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I’d rather not tell you how I found this exclusive deal that will save you $29.99, but I can tell you to thank Oprah.  It seems odd to talk about her again after doing so a couple of weeks ago when she was pimping out the Kindle reader from Amazon.  This time, Snapfish.com was on her show on ways to unclutter your messy home.  Oprah touts getting rid of all your kids artwork and putting them into a keepsake book.

Um, sure Oprah, that is what I am going to do.  Nope, I am half way through making a book from the thousands of images my digital camera took on summer vacation.  Thank God for digital film.

So how do you get your free 8"x11” book free?

Here is the deal:

• Visit this link.
• Create an account or log in
• The credit will be added to your account, so you’ll see it at check out.
• upload photos, arrange, slap in some text
• click “order this book”
• pay shipping.  Sorry, Oprah doesn’t have any connections at the USPS.  Bummer.
• get book while reveling in the fact you beat the man this one day.

The catch

Sweet, right (aside from paying for shipping)?  You must visit this link and get the coupon added today.  You have up to Sunday to create and order the book.  Not a huge catch, but act now.

I’ve made photo books with Snapfish before and have been happy with the results.  I’ll be even happier not shelling out $30.  A big thanks to Snapfish and Oprah!

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Sections: Imaging, Accessories, Web, Websites

So, you’ve found and purchased the camera that is just perfect for you. (If you haven’t, check out The Gadgetell guide to finding a camera)  You’ve been been playing with it, experimenting with it, and taking a ton of shots. Now what?  Well, there are quite a few options if you want your work seen or even sold.

There are lots of places on the ‘net that allow you to post your photography work.  Of course, there is the well known flickr, which seems to be used by everybody and their brother to post everything from little Johnny’s 4th birthday party to girls showing off their ass-ets, to some photos that really do have photographic merit.  But, if you are looking to have your work seen and critiqued by other photographers, you may want to look into some other sites as well. 

Read about all the options you have to get your work seen and even get paid for your photos after the break. 

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Looking for something to set you apart on MySpace?  Need a funky-fresh, dressed to impress photo?  Head on over to Pixisnap and use there free service to create your very own mosaics and Polaroid images.  The site is just a web application so there is no downloading.  Getting images to look cool is super easy.

This morning, I created the image above.  The site does not make users sign up, so it took all of two minutes for me to be in and out.  Simply upload a photo, choose the design (you can pick from several choices on the Polaroids, each choice adding more glimpses of the photo), then pick a background and decide where you want the image to go.  The site interfaces with MySpace so you can send it right there.

As a quick, easy to use photo generator, this site is great.  It does all that it says and does so well.  I am pretty sure a cat could get this site to work, it is just that easy.  The site is in beta, but worked without a hitch in my trial.

Head over and try it out: [pixisnap]

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Sections: Imaging, Web, Web Apps, Websites

I’m a firm believer it’s pretty hard to go wrong with a Canon.  So, I was curious to see how the latest in their G-series measured up to its predecessor, the G9.  It seems as though they did pretty well.

Canon’s latest in their Powershot family is the G10.  It has some changes from the G9, although some of the problems that existed with the G9 are still present.  But, if you are looking for a good prosumer camera, without a “pro camera” price tag this one just may fit the bill nicely.

So what separates it from the G9?  Keep reading.

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Photographers have been messing around with 3D photography for years.  It just hasn’t been a nice and easy, already developed for them, consumer-friendly, point and shoot 3D camera they were using to take the photos.  Some photographers were rigging up their own cameras to get the effect, some doing it in post-processing.  Some, used much less user-friendly four lens cameras that did exist out there, just not with the best picture quality.

Fujifilm is hoping to remedy all of that with their development of their 3D camera.  The way it accomplishes the 3D effect is to use two lenses and two sensors.  The lenses are about 6 to 7-cm apart, which is the width between the average person’s eyes.  These lenses and sensors take different pictures from different angles simultaneously.  Then, it combines the different pictures to create one image that is displayed on the camera’s 2.8-inch, 230,000 pixel LCD screen. 

Read more about 3D cameras after the break.

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Sections: Gadgets / Other, Household, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Imaging, Digital Cameras, Peripherals, Displays, Printers / Scanners, Web, Websites

Often us photographers think we did a pretty good job with optimizing our different picture files, but then when a text editor is used we are able to see that they still contain a ton of data that can actually be removed.  Yep, there are different programs out there that can be used to extract this information from the different GIFs, PNGs, or JPEGs, and still allow the photo look great, but many of these programs require a pretty specific knowledge to use them.  Unless the user knows what they are doing when it comes to command-line tools, they are pretty much out of luck. Until now.

Two members from the Yahoo exceptional performance team, Stoyan Stefanov and Nicole Sullivan, took what they knew of these tools and built a single application called Smush.it that does all the optimizations for you in just one place.  Completely cloud-based, it allows you to upload images, give the image a URL, or use it as a Firefox extension.  The program shows you how many bytes you’ll save, and then gives you the images as .zip file for you to replace them on your site.

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Sections: Computers, Software / Applications, Imaging, Accessories, Digital Cameras, Peripherals, Displays, Storage, Web, Downloads, Web Apps, Web Browsers, Websites

“Every breath you take…  Every move you make…  Every bond you break…  Every step you take..  I’ll be watching you.“  Is it the end of privacy as we know it?  People knowing where we are, and when we are there, seeing whatever it is we are doing.  Or, just a cool and fun new way to geotag?  Geotagging is nothing new and most of us are familiar with the term by now.  Take a photo, and “tag” your location to tell all your friends or family where you were at when you shot it.  But now, tagged single shots are going to seem like dinosaurs.

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Sections: Video, Accessories, Portable Video, Communications, Accessories, Computers, Software / Applications, Imaging, Accessories, Camcorders, Web, Web 2.0, Websites

Compact, rugged, and with a price tag that won’t break the bank, the newest model of outdoor ready compact cameras by Olympus has a clever little feature that they invite users to tap into. Yeah, ok…so I’m sure by now you’ve figured out it has something to do with tapping, right? Well, correct you are.

Usually, one does NOT want to bump, bang, or ever tap their camera any more than necessary. In the case of the Stylus 1050 SW however, Olympus invites their users to “tap into worry-free fun”.  It means just what is sounds like. The camera uses an innovative tap interface where it registers taps on not only the screen area like some other touch screen cameras do; but also anywhere on the camera body. It uses an accelerometer so that it can read taps on different surfaces to control different functions just by tapping the appropriate area. Certain taps on the right side of the camera do one thing…taps on the left another. You can even calibrate the tap sensitivity to your liking. According to Olympus, it offers benefits in adverse conditions as well.

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Believe it or not, I know many die-hard fans of the old Polaroid camera that were sad to see it go. Well, it looks like there just may be some cause for rejoicing if the new survey put out by Polaroid is any indication. They were recently asking for feedback from readers of Amateur Photographer to help design their new digital camera with built in printer.

Not too much is known at this point about the new camera other than the fact that like the Pogo Instant Mobile Printer, it will implement Bluetooth technology and a USB connection to print photos. Polaroid was asking opinions on whether they should include options such as an external battery, a hotshoe for an external flash, and a higher pixel count than their previous version.  One of the other differences between the PoGo Printer and the Polaroid PoGo ProSeries camera (as it is slated to be called) is the fact that the camera’s photos will print out at 4x3 as opposed to 2x3.

It is scheduled to hit the market next year and be marketed mainly to “professional and business users”. There is also going to be a lower-end (ie less expensive as well) ZINK-enabled camera that prints 2x3 inch prints coming out around the same time as well.

Via [Yahoo! Tech]

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Supposedly confirmed as of a few days ago, however we are still awaiting official word from Canon on their newest baby, due any day now. Complete specs, (translated from Chinese) are here for the time being. Apparently there had been a big bru-ha-ha when a photo hit the internet apparently taken by the new Canon according to it’s metadata (and the info right on the web page itself), on what many believe to be a Media Temple client page. This being a big oops, since they are a web dev for high profile clients such as Sony, Adobe, ABC and others. The others, in some people’s mind’s, could include Canon. Thus, a page that had Canon photos which was leaked onto the net before it was discovered and subsequently password protected.

The Canon 50D is pictured here with what’s sure to be a kit lens option, the EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. A short list of what is most likely going to be key features is as follows:

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