Gear Reviews » Dan Carr Photography - Photography Product Reviews + Ski, Snowboard and adventure photography tips

Think Tank Special - FREE Laptop Bag With Every Roller

Camera Bags, Rebates, Think Tank 2 Responses »

May 012012

For the month of May, Think Tank are giving away a FREE Artificial Intelligence laptop bag (worth $59) with every roller bag that you purchase. All you have to do is click on on of my links below and when you come to check out you’ll get the option to add the laptop bag! Think Tank’s roller bags are the rollers that all other rollers are judged by, simple as that. Walk into any press room at any sporting event and all you will see is Think Tank rollers as far as the eye can see, I kid you not. I use a Think Tank Airport Airstream myself.

Here are your options:

If you are looking to buy a roller before you head out this summer, this is a great time to do so!

Affordable Stuido Gear From Impact

Accesories, Gear Reviews, Site news No Responses »

Apr 282012

The fine folks at B&H Photo were kind enough to send me some of their studio gear from the house brand Impact. I’ve written a little review about each individual piece and this post is designed to be the index.

If the prices of studio support equipment usually makes you wince then you should definitely take a look at the Impact brand. Please do take a look at the reviews as there are some caveats with some products but over all I’ve been pretty impressed.

Impact Super Collapsible Background 8x16'

Accesories, Gear Reviews No Responses »

Apr 282012

Not everyone has the luxury of a proper dedicated studio space so what do you do when you need to set up a quick backdrop for a shoot ? The answer could be to use a pop up backdrop similar to the reflectors that most of us have probably used, only MUCH bigger! Impact makes what they call an 8×16′ background which is actually an 8×8 popup square with an 8×16′ fabric extension sewn onto it to use as your ‘infinite’ background. When you are done your shoot, the whole thing folds flat into a bag for easy storage in a closet or under something like a bed.

Packed and ready to POP

First a word of warning about this things, it is BIG so don’t pop it open too quickly in your office or you will send things flying at all four walls! As you can see in the first photo below, on one side we have an 8×8′ square. In the second photo you can see how the extended piece of material comes off it to provide your transition to the ground.

The frame around the rear part of the background is pretty sturdy and as you can see from the photo of the back of it, the fabric pulls across it nicely and keeps taught, eliminating annoying wrinkles and creases. Unfortunately the other side is a different story. The fabric on this side is stitched to the frame until about halfway down but this means that you can’t do anything to improve the tension on it in the top half. Of course cramming that much spare material into a small bag inevitable leaves it plagued with wrinkles when you get it out of the bag and because the excess material is permanently attached to the frame there is no easy way to iron it before your shoot ! Imagine trying to put this on your ironing board !!! Essentially you would need to use a hand steamer but that can be a painstaking process and for something that is designed to be a quick popup solution it really would negate the benefits. The second major problem with the fabric being permanently attached is that you can’t wash it! This 8×16′ is also available in white but that would be dirty in just a couple of shoots with no good way to wash it.

Unfortunately both the inability to easily sort out the wrinkles and to clean this leave this product lacking and it won’t be added to my recommendations. You could use the rear 8×8 side for 3/4 length and head shots, but really it would be overkill as you could be using a much smaller and cheaper product to do that, like the Impact 5×7. For full length shots there is still no substitute for a proper backdrop holder set like this one and a roll of paper or material of your choosing. It’s not going to be as fast or easy to set up but your full length shots will benefit greatly.

Impact Multiboom Lightstand & Reflector Holder

Accesories, Gear Reviews 2 Responses »

Apr 282012

There’s a reason that this Impact product has a long name, it’s designed to do a lot of stuff! To begin with it looks like a light stand and of course you can use it in this way but to be honest it’s strengths are in other areas and there are better light stands. The spigot on the top seemed to be an odd sizing when I tested it with my Einstein strobe, there was a lot of play in it and the metal was very soft and easily damaged with the screw clamp. More so than other stands that I have used in the past. Of course if you might just be adding a cold shoe to the top and using speedlights, in which case this wouldn’t be a problem at all.

Compared with a regular Impact light stand

Usable as a light stand, but not the sturdiest option for large strobes/monologhts

The real strength of this product though is the transformation into a boom. By pulling the top section upwards as far as it will go, you can then rotate it outwards to elongate the boom section.

As a microphone boom......

I’ve been using this a lot as a mic boom for my shotgun mic and it works a treat. All you need is a screw on hot shoe adapter and as you can see, the reflector holder clips work great for holding up your cables.

No troubles holding reflectors at an angle

Rubberized clamps

At the end of the boom you have a little hole to hook a counter balance of some sort.

Normally when you want to hold a reflector you would put a separate reflector holder arm on top of a regular light stand. What’s nice about this Impact Multiboom is that you can leave one item at home as the whole thing is just one piece. With the additional option to use it as a mic boom and a light stand for smaller flashes then it becomes a very versatile product. It can be a little bit confusing when you see how many knobs there are on it though, and you’ll find yourself turning the wrong ones on occasion so watch those fingers if you accidentally loosen something.

The rubberized clamps seemed to do a fine job at holding the reflectors that I have, they don’t spring closed that tightly which I think is deliberate so as not do damage what it is holding. Instead a lot of the grip comes from the rubber on the clamps and I think you would be able to support a small 6×4′ backdrop or similar as well. As with all Impact products the price is designed not to break the bank and for $80 you get a lot of functionality.

Impact Air Cushioned Heavy Duty Light Stand 13' (4m)

Accesories, Gear Reviews, Lighting equipment No Responses »

Apr 282012

The first thing of note about the Impact 13′ light stand is that it’s actually not that heavy. Heavy duty yes, but not that heavy. Sounds odd right ? Well all I can say is that when compared to some of my small light stands it’s a comparable weight BUT it extends to a much larger height! I was so happy to see this that I immediately threw it in a bag and flew off to a photo competition taking place in Austria. Weight is important when you are trying to fit all your gear within the requisite baggage limits but I had no issue choosing this stand over some of my existing ones. You never know when a bit of extra height will come in handy!

Minimum Height	44 in (112 cm)
Maximum Height	13 ft (4 M)
Closed Length	42 in (107 cm)
Footprint Diameter	36 in (91 cm)
Leg Tip	25mm
Weight	5 lbs (2.3 kg)
Maximum Load	10 lbs (4.5 kg)
Attachment Size	5/8″ stud with 1/4″-20 treaded top

As you can see, it will even double up as a ski pole when needed!

You can see that the Impact 13′ stand has a reasonable base spread to it. If you jack this thing up to full height though you’ll definitely want to weight it down with some sand bags or something similar but up to about 8ft the legs will give you good stability.

Big chunky connections is what you want to see for durability

Winning image from photo contest in Austria

Jumping back to my story about Austria quickly, you can see the 13′ stand in use in the background of this image that I shot. In this case I was holding up an Elinchrom Ranger Head ,probably about 10 or 11ft off the ground. This image was actually the winning image in the photo contest that I was taking part in there and I put the height of this stand to good use!

I tend to be pretty rough on my light stands, they don’t stay in a studio. They get strapped to backpacks and skied around mountains, they get thrown in piles in the back of my pickup truck when I’m heading out to shoot and they rattle around in cases in the bottom of airplanes. If it can last a couple of months of that kind of abuse then it’ll stay with me a lot longer. The Impact stand past with flying colors and has become my ‘A’ stand that choose above all others. Primarily for it’s excellent height to weight ratio. It’s also air cushioned so if you loosen the screws too quickly it will gently lower itself and not trap your fingers. I used to recommend a specific Induro light stand to people when they asked what I prefer for my big lights in an outdoor environment but from now on I wouldn’t hesitate to point them in this direction. Again for the price I think you’re getting a very good deal.

Impact XL Digital Light Shed Review

Accesories, Gear Reviews, Lighting equipment No Responses »

Apr 282012

If you ever shoot a lot of still life or product photos then chances are you have looked at buying some sort of light tent or shed before. They offer a quick solution for softening you strobes or continuous lights and they tend to pack down small enough that storage is no issue. I was sent the Impact XL Digital Light Shed to take a look at and I’ve used similar products in the past to shoot images for product reviews or small products for catalogs.

This particular Light Shed has a lot of options and accessories to get you started all in one flat package. The XL is 24x24x36″ but it’s also available in three smaller sizes. Personally , given that they collapse anyway , I would recommend just going for the larger one right from the beginning. The price difference in them is also pretty negligible.

Impact Digital Light Shed from B&H Photo Video on Vimeo.

What we are looking at here below is actually the removable base of the tent. This is a nice feature as it allows you to put the tent over a nice textured piece of material or surface so you’re not bound by limitations of things you can fit inside the tent when choosing your base. Unfortunately you can’t really use this wide opening to shoot through though as you have a zipper directly behind it.

You can really see that in this shot , even with the whole side removed the rest of the tent stays taught and solid

The front opening of the tent can be rolled back and uses hook and loop pads to keep it contained. There is also a zippered slot in the middle of the door which you would use when shooting a very reflective object , to cut down on the reflection of you and the camera.

Inside the tent we have further options, it comes with both a black and a white removable backdrop that attaches into the rear top corners. Make sure that you have a steam iron to hand though as this will need some serious ironing time to get it wrinkle free. If you don’t want to use the material backdrops then you are also provided with a white plastic base that gives you a nice reflective surface for a bit of a different look. According to the specification on the B&H page it should also come with a black plastic base as well. Mine did not…. so check your package carefully once you have popped it open.

Plastic base included

Black and white back drops included

Using the plastic base (excuse the dust on the lens please !)

A I mentioned, I have used these sorts of products before. What I loved about the Impact Shed was the sturdiness of the cube once it was erected. Too many of them are simply too soft and floppy and don’t hold their shape. This is not the case with this product though, even with the front flap open all sides stayed taught and flat and the cube kept its shape. The full length zipper on the top of the shed is also an important feature that gets omitted from some similar products. A lot of time when shooting products for catalogs you might not actually want the product to interact with a surface. In this case you suspend it using fishing wire by hanging it from a book placed over the tent. The zippered top makes it easy to hang things down from the top..

Considering this is just a touch over $60 it represents excellent value considering the size and accessories it comes with. It’s certainly a step up from the flimsy Photek one that I last used.