Without a doubt my #1 and favorite "dad gadget" is my black Motorola Razr camera phone. I mean, I have a Nikon D50 digital SLR camera that I use for serious-duty photography of my kids in action, but my Razr slips right into my pocket so I always have it with me. The Razr holds about 105 photos, and even takes color video with audio.
Take tonight, which was Family Fun night at my kid's elementary school. They had a jello eating contest, and my kids were chowing down in front of the whole gymnasium full of friends, parents, and teachers. I was able to whip out my Razr and capture the moment... along with a couple other dads doing the same thing. The picture's are not as clear as the ones I get with the Nikon, but they're fine as far as I'm concerned (more shots at the end of this article).
We took our Nikon D50 with us to Disneyland last year and snapped over 600 shots in 3 days - thanks to a 2 GB Sandisk memory card that holds about 1100 high quality images. But the D50 is way too bulky to carry around to all my kid's events. The Razr is perfect for that, although I wish it had more than a 640x480 resolution.
To top it off, I got my wife and I each a new Razr a few months ago and both phones were free, thanks to Wirefly (an authorized wireless reseller with a wide range of free phone deals when you sign up for a two year contract - or extend your existing contract like we did).
Check out the deals for dads section on this website to learn how you can get a Razr camera phone for free.
Here's also a link to a discussion on the Nikon D50 that provides a lot of useful information about its features, as well as several recommended photo editing tools.
As promised, here are a few more shots that I took with my Razr... or rather, that my kids took. It's so easy to take pictures with, that my 5-year old took these shots of me and our dog Otis:
The Razr isn't the greatest for motion shots, but it does alright with still shots. Here's a 4-wheel drive tire shot I took a couple months ago when Regan and I visited Les Schwab to get a flat fixed:
I have taken hundreds of pictures already with my Razr of my kids inner tubing on Mt Hood, birthday parties, soccer games... and the list goes on and on. It has easily earned my "Ultimate Dad Gadget" award in the 3 short months that I've owned it.
Here's an article that describes how I transfer photos from my Razr phone to my PC using Motorola's Phone Tools and a data cable. You can also use BlueTooth if you have a BlueTooth-enabled PC and a BlueTooth adapter.
So what's your favorite "dad gadget"? 
