I'll admit that I bought this £10 car-boot bargain on a whim, hoping that it would be small and light enough to transform my RC Quadrocopter into a flying camera, but unfortunately it's just that little bit too heavy. However, attaching this small little camera to mine and Olivers bike handlebars proved it's worth with the video you can see in the youtube clip above.
Although I got my example from our local car-boot sale, you can see this video cameras on eBay for between £15 and £30, with HD versions going for a little more. The lower def, 640 x 480 video it produces is more suited to my low-powered lap-top, so expect to see plenty more footage this summer!
There's no doubt about it, if you don't know Richard Avedon's work, you should. One of the most influential photographers of the Twentieth Century, Avedons work graced the pages of Harpers Bazaar, Vogue and numerous personal works, addressing subjects from high fashion to mental institutions.
His apparently simple portraits - with people looking into the camera against a white background - often illicit revealing character traits in his celebrity subjects. Ask any modern fashion or portrait photographer who has influenced them, and Avedon's name will be there.
"Performance" is a collection of Celebrity and Performing Arts portraits of the famous and not so famous, and it is a fabulous set of images that could take pride of place in in photo lovers collection.
I was lucky to get my copy from my darling wife this Christmas, but also check out your local library system to see what Avedon books they've got - often these will be stored in a central depository and you can order them for a small charge.
Remember, take lots of photos and look at lots of photos.
If you've been following my experiences with the Galaxy Nexus, you'll know that this phone has seriously impressed me over the last 12 months. It's got a great screen, massive memory and enough processing power for all the latest applications.
The Gnex does have its short-comings. The camera is a bit noisy in darker conditions. The battery life isn't great, and I'd like to have seen a micro-SD slot too, but overall I'd still recommend it.
In fact, and I might change my mind about this, but I'm pretty sure that in 12 months when my contract runs out I'll be hanging onto the Galaxy Nexus and switching to a cheaper Data / Voice / Messages plan.
I was lucky enough to receive a review sample of the Watchbot Wireless Video Camera, from the guys and girls at www.watch-bot.co.uk. As you can see from the above video, the Watchbot is a great piece of kit that brings a simple solution to what I thought would be a complicated problem - how can a home user have an advanced video security system that doesn't cost the earth?
The Watchbot comes with all the software and leads to get started. The instructions are simple enough, and I didn't even have to mess around with any port-forwarding with our Tesco.net wireless router. Once you've completed the set-up, just choose somewhere to place the camera, plug it into the mains, atach a speaker if you want to talk through it, and you're done.
You can access, and control, the Watchbot through a simple web-interface on your laptop, PC, tablet or smart-phone, from work, home or on the move. On my Android Phone I use the free IP Cam Viewer Basic App, which allows me to use and move the camera from anywhere on Earth!
You can connect the Watchbot to your home alarm system, have your laptop record the video, or have the camera email you photos if it detects movement. The infrared LED's allow the Watchbot to see in the dark, giving it a capability normally only found on more advanced professional systems.
The uses of the Watch Bot are only limited by your imagination. Baby Monitor. Home Security Camera. Office Surveillance. Wildlife Video Camera (from inside!) You even can have more than one WatchBot in the same system - up to nine in total.
The Watchbot isn't cheap, but it does offeer great value, and I've got a code that should get you 50% off the £200 asking price for the next month or so. Enter the code WB730785 over on watch-bot.co.uk and you can pick up one of the little IP video cameras for £100.
Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 9:30PM 
