Digital Video and Photo Tech Treasures [2011 Cool Yule Tools]

Like smartphones and music players, the digital video and photography category has exploded with cameras over the past few years. Or rather than focusing on every model and device with an X number of megapixels, we've focused our attention on new ways and gadgets that incorporate photography or video in new or different ways. There are plenty of sites that cover each new camera, to put it more exactly, here are some cool gift ideas to enhance your existing camera or video device:

Products reviewed in this categoryOlloclip for iPhone, by OlloclipGE Power Pro X500 Digital CameraSportsCam DVR-460 Mini Digital Recorder, by SwannLooxcie2 wearable video camera, by LooxcieD-Link DCS-932L Wireless N Day/Night Home Network CameraHome Video Monitoring System with Skype, by LorexDVR 410 digital camcorder, by VivitarDXG 3D Camera and Viewer, by DXG USAVizit Frame, by Isabella ProductsCineSkates, by CineticsPlay video memo pad, by Native UnionVideo Spy Pen, by BrookstoneThe reviews

Olloclip for iPhone, by OlloclipThe Olloclip is a set of three tiny lenses that can clip on to an iPhone 4 or 4S, giving you a fisheye lens, a wide-angle lens, and a Macro focal lens. The fisheye and macro lens include the clip - to use the wide-angle lens, you screw that one onto the macro lens. The clip at that time snaps onto the corner of the iPhone 4, covering the existing lens to give you the "new" lens for photos.

While the digital camera on the iPhone continues to get better with each new version, it's however not as good as other separate cameras. With the addition of the Olloclip, although, you can now get some additional photos types without needing to grab a separate device.

The company as well recently launched Looxcie Live

The company as well recently launched Looxcie Live, which takes this experience a step furthermore. When teamed up with a smartphone, a Looxcie owner can "broadcast" the feed from their camera to other smartphone viewers. Web viewing is as well coming shortly. This allows people to record different events that others may not be able to attend live - so grandma and grandpa can watch Susie play soccer live, to give one simple example. The possibilities are many, once some of these other platforms become available.

On the downside, the camera for the time being only records 480p video, which is not very good considering that 1080p cameras are plentiful. As well, wearing the camera on the side of your face can take some work at first. Fortunately there are some iPhone apps that help you with this - for instance, you can broadcast to your phone to see if the camera angle is correct.

D-Link DCS-932L Wireless N Day/Night Home Network CameraWi-Fi cameras have undoubtedly come a long way. Many I've tried over the years had problems with resolution, color, brightness, or, for the most part, all three. On the whole, the convenience and flexibility of this class of products are undeniable, whether using them for security, surveillance, or as a webcam.

Number of novel features

D-Link's DCS-932 has a number of novel features, and one in particular stands way out: this is an infrared camera that can "see" in the dark. If you've ever seen night-vision goggles, you get the idea, and the range of applications is along these lines vastly expanded. The IR range is pretty limited, nevertheless that's for all that pretty amazing, especially in this price range. Web access to video from this type of product is becoming more common, and the mydlink.com portal lets users view and manage the camera over the Web, another amazing feature. iPhone and Android apps are as well available. Other features include 300Mbps 802.11n, 4X digital zoom, and resolution of up to 640x480 at up to 20 fps. Yet keep in mind that AC power is required, which limits applications to some degree.

Installation was easy - connect to wired Ethernet, run the installation software, set up a mydlink.com account, log in, and that was pretty much it. I was able to view the camera over the Web immediately. D-Link's mydlink.com needs some work - a firmware upgrade failed, applet downloads took a very long time, and in general all of this was frustratingly slow and clunky to use. Nevertheless there are many configuration options and flexibility was in effect very good here.

The only downside of this

The only downside of this was the Skype setup. If we were on Vista/Windows 7 machines at home I have no doubt I could have made a Skype call to it previously leaving the office.  The directions and setup are that easy and straightforward.  However when it comes to Macs/XP systems the instructions are "If you are connecting with Windows XP or Mac, please refer to the User's manual for more information."  At heart you have to know how to log into your router to get an IP address for the device.  Not a problem for me.  Yet it might be for some other folks.  Once you can get to the web interface of the device it's a breeze.  I was able to add the Skype account I created to it and had no problems connecting.

Cool Yule rating: 2 starsPrice: $50.97Reviewed by Jennifer FinnVizit Frame, by Isabella ProductsThere are a wide number of ways to do photo sharing, nevertheless the Vizit Frame has reduced this necessity to absolute simplicity by connecting the product to AT&T's cellular network and enabling the simple MMS and e-mail transfer of photos directly to the frame. This will have obvious appeal for the less technically literate out there, who will nevertheless be thrilled to the arrival of new pictures of the grandchildren, that new bathroom, or Aunt Ruth's cat doing something so amazing that it in effect should be on one of those TV network home-video shows that I never watch because I spend all my time testing products for the Network World Holiday Gift Guide. To tell the truth, I wouldn't watch them regardless, yet I like to see new photos of the family as much as anyone.

CineSkates, by CineticsWith digital video cameras now on every device from a tablet to a smartphone, not to mention free-standing handheld cameras and more traditional camcorders, let's just say there's a lot of people out there taking video. And most of it sucks, because of shaky camera work, bad lighting, bad audio or just bad content.

Cool Yule rating: 4 starsPrice: $315 for the ready-to-go system; $200 for just the skates; version for the iPhone 4/4S as well available.Reviewed by Keith Shaw