When I go to a blog – I am going there for information and/or an education.  I am not going there to be “sold”.  I get enough email, snail mail, phone calls, and such promoting various products, outfits, and services that the last thing I want to do is go and seek it out. So, if blogs become promotional arms to other ends, there is nothing inherently wrong with that – but it’s not what I want to read in either my inbox or my free time.  Having given that side note, it’s time to reveal (in no particular order), my choices for The Top Ten Blogs for 2012:

1.  Flying With Fish – This blog came to my attention a few years ago when some travel tips for photographers was highlighted.  Since then, I’ve continued to follow it as I’ve been interested in travel generically.  The notes, news, and other pearls that are shared here really add value, understanding, and insight to an aspect of my business travel that would otherwise be severely lacking without this resource!

2.  Digital Photography School – What started as a blog has morphed into an amazing website and community of talented photographers and writers.  The inspiration comes from Darren Rowse, author of the also popular Problogger.com where I’ve picked up some tips and tricks that have been implemented here as well.  It’s an amazing repository of information and a fantastic community.  If you had to pick one resource on the web to go to with questions and get answers, this would be it.

3.  DIY Photography – Having done a few DIY things in my own day, including a gridded snoot, a 10-stop filter, and most famously a star tracker (which was even featured on their site!), DIY resource sites are like flames for this moth.  If you have a hankering for DIY stuff, and love to learn about anything and everything, then this is the perfect site to segue with your photography interests!  Absolutely love it!

4.  Photopreneur – Anyone who’s ever picked up a camera has wondered – “Can I sell my images?”  It doesn’t matter if you’ve sold images or not, the thought of whether you have what it takes is always something you wonder.  For those who are ever interested in blending a career with photography, this is one site to keep in your favorites.

5.  The Lightroom Queen – Victoria Bampton came to my attention after Adobe released Lightroom 2, and I realized that Lightroom was the future of photography post production.  Victoria saw this much sooner and became an expert pretty much before anyone else did, and has kept herself at the forefront of the developments in the product line.  I keep wondering when I can get her on the podcast, and perhaps this will nudge things along a little more!

6.  1001 Noisy Cameras – If you want to know the latest developments and releases in the industry, this has become pretty much the go-to resource for pretty much everyone in the industry.  Whether you have a penchant for Canon (me), Nikons, or any other vendor, and irrespective of DSLR, P&S, or these new 3rd gen cameras, 1001 Noisy cameras has the latest and greatest on all the camera news one could ever hope to soak in.  An endless resource for the gear hound in all of us!  (In the interests of full disclosure, they’ve also been generous when I’ve done gear reviews in giving some link love to me, so thanks to them for that! )

7.  Strobist – Now the only resource around for those interested in the details of off-camera lighting, it almost goes without saying that Strobist by David Hobby should be in your bookmark list.  Some days are more interesting than others, but there is always something worth learning (or re-learning if you want a refresh on anything).  Make sure you check out the Lighting 101 series – a beginner’s guide to off-camera lighting.  I can’t believe I had the opportunity to work with this guy a while back and had to decline because of a work conflict – was so bummed about that!

8.  Light Stalking – An impressive repository of writers and articles that covers everything from technique, to gear maintenance, and everything in between.  Some of the articles are a bit shorter than I would like to see, but there’s almost always good content, and it’s in my emailed list of sites that I permit into my mailbox.  Not only do I learn things from here myself, but it’s also a source of inspiration for article ideas and expanded content!

9.  F-Stoppers – What a talented set of photographers, videographers, writers, and project artists!  These guys will totally blow you away with the projects they put out over at F-Stoppers.  I am inspired and impressed with their footage, results, and behind-the-scenes perspectives that they all share every time they press the “Post” button!  If you haven’t stopped over to them yet, do so and add them to your inbox now!

10.  A Photo Editor – Coming from the perspective of a magazine editor, this is the place to go for photographer profiles, industry news, and great insights on the industry as a whole.  With so many resources out there, this has become a pretty authoritative outlet, and information resource so make sure you add it to your own list of sites to visit regularly.  I do and am sure you will come to rely on Rob’s content too!

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So, there you have it – 10 blogs and websites to make sure you take some time to visit for 2012.  Now, as I alluded to at the beginning of this post, some noticeable blogs are absent that used to be perennially listed.  Specifically, Scott Kelby’s “Photoshop Insider” and Joe McNally’s blog.  This is not to say that these are not worth visiting.  It’s just that the content there I am finding less interesting and useful.

The former is not what it used to be – a good resource for Photoshop and photography tips.  Instead, it has become a pulpit for delivering promotional content to the Kelby landscape of products and services.  I am not criticizing this at all – after all, the services and products that come from Kelby Training and NAPP have served me well for years, but Scott Kelby’s blog is no longer something I learn from – it’s where I go to get news about NAPP.

As for McNally’s blog – that too has become more of a promotional venue.  I enjoy his writings and images that he shares, but don’t really feel that I am learning much from that outlet.  My visits there are now completely for entertainment.  I do watch the Kelby Training schedule to see if and when he will be hitting Denver so that I might be able to attend a workshop, but the blog is just not a good learning resource.

Thanks so much to all the participants for your wonderful images of Cheer!  It really did bring a smile to my face going through all the images and selecting a winner!  As always, the decision was quite difficult, but ultimately, the nod goes to Pan Shovel for the annual holiday giveaway.  As you all may recall, the prizes this year were donated by the good folks of Craft & Vision (David DuChemin), Thinktank Photo, and Photojojo for the books, bags and lenscap holder respectively.  So if you get a moment to check out their respective product lines, you can say thanks to them in your own way too!

The downside after all this excitement is that the January giveaway does not have a sponsor (same as last year), so this means the prize will be the ability to choose the theme for the February contest giveaway.  Think of January as a practicing month to take your own shots of whatever you find appealing.  No themes to restrict your creativity, but the rest of the standard rules apply:

1.  One photo per person

2.  Must be work-safe/family-friendly

3. Posted to the Flickr thread

4.  Largest side must be no more than 800px or less than 600px (this is only so that the winning image can be displayed well…)

5.  Taken within the last 60 days (preferably during the contest window)

6.  Images must be done by Feb 3rd (Friday).

7.  Theme is open (no theme)

8.  And most importantly, have fun!

Congrats again to Pan Shovel, and good luck to everyone in the coming months for the 2012 giveaways – keep the great shots and creativity churning!

The 2011  Frugal Gift Guide for Photographers

1.  Lens Cap Keeper – courtesy of the folks over at Photojojo, this handy lenscap keeper gets added to your camera strap and makes for a clever way to handle two lens caps (one size on each side…with varying sizes available).  It’s only $18, so definitely cheap enough to consider adding to your camera bag.  Fair warning – if you use the Rapid Strap from Black Rapid, it’s not going to fit.

2.  Camera Bag Flashlight – while most wouldn’t think twice to get a basic flashlight from the local Target, Wal-Mart or whatever your shopping preferences call for, consider getting one with a red light instead of the harsh white LED ones.  The red filter introduces less light pollution for your shots and those of others who may be around you.  I recommend the one linked here for night and astro-photography.

3.  A Spare Battery – Always a good thing to have is some spare batteries.  As we head into the colder temperatures of the year, you’ll be surprised at how quickly that juice will just drain away.  The crop sensor battery for the Canon SLR line is linked here (20D – 50D), but B&H carries most batteries for $50 or less. (The LP-E6 for newer models is a smidge over $50…)

4.  Gaffer Tape – Take your pick of size, width, color, to any degree you want – most are well under $50 and can be used for emergency repairs, marking a trail, and a myriad of other uses – it just makes sense to have a roll in your bag.  I would definitely recommend a colored one though as it’s easier t find in your bag or if used in trail marking.

5.  Gray Card Set – If you really want to get your colors spot on, a Gray card is an awesome budget-friendly option to ensure you know where your absolute white, black and 50% gray points are in any image.  These three cards are great for on-location work as they can snap off your neck strap easily to throw into a scene for a quick shot setup.  At only $10, a great accessory for any camera bag.

6.  Expo Imaging Lighting Gels – A great way to color the light of a scene to your particular tastes, and they are re-usable for all your lighting needs, these have got to be the most cool things I’ve seen with lights in ages.  At only $30, you can’t go wrong!

Those are my best picks of the year for 2011!  Have you got your own just perfectly cool photo accessory?  What really struck a chord for your camera gear bag under $50?  Sound off in the comments as more gift giving ideas are always a good thing!

One of the latest lenses that they folks at Sigma have been gracious enough to let me borrow for an extended period of time is their 30mm f1.4 lens.  You read that right – f1.4!  Much like the “nifty fifty” because after the crop sensor is factored in, it’s really close the an equivalent of a 50mm on a full frame sensor (30*1.6 = 48)!

I’ll take the usual tack and look at Focal Length, F-Stop Range, Noise, Size/Weight, Build, and Cost, and Image Quality separately. So, let’s get started!

Focal Length

At 30mm fixed, this is another lens where zooming is not an option so you have to zoom with your feet!  This means walking around to get either closer to or far enough away from your subject to get the composition you need.  This could be construed as a disadvantage for those that prefer to dial their lens rather than shuffle their feet, but since I need all the exercise I can get, I am going to call this a positive!  Another positive is due to its relative focal length (48mm) after crop sensor size is factored in.    The rationale here is that it’s a pretty close approximation to what the human eye sees naturally.  So, it’s very much a WYSIWYG approach to composition (what you see is what you get)!

One of the advantages of this is that because it’s a fixed focal length, optical quality is pretty tack sharp all the way through, and even through various f-stop levels.  Overall, the focal length is definitely a positive – even for those used to zooming or adjustable focal length lenses.  It’s quite a treat to get into shooting with a lens like this!

F-Stop Range

The bane of a photographer’s existence is having a scene present itself to you where the light is fading, and you have no tripod or way to stabilize your gear.  The counter to this has been to invest in what’s becoming commonly known as “fast glass”.  The idea is that you can capture a scene at a wider f-stop ratio to let in more light in a shorter amount of time.  The downside to shooting wide open like this is that your depth of field will suffer unless you are focused to infinity. This does limit creative possibilities if you are hand-holding, but the advantage is that you can shoot in lower light.

At f1.4, this lens is designed to let in an amazing amount of light when shot wide open.  I was able to take some decently sharp pictures in near darkness with nothing but sidewalk lights and an indoor light around my house.  Another shot I was able to get included an underpass that was in near darkness and I could make out details in the underpass (see sample shots further on…)  This feature alone (in my opinion) makes a lens worth considering if the budget is there.

Noise

As is the case with most modern lenses, the noise that comes from running the auto focus is becoming much more tolerable.  Older lenses have had noisier motors (like my Sigma 70mm Macro – very loud when focusing).  Because this is a newer lens, and also due to its prime lens design, the lens is very quiet when it does focus in (the focusing ring never has far to go…)  Another pro for the 30mm!

Size/Weight

The Sigma 30mm has the size of a kit lens. It’s very compact which makes for easy inclusion in a camera bag.  When you have multiple lenses and need to decide whether a lens goes with you or stays home, this is one to take with you simply because it takes up such a small amount of space.  As for the weight of the camera, it’s surprisingly well-balanced on the Canon 40D, providing for a nice fit and comfortable shooting environment.

Build

The signature brushed dark metal of the Sigma line is present here and I’ve always been a fan of how these lenses are built and how they feel in your hands.  Exuding professionalism, and a solid graphite brushed metal coating make this a definite pro.

Cost

At B&H, the build cost is the same for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and all other mounts at $489.  You may be able to save a couple bucks here and there by shopping for sales and discounted or used equipment sites, but based off the retail price, the ballpark is around $500 for this lens.  While $500 is a substantial dent to most wallets, I would have to say that this is worth the money.  I’ve had this lens on loan from Sigma for the last 2 months, and it’s not left my camera through several photo walks, two assignments, and of course all of the testing.

Image Quality

Now for the fun part: the image testing!  Now in the interests of full disclosure, I cannot share some of the images here on the blog because of client releases and such (although I will say that I was comfortable with photo delivery to clients using this lens, so that should be an indication of image quality).  Here’s some shots from when I was shooting in other various conditions:

So, there you have it – various examples of the lens shooting under normal, close up, and low light conditions.  In most I’ve just done simple post production work for sharpening, so there are straight out of camera (sooc).  In the low light shots, I did include some noise reduction to handle the grain, and you can see it cleaned up fairly nicely.  Overall, a great lens – thanks to the folks at Sigma for the extended use for testing.  I’ll be sad to see it go!

So, how are we going to round things out this week?  By turning things around!  Yep, the tip is to use the shoot through umbrella as it’s own reflector!  Take a look at the results.  I took a picture of the world (okay, it was a globe in our spare bedroom) from the flash in two different setups:

While it’s always better to shoot with your flash off-camera, this is probably the best lesson in showing that just because your flash is off-camera doesn’t make it good light!  Yes, it’s better than on camera lighting, but look at that harsh specular highlight, and how…well, boring the photo on the left looks.  Then consider the photo on the right – the hottest part of the light is nowhere near as specular (bordering on not even becoming a specular highlight…), and the diffused, reflected light gives some nice character and a sense of depth lacking in the first.

Here’s the lighting setup for each shot:

So, as you can see (hopefully), this demonstrates that turning things around (not just your camera) can have a surprisingly good effect from time to time.  It really becomes subjective at this point, and some may prefer one style over another, but that’s part of what makes the craft so enticing – you are limited by nothing more than your vision!

Thanks for tuning in to this unique week-long series on off-camera lighting – I hope you enjoyed reading these tips as much as I enjoyed writing them!

On that note – I’d like to ask you for more ideas on some themes and topics in this vein.  This really seems to have resonated based on the traffic, email, and feedback I have gotten thus far, but I do want to keep content moving in directions you are interested in, so feel free to chime in the comments with ideas, thoughts, and feedback not only on existing content, but asl on ideas thoughts and feedback for new content down the road!

Have a great weekend (don’t forget, today is the last day to get your entries in for the November Flickr contest) and be sure to stop back next week for the year-end wrap up on a bunch of product reviews – and you know what that means!

Quite a bit already, and we’re almost done, so I’d like t round things out with a little bit of stabilizing.  You see, while light stands are great for moving your flash off-camera, they’re not the most stable things around.  Certainly not like a tripod for your camera!  Why is that?  The answer is in the physics – a light stand is typically a single pole that is extended into the air, whereas a tripod is three poles that converge at a point (your ball head or camera mount).  Whereas the former has each other to lean on and stabilize things, your light stand doesn’t have this benefit.  But, you can minimize the wiggle!  Here’s how…

Most light stands will have a three-legged base which collapses down to help with portability and to compact the size.  I’ve seen people take light stands out, and the first thing they extend all the way are those three legs.  Don’t!  When you take the three legs to their maximum height, yes, you are getting more height, but you are losing leverage and stability!  Don’t!  Instead, do this:

See how in the first example the legs are high, narrow and only have three points touching the floor – this invites a top-heavy rig, which is always more likely to topple over.  If you sacrifice those 3″ at the bottom, look what you can gain!  A wider stand base = more stability, a lower light stand = additional stability, and then the addition of the center point for even more stability!  The one on the left is how it’s supposed to be done.

For an added corollary, you can also bring sand or water bags to your shoot and fill them when you get there…then place the bags inside that little “pocket” that is formed for even more of a weighted base that will further reduce toppling risks!  (Consider it a Light Stand Tip 4A!)

Tomorrow we wrap up the week of lighting do’s and don’ts when using light stands and shoot-throughs!  I hope you’ve enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed writing them (it’s always fun to do a series like this, because it has a beginning, middle and end – which makes for nice writing projects!)

The bare flash

The results are not atypical of what one would expect.  We can see quite a bit more diffusion over a flash fired with no shoot through at all.  The light is cast much wider across the umbrella, and a certain amount of diffusion can be noted.  However, we can also see a hot spot of light in the top half of our umbrella.  Bad?  Not necessarily, considering either shooting with no umbrella, or worse – using the flash on camera!   But can we make it even better?  Let’s try!

Flash+Reflector

An interesting result!  We see the light now is carried through more of the umbrella bu looking at the center point as our frame of reference.  See the light expanding a little further down past that center point?  Cool!  But also, look what happened at the top – the reflector took light from the top and bounced it down to the bottom as we clearly have a shadow line going across there.  Hmmm, not sure I like that, so let’s try another improvement!

Flash+Diffuser

Now we’re talking!  Look at that light!  It’s clean and even throughout the umbrella!  No lines from a reflector, and nowhere near as much spill over the edges of the umbrella itself.  This is some nicely diffused light!  But wait – can we take it even further?  Let’s try one last thing, just to see what happens!

Flash+Diffuser+Reflector

Uh oh, we over-thought it!  The light is still pretty evenly diffused and spread across the umbrella, except for that one rectangle area across the top where apparently the reflector blocked the light from getting to – thus creating a shadow.  For me, it looks like #3 was the best choice of flash controls.  Here – take a look at all four side-by-side-by-side:

Flash Comparisons

I’ve circled the areas that caught my eye in terms of the quality of light – what I like and what I dislike about each – with labels under each setup.  As noted above – my preference is for #3.  The lesson learned here?

Use the built in diffuser when using a shoot through umbrella for a nice even light source!

As in all things though, it’s not a “my way or the highway” mentality – all thoughts and opinions are welcome!  So, which one(s) did you like best? #1? #2? #3? #4?  Sound off with your own thoughts in the comments or via email – feedback and discussion is always encouraged!

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Contest Reminder:  Only a few days left to enter the Image Wizards contest.  No fuss, no muss, just enter your image in the Flickr thread for a chance to win a 16×20″ print from them (as judged by yours truly!).

Be sure to stop back in tomorrow for the fourth installment of how to get the most out of a single light setup!

Tip #1.  Positioning the Umbrella

You’ll notice on a standard light stand that the umbrella will have to be inserted at an angle…you can either angle it upward or downward.  I see so many folks that are totally confused by this and I’ve got a great mnemonic to help you remember the right way:  I call it “Up For Luck!”  Take a look at the following side-by-side shots:

See how there is so much more light missing the umbrella from my strobe in the first shot? It’s falling out of the top and not really being controlled all that much.   Compare that to the second shot, where the umbrella is nicely filled out with light…a great softening effect for sure!  This is just one of five tips I am going to share with you this week on lighting your shoots from an off-camera flash with nothing more than a single light stand and shoot through umbrella!  Ready for more?  Got your own ideas and tips/tricks to share?  Sound off in the comments, or tune back in tomorrow for another tip to help soften and diffuse things even more!

1.  Avoid changing your lenses in the field – Let’s face it, dust enters from any uncontrolled area, and the area where you have the least control is in the field.  I’ve seen folks change out lenses in the field all the time, so it’s certainly not going to damage your camera or sensor unless you are completely reckless, but anything that opens your sensor to the ambient air also exposes it to ambient dust.  Wanna know how much dust is actually in the air?  Turn on a flashlight in the dark!  We oooh and ahhh over beautiful sunbeams in photos – what’s actually happening though is sunlight bouncing off dust particles in the air!

2.  Point it Down – If you have to change your lenses out in the field because you only have one camera body (like me), or for some other reason, don’t let gravity help!  Point the front end of your camera toward the ground when swapping out lenses.  In general, things fall down not up, so by pointing the sensor toward the ground, dust is less likely to settle in there.  It will take a bit of practice, because in essence, you are swapping a lens out blind, but this just speaks to the principle of knowing your gear!

3.  Be quick – So many times I’ll see photographers think of swapping that wide angle lens with a zoom, prime or some other lens.  The first place they go is the camera!  They take the lens off, cap the lens, put it in the camera bag, pull out the other lens, uncap it, and then mount it to the camera on their tripod.  Meanwhile, the camera sensor has been exposed for about 60 seconds.  That’s a long time to be exposed to the elements.

Cleaning a sensor is tricky, but cleaning a lens is a simple wipe from a microfiber cloth and a dab of lens cleaner.  I do it the opposite way.  I take the destination lens out, uncap it, and even position it right next to my camera.  Then in one fluid motion I unlock the lens on-camera, twist it off, and put the new lens on.  Cap the old lens, put in the camera bag, and the sensor was only exposed for about 3 seconds!  Which do you think lets more dust in: 3 seconds or 60?

4.  Use a dust bag – In some environments, there is dust everywhere.  I’ve shot on beaches in South Carolina, dusty conditions in Colorado and Mexico, and more places than I can count where the amount of dust in the air was just nasty.  For circumstances like that, it might be worthwhile to consider a dust bag.  The idea here is to insert your camera and the new lens into a bag where there is no dust, and swap out lenses inside that.  They are usually translucent s0 you can see what you’re doing,  and you don’t have to worry about keeping the sensor face down. The caveat to this is that by inserting a camera and lens inside one of these bags, you are already introducing dust, so the “clean” environment theory is blown right there.  Unless you are trying to change your lens in a sandstorm in the desert, this one is not as high on my recommendation list – but that’s not to say it is without merit whatsoever.

5. Cap the camera – A lot of people forget that their cameras come with a custom cap so that when there is no lens attached, you can put the camera cap in place to help protect it.  Sure, I usually have a lens mounted and at the ready, but if you are not deft enough with your hands to remove a lens and attach a new one, the camera cap can be a great interim step.  Also consider this – what if you send a camera in for cleaning?  Do you really want to send that 70-200 f2.8 lens in with it?  Extra weight, extra shipping, extra handling, all make for more possible damage and loss points – why put even more gear out there like that?  Cap your camera!

***

There ya have it – 5 ways to clean, 5 times to clean, and 5 methods to avoid sensor dust on your camera!  Whew!  What a week of sensor talk!  What are your thoughts on the topic?  Did I cover it in enough detail?  Too much?  How and when do you clean your lens?  What’s your best strategy to avoid the dust bunnies?  Sound off in the comments, or via email, as always!  You know I love to hear from the reading audience!

Anyway, that’s it for this week kiddos – have a good weekend and keep on shooting.  Just a teaser of a preview for ya…as next week is gonna be a fun one!  If I can get off my $%^& and finish some writing this weekend, there will be a couple book and lens reviews forthcoming, as well as a surprise release for all you newsletter subscribers (I’ve not forgotten you)!

I cleaned the camera sensor after getting back from this trip.

1.  When the built-in cleaning mechanism is unable to keep the sensor clean.  This tells me that there is something sticking in place that is not easily removed on its own.  Further, when the built-in mechanism removes dust from the sensor, it has to put it somewhere.  When that “somewhere” gets full, the mechanism just can’t do its job anymore.  It’s like a vacuum cleaner loses its cleaning ability when the tank is full.  When that happens, I will usually pull out my Rocket Blower to get stuff off the sensor.

2.  When the Rocket Blower no longer is able to clan the tough spots with its powerful puff of air, I generally tend to take one last ditch effort with my own Lens Pen or PecPad solution to swab the sensor clean with that special cleaning solution.  The theory here is that if something really is “stuck” on the sensor, I should be able to wipe it off with this Lens Pen solution.  When my own efforts to remove sensor dust at this level are ineffective, it’s time for me to consider a professional cleaning.

3.  Because I live in a suburb of a larger metropolitan area, getting a professional cleaning is my next “level” of cleaning.  When it goes past my ability to clean, the guys over at CamRen do a great job of getting all the nitty gritty off my sensor, and for a reasonable price ($50).  Plus, it’s done very quickly (usually same day service), so my down time is minimal.  The only thing I don’t get is the “certified” service from Canon.  I don’t know if Canon does anything extra or special in their maintenance procedures, but I’ve never had need to use their services.

4.  Annual maintenance: I try to maintain a cleaning schedule of at least annually…meaning that even if in the past 12 months my sensor hasn’t gotten “that” dirty, I’ll get it cleaned professionally anyway, just because I am a little OCD about keeping things clean.  For me, the investment in keeping gear clean just makes the equipment last longer (and easier to sell if I ever upgrade).

5.  When it gets dirty! – I know this sounds rather obvious, but it probably does need to be said, at least to point out particular scenarios.  My general rule of thumb is that I will get an extra cleaning cycle in if the camera gets a lot of heavy use in a short period of time.  For instance, my trip to the Adirondacks, the coast of southern Mexico, or the Wild Sand Dunes of Colorado all ended with a professional cleaning.  I tend to change lenses a lot so when I do that “in the field”, more dust tends to get in more often.  So just to stay ahead of the game, I have a professional service done after such events, because odds are – a lot of dust hit that sensor!

Those are my five times to clean my sensor – but as stated above, these “rules” are not carved in stone.  Merely my own guidelines for how to clean my sensor and when to clean it.  In giving these guidelines the light of day, it of course begs the question to the reading audience:  When do you clean your sensors?  Do you have any criteria?  Schedules? Levels of filth that are tolerable versus intolerable?  What does it take before you clean your own camera sensor (or get it cleaned)?  How many of you have ever cleaned or tried to clean your own camera sensor?  I know there’s a lot of trepidation out there on this topic, so have no fear if that describes you – you’re not alone!

Coming up tomorrow, the $64,000 question – how to avoid getting dust on your sensor!

1.  Let the Camera Do It! – Many cameras today have a technology called “Dust Delete Data” where you can identify portions of your sensor that have evidence of sensor dust.  Once the camera has these points identified, it will digitally remove said exhibitions of dust and you can go on your merry way.  I’ve never used this method though, with the understanding from others who have that it is not 100% foolproof.  Additionally, in my mind – the dust is still there, so if the camera can’t do it automatically, I want to!

2.  Edit manually – Many purists may think it’s a time honored tradition to pour over your image, pixel by pixel and eliminate dust spots using the clone stamp tool in Photoshop, dodging and burning in the darkroom or correcting for its.  While this is certainly a viable method, and is likely the best way to ensure all dust spots are cleaned.  The problem is that over time, this can become very tedious.  Quite frankly, with all the software tools and services available, the usefulness of this approach even for the thrifty-minded has really become more time and labor-intensive than most people can tolerate, so not sure this is as viable an option as it used to be…nevertheless, it is an option, so I would be remiss in not mentioning it!

3.  Use a Rocket Blower  -  Often times, dust is just a light piece of foreign material that snuck its way onto your sensor when you were swapping gear out in the field (We all do it…).  The good news is that stuff like this is easy to clean out using a Rocket Blower (like this one from Giottos) to blow any errant dust off the sensor and let gravity do the rest.  The reason this is good news is that you don’t have to touch the sensor (yikes!), and 9 times out of ten, you are all set to go shooting again at a minimal cost (these can be found pretty cheaply on B&H, Adorama, or your own favorite retailer).  The bad news is that if this doesn’t work, now you gotta spend some money!

4.  Clean it yourself – There are many solutions available on the marketplace ranging from a full Rocket Blower and lens cleaning kit (like the one featured above), or the popular Lens Pens,  to dedicated full cleaning kits like this one from Delkin and alcohol swabs where you can gingerly switch your camera from auto cleaning mode to manual mode and reveal the sensor for you to dabble as best you can.  While the long term benefits of this solution are quite good (a good cleaning kit will cost you about $50 – the price of one professional cleaning and can last for dozens if not scores of cleanings), you run the risk of damaging your camera if you aren’t both a) very careful and b)steady with your hands!

5.  Pay a pro – The course of action to take if you are beyond the Rocket Blower, and just don’t want to muck around where your Thunder Thumbs don’t belong in the first place!  Most cities have services where you can drop off your camera and pick it up the same day for anywhere from $50 to $100.  Most vendors also offer a cleaning service from them.  The problem there is you have to ship it to the service center, pay for the privilege, and then be without your gear for a certain period of time!  Now if you are a member of the Canon Professional Service, these cleanings are done for free (but the price of entry isn’t cheap in terms of gear ownership!).  I’m pretty sure Nikon and Pentax have similar offerings for professionals who use their gear.

Thankfully, a few shops here in Denver offer this service, and when my gear gets sticky enough, it’s time to take it in!   I think it’s time, given the amount of dust in the first image:

Versus the amount of time it took to clean this in post production (about ten minutes…this was just the upper left corner)

So, this naturally begets two more questions, right?  How often should you get your gear cleaned?  and How to Avoid Sensor Dust in the First Place!  Well, you’re in luck, because guess what’s coming up tomorrow! (You had to see this was coming, right?   Happy shooting (and cleaning), and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

*****

Don’t forget, the monthly photo contest is on – win a free Lensbaby Composer!  Get your shots in for a chance to win a super cool lens worth $300 retail! (Still trying to get the folks at Lensbaby to let me review the new one…)

Bill M. Carroll

Congrats again to Bill – if you could drop me an email, I’ll coordinate to get your info over to the right folks at NAPP to process everything going forward! You are sure to enjoy countless resources, tips, tricks, tutorials, and other content NAPP provides to all its members!  Everyone, if you could take a moment out of your day to congratulate Bill for his awesome shot (and a great expression on the kid too!) that won the contest!

*****

Don’t forget, the October Contest is now also underway, so gear up those cameras to capture the idea of “stacks” somehow!  The winner this go around will become the proud owner of a Lensbaby Composer!

The folks over at Stack Exchange have become the latest sponsor for the monthly contest series, and I gotta say, they are quite a clever operation.  The site is based on the same idea that the blog is based on – which is sharing knowledge and experience with the greater community at large.  No forums to join, no registrations to mess with, just good information in a Wiki-style interface.  The layout is pretty slick where you can post (and answer) photo-related questions.

There’s lots of topics covered and it’s definitely a useful resource to answer everything from generic to specific questions like “Depth of Field and Focal Length” to “How to take sharp night photos“.  Definitely one to add to your photo bookmarks folder.

Anyway, they were super generous, tossing a Lensbaby Composer into the ring for some lucky photographer!  So, special thanks and shout outs to Stack Exchange in advance for their sponsorship.  With the theme of their site, and the gear tied to the giveaway, I figured this was worthy of something special, so, here’s the gist:

Lots of ways to interpret this…it could be a stack of pancakes, a stack of coins, a stack of Pringles, a haystack, or any other way you can imagine!  Remember, the prize is a Lensbaby Composer, worth $300 retail, so if there ever was a time to ramp things up a notch, this would be it!  I’ll put something together on the Lensbaby Composer later this week so you know how cool this lens actually is!

That’s it for today – more cool stuff coming up later this week including the September winner (lucky photog will win a year of NAPP membership!), and other fun stuff.  The trick is to keep on shooting!

You see, it’s a given that there are limitations to the “point and shoot” grade of cameras.  You simply don’t have the same degree of flexibility – no changing out lenses, a smaller sensor, more inherent noise, etc., etc. etc.  Yet, when you take an SLR, there’s a lot more gear involved, even if you “go light”.  At a minimum, you’re likely to have a camera body, a lens, a flash, and a tripod.  So, which do you do?  Thankfully, with the advancement of the “P&S” grade cameras, the differences between SLR’s and the “P&S” category has narrowed substantially.

So, the question becomes:  which P&S is a good alternative for the SLR when you just want to take something and go, yet still have the malleability to capture the kind of images you want?  Now, if you ask ten different photographers this same question, you will likely get ten different sets of cameras in varying degrees of priorities.  That being said, a short list of high-end P&S cameras is always helpful to consider.  Here’s the short list I picked:

There were some others I considered including a few from Panasonic, Sony, and Olympus, but in looking at the specs of those, all had an interchangeable lens feature, which makes them more SLR-like than most P&S counterparts, so I removed them from consideration.  Here’s the criteria I am using to consider cameras for inclusion in a P&S review section:

1.  True point and shoot design (no interchangeable lenses)

2.  Cost should be less than the entry level SLR for that vendor

3.  Raw or sRaw capacity is probably going to be a requirement…most high end P&S cameras I’ve seen have this feature.

These are of course, just subjective takes on which P&S cameras stand head and shoulders above the rest, and the criteria to classify ones for inclusion as “true P&S cameras”.  As they come through the doors, I’ll share thoughts and feedback with you, but for the time being, I’d also like to hear what others think of these selections.

Can a P&S really stand toe to toe with an SLR?  Is it even worth looking at?  What about the cameras themselves?  Are there others that you wish were included?  Do you own any of these?  What have your own thoughts and experiences been?  Sound off in the comments, and I’ll see what I can to do add others to this roster for upcoming review!  In the meantime, happy shooting, and we’ll be back tomorrow!

You may also notice that I dropped a hidden time bomb above – we’ve gotten an extension through Friday!  That means, if you haven’t had a chance yet, there’s still time!  It also means that if for any reason you forgot to register, there’s still a window of opportunity for you to do that until tomorrow midnight!  Only 48 hours (roughly) left, so don’t forget to participate for your chance to win!  Thanks to Drobo for both allowing the extension and for adding a second Drobo to the giveaway.  As a refresher, here’s the contest particulars again:

1. Follow me (@CBJason) and @Drobo (no need to unfollow and re-follow if you already are…)

2. Re-tweet the following text message over on Twitter:

RT I’ve registered to win a #Drobo with @CBJason at http://bit.ly/qdqg6Z

3. Share your best story about why you need a Drobo on the blog here (my blog) and on the Drobo Facebook page! (Note the embedded links… )

4.  Don’t forget to register with Drobo in case your name is picked – if you’re not registered, you can’t win!

5.  All entries must be submitted no later than midnight MDT on Friday!

Keep posting the stories – these are great to read.  As a reminder here though too – I am not picking the winner personally, it’s done by a random drawing from all the registrations.  After drawing two names, these will be cross-checked against the Twitter messages and such, so keep ‘em coming!  Some of the stories I’ve read are quite fascinating, ranging from small business owners running retouching businesses, to poetic story lines, and even PhD students working on some pretty fascinating topics that require massive storage needs.

There’s more out there, but that’s just a sampling of what you can expect to see.  The nice thing is many of these items include useful accessories like bags, straps, cases, and media cards as incentive pieces…savings add up even more (about a 20% average in my estimation).  For what it’s worth, I used the forums from Fred Miranda to look up used gear pricing and B&H for retail equivalents.  Your mileage may vary.

What sort of discount would you expect to pay for used gear over it’s  new counterparts?  Is 15% the new minimum?  20%?  30%  What’s considered a “good deal” anymore?  Since I’ve not been in the market to buy anything lately, am totally not sure where things are except what I’ve seen above.  Those sound good to me but I have not scoured all of the internet to be sure…so, let me know if you’ve had similar or different experiences.  Likewise, if you’ve got any of your own deals you’ve noticed recently?  Sound off in the comments!

Since we weren’t shooting in any sort of “official” capacity, i figured it’d be a good time to kick the tires on this new lens (sorry, can’t reveal it just yet).  Suffice to say, I was not thrilled with the shots.  As luck would have it, I had swapped out between my 70-200 Canon and this lens right before the race, and inadvertently left my 1.4 TC on.  The end result was that the shots were just “off”.  The entire ten second scene was exciting to watch, and a few great shots presented themselves to me, but because of the gear selection and conditions – I got nuthin’!

However, always with education in my mind, this was a great story for two reasons.  First and foremost – it’s a reminder that if you are shooting an important event, always shoot with tried and true gear you know, and have had positive results with before.  Second, it’s always a good idea when testing new gear to try it in various configurations to make sure you know what you are getting before your return period expires.  Imagine if you purchased a lens, had enjoyed it, then past the return window, you decided to then test it with accessory items like a TC, only to get less performance than you expected. Oh well, chalk it up to an expensive mistake (glass is never cheap, and even good glass can not work for your particular style of shooting!).

As sort of a bonus tip, I also learned that when shooting sports, always keep your aperture above the minimum for a couple reasons.  First, a deeper depth of field will give a better sense of place, and second, if your focus is even slightly off and you happen to be shooting at a higher number, the chances of getting at least part of the scene in focus is better than if you shoot like I did – at 1.4!  While I normally don’t share bad shots – in this case, it’s helping to serve as an example of what not to do:

As you can see, nothing is really in focus, and my suspicion is that it was due to the presence of the TC as further studio testing produced results consistent with what I would normally expect without the TC.  And with the TC, the oof results also continued in studio – with a lot of difficulty in even achieving focus on objects unless the contrast was especially evident.  Even then, it jiggled a lot betwenn two focusing points, so the lesson I got in all of this is that when using a __________ (thought I was gonna say it, didn’t ya?_, don’t use the TC!

Hope everyone else had a great weekend too.  What did you shoot and what were your lessons learned?  Sound off in the comments with your own thoughts, ideas, tips, and tricks!  Until tomorrow – happy shooting!

I get this question a lot too.  The problem with any ultimatum, is that it’s going to invite bias and subjectivity.  Whether it’s lenses, cameras, computers, software or even media cards, there is no objective and universal vendor or manufacturer of media cards that is head and shoulders above the others in the field.  What I can tell you is that there are some who are notably superior.  I’ve not ranked these in any specific sort of order, but from my own experiences, these are the vendors that deliver a stable, high quality product with a good focus on QA:

• Lexar
• Sandisk
• Hoodman
• Ridata

If you get your media from them, by and large, you will probably be happy with the results.  I’ve heard stories of amazing success and durability anecdotes ranging from going through the clothes washer, to getting pounded by a 2000 pound vehicle.  One of the most amazing ones I read was someone who took a swim in the ocean, sweated in a sauna, and cooled off at a pool bar before realizing the media card wallet was in his swim trunks pocket – and all survived!  So, you can really pick and choose from the above and likely get quality results.  For my own tastes, I have used all of the above, but will say that I’ve noticed Lexar cards can be found for slightly less, either through promotions or sales for equivalent capacities.  Of course in the interests of full disclosure, they have also contributed to the contest giveaway series here, so that in and of itself could introduce some subjective bias on my part again.

So, there you have it!  On On Monday I looked at capacity considerations in Megabytes vs Megapixels, then later an article looked at speed transfer rates in How Fast Can You Shoot, and today, the last in this series of articles – the vendor portion of the equation.  There are, of course, other factors that could go into any buying decision, but this wasn’t about being exhaustive, rather being informative and sharing my own thoughts, insights, and experiences with media cards in photography.

Just a couple final reminders as we go into the weekend:

First up, the LDP Contest Series is underway, and I’ve added a 70-200 Special Edition from the folks at Photojojo to the giveaway.  Expect a review forthcoming shortly!  Make sure you enter for your chance to win.  Already in the prize list is a license for Photo Rescue software.  Enter here!

A new newsletter is forthcoming shortly, as is a new eBook!  This time it’s free, but only going to subscribers, so be sure to get signed up before that is released!  Special promos and discounts may also be in the newsletter for other products too, so if not signed up, you can get in on the action here.

Have a great weekend everyone, happy shooting, and we’ll catch up again next week….”on the flip side”!

On initial glance from the title, one might think this blog is segueing into a dialog from the Top Shot show over on the History Channel (very cool show btw), but I’m actually referring to the notion of speed often associated with shooting digital.  Sports shooters, action shooters and the like often will get the fastest cameras, the fastest cards they can get, with the fastest processors, and go to all sorts of degrees to eliminate bottlenecks in their capacity to shoot fast and on the go.  To an extent, their efforts are justified, but how fast does your card need to be?

As you may recall on Monday, I talked about how the real meaning of memory in media cards.  We talked about Megapixels and Megabytes, and I gave some real world number ranges for what you could expect a media card to handle.  So, today, we’re going to follow up on that topic of discussion and take a look at speed ratings for cards.  As always, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye, primarily because there are lots of numbers bandied about when speaking about card transfer rates.  Before we wade hip dip into this, one brief note here is to give serious props to Rob Galbraith for compiling a pretty extensive database on his website of data transfer rates for a whole slew of cards with a whole slew of cameras.  If you really want to dig into the minutia of how fast cards really are, be sure to check it out!  Just one note though, that this database has not been updated since 2008 so cameras made since then will not be found with any reliable information.

With that in mind, today it’s probably more helpful to walk through the various points that can contribute to data transfer rates for cards.  The natural first stopping point is in the camera itself, in what is commonly known as fps, or “Frames Per Second”.

Frames Per Second

Quite simply this refers to the number of actuations a given shutter in a camera can cycle through in exactly one second.  As indicated above, the abbreviation for this is typically fps, and is easily culled from the spec sheet for pretty much any camera on the market today.  For those of you that want to see a compilation though, here you are (I should note that I grabbed all this data from the vendor websites on claimed fps for the highest resolution image settings.  If you set your file size to sRaw, or jpg and add compression, your max frame rate may increase…:

The bottom line here though is that with most DSLR’s on the market, if you expect more than 10 fps, that’s probably not going to happen (assuming also you are shooting continuous and on the highest resolution setting.)

So, even the camera you have can cause bottlenecks in write speeds…if your camera can’t write data that fast, it really doesn’t matter how fast your card can write data if it doesn’t have the data to write.  Now granted, each camera will have different MP counts so the Canon 5D (for instance) will of course have a slower fps rate because it’s a larger file, and it’s a full frame camera, so will naturally be slower than the 7D by comparison simply because it has to be.  So what we really need to be measuring is the amount of data that is being transferred per second (see now why I did that article first? )  So, we’ve reached the second point of bottleneck now in talking about transfer speeds and that’s the buffer.

Buffer

The best analogy I have is that the buffer in a camera is very much like the RAM in your computer.  It’s a sort of staging area, where data is stored before it gets actually sent to the processor and then saved to the card. Without the buffer in place, fps rates would drop dramatically because there would be no place for the camera to temporarily hold data before writing.  The buffer is what allows you to keep shooting.  So, this brings up two important questions:

1.  How can you increase the buffer?  (You can’t really…)

2. How can I tell how much of a buffer my camera has?  (As of this writing, I am not sure if this metric is reported consistently by vendors, except when reviewers say “an increased buffer size improves performance”…which is still relatively meaningless.)

Since it’s not something we can really measure, nor change without buying into a whole new camera, here it’s just sufficient to say that this is the second bottleneck point, and is usually where you will run into moments of pause.  Why? Because cards are usually transferring data that fills up the buffer, and at that point the camera can’t take in any more data. When this happens your camera won’t let you take any pictures.

The other factor that comes in to play though ties more to the card itself and not the camera, which is the speed factor.

Speed Class Rating

Media card vendors like Lexar, Sandisk and others like to use terms to define their speed.  Catch words like Extreme, Pro, Extreme Pro, 300x, 600X and all sorts of fancy jargon is used for marketing purposes.  Notice the various cards on the market – the more buzz words, usually the faster the transfer rate claim, and of course, the more expensive the card! 

So, rather than pour over all the various vendor semantics, I figured it’d probably be better to stay on what is a more neutral metric – speed class ratings.  While we could also introduce variances between the CF and the SD format in terms of write speeds, since most devices are moving to the SD format and it’s smaller cousins (mini SD and Micro SD), these are likely the ones we’ll see more often in the future, so the speed class ratings here are most relevant.

To that end, there are 5 different ratings or grades given to SD cards.  These are 2, 4, 6, 10, and 1 respectively.  The last rating (1) is reserved for the SDHC and SDXC card types, and has a special designation as UHS, for Ultra High Speed…while the lower ratings all have transfer rates classified as normal and high speed.  A full chart is viewable on it here.  In a nutshell, the higher the number, the faster the card can transfer data, so keep that in mind as you shop for media.  The ultimate barometer really though is not how fast you need to capture, but more what you need to capture, and as the chart indicates, video needs faster transfer rates than stills, so naturally the higher ratings are intended primarily for videographers.

If you really wanna geek out on data transfer rates, a better place to go for that is the Rob Galbraith database I mentioned upthread.  Again, it’s not been updated since 2008, but the general trends are probably consistent with the current market of vendors we have to choose from.

One final note on data transfer rates…card technologies have changed substantially in recent years, enough that there are now cards referred to as UDMA cards.  While the current generations of cameras from both Canon and Nikon support this mode of reading and writing data to media cards, older cards may not and will read the card at the slower rate. So, if you have an older camera, you may want to check for UDMA compatibility before getting a newer UDMA style card.

 Conclusion

So, what’s the takeaway from all this?  Hopefully three things:

1.  Transfer Speeds are not just a function of your media card, fps rates and buffer rates in cameras are factors too.

2.  Paying more for a faster media card might not be needed if you are not shooting video.

3.  If you are shooting video, or need the extra oompfh of speedy cards, make sure you are using the right speed class, and with the best camera you can.  As the old adage says: it’s a poor craftsman that blames his tools…

Happy shooting and we’ll see you tomorrow to wrap our discussion of Media Cards with a look at the various vendors!

So, for today, I am happy to bring to you the latest gear review – from none other than the folks at Sigma, with their 85mm f1.4 lens.  Let’s just jump right in:

1.  Focal Length – I’ve talked at length on the blog before about fixed focal length versus variable length zooms.  Their differences, both pros and cons of each are duly noted, and for the most part, I think we can skip the formalities of the technical explanations.  It’s an 85mm lens.  This means you are not going to be able to zoom with the lens, rather with your feet.  It also means that you will gain pros in IQ (See #8 below).  Normally I am shooting with either a 10-22 for wide angle landscapes or a 70-200 for portrait work, so this took a bit of adjusting.

When I did shoot portrait work, I kept on having to step further back to bring more of the subjects face into the scene, and with landscapes, I found myself rotating into portrait position (vertical) and instead of trying to get everything in one shot, rather capturing several shots, with the acceptance that I would have to stitch together in post production.

It’s not perfect for either, but a good compromise in focal length to try and meet the needs of both ends as much as possible.  If I had to choose my favorite focal length, it probably would not be an 85mm, but there are very subjective reasons for that, which probably aren’t as relevant here, so I will defer that for another post.  The focal length is what it is.  You either like the length or you do not.  I was middle of the road on it – sometimes I liked it, sometimes I didn’t.

In the end, I think the focal length was fine for most purposes.  Even

2.  F-Stop Range – This is the reason I want this lens.  Stopping all the way open to an f1.4 gives you amazing results from two key perspectives:

• Depth of Field – When you shoot with a low depth of field, the subject is very easily separated from the background.  This also brings up the subject of bokeh quality, and here I was quite impressed as I didn’t see any evidence of jagged lines or aperture opening sizes, which is often characteristic of cheaper lens builds.
• Low Light photography – Low light photography to me means shooting at or near dusk, or in an incandescent environment where you don’t want to introduce flash.  You don’t want to be a part of the scene.  The photographer wants to blend into the background and be as unobtrusive as possible.  Lenses with low f-stop ranges allow you to do this, and the Sigma 85mm f1.4 is no exception!

3.  Noise – The motor on this lens is as quiet as one would expect for current technology – whisper!  I never heard anything that would cause a distraction, and at this point I am actually considering upgrading the Sigma Macro for this reason – the quieter the operation, the easier it is to concentrate on what you are shooting!

4.  Size/weight – About what would would expect for this focal length and aperture.  Remember, the lower the aperture (f1.4) the beefier a lens will have to be, because elements will need to be thicker in order to have any sort of stability.  It made for near perfect balance in conjunction with the 40D.  On a larger camera like the 5D or 1Ds Mark IV, I could see where you might not have as much a balance, but for my purposes, it works!

5.  Build – Patented and as expected, the water resistant housing, and non-slip grip that is now almost a trademark feature of Sigma was present so no surprises there.  I always enjoy shooting with Sigma gear because the heft of it just feels solid in my hands.

6.  OS/IS/VR – There is no built in motion correction here, which is what I collectively use to refer to the proprietary features of Sigma, Canon’s and Nikon’s camera shake correction technologies.  ALthough I should probably share that OS = Optical Stabilization (Sigma), IS = Image Stabilization (Canon), and VR = Vibration Reduction (Nikon).  Since this lens doesn’t have this motion correction feature, there’s really not much to discuss here.

The one note I would have is that when shooting with this lens, the benefit is primarily in that you can shoot at f1.4 which lets in a lot of light.  To that end, the need for motion correction is probably not as needed, except for the most exceeding low light scenarios, but you’ll see in a minute, that’d have to be pretty darn low!

7.  Cost – For the benefit of shooting at f1.4, the price of admission is hefty indeed.  B&H Photo prices it out at $969.  Since this is a new lens in their lineup, you likely will not find it for much less than this, as there is no aftermarket yet to speak of.

8.  Image Quality – Here, as always, I like to let the images speak for themselves.  I’ve tried to include a few samples that demonstrate both the depth of field capabilities and the low light performance.  Keep in mind – every image here was shot hand held!

So, in the interests of not hitting the email subscription base with a lot all at once, I’ve pulled the remaining posts and will have them go live next Monday (possibly over the weekend as well), to ensure the gear reviews get their fair share of “air time”.  I know some will be very interested in reading about the Sigma 85mm f1.4 I’ve had on loan for a few months here now (being returned to Sigma on Monday).

In any case, thanks for all your patience as I sort out these snafus and hopefully return to a regular blogging schedule come Monday!  Have a great weekend all!

My coffee never had a better container!  Yup, it’s kind of hoax here, but it is a legitimate product.  This coffee mug has an exterior that is made to resemble the Canon EF 24-105 f4L lens.  It clearly isn’t, but truth be told, when I received mine in the mail, I was pretty excited.  It does serve its purpose admirably – keeping my coffee hot and in good sipping condition well enough for the duration of the morning caffeine intake.

I was a little disappointed that the focusing rings didn’t rotate, nor did the AF/MF toggle or the IS toggle – in fact, the former was simply painted on.  It did have the cap that looked like a real lens cap, but that didn’t pinch on like a normal lenscap would.  To an uneducated eye, I can easily see this as passing muster for a real lens…until you picked it up!

Nevertheless, it was the talk of the office when I poured my first cup of coffee into it.  It retails higher than I would have expected for nearly $40, but you can get your own here.  And for the Nikonians out there, don’t worry, Nikon versions are available too!

My wife’s birthday is right around the corner – literally.  The next time I post, her birthday will have passed.  The funny thing is, she has received her typical stipends from the parental units and now has some extra cash to spend (which is odd enough in this economy), so finds herself in a bit of a pickle.  What to do?

She has a point…take a look at our current technology library:

1.  Windows XP desktop (Dell Optiplex)

2.  Windows XP VOIP system

3.  Linux Video Camera Surveillance system

4.  Macbook Pro OSX

5.  Acer Netbook

6.  Motorola Android X Smart Phone

7.  LG Smart Phone

8.  iPod Touch (2nd Generation)

9.  Amazon Kindle

Know what the one thing is that’s missing?  Yup, you guessed it – the iPad.

We all know about them, more know about them, and some even fawn over them…claiming they are the only device in their category – the iPad is it’s own category.  So, when she had this extra money for her birthday, she came to me and said, “I don’t know what to do..there’s nothing I really want or need…any ideas?”  My response was:  Get an iPad!

Then she said, “Why”…and recited the list to me.  She has a point – we really don’t need an iPad. It looks so cool…but, is it something that we need?  Probably not.  It is something we’ve thought about, but given our connected nature already, do we really need it?  My truthful answer is, “No.”  She asked me to put together a list for her of why she should get an iPad.  I came up with tons of reasons – for me…

So, it looks like the iPad will not be coming to the house any time soon – simply because, as Tracy put it:  “How Much is Too Much?”  So, with that in mind, I’d really like to pose a question to the reading audience:

How much gear do you own?  When would you draw the line?  How much is too much?  Sound off in the poll:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Don’t forget – the eBook just came out so if you get a chance, stop over and consider getting the DIY Legal Kit – it can save your bacon, and it’s on sale for only $15! Or just buy from the Cart button below:

1.  New Software – It looks like we have a new player in the photo editing software community – Photo Director – now in Beta is offering a free download to all, and if you actively use, test, and give feedback, when the final release is published, you may be able to get this software for free.  An initial glance seems to be pretty interesting, so expect a full-scale review to be coming out here from the blogosphere pretty shortly.  (Expect mine in a few weeks…)

2.  Gear Reviews to Come – I’ve been a busy shooter lately, with a couple gear items that need to ahve reviews coming out so this will likely be a heavy gear review month here on the blog.  Check out the list of items forthcoming:

• Think Tank Shapeshifter
• Photo Mechanic from Camera Bits
• Sigma 85mm f1.4
• Speedlighter’s Handbook from Syl Arena
• Think Tank Streetwalker Pro
• Radio Popper Flash Triggers
• Camera Dojo Flash Triggers

3.  I also just wrapped up a podcast with none other than AJ Wood, my good friend from the NAPP community who I’ve known for nearly 3 years now and have yet to have on the show – apologies to him for the total mental blank on my part.

4.  A few photo shoots have been finished recently, and I’ve been so busy just not had a chance to go through post production on them, but here’s a hint of what’s to come on the blog (if I ever find the time to write about and produce all this content – seems the more we do, the less time we have, eh?)

5.  Okay, there really is no other news item, but I like things to come in 5′s (and tens), so just throwing this one out there to check out some of the recent work of some industry notables that I have in my own RSS feeds:

David DuChemin – For those of you who don’t know, he took a nasty fall a short time ago, and while he is down for the moment, he is definitely not out – the inspirational words and wisdom he has emanated from his fingertips have been a thorough source of enjoyment, so if you don’t read his blog, sign up now!

Nicole Young – A popular visitor to the blog and podcast, I have it straight from the source that she has something very exciting coming out very soon – I can’t say what yet, but you might want to keep your eyes and ears on her blog for the announcement very soon (I suspect it will be tomorrow – Tuesday)…Congrats Nicole – I love what I’ve seen!

Larry Becker – Perhaps better known for his role with NAPP, this DIY site called “Cheap Shots” has very much come into its own, and his ideas for economical fixes to photographers woes on the cost of gear is quite innovative.  Add this to your RSS when you get a chance – some great stuff here!

Hoodman Loupe

Hoodman Loupe

The whole purpose of the Hoodman Loupe is to block stray light from hitting your LCD.  In sunlight or hazy scenarios, it can often be challenging to view your screen, and even change settings if you own a newer camera.  Given it’s simple function, the review aspect of this really is a simple matter to determine, does it do the job it claims to do or not.

Not only did it completely block all ambient light with ease, the Hoodman Loupe also seemed to make the on-screen photo much more brilliant and crisp than I had remembered before using it.  That surprise was further mitigated by seeing how compact the Hoodman Loupe actually is – at roughly 2 inches long and an inch deep.  Not only did it perform adequately, but at this compact size, the Hoodman Loupe is an easy addition to your camera bag with the minimal footprint it takes up in space.

Most rubber or manufactured products attempt to make things slick of shiny and in so doing, the product becomes quite slippery and difficult to hold.  Not so with the Hoodman Loupe, as the rugged rubberized exterior was nicely made, and I was pleased to get an easy grip on it.  Although easy to hold when in use, I was not as thrilled with the ease of porting.  The short trap that they provide to carry it around your neck is much too short for me.  Now granted, I am 6’1”, but certainly no giant, and the size was just awkward for me.  While the quick release snap does attenuate it to a certain degree, the idea of keeping it tethered somehow is a little more reassuring (I have a penchant for losing small items when taken away from my body…LOL)  The accompanying carrying case was a nice addition, but did serve to really make it easier to carry…this seems to only serve as a storage container for when not in use so you can differentiate it from other gear in your bag.

I did recall after using this that a DIY solution was suggested by Larry Becker, of NAPP notoriety (he does the weekly NAPP News segments and writes his own blog at Larry’s Cheap Shots), and think his belt clip idea is both innovative and and highly functional.  If the folks at Hoodman made this accessory and slapped their brand on it, I’d be half inclined to purchase the entire kit from them directly.

It’s a fairly simple idea in total, and not much else to say other than – it works!  The sturdy construction, and compact nature of it is perfect for any photographer who wants to utilize their LCD.  For those of us with older cameras where shutter, aperture, ISO, and all other settings done via dials and the top viewer, it may not be as relevant, but for shooters using more recent gear like the Canon 50D, 60D, and 7D, the back screen is used much more to make these adjustments, so a device like the Hoodman Loupe could be a huge aid in making sure you’ve got your settings where you want them.  For $80, you almost can’t go wrong!  This is definitely the accessory you never thought you needed, but you really did!

Remember, this very Loupe is being given away at the end of the month, so for your chance to win this cool accessory, don’t forget to submit your BLOCK themed photo in the Flickr thread here.  Good luck to those who enter, and thanks again to the folks at Hoodman for their sponsorship and contribution!