Archives for 2024

Heads Up (starting Wedn 1pm ET): Live-Tweeting Samsung Galaxy AI Unpacked event

Yes dear readers, it’s that time of the year again, another high-profile Samsung Unpacked event, with a “Galaxy AI” theme, and I will be live-tweeting it on Twitter, at @1001noisycamera [no final “s” because character limit]. This will be in our customary snarky and irreverent style πŸ™‚

The live-stream is YouTube-embedded below for your convenience, or you can find it at the Samsung website:

Wedn: Tenba backpack, GVM RGB LED 3LK, Sirui ball heads, Grogu, Vision Exercises (free stream), Etc

This should be easy to get unlocked before 11:59pm Pacific time, the Wednesday Group Buy at NewEgg is the Star Wars The Mandalorian Grogu Plush for $10 when it is 100% unlocked. Already, as of 6:15am ET it is 16% unlocked! In addition to this being a gift for Star Wars fans, it can also be used as a troll type thing πŸ™‚ I don’t think I’ll ever be invited to a Star Wars convention after this comment πŸ˜‰

Another fresh six-pack of offerings arrives at the B&H Photo dailies good until 11:59pm ET or earlier if sold out:

+ Tenba Cooper Slim Backpack (Gray) for $90
+ yes, BAG the BAGS!

+ GVM 50RS RGB LED Light Panel 3LK (3-Light Kit) for $299
+ all together now: because you can’t have photography without light!

+ Sirui ball heads, two options, with mail-in rebates

+ LG UltraGear 27″ Full HD 165 Hz Gaming Monitor for $150

+ also Tascam audio recorder and Polsen mic signal boosters

Eye health for photographers is becoming more and more important as it’s as much (if not more) computer time as it is camera and subject time! With that in mind, the headliner Creative LIVE ON-AIR class, free-streaming starting Wednesday at 12pm ET is “Easy Exercises to Improve Your Vision” with Eric Cobb, 10.5 hours, so it will air twice in full during this free streaming window. Lesson #2 (“Meet your eyes”, 32 min) is the free “Kindle sample” you can watch for free at any time!

New Year, New YOU, and as such, Amazon has a 9-page (mostly books) sale on Health, Mind and Body, from organic baby food books to positive thinking to magic and spirituality and religion and self-help, and even …grammar!

In this kind of new year spirit, one of the Woot daily deals is a continuing education sale including Babel, Rosetta Stoned, Headway, ASL, piano and guitar lessons and such.

TIRED OF recharging smart watches and fitness trackers? Amazon has a seven-page sale of “real” watches from Timex, Fossil, Anne Klein, Guess?, Citizen, Kate Spade, and the like.

Tuesday: LitePanels Gemini, Benro, Celestron NexStar, Real Estate Photography, Etc

UPDATE: OOPS, I accidentally saved this as Draft instead of Publishing it earlier!

Top Deals mode continues to rule the day at the Adorama daily deals while a fresh six-pack of offerings has arrived at the B&H Photo daily deals running until 1/16/24 at 11:59pm ET or earlier if sold out:

+ Ruggard Nylon Protective Pouch for Memory Cards for $7.50
+ BAG the memory card kinda-BAG!

+ LitePanels Gemini 2×1 Soft RGB LED Light Panel (Standard Yoke, US Power Cord) for $2199

+ Benro MeFOTO RoadTrip Pro Aluminum Series 1 Travel Tripod with Ball Head and Monopod (Pacific Blue) for $80

+ Celestron NexStar Evolution 6 150mm f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain GoTo Telescope for $1299
+ the Aliens are Coming – Are you ready to spot them and take the award winning photographs???

+ Auray SVRK Series Shallow Server Rack (9 RU) for $100

+ PortKeys LH7P 7″ High-Bright Touchscreen Monitor with Wireless Control (Black) for $219

Ned Stark was right, winter is indeed here, and Amazon wants to keep you warm with a Home Heating sale climbing the charts in the Gold Box.

NEWEGG is bringing the good old “Group Buys” back, and unlike Groupon (and the like) these are true Group Buys. The offers only unlock if they are 100% claimed. Today’s offer is the refurbished 27-inch Z-EDGE Curved Gaming Monitor for $90 (ultra-thin frame, 1080p, 75Hz, HDMI + D-Sub, Built-in Speakers). This is sold by the Z-Edge NewEgg store.

We have a world premiere, free-streaming starting at 12pm ET on Tuesday at the Creative LIVE ON-AIR, it is “Real Estate Photography” with Philip Ebiner, over 6.5 hours long (so it will repeat three times in full during the free streaming window).

But that’s not all, they have two more related classes free-streaming in this window:

+ Painting With Adobe Photoshop with Jack Davis, nearly 16 hours long, the “kindle sample” is an Adobe Bridge chapter

+ Photoshop CC Creation with Adobe Stock, with Jason Hoppe, 68 minutes long

Monday: Colbor Monolight, Nanuk Wheeled, NiSi Solar, Etc

The Adorama dailies continue to operate in “Top Deals” mode while the B&H Photo daily deals have expanded from four to six:

+ COLBOR CL60R RGB COB LED Monolight for $119

+ NANuk 963 Wheeled Case with Foam (Black) for $230

+ ViewSonic VP2785-2K 27″ 16:9 IPS Monitor for $200

+ NiSi Solar Filter Pro Nano UV/IR Cut ND100000 Filter (100 x 100mm, 16.5-Stop) for $100

+ Netgear R6080 AC1000 Wireless Dual-Band 10/100 Mb/s Router for $20

+ SOLD OUT already: Manfrotto MVT535HH Adjustable Aluminum Hi Hat with 75mm Bowl

Lindsay Adler is back headlining the Monday Creative LiVE On-AIR starting at 12pm ET with “Posing for Curvy Women”, 155 minutes long, with Lesson #1 as the “Kindle sample”.

IF you are a fan of WOOT, they are currently running another iteration of The Garage Sales with products grouped in eight different categories. Of kinda on-topic interest to this blog are Electronics and Computers.

The current headliner at Amazon is a Healthy 2024 sale, and while some of the items are indeed on the healthy spectrum (coconut oil, turmeric, ginger, avocado oil, vinegar), plenty of others are decidedly not (pretzels, food coloring, soy sauce, fake milks, etc) πŸ™‚ Remember, as they say on Health YouTube, you are what you eat!

HEALTH TIP OF THE DAY: Type 2 Diabetes is a choice, not a lifelong condemnation! Millions of people have been able to reverse type 2 diabetes by reducing/removing the foods and the practices that cause/fuel it!

Mystery Sale at Adorama

Adorama is running a Mystery Sale of sorts, featuring an assortment of different products, too many to list here individually, so if it your adventure should you choose to accept the deal-challenge πŸ™‚

Sunday: GVM BiC Light, Pelican Hard Case, Coupons, Etc

Sunday is here with a fresh 4-pack of B&H Photo dailies good until Sunday at 11:59pm ET or earlier if sold out:

+ GVM 7SM Double-Sided Mini On-Camera Bicolor & RGB LED Video Light for $69

+ Pelican 1557AirTP Hard Carry Case with TrekPak Divider Insert (Black) for $264 after in-cart coupon

+ Axlr RECODO Dual Head Mount Y Arm for $25

+ Anton Beauer Titon Micro 150 V-Mount Lithium-Ion Battery for $337

LIKE COFFEE? Amazon has a Ten Page COFFEE and TEA SALE featuring all kinds of options, even …mushroom coffee!

MEANwhile in COUPONLandia

+ coupon NY10 gets you $10 off orders of $75+ for a limited time only at the Monoprice website

+ coupon OUTJAN2024 gets REI Members $20 off a purchase of $100+ at the REI Outlet until 1/15/24

+ coupon 50DREAM gets you $50 off a Creative LIVE Subscription (Netflix style)

LumeCube Panel Go RGB LED Light for $67, Etc

It’s FRi-YAY once again, and it’s happy hour but with unsweetened tea instead of sugary cocktails πŸ™‚ You can actually get “tea drunk”!

As usual, the Friday B&H Photo daily deals run until Saturday at 11:59pm ET:

+ LumeCube Panel Go RGB LED Light for $67
+ all together now: you can’t have photo-graphy without light!

+ Oben Macro Focusing Rail (Long) for $70
+ because Macro is Magical and Mystical!

+ Magnus FT-P30A Flexible Smartphone Tripod with Dual Flexible Arms for $18
+ can also be used as a scarecrow for birds and small animals

+ Uncaged Cube USB Power Strip (White) for $30

After a lot of heavy duty classes, things wind down for Friday at Creative LIVE on-air, starting at 12pm ET is Greeting Cards in Photoshop with Khara Plicanic, 2 hours long, just in time for Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year festivities!

Thursday: F-Stop Mountain Backpack, Softbox w/Light Bulb, Adobe Camera RAW 16hr Class, Etc

Off we go to the Thursday B*H Photo daily dealzezezess [yes, we speakz like drunk smeagolz today]:

+ RAYA Octagonal Collapsible Softbox for LED Bulbs with Socket (27.6″) for $30 with FREE Raya LED Light Bulb (45W)

+ F-Stop Mountain Series Ajna Backpack (Aloe Green, 40L) for $150
+ such a beautiful bag, would you dare to get it dirty in the mountains? πŸ˜‰

+ SIRUI tripods with mail-in rebates (SOYVEY it’s 2024!)

+ Kaiser Copy Stand RSX with RTX Arm for $993
+ that’s one mighty priced copy stand πŸ™‚

Learningz about The Precious is the name of the game at the Creative LiveZzz On-AirZezezzss starting on Thursday at 12pm ET. In our case, The Precious is Light πŸ™‚

+ Color Theory for Photographers with Blake Rudis, 81 mins with 27 min “kindle sample”

+ Adobe Camera RAW with Jack Davis, nearly 16 hours long, 22 min “Kindle sample”

Wedn: MEHrathon, Spyder X2 Elite, Lowel Blender, Feiyu Vimble, Creative Studio Lighting, Etc

Wednesday January 10 2024 is here, yes, already 1/3rd of January is almost gone! OH MY! And what a way to start things off, it’s a MEH-rathon at MEH. Offers change every 30 minutes BUT you can also purchase any of the previous MEHrathon offers – as long as they remain in-stock/orderable!

Next up we find a fresh 4-pack of B&H Photo daily deals good until 11:59pm ET or earlier if sold out:

+ DataCOLOR Spyder X2 Elite Colorimeter for $200

+ Lowel Blender XL Bi-Color LED Light for $164
+ no, you cannot make smoothies with this blender!

+ FeiYu Vimble 3 Telescoping 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal for Smartphones for $40
+ yes, it’s based on the famous Beatles song “HeiYu” πŸ™‚

+ CAD A77 Supercardioid Large Diaphragm Dynamic Microphone for $70

AND on the free-streaming front starting at 12pm ET at Creative LIVEz On-Airz there’s another big time class, “Creative Studio Lighting” with Lindsay Adler, nearly 5 hours long. The first two lessons are the “Kindle samples”, about 1 hour long total, you can watch them at any time to get a feel for the class which is also on sale for $24!

Tuesday: Tenba Messenger, Tube Light Panel, Video Head, Etc

Tuesday is here, the Adorama dialies continue to operate in “Top Deals” mode, while the B&H Photo dailies [CORRECTED LINK!] have a fresh 4-pack for your consideration:

+ Impact Forever Ready Cool 4-LED 2×1 Tube Light Panel for $149

+ TenBa Cooper 15 Messenger Bag with Leather Accents (Gray) for $138
+ Bag the Bags!

+ ElVID SkyVision 5.5″ Wireless RX/TX HD Recording Monitor for $299

+ Magnus FBVH-500 Video Head with Flat Base for $124

ON THE FREE-Streaming front starting at 12pm ET at Creative LiVE ON AIR they have:

+ Wedding Photography with Joe Buissink, nearly 13 hours

+ Compositing 101 with Aaron Nace, just over 14 hours

Monday: Luxli, Joby, Manfrotto, Food Photography, Etc

And just like that, another Monday is here! We start with another 4-pack of offerings at the B&H Photo dailies good until 1/8/24 at 11:59pm ET or earlier if sold out:

+ Luxli ViolaΒ² 5″ On-Camera RGB LED Light Panel for $149 with FREE Luxli Softbox with Diffusion Filter
+ memo to product development and marketing teams, please do not put superscripts and subscripts in product names, it makes typing hard πŸ™‚

+ Manfrotto MVH502A Fluid Head and MVT502AM Tripod with Carrying Bag for $330
+ yes, this is The Union of The Daily Deal Towers, a tripod and a BAG!

+ Joby GripTight PRO Video GP Stand for $15

+ SaraMonic Vmic5 Pro Camera-Mount Shotgun Mic for $129

MEANwhile on the free-streaming e-learningz front starting at 12pm ET on Monday at Creative LIVE ON AIR they have a yummy class, “Food Photography” with Penny De Los Santos, 14 hour runtime! Lesson #3, “Principles of Food Photography” (43 min) is the “kindle sample”, you can watch it at any time – to get a feel for the class. And if you like it, you can buy it for $49.

UPDATE: Adorama continues to run Top Deals mode while the latest additions at Amazon include another variant of the Google Pixel sale including the 7a and variants of the 8.

IF you like the design of the Woot t-shirts, good for Monday is a T-Shirts sale: you put four of them in your shopping cart and the price automatically adjusts to $32, making them, if my head-math is correct, $8 per t-shirts. Shipping as usual (Free for Prime members or flat S&H for non-members)…

Sunday: Woot Mystery Refurbished Windows Laptop for $240

Adorama continues to run in “Top Deals mode” at their daily deals, but the excitement of the day is at Woot Computers where they are offering a refurbished (Grade A with 90-day Woot warranty) Mystery Laptop for $240. Different customers will receive different sub-models! Most will have 256GB SSD but some will get 512GB. RAM will vary between 8GB to 32GB (most will get 16GB). The processor starts at Intel i5-6300, but about half will get an i7. The display size (13.1 or 14 or 15.6″) and resolution (720 or 1080) also varies.

It comes with Windows 10 PRO 64-bit (some may/will support W11 per the listing), and Bluetooth 4.1, a sign that it’s an older type of a chassis.If you use a lot of Bluetooth devices, this is a potential orange to red flag as Bluetooth got really solid with version 5.

As a minimum you will receive 8GB RAM (about 2/3rds will get 16GB RAM), 256GB SSD, Intel i5-6300 (or better), and some kind of a screen πŸ™‚

This is truly a mystery type thing! You pay $240 and you won’t know until you open the box πŸ™‚

If you don’t enjoy these type of mystery box type of things (hello LOST fans!), you may want to stay away πŸ™‚

Sunday: Manfrotto Rolling Bag, Treefort Strap, Magnus $7 Mini tripod, Weddings, Etc

A new day dawns with a fresh 4-pack of offerings at the B&H Photo daily deals good until 1/7/23 at 11:59pm ET or earlier if sold out:

+ Manfrotto Pro Light Reloader Tough-55 Low Lid Carry-On Camera Rollerbag (Black) for $180 after in-cart coupon
+ now that’s a serious BAG the rolling BAG

+ Treefort Lookout Camera Strap for $20 in three color options

+ Magnus TinyGrip Flexible Tripod (Black) for $7
+ you know you can’t resist it at this price πŸ˜‰

+ AuRaY audio type filter type thing type thing for $40

While I’m busy working on my “Divorce Photography” Masterclass, Weddings continue to be the theme at the Creative LIVE ON-Air free-streaming starting at 12pm ET:

+ The Wedding Story: Capture Creative and Authentic Photos with Davina and Daniel Kudish, 10.5 hours long

+ Create Wedding Flower Centerpieces and Bouquets with Kiana Underwood (8 hrs)
+ PRO TIP: if you are shooting weddings anyway, why not expand your business to other areas of a wedding
+ after all, who is best suited to Photograph the flowers than a photographer!

IN RUSSIA, magazines read YOU! But in the rest of the universe, you can read printed magazines if you wish, and if so, DiscountMAGs has a Top 100 sale which typically runs through Monday night…

Saturday: Free-Streaming Modern Women’s Portraiture, Etc

Saturday is here, and as usual, the B&H dailies are the same as yesterday, while Adorama continues to be in Top Deals Mode.

Amazon on the other hand cares about your air quality with this Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor for $55.

On the free e-learning front, there’s a superclass starting at 12pm ET a t Creative LIVE ON AIR, “Modern Women’s Portraiture” with Sue Bryce, Lou Freeman, Lara Jade, Emily Soto, total runtime 17 hours! The “Kindle sample” for this class is Lesson #14 (Day #2, 30 min), “Ten Steps to Success”. And if you happen to like what you see, what a coincidence, it’s on sale for $49 πŸ™‚

If you are audio-minded, also free-streaming is a 5-hour class “EQ Master Class” with Graham Cochrane. Lessons #6 (32 mins) “EQ mistakes” is the “Kindle sample” of this e-class.

Tenba Cable pouch, Fresnel Spot S-mount, LensPen, GVM NP-F970 kit, Etc

Friday is here and as usual the B&H Photo daily deals run until Saturday at 11:59pm ET:

+ Tenba Cable Duo 4 Cable Pouch (Black Camouflage/Lime) for $15
+ yes, we have a BAG the BAGS for the cables πŸ™‚

+ Impact Fresnel Spot S-Mount Attachment (10-40Β°) for $38
+ out of the box idea: you can use this as a dummy lens bait so thieves can grab this instead of your usual lenses πŸ™‚

+ LensPen SensorKlear II with Articulated Tip for $8

+ 2x GVM NP-F970 6600mAh Batteries with Dual Charger and V-Mount Adapter for $79

NEW YEAR, NEW YOU, exercise time for all, and Amazon is offering the new condition ASICS Men’s Gel-Venture 8 Running Shoes for $50. “8” is the model name, not the number of shoes πŸ™‚ Size options in the listing, along with twenty (!!!) color scheme options. NOTE that shoe prices at Amazon vary depending on size and color, so be sure to check out all size and color options of interest!

AND ON the e-LEARNINGs front, starting at 12pm ET on Friday at Creative LIVE ON AIR they have Masking for Composite Photography with Lisa Carney (1hr) and Restart with Jasmine Star (14 hours)…

UPDATE: Top Deals Mode continues at the Adorama dailies for Friday as well…

Thursday: Combo Tool, Tri-Monopod, Raya Softbox, Food Photography, Wine Tasting, Etc

Yes, Thirsty Thursday is here, and after all that holiday eating, we are certainly thirsty for some electrolytes!

We have another 4-pack of B&H Photo dailies good until 11:59pm ET or earlier if sold out:

+ Vello COOLTOOL Camera Plate Combo Tool
+ yes, it’s Tool Time!

+ Magnus Aluminum Travel Tripod with Monopod and Arca-Type Ball Head for $60
+ a day without tripods is no day at all!
+ — Anonymous

+ Raya EFS-16 Easy Fold Softbox Set (16 x 16″) for $40
+ 24×24″ variant for $43

+ VAXis ATOM 500 SDI Wireless Video Transmitter and Receiver Kit (SDI/HDMI) for $329
+ no relation to the VAX mini-computers of yester-year πŸ˜‰

IF YOU ARE committed to life-long learning and FREE, there’s another set of free-streaming classes starting at 9am ET on Wednesday at Creative LIVE onAIR headlined by “Food Photography” with Andrew Scrivani (nearly 14 hours long, so one broadcast in full). There’s also the Premiere of “Born Creative” with James Victore (over 5 hours long). And if you had received a lot of wine bottles as gifts during the holidays or mayhaps you received a wine tasting subscription for the year, you may find the “Become a Great Wine Taster” by Richard Betts (8 hours) of interest.

Memo to self: be sure to double-check the spelling and it says “wine” and not “wife” – because then it becomes a totally different type of a class πŸ˜‰

UPDATE: “Top Deals” mode continues to be the order of the day at the Adorama daily deals, while the Amazon Gold Box has added a ten-page sale of various nutritional and wellness supplements

Tamron 35/2.8 Di III OSD w/FREEbies (filter kit, lens pouch, etc) for $199 [E]

If you are a fan of the Sony E system, Adorama has a Tamron 35mm f2.8 Di III OSD lens bundle for the E system going for $199 with the following freebies:

+ ProOptic 67mm Digital Essentials Filter Kit

+ Slinger Neoprene Lens Pouch – Small

+ Complete Optics Care and Cleaning Kit.

+ ProOPTIC Universal Lens Cap Tether

+ all reusable and repurposable accessories – if you are selling older gear on eBay and such, including these type of accessories as bonus can help the listing stand out in perceived value; and they too can pass them along to the next one πŸ™‚

Wednesday: Mitakon 65mm f1.4 for $479 [Fuji MF], Nanuk, Oben, Posing 101, Etc

Yes, Wednesday is here dear readers, dazed and confused we are barreling down into the madness of 2024!

We begin with the most important news of the year so far, voting is open for the Trader Joe Customer Choice Awards. Voting ends 1/9/24 at 11:59pm Pacific. Five products are excluded because they are in the Hall of Fame (Mandarin orange chicken [of course!], soy chorizo, etc].

WE HAVE OUR first LENZE DAYE of the year at the B&H Photo daily deals good until 11:59pm ET or earlier if sold out:

+ Mitakon Zhongyi Speedmaster 65mm f/1.4 for $479 in Fuji G medium format mirrorless system, making it a “50mm equivalent”

+ LuxLI TimpaniΒ² 1×1 RGB LED Light Panel for $799

+ NanUK 918 Case with Foam Insert for Set of Six Lenses (Black, Special 50th Anniversary Edition for $100
+ despite the UK in the name, this has a Canadian symbol on it πŸ™‚

+ Oben BC-166 Ball Head for $90

ON the free-streaming front, starting at 12pm ET on WEdnesday at Creative LIVE ON-AIR we have a 5.5 hour class by Lindsay Adler, “Posing 101: Couples, Weddings and Families”. Posing for photography that is, not how to become an instagram pose(u)r πŸ˜‰

Also running in celebratory mode is Chase Jarvis’s very own “30 Days of Genius” featuring various rich and/or famous and/or creative people.

UPDATE: “Top Deals Mode” continues at the Adorama dailies, while nutritional and wellness and fitness supplements and assorted things rule the day at the Amazon USA Gold Box

Tuesday: Manfrotto Reloader, Wedding Pho Class, ReVo Stabilizer, Etc

Wedding Bells at Creative LIVE ON-AIR, starting on Tuesday at 12pm ET you can free-stream the “Wedding Photography” class (Joe Buissink, almost 13 hours, Lesson #3 (32 min) is the “Kindle sample”).

Speaking of Creative LIVE, for a limited time only, coupon code CREATE2024 gets you $20 off any order of $39+ over there.

IT’s a nutritional supplement invasion at the Amazon USA Gold Box – as expected at this time of the year as gyms break records in new sign-ups πŸ™‚

“Top Deals mode” continues at the Adorama daily deals today as well, too many to list here individually…

And finally we have a fresh 4-pack of B&H Photo daily deals:

+ Manfrotto Pro Light Reloader Air-55 Carry-On Camera Roller Bag (Black) for $250 after in-cart coupon
+ yes, we are starting the new “Bag the Bags” year in-style!

+ Impact PowerSync Mini Transmitter and Receiver Kit for $50

+ ReVo ST-1000 Pro Video Stabilizer for $40

+ Wooden Camera Ultra Quick Release Articulating Monitor Mount (Baby Pin/C-Stand) for $159
+ no wood and no camera are included πŸ˜‰

Adorama returns to Top Deals mode, Fitbit, TurboTax

New Year, New You and the Adorama daily deals have returned to the “Top Deals” mode where a variety of on-going deals are featured – too many to list here individually…

MEANwhile at Amazon, it’s Tax Time already with Intuit Turbo TAX on sale from $45 to $114 depending on version (Deluxe to Business). New Year New You also means Health and Fitness which is why they have this Fitbit sale with prices ranging from $49 (Ace 3) to $200 (Sense 2)…