Leo’s Gear

People ask me all the time what headphones I use when I’m on the air. The AKG-K240 has long been the choice of musicians and DJs. Acceptable sound and wear-all-day comfort. For the best sound I prefer my Etymotics, but I wear my AKGs 40 hours a week.

Audible Version

My mic. I use this for all my studio work on the radio and netcasts, and I love it. It’s a relatively inexpensive mic that sounds great. NB: This is a large coil dynamic mic with an XLR connector – so it requires an interface to use with a computer. Thank you Bob Heil!!

This 3-CCD camcorder records to SD cards in the AVCHD format at 1920×1080. It’s 1080i, and there’s some very minor compression artifacting, but given the size of the camera and convenience of directly copying the file to the computer it’s worth it. You’ll need an up-to-date computer and lots of storage to edit the files, and you may need to update your video editing software to support this new flavor of H.264 (iMovie and Final Cut Pro do work). I am blown away by the quality of the video – and copying from SD card sure beats digitizing tape. Highly recommended (well at least until the Sanyo Xacti HD-1000 1080p camera comes out)!

I don’t use my iPhone any more (because I prefer the Blackberry’s keyboard and the ability to add third-party applications) but I do love the iPhone as an iPod. When Apple announced a 32GB iPod Touch I snapped it up immediately. It’s ok for music and audiobooks but it excels as a video player. I put old TV shows and movies on it for working out at the gym.

The only negative about the touch as a music player is that you have to haul it out to do anything: turn the volume up or down, skip the song, pause it. If you don’t want to play video an iPod Classic would give you more storage for much less money and the added virtue of controls you can use without taking it out of your pocket.

OK I love the elegance of the iPhone. It’s the best iPod I’ve ever owned and it’s forcing the entire mobile phone industry to change. But I can’t use it day to day for two reasons: the on-screen keyboard doesn’t cut it and there are no third-party apps. Enter the Curve – the best Blackberry yet. Small and elegant, but with a very usable keyboard and great third party support. My calendar syncs over-the-air with Google calendar (thanks Google), I can post photos, status updates to Facebook, keep track of my workouts with Ascendo, connect to my keychain GPS with Google Maps, and it’s got RIM’s best-in-class email support. The iPhone is a wonderful innovation but this is a great phone!

I asked every pro photographer I know and they all agreed the Canon 5D was the best digital SLR under $10,000. It’s expensive, but it takes spectacular pictures.

This is the most expensive lens I’ve ever bought, but it’s a gem. A 50mm fixed focus lens is a great place to learn photography, especially on a full frame camera like the Canon 5D. And the f1.2 aperture means you almost never need a flash. But it’s devilishly hard to focus accurately.

You can save a lot buy buying a Canon 50mm with a narrower aperture – even f1.4 would be fine.

Shoot with this camera in single point focus mode (focusing is critical at f1.2) and aperture priority so you can stop the lens down if there’s sufficient light.

It’s cheap, and not pretty, but this is the most functional iPhone case I’ve tried. It keeps the phone from slipping from your grip and the built-in cord management system is handy for keeping my earbuds close.

If you need a lightweight computer for a low price this is a gem. Includes a camera, built-in mic, and speakers, wi-fi, USB, etc. You can run it with XP (get more memory) but the Xandros Linux it comes with is eminently hackable. The only negatives are the 800×480 screen (that’s too small for many web pages, including this one) and the small keyboard. I can live with both.

Now if Asus would only sell a replacement power supply. Ozzy chewed mine up!

For Skyping (and recording netcasts) I recommend these. In fact, we send them to guests who don’t already have a pair. USB headsets work best with Skype, and these sound great and work well with all operating systems. (The Plantronics site has DSP-500 headsets on clearance for $25 – that’s a deal!)