26 Jun 2009, Posted by Kelly in Blog, Reviews, 0 Comments

Griffin Clarifi iphone Case

A couple of weeks ago, my old iphone case started to crack. Though I did love the case and it held up quite well for a while, I didn’t want the same case again (bor-ring!).

After a couple of different trips to the Apple store, I decided on a somewhat new case. The Griffin Clarifi.

Griffin Clarifi iPhone Case from Kelly Walker on Vimeo.

It does what any other iphone case SHOULD do – protects it from my small slippery hands. And it keeps the back from not getting all scratched up. The bottom portion of the case slides over to meet/lock with the top 3/4 of the case. It’s not as “easy” as snapping the case on and going. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not difficult at ALL to put on, but I think it protects it a bit better with how the case covers everything. My only complaint when I was putting on the case was that it started to mess up and bubble my iphone screen protector. (I didn’t put on the screen protector that came with it because I like having the matte finish.) Now that the case is on and has been on for a couple of weeks, I’m still not real happy with what it did to my screen protector. There weren’t any bubbles or anything before this case.

On to what makes this case so great.

You can get quite close to things without them being blurry!

The little tiny lens that is built into the case that can go over the camera. What is this lens for? Well, it’s to help with close-up/macro pictures. As of this moment, the lens is still a little difficult to move back and forth with ease, but I’d rather it be like that than sliding all over the place.

L. Ring as close as you can get without being blurry
R. Ring up close with the macro lens

(Same distance, without/with macro lens)

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I did a ‘survey’ on twitter and out of the 850 people that follow me, 3 answered:
“What do you look for in a case?” The answers – protection of my phone, functionality, and whatever I can find. All fine answers.. Is there that ONE “must have” that your case has to pass the test before you’ll even consider buying it.

My “must have” is a “must not be” – my case must not be silcone, or anything that dirt will stick to. That just drives me crazy. Also, I don’t want anything bulky. I like being able to put my phone in my pocket. Which means, I also don’t want a belt clip.

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28 Apr 2009, Posted by Kelly in Blog, Reviews, 4 Comments

LensGiant.com – Flash Rental

My flash has never really been all that wonderful, so I hardly ever use it. Well, I volunteered to take some pictures of Florida Governor Charlie Crist for the Orlando Job Fair and decided to try out my flash before the big day. Good thing I did, because the battery cover wasn’t fully closing, which meant the flash wasn’t charging.

Uh oh! 4 days before and now I’m all in a rush to rent a flash. My “go to” rental place here in town didn’t have a flash available at the time, so I decided to go through the links in a previous blog post about lens rental sites. Surprisingly a few of the rental places don’t rent flashes.

Thankfully, I came across LensGiant.com. They have both Canon and Nikon lens AND flashes! I ordered the Canon Speedlite 430EX II right away and picked 2 day shipping!

I ordered it on 4/13, before noon, and it shipped the same day. So it arrived, on time, on 4/15. The box arrived via FedEx very well packaged.

Included in the box with the flash was: the instruction manual for the flash, table stand, case, a copy of my order, rental guidelines/return date, checklist of what came with my order, the 3 closest FedEx locations around my area, return shipping label and a feeback form.

For an eight date rental on this flash, the amount was $21.00.
Two day shipping (including return) was $14.49.
So, my total bill for 8 days and shipping was $35.49.

Not bad when some places charge for shipping AND return shipping separate, plus some rates are more expensive.

I would highly recommend LensGiant.com. And I made sure to send my feedback form in with high ratings!
Have you used LensGiant.com? What equipment have you rented? What experience did you had? Would you use them again?

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14 Feb 2009, Posted by Kelly in Blog, Reviews, 0 Comments

My 1st…Rental

Saturday, February 14, 2009

A couple of week ago I decided that I was finally going to rent a camera lens. I started going through a couple of sites and came across the perfect first place for me to rent from. RentGlass.com. Not only were the prices very reasonable, along with the shipping, but I found out that they were located in Kissimmee, Florida (which is only about 15 minutes away from our house).

I sent a message from the website asking if it was possible to pick up a lens and got a response 25 minutes later stating that I could pick it up Monday-Friday. Thankfully it was Friday and I have the day off.

After searching through the website and trying to decide what lens I wanted to try first, I decided on the Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM. Here is some information on this specific lens:
–Closest focusing distance is .65 feet
–Auto and Manuel Focus
–Maximum Aperture is 1:2:8 (Aperture = limiting the amount of light passing through a lens; hole, gap, or slit; larger the number the smaller the opening vs. smaller the number the larger the opening; Depth of field is larger when the number is smaller)

I placed my order, called my friend so she could go with me and went on the search for this place.

First of all, Google Maps gave me directions that took me, no joke, about 20 minutes out of the way. After driving around in a great big square, we finally made it to the plaza that it’s located in. Well, from there it got even crazier. There aren’t many offices/stores in the building, so there weren’t many signs. But after walking up some stairs and following the inside signs we made it. The office seemed neat and clean. Daniel, who e-mailed me back, was very nice. I signed my paper, was given the lens and the package to ship it back in. And off we went.

I spent the next few days taking pictures of really anything that was laying around the house and the office. From my cat to the filing cabinet. The lens was very quiet and quick to focus in automatic. Manuel focus may be a bit more “work”, but always seems to work a bit better no matter what lens you use (in my opinion).

The condition of the lens seemed near perfect. Didn’t really see any scratches or markings on it. Seemed to me that it was quite a new lens. The week rental cost me $21.00. Since I picked up the lens, it cost me a mandatory $5.00 to ship it back, even if I wanted to take it back. (Fine with me, I saved some gas!) With the rental, shipping and tax, the lens cost $27.82. I wish I would have had some more time with it. Had I had planned to go somewhere and take some pictures I would have definitely rented it longer to get some really great pictures. There is always next time.

Thank you to rentglass.com for a great lens and a wonderful first rental. I will most definitely use them again!

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