You can pick up 3 4 Gig Sandisk Extreme III SD or CF cards for nuthin’. Well, almost nothing. You do have to pay for them and mail in a rebate form so you’ll pay a little for shipping and a stamp.

With today’s high MP cameras and video enabled DSLR’s (thanks Nikon) having a ton of memory space is essential. Go grab your deal now as it’s only for 4 days (offer ends Sunday 11/30)

** Update - The rebate goes thru 1/17/09 so you can grab the rebate form and buy frm anywhere that’s listed on the form.

You can preorder a Nikon D700 body from Ritz Camera.

Some of the features:

• 12.1-megapixel FX-format CMOS sensor with Nikon’s exclusive EXPEED digital image processor
• Super low-noise performance from 200-6400 ISO
• Continuous shooting up to 5 frames per second
• 3 inch high resolution LCD with Two Live View shooting modes
• Shutter mechanism tested to 150,000 cycles
• 51-point AF with 3D Focus Tracking
• a builtin flash
• Dynamic Integrated Dust Reduction System
• Active D-Lighting with NEW Auto mode
• …and lots more goodies

Visit the Nikon website for full info on the D700

You can save $75-100 on the K200D and K20D bodies and $50-75 on a wide variety of zoom or macro lenses. The 380F and 540F flashes are both getting $50 back into your pocket.

Your typical kit of a camera body, 2 lenses and a flash can net you a total savings of between $200 and $275.

For many years film photography students flocked to the rugged and reliable Pentax K1000. It was the perfect entry level camera. Pentax has always been know for producing a quality camera system, even branching into medium format cameras like the 645N.

Their current digital offerings are wonderful cameras that would suit the needs of most photographers. Since you can save a bit of cash, visit your local camera store and check out the K200D and K20D. Visit the Pentax website for tech specs too.

As you may guess by the title, this magazine is geared for professional photogs who are running a studio. I’d urge almost anyone to read it as there are always articles about lighting, posing, presenting photos, and more.

For instance, the January issue had a great article on Pet Photography that would apply to anyone trying to get a nice shot of Rover or Fluffy. Since it’s online now you can sneak a peek and see if it’s for you.

Check out the online version of Studio Photography here. Old school folks can still get the paper version at ImagingInfo.com and then Subscribe.

A $30 million+ project financed by the likes of Bill Gates, Charles Simonyi, Google, and Columbia University will use this monster digital capture device. It’s being built on the top of a mountain in Chile and won’t be operational until 2014 or so.

This telescope will be transferring an estimated 30 Terabytes of data nightly and it will be made available via the Web. You’ve got 6 years to make sure you have high speed Internet access. Dial up just won’t cut it.

Read the entire article here.

You’ve certainly put together a list of Resolutions for 2008, but did you include anything relative to photography? Here are some ideas.

• Have a personal project each month. Shoot something you’ve never tried before. Macro, portraits, off camera flash, a specific color, or B&W.
• Set a goal to learn (or expand your knowledge of) something new. Digital printing, mastering Photoshop, photo painting with Corel Painter, etc.
• Vow to finally organize your digital images. (My goal for 2008!)

Whatever your goal, use the S.M.A.R.T. principle. Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented, Realistic, Time Based. Write it down and stick to it. Give yourself a realistic time frame in which to complete it.

Make 2008 a year of learning and expanding your photographic skills.

Lithium Battery rules

As of Jan 1, 2008 there are limitations on carrying spare Lithium batteries onto airplanes. This doesn’t apply to batteries already installed in your digital camera, laptop, etc. Just the extras you may carry with you.

You can’t have them in checked luggage and are limited to how many you can put in your carry-on. They need to be wrapped separately, so just keep your spares in their original package and you won’t get hassled.

Get full details here at the DOT website.

The only bad part is the nasty cold my brother-in-law gave to us. Coughing, hacking, congestion and all that goes with it. My brain isn’t functioning well with all the medications.

This weekend is Rest and Relaxation and we’ll resume on Monday. Off to slumberland . . . zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Remember to have your camera at the ready, as you’ll have opportunities in the next few days that won’t come around again for quite a while. If you haven’t done a family Christmas card photo yet, now would be a good time.

As much as I want you to record your memories photographically, it’s equally important to just live the experience. I’m enjoying some cold weather in Kansas with my nieces and nephews.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and hopefully you won’t have to reach for the Tums too often!

** UPDATE - this deal ends Oct 6, 2007. Hope you got yours!!

Wouldn’t you LOVE to have a nice digital photo frame? At just under $189, this is the best price you’ll see for this 9 inch Philips frame and you won’t have to pay sales tax.

If you’re looking for a nice gift for someone else, or for yourself, a digital photo frame would be great. It’s easy to just pop in a memory card with new photos on it whenever you want. You can always have your family and friends right in front of you.

You can see what’s new in Elements 6 at Adobe’s website. A direct download of the PDF datasheet is here.

Elements 6 has:

• Improved Panorama blending
• Photomerge™ Technology for blending two group shots. It grabs the “good” faces from each photo to make a perfect group portrait.
• Better Help and step by step wizards
• Finer control in Brightness/Contrast, B&W conversion and the Clone Tool
• Improved Selection tools (using Brushes) for quicker selecting and adjusting of areas of your image
• Smart Albums to quickly gather images based on selected criteria

Some of these additions and changes are nice. It appears that the Selections with brushes is like Quick Mask mode in Photoshop CSx; I like that. A few of the improvements seem minor and would make me seriously consider not upgrading. Only you can decide for yourself based on your needs.