Kerry talks to Jim Divitale about using speciality lenses like the Lensbaby Composer in commercial shoots. Jim talks about how to tell clients about the effects, how to prepare for a shoot, and the comparision between the effect of of a Lensbaby versus a Tlt-Shift and 4×5 View camera.

During a wedding shoot one day I noticed that my flash was only firing occasionally. After the initial panic, I quickly figured out that if I held the flash with a little counter-clockwise tension, then the flash worked fine. At the first break, I tried my backup camera and it was doing the same thing. When I got home, I checked it against my daughter’s 20D and it worked fine, and it also seemed that the hot shoe on my cameras was loose compared to hers.Another symptom of this is that the flash will switch from E-TTL mode into TTL mode and the exposure will usually be very overexposed.

I have always been a proponent of keeping my cameras looking brand new. A big piece of keeping your camera new is protecting the screens. This has been an age-old issue that affects all modern, digital cameras from point and shoots to professional SLRs. With typical protectors seeming overprices at $10 to $15 for a piece of plastic film smaller than the palm of your hand, why would you spend quite a bit more than that for the Giottos Camera Screen Protectors? We needed to try these out and see if they were worth the extra cost.

We kick off PMA 2009 with a little video montage and an interview with Trek-Tech (http://trek-tech.com). PMA is the largest photography trade show in the US and happens once a year. This year the show is in Las Vegas, NV and is quite huge! While you have the big companies like Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc showing their current product lines, you also have tons of smaller companies with innovating products that are looking for distributors or retail stores to carry their products.

Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw 5.3 have graduated from Adobe Labs and are now available as final releases on Adobe.com. These updates include camera support for the following models:(Previously provided in the release candidates of these updates)

The only thing better than being able to do off-camera flash is the ability to do it wirelessly. The problem is that the remote control systems that are builting into today’s cameras are lacking in …

Today Canon dropped two new tilt-shift lenses that update the previous models that were discontinued recently. The new TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II offers enhanced functionality and image quality in its most popular tilt-shift focal length. Designed with UD glass to minimize and compensate for chromatic aberrations and specially coated aspherical elements for the highest possible glare-free image quality, this tilt-shift lens features an angle of view of 74°. New TS revolving lets users freely combine tilting and shifting within the range of +/- 90° in the direction of movement.

Kerry talks to Mike Wong from OnOne Software about their newest releases of their popular plugins for Photoshop (and now for Lightroom).

Mike talks about the possible future for plugins and for OnOne Software and hints at possible tools for the Apple iPhone and for dealing with video from new cameras such as the Nikon D90 and the Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

Camera Raw 5.3 and Lightroom 2.3 Release Candidates are now available on Adobe Labs.(Camera Raw 5.3, Lightroom 2.3) The release includes new camera support for the following models:

* Nikon D3X
* Olympus E-30

There are several bug fixes in this update

Do you have dreams of shooting a Canon 1Ds Mk III? The new Canon 5D Mk II? The Nikon flagship D3X? Or how about shooting with a $1,600 70-200 IS L 2.8? If you are like me, that’s pretty much all we can do is dream about the day we can afford high end gear like that. Rentals are always a good option either since most places require a deposit equal to the purchase price of the equipment.