In January 2008 I purchased a used 30D from Adorama, hoping to take advantage of 2 generations of advances since my 10D was made. I opted to purchased a used "as-is" body rather than a refurbished unit, and have been paying for that decision for almost 7 months. More after the bump.

Every now and then a gadget comes a long that grabs my attention. This week I came across an article about the ATP GPS Photo Finder. This small device, used in conjunction with a digital camera, allows you to stamp the images with the latitude and longitude where picture was taken. I was immediately intrigued. I have always resorted to manually plotting the coordinates on such image hosting sites like Flickr, a tedious and time-consuming task when you're dealing with a large amoung of images. More after the bump.

Though this isn't for a Canon DSLR, this is a new development in firmware hacking for Canon DIGIC-II-based cameras. The CHDK Firmware allows you do add some extended features to your Canon PowerShot A610, A620, A630, A640, A700, A710 IS, S2 IS and the S3 IS cameras.

Like with any firmware, there are some risks involved, but if you have one kicking around, you might actually get real use out of that 'Direct Print' button with things like:

Scripting! =>some examples
RGB Histogram
RAW images
HDR
Unlimited DOF
HDR Mosaic
Timelapse movies
Games?

There's a buzz this summer in the Astronomy/Atmospheric communities about a little-understood atmospheric phenomena called "Noctilucent Clouds". For some reason, this summer has had an outpouring of sightings. With some keen observation and some timing, you can see and photograph these for yourself.

This comes from a good friend of mine on #photogeeks. Though he admires the Gary Fong Lightsphere, he thought he could duplicate one himself. His result is a working and acceptable facsimile of the original.