A complete guide to Black Friday deals, advice, and Ratings

We’ve been busy here getting ready for the holiday shopping season, which—despite its early start this year—traditionally starts on Black Friday. In addition to following deals and offering shopping tips here on the Electronics Blog, our reporters and testers have been updating the buying advice for a host of products at ConsumerReports.org. They’ve also been hard at work in our labs, as the flood of new product Ratings within the last week and a half can attest.

If you’re among the brave ones venturing out in search of deals this Black Friday weekend, we hope this buying guide will help prepare you. For buying tips and deals throughout this holiday season, be sure to check back with the Electronics Blog periodically. Check in also with Tightwad Tod, who is following deals for a number of products and offering useful shopping advice.

BLACK FRIDAY DEALS
Our reporters have combed through a number of Black Friday deal sites and retailer circulars. Below are the fruits of their labor. Many deals carry through the weekend. Even if they’re only valid on Black Friday itself, you might be surprised at what a little haggling can accomplish. And be careful of tempting bundled or package deals—sometimes they aren’t as great a value as they appear.

• LCD TV deals
• Plasma TV deals

Pre-Black-Friday camera and camcorder deals

Whether you consider Black Friday the height or low-point of the holiday shopping season, many retailers, both online and in brick-and-mortar stores, are getting a head start on discounting items, particularly older, discontinued models. Some of these digital cameras, SLRs and camcorders may be a bit long in the tooth, but are still very capable. Here are some of the deals that are available right now, through Wednesday:

(Click on the model names to see specs, brand info, and how they did in our Ratings.)

Digital cameras

• Nikon Coolpix S1000pj—$370 at Newegg.com  Deal appears to have ended.
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX48—$222 at Sixth Avenue Electronics
• Samsung HZ10W—$199 at Sixth Avenue Electronics
• Nikon Coolpix P90—$300 at Staples
• Kodak EasyShare M381—$100 at Best Buy
• Sony Cyber-shot H20—$230 at Best Buy
• Canon PowerShot SD1200 Digital Elph IS—$180 at Target
• Kodak EasyShare C180 with 2GB SD card—$100 at Office Depot

New digital camera Ratings include a projection model and a full-frame SLR

Sony's full-frame Alpha A850 digital SLR, now in our digital camera Ratings. (Click to enlarge.)

Sixteen percent of consumers we recently polled said they were interested in buying a point-and-shoot or SLR digital camera during the Thanksgiving weekend. If you're one of them, here's good news: We've just updated our comprehensive digital camera Ratings (available to subscribers) to include some of the season's newest cameras.

Here are some intriguing new models:

Full-frame SLRs. It's the first time we've included an SLR in our Ratings that has a large, full-frame sensor. Sony's 24.6-megapixel Alpha A850, introduced late this past summer, is the first full-frame SLR priced at $2000 or less. Full-frame models have been available at much higher prices for many years. This price breakthrough is one of the reasons we're including the A850 in our Ratings. Why the big deal over full-frame sensors? Among other things, they tend to handle a wider variety of lighting situations more accurately, while limiting the amount of visual noise that can distort and degrade an image.

Nikon's projecting point-and-shoot. As we've written in previous posts, Nikon's Coolpix S1000pj is the first point-and-shoot that can project images and video clips onto a wall or any surface. Our Ratings tell you how well it performed as a digital camera.

Fujifilm's EXR superzoom. Fujifilm got a lot of buzz earlier this year when it introduced a subcompact, the FinePix F200EXR, which included a very flexible sensor that adapts to the subject you're shooting. In fact, it will automatically set the camera in one of three modes: high sensitivity and low noise; wide dynamic range; and high resolution. Now the company has put this technology into a superzoom, the FinePix F70EXR. To see how this model and those above did in our tests, check our new Ratings.—Terry Sullivan

Save money on your holiday cards with these 8 photofinishers

Printing your holiday photo cards through a photofinishing Web site can save you time and money, especially if you do so in the next week or two. A number of sites are offering limited time discounts and free shipping. Below are some deals that I found at larger sites.

To take advantage of an offer, you must register with the site and provide contact information, such as your e-mail and shipping address. You'll also need to upload any photos you want to use on the card. Be sure to note the expiration dates on all offers:

• Shutterfly Save 20 percent on holiday cards. (The offer does not apply to note cards and calling cards.) Also, you can get free shipping on your order if you spend $30 or more. A comparison page lets you compare card types. Shutterfly has a wide array of other gifts, many of which are also being discounted.
• Kodak Gallery This site is offering free shipping on orders of $75 or more.
• Snapfish This site is offering free shipping on orders of 40 or more flat cards. They are also offering 20 percent off on everything in the Snapfish catalog.
• PEphoto.com They're offering 10 percent off orders of 25 or more photo greeting cards. Also, buy one photo album, get $10 off a second album.
• Walmart photo center Free shipping on greeting cards.
• Winkflash They're offering 40 percent off all holiday card orders.

• Clark Color labs Has several promotions: 40 percent off photo greeting cards; free shipping on photo gifts of $25 or more; 7 cents per prints; $8 off hardcover photo book orders of $20 or more.
• Photoworks Buy one photo calendar, get one free.

Olympus unveils the E-P2, its second SLR-like digital camera

Olympus Pen E-P2

For a little over a year, Olympus and Panasonic have attempted to popularize a new type of compact digital camera that has the image quality of an SLR. Panasonic already has three models—the Lumix G1, GH1, and GF1. Yesterday, Olympus introduced its second SLR-like (or micro four-thirds) camera, the 12-megapixel Pen E-P2.

In many ways, it has many of the same specs as the E-P1 such as body-based image stabilization, the ability to shoot HD-resolution video, a 3-inch liveview LCD and a compact retro camera-body design (although it will only be offered in black). Both are also available as kits with either of two lenses: the 14-42mm zoom or 17mm prime.

So what's new on the E-P2? The biggest change is a bundled electronic viewfinder. With the EP-1, you had to pay separately for an optional, glass viewfinder. The new viewfinder plugs into a new port on the camera body and slides into the hot shoe. The new port accepts other optional accessories, such as the new external microphone jack for using external microphones, that you'll have to pay extra for. However, just like the E-P1, there's still no built-in flash, which is disappointing, since you'll have to buy an external flash. Plus, you'll have to choose between using an external flash or viewfinder; the hot shoe can only accommodate one of these at a time.

4 Tips for Taking Great Parade Pics

There are lots of opportunities coming up for photographing seasonal parades, from tomorrow’s World Series victory parade to Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s.

Here are some ways to prepare to capture those special images:

Bring the right gear. To capture both close-ups and wider shots, you need a zoom lens with a fairly wide range. The typical 3x zoom of a point-and-shoot camera (Ratings available to subscribers) is barely adequate. A zoom of 5x or greater is better. Before the event, fully charge your camera’s battery and bring a fully charged spare battery. A lens cloth and an extra memory card are also helpful. If you’re using an SLR (SLR Ratings available to subscribers), bring a hood for the lens, which helps prevent flare and keep out stray light.

Plan ahead. Check the weather forecast. If it’s cold, bring gloves. If rain is likely, bring a plastic cover to shield your camera. Arrive well ahead of the parade start time, so you can photograph any interesting pre-parade activities and stake out a good position.

Get a good view. To avoid having heads and arms in the crowd from ruining your shot work your way to the front of the crowd. If you’re not sure you can do that, bring a small, lightweight folding stool to stand on. Or get to an elevated location, on a hill or on at a window above street level in a nearby building.

Make it interesting. Vary the types of shots, mixing close-ups of interesting people or props in the parade with wider shots of a float or the crowd. Shoot portraits of children or other interesting people using a wide aperture (f/2 to f/4) to blur the background and make their face “pop” If your camera has a burst mode (which all SLRs and some point-and-shoots do), use it to capture briskly moving subjects, such as baton twirlers.

If you’ve got more tips to share, post them below. —Jeff Fox

How I backed up 12 gigabytes of World Series photos

It’s fun sharing historic photos like this one, which I shot at last night’s World Series finale. Preserving the additional thousands of post-season shots I took at Yankee Stadium over the past few weeks may not be fun, but it’s important because it will let me mine that photo collection for all sorts of purposes for years.

There are numerous ways to create backups of important files. For a brief overview, see our video on computer backups (embedded below). Our computer backup system buying guide (available for subscribers) provides much more detailed advice along with brand-name recommendations of systems we’ve tested.

Since I back up a lot of photos and prefer quick access to them, I use external hard drives.

(Storing them externally also keeps my computer’s internal hard drive from becoming cluttered with image files.) And because I always make at least two backup copies of important photos (in case one set of copies is lost) before I delete them from the camera’s memory card, I use two drives.

To back up my thousands of post-season shots, after each game, I copied the shots from that game to a 1.5-terabyte (TB) external hard drive. Then I copied those files from that external hard drive to a second, more portable 500GB external drive. (I have a computer at a distant geographical location, so I occasionally take the smaller, portable drive with me and copy photos to the hard drive on that off-site computer.) Only then did I delete the photos from the memory card.

This approach may not be for everybody. If your needs are more modest, an inexpensive thumb drive or writeable DVD might serve just as well.

If you have tips to share on how you preserve your photo files, post them below. —Jeff Fox

Out in left field: How I took long-distance photos at the World Series

My photo of Shane Victorino striking the ball, taken from 330 feet away. (Click to enlarge.)
[Photo: Jeff Fox]

Whether you’re photographing a World Series game at Yankee Stadium, as I did last night, or your child’s soccer match, capturing sharp images while freezing the action in a sporting event poses two special challenges: You’re typically far from the action and your subjects are usually moving quickly and unpredictably.

The only practical way to conquer the distance problem is to use a powerful telephoto zoom lens. Unless it’s a very pricey one, though, extending a telephoto lens to its maximum length can introduce yet another problem, a significant reduction in the light that reaches your camera’s sensor.

To avoid an overly dark picture, you need to either use a relatively slow shutter speed (which would cause moving subjects to appear blurred) or crank up the camera’s ISO setting to increase light sensitivity. The latter can easily introduce graininess into an image, as we’ve found with many of the point-and-shoot cameras in our Ratings (available to subscribers).

If your camera has the necessary features, as virtually all SLRs and some point-and-shoots do, there are a couple of ways to cope with the unpredictability of your subjects’ movements: Set the camera’s autofocus to “continuous,” which automatically maintains focus on a moving subject, and shoot using “burst mode,” which takes several shots per second, increasing your chances of capturing just the right image. (The icon for burst mode is usually three overlapping rectangles).

Use your SLR camera to shoot a Halloween time-lapse video

Carved your pumpkin yet? If not, here's some inspiration in the form of a time-lapse video, an amalgam of sequential images condensing a longer period of time into a few minutes—in this case, the time it takes to play one verse of Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

You can make one yourself, MacGyver-like, with a digital SLR camera and a graphing calculator. Darren Rouse at Digital Photography School has posted a tutorial explaining how:

Buying a digital SLR camera? Follow these 4 steps

Digital SLRs are weathering the economic downtown better than point-and-shoots, say experts who track camera sales. Falling prices, innovative features, and superior performance are some of the reasons for this continuing appeal. (See also "Four steps for choosing a point-and-shoot digital camera.")

Still, not all SLRs are created equal: Our latest Ratings of digital SLRs (available to subscribers) tell you which models performed best and which fell short. But, if you're shopping for an SLR, choosing the best model for your needs also means making sense of a variety of factors. Here are some basic steps to help you get started:

1. Select the right type. Basic SLRs are smaller and simpler to use. Advanced SLRs are usually more rugged and offer the kind of performance serious photographers prize, including more accurate autofocus and faster burst modes.


2. Don’t skimp on performance. All the SLRs we tested are good or very good overall. Limit your choice to those that scored at least very good for image quality and versatility and can shoot to at least 800 ISO without graininess in the image. Battery life is important, too; most of the better performers took more than 400 shots per charge.


3. Consider special needs. If you often shoot above crowds, look for a swiveling LCD, a feature that’s not very common. To see greater detail when you view images on the LCD, choose a high-resolution LCD, found mostly on advanced SLRs. If you take lots of action shots, select a model with a burst mode that can capture the most frames per second. If you often shoot in low light, look for a model with the highest “Maximum ISO with best quality” in our our Ratings.


4. Decide on a lens. SLRs are usually sold with entry-level lenses that are adequate, but they often have limitations. You’ll capture better images with a higher quality lens. Models in our SLR lens Ratings include general-purpose standard zooms, telezooms for sports or nature photography, and superzooms, which offer the greatest zoom range (from wide angle to telephoto). All the rated lenses cost less than $1,000 and are available alone or bundled with a camera. There were some notable differences in price, ease of use, maximum aperture, and weight.

Our tests show that higher price doesn’t always guarantee a better lens. Some modestly priced models ranked higher in our Ratings than lenses that cost two or three times as much. If you’re buying a lens for a brand of SLR that doesn’t include image stabilization in the camera body, such as Canon and Nikon, check the Ratings for a lens that includes a built-in stabilizer. Because there’s no universal mount that allows a lens from any company to fit every SLR, we’ve grouped recommended models by the type of mounts with which they are compatible. Recommended third party lenses, available in separate versions for major SLR brands, are also listed. —Jeff Fox