Monthly Archives: April 2011

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Not just moments ago, I posted an article about Lensbaby's new Sweet 35 lens for their Optic Swap system. If you're looking for a cheaper way to get into some make-shift tilt-shift photography, here's that popular DIY Tilt Shift Photography Tutorial from Make Magazine. On Flickr it's also coined as the 'plunger cam'. Nothing like real $2000 dollar TS lenses, but you'd be surprised at some of the images that have been snapped using this technique. If you don't want to use a cheap plunger, more professional versions of this has been made with Volkswagen CV Joint Axle Boots.

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find-price-button Transmission CV Joint Axle Boots

Obviously you'll lose all camera to lens communication, so this DIY is best used with Manual focus and manual aperture lenses. Since it's just a floating lens on a rubber bellows it's not so important which camera mount you choose. You can find a bunch of old manual lenses under $10 dollars to start to having fun with this project over on eBay.

Manual Focus Manual Aperture Lens
find-price-button Manual Focus Manual Aperture Lenses

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visit-button DSLR Cage Rigs on eBay

Here's an interesting DIY DSLR Cage that appeared on auction. It's like a camera caddie meets rotating flash bracket type layout. From the description it's a one off piece, but a very cool setup of handles, base, and accessory mounting points. There's a bit of a back story in the auction details if you want to check it out. It's too bad this thing never flew into production, if the price was right I think it would have done well. This looks like it could have easily stepped in where Varavon's DSLR Armor is trying to take place. Either way, if you're a DIY'er time to take a close peek at this design to spark some creativity. Unless it's sold, you can find it here.

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Yeah I know, almost 10 months later and here I am with only the 'second' post for this 1650 watt Fluorescent Lighting kit. Why did it take so long? Well, they pretty much fell off the map after I posted about them in this old article http://cheesycam.com/1650-watt-6-bank-photo-video-lighting/. There were some smaller units available, but the 6 bank had some production issues I guess. So there was no use to posting any more information on what I thought would be a discontinued item. I'm not going to get into the specs on these, since you can find it back in the original article, but basically each Flo Tube is about 55 watts. They use a reliable italian brand bulb (here we are 10 months later) that to this day still haven't failed me - not one.

Single 6 Bank Panel

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find-price-button 1650 Watt 6 Bank Fluorescent Photo Video Light Panels

Now I use mine quite a bit in the studio, but they have some weight and fragility to them. The panels are solid metal and heavy plastic construction, it's the bulbs that could be more fragile. Not my favorite lights to travel with, but definitely one of my favorite lights to use. The light is very broad and very soft. No need for softboxes or light diffusion for these, they come out pretty flat, cover a large area, with no hot spots. Very little heat makes them great for still photography next to subjects even though they are continuous lights. Dimming is done through a series of switches that turn off a few bulbs at a time. So why consider these over LED panels? Well for starters, you could walk away with 2 of these 1650 watt 6 Bank panels + light stands for about the same price as a 'single' 1200 LED panel. These panels provide a wider area of coverage and several times more light output. So now that they are back online and available, I thought it would be good to show a quality of light sample that a single 1650 watt panel puts out. In this video the guys set it up to shoot through an indoor window in this Chess playing scene.

Double 6 Bank Light Panel Available on Amazon:

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find-price-button 1650 Watt 6 Bank Fluorescent Photo Video Light Panels

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The video above shows off a brief overview of LensBaby's interchangeable optics system such as their 'Composer' and 'Tilt Transformer'. The LensBaby optic swap system allows you to switch to different lenses with slightly different tilt-shift like effects from pinhole, zoneplate, dreamy, soft focus, vintage, fisheye, and more. Although it produced fun and creativity, I personally was not a fan of having to swap out Aperture discs. They do offer adapters that will allow you to mount manual Nikon lenses but only for MFT (Micro Four Thirds) systems and Sony NEX cameras. Well, I have to admit they've come a long way from where they originally started years ago and have just recently introduced a new 35mm Optic Lens with 12 blade adjustable Aperture and will work with Canon EF mounts. Now we're talking!

The new 'Sweet 35' optic is definitely something i'd rock just to get out and get creative. Besides the smooth bokeh you'll get from a 12 blade aperture, it has a minimum focusing distance of just over 3" inches. From F/2.5 - F/22 dialed in on the optic you can get select focus or most in focus, along with that trademark Lensbaby blur. On Full Frame Cameras, there could be a slight vignetting, but that just adds more to the popular artistic throw back look people are going for. More about Lensbaby's Optic Swap system can be found here: https://lensbaby.com/optics.php

The new Lensbaby Sweet 35 optic available for pre-order here (don't forget you'll also need the additional adapter).

Screen shot 2011-04-04 at 11.47.57 AM
find-price-button Lensbaby Sweet 35 Selective Focus Optic w/ 12 Blade Aperture

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15mm-Fuel-Line-Clamp

Anyone have access to this clamp? Unlike those ugly common worm gear clamps (like these), this metal band has a bolt and a pass through (on the other side). From the looks of the design, it shouldn't be very hard to drill out the old bolt and swap it out with a standard 1/4 x 20 threaded bolt making it easy to mount accessories to your 15mm Rails. The range for these clamps vary, but there's a few that fit 13mm-16.5mm and some that fit 15mm - 17.5mm. I'll probably pass by a local auto store to see if these type of clamps are on the shelf, and hopefully they work out since you can get a pack of 10 for under 6 bucks.

DIY-Clamp
find-price-button 10 pack Hose Clamps Effective Diameter Range: 15/32" - 41/64" (13.5mm - 16.5mm) for 3/8" Hose

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How serious is the world taking the (MFT) Micro Four Thirds movement? Pretty seriously I guess if Zeiss is now making the Compact Prime cinema lenses for a native MFT mount to cameras like the GH1, GH2, or Panasonic AF100. Originally available in just PL, and then to interchangeable PL + EF (Canon) mounts, this new move to MFT could mean there is something special down the line we haven't even heard about yet. I'm just speculating....

Already available to ship (takes a few weeks) if you've got a big budget. Otherwise, you might just be better off renting them on a 'per project' basis. The Zeiss CP.2 Prime Lenses for Canon EF mounts can already be rented from BorrowLenses.com found here: https://www.borrowlenses.com

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find-price-button Zeiss MFT mount Compact Prime CP.2 Cinema Prime Lenses

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Amazon Cloud Drive

Amazon's making it easier to store files online, which of course can be accessed from any Internet connected computer. This isn't anything new with companies like Microsoft's SkyDrive and Google Docs, but unlike Skydrive the max file size for individual files are 2GB and the UI looks much better than Google's Docs. Amazon is best known as a retailer, but what most people don't know is they are of the most reliable networks solutions online.

Secure and fast, it's all based on Amazon's S3 platform which was a huge game changer for online Photo Businesses that needed scalable and reliable storage solutions. If i'm not mistaken, it's also the backbone for Vimeo's video storage. S3 normally took a bit of coding or use of some third party uploader, but now Amazon's making storage more consumer friendly. Additional online storage can be purchased if needed, but one thing it's lacking is the ability to share out your stored files. Not a deal breaker, especially since you get 5GB free with just your basic login. Good for photos and for videos that need to be accessed from any internet connected computer. Check it out here: Amazon Cloud Drive File Storage

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barcode-canon

Next time you see these barcodes, you can scan it with your mobile device to get instant access to information, websites, videos, and more with Microsoft Tags. Microsoft Tags are a new kind of colorful bar code that can be 'scanned' from your smartphone, giving you near instant access to web pages with detailed information about the product to help you make a purchase decision, including Ratings & Reviews from others who already own it. Once you install the free application, you simply launch the app on your smartphone, point your phone at the Tag, line it up in the crosshairs - and depending on your phone - either wait for it to scan the Tag or snap it yourself as if you were taking a picture.

Canon-bar-code

All the information you'll need to get started can be found here: https://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/standard_display/microsoft_tag?WT.mc_id=EM1104CG01007&RID=1-184AEK&CON=1-2B31-780&PRO=&CID=1-14P1Y1

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The new sold out Rode VideoMic Pro should be coming around in stock in the next few weeks. This microphone has been performing really well and has excellent quality for the price and size. If you're not already on the pre-order list, it might be something to think about in case it's sold out again.

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find-price-button Pre-Order Rode VideoMic Pro

One very small thing that you should consider carrying around is the Rode Extension cable. Of course this 3.5mm stereo cable extender will work for other 3.5mm microphones as well. This makes moving the microphone closer to your subject simple, and doesn't require any fancy wireless transmitters or receivers. Using this extension cable will help you position your camera within a distance of 10' feet or if you run the microphone to a Portable Recorder, you can keep the recorder close by to control and monitor levels. A basic light stand or microphone boom pole and you've got yourself a great little interview kit. Oh and yes you can find these types of cables in other electronics stores, but make sure you have the shielded version to prevent any additional interference. At about $10 bucks, you can't go wrong with the Rode version.

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find-price-button Rode 3.5mm Extension Stereo Cable