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It seems that the more one becomes involved with photography, the more stuff one needs to tote around. While expanding one's wardrobe to include more apparel with cargo pockets may provide a short-term solution to gadget growth, eventually the merits of a camera bag will be impossible to ignore.

Nevertheless, the prospect of lugging a large photo poke around may not fill you with honeyed emotions. If that's the case, then the Lowepro Nova 170 AW camera bag will appeal to you.

The sack has a trim set of exterior dimensions--9.5 x 7.1 x 9.6 inches--yet is roomy enough for a compact or full-sized digital SLR and an extra lens. Another combination that I found the 170 accommodating comfortably was a full-sized DSLR and MiniDV camcorder.

In addition to its roomy interior, this Lowepro model offers an assortment of pockets for stashing gear.

On the top flap, there's a zippered pocket. Inside the flap, there's another zippered pocket and three smaller ones with hook and snap closures for memory cards.

The main compartment, which has a removable divider, can be zippered shut for security or the flap secured with a quick-release buckle for fast access to the bag's contents.

On each side of the bag are stretch pockets suitable for bulky items or a water bottle or two.

A padded pocket, also zippered, with two mesh pouches on a third pocket can be found at the front of the sack, and at the back, a zippered pocket handy for storing a camera handbook. That back cavity has dual loops which can be used for securing a small tripod or for threading a belt for wearing the 170 as a waist pack.

The interior of the bag is made of 200D polyester and the exterior of 840D nylon and 600D polyester.

For lensslingers who want the advantages of a camera bag without the bulk, this Nova model, which comes in classic black, Bordeaux Red, Chestnut Brown and Ultramarine Blue, can provide both-- and do it with style.

Camera bag king Lowepro released a deluge of new products last Friday designed to appeal to a range of shutter toters from the environmentally concerned to the fashion conscious.

Leading the parade of new camera carriers is the Terraclime line of multi-purpose digital bags. Terraclime models are made from 95% recycled materials. Exterior fabric for the sacks is 100% post-consumer, recycled Cyclepet material. The spacer mesh is 60% recycled PET. In addition, the bags' hardware--hook closures and zippers-- are composed of plastic regrind, recycled and repurposed industrial trimmings from the factory floor.

Available in black, plum or grass, the four soft-sided bags in the line can accommodate a spectrum of needs from carrying around ultracompact point-and-shoot digital cameras, lenses, GPS units, iPods or smart phones to transporting full-size DSLRs. Pricing for the bags range from $19.99 to $79.99.

If you find yourself squinting at even a three-inch display on your digital camera, you may want to consider a new product announced today by Uniden. It's a 3x magnifier for DSC LCDs. The UNX-8507 slips over a three-inch LCD and is made of special rubber to ensure it will not scratch the surface of the display. Uniden notes that an added advantage to the device is that you can use it in bright sunshine, essentially using it like a giant viewfinder. The gadget goes on sale tomorrow--but only in Japan--for $47, according to Serkan Toto at CrunchGear.

A Korean company, Sellgino, has introduced a photo geo-tagger that's also a VoIP phone. The USB device runs on a rechargeable lithium polymer battery, which takes about two hours to charge, and is able to save all logged data for over eight months. The gizmo measures 3.89-by-1.29-by-0.7 inches and includes software for making  VoIP calls and geo-tagging photos based on EXIF 2.1 or later information. Don't go looking for this gadget under the Sellgino name, though, because the company is strictly an OEM/ODM/bulk seller. That's also why pricing information and availability for the product, the GPS Photo Tour GS-200, has not been immediately available.

I'm as soft as sherbert on tarmac on a dog day in August when it comes to pets, but this item had me wondering today about the hairline between the sentimental and the macabre. A Web site called pet-urns.com is hawking something it's calling Digital Photo Urns.

"Display all of your favorite pet photographs with the latest in digital memorial technology," says the marketing copy at the site. "Available in Oak or Walnut wood, these photo urns represent a new generation in memorial design and capability."

It even added a human touch, as it went on to observe, "With a 7” diagonal screen you can display literally hundreds of your favorite pet and/or human memories."

According to the urn sellers, each unit has two compartments--one for the photo frame and a second one, which can accomodate the ashes of a pet that weighed up to 75 pounds.

The combo unit, originally priced at $289.95, is now selling for $249.99.

Panoramas made by stitching together several digital photographs can be fun to create but shooting their components can be a little unsettling. That's because the mind's eye and a camera lens don't always see eye to eye on where one shot ends and another begins. Bytecams with panorama modes make the process more precise by displaying the end of one photo at the edge of their displays while the next photo in the sequence appears live on the screen. But even that approach is imperfect, especially when bright sunlight is washing out the LCD. Panoramistas--at least those with tripods--need not despair, however. A company called Lenspen makes a gadget called the Panamatic ($24.95) that will take the worry out of shooting properly aligned frames for a panorama. You attach the Panamatic to a tripod and the camera to the Panamatic. The unit has a level that can be used to make sure that the tripod is perfectly horizontal. As you take each shot in a panorama, you rotate the Panamatic by one click. When you're finished, you upload your photos to your computer and cobble them together with stitching software. This definitely sounds like a useful item to have in the old gadget bag.

You don't have to be Adrian Monk to appreciate the La Fresh
Tech Pack. I don't know about you, but when I'm in the field, I find myself frequently wiping a lens, an LCD or a viewfinder with something--most often the tail of the shirt that I'm wearing. On those occasions, this assortment of wipes from La Fresh could prove to be useful. The Tech Pack includes four wet and dry, dual action, screen cleaning towelettes, three lens cleaning towelettes and--for those of us with a streak of Mr. Monk in us--three anti-bacterial wipes. In addition to being biodegradable, the towelettes are flight amenable by meeting the TSA regulations for carry-on objects. As is often the case with many products, the addition of the word "tech" in the title seems to have an inflationary effect on their pricetag. This set of La Fresh wipes cost $9.99.

Digital picture frame innovator Dublin, Calif.-based Pandigital unleashed a new line of touch control image displays today. The new units, which are scheduled to be released next month, can be controlled by touching icons on their viewing area. Among the features the technology brings to the frames is the ability to page through photos stored in it as one would finger pages in a photo album. There are three models in the line--a seven-inch frame priced at $119.99, an eight-incher at $169.99 and a 10.4-inch unit with 1024 x 768 HD resolution at $249.99.

While personal computer makers enviously eye the Great American Living Room as a lucrative market for their products, the leading maker of digital picture frames in the United States is focusing on another part of the house for its latest computainment offering: the kitchen. Pandigital, of Dublin, Calif., will begin demonstrating next week at the International Home & Housewares Show in Chicago a 15-inch, 1280-by-720-pixel LCD display that's a combination HDTV, electronic cookbook and digital picture frame.

The unit, which is priced at $399.99, can be mounted under the cabinets in a kitchen or on a wall. It also has a stand for display on a countertop. What's more, because the screen is sealed behind glass, it can avert damage from kitchen perils like water, flour and oil. In addition, the frame has interchangeable face plates in brushed stainless, black or white to match most kitchen decors.

©2008 by John P. Mello Jr.

Market pundit Ross Rubin, of the NPD Group, made some interesting observations today in an opinion piece over at the ABC News Web site. While digital camera sales growth during the holiday season was lower than the previous year, he notes, digital picture frames were flying off retailers' shelves. Nevertheless, the typically astute Rubin had a word of caution for frame makers.

"According to NPD's Weekly Tracking Service, digital picture frame sales increased nearly five times this past holiday season over the 2006 holiday season," he writes. "The products have been popular items in department stores as well as home specialty stores such as Bed, Bath and Beyond and Linens N Things, where they appear in the photo frame section."

"But," he adds, "the jury is still out on whether consumers will use them for displaying a permanent photo collection the way picture frames have been used historically."