I’m on a bit of a camera kick this morning. Just after I scored a $299 Panasonic 1080p camcorder from Amazon today, I caught Sal Cangeloso’s thoughts about BorrowLenses.com – a camera lens rental service. I’ve been using my Canon EOS Rebel T1i for months, but only with two lenses. The standard 18-55mm kit lens is a good starter lens, but I’ve added a Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime lens as well. I’m in the market for a fast telephoto, but they don’t come cheap and that’s where BorrowLenses comes in.

For one week, Sal rented a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 II USM for his digital SLR at the cost of $74 plus shipping and optional insurance. While that might sound like a large sum for a week’s worth of use, this particular lens would cost you $1,900 to purchase. So with that perspective in mind, I think the rental rate is quite reasonable. Some of the telephoto glass I’ve been longing for will easily set me back over $1,000. And if the lens doesn’t really meet my needs, I’m either out that $1,000 or I have to deal with selling it at some discount. From where I stand, a small up-front rental fee is cheap insurance to ensure that I like what I’m planning to buy. Note that some brick-and-mortar camera shops offer lens rentals, so BorrowLenses isn’t necessarily unique. However, Sal’s experience appears very positive, which is good enough for me.

In a side-by-side comparison, one could argue that pics from the iPhone 3GS look better than those from a Droid. That doesn’t mean you can’t make the Droid photos a little better. Adobe released a mobile Photoshop app for the iPhone a few weeks back, and the same title hits the Android Market today. The free software is limiting in terms of what picture qualities you can change, but I find myself using it on most of my pics. In fact, just yesterday I tweaked this little number using Photoshop for iPhone.

Harvesting the feed corn

What I like about the app is how simple it is. You just choose what function you want and then slide your finger left to right for the adjustment. You can save the photo locally or save and upload to Photoshop.com where you have 2 GB of free storage.

The Mole arrived late last night, so I’ll have to put it through the paces for a few days yet. From a specification and features perspective, it sounds pretty impressive. Like many standard webcams, the resolution isn’t all that high — we’re talking QVGA and VGA at up to 30fps here. But, it’s a standalone camera so it doesn’t need to be tethered to a stationary computer. The Mole has integrated Wi-Fi so it works as long as there’s a wireless signal. And if you need to extend your viewing beyond your network, there’s an SD card slot to record what the Mole sees and hears. The Mole can also upload videos directly to YouTube which I’ll test, but I’m not sure I’d use that feature all too much.

As far as remote access, you can view the live stream from any Internet connection. Astak says that it even works on the iPhone, so I’ll have a look-see on my 3GS. Remote tilting and panning is also supported: the vertical tilt range is 120-degrees while the horizontal panning is a wide 270-degrees. 15 LED lights help the Mole see in the dark and there’s a motion sensor feature too. When the Mole detects movement, it can email or tweet. I see a number of good uses for the Mole, so I’ll get it set up and take a closer look. Kitties — you have been warned!

I used the app briefly and it offers enough features for the download to try:

• Crop, rotate and flip
• Exposure, saturation, tint and black & white
• Sketch and soft focus
• Effects of vibrant, pop, border, vignette blur, warm vintage and rainbow

Most of the effects are utilized by swiping your finger — a left swipe reduces an effect while a right swipe increases it. I took an iPhone photo from a recent trip to Bushkill Falls with Barb and liked the final results. Here’s the original pic with the various menus and effects to give you a visual idea. Is it the best photo editing app on the iPhone? Doubtful. But for casual photo users that want to snap and edit pics for online viewing moments later, it’s quite usable.

I’m probably in the minority here, but I only connect my iPhone via USB once in a blue moon. Basically, I connect the phone to my MacBook to change up the music or to get a software update. That’s probably once every two to three months. With today’s wireless technology, I simply don’t like to connect a phone with wires. Of course, that leads to other challenges — like when I want to get a photo or screenshot off of the iPhone. I’ve been going the dreaded email route up to now, but after watching this video of WiFiPhoto over at Gear Diary, I’m sold. The $0.99 price didn’t hurt, either!

WiFiPhoto lets you pick and choose photos on your phone and then transfers them in full size over an ad-hoc wireless connection to your PC or Mac via your browser. Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer are all supported: you simply type in the IP address of your iPhone, which is provided by the app. It’s simple and effective, plus it avoids clogging up my Inbox while cutting out the “save downloads” step that I so often have to do. The software will also autorotate pics or create a zip file of multiple photos. Here’s a few pics I transferred, along with a shot of the interface.

The MiFi models 2352 and 2372 have an integrated application server that adds the ability to run programs, in addition to the MiFi core function of serving as a 3G router over Wi-Fi. Applications can be preloaded that add functionality to the MiFi to augment the usefulness of the gadget. The agreement announced today describes Eye-Fi software that will allow MiFi owners to upload photos to the MiFi from a camera, even when 3G isn’t available. Uploading to online services is then done automatically when connectivity is possible.

This is a limited scenario, and while those who need to free up space on a camera will appreciate this ability, it sort of duplicates the ability of the Eye-Fi itself. The Eye-Fi is an SD card with Wi-Fi ability integrated, allowing for cameras to tap right into Wi-Fi hotspots. As long as 3G connectivity is present, the MiFi taps into that network and creates a Wi-Fi hotspot. So if 3G is present, the camera with an Eye-Fi installed can connect directly to the web through the MiFi. Confused? It does add functionality to the Eye-Fi user, just not much more than they already have.

Novatel is also announcing enterprise-type software that will be preloaded on these MiFis, such as VPN and anti-virus software. This might add more value for MiFi owners.

I’m nearing four months of Palm Pre ownership but I’m still carrying two phones with me. Why? Several reasons, but one of them is that my Pre can’t record any video. The hardware of the Pre is certainly capable, but there’s no software support for it. Although I expect we’ll see a webOS upgrade within the next week or so, I don’t think Palm will have added such support, either. Enter some clever developer types armed with command line knowledge, pointed out at PreCentral.

The webOS Internals group shares that knowledge on their wiki if you’re into rooting your Pre and living in a Terminal. I’ll wait to see if there’s a simpler way to fire up a video camera on my Pre, but many adventurers aren’t waiting. They’re either running some command lines or installing an early, test application file. There’s some basic video and sound captures coming right from the Pre as a result, but the files currently appear to be playable only in very specific apps due to the file format and container. The Pre’s camera and processor should theoretically handle 720 x 480 video capture, but I’d expect Palm to only offer VGA recording, if any, in the future.

With it, you can capture pics and video in high definition. Couple that with the integrated TV-out connection and that user generated content can be viewed in high def on an HDTV, right from the phone. While you can’t view that content in high def on the phone — the 320 x 480 display clearly doesn’t support 720 lines of resolution needed for HD — the InstinctHD essentially doubles as a 720p handheld camcorder. I’d have to see the output to determine if it rivals that of my Kodak Zi6 or another high-def pocket shooter, but it’s appealing nonetheless.

Even if currently available, dedicated cameras are a shade better than the InstinctHD, it’s only a matter of time before we see more handsets with this feature. And as that happens, there’s less of a need for those single-purpose devices. If I were Kodak, Creative or Cisco — the folks who bought PureDigital, makers of the Flip — I’d be scrambling to add some killer features to my camera right about now. My instincts, not to mention Sprint’s, tell me that decent HD quality capabilities are about to explode onto the phone scene.

Sprint’s InstinctHD launches on September 27 at Best Buy Mobile and will be available in Sprint stores starting on October 11.

SanDisk isn’t neglecting this higher-end camera market. It just released information on its new SanDisk Extreme Pro line, which offers fast reads and writes of up to 90MBps. That helps reduce the delay between shots, although many cameras these days can buffer frames to a point. These new Compact Flash memory cards are now shipping in capacities of 16, 32 and 64GB. That sounds like quite a bit of memory for a digital camera, but RAW image files at high resolutions can eat up space quickly. And with some of these cameras, like my Canon T1i now offering high-definition video recording, what sounds like “too much” memory soon becomes “not enough.”

Canon says the price range for the three Extreme Pro capacities is between $300 and $800, with exact pricing set by retailers. If that’s too rich for your blood — or your camera — SanDisk has a less expensive line that might work for you. Dropping the Pro label is the SanDisk Extreme series. These slow the read and write throughput to 60MBps and offer 8, 16 or 32GB of storage. While the speeds drop by 33 percent from the Pro line, the pricing can drop even more. Expect to see the Extreme series cost between between $130 and $375, depending on the retailer and capacity.

The new Vado HD is available for pre-order in a 4GB white with green accent color combo or 8GB black with red accent. Pricing is $179 and $199 respectively. After using a similar Kodak Zi6 pocket camcorder with no internal memory — it uses standard SD cards — I highly recommend dropping the extra $20 if you’re interested in a Creative Vado HD. Snapping those high-def videos uses up storage very quickly and without any expansion slots, you’ll likely find the additional $20 well worth the extra 4GB on the more expensive model.

For our video reviews, I use one of two cameras. For quick and dirty vids on the road, I whip out my Kodak Zi6. But if I want a higher quality video, I opt for my Canon EOS T1i since I can change lenses and use better optics. Both cameras shoot 720p video in 30fps — the Zi6 can actually do 60fps — but both also present me with a huge challenge.  When I’m on camera, I can’t see what the camera can see. That causes various retakes unless I have an assistant stand behind the camera. It’s simply not good.

Now I don’t want to buy another camera, but if I were in the market, I’d be taking a close look at the new Samsung DualView TL220. This 12.2 megapixel point-and-shoot is also capable of recording high-definition video at 720p and 30fps. So why would I consider it if doesn’t add anything in terms of video quality? A dual LCD is the answer.

The entire backside of the camera is a touchscreen with haptic feedback, but it’s the LCD in the front that caught my eye. Alongside of the camera lens is a 1.5″ LCD that shows what the camera sees. That would help my particular situation immensely. Self-portraits for everyone else would be a bit easier, too.

Samsung’s DualView TL220 offers a 22.5mm f/4.9 lens with image stabilization and a 5x digital zoom. I personally look for cameras with some type of optical zoom over, or in addition to a digital zoom, but at $299.99 with that front LCD, I could possibly overlook that deficiency. The TL220 does offers a 4.6x optical zoom, making this an even better deal at $299.99.

One of our own is at it again with the iPhone hacks. Last time, Andreas showed us how to add an inline remote control to high-end headphones for his iPhone 3GS. This week, he’s whipping out the soldering iron yet again to add an LED flash to his handset. The whole setup took him under 10 minutes, and uses some electrical tape, a 3V external battery and a high-powered Cree-emitter LED light.

Andreas shows off the extra illumination in a short YouTube video and it’s pretty darn bright for a single LED. Even so, he still hasn’t got me to overcome my fear of soldering irons. I keep thinking I’ll solder my fingers together or something. Maybe I can convince him to make me one for purchase?

The Pro is aimed for what I’d call “pro-sumers.” It offers all of the features found in the other Eye-Fi models, but it adds three more: RAW support, selective transfer, and ad hoc upload capabilities.

RAW images are essentially digital negatives. Unlike JPG files, which are commonly used by digital camera users, RAW images aren’t compressed. Instead, they’re basically the data captured by the image sensor. As a result, they’re larger in size. Many (if not all) of the digital photographers I follow on the web use RAW files to ensure that the image they capture is the one they work with in post-processing. By adding RAW support, the Eye-Fi Pro is expanding its potential audience to high-end photography buffs and professionals alike.

Selective transfer adds the convenience of picking and choosing the images you want to send from your Eye-Fi to a computer or online photo site. The Eye-Fi people tell me that 90 percent of their users have asked for this feature, and I’m not surprised. On a single shoot, I may take a few hundred pics, many of which are the same scene. I only want to work with the best photos, so why would I want to waste time and battery life sending them all? The default function of the Eye-Fi is to send them all, but using the Lock or Protect feature of your camera, you can select which photos are sent. The selective transfer feature isn’t only for the Eye-Fi Pro, either. It works for all Eye-Fi cards through the Eye-Fi Manager software.

I really like the last feature that’s specific to the Eye-Fi Pro: ad hoc network support. With all of the other Eye-Fi cards, you need to have a Wi-Fi network available to transfer your photos without wires. The Pro takes the Wi-Fi network out of the equation. All you need is a Mac or PC with integrated Wi-Fi to create a wireless conduit between your camera and your computer. There’s no router needed and no need to hunt for a hotspot. “Eighty percent of our users take a laptop with them,” the Eye-Fi team tells me. Now 100 percent of those folks can use their camera and laptop together wherever they are.

The Pro is available today on Amazon, and I received a review unit late yesterday. Like the Eye-Fi Explore Video, it offers geotagging through SkyHook Wireless and a year of uploads at Wayport Wi-Fi hotspots. I’ll have the Eye-Fi Pro for two weeks and will put it through the paces by transferring photos and videos from my Canon EOS Rebel T1i. Stay tuned for some hands-on experiences.

I ended up shooting my own portrait by using the two-second timer function on my Canon Ti1, but it took about 20 shots to get it just right. Well…as right as it could be with the subject matter I had to work with; I always had a face for podcasting. If I had the remote application, I could have actually modified the settings and previewed my pic using the remote Live View function. Instead, I had to pre-focus, tap the shutter release, and quickly scoot back into the frame. Come to think of it, this was good exercise.

Oh yeah, why did I need that head shot? Hmm…I can’t say just yet, but I think I’ll be able to share the reason why tomorrow. Stay tuned, and try not to hurt yourself with any self-portraits while you’re waiting, ‘k?