Once again our roving report Ed Krisiak braved downtown New York to get inside Photo Plus Expo East to see the latest and greatest photography products. In this show Ed and Kerry discuss the latest offering in the photography world and hear what Ed had to say about many of the things on display at Photo Plus Expo.

Trek-Tech

My wife bought a Tech Trek Pod for me last year.  A very versatile monopod/tripod. I have the Trek Pod II which does not break down as far as the TrekPod Go Pro or the TrekPod XL. So this was my second stop of the day.  My  trek pod uses  a MagMount  ball head.  This is ball head is a quick release system. It uses strong earth magnets for use with D-SLR cameras. Unfortunately I lost the pieces which attaches to the camera.

I was talking with the guy at Trek-Tech and explained that I lost the part. He asked me to come back at the end of the day and he would see what he could do for me.  Long story short, I came back around 4PM and he GAVE me a MagMount STAR ball head !!! Can you believe it !!! I have heard of great customer service before but this goes WAY above my expectations. With this type of commitment to a customer, I have no doubt that I will be recommending and buying more of their products in the future.

If you want to travel light with the smallest weight possible check out their full line of Trek Pods at http://www.trek-tech.com/ and rest assured that you are buying from a customer service driven organization.

Nik HDR EFEX PRO

I LOVE high dynamic range photography.  I have been using   PhotoMatrix and happy with the results. Now step in HDR arena with NIK HDR EFEX PRO. I stopped by the NIK booth and they were doing a demo of the HDR software. I was floored by the ability of this software.  NIK is well known  for it’s U-Point technology and this is incorporated in the software. The ability to selectively  control a portion of an image easily is a HUGE time saver and it gives you greater control of the final outcome. The user interface is very intuitive. The learning curve on the software is almost 0!!! The visual presets are a bonus. You can easily and quickly determine the look you are going for in your HDR image. One feature that I love is the ability to export the images in lightroom to NIK without even opening Photoshop. Select your images…Click on export as a preset and NIk software runs all of it’s algorithms. When you are satisfied with the result, click on save and your HDR image appears in lightroom  !!!!  An excellent way to streamline your work flow. NIK is offering a 15 day free trial. I am on my second day with the software. I have to tell you I am very impressed with the results so far.

Spider Camera Holster

How cool is it to sling your camera like a gun? Spider Holster has all of the elements of cool. I bought the system last year at the Photo east show. I have not used it much and it has been residing in my storage case. I am not sure if this is my style or not.  I dropped by the spider booth at PDN and it was packed with people testing out the belt system and buying one. My main reason for stopping by the booth was to return my belt from last year for a new and improved one.  Two of the thousands Spider belt users reported the buckle opening without having to depress the required pressure point.  Spider sent out a notice to all of the Spider Camera Holster users about the potential issue. Spider gladly exchanged my old holster for a new one. I’ll have to place the belt on my camera carrying arsenal this year.

OnOne Software

I dropped by the OnOne booth. I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my favorite Photoshop guys doing a demo,Dave Cross!!! Dave was performing a demo of OnOne’s Photoframe 4.6. Dave is always creative and finds alternative editing methods that I would never think of. OnOne user interface is very easy and modifying  a file after the initial processing in OnOne’s software could not be easier. Can you belive that the company gives away stuff for free !!! Right now OnOne is offering 190 FREE lightroom presets. I have downloaded the presets and using them in lightroom. In case you missed it, OnOne has a new upgrade from Plug in Suite 5. It’s called Perfect Photo Suite 5. One of the changes is Genuine Fractals. It’s has been dramatically changed and the new version of Genuine Fractals is called  PERFECT RESIZE 7. The new name REALLY makes a lot of sense to me. There are several new features including more control over structure and smoothness.. New presets and batch processing. It runs as a standalone application, Lightroom, Aperature, or Photoshop plug in. A new product in the suite is called Perfect Layers. Perfect Layers will be coming in December. There are a dozen new effects in Photo Tools 2.6. OnOne has always made innovative products that streamline work flow.

Nations Photo Lab

I dropped by Nations Photo since I do a lot of wedding and event photography. They have an extensive line up of albums for photographers.  I love the look of the lay flat albums. They have a TON of options for their photo albums.  Nations will be announcing a drag and drop album design feature to their website. Also coming is a section for learning photography.  They also have FREE shipping on orders over $50.00. After checking out Nations Photos albums and prints, I had to stop back near the end of the day to see Rick Sammon. Rick is a Canon explorer of light. I have a few of Rick Sammons books and watched his videos on Kelby training. Rick provided the group with an inspirational and educational discussion. He went into detail on how he was able to create some of his art work. It is great to see a company like Nations Photo providing not only providing a quality product but helping photographers improve in their art.

Hahnemuhle

I wanted to pick up the sampler pack for $10 but it was only available at other vendors at the show. I did pick up the SMALL FREE pack. If I was into printing, I would pick up some of this high quality paper. Their stock looks amazing.  I have no desire to print my own work on an inkjet printer.  You have to draw the line somewhere in regards to how you spend your time.

LensBaby

I have the original LensBaby 2.0 and it did take time to be accustomed to using., so I wanted to drop by LensBaby and see what was new. I never heard of the Lens Baby Scout before. I knew there was an attachment for the Composer to go fish eye. What a surprise to see the Scout. The Scout is a fixed 12mm fisheye lens. With a price point of $250 this is a right up my alley. This lens is a niche lens and used too much it can get gimmicky as would any other fish eye.  With the current price point, this is on my buy list of lenses. The Scout is also compatible with the other Lens Baby optics. It offers a creative lens flare when pointed at a bright object and close focusing.  LensBaby is truly an innovative company.

Luma Pix

Bar none, this is the most advanced, fastest and light weight album design on the planet. I have designed albums in Photoshop and used web based album design. I have tried free versions of software, I have used trial versions of software, and Luma Pix is the fastest, most versatile software program I have used for album design. The uses for the software are limitless – Business cards, Collages, Seniors, it will even do Auto Collages. The software is user friendly and non destructive. If you do a lot of album design work, do yourself a favor and take this program out for a test drive. The trial version is full featured but it will watermark the output.

Sigma

All I can say about Sigma is WOW. I am a canon user and have been for a long time. I have a few pieces of L glass. I have to say that the current line of Sigma lenses could be considered L killers!! I was able to try out the 85 1.4. What a beautiful piece of glass! The finish looks great and the focus is FAST. I am on Canon forums and all of the pictures I have seen taken with this lens are outstanding.  I have noticed a lot of  Canon 85L 1.2 being sold on the forums. From what I understand the L owners are selling to buy the Sigma 1.4. No doubt, this will be my next lens. I also had a chance to look at the Sigma 8-16, this lens is amazing. The angle of view is 114.5†to 75.7â€. It’s lightweight at 19 ounces- 4.2 inches long and a diameter of 2.9 inches. It’s a small lens designed  for APS-c camera’s only. This would be an ideal landscape lens. The exterior finish of the Sigma lens has a nice look and feel. A very nice lens but I am not sure if I am sticking with the APS-c format camera.  Sigma is also announcing a  Scholarship contest. Students can submit images from Nov.15.2010 to Feb 28^th 2011. The winner will receive $5,00 in cash and $1,000 in Sigma equipment. SWEEEETTTTT!! For more information got to HTTP://scholarship.sigmaphoto.com. It’s really nice to see a major corporation give back. It will be very interesting to see the images posted for the contest.

SD1

This camera was under wraps for the most part. I was lucky enough to get the preview of it. The battery was removed and no CF card. There was no way to sneak away with images from this camera. The camera was hooked up to AC power for me. It has a nice grip and feel. I was able to fire the shutter and see them pop up on the back display. This camera is 46 mega pixels! All on an APS-c sensor. The direct image sensor in the SD1 captures all of the primary RGB colors at each and every pixel location. There are 15.3 mega pixels per layer using three layers. This is how a 46 megapixel  image is captured.  The Sigma SD1 uses the Foveon X3 Direct image sensor with a APS-C 1.5 Focal length multiplier. Sigma did have images taken with the SD1 displayed in their booth and the quality is outstanding.

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Ed Can be found at http://www.steelcityphotography.com

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