CES Products: Tinkerer Toys For Picture Takers

Underneath the casual-Friday dress code that predominates at CES beat the hearts of many a mad scientist. Digital photography seems to attract a disproportionate number of tinkerers and garage inventors, for some reason, and as I've wandered around the exhibit halls I've run into several products from some of them that make me want to reach for my wallet or scratch my head in disbelief, often at the same time.The CameraBright light, for example: it's a little plastic pillbox-sized gadget with four LEDs along one edge and a tripod screw on top. It's powered by mercury batteries, and it works a little bit like adding a flashlight to your digital camera. It doesn't light the scene, but it provides just enough light to help you frame your shot. It claims to reduce red-eye when you're using flash, too. For more, see www.camerabright.com. You can buy one online, and pay with your PayPal account. In fact, PayPal may be the best friend a mad scientist ever had.

Tom Knightlinger is not mad. I have to say that up front. When I found him in his booth he wasn't even upset about anything. He handed me a little umbrella -- about 10 inches across, too small to keep you dry, to big to go in a mai tai -- on a swivel mount that attaches to the tripod socket of a camera. The umbrella slides, tilts, and swivels to protect the camera from rain and sun. It also shades the lens and the LCD panel so you can see the image in bright light. And it has a reflective coating inside so if you've got a flash unit that will do bounce flash you can bounce it into the umbrella.

The Popabrella sells for $19.95, and a larger model called a Probrella in stylish black costs $29.95. You can get an idea of what they look like at www.popabrella.com -- and Tom takes PayPal, too.

Wayne Fromm is a toy inventor who says he had trouble getting good pictures of himself in front of vacation destinations. His solution: the quikpod. It's an extensible monopod with a ball head. Mount your digital camera, set the self timer, hold the quickpod out in front of you and look into the lens. Instant self-portrait in front of the Eiffel Tower. (This sounds sort of strange, I know, but hey, if it were a computer product Fromm would be throwing around words like "seamless" and "user experience" and making big bucks.)

The quikpod is $24.95. A quikpod Pro version comes with tiny tripod feet so that it works as an eye-level table-top tripod as well for $29.95. For some pictures that explain how the quickpod works better than a thousand words could, see www.quikpod.com. And, guess what, Fromm takes PayPal.