Last July, I shot a concert performance by No Speed Limit (www.nospeedlimitband.com) an up-and-coming bluegrass band whose banjo player, Stevie Barr, comes from my adopted hometown of Galax, Virginia. I did it as a favor for the local tourism directo

When it comes to 3CCD camcorders, Sony’s practice is to offer consumer and professional versions of the same camera, starting with the highly regarded DCR-VX2000 and DSR-PD150, and continuing with the HDR-FX1 and HVR-Z1U. With both duos, though the professional model has some extra features, the cameras share all critical quality-related components, including the lens, CCDs, and most internal circuitry, …

Certainly the most memorable computer commercial of all time was Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl advertisement, with slack-jawed drones watching an Orwellian speaker on a huge screen smashed with a hammer flung by an admirably athletic young woman. The advertisement, directed by Ridley Scott of Blade Runner fame, railed against “unification of thought,” and promised that the Macintosh would prevent 1984 …