It was 1975 when Epson America, Inc. entered the United States supplying components and peripherals for computer and other electronics. It wasn’t long before Epson captured a 60% market share of the dot matrix printer market. Today, Epson America, Inc. is responsible for the sales, distribution, service and support for a wide range of digital imaging products.

The Epson WorkForce 840 printer was presented to me as a better home office printer than the HP printer we looked at last week. So I headed over to the Epson web page for more in depth look at the WorkForce 840.

The first thing I started to looking to find was features like wireless printing and ePrint. These are two features that are signatures to the 21st century.  Yes, I did find WiFi, Ethernet and printing from mobile device being available on the Epson WorkForce840. Epson does not give these features the fancy marketing names that HP does, but the same functionality is there.

Is your printer old and worn out? Have you been thinking about upgrading your printer? Good printers with a scanner for home or small office are starting around $100. For a few dollars more you can get some amazing features.

Just the other day, I was listening one of my favorite tech podcast when I heard them mention 3D printing. This got me thinking about the possibilities for printing things in 3D. Auto shops could print replacement parts for our cars. We would not have to go to the toy store. We could just print out new toys for out kids. What about printing out a last minute Christmas present?

Science fiction? 3D printing could turn a lot of what we saw in the Star Trek movies and television shows  a reality. After all look at the our cell phones and tablets. They are far lighter and more streamline than the ones shown in the first Star Trek TV shows of the 1960′s.

Summer vacation is over. The kids are back in school. Over the next few months we are going to have more and more indoor activities. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas make up the three great days holidays remaining in this year. These holiday make a perfect time to record memories with family and friends.

Still picture are okay, but they just give you a fraction of a second of that event. A video camera can capture that fraction of a second plus what led up to the picture and afterwards.

Who knows maybe the video of this Halloween party may be the video of the day on YouTube. You want the video you take that goes viral video look the best. After all the whole world is going to see it. It may even get featured on the Today Show.

To accomplish a great looking viral video, you are going to need something more than just the camcorder feature on your cell phone. You are going to want the picture sharp and clear as you can possibly.

Taking pictures, and preserving memories on paper or on some digital format helps reliving them with family and friends so great. In the last few years there has been such a growth of ways to preserve those pictures.

The camera used to take those pictures can make a world of difference in the mood set in the picture. Sure you have photo editing programs like Photoshop for the creation of a memorial picture. However, if you do not have a good camera that takes half way decent pictures, a masterful program like Photoshop cannot make a masterpieces out of garbage.

Except for a very few almost all cell phones have a built in camera. Only the low end phones in ones only allow to to text or mail those pictures taken. The mid to high end cell phones give you the option to transfer those pictures to your computer via a USB cable.

Since we are surrounded by technology, I want to ask you, “How much technology do you need?” “What kind of technology do you need?”

It wasn’t to long ago when all this technology was not available to us. When we do not have our favorite technology we start to act like a drug addict who is deprived of her drugs.

Fifty years ago computers were the size of building. Microwave ovens were not in our homes. If we wanted some information we had to go to the library. There was no Google.

Forty years ago businesses just start explore the use of computers in their business. The idea of watching movies the television on demand through a VHS and Beta cartages were becoming popular.

On television there is this commercial where a well dress lady comes on and talks about certified pre-owned cars. Her whole pitch is that they are so like new you are getting new most people cannot tell the difference. Her closing line is, “Why pay the difference when you can’t tell the difference.”

About 4 blocks down the street of the car dealership that is promoted in the commercial is a recently build dealership of just certified pre-owned cars. Instead a mixture of several makes and models, these are just Nissan’s. This raises the questions, “Are they really good as new, without paying the price of new?”

We are approaching summer. The clouds of are going away, revealing beautiful blue sky. The biting cold of winter is being slowly replaced with summer’s heat. The dreariness of winter is being replaced with the flowering beauty of Spring.

If you are like me, you want to preserve those images. It does not matter if you use those images as part of your computer’s background or share is with friends and family. The beauty and excitement of life is always great to share in pictures.

It seems that I am always drawn to the Sony brand when I am looking at cameras. However, I do have a Panasonic camcorder not counting the built in camera on my cell phone.

The other day, I asked a few people had they ever lost contacts, pictures, or other important information from their computer, cell phone or other electronic device. Then I asked them what they use for a back up system, to prevent it from happening today.

Most everyone that told me they had lost some kind of important data such as pictures, contacts and important documents at one time or the other. Less than half currently are not backing up their information.

The third question I asked them was what dollar value do they put on that information? Some of those I was talking to I had to rephrase the question to, “What would it cost you to if suddenly lost all your pictures, documents, and contacts?” The answers I got were from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. 

The other day I was in the local Best Buy, browsing through the camera section. A pretty young sales lady with a Best Buy name tag came up to me. She asked, if she could help me.

I played the role of a dumb shopper. I told her I was a father of a 10 year old daughter who is getting on stage singing more and more. I wanted something more than my camera phone to record her stage life to stardom.

I was impressed by the young sales lady knowledge of camcorders. She proceed to tell me what her first choice was the Panasonic SDR S50 was her first choice. The Panasonic SDR S50 was the second most expensive camcorder on display.

Now for the serious home photographer, I want you to take a look at the Canon EOS Rebel. This camera is a cut above all the other cameras we have done on Camera Recon.

If you need for me to explain what a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens is or what a ISO of 100 to 12,600 is then you should not be looking at this camera. You do not need an 18 mega pixel resolution in the pictures you are taking. This is a serious camera for serious photographers.

The Canon EOS Rebel because it first came to my attention while reading a Popular Mechanics Magazine. Then when some serious camera folks said this was their camera of choice, I figure it was worth taking a look at what the Canon EOS Rebel can do.