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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
The eternal quest for the perfect camera bag is one that I’m sure you’re all familiar with. I’ve given up looking for “The One” though because the breadth of photography that I enjoy makes such a bag an impossibility. I prefer to narrow things down a little and in this instance I’m on the hunt for the best outdoor adventure photography pack. This year Lowepro launched two bags that fall into this category, the Photo Sport Sling 100 and the Photo Sport 200 AW. Lowepro recently sent me a 200 AW to try out and it’s actually the first Lowepro …
The Fuji x100 is a phenomenally successful camera, even 6 months after it hit store shelves it’s still in short supply. I reviewed it myself and fell in love with it but the price tag isn’t for everyone, neither is the fixed 24mm prime lens. In September 2011 Fujifilm announced the X10 which addresses both of these considerations so I figured I would write up a comparison to help people choose between the two. At first glance they look fairly similar as both are based around the same rear screen and controls and a similar magnesium chassis but in fact …
In the Fall of 2010 Canon announced the introduction of new MKIII extenders to replace the previous MKII versions. Super Spectra coatings were introduced to help reduce ghosting and flare as well as fluorine coating to make water spots and finer prints easier to remove. I’ve always fond the MKII extenders to be extremely useful when used in the right circumstances so I was eager to try out the MKIII versions to see if there was an improvement. Physical differences Since the introduction of the 800mm f5.6, Canon changed their off-white color of their telephoto lenses. All the new MKII …
Today I installed a UPS in my office for the first time. UPS stands for uninterpretable power supply and essentially it acts as a battery backup for your computer (or other electronics) should there be a power outage. It had honestly never occurred to me that this is something you should think about, until something went very very wrong. More on that in a bit…. but when I came to do a little research on the most popular UPS’ I was surprised as to how reasonably price they were. Why would you want to have one of these then ? …
The Canon EF 8-15 F4 L fisheye lens is one highly anticipated piece of glass ! First announced back in Autumn 2010 this is not a replacement of any existing lens, but an all new design with unique potential. Canon originally started with the 15mm f2.8 fisheye which was designed before the digital days. This lens provided a full 180 degree field of view on a full frame camera but users of 1.6 or 1.3 crop cameras were left with slightly less fishy look to their images. On the Nikon side of things, Nikkor released a beautiful 10.5mm fisheye for …
Last month I went to France to shoot the 24 Heures du Mans in Le Mans and before I left I grabbed a few extra items to make my assignment a little easier. First up was the Think Tank Hydrophobia 300-600 rain cover. The next think I wanted to do was take a look at the Think Tank Skin system to carry some additional items around with me while I was shooting. A lot of you know me for my winter sports photography and for that I use a variety of specialized bags from F-Stop but this time I needed …
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 …
DSLRs with HD video capabilities have changed the way many of us shoot and many photographers are being asked to return from assignments with videos, or simply making that choice themselves to make their business stand out from the crowd. The problem is that DSLR video is incredibly susceptible to camera shake because in-body image stabilization has yet to be implemented in these larger cameras. Combine that with the tendency to create rolling shutter artifacts when panning too fast and you quickly realize that a good video head (fluid head) is necessary to get even a reasonable job done unless …
Boy has this been a long time coming! We first learned about the Fuji x100 way back in September 2010 where it was shown in prototype form at Photokina. The internet was instantly ablaze with hands on impressions (as much as you can get from a prototype) and forums were full of excited people in love with Fuji’s classic design. An astute move by Fuji’s marketing department capitalized on peoples desire and the official x100 page gradually leaked a series of in-depth preview articles discussing every aspect of the camera over the next 8 months. By the time they actually …
The Zoom H1 has been around for a year or so now and I’ve mentioned it before on this site but only now had a good reason to pick one up for myself. At the time of writing this I’m packing my gear to head to France to shoot the 24 Heures Du Mans, arguably the worlds greatest motor race. I decided that the sound of the cars on the track would be interesting to capture for some multimedia content after the event and the H1 looks to be a reasonable solution. Ever since DSLRs began to record video, photographers …
You might be wandering why I’m going to talk about this lens when Canon has already announced it’s replacement, due to hit store shelves in December 2011. Whilst it’s true that the new EF 500mm f4 L IS II is 17% lighter than this version, the optical improvements will be fairly minor. It’s tough to improve on the quality of any of Canon’s super telephotos. The list price of the upcoming MKII 500mm is $10,000 but the current version is selling for “only” $6900. When version 2 hits the second hand market there is sure to be an explosion of …