Lightscoop: Perfect Holiday Gift

Looking for that perfect inexpensive holiday gift for your favorite amateur photographer whose camera has a pop-up flash? And, attention, pros: This is the perfect gadget for all those folks who ask you how to make their pictures better.

It's an easy-to-use device that easily slips onto your SLR camera and dramatically improves the quality of flash photography.

And it's got a catchy name -- Professor Kobre's Lightscoop.

OK, you don't have to take our word for it, just because we happened to have invented it.

Everybody's singing the Lightscoop's praises. Listen:

Wired:
"LightScoop Rescues Horrible Built-In Flashes"

Bizzie Mommy:
“Lightscoop: My new favorite photo accessory. I was actually on the verge of buying an external flash before I discovered the Lightscoop while flipping through a photography magazine.”

Doobybrain:
"WOW! The Lightscoop is amazing!!"

Lifetime Moms:
“I have been avoiding taking indoor pictures at night because I just hated how the pictures would come out with the camera flash on... Luckily I stumbled upon the Lightscoop...”

A Cowboy's Wife:
“I attached the Lightscoop to my camera and voila! Now THAT is a HUGE difference! I’m already sold and that was just the first comparison I did.”

The Gadgeteer:
“Professor Kobre’s Lightscoop is a clever and inexpensive ($35) device that clips on to the hot shoe of your DSLR or SLR camera.”

Gear Diary:
“Tired of flash photography that makes your victims look like a deer in the headlights? Here’s a cool photography tool designed for the everyday picture taker.”

GadgetSteria:
“The 'Scoop redirects light upwards, bouncing it off the tops of walls and ceilings which ends up giving the immediate surroundings more of a glow instead of spotlight appearance.”

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Plenty more accolades can be found here, including raves from David Pogue (New York Times), and American Photo, which awarded the Lightscoop an "Editor's Choice" honor.

And here's how it works:



One-stop shopping at LightScoop.com. Guaranteed to make your holiday season brighter! (And more evenly lit.)

P.S. Here's a little gift for you. Use this gift code when you check out, and receive a 15% discount just for KobreGuide fans: HOLIDAY.

Death of the DSLR Camera?

Does the popularity (and high quality) of digital point-and-shoots spell doom for digital SLR cameras?

Gearlog, "a gadget guide by geeks, for geeks," thinks so.

As small auto-everything 35mm point-and-shoot cameras began to be able to create SLR-like images, SLR sales dwindled. We're on the precipice of the same thing happening in the digital world. Consumer DSLRs are going down.

How popular are DSLR cameras? According to the Camera & Imaging Products Association, DSLRs accounted for 8 percent of camera shipments in August. That may not sound like much, but considering that most DSLRs cost $500 to $1000, compared with point-and shoots that often cost $100 to $300, this is impressive.

Consumer-level DSLRs won't go away; they didn't in the film days, and they won't now. But they'll become marginalized as more and more people turn toward more convenient alternatives.

Gearlog's report provides fascinating historical context regarding the technological advances in cameras over the past half century.

NYT Photog Takes Chance With Video

What's remarkable about today's KobreGuide pick is the amount of feedback it has generated, not only for the story it tells, but for how the story is told -- aesthetically and journalistically.

Chang W. Lee (right), an award-winning New York Times senior photojournalist, reluctantly leveraged his talents for his first foray into videojournalism, a six-part series called "Second Chance," about triumphant life transformations.

His initial installment, "The Jazz Singer," showcased today on KobreGuide's New York Times channel, is drawing mostly effusive praise. But the nitpicks and quibbles are notable because they connote an increasingly more discerning audience.

As the Times itself noted on its Lens blog, Lee made the leap from stills to video only because the transition was eased by the much hyped "hybrid" Canon EOS 5D Mark II, a new SLR digital camera that also shoots HD video. His first video effort, signficantly, represents a "second chance" of sorts for Lee himself.

So how did he do?

On the positive side, viewers justifiably complimented Lee for the way his story's theme and subject -- a single mom fulfilling a lifelong artistic dream -- touched their hearts and inspired them. His images were inarguably "masterful" and "evocative." Many appreciated the way his frozen stills would seem to "come to life" and become moving images.

However, many took Lee to task because they felt his initial effort fell short of TV or feature-documentary quality -- and couldn't understand why the short video should have taken four months to research, edit and shoot. They wondered if the story wouldn't have better been served with simply still shots, or perhaps an audio slideshow, mediums that played to his established strengths. What purpose, they asked, did video serve?

Many noticed that the audio quality was uneven, a trait especially distracting in footage of a performing musician. Others thought the story's sequencing and shot progression was amateurish, and that the narrative itself was flat -- we don't see the main character experience inner growth or catharsis.

Some gave Lee low scores on basic journalism principles, feeling that the story lacked essential details (e.g. her musical background; her finances), and that there was an absence of sources and perspectives. For instance, we never hear from the nightclub owner, the singer's fans, her son. And where are the kid's dad and grandparents?

Some appreciated Lee's cleverly edited laundromat sequence; others felt it was extraneous and detracted from the main story.

In sum, the point here is not to pick on a particular photographer, who has spent decades shooting stunning images around the world, but rather to underscore the chasmic leap that even the best still photographers must make to conquer the world of videojournalism. While photographers have some advantages, as one critic aptly noted, a lifetime of experience capturing stills does not prepare you for shooting moving images: "It takes time and practice. It involves changing the way you see, think and work."

The harshest naysayers, accomplished videographers in their own right, compared Lee's video to a student project. While intended as an insult, that may in fact be the highest compliment. After all, the best videojournalists are learning as we're doing. It comes with the territory. Every assignment is another lesson. The mere fact that an established pro like Lee is willing to stir himself from his comfort zone and attempt to master new technologies and techniques -- and that he and the New York Times are bold enough to publicly display his fledgling efforts -- is a feat to be applauded.

We look forward to seeing the next five weekly installments of Chang Lee's "Second Chance" series.