Stuff We Like

All the products below are in use by one of the D Vision Works team. We paid the asking price for these products and we feel that they are more than worth the money. We recommend them without hesitation.

Panasonic SD253 Bread maker

The Panasonic SD253 is a superb bread making machine. You put in the ingredients, press a few buttons and leave the machine to get on with the work. A couple of hours later a fresh bread will be ready. It will come out of the non stick tin very easily. The tin will hardly be soiled at all and after it has cooled down for a few minutes you can give it a quick wipe and that will be that.

For instance to make a white loaf you put a teaspoon of yeast into the tin. Follow this by 500 grams of strong white flour, 25 grams of butter (or two tablespoons of olive oil), 1 tbsp of sugar, 1.5 tbsp of milk powder, 1tsp of salt and 350 ml of water. Then close the lid, press the button to select a white loaf, choose whether you want the crust light or dark press the "go" button and leave the machine to do its work.

Most recipes can also run on a delayed timer program so that you can prepare ingredients in the evening and wake up to fresh bread in the morning.

The SD253 comes with an excellent manual which explains how to run the machine as well as including a number of bread recipes for the UK market - i.e. ones that work well with ingredients you can readily buy in a UK supermarket. Also it explains very clearly what each ingredient does so that you can start experimenting with recipes of your own.

I have owned an SD253 for six months now and I use it on a daily basis. It has worked perfectly every time. The SD253 typically retails for round £100 in stores. At the time of writing you can get it for round £80 on Amazon with free delivery included.

Canon Powershot S70 Camera

At DVW we usually recommend Nikon cameras for use with out 3D modelling and image stitching applications and we will continue to do so. However the Nikons can be rather technical and tricky to work with. This is why we often recommend Canon Powershots to friends and family.

This particular model the Powershot S70 shoots beautifully sharp images on a 7 Megapixel sensor. You can use it as a point-and-shoot camera or you can get just as technical as with a Nikon and adjust all settings manually.

The image on the left was one of the very first ones show with our S70. It is a picture of a rainbow at sunset over Santiago de Chile (click on the image to see a full resolution version). Not the easiest of subjects to expose as those of you who have tried to shoot rainbows will know. The S70 got it pretty much right even on fully automatic settings.

Another advantage of this camera is that it looks pretty much like a conventional 35mm compact camera. This means that is may not ft into the smallest pocket of your shirt/blouse but on the other hand you can take it to strange and wonderful places without attracting the unwelcome attention that you would with the latest Sony credit card size camera (and you will get much better pictures too).

You can buy a Canon S70 for less than £350 on Amazon. We think this is a bargain.

Sony Freeview Box

We have tried quite a few Freeview boxes from Nokia, Haupage, Thomson and others but the Sony VTX-D800U is our favourite. Every one of us uses one.

It is a high quality unit: the quality of the TV images is good, channel change is rapid and the various menu functions look good and work well.

The VTX-D800U has two SCART outputs. This means that it can output a high quality (RGB if you wish) signal to both a TV and a video recording device at the same time. Also the SCART can carry a Q-Link or Smartlink (different manufacturers have different names) signal so that you can program recordings on the VTX-D800U 7 day electronic program guide and the VTX-D800U can then automatically start and stop recording of the selected programmes. We have found this works well with the Panasonic range of DVD/HD recorders (we have tried DMR-E50 and DMR-E85).

The VTX-D800U works even with relatively week antenna signals. In our Oxfordshire homes we have found that it works better than other Freeview boxes we have tried and the quality is certainly better than what analog TV reception brings.

The VTX-D800U can be set up either vertically as in the picture above or horizontally in a more conventional set top box position. Either way is looks both smart and unobtrusive.

We mostly bought ours on the Botley Road in Oxford for £100 or more. if you should wish to buy one we suggest you do it on Amazon for less than £80.