Ah, the holiday season shopping race is upon us! We only have a few weeks left to find that perfect present. As always, I am here to help. Perusing the local ads and flyers I have received recently…
I see lots of digital cameras on sale, some at sub-$200 prices. My advice would be to get a minimum of a 3 megapixel camera - anything less will be adequate but not yield the picture quality needed for enlargements or crops of smaller areas. I see some new cameras with 6x optical zoom, whereas most digital cameras previously had only 3x zoom (except for Sony, which has been and continues to be a major player). This is a very important feature. Ignore digital zoom, it is a useless. Don't worry about the memory card that comes with the camera; the size should not be a determining factor in buying the camera as you will almost certainly be buying more or bigger ones anyhow. Another good gift would be a set of batteries and a fast charger.
There are lots of digital video cameras to choose from. I see an ad for a Hitachi unit that actually writes to a DVD inside the camera. But, watch out - many DVD players in common use today cannot read the DVD writeable formats. If you (or the person you are buying for) already have a digital video camera, a gift of video editing software (with interface card) may be a cool present.
The latest thing in printers is the ability to print photos directly from digital photo memory cards. They even give you some limited ability to edit and compose the image. But I have to confess that I am cold on this - you are far better off doing the work in your PC using a good photo-editing program. To me, that is where the fun of the hobby is.
PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) are very ho-hum these days. I would not buy one of these for a gift unless the person in question knows exactly what they want. Palm has some new models out, with a new operating system, but PDAs with Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system still hold the lead.
LCD displays are coming down in price. The 15" units have stayed in the $350 range, but I am seeing 17", 18" or even 19" units at much better prices that in the recent past. 17" units can be had for around $500 and I have seen 19" units for less than $800. But read the reviews before you buy; look at the specs, especially brightness, contrast ratio, and viewing angle.
An external hard drive (mostly for backup use) makes a nice (and well meaning) gift. These are available for under $200.
Other nifty presents: Software to teach guitar; a USB joystick (much better than the old game port variety); Replay or TIVO Digital Video Recorder; writeable CD drive; optical mouse; anti-virus software.
Dud-of-the-Year: There are a number of manufacturer's making CD towers or carousels holding 75 or more CDs. They connect via USB and have software that allows you to catalog your CDs. But, they don't actually do anything except hand the disk to you - they don't actually connect to your computer to read the CD - you have to manually put it in your PC's CD drive. I think these are a dud and will disappear - buy a couple of $15 CD wallets instead at the local store and organize them manually.
Oh, and if anyone wants to be REALLY nice to your local computer guru, that Sampo 42" Widescreen Plasma Display TV at buy.com for only $3700 would fit right in my entertainment center!
Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).