dSLR Dad

I know there has been quite the bombardment of Black Friday deals this week. Well, to be a little different, I have decided to just update one page as soon as I find a new Black Friday Special. So please, check back often to see what the latest deals. The newest deals will be at the top of each section:

dSLR Camera Black Friday Deals

Nikon D90 Camera body for around $800 at both Amazon and B&H Photo.
B&H Photo has page listing all of their featured Holiday camera body and kit specials.
Adorama has the Nikon D3000 10.2 Mega-Pixel DSLR Camera w/ 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX VR Lens and a Nikon D-SLR Camera Bag with the Nikon “Fast, Fun & Easy” Great Digital Pictures DVD Easy” Great Digital Pictures DVD and free shipping.
Amazon Black Friday Deals in Camera, Photo & Video. Updated every day all week.

dSLR Lens Black Friday Deals

B&H Photo is discounting a bunch of Tamron Lenses.
Instant savings from $20 to $500 of some of Canon’s most popular lenses and Speedlights from Amazon.com. These deals are good until January 16, 2010.

Digital Darkroom Black Friday Deals

Amazon is offering Adobe Photoshop CS4 Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for half off ($125) on Black Friday. Available only on Friday, November 27th between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. PST.
Pixelmator image editor (Mac only) for just $14.99 at Amazon.

Adorama has specials on Sandisk Extreme II memory cards:

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Last year it was Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. This year, Amazon is again offering Adobe Photoshop CS4 Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 for half off on Black Friday. Click here on Friday, November 27th between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. PST to see the deal. Remember, this deal is only going to be for one hour, so make sure you tell a fellow dSLR Dad.

Canon USA’s current summer Instant Rebate program is quickly coming to an end.  For those dSLR Dads looking to pick up a new lens or flash in time for your next vacation, now is your time to save a little. The best part, no annoying mail-in forms to forget about, everything is taken off the price at your retailer of choice.  Canon’s current promotion will end on Saturday, July 11, 2009.

The following Canon Lenses are eligible:

• EF 200mm f/2L IS USM
• EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
• EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM
• EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
• EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM
• EF 50mm f / 1.2L USM
• EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
• EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM
• EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM
• EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
• EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
• EF-S 17-85MM f4-5.6 IS USM
• EF 70-200mm f/4L USM
• EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
• EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM
• EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM
• EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM
• EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

The following Canon Speedlite’s are available:

• Speedlite 580EX II
• Speedlite 430EX II
• Speedlite 220EX
• Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX
• Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX

You can find all of the above at Amazon, Adorama, and B & Photo. As always, any time a dSLR Dad clicks over to these fine retailers, it also helps keep this site going, so thank you.

I just received my Joby Gorillapod Focus in the mail today.  All I can say is that I think I have found my new travel tripod.  Most of you have probably already seen Gorillapods in the stores, the Focus is a whole different animal:

1. All of the socket joints are made out of anodized aluminum. They are made out of aluminum because:
2. This little unit can hold up to maximum of Eleven pounds (7kg)!
3. It is large for a Gorillapod at 11.4 by 3.6-inches (289 x 92mm), but the Focus is still extremely compact for my intended use as a travel tripod. The weight is still a respectable 1.1-pounds (500g).
4. Like any Gorillapod, it’s legs can bend to and contort into any position. Since each little socket has a rubber ring around it, you can even wrap it around a fencepost. Again, it will still hold 11-pounds!
5. Since it has some decent size to it, those dSLR Dads whole can also shoot video can use this as a steadycam rig.  Just angle out two feet in front of you and hold on the third like a hand grip.
6. You can mount to both a standard 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch mount, via the included adapter screw. That means that you can even attach your nice Kirk or Really Right Stuff Ballhead to it, which is what I plan to do. Heck I may just wrap this around the top of my regular tripod if I need to.
7. The street price is $99.95.

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I never used to worry much about my Canon 20D’s LCD screen.  It was only 1.8-inches and had plenty of camera body wrapped around it.  Now, with most dSLR screens taking up more than half of the back of the camera, keeping that LCD clear is becoming more of a concern.  There are many solutions on the market, but most involve a thick additional piece than usually just ends up getting in the way.  The best solution I have found for protecting that big piece of glass on the back of your camera is the invisibleSHIELD by ZAGG .

ZAGG’s invisibleSHIELD is a thin polyurethane film originally created for the military to protect the leading edge of helicopter blades that is highly resistant to scratching.  The results can be seen in this comparison video (more…)

Amazon.com says Merry Christmas with a $139.99 Lightroom 2 Deal

Full disclosure, I’m placing my order as I write this post.  Amazon.com is selling the full version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 for just $139.99! I’m not sure how long this deal will last, but a little twitter birdie told me that it may be all weekend. As a dSLR Dad who shoots lots of RAW image files, Lightroom 2 is the perfect tool at managing vast amounts of images, both RAW and JPEG, and intuitively edit single photos or batches of images. It also makes it incredibly easy to create an html or flash slideshow for email or the web. Finally, if you subscribe to Ansel Adam’s view that it’s not a photograph until it is a print, Adobe’s Lightroom 2 has the best print engine in the business (well, at least under $1,000).

You can find Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 on sale this weekend at Amazon.com.  If you have never used Lightroom 2 before, may I recommend you pick up Scott Kelby’s The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers and/or Mikkel Aaland’s Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure: Mastering Adobe’s Next-Generation Tool for Digital Photographers.  Two of my favorite authors that will help you develop a solid workflow with good techniques.

As always, you can learn more at the dSLR Dad Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Resource Guide.

I’ve already compared both Best Buy and Circuit City’s Black Friday deals with B&H Photo Video.  So you already know about their various  Canon, Nikon, and Sony camera specials.  B&H Photo, however has some other deals that a dSLR Dad may be interested in:

• Canon EOS 40D SLR Digital Camera with Canon 28-135mm Lens for $1,006.95.
• Epson Stylus Photo R280 Inkjet Printer for $29.95.  This is a great value on an Epson printer that uses their long-lasting Claria Hi-Definition Inks.  Heck, a full set of ink would cost you $56.  Add some of the excellent Epson Ultra Premium Luster, Exhibition Fiber, or Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk papers and you will produce some fantastic prints.
• Sony Alpha DSLR-A700 Digital Camera Body for $999.99
• Olympus E-520 dSLR Camera with 14-42mm Lens and E510 Gadget Bag for $497.95.
• Free shipping on all Nikon Cameras.
• Up to $125 instant savings on various Canon Lenses and Flashes.
• Four Day Black Friday Special on 4GB and 8GB Sandisk Extreme III Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory.  These are the previous 15MB/s Extreme III cards, but they are still very fast and a great value.
• Samsung SyncMaster 245T 24-inch Widescreen LCD Computer Display for $619.95.

I’ve already compared both Best Buy and Circuit City’s Black Friday deals with Amazon.com.  So you already know about their Canon dSLR, Lenses, and Speedlite savings as well as $75 to $600 off all Nikon dSLR Cameras. Amazon, however has some other deals that a dSLR Dad may be interested in:

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It is a good time to be a dSLR Dad, especially if you actually have some cash this holiday season.  Amazon.com has the 10.2 Megapixel Nikon D200 dSLR Camera Body available for only $799.98!  For those dSLR Dad’s who were looking at either the Nikon D90 or an older D80, the D200 offers you a lot of value:

• 10.2 Megapixel DX-Format CCD (3,872 x 2,592 pixels).
• 11-area Multi-CAM Autofocus system (convertible to a 7-wide area AF system).
• Fast 5 frames-per-second continuous shooting (22 NEF RAW-file bursts).
• 1005-pixel 3D RGB Color Matrix Metering II system
• dSLR Dad durable Magnesium alloy chassis.
• 2.5 inch LCD.
• Screw motor drive works with all Nikon F-mount lenses.
• i-TTL Creative Lighting System build-in to command Nikon Speedlights wirelessly.

The Nikon D200 dSLR Camera is available now at Amazon.com. If you are not sure what lens to pick up, may I suggest Nikon’s new AF-S DX Nikkor 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED Vibration-Reduction (VR) Zoom Lens or the ever popular and versatile AF-S DX 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF VR Zoom-Nikkor Lens.

You can now buy the 10.2-megapixel Nikon D80 for just $699 at Amazon.com!  At that price,  it still offers many features that make it a better choice for a dSLR Dad compared to the Nikon D60.  Features such as:

• 11-area Autofocus system with wide-area center segment and auto-area AF functions.  This AF system features a center cross-type sensor and excellent low light detection (inherited from the Nikon D200).
• A lens mount with the built-in focus drive motor.  Allowing you to use more than just AF-S lenses.
• Built-in Speedlight with Nikon i-TTL flash metering and two-group wireless commander mode that works with the with the  Nikon SB-900, SB-800, and SB-600 Speedlight Flashes.
• Auto exposure bracketing of 2 to 3 frames.
• A viewfinder that offers a 0.94x magnification (versus the D60’s 0.80x)
• Slightly larger body for those dSLR Dads with bigger hands.
• An available MB-D80 Vertical Battery Grip accessory for those who enjoy using such options.

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