Swivi External Swivel HDMI LCD Field Monitor

This is certainly not SmallHD quality of any kind, but with its very attractive price tag, the Swivi External Swivel LCD Monitor is by far the best overall HDMI field monitor under $400. It is definitely better than Ruige, Lilliput, and some low end Marshall Electronics and ikan monitors.

The most appearing feature of the Swivi External Swivel LCD Monitor is the integrated articulating display. Being able to monitor footage from any angle is a big plus for videographers and photographers.

A good LCD field monitor is more than just reviewing recorded or live footages, it is a decision assistant. In order to help film crews making better adjustment on exposure, focus, position, high end LCD field monitor typically loaded with lots of features such as Peaking, Focus Assistance, False Color, Pixel-to-Pixel Zoom, Guidelines and Safe Marks, and etc. Of course, all of the features are developed on top of the dead accurate color display – what you see is what you get.

The Swivi External Swivel LCD Monitor has some of the high end features: Peaking and Safe Zoom. It also auto scales between 1080i and 480p to maximize the effective pixels on the 5.6 inch screen. Below is a good but long video review. Auto Scale is at 5:08~5:30 marker, and Peaking is at 5:30~6:28 marker.

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The ultimate tablet showdown: iPad 2 vs. Asus Transformer Prime

Being the first ever Quad-Core processor tablet, Asus Transformer Prime stormed the holiday season gadget market and sold out instantly everywhere. While most online retailers not taking any preorders nowadays, Amazon has the red hot Asus Transformer Prime available for very limited quantity.

As of today, iPad 2 is still the king of tablet with its elegant design and user friendly interface. However, until Apple releases iPad 3 with its long anticipated A6 processor, Asus Transformer Prime, powered by nVidia Tegra 3 Quad-Core processor, will temporarily take the hardware supremacy from Apple. Not to mention Asus Transformer Prime offers 1 GB DDR2 memory, twice as much as iPad 2, that allows you to do more with multi-tasking.

Like most Android tablet, Asus Transformer Prime has 1280 x 800 (16:10) super IPS screen with Gorilla Glass. As the whole world shifts to the wide screen format, it seems Apple's iPad 2 (1024 x 768, 4:3) is the last wall standing between the old 4:3 and new 16:9 format. Why does it matter? When you watch any HD video, you will see wider black bars on top and bottom of the iPad screen. This leads to less effective pixels for the actual video contents.

Asus Transformer Prime is .1 inch thinner and 16 grams lighter than iPad 2. At same price, Asus Transformer Prime also offers twice as much built-in storage as iPad 2. You can expand your Asus Transformer Prime local storage with the on-board microSD slot as well. On top of that, Asus unlimited cloud storage is at your finger tip.

As far as operating system goes, Android has closed the gap to Apple's iOS 5. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich might not be as good as iOS 5 yet, but it is definitely better than iOS 4.3.2. Android 4 is more like an iOS 4.8 relatively speaking. Any current pace, it will be a very tight race between iOS 6 vs. Android 5.

What makes iPad 2 and other iOS devices so special is the APPS. There are more apps for iOS than Android. Because of the popularity of iOS, vendors will always develop apps for iOS first before they port it to Android and other platform.

Altogether, Asus Transformer Prime will most likely emerge as the best Android tablet on the market for awhile. It will not dethrone iPad 2; instead it will just take a small chuck of market share away from Apple until iPad 3.

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Control DSLR camera Live View on Android and Kindle devices

Most modern DSLR cameras allow you to remotely control focus, exposure, time lapse and other settings on computer via USB connection. With increasing popularity of the smartphones and tablets, you can remotely control your camera without computers.

For travelers and on location shooting, Android and iOS devices have clearly advantages over traditional PC/MAC:

• Longer battery life
• Space and weight saver. Regardless of how slim and light your laptops and netbooks are, they are still relatively bulkier and heavier than smartphones and tablets

You can get the DSLR Controller app from Android market

The $199 Amazon Kindle Fire is one of the smallest Android tablets with powerful CPU inside that can matches up against any $400+ Android tablets today. The 7" IPS display with 1024x600 resolution and 16 million color is better than majority of the HDMI/SDI DSLR LCD field monitors except the SmallHD DP6. With proper apps running on it, Kindle Fire would easily become an alternative solution for budget indie filmmakers to replace those low end to middle range field monitors. Remember, Kindle Fire is future proof, most field monitors are not.

To run the DSLR controller app, all you need to follow the simple instructions to root the Kindle Fire

Get the Kindle Fire from Amazon.com