carrying handle. This may be the only item in this list that will float in water1. They make heavier duty models as well, it costs $1500 for their top model.
KONOVA Scaled Rotational Axis Skater Dolly	$125		This looks a lot like what I’d probably build if I were to make my own, but I’m not sure that’s such a good thing. Something about them doesn’t appeal to me, but I can’t put my finger on it. If I put my foot on it I could probably skate. +Who named this thing?
DIY Skater Dolly	$20-$∞ + time		Pictured is dvxuser forum member Texanite’s rather gorgeous acrylic skater dolly, he sells them for around $400 when they’re available. This is an example of the kind of thing one could build with infinite time, materials, and skill.
Cinetics Cineskates	$275		An innovative skater dolly consisting of a set of super-engineered wheels that connect to a “GorillaPod Focus”. It’s a Kickstarter project, so the pricing will change soon. I’ve quoted the cost of a full kit, with tripod and ballhead. The wheels by themselves are $150 for a set of 3. I’m a little curious how rigid it’d be, but 930 kickstarter backers can’t be wrong. My resistance to spending $50 per wheel keeps me a step short of buying, but I’m tempted by its bizarreness and quality.
Pico Flex Table Dolly	$65, or $90 with friction arm extension		I give up. This newcomer looks like it will be too much fun. I’d probably spend $65 or more building my own, and mine would be less well engineered. Check out a video of the item in use here. It’s a very simple-looking item, but it does appear to be flexible enough, small enough, and smooth enough for my purposes. Their price for the friction arm is also very good. Ordered.

Cineskates popped up on the net the last week of August and got me interested in thinking again about skater dollies after more than a year of ignoring the category. The Pico Flex, which appeared on the net a week later, is where I’ve ended my search for now. I’m excited to play with the thing when it arrives.

1. I’ll keep that in mind for nautical use [↩]

I’ve previously written on this blog about the Creative Vado HD solid-state 720p video cameras. I enjoy knocking mine about (both above and below the waterline) and I tend to recommend them to people who just want to capture moments with family, or to those looking for a simple video camera to give to a future filmmaker, or to folk who want a camera cheap enough to risk destroying in unsafe conditions¹, or to anyone who simply wants a convenient tiny video camera. The reason I particularly like the Creative Vado series as opposed to the now-defunct Flip cameras and other competitors is that the Vados feature the widest-angle lenses in this class of camera. I thought these were a good deal when their price fell to $129 a couple of years ago. Today I noticed refurbs are available for 1/3 that price. Perhaps they’re being cleared away due to the fact that some popular smartphones record video of equivalent quality, and are eating away the market? Regardless the reason for the discount, I think these cameras are fun, useful, and a great value.

The Creative Vado HD 8GB (refurbished, first generation), is currently² listed at $40, and the third generation Vado HD (refurbished, available in several candy colors) are on sale for $50.

Both of these are solid-state video cameras that charge and transfer video to computer over a concealed USB connector and record pretty nice (for the price) 720p HD video at 30 frames per second. The older Vado records to mpeg-2 codec and includes 8Gb of storage space (~2 hours of record time), and the 3rd generation records to mpeg-4 and includes 4Gb of space (also ~2 hours, possibly at the same or better visual quality than the older model due to the more efficient mp4 codec). I haven’t yet used a 3rd gen Vado HD, but it appears to include an improvement that was at the top of my wishlist for the earlier Vado HDs: improved dynamic range and some manual exposure control. These cameras clip highlights³, it’d be nice to be able to minimize that issue and knock the exposure down a peg.

Also available at a discount right now, and possibly of interest to anyone with a small camera or phone, is the Creative Labs Vado HD Underwater Pouch. This item has for some reason⁴ dropped in price to $10. I believe it is a rebranded Aquapac Mini Waterproof Camera Case, an item which normally sells for about $30 (under both the Aquapac and Creative brand names).

This pouch is basically a fancy polyurethane bag, with a strong seal⁵ and very clear vinyl windows on front and back. It can hold small cameras easily, and I’ll probably be using mine next month to keep my iPhone dry while kayaking.

For an example of the 2nd generation Vado HD and this pouch in action together, check out this a Green Sea Turtle video I shot in Hawaii. I also recently loaned out my Vado and pouch to The Perennial Plate, and they used it to shoot some underwater footage of an urchin diver for their web series.

1. such as underwater in a fancy plastic bag [↩]
2. last I checked — the price could change any moment due to the way Amazon operates [↩]
3. a characteristic of all inexpensive digital cameras [↩]
4. momentarily? [↩]
5. I trust it more than I would a couple of ziplocs, FWIW, and have had no problems with mine over a couple of years of use. [↩]

This won’t count as important news for most folk, but a while back I had a bit of dry skin and a friend who was studying dermatology recommended I try “DML Moisturizing Lotion“. No local store carried it, and I ended up ordering from some place on the net that charged a pretty penny for shipping.

I like the stuff; Very light, non-greasy, no smell, and one 16oz bottle has lasted me a couple of years –but today it ran dry. I went searching the net, and am happy to note that finally some wholesaler is selling it via Amazon, and since I’ve got Amazon Prime I get free 2-day shipping. Neato.

Small victories FTW.

Now if only DML could stop trying so hard with their circa 1983 graphic design and simply package it in a plain colorless bottle, all will be well with the world.¹

1. With the exception of wars, plagues, and the design of the even worse “DML Forte” packaging. Is that gold Tekton with a pink squiggle? Ew ew ew. [↩]

When applications running on my mac attempt to send information back to servers on the net, I like to be informed. I also like to have the opportunity to block such communication when I feel it’s of questionable utility or I don’t trust the motives of the software developer. If you live at or beyond my level of paranoia, you might be interested in buying yourself a copy of Little Snitch, it’s available on a site called MacUpdate for half price for another day or two, $14.99.

I get no kickbacks or referral fees from providing this link, I just think it’s a useful piece of software and it’s not normally available at this price.

I moved back to the US of A three years ago, so it’s time to retire my old Beijing-themed header images. I’ll miss the photo of the bicycle-based park barbers and the photo of the bicycle-based couch mover and even the photos of a younger version of myself in front of a red wall, but it’s time for a set that’s new and more relevant to Los Angeles.

So here are the header images I threw together yesterday, along with brief explanations:

In Los Angeles it is important to drive everywhere, regardless the distance. Yes, you could walk 3 blocks to your destination, but then you’d miss out on the many routes suggested by your car’s factory-installed GPS system.

An average sunset in the hills of LA’s "Studio City" district.

The pets of a film editor I know share an "American Gothic" moment. Part of the "A day in the life of Burbank" collection.

Disneyland isn’t exactly LA, but it’s close. This picturesque scene is part of the Grand Canyon diorama, one of the many sights to behold while enjoying Disneyland’s charming and ancient train ride.

Due to the extreme horizontal aspect ratio, it’s a challenge to edit images for the header. But it’s fun. The header image displayed per visit is chosen randomly. Once I’ve installed more images, you’ll likely see a different image each visit.

Edit 9/21/2010: This deal now dead. They’re now selling on Amazon for $74.99.

Because I’ve bought or browsed similar items in the past, Amazon.com just sent me an email to let me know that the “Deal of the Day” is the Ultimate Ears SuperFi 4 Noise Isolating Earphones, which they’re selling today for $39.99. The email says this is 69% off the list price. I don’t know what Amazon’s regular price for these is as they’ve already changed their price for today’s deal, but I do know that these same earbuds go for $121.10 at buy.com, and they have sold for around $80 new on eBay¹. So this really is a significant price drop for what is normally an expensive item.²

The market has gotten pretty crowded since I first started using high-quality earbuds, and this particular pair is one of many I’ve never tried, but the reviews for the SuperFi 4’s look to be promising. For half price or less they may be a good choice if you’ve been considering a set of better earbuds than those which come with the iPod/iPhone/Zune/etc.

I like and recommend using earbuds over headphones when monitoring audio recording in a noisy environment, when watching or listening to a media player on a plane or train, or when listening to media in bed³. I’ve had very good experiences with Shure earbuds and with the Future Sonics Atrios. My Shure e2c’s I bought very cheaply on an earlier deal, and I use them for running⁴. The Atrios are part of my production kit, and I also use them when traveling. The fact that earbuds block a lot of surrounding noise, just as do earplugs, allows me to concentrate on listening at lower volume and without distraction. If you’ve got the need, these might be worth looking into while they’re discounted.⁵

1. My favorite way to determine the going price for an item is to do a search on eBay for completed auctions. [↩]
2. The last sale a search turns up for this item was back in July for $59.99. [↩]
3. I’ve slept with earbuds in and iPhone alarm on before when traveling or when sharing a room to avoid waking others. [↩]
4. Which I really need to get back to doing on a regular basis. [↩]
5. Or as Amazon says, “…while supplies last.” [↩]