Citi Card Makes It Even Easier
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Citi. All opinions are 100% mine.
Credit cards. It can be a touchy subject.
Debt. Interest Rates. All that fun stuff.
For the past few years, we’ve kept a Citi Card. It was always our ‘in case of an emergency’ card. Well, that emergency came and we had to use it. We are now paying it off. I’ve been using the Citi Mobile app on my phone to check and see when our payments go through and make sure of what the due date is. (I am such a stickler for that stuff! It drives me crazy, every month.) It’s so helpful to just be able to log in and see my money situation.
It doesn’t take very long to get the Citi Mobile app set up. If you bank with Citi, then you request your activation key (a one time thing) and your done. Sign into the app and check out everything.
Since I can only access the credit card side of the app, I will tell you from that I throughly enjoy being able to log in anywhere and not have to use the “mobile website”. Apps work better than any mobile website. (And don’t even think of telling me different!) 
Main Screen
Requesting your activation key for your bank account
Login in for Citi Card, using your citicards.com login
Once logged in, you will see your account info (brief)
Clicking on that account info button, will take you to a detailed account info screen with what you want to know.
Current balance, when your next payment is due, minimum due, etc.
As you can see, the bottom button is to see all of your account activity.
Here is the account activity screen.
You get your current balance and last statement balance.
My favorite part is seeing the payments that have gone through and on what date!
Find an ATM.
And also look through the FAQs and Contact Citi Mobile about any questions or concerns you may have.
All in all, I really like this app. Between this and my bank app, I will consistently be up-to-date on any of my finances. The only thing I wish you could do is make a payment! Not that going to my computer is difficult, but an all-in-one would be amazing.
If you are already a Citi Bank / Citi Card customer, I would most definitely download this app!
If you have been thinking about getting another card or opening a bank account, I’d go with Citi. They have been the ones that have worked the most with us.
If you are an Existing Citibank members click here to download the FREE app or you can Click here to apply for Citibank.
Any problems I have ever come across with our Citi Card have been fixed within minutes of calling their customer service team. We have lowered our APR and are back on track to getting this paid off!
Upload pictures wirelessly? Yes please!
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Eye-Fi. All opinions are 100% mine.
You will never know how many times I’ve been searching the house, high and low, and Jeff askes, “What are you looking for?”
A USB cable, a memory card reader, SOMETHING! I just need to find one so I can get the pictures off of my camera. It’s not that we just have one in the house. Oh no, there are numerous cables from cameras and scanners and card readers. All over. And they just seem to get up and move themselves.
If it’s not misplacing a cable, I take a crap ton of pictures and then just let them sit on the computer or even the camera for months before I do anything with them (yep, I’m super bad at that!) Not that it’s difficult to go in and upload some pictures, but I just can’t seem to take ten minutes to do that. What is wrong with me?!
When it comes to having gadgets like the Eye-Fi card in my camera it seems to make it a bit easier. All you need is a SDHC capable camera, a Eye-Fi card, and a wireless router. This would be PERFECT for my parents. They take pictures, but NEVER do anything with them.
Turn on the camera and watch the pictures magically appear on your computer! You can also set up the Eye-Fi card to upload your pictures and videos to websites like Flickr and YouTube. I wish there were other sites that you could upload videos to, but as of now, there aren’t many choices. If you’re pretty savvy on taking care of your pictures and videos and uploading them for your friends and family to see, this may not be for you. But I’m 99% sure that we all know someone that just doesn’t put their pictures up for others to enjoy.
And don’t worry, when it comes to flickr, you can set the picture/video upload to private, if that makes you happy.
Check out the video to see exactly how easy it is to use.
Bean, The Anti-Vegetable
After toying around with the Argus Bean for a while, I had the perfect opportunity to have it tested to it’s best ability. A two year old.
Subject (in the best sense of the word): Carter
He is always around cameras and will pretty much only come near me when I let him play with one of my cameras (which is more than his mom lets him do!) I didn’t see any reason to not let him try it out, seeing as though it seems like that’s the target audience for this type of camera. They are slightly rubberized around the outside, built to take a beating from a child and the button is large enough for someone with small fingers to find no matter what. There is a carabiner clip built into the camera design. Which makes it perfect for clipping on to your belt, or a stroller when a child isn’t using it at that exact moment.
This particular version of the Argus Bean that I was given was 3 megapixels. Which means it’s doesn’t get the best size photos to print and I would never use this as my MAIN camera, but for Carter, or any child, this is defiantly a way to figure out what they find is “important” and to get a view of what they see. And what better place to give them that freedom than at a theme park!
There is 16 megabytes of built in memory and also a SD card slot. So, I put a 4 gigabyte SD card in the camera and gave him full reign of the Bean. Between three adults and Carter’s 13 year old sister, we tried to help him out and show him how to use the camera. Telling a 2 year old to “Look at the screen” (which is a 1.5 inch LCD screen) when he’s taking pictures seemed like it would be a waste of time, but as we were watching him take the pictures, he seemed to understand that he could actually see what he was taking when he looked at it.
Throughout the 6 hour day at Animal Kingdom, he took over 150 pictures, given most of them were other people’s feet or his stroller, or my personal favorites: pictures of him because he had the camera turned the wrong way. (See example below.)
There was a point where we were in a petting zoo area. Let’s just say, Carter was following a goat, got sidetracked and took a spill. He and the camera went sliding. Carter had some scrapes and so did the Bean. After making sure Carter was alright, I went to clean off the camera and make sure that it would survive as well. I cleaned it off with a wipey thingy that parents use on kids to clean them. That was about half way through the day and we have pictures from the rest of the day, so the Bean survived!
I took pictures, of him taking pictures.
Here are some of the pictures from our day at Animal Kingdom, through the eyes of my favorite 2 year old photographer, Carter.
As you can see, having the white balance on “auto” didn’t help out much. A lot of the pictures are blown out. He didn’t need the flash since we were out in the sun for the most part. However, when we were in some of the queues, I would turn on the flash and like any camera, getting too close to something, does NOT help out. At all. The flash is very over powering and has quite a bit of a delay.
The battery is rechargeable through the USB port on the computer. The battery lasted all day long, even though it was left on and clipped onto the stroller for 30 minutes or so.
Overall I would take this camera with me to places where I didn’t feel it was “safe” to carry my big cameras, ie. water parks, near water, rainy days. So, water. I haven’t tried the camera out in any water yet, but I believe it would survive more than my Canons would. Plus, this would be a great gift for any child, which is why our 5 year old received one as a birthday gift in July! Haven’t heard if he uses it a lot, but I’m sure he’s loving it!
Picture of and specs from the camera that I was given:
A huge thanks to Argus Bean (@ArgusBean) for giving me this camera to review. You’ve made one child’s mother very happy seeing as though she can treasure these pictures forever and not have to worry about HER camera being broke. As for me, I had a great time watching my friend’s child playing with this camera and enjoy taking LOTS of pictures. Looks like he needs a Bean Sprout for himself now!
You can find Bean and Bean Sprouts at all different types of retail stores.
Griffin Clarifi iphone Case
A couple of weeks ago, my old iphone case started to crack. Though I did love the case and it held up quite well for a while, I didn’t want the same case again (bor-ring!).
After a couple of different trips to the Apple store, I decided on a somewhat new case. The Griffin Clarifi.
Griffin Clarifi iPhone Case from Kelly Walker on Vimeo.
It does what any other iphone case SHOULD do – protects it from my small slippery hands. And it keeps the back from not getting all scratched up. The bottom portion of the case slides over to meet/lock with the top 3/4 of the case. It’s not as “easy” as snapping the case on and going. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not difficult at ALL to put on, but I think it protects it a bit better with how the case covers everything. My only complaint when I was putting on the case was that it started to mess up and bubble my iphone screen protector. (I didn’t put on the screen protector that came with it because I like having the matte finish.) Now that the case is on and has been on for a couple of weeks, I’m still not real happy with what it did to my screen protector. There weren’t any bubbles or anything before this case.
On to what makes this case so great.
You can get quite close to things without them being blurry!
The little tiny lens that is built into the case that can go over the camera. What is this lens for? Well, it’s to help with close-up/macro pictures. As of this moment, the lens is still a little difficult to move back and forth with ease, but I’d rather it be like that than sliding all over the place.
L. Ring as close as you can get without being blurry
R. Ring up close with the macro lens
(Same distance, without/with macro lens)
——
I did a ’survey’ on twitter and out of the 850 people that follow me, 3 answered:
“What do you look for in a case?” The answers – protection of my phone, functionality, and whatever I can find. All fine answers.. Is there that ONE “must have” that your case has to pass the test before you’ll even consider buying it.
My “must have” is a “must not be” – my case must not be silcone, or anything that dirt will stick to. That just drives me crazy. Also, I don’t want anything bulky. I like being able to put my phone in my pocket. Which means, I also don’t want a belt clip.
LensGiant.com – Flash Rental
My flash has never really been all that wonderful, so I hardly ever use it. Well, I volunteered to take some pictures of Florida Governor Charlie Crist for the Orlando Job Fair and decided to try out my flash before the big day. Good thing I did, because the battery cover wasn’t fully closing, which meant the flash wasn’t charging.
Uh oh! 4 days before and now I’m all in a rush to rent a flash. My “go to” rental place here in town didn’t have a flash available at the time, so I decided to go through the links in a previous blog post about lens rental sites. Surprisingly a few of the rental places don’t rent flashes.
Thankfully, I came across LensGiant.com. They have both Canon and Nikon lens AND flashes! I ordered the Canon Speedlite 430EX II right away and picked 2 day shipping!
I ordered it on 4/13, before noon, and it shipped the same day. So it arrived, on time, on 4/15. The box arrived via FedEx very well packaged.
Included in the box with the flash was: the instruction manual for the flash, table stand, case, a copy of my order, rental guidelines/return date, checklist of what came with my order, the 3 closest FedEx locations around my area, return shipping label and a feeback form.
For an eight date rental on this flash, the amount was $21.00.
Two day shipping (including return) was $14.49.
So, my total bill for 8 days and shipping was $35.49.
Not bad when some places charge for shipping AND return shipping separate, plus some rates are more expensive.
I would highly recommend LensGiant.com. And I made sure to send my feedback form in with high ratings!
Have you used LensGiant.com? What equipment have you rented? What experience did you had? Would you use them again?
My 1st…Rental
Saturday, February 14, 2009
A couple of week ago I decided that I was finally going to rent a camera lens. I started going through a couple of sites and came across the perfect first place for me to rent from. RentGlass.com. Not only were the prices very reasonable, along with the shipping, but I found out that they were located in Kissimmee, Florida (which is only about 15 minutes away from our house).
I sent a message from the website asking if it was possible to pick up a lens and got a response 25 minutes later stating that I could pick it up Monday-Friday. Thankfully it was Friday and I have the day off.
After searching through the website and trying to decide what lens I wanted to try first, I decided on the Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM. Here is some information on this specific lens:
–Closest focusing distance is .65 feet
–Auto and Manuel Focus
–Maximum Aperture is 1:2:8 (Aperture = limiting the amount of light passing through a lens; hole, gap, or slit; larger the number the smaller the opening vs. smaller the number the larger the opening; Depth of field is larger when the number is smaller)
I placed my order, called my friend so she could go with me and went on the search for this place.
First of all, Google Maps gave me directions that took me, no joke, about 20 minutes out of the way. After driving around in a great big square, we finally made it to the plaza that it’s located in. Well, from there it got even crazier. There aren’t many offices/stores in the building, so there weren’t many signs. But after walking up some stairs and following the inside signs we made it. The office seemed neat and clean. Daniel, who e-mailed me back, was very nice. I signed my paper, was given the lens and the package to ship it back in. And off we went.
I spent the next few days taking pictures of really anything that was laying around the house and the office. From my cat to the filing cabinet. The lens was very quiet and quick to focus in automatic. Manuel focus may be a bit more “work”, but always seems to work a bit better no matter what lens you use (in my opinion).
The condition of the lens seemed near perfect. Didn’t really see any scratches or markings on it. Seemed to me that it was quite a new lens. The week rental cost me $21.00. Since I picked up the lens, it cost me a mandatory $5.00 to ship it back, even if I wanted to take it back. (Fine with me, I saved some gas!) With the rental, shipping and tax, the lens cost $27.82. I wish I would have had some more time with it. Had I had planned to go somewhere and take some pictures I would have definitely rented it longer to get some really great pictures. There is always next time.
Thank you to rentglass.com for a great lens and a wonderful first rental. I will most definitely use them again!
Need to Rent a Lens?
To rent a lens it doesn’t matter if you are a pro or take pictures as a hobby or are going on a vacation. Renting the perfect camera lens for more than likely less than $100 for a week, what better way to get the pictures that you really want. Instead of spending $300 – $1,500 on buying the lens outright, why not rent and try them out? Think of it as test driving a car that you are thinking about purchasing.
Throughout the past couple of months I’ve been thinking about renting a lens, but I didn’t really know where to start. I mean, yeah, I can do some searching around online and see what places are out there. But how would I know who is good? Who has good prices? Who over charges for shipping? I never came across any place that had a list of a few of the websites in one place. (If there’s one out there, do tell!) This is where I started my “research” and wanted to share it with any others interested in photography..
To start things off, I went through all of the websites to find the same lens to compare the prices. Well, to say the least, that was a major failure. The three lens are quite close in mm and price. I will note for each website which lens it is.
– www.borrowlenses.com — Located in San Mateo, CA
Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro
1 week rental is $25, Shipping is $19 for 2-Day, Local pick-up is available
Reservations can be made
– www.lensprotogo.com — Located in Acton, MA
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
1 week rental is $55, Shipping is included
Reservations can be made up to 4 months in advance
– www.rentglass.com –Located in Kissimmee, FL
Canon EF-S 60mm f2.8 Macro
1 week rental is $21, Shipping is $13 for 1-3 Days; Local pick-up is available
Rental is based on a first come, first serve basis; Can rent 3 lenses at a time
*Side note: I e-mailed customer service about picking up a lens and got a response less than 30 minutes later. Great service!
– www.photolensrental.com — Located in San Rafael, CA
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
1 week rental is $35, Shipping is $39.45
Lenses are on a first come, first serve basis; one lens at a time
– www.lensrental.com — Located in Cordova, TN
Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8
1 week rental is $35, Shipping is $26 for 2-Day, Local pick-up is available
Reservations available
Guaranteed availability, given two weeks notice on a two-week rental
*Thanks to Will Glynn at lensrentals.com for additional information.
– www.adoramarentals.com — Located in New York, NY
Canon 60mm f/2.8 Compact Macro E-FS
1 week rental is $60/week, or $20/day
*Side note: Days in transit are included in the rental period
– www.rentmylenses.com — Located in Camden, AR
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
1 week rental is $29, Shipping is $24.40
Reservations are available, See website for a “two-in-two guarantee”
– www.lensgiant.com — Located in Northville, MI
Canon 100mm EF f/2.8 Macro
8 day rental is $23, Shipping ground is free or 2-Day express is $10.37
Reservations are available
– www.prophotorental.com — Located in Denver, CO
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
7 day rental is $44.80 (at $6.40/day), 3-Day shipping is free, can upgrade to 2-day or overnight, Local pickup available
Reservations are available
4-day minimum, based on a day rate
– www.ziplens.com — Located in Brookline, MA
Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM
1 week rental is $35, Shipping is $23 for 2-Day and $35 for Overnight, Local pickup available in Boston area
Reservations are available up to 3 months in advance
Gift certificates available
– www.cameralensrental.com — Located in Anderson, IN
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
1 week rental is $25, Shipping is $24.99 for Fed-Ex
Use code CLR and get 10% off your first order
Reservations can be made as far in advance as you want
Rent 4 lenses (doesn’t have to be at once) for a week or longer and get a 3-day rental for free, just pay the shipping and if needed longer, the difference in the rental period
*Side note: E-mailed for an “incomplete order in the database” by two different employees, within a hour of each other, both of them happened on a Sunday. Great customer e-mail service.
– www.mjlensrentals.com — Located in Wichita, KS
Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM
1 week rental is $56, Shipping is $31.62 USPS Priority Mail (2-3 days)
Rent as many as you want, may require a copy of your drivers license and/or security deposit
Not many different lenses available
I hope this information helps. I found it useful to gather all the information on a similiar type of lens from lots of different websites and then go from there. If you know of any lens rental sites/places that I didn’t mention please e-mail me at kelly@peglegpug.com and I will be sure to add them to any upcoming lists.
On the Search For…
Friday, January 30, 2009
I keep saying, “As soon as I get some extra money I’m going to rent a camera lens to try out.” Well, where is that extra money? And now that I finally picked up a shift from Disney (see previous post), I should have enough money to at least rent one for a day. Okay, maybe even a week. The problems now are: Where do I rent a lens from? And where am I going to venture out to take pictures?
The potential websites I have come across for renting DSLR camera lenses are: rentglass.com, borrowlenses.com, lensprotogo.com, photolensrental.com and lensrentals.com. I am still in the process of trying to find other sites and then I want to compare some reviews and prices. Ideally, I’d like to start renting a lens every month / every other month and do up a review on here about not only the lens, but the website I got it from (costs, shipping turnaround, packaging, etc).
As for where I will be going to take the pictures, I’ll probably just go wonder somewhere around town, whether it be one of the theme parks or a park or just some place.
I am now asking/begging for you to give me any websites you may have used before or have come across to rent camera lenses. I would love to have quite an array of places to go through over the next few months. As for places for me to go visit and take pictures, I am up for places around Florida/Central Florida area. As long as I can rip Jeff (peakarts.com & twitter.com/bananakin) away from the house for a bit, I’d like to be able to drive to the place over a weekend. So pass on any places, websites, etc. Comment below or send me an e-mail at kelly@peglegpug.com.
