Category: Uncategorized

I think I may have gotten an order in with Adorama. We’ll see if it actually ships (fingers crossed). I’ve also got an order in with B&H.

Lots of coverage out there right now.

1. I posted on it on Google+.

2. Scott Jarvie’s Nikon Boy Reaction to the Mark III.

3. Robert Scoble’s post on G+. Scoble got an order in with B&H.

4. Digital Photography Review’s write up.

5. Engadget / Gizmodo / CNET / The Verge.

6. Official Canon page on the new camera.

7. Gordon Laing’s write up at Camera Labs.

8. Alex Koloskov: Canon 5dMKIII? My biggest disappointment from the company I use to love.

9. Vincent Laforet

10. G Dan Mitchell.

11. Planet 5D.

5D Mark III order page for:

B&H
Adorama
Amazon.com

[Update: I thought getting an order in last night with Adorama was too easy. Between B&H and Adorama I guess it’s a waiting game now. Got this email from them this morning:

“We’re sorry for any inconvenience. Unfortunately, one or more of the items in your order are not in stock, see details below. We’ll ship your order as soon as possible. If you want to cancel your order, please let us know.”]

Thomas Hawk Digital Connection

F/1.0

Photo © Syl Arena

I’m on the road with spotty ‘net (and also a Nikon guy, so there’s that). But Syl Arena has been playing around with the just-announced Canon flash and radio transmitter. Here’s the five-word version of Syl’s review:

“Canonistas, hold your heads high.”

Well, then. Looks like Canon has uncorked a very sophisticated and robust flash system for discerning photographers who like their photos well-lit, if not quite in focus. (Kidding! Mostly!)

Check out Syl’s evolving coverage of the new system.

__________

[UPDATE: Official price for the Canon 600EX-RT speedlite was set at: 1 Paul Buff 640WS Einstein + 8″ hi-output reflector + 2-grid set + 64″ soft silver PLM + 64″ diffusion fabric.]

-30-

Strobist

As the year closes, it’s fun to go through the library and pick out my personal faves from the year… In no particular order, my favorite shots from ’09.  Not necessarily my best or most commercially successful, just the ones that tickled my own fancy:

F/1.0

This year for the birthday, did a fantastic 2 week trip to San Francisco and Sonoma.  Lots of touristy stuff, lots of wine drinking, and lots of photos… Cameras were the GF1 and a Holga – this was my my first “real” outing with the GF1 and it absolutely lived up to my expectations.  Was able to carry the body with kit lens and 20/1.7 in the corner of my daybag with room for the rest of my assorted junk.  Never missed carrying the big SLR one bit!

F/1.0

I’m a freelance photographer with a preference for Fine Art currently working out of Auckland, New Zealand.  As you may know, New Zealand is an extremely photogenic country, however it isn’t all easy peazy as you may not know that the light and weather conditions in New Zealand can be very difficult to foresee and plan for.

Rick Sammon famously talks about Exploring the Light and has a great book to prove it, but here it’s all about chasing the light. The skies can be grey for days on end, windy and rainy and all this can play havoc with your shooting schedule.  When you plan for a landscape shoot of a mountain vista looking out over the sea, inevitably the sky turns a blanket of blown out grey, blurring the horizon with the sea.  Granted some cloudy days can prove very picturesque, but you need definition in the sky for that to work.  You need to be able to bring out the contrasting shades of grey.  The old black glass or ND filter can help, but sometimes you just have to pack it in.  On other days you’re set for a macro shoot of the botanical gardens just as the southerly winds from Antarctica pick up and make shooting close-ups near impossible.  What is the frustrated photographer to do?  Well, one goes to the hardware store and buys a sheet of Perspex of course; wraps it around to create a cylinder and melds the edges together.  Now place that over the flower or other subject matter and wallah, no more wind interfering with my shooting.  Working in variable elements requires myriad techniques.  I have learned this nowhere more so than New Zealand.

Fairly recently I was sent to a beach just north of the country’s biggest city Auckland to do some fine art shots at low tide.  The plan was to use the images in an advertising blitz for the summer holidays.  Summer is just coming to an end here.  I had dedicated two full days to the shoot and closely monitored the weather forecast – it’s so changeable.  All looked good, my plan was to utilize golden hour, just before sunset,  as this time of day works perfectly at the beach.  I had some compositions in mind and set off on the hour long drive with my trusty assistant.  By the time we arrived at the beach a weather front had rolled in and the whole scene was grey and washed out.  Not deterred, we wandered about the beach looking for good vantage points and planned the shoot for the following day.  Patience is probably a photographers best asset.

Next morning the wind had picked up and the grey remained.  Disappointed, but not defeated we decided to forget the beach and instead headed off for a nearby temperate rainforest.  Shooting in a forest on a dull day can be very rewarding.  The light is even and there are no harsh bright spots clashing with the blacks.  We weren’t there long, when this amazing Tibouchina bud came to our attention.  There were a number of them, but this one looked incredible.  Now to get the shot.  The wind made shooting macro a little trying, especially as I was hand-holding the camera, but after just three shots I had captured it just as I perceived it.  The bud as it is about to flower looks like something out of that scary 1950s novel by John Wyndham The Day of the Triffids.  A few other nice macros were also taken that day, just to prove that when the light and/or weather isn’t behaving look elsewhere, try to match the conditions and never give up.  There is always something you can shoot.

Oh and btw, I finally managed to capture that beach shot.  I decided on a storytelling composition that has a foreground, middle and distant horizon that are all in focus.  I love to use this technique on landscapes and you can achieve this simply by focusing a third of the way in on your scene.  Here I shot with a focal length of 30mm at an aperture of f/16 which gave me an awesome amount of depth of field.  By using the small aperture with a wide angle focal length you can create images that have continuity, images that essentially have the potential to lead the eye all the way into the scene.

Links:

Website: www.photoopolis.com
Twitter: @photoopolis

dslrBlog

I had hoped to be landing in Dubai for GPP 2012 right about now, but our mechanically challenged plane yesterday objected. Rather theatrically, I might add.

So instead, I'm encamped next to the airport in Atlanta at a hotel sufficiently downmarket to have free wifi. So that's something good, I suppose.

To that end, my homage to Andrew Hetherington's ongoing Room With a View series. But cool as those photos are, he never tells you the lighting details. So we can at least accomplish that much today. Read more »

Strobist

The DSLR Video Fastpack 350 AW is a new addition to the Fastpack line from LowePro. I was curious when the bag arrived as to what I would find. I don’t shoot a lot of video, but I do at times. Would the bag work well for a ‘regular’ still shooter like myself? Which features did LowePro pack into the bag to make it useful for shooting video with an DSLR? And please tell me they improved the zippers.

The answers to those questions became clear as I took the bag on a number of trips over the course of four weeks, mostly shorter trips around town as well as flights to LA, San Francisco and Portland form my base in Seattle. One thing became clear; this bag is not for everyone. It does not attempt to please all who use it and that’s a good thing. While I know, marketing-wise, it’s best to go after the lions share of the buying public, it is refreashing to see LowePro concentrate on specific photographer needs, such as video DLSR videographers.

Specifications

From LowePro’s site:

Size(Interior): 10.2W X 5.5D X 8.9H in./ 26 X 14 X 22.5 cm	Size(Exterior): 13.8W X 9.8D X 19.3H in./ 35 X 25 X 49 cm	Camera Compartment Inner Dimensions: 10.2W X 6.7D X 9.6H in./ 26 X 17 X 24.5 cm
Notebook Compartment Inner Dimensions: 12W X 1.4D X 16.1H in./ 30.5 X 3.5 X 41 cm	Front Compartment Inner Dimensions: 6.7W X 0.8D X 9.4H in./ 17.0 X 2.0 X 24.0 cm	Outer fabric: 300D POLY DOBBY PUX2; 600D Polyester
Interior Fabric: 200D POLY W/PU
Weight: 4lbs/1.8kg

Use In Real Life

I know those numbers often don’t mean a lot without real world use. I’ve tested a number of LowePro and other packs and my expectation for this pack as that I could carry my main body with power grip and longer lens plus a couple of lenses. When I inspected the bags camera compartment, it was clear I would only be able to fit the camera and two lenses. Then there was this longer section on the left side of the camera, where other packs would store additional lenses. I’m not a guy who carries five lenses with him at all times so this appealed to me and I quickly realized I could fit a flash on that side.

The bag is also deep in the camera compartment, meaning my Canon 7D with grip had room to spare, height-wise. This also left space under the flash on the left for additional storage, such as for a smaller microphone. That side compartment has a unique bit of divider that creates a false bottom and it’s good thinking of LowePro’s part because if it was not there, the spot for the flash would have wasted space above it. Or maybe they realized there are people like me that would pile additional gear on top anyway, and decided to maximize the usable area (although you do have to rip through velcro to get to that extra space underneath.

The Fastpack capability of this pack is the same as others; drop the bag off your right shoulder and swing it around on your left shoulder. This brings the side opening the bag into play and makes for easy removal of the camera. If you want to grab another lens, it is best to put the bag down and open it up fully. Here there is a slight hitch because of the size. Take a look at the photos and you will see that the spare lens compartments have a bit of overhang of fabric. In other bags this has been more out of the way, but in the 350 it is fairly stiff (at least when new) and rubs against lenses or knuckles. It makes things a trite bit annoying to remove. Not horrible, but slightly annoying.

The laptop compartment is pretty standard with room for a 17″ laptop in a padded sleeve. It works well but the two compression straps, when buckled, make removing a laptop slightly pinched. Again, not bad by any means, and when the straps are released you can fit a whole hand into the compartment, but just a note. With those straps in place it doesn’t open as fully as other bags I’ve tested. But I do understand why those straps are there and they do help make the pack feel more secure on my back.

Inside the top compartment is a good bit of organization. There is an elastic strap in the bottom to hold down a portable drive. There is a strap near the top especially to hold up headphones used for audio recording and I think this was very considerate. A zippered pocket and some mesh and other pockets make for simple organizing. I noticed, compared to other LowePro packs, that this bag lacks some of the more basic “office” pockets, such as pen holders and a cell phone slot. It does have the all important key-keeper strap (thank you!) and a spot for a single business card in case your bag goes missing.

The biggest addition to the bag is an accessory wallet built for video production. It’s not extensive, but I can see how useful it will be. The bag holds cables and cords in place and has room for two remote transmitters (handy for those using something like the PocketWizard for regular still photography or lav mic for video). It’s thoughtful and useful. On the outside there is a hidden tripod boot to hold a small to medium/large tripod or video rigging gear. The all important rain cover has its tucked away location on the bottom of the pack but is still not removable. It fits well and has kept my bag dry more than once. And lastly, the water bottle holder is available and handy of not employing a tripod on the right side.

For comfort, I found the bag in the middle of the road and it works well for the weight it should hold. The waist strap is meant to hold the bag close more than hold weight and is a bit high for my longer torso. The shoulder straps have enough adjustment to keep the bag comfortable for a few hours, but I would want more adjustment available if I were to wear the bag all day on a hike. The padding is ample and comfortable.

Conclusions

While I don’t shoot video and don’t carry around the normal rigging as such, I did find this bag useful. It is smaller sized than the Fastpack 350 Compu-Photo bag I review before and I like that, because it felt more maneuverable. While it was not as wide as the other 350, the additional depth was welcome as it fit a full sized DSLR and longer lens (think 70-200mm f/2.8) better. If you only need a couple of lenses with you, this bag works.

Oh! And the zipper question; yes. Yes, LowePro is using better zippers and this bag does not suffer from the I-must-use-two-hands-to-close-the-main-compartment problem of bags in the past. The zipper speeds around the corners and doesn’t bind up like its predecessors did. One other big bonus? The blacked out name/logo on the back. I like a bag that doesn’t completely scream “Camera Bag!” and that subtle change is appreciated.

Photographers with a smaller torso might find the 350 size to be a bit tall, but LowePro makes other bags in this range with the same features that will fit better. I wasn’t planning on liking this bag at first, but it’s growing on me. The main drawback, for me, is pulling out those spare lenses in the cramped side compartment of the main camera storage area. If I can get over that, this bag will be a daily use bag for me.

More details on the pack and a decent video can be found on LowePro’s site.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

LowePro DSLR Video Fastpack 350 AW [REVIEW]

Digital Photography School

From Jim Jarmusch’s Golden Rules:

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”

F/1.0

This week, based off our post ‘The Impact of Less‘ our photography challenge theme is ‘Less is More’.

Feel free to interpret the theme in any way that you wish – but we’re half expecting to see some minimalistic kinds of images taken and submitted. Really stripping back your images to focus on simple subjects (or perhaps even just parts of those subjects).

Once you’ve selected the ‘Less is More’ image that you’d like to share – upload it to your favourite photo sharing site or blog and either share a link to it or – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so.

If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag them as #DPSLESSISMORE to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

Also – don’t forget to check out some of the great shots posted in last weeks challenge – DAWN challenge where there were some great shots submitted.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Less is More: Weekly Photography Challenge

Digital Photography School