Gear Check

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Impact Super Collapsible Background 8×16′

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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 …

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Impact Multiboom Lightstand & Reflector Holder

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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, its 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 …

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

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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 …

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Impact XL Digital Light Shed Review

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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 …

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5D MK3 & Canon Wireless Flash System

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I’ve just taken delivery of my own Canon 5D MK3 and also the new 600 EX RT flash with ST-E3 Radio trigger.  I’m really excited to try these things out on some upcoming shoots.  I made a quick video yesterday with some first impressions on the flash and the new trigger.  Stay tuned for more in-depth thoughts in the coming days and weeks.

Pearstone Articulating Arm Review

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This is one of those multifunctional accessories that every photographer should have in their kit box.  I’ve owned several different versions from various manufacturers and this time I have been provided with the 4.2″ Pearstone Articulating Israeli Arm version.  My favorite uses of such an arm are to hold accessories for DSLR movie making such as microphones, audio recorders and LCD screens but the actual potential uses are far too numerous to name. The 4.2″ Pearstone version is just the right size for mounting on the hot shoe of your camera and it comes with a hot shoe adapter that …

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Pearstone Duo Battery Charger Review

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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 …

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Hands On With The New Canon 24-70 & 24mm + 28mm IS Primes

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Recently Canon announced the introduction of three new lenses to their EF lineup.  The long awaited 24-70 f2.8 L II finally broke cover as well as two wide prime lenses with IS, the first of their kind.  Much has been made about the projected $2300 price point for the new 24-70 though which is about $1200 more than you can currently get the previous version for.  In the last couple of years Canon have updated some old lenses and introduced some new ones, all of which I have found to be exemplary so my gut feeling is that for pros, …

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Nikon D4 Vs. Canon EOS 1D X

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Just a few days before CES 2012 and the specs for the Nikon D4 have been accidentally leaked on a website (reported but not named by Nikon Rumors).  They also published a photo of the new Nikon D4.  Given that we already know all about the Canon 1D X we can now take a proper look at latest and greatest from the big two.  While the D4 will be the second of the two to be unveiled, it will in fact be available in stores in February compared to late March for the 1D X.  Amazon actually has the D4 …

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New Tascam DR-40 and DR-100 MKII FOR DSLR Audio

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Getting around the deficient audio in DSLR video production is always a tricky problem for one reason or another.  There are several ways to do it , depending on which camera you are using but it also depends on whether you want to shoot separate audio tracks and sync in post using Plural Eyes , or whether you want to record straight into the video track on camera.  The latter route will never be as high quality but sometimes you just don’t have time for the extra step in post of syncing and managing the audio files.  Of course the …

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The Search For My Ultimate Tripod Setup – Really Right Stuff TVC-33s

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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 …

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Canon EOS-1D X Tech Note: No AF with f8 Lenses

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I wanted make a brief post to mention this information that was pointed out to me by my friend Colby Brown.  It used to be the case that only Canon 1-series cameras could focus with lenses with a minimum aperture of f8.  It was a feature that set them apart and above the rest of the lineup, albeit only the center AF point worked.  Now Canon doesn’t manufacture any lenses that have such a small minimum aperture natively but there are plenty of ways to get there by using extenders. The newly announced Canon EOS-1D X (their new flagship!) DOES …

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