Welcome to Dooba Reviews

Fix for Nikon D60 Flash not Working (Video)

Author Thomas | 23.02.2010 | Category Electronics

Around Christmas last year, the flash on our Nikon D60 stopped working. The flash was tapped while it was up and stopped working after that. The flash made a clicking sound every time we tried to use it, but the flash wouldn’t fire.

After calling the the local camera shop, they said it would probably cost $170 (we heard some people reporting $250) just to send the camera into Nikon to be fixed.

Oh, those were the days before the Internet. After a search on the Internet, we found a video tutorial (shown below) of how to fix this exact problem.

The issue was a small trigger in the flash mechanism came off the hinge it pulled back. Simply taking off the flash top cover and placing the trigger back on the hinge did the trick.

A few tips though, open the flash, turn off your camera, and take out the camera’s battery (you may get a little shock otherwise).

I used the Husky 8-in-1 Precision Screwdriver and found that the Phillipss #000 worked best. It took a while to find out how the precision screwdrivers were rated. With Phillips. 1 is big, 0 is smaller, 00 smaller, and 000 the smallest I found.

Nikon D40 Flash Fix from Northern Light Films on Vimeo.

So thanks to Northern Lights for the video tutorial above!

Google Wave to be Released

Author Thomas | 29.09.2009 | Category Software, Web

Google Wave is set for release tomorrow to 100,000 lucky testers.

Like 100,000 Golden Tickets awaiting to be sent to the lucky winners who will find in their email inboxes tomorrow an invitation to the revolutionary new service/product.

Google Wave will combine in-a-sense, email, instant messaging, blogging, sharing, etc.  Email will work much more like a conversation.

A ten minute demo of wave from the developer tool:

From the Developer Conference (the long video):

Hopefully, we’ll all get one of the Golden Ticket invites to start testing, exploring, and enjoying Google Wave.

Rustic River Leather Photo Album

Author Thomas | 28.09.2009 | Category Accessories

We live in a world of speed and ever evolving technology.  Obviously (as evidenced through the posts), I like technology, but I also really enjoy the classic, traditional, and old fashioned things in life.  Wouldn’t it be great to have a tract of land to farm with a large house…and high speed Internet, Google Android Phones, etc.?

Anyway, in this techno world that we live in, it’s become more and more easy to take pictures and store them.  I’ve found myself taking more and more pictures and simply storing them on my computer.  There’s really no constraint other than hard drive size, so away I snap.

More recently, I’ve begun storing pictures in photo albums.  There’s just something special (how quaint), about viewing pictures in an album.  Recently we took a horseback riding trip, and I wanted a great place to store the pictures.  The Rustic River Leather Photo Album hits the spot perfectly.

I got the Dark Brown Version (pictured is the Saddle Brown), and oddly enough, I found a spot for it on the mantel, and it looks great.  The leather is very rustic.  It’ll show marks and dings, but that’s part of the style.  However, I’m still pretty careful with it.  The album holds 100 4×6 pictures and is hand sewn.

The inside of the album is similar to a regular photo album.  It’s the outer construction that makes all the difference.  It takes a few tries to get the leather wrap knot correct.

So in our high-paced, ever changing world, it feels great to do something a little old fashioned.

Aviary…Awesome

Author Thomas | 08.07.2009 | Category Freebies, Web

I stumbled upon some hilarious images at Worth1000.com today, and saw an interesting add for the first online vector editing program. Hmm…I’ve had need for some vector image creation, and I thus got my first look at Aviary. Aviary, in a word is AWESOME. Basically, Aviary offers a suite online tools for image editing and graphics creation.

Below are some of the FREE products they offer. The tools are built with Flash, so it had no trouble running in my Google Chrome browser. With the talk about the New Google Chrome Operating System, Aviary is more relevant than ever.

Phoenix

Phoenix is Aviary’s image editor. Bye bye Photoshop! Again, simply awesome that it’s being offered for free, and the pro version is a very small yearly subscription. I’m pretty cheap, but the yearly subscription price looks very good if you want to use it commercially.

Peacock

Peacock can be used to create backgrounds, effects, etc. It’s pretty amazing and even more amazing that it takes place within the browser.

Raven

Raven is the Vector editing program. Simply awesome.

Do these tools replace Adobe’s suite of tools that cost thousands of dollars? Perhaps not right now, but that’s the thing about disruptive technologies; Aviary may very well replace the need for the user that doesn’t need all of the features of the Adobe suite.

So, go Aviary! Sign up if you have the chance for a free account and test it out. If you really like it, sign up for the paid account. I’m sure they’d appreciate it, and that would help the community to keep going.

Digital SLR Bag – Tamrac 5766 Velocity 6x

Author Thomas | 16.06.2008 | Category Accessories

Purchasing and using a Digital SLR camera is a lot of fun; however, most standard bags that “come with” your purchase tend to be too large to sling over your shoulder and use while out in the field.

Holsters and sling bags have become quite popular as a means to carry your SLR camera with just the bare necessities.

As I searched for a bag, I wanted to find one that would protect my camera. There are a lot of very small bags out there that don’t offer a lot of padding and protection. I decided to go with the Tamrac 5766 Velocity 6x Compact Sling Pack.

The bag is small enough to be comfortable to wear. and easy to take with you to sporting events, on a hike, or to family events. The camera I use is the Nikon D60 which is more compact than other DSLR cameras, so check how your camera compares to the D60 in size. If the body of your camera is ridiculously big, it might not fit in the bag very well. The D60 I have had room to spare in the bag.

The bag can be slung across your chest and worn at the side of your hip or cinched up as sling/backpack.

The Tamrac bag is well designed and a great fit if you’re looking for a small bag that will hold your SLR.

Nikon D60 Digital SLR Camera Review

Author Thomas | 20.05.2008 | Category Electronics

The Nikon D60 is a great camera. It fits into the palm of your hand very well and takes great pictures. Sold in many different lens kit combinations, one of the most popular is with the 18-55mm lens and the 55-200mm lens both offering vibration reduction (more on that later).

Easy to use Presets - This is a camera for beginners, but pack enough punch for the pros. What’s great about the Nikon D60 is that it has presets for taking different types of pictures. Portraits, sports pictures, pictures of children (who won’t stay still very long for example), vistas, night shots, auto select, and more. You’ll learn about aperture and shutter speed and many more photo terms in time, but until then you can make use of the quick setting dial to select what type of photo situation you’re in.

If you want a camera that is easy to use from the get go (compared to other DSLRS, this is it). However, the camera has enough power behind it that a professional photographer could use it and still tweak the settings. So this is a camera that will grow with you so-to-speak.

Solid Construction - The camera feels like it’s heavy duty. It’s got a solid construction and doesn’t feel at all like the look-alike cameras made all of plastic.

Lenses - The 18-55mm lens is great for taking everyday pictures. The 55-200 lens is fantastic for zooming in on a subject; however, the lens is heavier and thus it’s harder to hold the camera still. You might want to look into a tripod or monopod to help hold the camera steady when using larger lenses or using slower shutter speeds.

I went to an NBA playoff game and sat 3rd row from the very top in the arena. Using a 200mm lens that came as part of the kit, I was able to zoom in and take some great photos (when my pictures are not so amateurish, perhaps I’ll post some).

Using the 55-200mm lens we snapped a picture of the moon. The black sky is cropped from the original, but you can see lots of detail on the moon.

Fuzzy Backgrounds - By far, the best thing I enjoy about using this camera is the ability to take a picture / portrait of someone and have the background be fuzzy thus creating a sharpness around the subject. Now you can do so with other less expensive cameras, but wanting to take great photos, I wanted a great, not just a good, camera.

Vibration Reduction - The D60 kit has Vibration Reduction (VR) built into the lenses and not into the camera body itself. From the Nikon material I read, this is supposed to be better than having the VR in the camera body.

SD Memory Card Types – I tried a slow speed SD Memory and a Class 6, 8 Gigabyte SDHC Memory card and it appeared that both took the ~3 pictures per second at the same rate. From what I’ve read, the D60 has a buffer that will capture the pictures and then transfer them to the card.

So you don’t necessarily need the latest and greatest SD memory card, however, when you transfer pictures from the card to your computer, the fast the card, the faster the transfer will be. I did notice that transferring pictures to my computer was A LOT faster using the SDHC Class 6 card.

The Kit – I’m glad I got the D60 with the two lenses. The 18-55mm lens is great, but if I really need to zoom in, the 55-200mm does the job very well. Add a bag to your purchase. You don’t want to get a great camera only to go cheap on a bag that won’t protect your investment. Standard with each D60 is a neck strap. Use it so you don’t drop your camera. With all the peripherals, set a budget for yourself.

Accessories - Once you purchase your camera, you’ll find yourself headed back to purchase additional accessories that make using the camera even more fun. You can find the accessories online for very good prices.

One accessory that fits many Nikon SLR cameras (and yes, it does work for the D60) is the Nikon ML-L3 Wireless Remote Control. The remote lets you operate the shutter release without touching the camera. This is a great tool if you are taking pictures with a slow shutter speed or are taking a picture of a group, and you’re in the group. You don’t have to set the timer, run back to the group, have the picture taken, then go back and do it again because no one was looking. You can just hit the button on the remote and the shutter will release.

Where – The D60 is for sale on Amazon (with training DVD’s) at the following link: Nikon D60 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR and 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor Lens with 2 Nikon School DVD

Old Town Leather Photo Album Holds 300 Pictures

Author Thomas | 11.04.2008 | Category Home & Garden

There’s something about holding your pictures in your hand or in a photo album that you just can’t get by storing or viewing them on the computer.

It’s even easier now than ever to print your pictures whether at home from your own printer or through an online photo printing service that will mail your pictures to you (such as SnapFish by HP), but where to store all those prints?

Until recently, our household stored our pictures in the paper folder they came in, and it was high time to get something better.  For a lot of photos, we’d just keep them on the computer for viewing, but we still felt like storing the photos in a more classic way.

The Old Town photo album (pictured above) has plenty of space to hold pictures (300 4×6 inch photos) and includes room to hold 6 CDs (or DVD’s) that contain your pictures or even home movies.  We purchased a number of these albums to store family and vacation pictures.

The inside margin of each page has lines and space to write about each picture. The acid free pages will help protect pictures and preserve the memo notes about them in the margins. The leather covering and binding are great and should last a very, very long time.  The inside cover has a faux suede interior lining which is a nice touch.

A sleeve in the very back of the binder allows for storage for negatives or extra disks.

This Old Town Photo Album is available on LLgco.com.