Category Archives: Camera

Accsoon TopRig S40 Review – Is It Worth It?

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Accsoon TopRig S40 Review – Is It Worth It?

Accsoon TopRig S40

I have to say right away that I am NOT a professional photographer. And I don’t know much about this stuff. Anyway, I picked up an Accsoon TopRig S40 Camera Slider to try to improve my blog photos

and videos. A little motion, similar to the Ken Burns effect, really makes things pop when done correctly.

Camera sliders can be pretty expensive. I did a ton of research and landed on the Accsoon TopRig S40 partly due to some reviews I saw, and partly because the price was right at $249. I bought this with my own money. Most things I review here are sent to me.

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Foxwell Borescope Review

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Foxwell Borescope Review

Foxwell Borescope

I first learned what a borescope is in the early 1980’s when I was an aircraft mechanic in the US Navy. To me it was a marvel of engineering and almost seemed like science fiction. Today you can buy a Foxwell Borescope (FY406D) that is probably a thousand times better than the one I first saw and certainly a heck of a lot less expensive ($189.99 currently on Amazon).

There is a less expensive version called the Y400 which you can buy for $129.99.

When given the opportunity to review this I jumped at the chance. Conversely, I have several really good uses for it. Additionally, I believe every homeowner should have one of these. Not too long ago we figured out rodents had tunneled into our flexible duct work under the house. I had it all ripped out and replaced. Additionally, I plan on using this borescope to routinely inspect the ductwork as far as the probe length allows. This could end up paying for itself quickly. And it provides proof to my wife that the critters have not returned.

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Best Gear Of 2025

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Best Gear Of 2025

And yet another trip around the sun is near to completion. What was the Best Gear of 2025? These are a few of my favorites. Let me know in the comments what your selection for the best gear of the passing year is.

Computer Hardware

I should have added this to the bottom as a grand finale, but it also fits nicely at the top. For 2025 the Beelink Me Mini is one of my top picks for Gear Of The Year.

It is a high capacity NAS that is SILENT and uses NVME M.2 SSD drives for data storage. While the Beelink Me Mini is inexpensive, sadly memory prices have exploded. I got mine just in time it seems.

Equipped with 16 GB of built in RAM and four 4TB drives nets you about 12TB of storage in a RAIDZ1 configuration. Even better is that you can install TrueNAS on this device. This is replacing my very noisy QNAP NAS appliance.

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Ancel IR101 Thermal Camera Review

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Ancel IR101 Thermal Camera Review

Having a Tech Blog almost certainly involves having some fancy tech tools. One of the coolest (pun intended) tools I’ve stumbled across is the Ancel IR101 Thermal Camera.

Thermal cameras are awesome for identifying heat related issues as well as a whole bunch of other uses.

And for full disclosure, as always, Ancel provided me this IR101 to review. I’m not being paid to post this, and I’m not an affiliate of theirs, and there is no pressure, nor payout for a good review.

The device pictured has an Apple Lightning connector and is for older iPhones and iPad’s with that connector. The Ancel IR101 is also available in a USB-C form factor for newer iPhones or Android phones. And there is a cable which can convert the lightning connector on the camera to a USB-C male connector. And in fact, I bought this cable, with my own money.

There are a lot of choices for smart phone thermal cameras and the strength really lays in the application or software used. So far, I am really loving the app (Ancel IR in the Apple App Store) and working my way through all the of software options. And there are a lot!

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Vlogging Camera Light Comparison

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Vlogging Camera Light Comparison

Vlogging Camera Light

I’ve been really trying hard to up my photography and video game here on the blog. Lighting of course is one aspect of that journey. I have recently purchased a couple different brands of Vlogging Camera Lights, and I’ll shake them down here.

The fun part about this is that I spent my own money so I can call it like I see it. It’s not that I don’t do that already, but when someone sends me an item to review I try hard to WORK WITH THEM. If I find something wrong I contact them and most places are happy to hear the feedback and WORK WITH ME. But when I spend my own cash there isn’t any pre-established back and forth.

And I review so much gear provided by others I seldom get to write about the things that I spend my own money on.

So, I’ll use these lights and then I’ll tell you what I think about them. Let’s get started.

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Ultimate Guide To Using A Raspberry Pi 5 In A Photography Studio

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Ultimate Guide To Using A Raspberry Pi 5 In A Photography Studio

Raspberry Pi 5 Photography Studio

Yep. I said it. You can use the Raspberry Pi 5 in your Photography Studio.

Imagine connecting a high end studio camera to a Raspberry Pi 5 and taking some studio quality pictures by tethering your camera to your Pi 5.

Then you can control it via VNC from a nearby computer or laptop. Or of course you could hook the Pi to a KVM or plain old Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor.

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More Camera Tethering

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More Camera Tethering

Camera Tethering

I’ve spent a full week or two going through my old collection of cameras to see if they still can connect to a computer. My camera tethering experiment has been a mixed bag so far.

I’ve come to some unusual conclusions. Read on.

My first conclusion is that camera manufacturers only support a camera for so long. Most cameras, provided that you don’t toss them around, will last for decades. So the only reason to stop supporting them is so that you’ll buy a new one. By the way here is the photo from the “studio” shot above.

This needs to be stated: For every camera I mention below they still function perfectly as a stand alone camera. Pick them up, push that shutter release and they will copy your vision to its memory card. I am only talking about the tethering function not being supported. The cameras are still good and viable.

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Canon Powershot A640 Review

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Canon Powershot A640 Review

Canon Powershot A640

You might be asking yourself why I’m reviewing the Canon Powershot A640 which was released to consumers in 2006. By my estimation that makes it nearly 20 years old.

And you really might be wondering why I’m writing about it 19 years after I bought mine.

By today’s standards it has features that a lot of cameras today should have at the same price point.

I am not referring to sensor size or megapixels although it has a respectable 1 1/8″ CCD sensor with 10 Mega Pixels. And DPReview.com gave it a pretty decent review in late 2006.

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Camera Tethering

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Camera Tethering

Camera Tethering

I have written several articles on camera tethering over the years. And here I go again. I am FAR from any kind of professional photographer but I do have this blog and I do sell the occasional item on Facebook.

So allow me to discuss why I believe tethering is important.

Let’s dissect the photo just above for a moment. I am using a Canon A640, circa. 2006 tethered via a USB-B Mini 5 pin connector to a USB-A cable on the computer end. The laptop cost a whopping $75 and the white background cost around $35.

This is neither the best camera or laptop that I own. Far from it. I’m just making a point here. I’m using this setup to show how great results can be obtained without spending a ton of money. Additionally, there are pros that use tethering way more successfully than I ever will. I’m just a guy who stumbled across this great method of getting better results with the tools that I have. To this day I will not buy a camera that cannot be tethered to a computer.

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More Benfei Adapters

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More Benfei Adapters

Benfei Adapters

I’ve been extremely lucky to have been given the opportunity to test LOTS of Benfei Adapters.

As I have stated before I mostly use a MacBookAir and it essentially only has two USB-C ports and a 3.5mm audio jack.

That simply will not do for a guy like me with so many gadgets and electronics projects going on at any given time. I’m into audio. And I’m into photography. And a dozen other things. The only way to function with limited ports is to own ADAPTERS.

For example, my Mother In Law likes to stream church and watch it on her TV. Sometimes we all come over and watch with her. The only way to make that connection on her older TV is to have an HDMI adapter coming off of the computer.

I make quite a few videos with higher end cameras and microphones and by golly, I need adapters to read the CFexpress, SD and TF cards.

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