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Don't take us to task for the name of our final Editor's Choice category. We're not suggesting that photographers must have every product it contains. But while Imaging Essentials is a catch-all -- the place we put products that don't fit anywhere else -- some of these items are specialized and specific enough in their purpose that one or more may well be essential to some photographers. Need to record your subject vocally as well as photographically? Check out the Olympus LS-10 digital recorder. Need to recharge camera batteries in the wilderness? Have a look at the Brunton SolarRoll. (In fact, several of this year's choices will help you be greener.) Want to add some style to the convenience of flash drive storage? You'll get a kick start out of SanDisk's Ducati Edition flash drive.

X-Rite ColorMunki Photo

It looks like an oversized tape measure, but this ingenious product is really the Swiss Army Knife of color management -- offering display-to-print matching with a single device. As is typical, to calibrate your monitor you plug the unit in via USB and suspend it over a target area displayed on your screen by the supplied software; the ColorMunki then runs through an automatic sequence of color and black and white patches. (Simple and advanced modes are both available.) It can even take ambient light into account like its consumer-level cousin, the Pantone Huey. (X-Rite recently acquired color authority Pantone.)

You use the software to output a sheet containing five bands of color patches, and then comes the monkeying. Rotate the ColorMunki's multi-position dial to its print profiling position, then simply slide the device over those bands one by one as if you were ironing the sheet. (There's even a timer in the unit that ticks off the print's drying time before you start.) The device can even profile a digital projector. Equally clever, to send images to color-conscious clients and art directors, you can put them into the ColorMunki software's "Digital Pouch," zip it up, and when they arrive at the receiving computer a self-executing program runs itself to check the accuracy of the monitor profile, displaying your photographs in the same application-viewing screen. About $450.

SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition Flash Drive and CF cards

Few brands say speed and performance like Ducati, which is why SanDisk is co-branding its top-of-the-line Extreme-series flash memory products with the cult-status Italian motorcycle maker. The connection is more than a matter of style, though. In addition to its trademark Ducati red, the Extreme 8GB Ducati Edition CompactFlash card features a league-leading read/write speed of 45MB/second, slightly higher even than SanDisk's regular 8GB Extreme CF card. (You can also get a Ducati Edition CF card in a 4GB version, as well as a 4GB Ducati Edition Secure Digital card.) But here's the irresistible part, and the most direct motorcycle reference: The 4GB Extreme USB Ducati Edition Flash Drive (at 20MB/second, also fast for its class) is shaped like a Ducati gas tank, complete with logo and a tail light that's actually an operating indicator -- glowing when you're plugged in, and blinking not for a turn but when data is being saved or transferred. About $240 (8GB card); $100 (flash drive).

Olympus LS-10 digital recorder

It doesn't take pictures, but for many photographers the new Olympus LS-10 recorder will be no less valuable for that. If you're one of the growing number of shooters who support their work with sound and text, a subject's oral history, for example, this tiny digital recorder is a must-have. Though not much bigger than a typical voice recorder -- it's just a little taller, narrower, and thicker than a classic iPod -- the sound quality it produces is phenomenal, with a presence you wouldn't expect from such a small, unassuming unit.

Powered by two AA batteries, the aluminum-bodied LS-10 incorporates a pair of stereo microphones. Though close together they're angled out, and let alone the clarity they really seem to separate sound. We used the LS-10 to record the song of a particularly tuneful bird to play back so a bird maven could identify it for us; when we downloaded (via USB) the .WAV file and played back through good computer speakers, it was as if the bird was in the room. We also used the LS-10 to record the very fine Olympus corporate band, Peripheral Vision (whose core members include lead guitarist Joe Badalamente, bass guitarist John Saggese, rhythm guitarist Steve Hayes, saxophonist Ken Kanzler, lead singer Jon Weikel, and the inimitable Dave "Sticks" Willard on drums), and when set for automatic levels control it kept their powerful sound balanced and undistorted.

The LS-10 has 2GB of built-in memory, ample when it comes to digital sound, but there's a slot for Secure Digital memory cards if you need more. And the recorder can save files in any of three formats: Linear PCM (a 24-bit uncompressed file with the extension .WAV), MP3 (the universal, compressed file used for most music playback), and WMA (the even more compressed Windows Media Audio file). This will give you a sense of relative file sizes: in Linear PCM, the total maximum recording time permitted by the 2GB internal memory is up to three hours and ten minutes; in MP3, up to 35 hours 35 minutes; and in WMA, up to 69 hours 35 minutes.

Files are organized using an easy-to-navigate folder system displayed on the LS-10's 1.8-inch monochrome screen, which also shows levels and other data. Overall, the LS-10's controls -- buttons and a four-way rocker -- are very straightforward. It even manages to squeeze in a pair of small stereo speakers. Though really too weak for shared playback, these are of very good quality and very useful for checking what you've recorded without the awkwardness of plugging in headphones. About $350.

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