Crumpler 8 Million Dollar Home

The industry has changed a lot since I bought my last bag and was looking for something that would also accommodate my laptop. I wanted comfort and style but did not want a professionally styled bag that shouted "steal me". One of the things that I noticed in using various bags through the years is that there seems to be styles that come and go. Often, bag companies create bags that answer the needs and expectations of consumers. Sometimes they make bags that don't seem to make a lot of sense. I remember using an aluminum clad suitcase with sharp corners that had to be put down and opened with two separate locks just to get a lens or cable release. The case looked very cool but was not really helpful for photographers who needed a bag to hold a camera that was ready to shoot. These cases were primarily designed for a photographer going to shoot a weeding or an event where the photographer was just transporting the camera.

It is not often that I come across a piece of software I really like. I have tried all kinds of backup software and had lukewarm results with most of them. A few months ago I tried GoodSync. I was a bit skeptical when installing it but soon learned that this is a powerful tool for backing up files to external hard drives as well as offsite locations.

I stopped taking my laptop home from my office and instead opted for a 16 gb Kingston USB drive. I installed the Goodsync software on my computer in my office as well as at home. Before I leave, I pop the USB drive into the computer and it recognizes my drive, looks for differences between the set of files on my computer and my USB drive and copies over all the missing files and updates any files that have changed. When I get home, I do the same thing and it is set to copy all my files from my USB drive to my home computer. It really is that easy. It was fast to set up although I did have a small glitch and had to contact support.

I also downloaded the Portable Apps software and carry around a ton of software on my USB drive. It has made my life so simple and I don’t have to carry around a laptop anymore. If I ever need a file, or application, I just pop it into a computer wherever I am and I instantly have access to all my files from work, home and my favorite applications.

Goodsync has a fee trial version and sell for under 30 bucks. A good investment. Available at www.goodsync.com

Tamron photo contest

Baseball, apple pie, diners, drive-ins, folk art. From its music to its main streets, America is defined by its history and its present, how we live and breathe within the fabric of our society. Enter the 2009 Tamron User Photo Contest and showcase your image of what makes America tick!

The Grand Prize Winner of the 2009 contest will receive a Tamron AF18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical IF Macro zoom lens—the world’s first 15X ratio zoom— featuring Tamron’s new Vibration Compensation mechanism (a $599 value).

AFi - 10 56 MP Camera

True Wide Frame’ (TWF) sensor
The new Leaf TWF sensor restores lenses to their full angle of view. Together with DALSA Corporation, Leaf designed the exclusive new 56x36 mm TWF sensor to deliver 56 megapixel resolution across the entire width of the Leaf AFi 10’s 6x6 sensor area. TWF sensor technology in the Leaf AFi 10 imaging module and Aptus 10 camera back is also compatible with over 80 large-format cameras, maximizing their capture area.