Product Review: Fotodiox Neoprene Zoom Camera Cover Sleeve/Travel Case for SONY NEX 5N and SONY NEX 3C

Perfect fit for SONY NEX 5N - exactly what I was looking for

I purchased this neoprene sleeve for SONY NEX-5N camera, whose size is 4 1/8 inches wide x 1 inch wide in the narrow part, and 4 2/8 width if measured including the 18-55mm Lens.
I wanted to have something snug around the camera to protect the LCD screen if I take it out of the camera bag and put it in jacket pocket or carry it in my purse.
This sleeve is perfect. It is a nice fit, not too tight, but it takes little amount of extra space. I have about 1 inch of space left at the lens end, so it has room to fit a bigger lens.


Photo #1 shows the Fotodiox neoprene sleeve next the SONY camera cap for size reference. As you see the coloring of the sleeve is slightly different than the stock photo. There is no grey color edging on the sleeve, and I like it better this way than the stock photo version.

Photo#2-#4 :

Photo #2 shows the camera next to the sleeve. The flaps of the sleeve have Velcro and close around the camera once it is inserted into the sleeve.

Photos #3 and #5 show different angles of the camera inside of the sleeve before the velcro is closed. My camera has a filter and a quick release plate attached to the body.

Photo #4 shows the camera inside the sleeve with the Velcro closed. I show the dimensions of the closed sleeve. 6 inches by 6.5 inches. The tip (lens end) of the sleeve has about 1 inch empty, so a slightly larger lens will fit into the same sleeve.

Overall, I am very pleased. The fit is ideal, it looks decent, and construction quality is good.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product Review: Joby GorillaPod Hybrid Tripod

Great tripod! Comparison of options

I was looking for a light tripod for SONY NEX 5N, which is 17.1 oz with its 18-55mm lens. My choice was between GorillaPod GP2 (an older version that has over a hundred great reviews on Amazon.com) and this new model GorillaPod Hybrid (which had no reviews at the time I bought it). I decided to go with the new model for two reasons: it supports slightly heavier cameras (giving me room to add a bigger lens to this camera) and has dual action knob for horizontal and vertical orientation.

The tripod fits my camera perfectly: the quick release fits tightly and holds the camera securely. I tried wrapping the legs on various odd objects and various angles, it worked extremely well! Even when I press the button to take a photo there is no noticeable bounce. In a low light I would use a timer, which I do even with a regular tripod. An added bonus I did not expect is that it fits into my camera bag if I tilt down the head.

Below are some details I collected while deciding which GorillaPod will be the best for my camera. I hope others will find the summary useful as well. The most important thing is to buy the GorillaPod that can handle the weight of your camera (with the heaviest lens it takes, battery, etc).

Comparison of the old GP2 GorillaPod vs the new Joby GorillaPod Hybrid:
New: Dual action knob for horizontal and vertical movement for portrait or landscape orientation
New: Supports up to 2.2lbs [34 oz] compared to 1.75 lbs [23.4 oz] for GP2
New: Its weight is 6.4 oz compared to 5.8 oz for GP2

GorillaPod Original:
For point and shoot cameras up to 11.5 oz
Its weight 1.6 oz

Old GorillaPod SLR:
For SLR cameras up to 1.75 lbs
Is weight 5.8oz

New GorillaPod Hybrid:
For SLR cameras up to 2.2 lbs
Its weight 6.4 oz

GorillaPod SLR-Zoom:
For SLRs with zoom lenses up to 6.6 lbs
Its weight 8.5 oz

GorillaPod Focus:
For SLRs with big zoom lenses up to 11 lbs
Its weight 1.1lb

Common to all:
All have quick release
All have bubble level

Overall this is great tripod and so light. I am looking forward to traveling with it instead of several pounds of the old trusty Manfrotto tripod.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review  ★★★★★

Product Review: No!No! hair removal system

NO! NO! DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!! 

This was the first time I bought something because of a TV commercial. It looked so simple, easy and convincing.

But this product is nothing like it claims. First of all, it is finicky to use and often did nothing (you can tell because the light was not flashing). When I got the light flashing it was extremely time consuming. I spent a lot of time on a small area, because it did not always work and needed multiple swipes to produce any sort of result. To treat a large area you would need to spend hours on it. It can manage only light and fine hair that almost invisible anyway. The product claims that it will not grow back over time, but the hair does grow back.

I bought the product on a special discount using the promo on the TV commercial. I was worried about getting my money back given how false the other claims were. It took some aggressive screaming over the phone to get them to give me a refund, but they never refunded the cost of shipping the No!no! unit back even though in their advertising they promise it.

I DID NOT LIKE:

1) Hard to use
2) Did not work on all hair
3) Took a lot of time to produce poor results
4) Hair grew back
5) Return process was difficult

I LIKED:

1) Commercial (Sigh...)

NO! NO! DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!

Ali Julia review ★☆☆☆☆

Product Review: Sony NEX-5N 16.1 MP Compact Interchangeable Lens Touchscreen Camera with 18-55mm Lens

A good travel companion: light, great low light performance, very good still photos

 I first purchased Sony NEX-C3 and liked many things about it, but two problems caused me to trade it in for Sony NEX-5N, which addressed those two problems. I am very pleased with Sony NEX-5N. If someone is considering both of these cameras let me start with the differences between the two cameras that made me choose NEX-5N.

My main issue with C3 was seeing the LCD screen in the sun. SONY will have an OLED high resolution view finder for NEX series in November 2011. However the mount on the OLED electronic viewfinder is only compatible with NEX-5N and is not compatible with NEX-C3.

The second issue was ability to easily override the automatically chosen a focus point. NEX-5N has a touch screen which allows one to point where the focus should be, and sometimes this allows you to compose a photo which focal point off-center (automatic focus has a strong preference for items in the center).

WEIGHT

The weight of the camera with 18-55mm lens, battery, memory card, and strap is 17.1 oz.

The body of the camera is 4 1/8 inches wide x 1 inch wide in the narrow part. It is small but not so small that is inconvenient to hold or operate. Overall the camera feels good in your hand, the mechanical parts (hinges and other controls) feel well made and pretty sturdy. The 18-55mm lens in its smallest configuration is 3 inches long.

FAVORITE FEATURES

Features that I loved, two features I never had in other cameras I owned:
* Sweeping panorama - I absolutely loved it! It worked fantastically even hand held taking photos
of night time skyline. I am attaching a photo showing this feature below.
* Anti blur - in addition to having Optical Steady Shot this camera has an option for hand-held night shots.
It takes 6 photos in quick succession and combines them to generate one shot reducing blur due to unsteady hands.
Note: these settings produce JPEG format even when the setting is set to RAW

PHOTO QUALITY

I am pleased with the quality of the photos. I was very impressed with low light performance. I was able to take crisp hand-held pictures of New York skyline using the "anti blur" setting. With sweeping panorama option I do not feel the need for a wider lens. I do get significantly more barrel distortion from the SONY 18-55mm lens than from the Canon 17mm-85mm.

BATTERY

NEX-5N comes with a separate battery recharger, which is handy since the camera drains the battery rather fast it is nice to have a spare battery charging while the camera is being used. I purchased a 3-d party (Wasabi) battery pack (two NP-FW50 batteries, one Wasabi AC charger, one car charger converter for Wasabi AC charger, European converter) which works well with my NEX-5N. The entire pack costs less than one extra SONY battery: Wasabi Power Battery and Charger Kit for Sony NP-FW50, Alpha SLT-A33, SLT-A35, SLT-A55V, NEX-3, NEX-5, NEX-5N, NEX-7, NEX-C3 available on Amazon.com.

USER INTERFACE

NEX-5N has a touch screen which allows one to point where the focus should be, and sometimes this allows you to compose a photo which focal point off-center (automatic focus has a strong preference for items in the center).

By twicking display options I was able to make the UI easy to navigate. The most helpful setting was "Big font" under Camera options. Not only did it make the text easy to read, it removed a larger number of least useful icons which de-clutters the display.

The changes I found helpful:
* Turned off pop up help (located under "Setup" and called "Help Guide Display")
Why: The pop-up help gets in the way of every operation, you cannot see the screen as it totally obscures
what you are looking at, when you get rid of pop-up then the screen you were looking at also goes away.
* Turned off object tracking (located under "Camera" top menu)
Why: When you are trying to compose a photo where the focus is NOT in the center, you can use the touch screen
to indicate where the focus should be. However, if the object tracking is turned on the focus begins moving
and shifting even though the thing you are trying to focus on is not moving. The camera prefers
items in the center of the photo, rather then a composition using 1/3 rule.
* Turned off face registration and smile shutter (located under "Set Up")
Why: these options got in the way of a good photo composition

TRIPOD

I was able to use the tripod quick release I use for my SLR. The quick release plate is a wider than NEX-5N body. It extends both in the front and the back of the camera. You cannot balance the camera on it (it tips forward), however once it is on the tripod it is very secure. The photo at the top of this review demonstrates the fit of the quick release.  Photo #1 shows the camera upside down, and photo #2 shows the camera resting on table with the quick release down.

PHOTOSHOP COMPATIBILITY

When I originally purchased the camera Photoshop CS5 did not recognize the RAW format produced by NEX-5N. However on October 23, 2011 I downloaded the latest CS5 update and it recognized ARW files generated by NEX-5N.

PHOTOS INCLUDED with this review

1) Hand-held panorama shot at twilight showing a sail boat leaving New York Seaport with the skyline on the right. Split image in the same photo is a portion of the sail boat mast in actual pixel size, so you can see the details of the noise.

2) A shot of the New York seaport taken with the camera on the tripod. In the split image you see three sections of the photo in actual pixel size. #1 is close to the left edge, #2 is center, and #3 is a section close to the right edge. You can see the difference in sharpness between the center and the edges in the close ups.


Disclaimer: My interest is still photography and I have not used the movie option yet.

Overall, I am pleased with this camera. I found this camera to be a good substitute for my DSLR when I travel.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Clorox Toilet Wand Disinfecting Refill, 36 Refills

The new version is inferior to the original product.
 

I have been using Clorox Toilet Wands for several years. The last time I bought Clorox Toilet Wand refills on line I was very disappointed. What I received is an inferior product to the original refills. They are 1/2 height in size, and don't have the same scrubby material of the original ones. They also have a more unpleasant odor.
They do okay job on light stains, but do not have the power to deal with serious build-up.  I searched for the orignal refills but it appears that they are no longer available. This version must be a cost saving measure. I am attaching several pictures with the original cleaning head and the new version of the cleaning head.

The pictures are worth a thousand words.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia reivew ★★★☆☆

Toro 38361 Power Shovel 7.5 Amp Electric Snow Thrower

 Toro Power Shovel did a great job last winter!

I recently had lower back disk fusion surgery.  In my post-surgical state I have trouble bending and lifting heavy objects. But I can work the Toro Power Shovel!

I bought it with low expectation, thinking that either it will not work well or that I will have trouble with it due to my current physical limitation. Surprisingly, neither concern materialized. Toro easily chopped through 10 inch snow banks, and I was able to push it through the snow as well as move it up and down the stairs to the house. In some areas I was able to push it one handed which was an easier position on my back, and sometimes I needed the second hand to get through a tougher spot. The handle is adjustable so with the highest position I don't have to bend too much.

Toro power shovel did well even in wet snow.  It was a little harder to push, but I found that I could brace the handle on my thigh and that allowed me to push with my leg rather than my injured back. Then it was easy!

The hardest thing to deal was not the show shovel itself, but the 100 feet of electric cord, which was heavy, unwieldy and became almost unmanageable to coil back, especially when it became cold and covered with snow. The electric caddy was not much help, it was hard to control and required me to bend. Putting back the cord tired me out more than shoveling itself.

However I came up with a solution which works beautifully for me. Below is the description of what I came up with two photos to illustrate the solution. 

I used a small water hose caddy to coil the electric cord. I put the electric caddy on a chair, which meant I did not have to bend to coil the cord. One leg of the caddy support is on the chair seat, the second leg of the caddy support is on the back of the chair. The chair provides not only the lift to a convenient height but stability so the caddy does not wiggle when you crank the handle.

I found that the Toro power shovel was stable without having to lean it against a wall when I put it a big plastic storage bin. This way when I bring the shovel in and the snow melts into the bucket I did not have to worry about a puddles on the floor. The caddy with the electrical cord fit nicely on top of the shovel in the storage bin.

The shovel is build for a right-handed person.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product Review: Martex Hospitality Washcloths - 24-Pack

I use washcloths to wash my body. I don't like large, thick wash cloths that usually come with sets of towels.

I like them not too thick (but not too thin), not too small yet not too large, and I want them to dry during the day so at the end of the day I can throw into the hamper dry. These are perfect! A nice size, not too thick but definitely not flimsy. They feel nice and soft. They are stitched well and, so (over a year since purchase) haven't started fraying on the edges. I am attaching an image of a washcloth after one laundering, the stock photo shows them all bundled up and I wished I could see the entire washcloth when I was shopping.

When I was buying I did a bit of research on the manufacture and found that they also make washcloths that are sold in Bed, Bath and Beyond. So that helped with the confidence that they will be decent quality. And they are!  Amazon's price for a 24-pack was the best price I could find.

See attached photo to see the unrolled washcloth next to ruler for reference. 

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia Review ★★★★★