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You might be carrying way more weight than you need to if you haven’t paid much attention to the type of rain cover you’re using no your backpack. I was pretty shocked at the weight differences when I put these things on the scales!
As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my goals this summer was to develop a lighter backpacking kit that would more easily enable me to get into the backcountry with my camera gear. I already had good quality equipment, but as I had acquired the gear over many years, I hadn’t paid too much attention to how light and easy to carry it was as a whole. I have increasingly found myself wanting to get off the grid for some of my photography, but I was always plagued by the decision of what camera and lens kit to …
There’s been so much buzz around the Sony A9 recently that I’m sure you’re aware of the camera, even though I haven’t talked about it myself on this blog. The blazing fast 20fps autofocus system has many sports photographers excited, but Sony’s lens selection is currently, at the time of writing this, severely lacking. There’s no 300mm f/2.8, 400mm f/2.8, 500mm f/4 or 600mm f/4. All lenses that are used in droves by professional sports and wildlife photographers – the exact people Sony are targeting with this camera. Aha! You might say. The short flange distance of the Sony FE …
Quick release plates are necessary if you’re going to use Arca Swiss standard quick release plates on your ballhead. All of my ballheads are from Really Right Stuff, and whilst I love their gear, there’s no denying that you pay a high price for it! I recently discovered some VERY reasonably priced QR plate alternatives from Breakthrough Photography, so I thought I should share them in this week’s Gear Check article. Their QR plates are available in three different sizes, and whilst they don’t feel quite a satisfyingly dense as some other plates I’ve used from more expensive brands like …
No Whether or not you should use a protective UV filter on your lenses is always a hot topic, so I get this question on my inbox from time to time. I personally believe you should not use a UV filter on your lenses for general protective purposes, and by this I mean leaving a filter on the lens all the time. Good lenses are precisely calibrated, and even if you invest in the absolute best UV filters on the market (most people don’t), they can still have a negative effect on image quality. Why would you want to spend …
A 16-stop neutral density filter allows you to do extremely long exposures even during the middle of the day when the sun is shining. Let’s take a look at the firecrest 16-stop filter from Formatt-Hitech.
I currently own a GoPro Hero5 and I’ve had a Hero4 Black and a Hero3 in the past. To be honest, I rarely use them, but occasionally I get one out to capture a behind-the-scenes perspective of something I’m working on. When the Hero5 came out last year I was pretty excited by the prospect of RAW photo capability so I quickly upgraded from my Hero4 Black. Unfortunately the GoPro Hero5 lacks a vital feature that literally every other camera in the world has: a self timer. For a camera that is designed to be used to take photos and …
I’m still loving the experience (and images) from the wonderful Fujifilm X100F! The X100F has a 23mm f/2 lens on it which provides a field of view that’s equivalent to that of a 35mm lens on a full frame camera. It’s a great lens, but Fuji also make a couple of conversion lenses (WCL-X100 II and TCL-X100 II) that allow you to change it to a 28mm FOV or a 50mm FOV (Field Of View). I contacted my friends at B&H Photo and asked if I could borrow these conversion lenses for a few weeks to put them through their …
Over the years I’ve often been asked questions on the subject of backpacking with camera gear, and whilst I’ve had some answers, I’ve never felt like I had all of them. Over the next few months, I want to tackle this topic in a bit more detail as I experiment with a few different ideas and solutions that I hope will help me over the the coming summer season. Lightening the Load My primary camera has been a Canon 5D-series camera for the last 8 years or so, currently it’s the 5D Mark IV. It’s a rugged, full frame camera …
So I had a rummage around in my camera bag for today’s Gear Check post and I pulled out this handy little travel towel called the PackTowl Luxe. PackTowl have been making ultralight towels for backpackers for many years, and I’ve owned several for travel and backpacking purposes. More recently, they came out with the Luxe line of towels, and when I saw one in my local outdoor store I knew I had to have one for my camera bag. I primarily keep it in my bag to dry my camera and lenses off after I’ve been shooting in the …
This week I stuck my hand in my little support accessory case and pulled out the Really Right Stuff B2-FABN-Micro clamp to show you guys. This tiny little Arca Swiss compatible clamp is another item I carry around for all sort of different uses. As you can see, it has two 1/4″ 20 threaded sockets on the bottom so you can screw it onto things like light stands, pocket tripods and ball heads. It also has two strap lugs on it for attaching a camera strap, and a QD socket in the middle. The QD socket is a kind of …
My Canon 7D Mark II is still my favourite second camera to carry around alongside my 5D Mark IV, the pair of them just compliment each other so well. For video recording duties (mostly for Youtube stuff) I use the 7D Mark II, and I recently picked up a SmallHD 701 Lite 7″ LCD monitor in one of B&H’s crazy Deal Zone one day sales. After receiving it though, I stumbled upon an unexpected issue that I thought I should point out, because for me it forced me to return the monitor. When Canon first started enabling video recording in …