Here are some collapsible LED “camping” lanterns from Etekcity. The reason I put “camping” in quotes is because there is no sign of waterproofing on these things.
I suppose if you’re camping in the desert they’d be fine.
Wait, no they wouldn’t be. Because one out of the four didn’t work, and the soldering was abysmal. If you want to see details, I do a tear down in the video.
I got a Volt/Amp/Watt/Wh Meter from Banggood and wanted to put it to some use. So I decided to stick it in the back of a receptacle box, making some kind of metered extension cord.
This video shows the process of doing that, but is also a test of the Blackmagic Video Assist 4K vs. the Atomos Shogun for a review I’m working on. It’s a literal side-by-side comparison of the two. Though there’s no difference in quality (there shouldn’t be — they were both recording in ProRes HQ via SDI), I recorded about an hour of footage and neither one showed dropped frames or sync issues during that time. So far so good.
More to come on that later..
I’m currently comparing the Blackmagic Video Assist 4K and the Atomos Shogun, and will be doing a review shortly. If you have any questions, comments, or things you’d like to see me cover please let me know in the comments (here or on YouTube).
I know that the VA4K is a current product, and the Shogun is a discontinued previous version. So why compare them? Well, because I’m focused on people like me: Low-budget shooters that want good equipment for their money. The VA4K is priced comparably to a used (but excellent quality) Shogun. So for a particular budget, those seem to be the most compelling options for a 4K recorder.
Hey you! Internet user! Are you tired of getting sneeze and other bodily fluids all over your remote controls? Well this Banggood seller has a solution just for you!
I was looking for a super bright projector to use for in-camera visual effects or even simple presentations. I found one for under $150 on eBay that was 5100 lumens! That’s an AMAZING deal, but the projector was a bit more than I bargained for.
Check out the video for a more in-depth description of the problem, but the short of it is that most smart thermostats (and a lot of smarthome devices) rely on someone else’s servers in order for them to be accessed remotely. And because of this, “remotely” doesn’t just mean when you’re out of the house, but inside the house as well. If the “smart” device company ever goes out of business or decides to stop supporting whatever you own, then you effectively will no longer have an internet-enabled thing.
This isn’t true for all devices. Some do not require servers-that-are-elsewhere (or “the cloud” as it’s known) so that they can operate. But a surprising amount do, and that’s something to consider when buying an appliance, thermostat, Echo, or full home automation system. Will the company running those servers still be around in 5 years? In 10 or 20 years? And even if they’re in business, will they support it? With something like the Amazon Echo, that’s not much of a concern. But with a $250 thermostat from a “new” company it could be a factor.
I like the Fujifilm Instax Share SP-2, despite its wordy name. Sure, the film is expensive. But it’s a satisfying way to turn your digital photos into touchable items to give to elderly people that don’t understand the internets. Or even for yourself.
My old style programmable thermostat died last weekend, and so I rushed over to Home Depot to get a replacement. I wanted a smart thermostat mainly for its wifi connectivity, but also wanted to try out the truly “smart” aspect of it: Optimizing heating and cooling cycles to suit my needs.
They did an excellent job with the user interface, making setup really easy. And their app, though slow to connect at times, is overall well-designed and easy to use. So far I like the ecobee3, but my main concern is with reliability/longevity, and that of course remains to be seen.
I decided to start another YouTube channel. Not because my main channel was getting out of hand, but because I want to bang out a bunch of quick videos just to get practice. And also there’s stuff that I cut out of some of my main videos that I wanted to share.
Annywhoo.. This video is about an Anker Powerline+ USB cable that came in a needlessly elaborate package.
This video goes ridiculously in-depth on the subject of 10 particular models and brands of popular NiMH cells. It covers my recommendations, as well as an extensive dive into my testing methodology.
As promised, here’s the spreadsheet that I mentioned in the video. Both links are to the same document, just in two different formats.
Google Docs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1fu729GXZJybWR0VWNHeDFTWHc/view
Excel File: NiMH_Capacity_Analysis-Scott_Dotdot.xlsx
Not to spoil the video, but if you’re here for a recommendation: At the current price of $21.99 for a sixteen pack, the EBL 2300mAh cells are the way to go. However, I’d also recommend the high capacity cells by Amazon and Sunlabz.
I own a bunch of Panasonic Eneloop cells, and they are reliable, well made, and meet or exceed their advertised capacity. I’d absolutely recommend Eneloops or Eneloop Pros, at the right price. They can be catastrophically expensive, which is the only reason they aren’t my first recommendation. The EBL and Sunlabz cells give much better value for money.
