Andrew Macpherson

Pros: can be taken where tripods are banned, magnetic attachment very slick, good hiking staff, easy to deploy as a stand
Cons: mount locking clip fragile and easy to lose, attachment screw for legs section falls apart

This review was first published on the Warehouse Express website

“I had a problem — I’m a dedicated tripod user, and the holiday firm advised that tripods are either a source of hassle or local revenue in Marrakech. Additionally I’m a bit stiff with tendonitis so a walking staff seemed a good idea. I spent a week on the internet looking at alternatives and the excellent videos on the Trek-tech website convinced me. (continue reading…)

NeoCube

My friend David very kindly gave me a cute toy for the Solstice — a set of Neodymium spherical magnets marketed as the NeoCube — they’re fairly small but extremely powerful. Once one gets over being able to have a handful of ball-bearings that don’t go flying off in all directions,the obvious use is for still life exercises.  One can make rather amazing structures as the photo demonstrates, and the videos on the company’s website are an entree to endless hours of frustration.

So anyway it’s a nice difficult subject to light and photograph.  highly polished spherical items.  I had fun with soft-boxes, and black and white foam boards till I got a set of reflections that I liked,  Then the fun begins, to try to photograph it.  The image will only be in focus for very slightly more than a hemisphere at F11 with a full set of macro tubes.  I’ll be making a later post with some good links about circles of confusion, hyperfocal distance and the digital vs film non-issue triggered by thinking about this. (continue reading…)

Ever feel “They saw me coming?”   I usually do after a photography related transaction.

The other day I was looking for an extended shutter release, say 5m or so.  Canon’s own brand for my EOS 5D was about £40 for the nice handy one one uses in conjunction with the tripod, — about 0.8m in length.  to extend it Canon offer a 10m cable with appropriate plug and socket at either end for a mere £80.   This certainly feels like the Mickey is being taken somewhat.

Slightly better, EOS magazine are offering a wireless (radio not IR)  remote for £50, with a good long range,  but it really is a case of E-Bay to the rescue, as it cuts out most of the middle men between Chinese manufacturer and consumer.  Even when you add in £11 handling charge by the royal mail for paying the duty, one can still win massively.

In this case I got a wireless remote, with pre-release focus and bulb mode, for £12, no shipping, and it was under the duty threshold (£18)  At the same time I indulged myself in a macro focusing rail — you know — one of those bits of precision metalwork that the tripod makers want about £200 for?  From the same supplier in China it was a mere £32 and offered side-to-side as well as in-and-out adjustment.

And the delivery only took 5 days.

Shopping around the globe is now trivially easy.  Where there is no good reason to go with the original manufacturer’s accessories, it really pays

Speaking of mount board as I did in the last note. I’ve just upgraded from the Logan Compact mount cutter to the Model 450 Intermediate Mat Cutter.

The Model 301 did the job, but it had 2 prolems as far as I was concerned

1. The guide rail is sprung, rather than hinged. This turns out to be a major pest.
2. The bed is too short to cut A1 mountboard along it’s length

Of these having my fingers eaten by the sprung guide rail was top of my reasons to change.  Didn’t lose more than the VAT when I sold the old compact on E-Bay they seem to keep their value well, and I’m very pleased with the upgrade.

Both versions come with the same very useful how-to DVD to get one going