Just placed another order with Monoprice.com and have nothing but great things to say. Ordered a couple new cases for my iPhone, as well as some screen protectors, USB cables, and other small nick-nacks. Seeing the prices on the site though, always gets me a little upset. Perhaps the biggest money maker for any electronics store are the smallest things: cases, cables, little zips ties, mouse pads, etc. These items cost next to nothing to make, but because you need them, the stores know you’re willing to pay top dollar. Take for instance a phone screen protector; a small piece of flimsy and cheap plastic, such as the one they stick for free for packing on that watch you got from McDonalds with your last happy meal. Can’t be more then $0.10 to make, and yet, they charge you $20 for it.

Monoprice.com has been around for some time now, and is one of the few places I know of to go for reliable, quality, and cheap electronics. USB cables for under $1, screen protectors for $0.70, cases for $0.90, and thousands of other items. They aren’t defective or even low quality, they’re just not marked up. I’ve made a number of orders from them myself, and have recommended them to a few dozen people, who have all had nothing but good experiences. Shipping is dirty cheap ($2 sometimes) and orders, in my experience, have gone out the next day. Give them a try and let me know what you think.

Cheaper then some pieces of art paper, these portfolios provide an excellent way to showcase your work, either to a client or just to friends and family.

Available from just about any art of photography store starting at around $4 for the 6×4 model, they won’t break the bank. Sizes range from 4×6 all the way up to 18×24, with all sorts of sizes in between, some offered in both horizontal and vertical formats. Each portfolio features a polypropylene (fancy name for plastic) cover with 24 clear inserts, hard bound and non-removable. Each insert comes preloaded with a piece of black acid free paper, of which one photo can be placed on either side, allowing for 48 views. The exterior spine has a clear pocket, of which can house a piece of 9.2cm wide paper. The interior of the front page features a pocket which can easily hold several letter size pages, as well as a business card slot.

While this portfolio is certainly a deal, it does have some minor fallbacks. The clear inserts are somewhat easy to leave marks on by bending or scratching, so care should be taken while adding or removing photos. The cover isn’t very fancy like some more advanced models – looks more like a 3-ring binder folder then a luscious portfolio.

All in all, probably one of the better portfolios to deliver client prints in. Presentation is 90% of the product, and it’s important to make you’re product look good when delivering it, as word of mouth can easily make or break you. I often times include a model of these portfolios in the appropriate size with each order (pricing their costs into the first print price). It keeps prints safe in the mail and gives them a way to keep them together. I even go as far as to print out an information sheet, with contact and picture information and place it on the first view – a table of contents of sorts.

To the average person, the ColorChecker chat looks like nothing more then a cheap piece of plastic with a bunch of random colored squares on it. To a photographer however, the ColorChecker is often times one of the most invaluable pieces of equipment in their arsenal. With more uses then one of those two inch thick Swiss Army knives, once you unlock the powers of the squares, you will never go without one. Purchased for about $60 from Amazon (link to product page), it is quite possibly the best deal in town.

What is it? - The ColorChecker chart, formerly produced by GretagMacbeth, now produced by X-Rite, is a plastic based board, measuring roughly 8.5×11, with 24 differently colored squares on it, all equally sized and spaced. The colors are not printed, but instead applied to a special polymer, formulated to minimize color shift over time. Each chart comes with a small panphlet, identifying the exact color of each square in both RGB values, as well as LAB. Each color is made to represent a real life value, including skin tone, sky, grass, water, etc. The purpose of this chart is to be a reference for these colors, as well as all colors, to assist in the calibration of cameras, scanners, as well as help check the calibration of monitors and printers. Read more

Just picked up a new printer / scanner / copier, a Canon MP620 . Apple was kind enough to offer $100 off a printer of your choice with the purchase of a computer, so I took them up on this offer, knocking the retail price of $150 down to just $50 out of my pocket.

The machine features a built in wireless 802.11b/g, an ethernet port, USB connection (for camera or memory stick), LCD screen, several memory card slots, two paper trays with a dedicated manual feed, and a flatbed scanner to boot.

Print Quality - As expected, out of the box print drivers are marginal at best. Using the supplied sample of premium Canon media, along with the associated profile, yields a slight green cast and somewhat washed out colors. Using a spectrometer, calibration is possible to yield superior results. Printer uses a 4 dye based color system, with a separate pigment based black. While dye inks do offer an increased color gamut and often times a reduced cost, their durability and longevity is inferior to that of pigment inks. Maximum print size is 8×10. Print time was managable, with a 4×6 taking 43 seconds on normal photo resultion, 1:26 with everything set to highest quality. Text pages take on average 16 seconds, and the printer does not feature a duplexer. Read more