Buying Guides

The Olympus EP2 is the next chapter in exciting PEN line up: Solid controls, all-metal construction, creative Art Filters and HD video recording will appeal to photo enthusiasts and advanced shooters alike. Compact, lightweight and easy to carry, the EP2 is great alternative to a full-size DSLR.

MXL has come out with a new USB computer audio interface and microphone combo called the Mic Mate. It enables you to record up to four microphones, directly into a Mac or Windows computer, all in a compact package. A microphone is included, along with a table stand and the necessary cables. With the addition of the MXL Fox Microphone 3-Pack, you can have a full-blown mobile podcasting studio.

Biking a tough trail can be exhilarating—the wind rushing through your hair (through your helmet vents, of course) as you swerve to avoid obstacles, bombing down hills at speeds that you’ll brag about for months. Thanks to a new line of rugged sportscams and helmet cameras, you can have high-quality HD video to relive every jump and swerve in high definition. Or you can post the videos online so that your friends can live vicariously through your extreme sports exploits. 

This is my third year of teaching night photography workshops in the Mojave Desert with light-painting expert Troy Paiva. The workshops are held at a world-class junkyard called Pearsonville that has hundreds of rare '50s to '70s cars, trucks and buses. We spend three nights under the full moon making long-exposure photographs of classic cars.

Talking to someone on the phone anywhere in the world has never cost less since connections were rerouted over the Internet. The technology, called Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP calling, no longer requires a computer. Moreover, voice-only calling is being usurped by video. Leading the switchover is the Skype Videophone Touch from Asus, a model that comes with a $43 instant rebate through July 15.

The Sony Alpha NEX-5 is the flagship model of the company’s all-new mirrorless camera system. The smallest and lightest offering in its class, the NEX-5 boasts a 14.2-megapixel APS-C sensor coupled with finely tuned interchangeable lens options. Excellent low-light performance, HD video recording and a unique Sweep Panorama mode make the NEX-5 an excellent choice for photo enthusiasts and demanding shutterbugs alike.

In a world of photo gear that's becoming increasingly smaller, smarter, quicker, sleeker and oh-so-techier, it's kind of refreshing to review a line of cameras that are mechanical, don't require calculators to figure "effective focal lengths," are made out of plastic (and wouldn't be authentic if made of anything other than plastic), have lenses that contain nary a single aspheric surface and are guaranteed to break through the veneer of your grumpiest, stiff-necked relatives. They go under a class of photographica called Lomography cameras, and we've got them in all shapes, colors and sizes.