__ Fetish __
__ Realist __
Leica, a brand revered by shutterbug pros, has always been associated with classic 35-mm cameras. Now the Rolls Royce of photography has introduced a digital model. The S1's images - at a resolution of 5,140 by 5,140 - are as close as digital gets to the quality of traditional film. The side brackets make it easy to handle and align. But you won't have the portability of Leica's compact film models - this is a studio camera, tethered by a 90-foot fiber-optic cable that dumps fat 80-Mbyte files into your groaning workstation. S1: US$19,500. Leica Camera AG: +1 (201) 767 7500.
__ Ace __
Your tennis opponents will be cringing behind the net. Weighing just 8 ounces, the Head TiS7 uses a woven titanium/ graphite frame to shave 4 ounces off the average 12-ounce racquet. To get the equipment this light, engineers at Head made the frame extra stiff and countered the resulting vibration with a dampener in the handle. Add a radical strings-to-the-grip design and you have one intimidating stick. TiS7: US$295. Head Sports: on the Web at www.headusa.com/.
__ Finger Friendly __
NEC struck the golden mean with its MobilePro 750C. Cheaper, lighter, and longer lasting (up to 10 hours on the battery) than a full-blown notebook computer, it's also the first Windows CE machine with a keyboard big enough to touch type. The 750C's high-contrast color screen is larger than that of the previous model, and it comes with a 33.6-Kbps modem, a VGA cable for connections to a monitor, and pocket versions of Microsoft Office's greatest hits. MobilePro 750C: US$899. NEC: +1 (978) 264 8000, on the Web at www.necnow.com/.
__ Grace __
Want to avoid that being-hunted-by-a-serial-killer quality in your home movies? DV Steadicam smooths out shots taken while making turns, swooping low, even running. The rig balances any camera weighing 2 to 6 pounds and displays the scene on a 4-inch color monitor. Reengineered with the help of San Francisco-based Sand Lake Design, the DV Steadicam is more rugged and better looking than its previous incarnation - and it's a step closer to the pro model. Without the shakes or jerks, you'll be a step closer to pro, too. DV Steadicam: US$1,395. Cinema Products Corporation: +1 (310) 836 7991, on the Web at www.steadicam.com/.
__ Daisy Chain __
With a handful of employees in an office, it's possible to swap files between PCs with floppy disks. But a less exhausting solution is one of Intel's Ethernet hubs for small businesses. With a clean look by design consultant Fitch, the hub fits on a bookshelf and is easy to set up. It provides 100-megabit access to the computers and peripherals across your office, and when you add more nodes - er, employees - additional hubs snap into a stack. InBusiness 4-Port Fast Hub: US$245. Intel: (800) 538 3373, +1 (503) 264 7354, on the Web at www.intel.com/.
__ Exhibit A __
Will it hold up in court? No time to think - just capture the conversation and decide later. With the touch of a button, the Record-a-Call handset saves crucial phone calls with its built-in microcassette recorder. It plugs into your phone like an ordinary receiver and plays through a speaker on its back. The variable-speed playback lets you jog past boring bits on 30-, 60-, or 90-minute tapes to find the juicy stuff. Then you're free to mail it to the networks - or destroy the evidence. Record-a-Call: US$79.95. Record-a-Phone: (800) 521 8150, +1 (212) 674 5436.
__ Doppelgänger __
Videoconferencing is more than a little like watching TV, so it's no surprise that when your boss is dialing in to a meeting from a remote site, your first impulse is to put your feet up and zone out. But suppose the TV turned to look at you when you spoke? The Telbot robot uses voice cues to swivel an electronic visitor toward whoever's speaking in the room, so instead of looking into a cold camera lens, you can make eye contact with the image on the screen. Telbot LTX: US$18,900. Telbotics: +1 (416) 585 9434.
__ Miniplex __
Panasonic's handheld DVD player, the first portable unit on the market, shows how small a wide screen can be. Almost 6 inches across, the color LCD delivers the 16:9 aspect ratio of a cinema screen with a high resolution of 280,000 pixels. This silvery square gadget makes a great add-on to a home theater system, but with 2-hour battery life, built-in stereo speakers, and a weight of less than 3 pounds, you can also carry it around and show it off. DVD-L10: US$1,299. Panasonic: (888) 726 2383, +1 (201) 348 7000.
__ Virtual Light __
The Covert Illuminator shines a light that can be seen only with night-vision goggles (like those from NAIT shown here). The flashlight's 16 infrared diodes work outside the spectrum of light that humans can see, so your first impulse might be to check the batteries. But turn off the lights and don the goggles and this high tech torch lets you see objects up to 100 yards away as if in bright daylight. (Contrast this with the relatively grainy view through goggles alone.) Together, these spy-era tools can be used for the best game of neighborhood night tag ever played. Covert Illuminator: US$199. Covert Illumination Technologies: +1 (972) 401 2386. PVS7B Night Vision Goggles: $2,895. NAIT: +1 (619) 293 7111, on the Web at www.nait.com/.
Thanks to Matt Beer.
