If you're in the market for a tripod you may find my new e-book, Choosing and Using Tripods , of interest. There are 25,000 words and over 100 pictures, and it might well save you a good deal more than the $2.99 it costs you. If you go to http://www.rogerandfrances.com/e-books.html -- the bottom of the page, because the titles are in alphabetical order -- you can see what it's about and click on a free 'taster' with a summary and abridged content.

For comparison, it's about ten to fifteen times the length of a typical magazine article, or between one-third and one-half the length of a 160 page printed book.

I have checked with Admin and as far as I understand it, I am not breaking UHH rules by posting this. If I am mistaken, I apologize, and no doubt Admin will remove the thread.

Cheers,

R.

I’m new to the DSLR world, and thinking about making my first filter purchase. (Will probably eventually buy a UV filter or two, although the advice on the desirability of those seems mixed.) One filter I’d definitely like to own and learn how to use is a solid ND filter. I’d like a 3-stop ND filter, 58 mm. And I guess one should always buy multicoated, right? (why is that?) So on B&H, with those criteria, I see 3 filters: 2 Hoya and 1 B+W. Priced at $26, 49, and 63. What is better about the middle and most expensive ones? Any reason that the cheapo Hoya wouldn’t be perfectly fine for a newbie like me? Thoughts? Thanks, hogs.

My father bought an 8mm film camera when I was young. After he died, we were looking through stuff and discovered many, many reels of 8mm film that he had shot. The idea came to us to convert all that 8mm film to VHS in order to better preserve those precious family memories. Well, technology moves on and now we see the need to convert the VHS tapes to DVD. Although there are many places who will do this conversion, they are expensive--and we have a lot of VHS tapes to convert!
Does anyone have any experience with, or knowledge of, equipment to convert VHS tapes to DVD? There are many tape players and DVD players and even quite a few combo units, but I am looking for something that will allow a VHS tape to be played by the unit and recorded to a DVD burner in the unit. If the unit will also record to VHS and DVD from the TV, then that is a bonus.

That's what I was thinking to begin with ... never would expect to find that at a yard sale ... estate sale ... maybe .. thanks for getting me back on the right track :)

As some of you know, I like to take wildlife photos. I just moved out to up state NY. about 5 months ago. And been having a wonderful time seeing all the wildlife here. I see lots of critters everywhere as I drive around.
Here's the problem: Unless I have the camera setting on my lap, I only manage to get maybe 1 out of 5 sightings.
Like today I missed a coyote jumping in the snow after what looked to be a mouse. He was about 20 feet off the road.
I stopped and grabbed fro my camera, it was still in the bag. By the time I had it out......well he was too far away for a shot.
So the moral I guess, is be ready all the time if I want those shots.
Any thoughts or ideas on this matter?

Interesting question.

I am reminded of the photos of O.J. Simpson that appeared in Newsweek or Time. He looked like crap and I suspect it was done on purpose. One can lie in print as well as lie with photographs.

What bothers me are those people that simply accept what they read as gospel without checking the facts. I could give you countless examples of people accused of lying by the left and it is easy to prove they did not lie by simply reviewing the actual facts.

I could mention a few names, but just doing that invites comments from people that listen to the press rather than the source. Another problem, you know the truth and you report it and you are called all sorts of bad things.

Sadly, we should be able to trust our press and not resort to serious research to see if the reportage is factual or not.

The only thing you can do is pick your causes and do some research to see if you are being told the truth. Fortunately, finding the truth is doable. But only if you will not be upset to learn you are wrong; nobody wants their sacred cows slaughtered and their world-view changed.

We can't even trust our Pop Music these days. So many "singers" are using auto-tune to correct their vocal deficits, you really do not know who can really sing.