Overview

The SpiderPro Holster is a unique device that allows you to place your camera on your waist and then be hands-free…and strap free until you are ready to use your camera again. For me, when I am not shooting, I am usually doing something with my hands like working with a product, helping someone to pose, or arranging items for a shot. Having a strap means that my camera is often in the way, sometimes swinging into something or getting in my way. The SpiderPro Holster securely holds your camera via a special plate on the bottom of your camera keeping is close, secure, and still easily accessible.

Features

The main parts of the Spider Holster system include the holster itself that straps to a belt that will hold your camera, the SpiderPro Plate which attaches to the bottom of your camera, and the SpiderPro Pin which attaches to the Plate and allows it to sit inside the holster.

The SpiderPro 1-Camera kit consists of the following components:

• 1 SpiderPro Camera Holster
• 1 SpiderPro Plate
• 1 SpiderPro Pin
• 1 SpiderPro Belt

Setup

There is only a small amount of prep work to get ready to use the SpiderPro. First you have to determine if you are going to wear it on your right or left side so you can put the holding stud into the correct position on the camera bracket. Next, you need to attach the bracket to the tripod mount on the bottom of your camera. The mount tightens with an Allen wrench that is stored in the camera mount bracket. Finally, you need to adjust the belt for your waist. Once you have the belt on, you are ready to start using it.

Usage

Using the SpiderPro holster is a very different experience than using a strap. Once you slide your camera into the holster, you are completely free of anything bogging you down and you are free to use your hands. I have to say, while any strap allows your hands to be free, with the SpiderPro Holster this takes that concept to a new level because there is nothing around your neck or on your shoulders, this is a very liberating feeling. The only issue I have is that I don’t feel overly secure not having any kind of strap on the camera in case the camera slips out of my hands. A simple solution to this is a wrist strap for your camera if you need that little extra piece of mind.

Keeping the camera on your waist instead of your neck and shoulders is actually more comfortable than I had expected. I position mine a little more towards my back than directly on my side so that a lens on the camera tends to ride behind me a little which helps protect my gear as I am maneuvering in tight areas.

My camera feels extremely secure in the holster even when the safety latch isn’t closed.

Results

While the SpiderHolster looked interesting when it first came out I was pretty happy with the existing strap I was using. While I was at WPPI this year I stopped by the SpiderHolster booth and really got some hands-on time with it. I was actually so impressed with it that I felt I really needed to give it a long term try. It only took a few outings with it to be convinced that it was going to be my primary way to carry my camera.

Using the SpiderHolster is comfortable and easy to use and I certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a better system.

Score Card

The SpiderHolster was pretty easy to grade since the only setup is to put the mount on the bottom of your camera and adjust it to your size. As for features, while it has a single purpose, it does it extremely well. The very nice clasp and the lock mechanism add to an already great package. The system is very easy to use and works great to help you from getting sore after carrying your gear all day. At $135 (Amazon) it isn’t cheap but is well worth it for the ease of use.

Website: http://spiderholster.com

Strap used in video: http://www.cottoncarrier.com/

Have you ever pulled out a copy of a major magazine’s issue of their “Best of” products and wondered why some products made it and other products didn’t? One of the main reasons is often that a major company, that has a great and innovative product, simply won’t pay the submission fee to the publication or don’t know that a submission is required. Some companies consider this to be a form of extortion and just won’t pay to have their products “considered” for an award. This also means that copycat companies can come out with a competing product and use these submission fees as a form of paid advertising. Let’s face it, if you have even a mediocre product but it gets named as one of the most innovative products of the year in what appears to be an unbiased article, this can really kick start a company.

What do these awards cost a company? Depending on the publication, they can range from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. An industry insider says that some publications base awards on yearly advertising and not on any reader votes while others require you to pay to have your products considered with some unknown panel making the final decision.

So how are you to know if an award is given out based on any merit at all? The reality is that you don’t. Can a small panel of judges be completely unbiased? It’s rather hard to say for sure. With many of the big name photographers being sponsored by multiple companies, conflicts of interest are quite easy to come by. Large advertising contracts are worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars so there is always motivation to give big advertisers favorable reviews and awards.

Our insider goes on to tell us that the danger to a company is that if they don’t give into these types of extortion-based awards, that it leaves that category wide open for an lessor known company, or one with a poorer quality product to get this type of industry recognition.

How can you recognize these types of awards programs? It’s actually not that difficult. Looks for the same company to be mentioned in multiple categories, products that have no new innovation or unique feature winning awards, products with poor user reviews getting rewards, or an older product with no perceptible change from the previous year getting awards.

I asked our insider what the reader should consider when reading these awards articles. She says that so long as people don’t think of these as merit-based awards and instead as the thinly disguised paid advertising that most of them are, then they are less apt to base a purchase decision on an undeserved award.

Basically, the message here is reader beware. Whether its a paid award, contests claiming to give away product with no winners ever announced, or other veiled forms of marketing. Read through the disclaimers, rules, and criteria to determine exactly how these awards are being handed out before taking them at face value.

Lensbaby Announces Availability of Composer® Pro for Mirrorless Cameras

Now the Composer Pro delivers ultra-smooth creative control for photographers with Micro 4/3rds, Sony α NEX and Samsung NX cameras too

Portland, OR – April 2, 2012 – Lensbaby announces its popular SLR creative effects camera lens, the Composer Pro, is now also available for Micro 4/3rds cameras (including Panasonic Lumix™ G Micro System and Olympus PEN®), Sony® α NEX, and Samsung NX cameras. The Composer Pro for mirrorless cameras is compatible with the Lensbaby Optic Swap® System and ships with the Double Glass Optic installed.

The Composer Pro, launched in March 2011, refined and enhanced the popular and award winning Lensbaby Composer® by upgrading the swivel ball and focus mechanism to provide professional performance. The Composer Pro’s metal swivel ball design and refined focus mechanism deliver ultra-smooth focus and tilt control. The updated focus mechanism features a fluid and accurate dampened focus ring comparable to the focus mechanisms of the highest quality professional manual focus lenses. This smooth, fluid operation makes the Composer Pro the perfect choice for discerning professional photographers and videographers who want to create ground-breaking creative imagery – and now they can do so with their mirrorless cameras as well.

The Double Glass Optic, a 50mm f/2 selective focus optic, creates a Sweet Spot of sharp focus that photographers can move around the photo by tilting the Composer Pro’s swiveling lens body. The Composer Pro is compatible with the complete range of creative optics in the Lensbaby Optic Swap System including the Edge 80, Sweet 35, Fisheye, Soft Focus, Pinhole/Zone plate, Single Glass, and Plastic. Each optic can be swapped into the Composer Pro to deliver a different creative effect.

The Composer Pro for mirrorless cameras joins Lensbaby’s growing family of lenses, which now includes the Composer Pro for SLR cameras, Composer, Scout, Muse, and Control Freak.

“We’re excited to give mirrorless camera shooters full access to the Lensbaby Creative Effects system. With so many photographers opting for these smaller cameras for on-the-go shooting situations, our one lens with so many creative effect options will make a great addition to their set-up,” said Craig Strong, Lensbaby Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer.

Composer Pro for Mirrorless Cameras Specs:
Refined metal ball design delivers ultra-smooth focus and tilt control
Ships with the Double Glass Optic installed
Compatible with the Lensbaby Optic Swap System
Focus Type: Manual
Size/Weight: 2.25″ (5.71cm) high x 2.5″ (6.35cm) wide / 4 oz (113.4g)
Tilt range of up to +/- 17.5 degrees

Double Glass Optic Product Specs:
Focal Length: 50mm
Low dispersion, high refractive index, multi-coated optical glass doublet
Aperture Type: Interchangeable, magnetic aperture disks
Apertures: f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22
Selective focus optic (creates a sweet spot of focus surrounded by gradual blur)
Focus distance when used with Composer Pro: 18″ to infinity
37mm front threads accept all Lensbaby accessory lenses
Composer Pro for mirrorless cameras is available now from Lensbaby-authorized photo specialty stores worldwide and from lensbaby.com. Composer Pro for mirrorless cameras retails for $300 MSRP.

Lightroom 4.1 is now available as Release Candidates on Adobe Labs.   The ‘release candidate’ label indicates that this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all of our customers.  The final release of Lightroom 4.1 may have additional corrections or camera support.

Bugs Corrected in the Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate

The following bugs that were part the Lightroom 4 releases have been corrected. The team appreciates the very detailed feedback the community has provided on Lightroom 4 and we’re excited to correct a number of issues experienced by our customers. These issues have been FIXED:

• Point Curve adjustments made in Lightroom 3 and before have been restored.
• Lightroom 4 did not properly open external applications when using the “Edit In” functionality.
• Addressed performance issues in Lightroom 4, particularly when loading GPS track logs, using a secondary monitor, and the controls within the Develop module.
• Ability to update DNG previews and metadata for more than 100 photos has been restored.
• This update allows for improved viewing of subfolders and stacks in folders with a large number of photos.
• It was possible that a layout of a saved book could be lost after quitting Lightroom 4.
• Please provide feedback on your experience with the Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate in our Feedback Portal.

New Camera Support in Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate

• Canon EOS 5D Mk III

Run over to Adobe Labs to grab the Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate

As I said, the sky was just downright ugly with no color in it at all, and worse, it only looked like it was going to get worse. My goal of teaching how to balance flash and bright sunlight was certainly not working out so I decided to show how to make a blue sky of of the drab sky we were looking at.

To start off, I switched the camera’s white balance from Auto to Tungsten. What this will do is to add a blue color cast to the clouds. Here is how the sky looked in both Auto and Tungsten White Balance.

Auto White Balance

Tungsten White Balance

Now that we have some color in the sky, its now time to shoot our model. If we just used a flash, the Tungsten white balance setting would make our subject look more like a Smurf than a human. In order to compensate for the much cooler color temperature we have to reverse that by making the light from the flash much warmer. To accomplish this, I used the ExpoImaging Rogue Gel Kit with the 1/2 CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel.

Using the gelled flash to light our subject, we get the natural looking lighting on the subject while retaining the blue in the sky.

You can use this same technique with different gels to create more dramatic skies by using the opposite of this effect with a nice sunset. Using a cool (blue) gel and setting the color temperature to a higher temperature will create extremely vivid colors. No lighting kit is complete without at least a few color correction gels.

Step One – Friends are the foundation of your business

No, CLIENTS are the foundation of your business. Many of you may not have a lot, or any, friends that need wedding or portrait photography. I do believe that being friends with other photographers is hugely beneficial because it opens opportunities to learn, grow, and gain experience, but do not expect that a large portion of your work will be from other photographers. Your best clients will come from vendor referrals, if you can get them. You need to knock on a lot of doors, make friends with venue coordinators, florists, DJ’s, and every other vendor in your area.

Step Two – Go Ahead, Step Out In Faith, You Can Do It

David says you don’t need much equipment and you can probably borrow what you don’t have. The truth is that you do need a certain minimum of equipment if you are going to make sure that you capture every moment of the most important day in somebody’s life. You need to have at least two camera bodies and a variety of lenses to make sure you can capture the right shots. What if you drop and break a body or lens? What if you have a mechanical failure? What if something else goes horribly wrong? Equipment is not just an investment, it is insurance to make sure you can do what you were hired to do.

Step Three  – Service is your true value. It is the way forward in the industry & you were created for it.

Providing service is certainly the key to customer satisfaction and I don’t think David really make any real point in his section on this except to shoot for the sake of art and not care if you get paid or not. There is certainly a truth buried in there that you do not have to be a great photographer, you just have to be good enough to deliver what your clients want. Secondly, you are selling yourself and how you treat your customers that often is more important than the product itself.

Step Four – Use the hourglass approach

David suggests you offer free service to 100 people and try to get 10 jobs. Once the jobs start coming in, you start charging for it. I can’t begin to disagree with this enough. If you shoot for free, your clients will put zero value on your work. Those free clients are not going to refer high dollar clients to you because they will not value you at all. A quick check of Craigslist will show dozens of “professional wedding photographers” in almost every major city offering complete wedding packages for $500 or less. The only clients that are going to call those photographers are ones that have to because of their budget and they fully understand that their expectations are going to be inline with what they are paying. The act of giving your work away is not going to make your phone magically start to ring with paying jobs.

Step Five – Get your photos organized, edited, and safely shared, It’s not magic, it’s workflow

Talk about a wild over-simplification here. David says to import your images into Lightroom, use automatic settings, and then your his own Lightroom preset to create great images. Lightroom is a great tool and it is my tool of choice for editing weddings, but I would never simply import, use auto-tone, run a single preset, and export the finished images. Every image should be checked for color balance, sharpness, focus, exposure, cropping, framing, awkward faces, and much more. Simply running them through a set of presets is not doing any justice to your work or to your clients. Here is a link some of David Jay’s wedding photos, you might want to check these out before taking his advice on this topic.

Step Six – Honestly and authentically you. Market your brand proactively for the best first impressions

I absolutely agree that you should be honest and authentic. However, David says you should also be cute, well dressed, and talk about your dog. David does make some good points about important pieces to have on your website like your phone number, your prices, and a video. Having a little promo video is really a good idea as it can give your potential client some insight into what you are like and how you work. David also goes into a lot of detail about using Facebook, and when done correctly, I do agree that Facebook is a great marketing tool.

Step Seven – They pay you to be prepared. Get ready

This is probably the best set of information in David’s guide. You should have checklists, you need to have your gear ready, you need to have backup equipment (or as David suggests, friends with equipment that will gladly let you use their gear)…and of course, you need to buy David’s website tools to create a custom website for your customer. Ok, I am on board with almost all of that but I have yet to have a couple that wanted their own website for their wedding even if I was giving it to them for free.

Step Eight – It’s your time, Get in the game

I can’t actually fathom that David would suggest shooting a wedding with no experience. A wedding has a flow to it, it has a cast of characters, it has a specific timing. If you don’t fully understand the nuances that are involved you will not be ready. You absolutely need experience with weddings, and a good number of them too, before you try to be the main photographer for such a special event. You should intern with existing wedding photographers, work up to being a second shooter, and then work into getting to be the primary while an experienced photographer is your second. Would you like to have a doctor that has never practiced an operation before doing a surgery on you? A auto mechanic doing your car’s brakes who is “just winging it”. If you wouldn’t trust an inexperienced person to handle your important work, why would you think it is ok to risk someone’s wedding photos? To even suggest that you should just shoot as many pictures as possible and hope for a few good ones is simply ludicrous.

Step Nine – Your clients want you, not your prints

Yes, you do need to understand what you are selling and often we are not selling prints anymore but what we are selling are memories. If you cannot capture the essence and spirit of the event, and if you can’t freeze those important moments in time that people will treasure for the rest of their lives, than you shouldn’t be doing it. David does suggest that one of the best products to sell is a customized website, using the products that he sells, again along with a $29 a year recurring fee for hosting their images…surely all of your clients will pay you for many years to come to have their images online.

Step Ten – Let client demand decide, price step

Just follow David’s simple tips and be making $120,000 a year in your third year of business. You built a huge demand for your free wedding services and now its time to get rich. Forget about vendor relationships, advertising, marketing, just build up demand by not charging, then start charging and you are all set. I’m sorry folks, if it was this easy, we would all be rich.

What’s not in David’s Guide

What is not in David’s guide…in a word…reality. Let’s face some facts here, not everyone is going to make it as a wedding photographer. I am not trying to blow anyone’s dreams or aspirations here but the harsh fact is that not everybody has what it takes. First off, you need to be a good photographer and this means having both creative and technical skills and that is just not everyone’s skill set. I know extremely creative and artistic people who simply can’t take a good photo and I know highly skilled technical photographers with no creative ability to get great shots. Secondly, you have to be good at business. The business of photography requires scheduling, meetings, accounting, planning, time management, and many other real business skills. Again, not everyone is cut out to run their own business. You will likely spend 90% of your time running your business than actually shooting and this is a harsh reality that people like David will never tell you about because its not exciting, its not sexy, and its not going to motivate you.

If you want to have a successful photography business you need to understand that it is going to take a lot more than a cool website and some basic equipment.

One last point, to address Gary’s post, I may not be a hot, fabulous woman, but I do love my LensSkins on my 70-200!

Did Midland score a win with the XTC300VP4? There is only one way to find out….put it to the test!

Features

There are not a whole ton of features, settings, dials, inputs, outputs or really much of anything to the XTC300VP4. The camera is what it is, and what it is, is a video camera. There are only three settings shooting modes:

• 1920×1080 High Definition @ 30 FPS (16:9 Aspect Ratio)
• 1280×720 High Definition @ 60FPS (16:9 Aspect Ratio)
• 848 x 480 Standard Definition @ 60FPS (16:9 Aspect Ratio)

There are only two controls on the entire camera, the on/off slide switch and the video resolution switch. There are no menus to dig through, cryptic codes to remember, just set the video resolution you want and turn it on to start filming.

First Major Release since April 2010 Packed with New Features and Huge Performance Enhancements

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta, a preview of what’s to come in the next release of the industry standard in digital imaging, is available as a free download from Adobe Labs. Customers can download the beta, try out the experience and provide feedback to the product team. Packed with groundbreaking new innovations, features and incredible performance enhancements, Photoshop CS6 beta is available for the Mac OS and Microsoft Windows platforms. The final release is expected in the first half of 2012.

“Photoshop CS6 will be a milestone release that pushes the boundaries of imaging innovation with incredible speed and performance,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe. “We couldn’t wait to share this beta of Photoshop CS6 with our customers and are looking forward to hearing from them and seeing the ways they are incorporating the beta into their daily creative workflows.”

New Features in Photoshop CS6 Beta

Photoshop CS6 beta demonstrates Adobe’s focus on huge performance enhancements, imaging magic and creativity tools that offer customers a new experience in digital imaging. Key features include new additions to the Content-Aware tools: Content-Aware Patch allows greater control by letting users select and duplicate an area of an image to fill in or “patch” another. Content-Aware Move lets users select and magically move an object to a new place in the image.

Customers will experience incredible performance, powered by the new Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine, enabling near-instant results from popular editing tools including Liquify, Puppet Warp, Transform and Lighting Effects; and a refined, modern interface featuring dark UI options to make images pop. New and re-engineered design tools make creating designs faster and more efficient. Vector layers allow users to apply dashed lines and gradient strokes, searchable layers help quickly zero in on any layer you need, and new type styles let designers quickly apply type treatments to their designs.

In addition, the Photoshop CS6 beta offers all the features of Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended, such as new 3D editing features and quantitative imaging analysis capabilities. These features will be included in the shipping version of Photoshop CS6 Extended when it becomes available.

Pricing and Availability

The Photoshop CS6 beta is available immediately as a free download in English and Japanese. At installation, users will be required to provide an Adobe ID to complete a one-time login and online product activation. For information on how to install Photoshop CS6 beta visit http://www.adobe.com/go/photoshopcs6. Customers can submit feedback via the Photoshop CS6 beta forum: http://www.adobe.com/go/pscs6_forum. Users can also connect with the Photoshop team via the community-powered site: http://feedback.photoshop.com; on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Photoshop; YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/photoshop; Photoshop.com blog: http://blogs.adobe.com/photoshopdotcom/; or via Twitter: http://twitter.com/photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop Family

Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Extended are at the heart of the Photoshop family, joined by solutions for users at every level who want to bring out the best in their digital images either at home, in the office or on the go. Coupled with Adobe Photoshop, the recently released Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 addresses the workflow needs of amateur and professional photographers, helping them create, manage and showcase images in impactful ways. Adobe Photoshop Elements provides consumers with powerful yet easy-to-use tools that organize, edit, create and share photos memories. For mobile devices, the Adobe Photoshop Touch app transforms images with core Photoshop features custom-built for tablets; and Photoshop Express is a free app for simple photo fixes and enhancements, and sharing to social networks.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

Last year I took my wife to Maui for our anniversary and on the very first day the hard drive in my laptop crashed. At the time I had the Nexto DI eXtreme portable storage which allowed me to quickly back up my CF cards each night. Without a portable backup solution, I would have been nervous about losing my data until I got home. Data loss is the ultimate enemy of the photographer so the sooner you get a backup the better off you are. With more and more video projects coming in, I wanted to make sure I had a backup solution for video files as well as still images and the Nexto DI NVS1501 was an obvious choice since I had liked the Nexto DI eXtreme so much. Let’s take a look and see if the NVS1501 is a worthy successor to the eXtreme.

 Features

While the very unassuming case features only an On/Off button and a single small joystick style control, the system itself is actually crammed with features.

In addition to backing up your memory cards, the NVS1501 also allows you to copy your files onto other devices, such as USB drives or memory cards, using an external card reader or the optional Ikegami GFPAK. Data can also be burned directly to Blu-ray Discs.

Nexto DI gave this device safety features such as shock protection, in the form of a built-in free-fall sensor and rubber bumpers. The NVS1501 can also detect and recover from bad sectors by moving data to a safe sector.

Back Up from Various Memory Cards

Offload data from various memory cards (CF, Microdrive, SDHC, SDXC, MS) up to 500 GB

Supports SDXC

The NVS1501 supports the exFAT file system used in SDXC.

Copy Mode and Performance

Fast Copy: Make a new folder and copy all the memory card data into the folder
Copy and Verify: Same as Fast Copy, but after copying, the data on the memory card is compared with the copied data on the NVS1501 hard drive. Each bit is verified
Safe Copy: Before copying data, the NVS1501 verifies that its hard drive area is safe. If a bad sector is detected, a new, safe area is found – then copying (Fast Copy) will begin

Performance

CF: 80 MB/s – 6 minutes, 40 seconds to transfer 32 GB
SDHC/SDXC: 22 MB/s – 24 minutes, 14 seconds to transfer 32 GB
SDHC/SDXC, UHS-1: 60 MB/s – 8 minutes, 53 seconds to transfer 32 GB
MS: 12 MB/s – 44 minutes, 26 seconds to transfer 32 GB

Preview Video and Photo Clip

User can preview video and photo clips with the built-in color LCD. A preview of both files on internal HDD and external device (CF, SDHC, SDXC, MS, USB external HDD) is supported

Making a Secondary Copy to USB Hard Drive

User can generate (sync) a second copy onto an external USB HDD. Export internal data to an external USB hard drive without needing a laptop. Each time you plug in an external USB hard drive to the NVS1501, any files recorded since the last sync will be transferred. Automatically compare the video folders by file names and sizesThe wall power adapter should be connected to both the NVS1501 and the USB external hard drive. Supports copy from USB card reader or GFPAK using USB host connectivity through eSATA/USB combo port

Multi-Copy Onto Two Separate HDD at the Same Time

MCopy (Multi-Copy) enables mirrored data to be copied onto the NVS1501 and an external USB HDD at the same time, to achieve maximum data safety

Designed for Data Safety Shock Protection

Featuring advanced data management capabilities including Recover folder from bad sector, shock protection and success (or failure) feedback of previous backup operationShock protection:
1. Built-in free-fall sensor
The NVS1501 senses when it’s being dropped – it will be triggered to move the read/write head of the HDD away from platter, parking at its original position. The main power will be automatically switched-off
2. Supplied with Rubber Bumpers
A pair of rubber bumper supplied for an additional protectionBad Sector Recovery
If a video folder contains a bad sector the NVS1501 recovers the video folder. It copies data onto good sectors and replaces unusable sectors with a format dependent on dummy sectors. The frames that contain dummy sectors block noises but the rest of frames become usableSuccess (or Failure) Feedback
Next time you switch on the NVS1501, it will display the previous backup result, in order to help the user to determine the deletion of data stored on the memory card

Using the NVS1501 As a Hard Drive

Supports high-speed data transfer to NLE systemIEEE1394b (FireWire 800): 75 MB/s – 7 minutes, 10 seconds to transfer 32 GB
USB 2.0: 33 MB/s – 16 minutes, 17 seconds to transfer 32 GB

Versatile Power Options

Its built-in internal battery makes the NVS1501 the perfect companion for working in the field. The NVS1501 can also be powered by the power adapter, interface cables, a ‘AA’ battery holder, or external battery

Specifications

Charging Time

Approximately 5 hours via power adapter / FireWire 800
Approximately 9 hours via interface cable
Approximately 10 hours via ‘AA’ battery holder

Setup

Other than charging the battery, there isn’t anything to setup. I plugged the NVS1501 into my laptop overnight to make sure it had a good full charge on it. Aside from that, you are ready to plug your memory cards in and start backing up.

If you are going to backup to a secondary device, you will want to plug that in and make sure everything is working correctly, for me, I just use the NVS1501 as my initial CF card reader after a shoot, then I plug it into my computer as an external drive to copy the files to the computer for processing. Each night, automatic processes backup the processing system to redundant storage systems, only after I have verified that those backups worked properly do I remove them from the NVS1501. This helps to ensure that I never lose any data.

Usage

As I mentioned, the NVS1501 has a very simple interface with only a single directional controller aside from the power switch. When the system powers up, the initial screen you get will say “XCopy Ready”, at this point you can insert your memory card.

Once you select the copy method, it just blazes through the copy process. If you are a wedding photographer that uses a second shooter, this is a HUGE time saver for you, within only a few minutes you can back up your second shooter’s cards and send them on their way.  I use 16gb cards for everything and the typical backup takes about three minutes.

My big gripe about the earlier Nexto eXtreme was the eXtremely tiny LCD display, it was almost impossible to read and had no preview function.  While the NVS1501 does have a larger color LCD and does support both still and video playback the screen is still too small to check images for focus and delete images you don’t want.

For some people, also being able to do a secondary backup to another device is a really big deal, especially if you are on the road for extended periods of time before getting back to the office to dump your files.

Probably the biggest improvements, besides the faster transfer, larger LCD, and massive storage, are the safety features. With both free-fall and shock detection, your system is likely to survive falls and bumps that would destroy competing systems.

Results

If you believe in the phrase “you get what you pay for” than you will certainly apply that to the NVS1501. Coming in at $999.99, the NVS1501 is not cheap by any standard but when compared to its biggest rival, the Epson P-7000 at $799.99 the Nexto DI NVS1501 wins in a number of areas including storage (500gb vs 160gb), speed, security, safety, and reliability. To give Epson credit, the P-7000 wins on the display side with a large clear LCD that really allows you to manage and display images and video.

For the photographer on the go, the NVS1501 is a big investment but if you value the security of your images and want the speed that the NVS1501 delivers, than you will find it to be well worth the price.

Score Card

The Nexto DI NVS1501 scores top marks for its ease of use, speed, safety features, and overall design. I did ding the NVS1501 on the features due only to the small screen. Even with the small screen, a better job could be done on the image preview and file management, both things that could be solved with a software update.

On the overall value, I did knock off a point because of the price tag. While the NVS1501 is certainly a valuable tool it is priced out of the range of many people. Fortunately, there are products available from as low as $200 but you will be sacrificing the speed and durability of the NVS1501.

Website: http://www.nextodiusa.com/

Changes since the public beta:

• Reverse geocoding now available in the Map Module
• Revamped and improved auto tone in Develop based on new controls
• Increased range of local white balance controls (temperature and tint)
• Updated Develop presets plus added new presets for video
• Maximum Blurb book size is now 240 pages
• Over 800 bugs found and fixed! (Thank you Lightroom 4 beta customers!)

Lightroom 4 provides photographers the tools to create beautiful photo books with text controls and a variety of easy-to-use templates, as well as a direct link for photo book creation from within the new Book module. A new intuitive Map module displays images already assigned a location, provides location tagging and reverse geo-tagging controls and saved locations for easy assignment of a photographer’s common locations.

Now, native video support gives photographers the capability to play, trim and extract frames from video clips shot on DSLRs, point-and-shoot cameras and smartphones. Video-specific presets and many standard Lightroom image adjustment controls can be applied to video clips, and adjusted videos can be exported as a H.264 file or published directly to Facebook or Flickr.

In the Develop module, presets fully utilize new processing technology and the addition of soft proofing helps photographers tune images in a destination color space to ensure content looks its best. In addition, customers can now email images directly from Lightroom using an email account of their choice.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is now available for Mac and Windows at www.adobe.com/store. The estimated street price is US$149 for new users or US$79 for upgrades. For more detailed information about product features, upgrade policies, pricing and language versions, please visit www.adobe.com/go/lightroom.

This one was recorded in our cargo van so the noise reduction makes it sound pretty tiney. I apologize for the poor audio quality.

Host: Kerry Garrison

We set up the first lightstand with an umbrella, and the wind almost blew my gear and girl away. Debra asked, “Bare flash?”. I replied, “Yes, I think that would be best.” So we set up 3 light stands, each with a bare BB560 flash and Blackbelt receiver. We moved the lights around as needed, sometimes lighting Brian in the car with 1 or 2 lights (plus the sun of course). In a few images we had 1 or 2 lights on Brian, while at the same time having 1 or 2 lights on the car, just to open up the details that would otherwise be black shadows from the low sun.

I shot these images on a Canon 5dmk2, mostly with a 70-200 lens, and a few wide angle shots were done with a 17-40 lens. Lighting conditions being constant, the shots were taken at ISO 50 or 100, from f5.6 to f8, at a 1/200 shutter speed (the maximum sync speed for the BB560). Flash output was set to 1/2 power and sometimes bumped up to full power as needed. I have been using the BB560′s for sometime now and this was one of those shoots where the reliability and power output was really put to the test. They worked flawlessly.

Photos were edited in Adobe Lightroom 4, the black and white images were done with Nik Silver Eex Pro 2, and Nik Color Efex Pro 3 Tonal Contrast preset was used on some of the color images.

If you would like to see more of this collection shot with Blackbelt Lighting Products, you can visit my blog post here.

Thank you Kerry for letting me share this collection with your Dojo friends.

Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors: GoPro, Blackbelt Lighting

Originally called L7 Foto (the L and 7 looking like an open box for ‘think outside the box) and renamed Camera Dojo in 2008 since so many people had issues with the F instead of PH.

I think I really innovated the photography podcast with almost 100 conversations with industry leaders. The first iteration of the podcast was completely unscripted and was never a simple Q&A session. After a hiatus to try to figure out how to re-invent the show, the GoCast was created with just myself as I drive to and from clients, shoots, or other locations sharing my thoughts on a particular topic.

In November of 2010 we launched Blackbelt Lighting Products as a sister site to Camera Dojo to sell good quality lighting equipment at the best prices we could. Blackbelt Lighting grew from just two products to a complete lineup in a very short period of time and continues to evolve and grow.

Looking back, I think I have done a pretty good job of keeping the content fresh, relative, and educational while striving to be as interesting and entertaining as possible. Over the years it has not been the love of the site, a competitive issue, and certainly not money that has kept Camera Dojo alive…it has been the readers. The emails I receive from some of you that something I said or wrote made a huge difference for you, that it changed your photography, or helped your business. Just knowing that I have made even a small difference in some people’s lives has meant everything to me and I very much appreciate hearing from everyone that has ever written in.

Now on to you…what would you like to see? What type of content do you need? Camera Dojo was not intended to be all about me spouting whatever I felt like every week. It has always, and will continue to be driven by the needs and requirements of its readers so let me know what you would like. Feel free to comment below or shoot me an email.

I want to thank all of you for being here, supporting the website, and giving me feedback. I also have to thank all of the sponsors who have graciously given of equipment, resources, and time to help me create content for you. Please support the sponsors of the site as they are some of the best companies in the industry and I couldn’t have done what I have done without them.

So what is in store for The Dojo? You have seen some articles lately relating to video, so look for that to be a big influencer not just on the content, but also in how the content is going to be presented. In 2012 we are going to launch some completely new concepts in photography education, maybe some of the ideas will work, maybe some won’t, but I have never been the type of person to not try something for fear it won’t work. In the end, it will be you, the Camera Dojo audience that will decide what works and what doesn’t. Maybe some of the ideas will need to be tweaked to work properly, but rest assured, I will continue to strive to provide the best content I possibly can and make it as entertaining as possible,

In the following video, Kerry Garrison does a quick overview of some of the new features. Stay tuned for a complete Lightroom 4 Learning Center launching here on CameraDojo.com in the next few days.

To download a copy of the Lightroom 4 beta, please visit http://labs.adobe.com

Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors: GoPro, BlackBelt Lighting

I’ve talked about basic and advanced lighting techniques commonly used for virtually any studio photo shoot, but those lighting setups require more than a single light, and for a beginning photographer, especially one who has a limited amount of studio space and a small budget, retaining multiple lights can be a problem. There is a way to get around using multiple lights though, and that is low key lighting.

Low key lighting is a type of portrait lighting that creates a very dramatic light setup, as well as creates some intense classic looking photos. Low key lighting lends it’s self strongly to a darker side of glamor and artistic photography. This type of lighting can cast a strong exposure on the subject, creating harsh contrast between the light and shadows of your subject, and leaves a majority of the background darkened. There are a few ways to set up a low key lighting setup, but the common factor in almost all low key setups is that they are predominately lit by only a single light.

45 or 90 Degree Angle

Image by Andy Leddy

This setup is the simplest by far, but still creates powerful, elegant images. Place your key light at either a 45 or 90 degree angle from the subject, on either the left or right side of your camera. That’s the entire setup, one light, in one of four locations. While it is a simple setup, the effects of the setup can very greatly. At a 45 degree angle, exposing the front of your subject, you will create a beautiful front exposure, with harsh contrasted shadows. At a 90 degree angle, if you expose your subject from the front you can create an intense split light where the subjects back will virtually vanish into the background, but if you expose the subject from the back you will create the exact opposite effect.

45 or 90 Degree with a Reflector

Image by Cillian Storm

This setup is the exact same as the previous, with the inclusion of a new piece of equipment, a reflector. The reflector is placed on the opposite side of your subject, and directly in front of your light. The light that wraps around the subject, or misses them entirely, is diffused and reflected on the back of the subject, creating a softer exposure. In this way the reflector acts as a fill light. Images shot in this way will not be as dark and contrasted as the previous manner, but will still maintain a much darker contrast ratio.

From Behind

Image by spunkinator

This type of lighting is commonly used to create a much more brooding, or sinister look, by creating an intense silhouette of the subject, only exposing a small area outlining the subject. The best way to achieve this look is with the help of two strong lights, but it can be done with as little as one. Place both lights behind the subject at 45 degree angles on opposite sides. An addition trick to really enhance images shot like this is to actually include the lights in the image. This will create a lens flare look behind the subject, and really enhances the visage of a foreboding or sinister subject.

Kyle Miller has been a professional wedding and portrait photographer for several years. He shares his knowledge on his blog Photography Tips where you can also download his eBook 7 Essential Photography Tips for free.

WPPI Parties Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/315432758592/

Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors: GoPro, Blackbelt Lighting

At almost any event someone will likely say “That’s looks like a great camera, it must take awesome pictures” and over the years people have argued that you can hand a point and shoot camera to a great photographer and they can make amazing photos with it.

Is there any truth behind these statements? Let’s dive into the issue and see what we come up with.

Show Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors: GoPro, Blackbelt Lighting

If you haven’t seen it already, be sure and check out our Lightroom 3 Resource Center.

Now I love Lightroom, it is my primary editing tool but it is not perfect and there are certainly some things I would like to see improved and added and would love to hear what you would like to see in the next major release. Even though Adobe may not be listening to us directly, it will be interesting to see what we can come up with and see what actually makes it into the product when it comes out. I will start with Team Dojo here and then let everyone else chime in with theirs:

Kerry Garrison

• Improved Watermarking
  More options, borders
• Improved noise reduction
  Current NR is really good, but still not quite as good as dedicated software tools
• Improved tethering support
  Current tethering does not allow you to change camera settings and does not support Live View
• Improved Wacom tablet support
  I love my tablet but it is BARELY supported in Lightroom 3, I want FULL support
• Album page design
  Real, actual useful page design with effects, opacity, stacking, etc
• Ability to add video clips to slide shows
  Video editing should be nothing more than beginning and end trimming
• Easier camera specific calibration
  I currently use X-Rite Colorchecker Passport which works well
• Network capabale catalogs
  I use three different machines for editing and this one is a real nightmare for me

Maurice Naragon

• Better image sorting options
• Improved JPEG compression output that matches Photoshops
  Currently you have to use a might higher number in Lightroom for same visual quality at often 2-3 times the file size as a file saved in Photoshop
• Ability to use shift-key to draw straight lines with the local adjustment brush
  Why this hasn’t been there from day one is a mystery

What’s on your Lightroom 4 wishlist? Post in the comments, who knows, maybe Adobe will take a look and try to add some of the more popular requests.

Even though I have talked about this setup several times, recent events have prompted me to bring it up again and for good reason. As I am writing this, I am on a cruise ship sailing towards St. Maarten. One thing about cruise ships is that they make a good chunk of money selling photos. They take photos of you getting other ship, arriving at ports, at dinner, and they have multiple static setups with different backgrounds. When you are needing to pound out hundreds of portraits per day you can’t be spending a lot of time messing with your lighting. So what lighting setup do they use for quick, simple, and consistent lighting? The standard three light portrait setup of course.

Let’s dissect their secret recipe and see how they are using the three light setup so effectively.

To the camera right is a 32″ softbox as the key light. On the camera left is a 42″ umbrella as a fill light, and then high right off the background stands is a third light with a honeycomb grid as a hair light. Why does this setup work so well that they use it exclusively at every one of their stations? The answer is simple, its because it works. The softbox provides some nice directional lighting while the umbrella softens the shadows. The high gridded light adds a splash of hairlight which looks natural for both indoor and outdoor scenes.

While the cruise ship is using 500 watt second monolights, a Westcott Apollo, and a Westcott umbrella, you can put together the same setup for much less. Let’s break down all of the pieces and see what it would cost to replicate this tried and true lighting setup.

(3) Blackbelt Lighting BB560 speedlites @ $95 each
(1) Blackbelt Lighting. Stealth 32″ Softbox @ $79
(1) Blackbelt Lighting 10′ x 12′ backdrop stand @ $85
(1) Blackbelt Lighting Ninja Speedlite Triggers @ $65
(1) Blackbelt Lighting swivel mount @ $15
(1) Shoot through umbrella @ $10
(1) Blackbelt Lighting Samurai Light stand kit @ $65
(1) Bogen Superclamp
(1) Expoimaging Rouge Grid
Printed backgrounds from Backdrop Outlet

All in you are going to be between $700 – $900 depending on the background you get. While this may sound like a lot of money, you would easily spend over $2,500 for big name products. The beauty of a setup like this is that it is a very versatile lighting kit that makes for a great starting point for building upon as your skill increases.

Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors: GoPro / Blackbelt Lighting Products

Features

Before we get into the one feature I really bought the DS214 for (yes, I bought it, full price from B&H, this is how much I wanted it) let’s go through some of the other features that make this unit such a cool device:

• 2 mic channels via the stereo minijack input
• Audio Input Meters
• AGC Disable (to get better SNR from cameras without manual control)
• 30dB typ max gain
• Headphone Amplifier
• Low-noise preamp
• Enclosure fabricated from Aluminum, Approx 3.5″ x 3″ x 1.7″

If you are not an audio expert, you might not know what most of that means, fear not reader, I will do my best to explain it as I understand it.

Our current video DSLR cameras have a single stereo microphone input but usually our microphones only feed in the audio in a single channel (left or right, sometimes combined). Sometimes, we want to use two mics for real stereo input but the difficulty is getting the audio levels to be level between the two channels. With the DS214 (and a specific cable) you can feed two channels into the amp and adjust the input levels with dials on the front of the unit and use the audio level meters to help adjust the levels. Thanks to a headset jack, you can also monitor the audio stream to make sure it is sounding good as well. By integrating a low-noise pre-amp, you can boost the input levels to ensure a goof quality recording.

That is about as technical as I can get without risking the possibility of being completely wrong, so if someone wants to chime in in the comments to help clarify this, please do.

The final feature is the AGC disable (much more on this latter) which rather effectively disables the aforementioned AGC in the camera to allow the camera to record good clean audio.

AGC Disable

There are plenty of amps available with a plethora of features but the DS214 has a feature specific to what I wanted, and this is AGC disable. When you turn on the AGC Disable feature the DS214 mixes both of the left and right channels into a single track that is fed into the left channel while a tone generator feeds a signal into the right channel. The generated tone tricks the AGC system in the camera into thinking there is a lot of noise coming in which causes the AGC to essentially shut off.

While your camera ends up with a really clean audio track on one channel, you also get an unusable right channel that you need to delete in post production. If you are using Sony Vegas or Final Cut, JuicedLink has some instructions for removing the right channel. If you are using Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5, I have come up with the following instructions:

Right click on video clip in the timeline and select ‘Edit Clip in Adobe Audition’
In Audition, right click on sound file in file bin and select ‘Extract Channels to Mono Files’
This will create a file for each channel
Delete the original file and the <filename>_R file
Double-click on the <filename>_L file
Do any processing you want
Save file
Imported new sound file back into Premiere
Right click on video clip in timeline and select Unlink
Delete the audio track
Add new audio track into timeline and align with video track (should snap into position)

How Well Does It Work

To be sure that I was going to get the best results I actually read the DS214 Manual which includes a section on tuning the AGC Disable for the 7D. Once all setup, it was time to try out the new system. I connected an Audio-Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Microphone ($21) and pinned it up near my collar like normal. The resulting audio was so good you could hear every breath I took. I actually ended up having to move the mic from my collar to about mid-chest and turn down the input gain a little. The result was crystal clear audio at a great volume.

Is It Worth It?

If you are planning on doing a good amount of video work and you really want to save time in post production by not having to sync audio that you recorded to a secondary audio device, the $144 may end up paying for itself in very short order. If I only did occasional video, I probably wouldn’t spend the money, but since I do a large amount of video for different client projects and have a huge amount of video work planned for next year, even saving a few minutes per project will pay for itself many times over.

Built-In Obsolescence?

For me, the DS214 was purchased to overcome a shortcoming in the Canon 7D audio system. That being said, the Canon 5D Mk II had the exact same limitation which was eventually overcome with both a firmware update as well as the Magic Lantern firmware mod. The current firmware on the 7D is not allowing the Magic Lantern team to create a package for the 7D. This could literally change overnight if Canon releases a firmware with the ability to disable AGC or allow a Magic Lantern modification. The question is, does the DS214 becoming nothing but an expensive paperweight when this day finally comes. The answer is….no.

Even when the AGC disable feature is no longer needed, I will still have a great pre-amp with separate audio input controls, visual audio indicator meters, and a headphone jack for live monitoring. With these extra features, the JuicedLink DS214 will continue to serve multiple purposes for my video recording purposes.

What Could Be Improved?

The only real issue I have is dealing with how to mount the DS214 to the camera. For me, almost all of my video work is done in a studio with the camera on a tripod. With a simple adapter, I can put the DS214 on the camera’s hot shoe making it very conveniently placed to plug into the camera’s mic port. What would be ideal (in my opinion) would be a way to mount it under the camera and then attach a tripod quick mount to the bottom of the DS214. This would be more convenient when using the camera off the tripod. If you are using some kind of cage for your camera than you probably have more flexibility in your mounting options.

If you are using the 7D and want to use in-camera audio then you really have no choice right now. Until the 7D has a means of disabling the AGC system, there simply isn’t a way to get really good quality audio into the camera.

Juicedlink: http://juicedlink.com/
B&H: juicedLink DS214 $144
Amazon: JuicedLink DS214 $144

Show Host: Kerry Garrison

Sponsors:

• GoPro
• Blackbelt Lighting

Show Sponsors

• GoPro
• Blackbelt Lighting
• Learning Photography eBooks