Bright Lights Big City - Flash Tech, news from Photokina and other updates.

           

LED FlashCube

And now for something entirely different.. Not only is it a cube which is something i've not seen before, but it is also LED based and solid state. The front is a circular fresnel lense.

Not much is known about this so i'll point to Flash Havoc and call it good. 

This unit is approximately 640 bucks and is fairly heavy due to the heat sink that keeps the LED from overheating.

Profoto TTL-N TCU

1.2 years after myself and I'm sure countless others bitched about the
lackluster support for cameras other than Canon, the TTL-N emerged.

The E-TTL version was the very first to hit the market, as I blogged about previously on the topic of Profoto's B1 and TCU I won't be covering that much other than what's new. One interesting thing to note, I met an owner of the B1's at a photo-shoot and he said that the canon version will fire the flash unit on a Nikon but won't do anything else. I was impressed with their functionality, I watched as his wife was firing away with no misfires or any other issues.

I also had some brief hands on time with their Nikon D4S and the new A7S from sony, I did not want to impose so I did not linger for too long except to push a few buttons and take some test shots. I was impressed with those as well.

This TTL-N unit has only been on the market for 1 month, I expect there will be growing pains popping up as more users adopt it but the initial reviews from owners of it are all generally positive. 

The reports so far indicate that the trigger does not allow sync above 1/200 or 1/250 (native X-sync speeds for Nikon), so H.S.S is out of the question at this time. Last I heard they were not available for Canon users either but Profoto did say they were working on it, so we could expect to see H.S.S/FP type functionality soon.

Nikon users say the unit has a glitch, the unit defaults to TTL operation every time it powers down and is powered back up (does not store the last state it was in prior to powering down), this is not a deal breaker for me but that would be annoying.

TTL operation wipes out whatever custom settings you left on the B1 heads that triggered but that is no different than my experiences with Pocket Wizard's "Power Tracking Control-TL™" feature, so I am not surprised by that at all. I encountered the same issues  when I used my Sekonic to set the Einstein, and then fired my camera with the (TTL) power tracking active. Feedback from Nikon users on the results of TTL operation is kind of revealing, it almost sounds identical to Pocket Wizard TTL.

In TTL mode pocket wizards latest generation of triggers and firmware modulate the power settings in relation to the resulting shots from the camera, but it is only measured and adjusted after the shot is taken not before the shot happens. Because of this P.W. recommends taking multiple test shots prior to going forward with whatever your planned shoot is.

Further camera support is expected but none have been announced, the most interesting markets for them to open up to Profoto would be the Sony and PhaseOne camera owners. Those guys would be very keen on expanded functionality with these lights I suspect. I have no clue what kind of gear is actually compatible with camera like the digital backs from PhaseOne.

Phottix Odin II TCU

 Phottix Odin II

The best thing to happen to Phottix triggers since Odin v1.5 came out, this promises to be the most sensible and simple interface layout I've seen so far. I just hope that it turns out to be true. OSD menu based devices rely too much on navigating through buried sub-menu's to get to features that get used the most rather than allowing the user make those decisions.
This device looks a lot more like users had some serious feedback in the interface design phase rather than allowing in-house engineers who don't use the equipment in a working environment to decide for everyone else.
Delivery of the TCU to various markets is expected in Q1 of 2015.

Feature List:

• 5 groups A, B, C, D, E
• 2.4 GHz frequency, Range 100m
• 32 channels with Digital ID
• Group buttons and control dial for fast power changes
• TTL Power Control +/- 3 EV
• Manual Power Control 1/1 to 1/256
• Flash Zoom control
• High Speed Sync – up to 1/8000s
• Second Curtain Sync
• AF Assist Beam
• Compatible with Indra 500 TTL, Mitros+, Odin, Strato II, Atlas II
• Modeling Light Control (Indra 500 only)

This unit is fully backwards compatible with all Phottix triggers, although some features may not work due the receiver not having that function. Not all phottix triggers have the same level of functionality but all will at least trigger the flash unit.
The newest twist to this unit is the encryption key system that it encodes to it's signals when paired with compatible strobes and speed-lights. What this means is that multiple separate photo-shoots happening within reception range of each other using the same gear won't cause misfires, each persons gear will only respond to signals with the correct key. Theoretically the key system will be diverse and complex enough there should be little or no possibility of overlap, this feature is unique in this industry to my knowledge. Wireless phones have used dumbed down versions of this for decades, i'm surprised the photography industry is so slow to pick up on it, particularly when taking into consideration the vast number of radio triggers out there with overlapping frequency allotments.

Phottix Mitros+ For Nikon & Cannon:

Averages $399 at BH-Photo & Adorama

Mitros+ Interface Dialogues.

I have been thinking a lot lately about lighting and alternative setups to what I do and don't have currently, if for no other reasons then to have backups. This product showed up and I was immediately excited about it after doing some initial reading, however after it spent time on the market there were numerous flaws that turned up. It is beginning to look more and more like a SB-900 from Nikon in terms of the defects that are showing up.
Before I dive into the negatives on this product let's list out the positives:

• Integrated radio transceiver (a market first for speed-lights)
• Available for Sony, Canon, Nikon
• Native wireless and on camera H.S.S for Canon & Nikon
• Full wireless TTL operation is claimed (I have my doubts).
• First and Second curtain sync modes are supported.
• The upcoming Odin II's features are supported except for ODS, that could change in a firmware patch.

Serious problems have been reported, such as:

• Severe over heating, the front lense cracks, melts  or shatters after 50+ consecutive full power shots with zoom head set to 24mm. 
• In TTL mode it is exhibiting symptoms of uneven power output, Nikon users report more problems with this then canon, the consensus so far is that as long as TTL is not used power output is stable.
• Power adjustments are problematic, complaints floating around after some intensive testing show little or no difference in power output below 1/2 power. Full power looks very similar to half power. Canon users say the full power output is slightly less than the most top of the line canon flash. Operating in manual does appear to fix some of it.

Phottix is a fairly small company with an equally small staff with multiple new high end, high profile products that are either recently arriving on the market or rumored to be on store shelves by Q1 of next year, don't expect fast replies right now. They are swamped with complaints.

The following is some recent testimony from an owner of the product (not me).

Mitros Owner FeedBack:
"I bought 2 of these kits and I gotta say the value is GREAT! The built quality of every item is definitely good. I ran tests and also used them in the field. Although a great value, I would like to alert everyone about some of the things that I ran into:

•  Be aware of the adaptor that comes with the Mitros+ to fit the Nikon cable when using external battery packs. If your cable is from either Nissin or Bolt it will NOT FIT the adaptor. You need either the Quantum or the Impact version of the Nikon cable. 
• When using a Mitros+ to fire another remote Mitros+, the remote Mitros+ will fire the TTL pre-flash even if the Mitros+ transmitter flash is setting the remote flash to fire at a manual power. This does not happen if I use the Odin transmitter to fire the remote flashes in manual instead of using the Mitros+ as the transmitter. This does drain batteries faster, makes recycle time longer, and it's pretty annoying!
• For some reason, there is barely any difference in terms of flash output from firing at full VS 1/2 power. I tested this on both Mitros+ and they both show the same issue. I would like other users to test it and let me know if they notice the same thing. Put the camera on a tripod, take a picture at full and then at 1/2 power and tell me if you see a stop difference in light.
• Maybe it's me, but I cant turn off the blinking red beam of light that the mitros+ shoots every couple seconds when used as a remote flash. It's not a deal breaker but videographers and other photographers might hate you for it. I set my 2 flashes off camera in a church, and it does become distracting.
• Even if you turn of the beeping sound from navigating though the menus. If you press an hold a button (for example the arrow button to change power from 1/1 to 1/128), The flash will start beeping, particularly annoying in a church!
• The recycle times are a little disappointing to me. I have been using the Nissin MG8000, it has the best power output, recycle, consistency, never overheats, and the interface is the easiest and most practical I have used!
• I have owned the SB700, SB800 and SB900. I would say this Mitros+ flash is somewhere between the SB800 and SB900.
• In opposition to the Phottix Strato II, both the Mitros+ nor the Odin transmitters will work to fire off camera flashes on my Fuji X100s. Actually, if you use the Mitros+ on the Fuji it will fire FULL POWER all the time UNLESS you have it set to optical transmitter mode where then you can control the power on the Mitros+ when u use it on camera.

I did give some thought to returning the flashes to the vendor but there is no doubt the Mitros+ has the potential to become my new favorite. Most of the bad things I mentioned can be fixed with firmware updates, but for that to happen Phottix HAS TO LISTEN TO IT'S CUSTOMERS! Their tech support is not the best, I have emailed them last week and I just received an email saying that my case was closed due to lack of activity."

Most zoom-able flashes on the market do not extend beyond 105mm, Nikon's SB-910 is the only high end flash head that I know of offering zoom to 200mm. Nissin and some Nikon flashes are in my opinion the best top of the line flash heads for use in a professional environment. Most would agree their prices is ridiculously high compared to competitors.

If you're needing brute force traditional non-barebulb flash action that fires non-stop (hundreds of times at t1) with no reduction in power output or thermal cut-out due to heat, the Nissin MG8000 Extreme is unparalleled.

I was impressed to see the SB-910 did have almost as good a showing as the Nissin, but Nissin still won over every other flash in a brute force test, running into the hundreds of consecutive flashes. The reviews from the bulk of Mitros+ owners indicates it is not suitable for this kind of non-stop paparazzi frenzied shooting style. Based on feedback from owners of the Mitros+ I suspect that in an out door shoot where I would be strobing many hundreds of times in an hour or two, I think this Mitros+ would just melt or explode. I hope phottix realizes the magnitude of the mistakes that were made and fixes them.

Metz

Metz 64 AF-1 Speed Light

Metz was until recently not a known entity to me (no it is not a sports team!), but to old-timey professionals the Metz "Potato Masher" as it was once called is a long time favorite known for being able to fire endlessly at full power with no side effects and 100 percent up time. The original Metz that had this reputation was almost entirely analog although some enterprising gadget hound pro's have found ways to put in ad-hoc circuitry to make it compatible with modern TTL signaling from what i've heard.

This is the very latest model offered by Metz, a german company in case you were not aware. It was introduced early this year according to press releases. It is the first model that I know of to feature a touch screen, how useful this will be is anyone's guess. I think this type of screen will be difficult to use in outdoor settings with harsh light during daylight hours.

It does not feature integral RF transceiver but it does support the long time standard of IR signaling for TTL communications (I think), it also supports almost every camera out there.

Features such as the 200mm zoom head, make it seem like Metz wanted to provide a rival to the feature sets found in the SB-910 from Nikon, which as I stated previously is one of few models out there to feature a 200mm zoom capability. I don't have any hands on time with this model but it looks promising and much more compact than competing models in its class. It has a very sturdy looking metal foot, which I hope does not wiggle and wobble all over the place like almost every other shot product i've tried on Nikon.

The wobble factor is one of my biggest complaints about modules that sit in the hot-shoe, it becomes much more obvious the higher up the module sits on the hot-shoe. It can drastically affect the stability of the camera, especially if the D-SLR body itself is already quite heavy like many Pro body D-SLR's are (900+ grams). It is very distracting sometimes when i'm framing shots using on camera flash.

The list price of this unit is $399, the exact same prize point as the interesting but very troubled new product from Phottix, the Mitros+.

For reference purposes this unit is the Metz 45 classic, Masher style Flash.

If the Metz 64 AF-1 can come close to the sheer brute force capability of their now very ancient "Potato masher", or the masher's nearest modern digital cousin from Nissin, the 8000 series then it will be a very fine product indeed. Metz still produces the Potato Masher style flash head but it is all digital now and MSRP lists it at 1000 dollars US.

Phottix Indra 500 MonoLight

New Phottix portable studio Strobe, Indra 500. MSRP $1300 w/battery+inverter.

Everybody and their uncle wants to be the next contender to steal Profoto's near permanent spot in the lime light, this one may come close. It does not have an integral battery like the Profoto B1 Air that I suspect it is attempting to compete against, but it has a lot of the elements that made Profoto attractive to customers with some added twists. The battery life claims 400 full power shots without modeling light, 380 with modeling lamp active was claimed somewhere in the published specs by Phottix.

It is fully compliant with all the most advanced features in the soon to be released Odin II commander unit. In-store delivery ETA is currently un-known but it is eagerly anticipated by many owners of Phottix's existing products.
It is not clear whether these plug-in ports can be adapted to power non-Phottix devices but I believe it is possible to power other Phottix speed lights from this light.
It does feature double the amount of shots claimed by Profoto, and very nearly the same number of full power shots claimed by the Paul Buff VLX when paired with an Einstein or other strobe with comparable output ratings. It is at a much higher price point but with a similar configuration, external battery pack anchored to the base of the support structure.

Profoto B1 Air

I know this has been talked about no end but I am excited to say that later this month I will be adding this beast to my arsenal of lighting gear, it was either that or wait until phottix gets off their butts to release a comparable product. By the time they release what i'd like i'll already be off on my next adventure, traveling to europe next year; that is the plan anyway.

That also means that I will be able to have hands on time with it and offer my own impressions on it, not that what I say may be more helpful than some dude like Moose Peterson or somebody else.

My impressions of the material offered up by Profoto supported media postings is pure fluff, almost none of them really go into detail about the product. The photographers featured in them spend most of the talking themselves and showing a little of how they work with the product but not an actual detailed how-to on the product I would expect.

There is probably only one photographer that does go into depth about the actual operation of the unit during a shoot, I think that was Jared Platt. If you do a vid promoting how it all works, then you should show what people want to see, the product itself and not much else. Not some guy chatting up his biz and showing how amazing he is when he is using the product.

I also plan to review Glow Parapop 28 inch Umbrella, I think they will go nicely together.

         Canon D7 MkII

At first blush the Canon 7D MKII looks as if Canon was set to break all the precedents set by themselves and other camera makers on what camera was meant for sport activities, which was normally separated by a very healthy price barrier (Nik 4DS, Can 1DX, $7000 MSRP). High end cameras with upwards of 8+ frames per second of sustained shooting were typically restricted to only the most expensive DSLR's, this camera promised 10 FPS but there is something fishy about the stats as pointed out by some readers of DP Review.

The D800E/D810 could definitely be considered a serious contender towards non-group think from their market and product guys, I applaud efforts like this. The 810 represents the best of all things 800 and 800E, the 800E had no AA filter. They didn't actually remove it from the sensor it was just disabled at the factory. When they came out with the 810 hot on the heels of the successes of the 800E, they removed the Bayer AA layer and several other layers of glass resulting in overall increased in image quality over the previous generation.

The Nikon D750 has great features but this is more evolutionary improvements than anything else, focus peaking/focus masks in camera as of yet are still about as tangible as bigfoot, lots of talk about it but no evidence it exists. Hopefully the updated 750 lives up to the reputation that made the 700 one of the most loved full frame cameras in the Nikon line-up. The D700 was standard issue for combat photographers who were on active duty overseas, it is still actively being used now.

Rumored releases for 2015

Sony Mirror-less 50 Megapixel CMOS based camera (Most likely the successor to the A7R).

Someone is still churning up the rumors of an impending medium format entry from canon, considering this has been talked to death since 2010, I am not so sure there is any truth to that.

New tech from Canon in the form of a 26+ megapixel Foveon derivative full frame sensor is the only real outcome possible at this stage since Nikon and Canon both seem incredibly reluctant to rock the boat in any way that suggests radical forward thinking rather than just evolutionary product changes of their existing product lines. Someone seems very confident that Canon is announcing something new, tangible and groundbreaking in the DSLR department in Q1,Q2 of 2015.

    A few Items every photographer should probably have at least one of in their arsenal of studio gear.

          Vflats - Inexpensive and highly useful light shaping tools for carving a corner of a room into a legit studio space in no time at all. Clay Cook turned me on to this notion a while back.

           Canvas backdrops - They come in infinite varieties the quality and uniqueness of them varies.
                 - Oliphant Studios creates some of the most interesting custom canvas backdrops that i've seen so far.

Color Edge CG277 by Eizo

Commentary on the performance of triggers and Paul Buff products:
I wrote about in a previous blog post about my experiences with Paul Buff Einstein strobe, and the P/W trigger sets that I had acquired. Originally as with all things when they are new and unknown, I was very excited to have hands on time with these and my write-up on this subject was very brief. So I wanted to expand on this in light of my recent field trip, and chances to extensively test out these products.

I have had time to review this product more thoroughly out in the field after my recent trip to Jamaica to shoot with various internationally known models, if you can do this you should definitely try it.
The P/W trigger system, specifically the TT5's appear to the point of failure in the chain. I would say it's coincidence that it happened if it were just one unit but I had several TT5's there as extra's and they all exhibited the same symptoms. It would vary, they fire fine for a little bit then they would start increasingly misfiring just minutes into the shoot after a full charge, even after swapping batteries. Misfire's would happen as close as 12 inches away from the MC2 trigger on the buff light. I tested out the TT5's by putting a speed light on one, and the other on my camera, the misfires continued to happen at an alarming rate. (75 percent failure rate)

The buff light worked fantastic, showed no indications of malfunction despite rough treatment of my baggage in multiple international airport hubs. I had bought a new product from Buff called the VLX Vagabond battery system. I am a lazy person sometimes, so of course I did not charge the battery at all prior to packing it up and deploying it to Jamaica after I had opened up the box a week prior. I did assemble it and turn it on to make sure it was working, after a full day of hundreds of shots at approximately 1/3 power or less I finally had to plug it in. I think I managed about 400-600+ pops before I finally charged it, I did not ever fully drain it in an attempt to test its durability but I felt it had lived up to my expectations of its abilities.

The fact that I was working in temperatures of up to 105 degrees and 80-90 percent humidity, with no equipment failures caused by that was equally impressive to me. The fan on the light was not audible during operation, the VLX inverter battery fan if it ever was on was also very quiet.

It was hot enough some days that I was sweating so profusely I could barely see through the camera and the back of my camera was drenched in sweat, fogged up by it in fact. I am fair skinned and of nordic heritage living in a location that probably see's less sunlight than the dreariest foggy parts of England does.

I borrowed someone else's Buff triggers after nearly blowing a gasket over the misfire issue, they worked flawlessly. The persons's who brought their Profoto kit with them also commented that they had no issues at all with misfiring either, the persons who commented that their triggers had an abnormally high malfunction rate was the photog's using the P/W system. I get these same issues at home after the trip, where there is no RF interference sources or conflicting sources of P/W signals to compete with so that rules out a few things.

Corruption in paradise, eventually leads to a paradise lost. A tale of caution for camera toting globe trotters.

I had some great times in a pleasant tropical island location, that being said upon entry I was threatened with a "fine" for bringing photographic goods into the country with legitimate purposes of just photographing stuff as a tourist not as a job. I was not there to sell anything, the only mistakes I made was claiming anything at all and having the nerve to actually visit a foreign country with the intent of spending tourists dollars (Jamaica I'm talking about YOU). Also having the hopes of having photos to remember my trip by so I could show them off to my relatives.

I would happily plaster the names and faces of the individuals who were pushing very diligently for me to pay them, all over the Internet with the words corrupt Jamaican officials in bold letters. They wisely prohibit photographing the customs area, saving themselves the embarrassment.

I did object politely but very loudly, I was clearly angry at that point and didn't bother hiding it, reminding them about my status as a retiree and a tourist. Their colleagues whom they started conferring with said some stuff most of which I couldn't really make out but I did get the general impression they were talking about me being a "rich tourist" and probably debating the wisdom of trying to get a payday out of me. Once you get past the power hungry ass-hats who probably get paid less than entry level American TSA workers do, you'll encounter the tourist towns where most Jamaicans are wonderful and very pleasant to interact with. After my blood stopped boiling from the interactions with customs, I went out of my way to be nice to them and had a great time.

I've already heard plenty about others who did get "fined" and where that money went, it did not go towards the betterment of the population of the country that these guys were visiting. It most likely went into the pockets of the senior official on duty at the time. I have not heard as to whether they got their gear back but I know for a fact they never got their money back nor does anyone else who gets asked for bribe money although they damn sure don't call it bribe money.

When the official who challenged them and demanded payment, was sought out for questioning they could not be found. Their supervisor(s) conveniently, could not be found either when the head of customs for that country issued a statement after a formal complaint was lodged saying that these individuals did not have the authority to issue fines and had improperly seized the gear. Technically nobody except the head of the country actually has any real authority at all far as I know, so unless you've got deep pockets the saying 'Show me the money or I'll blame some other guy for my incompetence' does apply.

(not my camera) A very smug and corrupt Indonesian customs agent sticking
 his tongue out at a tourist while he's busy confiscating their camera and assigning a "fine".

Uneducated simpletons with a badge who know f---- all about anything other than getting paid, are making decisions about what constitutes professional gear and working statuses of just straight up  every day tourists who have nice cameras. This kind of behavior negatively impacts the overall perception of resort destinations who's overall population sometimes lives in standards that even the homeless here in America often have better standards of living when compared against them. Extorting tourists would cause most sensible tourists to not coming back or think twice before coming back, leaving the population even more cash starved than they were before. The resulting lack of jobs, declining quality of life would even further deepen the issue of drugs, corruption and violence. So expect this in just about every country who's quality of life and GDP does not qualify them as first world country, sad as this pathetic behavior may be.

Possession, consumption and importation of controlled substances:
Word of warning, drugs are all over Jamaica, if you get arrested don't expect to come back from that. Small amounts of pot is legal, don't bother importing it, you can find it anywhere in Jamaica.
I personally don't support the use or sale of illicit drugs regardless of what country I may be in but it's not my place to say so I just walk away whenever I see it.

If your going to Indonesia, all drugs are banned! Solicitation, possession or  importation results in an indefinite stay in prison or DEATH. 


Important things to remember:

Do keep an eye on your bags at all times particularly while the foreign customs are inspecting them, there has been suspicions (some justified) that corrupt customs officials have slipped drugs into the bags of foreign tourists in order to frame them for smuggling. Keep lists w/serial numbers of everything in your bags, if possible include the total weight of each bag in your list at the time it is weighed by US officials. Make sure that copies of these documents are with you in each bag, one trust worthy relative keeps a copy of it and if necessary make sure a lawyer is given the other copy in case sh-- really hits the fan. Having an approximate value of the overall contents on that list may be helpful. Keep the number of bags down to a minimum. Don't stand out. When visiting some these locations, a "VIP pickup" may help alleviate your customs woes since they have already paid the sin tax but not always.

Cops in foreign countries or just idiots dressed as cops may set up road blocks to loot or extort tourists of their goods or cash, the driver may be in on it as well. As an article below points out, even the UK is not safe from those shenanigans.
      - Bad cops and robbers in the U.K.
      - Forum posts about diving expeditions getting "taxed" for their gear

Bottom line as this naive camera toting blogger can tell you, corruption and quid-quo-pro are the overwhelming themes of foreign travel destinations especially for Americans.

The soul crushing (and spine crushing) awesomeness of my gear. I have G.A.S! (maybe)

My G.A.S Problem, and probably yours too..

Depiction of Sisyphus attempting to roll an immovable  boulder uphill that
was alleged to have been enchanted by Zeus himself as punishment for his Hubris.

This rather timeless depiction of a Greek mythological figure may remind some of us with our battle of the bulge; our bulging gear bags that get bulgier every time some shiny new gadget comes along promising to make our lives easier that we just can't seem to say no to.

If  your photo biz when you go on an expedition resembles this depiction,
you may want to think about downsizing.

Petapixel had an article a while back about the very first sports action camera that had evolved seemingly from the joining of a massive 300mm cinema lense with a fold-up camera box,  using what looks like a WWII B-29 bombardier's sighting scope. It was called Big Bertha, and boy was it big!

It weighed a paltry 120 pounds it was the fastest and first camera sufficiently equipped to give the viewing public an in the trenches view of the action from the nose bleed seats courtesy of a 300mm lense.
The top down view that operator has, still remains to this day an advantage in many scenarios. I wish my Nikon had this at times because my 39 year old joints don't feel like dislocating themselves enough to allow me crouch down and sight in my camera with a tripod that's too short for a 6 foot plus male to comfortably view the aperture with.

There are a lot of tripods out there that are barely able to keep a camera stable at 3/4 of their rather anemic advertised height. Camera's are increasingly becoming denser in pixel count and complexity, keeping the camera as still as possible becomes an even higher priority. This becomes painfully apparently when doing more complex tasks such as long exposures, multiple exposure blending, time lapse, pretty much every conceivable activity that people are experimenting with now in the DSLR sphere.

Your knee's hurt, back hurts- body hates you (mine hates me), whats the cure? Other than avoiding all stressful activities, even the ones you love there is still hope. Offload a lot of that bulky nonsense for lighter less demanding gear the fulfills most of the same roles your other multi-zooming multi-multi gadgets did for you. You will simply have to adjust your habits to accommodate the lighter less multi-multi gear you once towed around by mule.

You may have to spend a bit more to carry around gear that weighs less. Carbon fiber, titanium alloy, there are a myriad of options for your support gear to support you without adding to your burdens.
For the primary gear, camera body and lenses, there are also options. Mirror-less is particular format that is gaining popularity by leaps and bounds. It's been out in the hands of the masses long enough to prove itself a success or failure. Most of them are fairly successful, some have unique qualities like being brand agnostic when it comes to lenses. Sony's mirror-less cameras have that ability, you can take almost any camera lense and mount it with an adaptor with only minor drawbacks that are all easily compensated for in post. Canon, Nikon, even Leica users may now rejoice because they have the option of divorcing themselves of their camera system without having to leave their precious glass behind.

The most obvious choice aside from picking lighter gear that doesn't make your body scream in agony after carrying it around all day is carrying less of it, only take what you'll know you will really use. That's a tough call to make, and comes with time and experience. I'm pretty green so I carry around a lot, probably more than i'll ever need in one sitting.

Trey Ratcliff is the newest evangelist of this holistic less is more approach to photography. It's a good way to go, camera companies are definitely showing signs of taking the non-DSLR market much more seriously than I suspected they would.

Camera Phones are getting a make-over soon, with DSLR style raw camera formats (selfie freaks rejoice!), manual exposure controls and improved sensor performance. There's still plenty of time and opportunity to ruin your photo's with half-assed Instagram filters so don't fret Insta-holics!

Camera straps are very useful and also handy way of distributing your gear so it's always at hand should the opportunity to take that award winning shot. They distribute the weight of your photo bling more evenly as an added bonus.

How you pursue your hobby or passion is up to you, I just need to buy 300 more things and I'll be done.. I DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM!! OK OK maybe just a little one..

Radio Head - A brief summary of wireless strobe options for 2014

Paul Buff

P.W. W/Control TL Enabled PCB Einstein

Paul Buff has a very well respected reputation as a vendor of reasonably priced strobes with very advanced features, particularly the Einstein 640. There are many remote perks enabled both by P.B.'s own branded triggering and control package as well as pocket wizard tools. Unfortunately P.B.'s Cyber Commander which is a fantastic compact remote does not work when the light has pocket wizard remotes on the lights. It will store multiple light configurations that can be recalled later on for faster setup. The P.B.'s lights do no feature any remote software control via PC, Smartphone or similar platforms like some of the other lighting systems that will be mentioned in this article. I do not consider this to be a deal breaker at all but as I mentioned it to a Paul Buff staffer it would be a good direction to consider going in for future products. When a PocketWizard remote system is connected using the P.W. Power Control Monitoring feature it enables a TTL function similar to the TTL function of a on camera flash when set to auto, power levels are adjusted continuously as you shoot. I can't say as to how this measures up to Profoto's overpriced and crippled B1 Air but if I had to guess it's pretty close.

This is not necessarily a good idea but it can be useful when you deal with situations where you lack control of the location and need shots now (quicky family portraits for instance). If you work in a controlled setting then manual is the way to go, i've tested this with Sekonic's wireless configuration and it works great. If the P.W. is in auto TTL then whatever measurements you made with the Sekonic are invalid, the power settings will continue self adjust. I did some quick comparisons between the Sekonic using manual flash measurements and using the P.W. TTL system, they were very similar in result.

The exception is when using a ridiculously wide lense. The auto TTL measurements were way off because of the all the light flooding into the lense from the white walls in my apartment. I just wanted to see how it would behave if I threw it a curve ball.

(Initial tests with my Nikon D800E in Hypersync mode did not reveal positive results.)

The color temp settings seemed very accurate, I didn't have edit those much when I did a few self portraits to test it out. I've worked in a studio setting with a mixture of lights made by Bowens and some others I did not know names of, their color temps were sometimes off by over 2500 kelvin from where they were supposed to be.

CyberCommand Remote.

Elinchrom RX and Digital RX

Elinchrom Digital RX heads feature advanced wireless control capabilities VIA Pocket Wizard and Elinchrom's own proprietary wireless RF system. One of the increasingly common perks in the quickly evolving world of digital strobes is software controlled lighting configuration courtesy of their SkyPort remote system. Software controlled lights allow you to pre-configure all your lights, save it then load pre-saved setups for the day's shooting; do some quick spot tests with your camera or meter to verify prior to beginning the set and just go. Elinchrom is very expensive, they have their own power pack systems, these lights are typically sold as sets with a battery pack.  They are a reputable company so if you're a pro then these may be a wise investment in the future of your business. I don't own any of these so I can only go by what other Elinchrom owners say. I am sure the P.W. TTL features I mentioned in the Paul Buff section also work identically on the Elinchrom RX heads as well.
Regarding P.W. Hypersync, your experiences will vary depending on the combinations of strobes and the camera you use, some shutter systems are much more robust and better designed (D4, D3, 1DX etc).

SkyPort Remote Software

RimeLite

These lights feature a very impressive variety of wireless options: USB Dongle/Wireless Remote/Software controls

Rimelite's strobes are based off a 2.4ghz WiFi system called ZigBee. Software control packages are available on PC/Mac and various portable devices (phone & tablet). The studio flash heads have a feature that is probably not that common among studio lamps, upgradeable modeling lamps up to 1000 watts. How useful it is to have a light that strong, I couldn't really say except that the modeling talent is sure to feel like they are the latest selection on a food buffet under a heat lamp.

This company and its products are unknown to me other than the sparse information I can find about them on the web, i'd guess they are unknown to other american consumers. Their products have lots of great features but very little in depth information on their system exists, most of what I did find is not in english. They are distributed in the U.S. by RimeLite USA, soon to be released if it is not out already is an update to their line of portable flash units that operate off rechargeable internal Li-Ion battery packs.

Whoever their marketing director is, they need to get off their butts and allow some serious deep surgical grade unbiased dissections of the product, its features (in english) and how well it actually works in a real setting.

Brief Demo Videos of RimeLite - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FCFUicKioo

ProFoto D1 & B1

Profoto makes wonderful products, but I still have a small grudge against them for 'dumping' their B1 Air onto the market  at such a high price point, with certain advertised features not working or barely working with hardly any camera on the market. If a company plans to release a product that costs over 2000 dollars with non working features, they really ought to rethink that move. The B1's primary selling point is the battery system, compact size and probably some improvements internally as to how the light functions, but the advanced TTL feature doesn't work most cameras and full remote functionality is only available through Profoto's own proprietary wireless triggers.

If you bought it for the advanced TTL, congratulations you are now paying over 2000 dollars to be a beta tester for a product that's already released with impaired functionality. I admire companies who push the boundaries and try new stuff but not when the outcome is turning the consumer into another victim of the R&D process.

Profoto's D1 and B1 both feature certain software automated functions on PC similar to the other lights mentioned in this blog post. Their lights are too expensive for me to own but if I were a serious professional getting paid large sums this company would feature prominently on my list equipment manufacturers to buy from. I already plan to own some of their soft boxes.

Soft Box Options & Photo Shoot Planning

Lights, Camera... Ok now what!?

You got a camera, feeling good about it and you've shot a bunch of images, probably even bought a flash but you're puzzled about the accessories. I've been seeing a lot of questions come up recently and in the last year about what options there are for their latest piece of lighting kit. I decided post the options available, there are dozens if not hundreds of light modifiers from all corners of the globe I can't list them all but I made a short list of the known options.
There is every conceivable speed ring option under the sun for flash heads, and they are easy enough to fabricate that i've seen many strobists showing off their own home brew speed rings so I will not be covering those.

Elinchrom Rotalux SoftBoxes:
  Elinchrom makes good quality products, albeit pricey ones. The prices range from 150-400 dollars. Most if not all of them can be packed up and deployed quickly because they don't require full deconstruction. The Rotalux kits may not include certain panels.

Impact:
  Impact makes a large quantity of soft boxes and umbrellas, they seem reasonably priced. Umbrellas are priced around 20-120 dollars, the soft boxes are 100+. You have the option of buying direct from Impact or going through one of the multitudes of authorized dealers. (Adorama or B&H ).

LastoLite:
  This company makes a lot of different light shaping tools and i've used some of them myself, they even stock a handy selection of portable backdrops.

Paul Buff:
  Paul C Buff makes a variety of lighting tools and they provide some very nice inexpensive light shaping tools as well. There are beauty dishes but you are better off buying the dish made specifically for your own light if its not a Paul Buff light.

  The PLM kits range in price from 35-85 dollars, some of those options include the P. Buff Einstein mounting hardware. The only Non PCB light currently supported directly is Elinchrom. These should all easily fit any third party (non PCB light system) you want to use.

PhoTek:
  This company makes a variety of light shaping tools, from the traditional range of soft boxes as well as some nice but expensive umbrella units like the Softlighter II and a very large white diffuser umbrella they call the Sunbuster.

Profoto SoftBoxes & Umbrella's:
  Profoto has a rock solid reputation for making high quality long lasting gear, their RFI soft boxes are no exception. With great quality comes a high price point, some photographers would rather buy it cheap and replace it when it breaks than pay the premiums that the big names demand. The RFI soft boxes have price points ranging from 200-450 dollars.
  A small tip for you readers, Profoto's blog is chock full of video how-to's on just about every camera and lighting subject you can think of, they add more all the time. You don't have to own or buy their products to benefit from these tutorials.

Rime Lite

  Rime Lite makes a line of very innovative high tech flash heads that range up to 1200 watt seconds. They also produce a full range of light shaping tools.  Prices range from 150-520 dollars. B&H Photo stocks them..

Rime Lite Dynalite Softbox Series.

91 inch silver Octa DynaLite Grand Softbox

The Octa that ate Chicago!

FJ Wescott:
  Westscott makes a very large selection of light shaping tools; Umbrellas, Parabolic Reflectors, Softboxes and more, far too many to list.

Story Boarding and Planning your shoot:

I've been scratching my head these last few months on how to plan and storyboard a shoot. I am a very visual person, I need to see where the lights are and how it all looks before I get to the location and start shooting.
I began looking around the web through google to find some answers, one answer that I arrived at was a software called Cinema4d. It's been featured in Phlearn.com's wonderful videos a few times to demonstrate a 3d composited scene of the lighting, the model poses and the scene which the shooting takes place in. That software costs thousands of dollars, so I searched around some more for cheaper alternatives and I discovered this little gem. Set a Light 3D studio, It's very limited compared to cinema 4d's ability to give the user complete freedom over the environment and the posing but it's as close as I will get for the time being. They have various options for lighting, they need to add a lot more however. It's worth a try for those of you not familiar with it.
Phlearn posted a very handy PDF file for taking care of the logistics behind it, MUA releases, briefing packets to send the talent in advance so they arrive mentally prepared for the days shoot.

Giga-Pixel Camera's "Kickin' it Old School"...

The exaggerations being made here
are only to illustrate the point.

If you were top dog in the camera industry would you the reader, make the decision of integrating the status quo in storage technology into your most state of the art professional digital cameras? Units that were so new that retailers barely have any in stock as of 2014. If your not sure what that is let me try to illuminate that subject for you.

The current regime is essentially the technological analogue of an ENIAC computers storage system compared to modern UHS-2 based SD and Compact Flash Card derivative technology (Nikon calls it XDQ). These newer standards hit the market prior to this years bumper crop of "new" cameras announced as a largely paper launch at the NAB in Las Vegas.

The modern equivalent of Eniac storage media
for the purposes of this illustration.

The SD/CFC standards adopted into cameras of the last 2-3 years are barely able to cope with the demands of professional cameras with modest pixel densities (18-36MP), if the shooter were to just hold down the shutter button the buffer would fill up and they would not be able to shoot any more pictures until the storage media had written all the data that had created a massive log jam in the file que.

The only thing I can think of that prevents the community as a whole from gathering up in angry mobs around the headquarters of these companies with pitchforks and burning effigies of cameras is that the majority of photographers don't shoot scenes that require 10+ FPS ability. Most jobs rarely go beyond 2-4 FPS, this has allowed camera companies to be lazy, very lazy.

The photographer community alleges that the following is Nikon's design strategy:
Nikon essentially creates one single camera in the lab, after that they mix and match inferior parts with superior parts to simulate the impression that these were all intended to be individual product lines with unique parts from the very beginning.

I'm sure there are some other camera companies out there doing the same if this is at all accurate.

Cameras and other semi-conductor dependent technologies relied on super fast ram buffers to make up for interconnects and various other technologies inability to cope with the massive glut of information being jammed into them.

The reason for the buffer is because in years gone by all we had were these floppy disk like storage mediums. When the digital technology reached maturity in the camera market, digital imaging had easily eclipsed the abilities of the best that storage devices had to offer at the time, both in sustained R/W performance and size to density ratios.

Enter 2014 where the traditional storage mediums with moving parts, composed of magnetic & optical based technologies are all but entirely phased out.

The sustained read and write abilities of these newer but rapidly maturing solid state flash based memory derivatives is now able to match or even eclipse the demands of all but the most bleeding edge imaging technology available to consumers with deep pockets. The upside to this new storage is the comparatively modest price tag of this wonderful stuff.

Camera companies out there that push out 4,000-25,000 dollar cameras onto the market with no thought at all about the fact that each one is able to store multiple 100+ megabyte raw files in the span of < 2 seconds on storage standards that are 3 years old handling a modest peak load of 65 megabytes a second, think REAL hard about this. If the storage standards integrated into the camera were at least on par with the peak maximum file access demands of the camera at the time it was released then the on board cache could be utilized in a more efficient way.
(photographer could continue shooting until card was full rather than stopping when the camera was unable to write it fast enough).

Tech Notes:

Zip Drive & Floppy Drive 1.5 Megabytes a second optimal Peak

SD & CF Cards with x600 typically peak at 90 megabytes a second.

UHS-1 SD based cards peak around 166 megabytes a second (sometimes referred to as x1000)

UHS-2 SD/CF Currently Peaks at 266 megabytes a second.

XDQ   The nearest equivalent to cutting edge SSD drives in a desktop PC, can easily outpace most demands placed on it. (It's the latest generational replacement for compact flash cards.)

The R/W cycle endurance of most high end solid state products made today will outlast your camera.

Mostly unrelated, but FYI:
Any camera  in production today that says it can record (blah blah) resolution video, is not able to record video for longer than 00:29:59 or the manufacturer runs the risk of having their product slapped with a very big import tax in America (ask your congressman why if your curious). To bypass this shady deal most DSLR's and other cameras have the option of uncompressed high resolution video out ports to burn on external storage for unlimited duration, rather than store it on internal media.

Meter Meter on the wall.. Who has the fairest light of them all?

A brief overview of meters and the feature sets, there are dozens of meters out there so i'm only covering Sekonic for now. Most of the people I know who are camera geeks use Sekonic anyways.

Sekonic L-758DR DigitalMaster

A more pricey and simpler looking version of the 478 with lots of features, built-in 1 degree reflective meter.

These typically sell for about 499-650. It sounds like a lot but you would typically only replace these meters once every 10-15 years, some photographers have been using the same meters for 25 years.

This meter and the 478 both feature upgradeable firmware and very useful custom configuration on PC or Mac, various features including camera calibration profiles. Neither model allow measuring of color spectrum. Build quality of the 758 is better but if you're expecting magnesium body, prepare for disappointment. Both units include multi-exposure summing for ambient and flash as well as factoring in filter compensation. 758 Manual

Best all around meter available by Sekonic
without the flashy touch screen.

L-478DR LiteMaster Pro

Dollar for dollar this has the most features for the price.
Does not include built in reflective metering. Add-on sold seperately ($99)

ColorChecker calibration targets are not normally sold with any of the sekonic units.

The 478DR is typically priced $299 - $399 without anything except the unit itself.

The 758 and the 478 allow custom calibration of tonality, giving you the possibility of creating custom color profiles.

Once the mid tones are calibrated the 478's OSD touch screen shows a color coded chart along the bottom of the screen showing optimal F-Stop for the best tonality, as well as showing where it will clip highlights and shadows.

The 478 has so many functions that it is wise to edit the menu so it only shows the modes you will use, this is a nice feature. It works with Pocket Wizard's ControlTL (Control The Light) signaling architecture, allowing full remote control of Control TL compatible lighting systems (Elinchrom RX, Paul C Buff Einstein). It will also wirelessly trigger any Pocket Wizard compatible strobe or studio flash.

The reflective metering (spot metering) add on clips onto the location where the dome sits, unlike its higher end sibling the 478 spots a 5 degree metering zone, the 758 has a 1 degree metering zone.  It may not be apparent as to why that is significant, the wider metering zone makes the 478 potentially less accurate, when making reflective measurements you want as little extraneous information making its way to the meter's sensor as possible.

Be very gentle with the directional module on top of the unit, it is more fragile than it looks. If you break it sekonic will most likely not answer your panic stricken calls for help on their support lines.

The touch screen is a little sluggish and hard to read in bright direct light (reflective screen surface).

Despite it's complicated appearance it's not that difficult to use. 478DR Manual

Touch screen with wireless triggering
DSLR and Cine functions.
(I own this one)

L-308DC DigiCineMate

Sells for about 180-279, very basic nuts and bolts illuminance meter with some Cine function. No wireless trigger function. No reflective metering.

Ikan MK350 Spectrometer from UPRTek

Can be used in photography but really designed for
laboratory grade illuminance and color matching.
I just include it because its cool!

Color Calibration Targets:

Vello White Balance

3 cards, plastic. Durable and cheap. Sells for 8-12 bucks.

X-Rite Color Checker

Wide color gamut chart with pigment based inks for a more true to life representation of each color and greyscale value. Pigment based ink is more accurate and less prone to color shift. Sells for $258.