Archive for the ‘Photo gear’ Category
Kata Reflex E-strap mini review
I’ve never shied away from carrying a considerable amount of gear on a photowalk. Since i started getting heavier camera bodies and heavier glass I’ve been more aware the problems associated with heavy gear. I switched from shoulder bags to a backpack and I’ve now taken the step of replacing my camera strap with something a lot more comfortable. I ended up getting the Kata Reflex-E strap. I’ve had a look at several of these more robust straps and thought the plastic clips just seemed like something I could inadvertently open. The Kata strap on the other hand has much more solid, locking clips. The actual part that goes over your shoulder is made of neoprene making it elastic enough to absorb the jolts of the camera while walking, so if it wasn’t for the camera bumping off your stomach or hip on every step you wouldn’t really feel much weight hanging form you at all, even if you’re using a longer lens. My only issue with it is that it’s longer than the original red and black Canon strap. However it’s about twice as wide and at least twice as thick so it distributes the weight a whole lot better. But the good times don’t stop there. The clips are detachable form the actual neoprene strap and as such can be clipped onto the straps of a photo backpack to take the weight off your neck and distribute it evenly across your shoulders. Another nice detail are the two pockets, one on each end of the strap, for storing memory cards and lens cloths. This little gem goes for around 30€ and is greatly recommended.
Testing the Canon 70-200/2.8 L USM
Canon 50D with 70-200/2.8 L USM
People say “I’m too poor to buy cheap stuff” and there’s a whole lot to be said about that. This is my first L lens and now I know why people sing Canon’s praises when it comes to this wonderful glass. Yeah L lenses cost a lot… but they are absolutely worth it. For anyone even remotely serious about photography, an L lens is a very good step in the right direction.
Toward the end of summer I’m planning a trip to Nordkap, Norway. There’s gonna be a whole lot of nature photography, low flying birds, possibly whales if I manage to fit a whale safari in, moose, deer and loads of open vistas. I have a wide lens for the vistas but I was lacking a telephoto zoom. The 70-200/2.8 fit right in. I decided against the IS version mostly due to the cost and the very positive reviews of the non-IS. I’m probably going to get a 1.4X extender to go with it just to add some more range.
The gist of this is that the USM motor focuses lightning-fast, the images coume out crisp, the colors are clear and maybe on the saturated side of things (at least on my screen), there’s the least possible hint of chromatic abberation even in the most high-contrast of areas and the f 2.8 aperture makes things smooth and bokehlicious. Oh and it ships with a pretty decent lens pouch and a collar for mounting it on a tripod.
I’ve had the lens for 3 days now and I put together a video with some test shots, watch it in HD. I’m not sure if it’s Imovie or Vimeo  but for some reason I haven’t been able to get rid of the pixelation on some images in the video. The images are unedited, I just imported them into LR and the exported as 100% quality .jpg.
Canon 70-200/2.8 L USM from Mileta Nikoletic on Vimeo.
Update:
What can I say… This thing is actually comparable to a prime lens. I get less chromatic aberration than with my 50/1.4 which is pretty unusual for a zoom. The range is also pretty good, Canon must have found a range vs. optical quality sweetspot here. The AF is stunningly fast and after switching to my Sigma 18-200 mm the difference in pretty much everything was very noticeable. The  build quality is the first thing that struck me, the 70-200/2.8L is built like a tank… really. Probably the single best piece of photography gear i have ever bought.
Getting white balance right
There is an abundance of 18% gray gadgets to help you get your white balance spot on. The most common is a graycard, a simple 18% gray plastic card that comes in different sizes. I’ve also come across 18% gray lens cloths and and this nifty little Expodisc which looks like a filter and according to the manufacturers “simulates a perfectly-balanced gray card in almost any situation”.
Getting the white balance right can make a world of difference in a lot of cases. Most of these involve  shooting jpg, or when balancing the light temperature when working with different types of light, say strobes and static studio lights. Correct white balance straight out of the camera can streamline your workflow but it’ll provide nothing that you can’t do with your images in post. Shooting raw eliminates the problem of messing up an entire shoot because of bad white balance  and given the low price of storage these days there is really no reason why anyone serious about photography would shoot jpg unless it’s for the sheer speed of having ready images right out the camera, say news or sports shooters who dump their cards to the newsroom’s server straight after the game.
An Ipod touch or Iphone is a pretty handy thing to have because you can store your entire portfolio on it and display it to  potential customers.  It’s even more useful with the slew of photography related apps available. GrayCard by Pixelexip,  does exactly  what the name says. It allows for temperature compensation as well as providing a very intuitive GUI to work with. At 7 SEK/$0.99,  it won’t break the bank either.
Here are the screengrabs:
Two straps are better than one…
There’s a lot to be said for photo shoulder-bags. They’re compact, the gear is easily accessible and they can easily be made to look like regular messenger bags (yeah…I have to give Crumpler some love). The downside is that those chiropractor bills can really add up. I’ve mostly used shoulder-bags apart from one little Lowepro backpack I never really liked much because not even my 350D would fit in there with the grip attached. The more gear I accumulate the more I realise I’m literally gonna break my back if I don’t get a serious backpack.
Enter Lowepro Flipside 400 AW. I mentioned this backpack in my previous post but I wanted to do a more substantial review of it. I got the 400 because I wanted a future-proof bag, one that’ll take longer lenses when I eventually get them. I also needed a bag for a trip to Norway later this year that will probably involve a lot of walking. I needed a bag that would fit 2 DSLR bodies with grips, a 70-200, an 18-200, a 70-300, a 50 and a speedlite along with chargers, cables, cleaning gear and other bits. The ability to lug a tripod and have a weather-proof solution for carrying my gear was also a priority. This backpack does it all and on top of that getting to your gear doesn’t mean having to take it off and lay it on the ground. Like I mentioned earlier, you take the shoulder-straps off, swing the bag around to your front and it’ll happily hang from your waist by the waist-strap. The side that goes towards your back opens, giving you access to the gear and a stable platform to change lenses/swap cards or batteries on. Like most other photo bags it has tons of pockets so I’m sure i’ll be finding new places to stuff my gear into pretty much every day. The best thing about this bag though is how evenly it distributes the weight of your gear over your shoulders. The straps and the back are well padded and comfortable to wear.
The one thing it doesn’t do is carry a laptop, granted it’ll probably fit a 10″ notebook in the front compartment. I thought this would be a negative thing at first but then again, how often do I need my camera gear and a laptop  at the same time? The only other bag that I found that would carry approximately the same amount of gear and a laptop is the Lowepro Computrekker, however that’s a conventional backpack and you can’t get to your gear without putting it on the ground.
The price is pretty reasonable for a bag that does this much, give or take a little, the Flipside 400 AW would set you back €100. It comes in black or black and green.
Here’s the official Lowepro Flipside 400 video courtesy of Youtube:
New flashy toy…. (see the funny in it?)
Ever since I started reading the strobist blog I’ve been amazed at what cool effects you can achieve with strobes. The latest addition to my gear is a Canon Speedlite 430EX II flash, again from Japanfoto in Stockholm. They seem to be offering decent prices and a great customer experience (again…not getting paid to say this). I’m pretty new to using strobes creatively, I’ve mostly been using them as head-on fill light so far, so I have loads to learn. The plan is to get a Speedlite 580EX II when I become more familiar with strobes and to use the 580 as a master and the 430 as a slave.  I think I’m gonna stop at 2 strobes, since most things really don’t require more than that. I had a look around for wireless triggers too and I think this is the way to go, sync cables are fine but wireless just seems to provide so many more possibilities. Pocketwizards are way out of my budget so I’m probably gonna go with no-name radio triggers that have both a hotshoe and pc connector. This enables me to get whatever strobe as long as it has a  hotshoe connection. There’s really no end to getting photo gear is there??
I’ve only tested this strobe for one afternoon, but it’s proven to be pretty neat. The fully flexible head gives room for creativity and the foot construction makes it easy to just attach it to the hotshoe and shoot. I’ll post some results from todays  photowalk later on.
Here’s what the 430EX II looks like:
What’s in the bag?
In a rare attack of vanity i decided to post a very low quality video (excuse my lack of video hardware). Here you get to see what i currently keep in my photo bag.
Gear Bag (sudden attack of vanity) from Mileta Nikoletic on Vimeo.
My first prime! Canon 50/1.4 USM
Student life really is a bummer when it comes to buying new lenses.. huh? A few days ago i went out and got my first prime lens, a Canon 50/1.4 USM. I also wanted to try a different camera store than where i normally buy my gear so i went down to Japanfoto in Stockholm. Great service, great prices (for an actual store), great online catalogue. I’m one happy customer and they’re not paying me to say this. I’ve been toying with the idea of a fast prime and since the only half decent results i get for portraits is with a Sigma 70-300mm @300mm, I decided i needed a portrait lens, the 50/1.4 is perfect for that on the crop sensor of my 50D.
I’ve only had this lens for a few days and i haven’t had that much time for photography but i plan to find time over the coming weeks and maybe test it the way pros do… you know with numbers and such 
. So far i’ve shot about a 100 shots with it and it’s pretty great.
What i have found is that at least when you use the auto settings on the camera (P, Tv, Av), the images tend to come out a little overexposed, i’ve generally had the exposure compensation about 2/3 of a step down.
At f2.2 this lens gets very sharp, way sharper than at f1.4. The difference in the bokeh at those f-values is pretty small.
Here are a few test shots:
