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Don't say I didn't tell you so if you happen to be short on a few lens caps and body caps. When that happens, it will make things difficult to pack things back into your bag since you can't remove the lens from the body. After a long shoot this past Sunday, i've realized i'm down to a few spares (again). Luckily for a set of two caps, it's just over $1.00 dollar + Free Shipping. Had to grab a few more sets since they'll take about 2 weeks to come in..

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find-price-button Canon Rear Lens and Canon DSLR Body Caps

For an important list of other inexpensive spare items (including Front Caps with Logos, Hoods, & Pouches), check out this article: http://cheesycam.com/hoods-covers-caps-and-pouches/

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The Zoom H4n Portable Audio Recorder is a trusty little tool that almost every DSLR team has on hand. If you're looking for the cheapest deal, right now you can pocket a good 20% off on the factory refurbs + Free Shipping. Hard to find normally but a popular store front on eBay (which I purchased a few Zoom H1's from) has a few kits available which includes all the accessories from Wind Screen, mic stand, AC adapter, USB cable, 1GB Card, and Protective travel case. Cheaper than even used Zoom H4n's on eBay..

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find-price-button Zoom (Factory Refurbished) H4n Portable Audio Recorder

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A brand new Canon 5D Mark II will still run you about $2500 dollars retail on any website. A used Canon 5D Mark II Body over on eBay will still run you over $2100 dollars and that's not knowing it's true condition. Canon right now is running some specials on their Refurbished Equipment website with a 10% off Promotional Code bringing down the Canon 5D Mark II (refurbished) bodies to $1799. Yeah that's a pretty sweet deal for a full frame body with excellent low light capabilities. Sure it's a refurb, but it's coming from Canon with a 90 Day warranty.

If you're looking to pick up used equipment, I think these official Canon refurb units are still a safer bet than going for a used version off the auction site. Aside from the 5D Mark II, there's 7D's, T2i's, 60D's, and a bunch of lenses including L series refurbished. Promotional Code is fam211 and the link is here.

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The 352 LED Ring light has a certain effect on how it throws light around a subject, so my buddy Dave decided to test it with a Photo Shoot. I removed the ugly bracket and just used a Friction Power Arm. With the Power arm, it can be mounted onto a light stand or to a camera hot shoe and also allows it to be positioned in many ways.

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find-price-button Adjustable Accessory Power Friction Arm

The Ring light really needed to be dimmed, it's just too bright at full power, so there's still plenty of power not shown in the video. The 14.4V DIY battery pack I made lasted for hours, and I could have used the Ryobi batteries too. The rim light to separate the subject was the cheap 500 LED (dimmable knob type) Light panel hung from a beam. To add the halo, there's a Nikon speedlite snooted off to the side. To do this, you can also use these HoneyComb Grids.
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find-price-button Harbor Honeycomb Spot Grid with Colored Gels

All images of the model were shot with Continuous light, even the Canon 7D video used only the light from the 352 Ring light (and 500 LED from the back). The 352 LED Ring light is definitely a great tool and with the battery pack makes it much more usable, pretty cool stuff.


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find-price-button 500 LED Video Light Panel Dimmable

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find-price-button 352 12V Capable Dimmable LED Ring Light

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You never know when you might need to whip out a Portable Audio Recorder, so in that situation Vimeo member Alex Campbell introduces some very inexpensive (or free version) iPhone software that allows for some pretty neat audio recording tricks. Of course you'd need an iPhone for this to work. A few cool features are the built in Gain Controls and Hiss Reduction filter. Alex also links over to a company that sells adapters to input other microphones to your iPhone such as the Rode VM. Very cool if you're in a bind and already have an iPhone, just make sure you don't receive a call.... [Thanks Alex]

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visit-button Panasonic AG-AF100 Rental from Borrow Lenses

If you've got a big project coming around, one of the cameras creating buzz is the Panasonic AG-AF100. You might think it's a large GH2, but it's got quite a few more bells and whistles. Of course, if you don't shoot enough to consider owning one, the Panasonic AG-AF100 is available to rent via BorrowLenses.com. The AG-AF100 records to basic SDHC cards which you probably already have, and with the right adapter, you'll be able to mount pretty much any lens to this camera giving you more flexibility. You can find more information here: https://www.borrowlenses.com/f386e017

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NAB-show

The 2011 NAB Show in Las Vegas is going to be huge this year, and several rumors are circling around some new Canon Releases (maybe new Full Frame Camera?). Conferences begin April 9th, Exhibits start Aprill 11th, overall show ends on April 14th.

So if you weren't planning on spending the whole time out there and haven't decided which days to attend, you might want to consider the AllInFilm.org Poker Meetup at the Hard Rock Hotel on April 11th.

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From the site:

ALL-IN film is a charity poker meet-up for filmmakers and film lovers. Players have the opportunity to win huge prizes and hang out with film industry professionals. Proceeds benefit the American Red Cross.

All of your favorite icons will be headlining (in no particular order) including Vincent Laforet, Philip Bloom, Kevin Shahinian, Jon Conner, Barry Green, Alex Lindsay, and Cristina Valdivieso. Sounds like a fun even to attend, but what isn't fun about Las Vegas?

More information at the website: https://www.allinfilm.org/2011.html

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MacBook Air ThunderBolt PortScreen shot 2011-02-24 at 8.55.38 PM

The new MacBook Air was a great announcement for the traveling telecommuter, but nothing to glance about for Video editors. Now the announcement of this new MacBook Pro with super fast ThunderBolt port might be an eye opener. A new port that's 12 times faster than Firewire 800 and 20 times faster than USB 2.0? A battery said to run 7 hours on a Quad Core system? Lots of crazy new specs if you're a Mac-a-holic. You can read more about the new MacBook pro over at the Insights blog: https://computers.bhinsights.com/content/ride-thunderbolt-new-macbook-pro.html/