Industry News

35% Off All Formatt-Hitech Filters – Just For YOU!

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I’m not posting all the Black Friday deals that I’ve been sent, because frankly some of them aren’t that great. Every company thinks they have to do something, and some of the deals are minimal. That’s not the case with this one though… This morning I had an email from my friends at Formatt-Hitech filters telling me that they are offering a 25% discount for their entire online store, for regular customers. However… for you guys, my readers and followers, they wanted to give me the chance to give you 35% off! Just use the coupon code Dan35 at the checkout. A …

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Let’s Talk About Luminar 2018… Because Its AWESOME!

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Regular blog readers might remember me talking about Macphun’s excellent Aurora HDR and Luminar software over the past year or so, and I’ll tell you right now that you’re going to be hearing a lot more about Luminar from this point onwards. Luminar 2018 will be launched on November 16th (pre-order), but I’ve had a copy for a few weeks now and it has me very excited. To start with, PC users can rejoice because Luminar 2018 will be available on both the Mac and the PC, and with it Macphun will be changing their name to Skylum Software – …

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Profoto A1 Vs. Regular Speedlight – Why Would You Buy One?

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Every now and then a product comes along that raises some interesting questions, and the new Profoto A1 is just such a thing. Profoto are known for their high-end studio strobes and pricey portable lighting solutions like the B1X TTL monolight, but the A1 is their first foray into the world of hot shoe speedlights. At $999, this is a considerable price for a small flash and I’ve seen a lot of people laughing at that price. I must admit that I had a little sticker shock when I saw it too at first, but then a did a little …

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Canon Launches New 85mm f/1.4 L IS at Surprising Price!

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Canon added a new lens to the lineup today in the form of an 85mm f/1.4 L IS. The lens doesn’t replace the 85mm f/1.2 L, but merely offers another option that’s even more capable in low light conditions. It might be a stop slower than the f/1.2 version, but it has a four stop image stabilization system in it! Naturally the f/1.2 lens will still be a better option if you need a fast shutter speed in low light because IS can’t help to freeze motion, but it can help you shoot at decreased shutter speeds. This will be …

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NEW: Affordable Think Tank Spectral Shoulder Bags!

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Think Tank Photo will always be one of my got-brands for top quality camera bags, along with their sister company MindShift Gear for the more outdoorsy ones. This week Think Tank have launched a new line of shoulder bags called the Spectral Series, and this aims to bring Think Tank bags into the hands of more people by offering them at a slightly lower price-point. The Spectral 8 is under $100! Despite coming in a bit cheaper than some of their other shoulder bags, like my personal favourite Retrospective bags, these Spectral bags still bring a ton of cool features. …

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PocketWizard Multimax II Launched

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Pocketwizards have always been a part of my career in one way or another so I keep an eye on their new products. Today they have launched an update to the 16 year old Multimax transceiver, and the price is significantly lower than the old one ($229). Whilst I do believe there are better and much cheaper solutions for those that just wish to remotely trigger a flash, such as the Skyport, the Multimax is still pretty unique in terms of the number of features that it offers, and it seems as though they have added a few more. Hopefully …

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Can You Use Canon Lenses With the Sony A9? Kind of…

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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, 400m 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 mount means …

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Think Tank Photo Launches New SKB Hard Case Line

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Think Tank Photo have just launched a new partnership with hard case manufacturer, SKB. If you’re not familiar with SKB, they basically make cases that are the same as the much better known brand, Pelican. Think Tank have designed a number of accessories and cases, including a backpack, that are sized perfectly for specific SKB hard cases. The new products have ridiculously over-complicated names, but most importantly, note that these products when sold on the Think Tank website include BOTH the hard case AND the Think Tank case inside it. If you just want to get the interior cases and accessories, …

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My Favourite Wordpress Photo Gallery Plugin Just Added an Awesome New Feature

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If you’re a photographer with a Wordpress website then you need to have a great gallery plugin to give you ultimate control on how you display your images. I use and recommend Envira Gallery because it allows me to make cool sections like this automatically updating Instagram gallery, or even to sync photos to my website from within Lightroom. Recently Envira added another cool feature called Lazy Loading. When a page on your website is opened in someone’s browser, normally the browser loads all the content from the page, even if you haven’t scrolled down to all of it just yet. Lazy …

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Elinchrom Finally Updates the Ranger RX Series. Meet the New ELB 1200!!

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Well this has been a very long time coming! Elinchrom’s popular Ranger RX series of battery powered strobes has finally been superseded by an all new product called the ELB 1200. I used to use the Ranger RX packs myself, but eventually I got tired of the weight of that system which was powered by heavy lead-acid batteries. I shifted to the smaller Li-ion ELB 400 packs, but I’ve been patiently waiting to see what Elinchrom came out with as a higher power solution. I believe I’m right in saying that the 1100 w/s Ranger packs have been essentially unchanged …

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