Thailand is host to many key factories and manufacturing plants for companies like Toshiba, Western Digital, Sony, and Nikon (just to name a few). All of these companies have had to halt production in Thailand due to flooded facilities which has led to product shortages for this holiday season. Some products have been hit harder than others, and fulfilling Christmas lists this year may be difficult.

Hard Drives

Hard drives have been the most affected by the floods. Nearly every major hard drive manufacturer uses Thailand facilities extensively and there have since been reports of worldwide shortages. Even though you can still find them on shelves, the effects of Supply and Demand are very clear.

Back in October, before the flooding became severe, high capacity external hard drives could be found for well less than $100, but have since skyrocketed closer to $200. The 2TB Western Digital Elements Desktop hard drive is a perfect example. In October, you could buy it at a mere $89, but with news of the flooding and shortages, it promptly jumped to $150 and then $180. To make matters worse, most retailers have started limiting hard drive purchases to one per customer. Internal hard drives and laptop drives are affected as well.

All is not lost, however. Solid State Drives have been largely unaffected by the flooding. The problem with Solid State Drives has always been the price, typically $1-$2 per GB compared to $0.04 per GB of a traditional hard drive. But the Solid State Drive market has become increasingly competitive, bringing prices down. Per GB, they are still considerably more expensive than Hard Drives, even at their currently inflated prices, but you also get considerably more performance.

Digital Cameras

Also hit quite hard are digital cameras, especially digital SLRs. Nikon’s entry-level SLRs, the D3100 and D5100, have become hard to find. Its high-end D7000 is experiencing shortages as well. Sony, though, has certainly been hit the hardest. Having just launched its new NEX and Alpha series cameras, there were very few on the market to begin with. The flooding has rendered these new cameras almost impossible to find. The NEX-7, one of the most highly anticipated cameras of the year is nowhere to be found and likely won’t be available until early next year.

Laptops

Most laptop manufacturers do not rely on Thailand facilities to assemble their products, but a few, like Toshiba, do. The hard drive shortage is affecting the laptop market the most. With the increased demand, laptop manufacturers have had to pay more for their hard drives as well, resulting in higher prices down the line. Overall, laptops haven’t been hit that hard, with typical price hikes only around $60 to $90. Many of the larger companies, like Dell and Apple, can afford to absorb these costs themselves.

With all of these abrupt price hikes, it’s wise to research the price history before making any big purchases, especially when buying a laptop. As for hard drives, with their prices so high and availability so sparse, you may want to consider waiting for the market to return to normal. Even though they don’t feel quite as personal, gift cards are a great alternative for those items that just aren’t available. And consider keeping with the holiday spirit and contributing to the relief efforts in the flooded regions.

The α77 and α65

The big selling point of the α77 and α65 is Sony’s brand new Translucent Mirror Technology. Traditionally, SLR cameras (the film kind) used a mirror placed in front of the shutter to allow you to see through the lens when looking through the viewfinder. It let the autofocus circuitry peek through the lens as well. The problem is that when you take a photo, the mirror flips up out of the way of the shutter. This wasn’t much of an issue with film, but digital cameras can take photos much faster, and can even shoot video.

While companies like Canon and Nikon have simply taken the familiar route they’ve used for ages in their film cameras and applied it to their digital cameras, Sony has introduced a revolutionary new idea, a mirror that simultaneously lets light pass through it to the shutter while also reflecting light to the autofocus sensors. This allows for true continuous autofocus, regardless of frames per second. Canon and Nikon use a predictive autofocus method that, put simply, doesn’t even compare, especially in high speed shots.

As would be expected with any high-end SLR, these two cameras set the bar in cutting edge features and performance. One notable feature is the Tru-Finder, essentially a digital viewfinder with an OLED display inside. It allows you to see information on top of the image, just as you would on the LCD display. It also works great in low light situations, an area where traditional viewfinders struggle. In all, both the α77 and α65 compare very well to Canon and Nikon’s competing models (the 60D, 7D, D5100, and D7000), even outclassing them in some key points, like image sensor size, light sensitivity, and focus points.

The NEX-5n and NEX-7

The NEX series is another product of Sony’s innovative nature. Traditional SLR designs were built around the limitations that came with film cameras. The NEX series does away with the SLR bulk but keeps almost all of the SLR internal components, like interchangeable lenses, manual controls, and large image sensors. In fact, the NEX-7 actually has the same 24MP image sensor found in the α77.

Compared to the NEX-7, the NEX-5n does dial things back a bit, featuring only a 16MP image sensor (though it’s still full-sized) and lacking a viewfinder and hot shoe. The NEX-5n’s only true competitor is Nikon’s brand new J1. The J1 does offer a few more gimmicky features, but sacrifices a lot in image quality. Even our current leader, the Rebel T3i, is bested in many cases by the NEX-5n.

The biggest limitation of the NEX line is the fact that they all use the E-mount lens, of which, there are only a handful to choose from; however, this all changes when you throw in the Alpha mount adapter. The LA-EA2 adapter even includes the translucent mirror technology, allowing for continuous autofocus. That adapter would effectively turn the NEX-7 into an α77 (minus a bit of image stabilization and a few frames per second in burst mode) at a quarter of the size and half the weight.

I have to say, if I were in the market for a new high-end digital SLR camera this season, it would be the NEX-7, hands down.