Ove on my other website, Shutter Muse, I just posted a Goal Zero Venture 30 battery pack review. You can head over there for the full rundown, or you can watch the video review from YouTube right here on the blog. Cool piece of kit!
Someone e-mailed me today with the simple question “how do you keep you cables organised?” My solution comes in two parts: 1. Buy the Et Cetera cases from Gura Gear. I prefer the ‘cases’ for organization when I travel and in the office/storage cupboards and then the ‘pouches’ are flatter so they work best to stash in my bag when I’m out shooting. 2. Use Pearstone Touch Fasteners from B&H. These things are super cheap and just awesome. You tie one to each cable and then there’s always a way to fasten it up into a neat little package. So …
Like most people who usually have a camera with them on any given day, I have never been satisfied with the strap that comes packaged with the camera. For the last few years I’ve been using some much more comfortable straps provided to me as part of the Canon’s CPS membership which are simply Canon branded versions of the Optech Utility Strap with a different, more robust attachment system. The neoprene strap works well for easing the discomfort of a heavy camera on your shoulders but the traditional attachment points on the left and right sides of the camera still …
The folks at Manfrotto Canada recently provided me with one of their Lino Photo Vests for evaluation and I’ve been using it for a couple of months now. Being an item of clothing I felt I should wear it in my introduction video so take a look below as I run through the main features of the vest. Key Features The Manfrotto vest doesn’t have as many pockets as some of its competitors out there like the Domke vest but the most important pockets are well thought out. Frankly it would be unhealthy to ever fill all of the pockets …
The kind folks at B&H recently provided me with several products from the filter company Hitech for testing and review. I’ve already reviewed their 100mm modular filter holder and now it is time to take a look at one of the most talked about filters, the 10-Stop ND. Let’s start with the basics, why would you need a 10-stop ND filter ? In the vast majority of cases the reason to use one is going to be to create long exposure photographs of flowing water and skies. A 10-stop filters will allow you to take some truly LONG exposures even …
Physical construction and design The unit that I was provided with is Hitech’s newer modular system, not to be confused with their previous offerings which featured a set number of filter stages in 2-stage and 3-stage offerings, and not to be confused with previous plastic holders. The main plate of this holder is very nicely machined aluminum with thoughtfully recessed holes for the mounting screws. The kit that I’m reviewing came with options for up to three drop in filters and a separate 105mm adapter. It also came with some spare crews of varying size and nuts to put it …
The Monster Outlets To Go 320 has just been added to my Travel Essentials list. This tiny little device will expand one plug socket into three, and also add two USB ports at the same time. The USB ports are powerful enough to charge an iPhone or an iPad and most importantly for me, the unit itself is compatible with 110v to 250v. This means that it will not go POP if you plug it into a wall in the UK or other European countries. Note that it is not a voltage converter though, but this is not a problem …
One of the things that I was happy to see at the launch of the Canon 5D MKIII was that they have kept the venerable LP-E6 battery that was first introduced more than three years ago with the MKII. I’ve always been amazed at it’s capacity and in the last few years several third party accessory manufacturers have also adopted it for powering video equipment accessories such as LCD monitors of external video recorders. Of course it’s also been used in the 7D and 60D! In other words, if you are a Canon shooter then the chances are you have …
Having broken my tripod recently I decided to look at what the high end of the market has to offer. A cheap tripod rarely does you any favors and whilst my previous one wasn’t exactly cheap, I’d often wanted a bit more stability and a generally nicer feel to things. I did a lot of research, read a lot of reviews, blog posts and forum threads and narrowed things quickly down to Gitzo and Really Right Stuff. I’m a big fan of Really Right Stuff products in general and I use their BH-40 ballhead as well as an MH-01 on …
Over on ProPhotoCoalition I’ve just posted a quick review and how-to-use for the Datacolor SpyderLensCal which is a pretty neat little tool for helping you quickly calibrate all your lenses using the AF micro adjust feature in today’s DSLRs. Calibrating Your Lenses With Spyder LensCal From Datacolor
NOTE: Think Tank have now launched a V3 version of this rain cover that is improved in several ways, and also much cheaper, in response to competition in the marketplace. Please head here to get the details about the new Hydrophobia covers, which also now come in an expanded range of sizes to fir DSLR and mirrorless systems. You guys know I’m a big fan of Think Tank’s photo accessories and I use several of their solutions on a regular basis for my photography business. Last month I flew to France to cover the 24 Heures Du Mans, arguably the …
The Australian company Aquatech are best known for their underwater camera housings but over the last few years they have been slowly releasing a range of very well thought out accessories for photographers and in particular, long lens shooters. I have an assignment coming up in June that will see me carrying my longest glass around on my monopod for a whole week whilst putting in some serious leg work. While looking over the B&H website last week I noticed this new monopod wrap from Aquatech and thought it might come in handy. It also coincided with some shooting I …