If you’re going to the ocean or other beach later this summer, you will of course be bringing a camera, right? Well, you can bring a camera that’s not only waterproof, but made to be under the water. How cool is that?

It’s the SeaLife DC800 Underwater Digital Camera, and has a lot for a price I thought would be higher. To start with, it’s been tested down to 200 feet. That won’t get you to the bottom of the ocean, but will work great for snorkeling, lakes and so on. It has a rubberized exterior to protect against water and other hazards.

The camera itself is 8 megapixels, which should produce sharp images. It also has color correction for underwater shooting, and a fast shutter to capture photos of Nemo and Dory. If you feel the urge, the DC800 can also shoot video with sound. One sort of hidden advantage of a camera like this is that it should be very durable. It’s meant to go underwater, so rain or snow won’t damage it, and the rubber housing should make it durable.

Just make sure you wear sunscreen on the beach!

If you like to shoot lots of video and love the look of high-definition, but don’t like transferring video to your computer constantly, Sony may have made the perfect camcorder for you: the Handycam HDR-XR520V.

The first thing you notice about the 520V is the size of the hard drive: 240GB. That means that at the highest resolution — 1920 X 1080 — you could shoot more than 29 hours of video. That’s staggering for a camera of this size. Most camcorders in this class are lucky to have half that size drive (and, in fact, its little brother, the 500V, has exactly that). And you can add even more than that with a memory stick.

The camcorder features other very nice specs, including 12x optical zoom (which is much better, and clearer, than electronic zooms) and optical image stabilization (again, superior to electronic image stabilization.) That’s a big zoom range, and allows you to get in very close.

It even has a built-in GPS to track your location and electronically tag where you shot your videos. Frankly, I’m not sure about the value of a feature like this in a camcorder, but it’s there if you want it. It just doesn’t seem, to me, to be a needed feature.

The downside of all this is the price. It’s more than $1,000, and the 500V isn’t that much less. If you’re a weekend warrior-type shooter, and want to take vacation and birthday videos, you can get very nice camcorders for considerably less. If you shoot a lot, however, and value HD a lot, this is worth a look.

For you pet lovers who can’t stand not knowing how Snowball’s doing without you, or wondering if your babysitter does nothing but eat your food and text her girlfriends, Panasonic has a gadget just for you: the BL-C131A PetCam Network Camera.

The PetCam is called a “Network Camera” because it connects directly to the Internet. That means you don’t have to hook it to a computer to use it. Access to a Web browser at the mall or on your smartphone will get you access to the video from this camera.

The PetCam can pan (move left and right) and tilt (up and down), and re-focus on any part of the picture. It has the ability, via a Privacy mode, to be controlled only by you (should a hacker, for instance, gain control through the Internet). It can also be set to record at a certain time of day.

One of its coolest features, for my money, is the built-in heat sensor. Through this technology, the PetCam can sense when a person or animal enters the room in which it’s located, and start taking pictures. Perfect for making sure Tommy’s doing his Geometry homework, or letting you observe in full color as Scruffy, the 210-pound Mastiff, devours the leftovers off the kitchen table that Tommy forgot to put away — again.

Works for me.

The rumors are flying fast and furious that the popular iPod Touch — essentially, the phoneless version of the iPhone — may be getting a camera upgrade.

According to the Website TechCrunch, Apple has placed a massive order in Asia for camera modules of the type that would fit the Touch.

Other circumstantial evidence is starting to crop up, too, such as new Touch cases that have a camera lens-sized hole in the back, and other rumors. Keep in mind that this is all speculation, and based on non-direct evidence. The amount of information coming out, however, lends weight to such speculation.

The Touch coming with a camera would be great news, and bring it even closer to the functionality of the iPhone. We’ll update you when we have more.

I took my daughter to New York City for her 16th birthday earlier this week (Happy Birthday, Megan!). Once there, we knew we needed a camera. I have a nice Canon Digital Rebel, but for sometime I’ve been looking for something smaller and more simple that takes good pictures, fits in my pocket, and fits my wallet — in terms of price, that is.

After looking at several models, I decide on the Canon PowerShot A1000. The price was certainly right, as was the brand — I love my Digital Rebel, so I already have a comfort level with Canon. I also know well Canon’s excellent reputation for high-quality lenses, the most important part of a camera.

The A1000 features a 4X optical zoom, another important feature (look for optical, rather than digital zooms, when shopping. The images from optical zooms are much sharper, for technical reasons I won’t go into here.) It also has a 10 megapixel resolution, which means my photos will be clear and sharp. (As a comparison, my Rebel, which cost about eight times as much four years ago, has only six megapixels).

Along with the camera, I bought a 4GB SD memory card (the 32MB card it comes with is laughably inadequate) and a package of AA batteries. The A1000 also has a generous 2.5 LCD, and image stabilizer technology for eliminating the blurry photos that come with a shaky hand.

Megan and I spent two full days shooting with the Canon all over New York City, and were delighted with the quality of images and ease of use. It truly is a “point-and-shoot” that fits easily in a pocket. The flash worked well, and the few controls and menus are, for the most part, easy to figure out. We made the right choice for our trip.

OK, be honest here — how many of you actually back up your computers’ hard drives on a regular basis? If you don’t, you’re playing with fire. Your hard drive will die one day, trust me. It’s a fact of computer life. When that happens, how much data will you lose — days, months, years?

It’s a shame, too, because modern operating systems, like Windows Vista and Mac OS X, make it easy to do regularly-scheduled backups. To do that, though, you’ll need an external drive to store your backups. In my case, I have a 1 Terabyte (TB) drive to which I back up my data every hour. That peace of mind is good to have.

When I bought my drive, it was more than $300. It’s good to see that prices for that much storage have dropped significantly. Take, for example, the MicroNet G-Force External 1TB Hard Drive. It’s about a third of what I spent, for the same amount of storage.

One TB of storage is equivalent to 1,000 gigabytes — that’s a lot of space for your pictures, documents, videos and other assorted stuff. In my full-time job, I work with a lot of large files, so I have serious space needs. The drive I use for backup isn’t nearly full yet, meaning if you’re an average user, it will take a long time before that drive fills up.

This drive works with both PCs and Macs; any computer with a USB 2.0 connection. It’s a strong value for something as important as backing up your vital data. I wouldn’t skimp on an item like this any longer, if I were you. You’ll regret it if you do.

It’s the digital age, and that’s readily apparent in the field of photography, which has been completely transformed by digital cameras and hard drives. You can save and manipulate photos in ways never before imagined.

It goes even beyond taking and altering photos — the way photos are displayed has been revolutionized. Take, for example, this Sony digital picture frame. It’s a 7-inch frame that displays photos as a rotating series of still images (of course, you could show one photo forever, but that would defeat the purpose of this gadget.)

You can insert either a memory card from your camera and show off what’s on that, or transfer pictures from your computer. It accepts flash memory from just about any type of digital camera. You can set up the frame in landscape or portrait mode (i.e. horizontally or vertically.) An included remote control lets you manage various aspects of the viewing experience.

The glossy, all-black finish guarantees that your photos will appear as crisp and sharp as possible. Sony is a name I’ve trusted for years, and should mean that this is a high-quality unit. The 256GB of internal memory should get you about 75 or so photos, if you’re downloading them from a computer (the company says up to 500, but that would only happen if they are small file-size photos, and it’s unlikely you’d be displaying them, since they’d be tiny or grainy).

The frame also includes a clock and calendar. The clock or calendar would take up one side of the display, and the photos would be shown on the other side.

This is a lot more money than you’d spend on a standard Wal-Mart picture frame, so make sure it’s something you’d make use of. But the ability to display multiple photos is enticing, and would add a bit of spice to your life.

Ah, technology. As cameras get smaller and thinner, the functionality they provide gets better. Many reasonably-priced cameras even shoot basic video, which is handy in many situations.

That’s why I was glad to stumble upon this Casio Exilim EX-S10 camera. It starts with 10 megapixel resolution. That means it can take really sharp pictures (the $1,200 Canon Digital Rebel I bought about three years ago maxes out a 6 megapixels — and cost many times as much.)

Another advantage in a camera this small is a 3X optical zoom. The key phrase here is “optical”. Many cameras can electronically zoom in — way in. But you suffer significant picture degradation to zoom in like that. With an optical zoom, you don’t sacrifice any quality to get closer.

What’s really nice is the YouTube Capture Mode. When shooting with that setting enabled, it records video at the recommended settings for upload to YouTube. That makes it much more simple to get your masterpiece on YouTube.

Put this gadget high on your list when you’re shopping for a camera.

If you do anything more than point and shoot with your camera or camcorder, you should be considering a monopod. As its name implies, a monopod is a one-legged tripod — basically, it’s a high-tech stick for your camera.

Why would you use a monopod instead of a tripod, which we’re all familiar with? One word — portability. It’s easier to carry around a lightweight monopod if you’re weighed down with a lot of other equipment, or you’re traveling a long way on foot. Monopods are a lot easier to carry. In addition, they’re much quicker to set up than tripods, possibly allowing you to get a shot you may not have gotten if you were setting up and leveling tripod legs.

A name that every photographer and videographer knows when it comes to camera support is Manfrotto/Bogen. The company makes a huge line of tripods and monopods, and it has earned its reputation for quality. I’ve owned several Manfrotto/Bogen tripods myself, and always admired the workmanship that went into the products.

This gadget is the 676B Digi Monopod. It weighs less than a pound, and folds up to fewer than 19 inches. That is lightweight portability.  Its four sections can telescope out to more than 60 inches, or five feet. That should be enough for most shooting needs.

Consider tucking this in your car. Almost all pictures can be improved with some kind of support, and this monopod provides that for a reasonable price. Happy shooting!

I’m a full-time telecommuter. Since I work out my home office nearly 100 percent of the time, I spend many hours on the phone. Adding video to some of those calls would make them more interesting (and make it less likely that I might lose interest in the conversation and start surfing the ‘Net!) Being able to see who you’re talking to just makes the experience more immediate, more “real” in a way.

My MacBook Pro has a built-in Webcam, but like most of those, the quality is just OK. I’ve used it for work a few times, but would like something better.

Meet something better. The Logitech QuickCam Orbit Webcam does a lot more than my built-in Webcam, and does it stylishly as well. I like the shiny black shell, with the transparent top. OK, style isn’t ordinarily a big deal for me (ask my wife or kids, for instance, how stylishly I dress most days). But it is way cool looking, and more importantly, has terrific functionality (always more of a consideration for a true gadget geek.)

One of the Orbit’s most impressive capabilities is that it follows the speaker automatically. That’s right — it tracks you as you move around (assuming you want it to; you can turn off those abilities if you want). Both left and right, up and down: no repositioning needed. It also includes a 9-inch stand, which would raise the camera to about eye level. Most Webcams sat at or near the top of the monitor, giving that “looking down on you” feeling.

Reviews indicate that the video quality is outstanding; it has a 2.0 megapixel lens, so the images should be sharp. It also automatically compensates for low-light conditions, making the picture brighter when it needs to be.

The audio is reportedly quite good as well; a problem with earlier Orbit models was an echo. That problem has been fixed, users report.

One fun software feature is the ability to create cartoon “avatars”, or characters that become an online identity of yours. Move your head, and the avatar mimics your move; smile and your avatar smiles. Neat!

The Orbit is one of the more expensive Webcams on the market, but this is a case of getting what you pay for. For basic needs, a basic Webcam will work. If you do a lot of videoconferencing, or want to upgrade the quality of your YouTube videos, keep this one in mind.