What an odd title, you say. Few people ever think about the desktop scanner as anything more than a way to digitise documents but you would be missing out on a whole barrel of talent if you ignored the power of a scanner.

The shame is that, just as I write this message to all you fans of the digital image, the scanner is in the process of being submerged beneath a whole barrage of other functions.

Today Art Skopec shares some tips on buying Refurbished Camera Gear.

Image by Stephen DesRoches

During the 1980’s, I was the Canon USA Service Manager in charge of setting up and running their Refurbishing Center in New York. For 5 years, I worked with other Service Departments to establish procedures and standards related to refurbished equipment. Though we dealt with more than photographic equipment, it will be the focus of this piece.

Where does the equipment come from?

The majority to be refurbished equipment are retail returns. These returns are usually because the buyer or gift recipient can’t get equipment to work for them! (Seriously) The other source of gear is from retired in-store demo units. In both cases, the equipment is usually in perfect running order, possibly with slight cosmetic issues. No matter how good their condition though, they are no longer “New”, and can’t be sold as such.

Earlier this week Pentax announced a new addition to their ‘rugged’ line of camera - the Pentax Optio W80.

The 12.1 megapixel Pentax Optio W80 is being promoted by Pentax as their ‘most shock and waterproof digital camera ever’.

It is operational to depths of 16 feet for up to two hours at a time, is able to withstand drops of up to 3 feet, is dustproof and able to withstand temperatures between 14 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

Apart from it’s ‘rugged’ features the Optio W80 has a 5x optical zoom lens (28mm equivalent at it’s widest), a 2.5 inch LCD screen, shake reduction, face detection (up to 32 faces), 30 frames per second 720p movie mode, takes SDHC cards and has 33.7 megabytes of internal memory.

The W80 comes in Cardinal Red, Azure Blue and Gunmetal Gray.

Expect to see the Pentax Optio W80 in stores in July 2009 for $299.95. It is available at Amazon for pre-ordering.

Steve Buchanan is a commercial photographer in Maryland and a contributor on Photocrati’s Photography Blog. His work can be seen at www.buchanan-studios.com.

Many of the photographers I know are gadget hounds. They love their toys. They love to talk about them, read about them, argue about them and drool over the ones they can’t afford. I’m not so much of a gadget hound. I have my share of gear, and it will occasionally (ok, regularly) spill out of the equipment room and into the rest of the house, but I’ve made a point to try and keep things simple in my business, and in my work. For those looking to get started in food photography I’ve compiled a list of equipment that I would recommend getting, in order.

1. Any Canon or Nikon DSLR.

I don’t care how many megapixels, or if it shoots video, or whether its full frame or dx sized. Just so you like it and you’re comfortable using it. I know Sony, Fuji, Pentax and others make perfectly good dslrs, but Canon and Nikon have the largest user base and accessory range, and that will be important to you some day. Also, when it’s time to upgrade, Canon and Nikon usually have a better resale value. My primary camera is a Canon 5D.

2. A Macro Lens

Manufacturer branded lenses are best, and of course most expensive. Most of the major aftermarket brands are fine (Sigma, Tamron) but do your research on those first and I’ve heard of some quality issues from time to time with aftermarket gear. I would not recommend the close up filters that screw into the front of a lens and allow you to focus closer. They’re terrible in terms of sharpness and flatness of field. My primary lens, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro.

In this DIY tutorial Philip Schütz (see his Flickr account here) takes us through the process of making a wireless remote shutter release from a doorbell. NOTE: no responsibility for damage to you, your camera or doorbell will be taken by DPS: proceed with care.

Did you ever want to try wildlife shots, but the animals were scared by your presence? Did you ever want to do self portraits, but your IR remote couldn’t do the job? Real wireless remotes can help you, but they are an expensive piece of equipment. In this tutorial you will learn how to modify a wireless doorbell, that you can get in any home depot store or garage sale, to make your Canon EOS DSLR focus and release the shutter from a great distance.

Please note: I do not take any responsibility if your camera and/or you take any damage. Building the wireless control requires a bit of soldering, the soldering iron is hot and if you short?circuit parts you could destroy the doorbell. However, don’t worry if you never used a soldering iron before, if you follow the instructions carefully and handle the soldering iron with care any damage is very unlikely. You don’t have to worry about high voltages or currents, the bell and the camera use only batteries, you should avoid touching any parts anyway unless you have to.