Video: Nanuk Hard Case Review

Hey folks,

Here is my long overdue review of one of my best pieces of gear I own.  That is my Nanuk hard case.  It has taken a beating and still looks great, works great and most of all has protected my gear.  I trust this case with my equipment and in this video I go over all the features why I prefer using a Nanuk instead of the other cases on the market.

Hope you enjoy this video and I hope it helps you if you are looking what case to get.

Review: Lowepro Photo Sport 200 AW

Hey folks,

In this video I reviewed probably the best photography backpack I have ever seen and used.  This bag is perfect for those who are adventurous and want to have their camera with them safely and comfortably.  Lowepro really hit it out of the park with this bag and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

In the video I go over all it has to offer and why I found it so useful on my travels and trips.

Video: 16-35mm f/4 VR Re-Reviewed

Hey Folks,

I have reviewed my 16-35mm f/4 lens again after using it a lot throughout my trip in SE Asia on my FX D600.  So I thought after using it more and using it on a full frame camera I would give it another review.  Here is the video link or you can click here:

http://youtu.be/Arc0lQiKS4o  

Video: D600 Re-Reviewed

Hey Folks,

After using the D600 in Southeast Asia for almost two months I feel that I can give a full review of the camera now.  So I made another video giving my final thoughts on it and I hope you find it helpful!  Let me know if you have any questions.

Tom

Video: What's In My Bag

He folks,

Just made a "what's in my bag" video recently because of the shift in gear I have done recently so this will be the most up to date gear.  It is all the same as my last gear review video however this is all of the gear I use.

Hope you like it,

Tom

Video: Initial Review of the D600

Hey Folks,

I am sure some of you might have been waiting for this review because I have be eluding to the fact I got a D600 recently however haven't posted much about it/from it.  Well that is all going to change now.

Here is my initial review and I will be posted some sneak peeks soon from shoots I have done recently with the D600 so stay posted!  In the mean time you can check out what I think of this amazing camera here on my youtube channel.

Hope you like the review!

Tom

Photo: Family Portrait

Hey folks,

To go along with my last video I did a family portrait with my cell phone (again sorry for the quality however it is better than last time) of all my lenses and cameras.  Hope you like it and I guess it is in time for Christmas haha.  Again I will be selling the 11-16mm and the 17-55mm and potentially the 35 f/1.8G as well.

Also I got new foam from Santa's elves for Christmas so I just re-foamed my Nanuk 925 hard case with my new kit.  It work pretty well and I am excited for my new gear.  So this means I can do a "what's in your bag" video soon because I have my new kit in my case.  Furthermore I got the Lowepro Photo Sport 200 AW bag as well which I will review after I do my D600 review when I get the chance.  I also forgot to do a 50mm f/1.4 D which I will do soon as well.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday!

Tom

Video: Gear Review

Hey Folks,

Currently I am selling two of my lenses and I have acquired two new big things for my kit.  So right now I have the most gear I will have in a while probably.  Because of this I decided to make a video of all my gear going over quickly some pro's/con's of them.  I hope you enjoy the video and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!

Video: http://youtu.be/sMzt-XTFA9A

Tom

D600 Initial Test

Hey,

So I got to use my new D600 in some real world shooting conditions compared to shots for my bookshelf of photography magazines.  After I got through the stills and video I did to test the camera out I will make an initial review of the camera.  I decided not to do an unboxing and review of the camera then because I don't feel those are super helpful since the reviewer just got it.  Also if you want the specs you can read them.

I will be making a video on youtube soon to discuss what I think so far.  What I will tell you is what I saw of the photos on the LCD, the photos were amazing.  The ISO abilities, assuming the photos look roughly the same on my computer, are unreal.  Obviously it blows my old D90 out of the water.  Stay posted for this video!

Tom

Video: SB-900

Hey folks,

Just posted my review of the SB-900 and soon I will post up my quick comparison of the SB-600 and the SB-900.

Hope this helps!

Video: SB-600 Review

Hey folks,

Here is the link to my video for my review of the SB-600!  Hope you enjoy it.

http://youtu.be/8exOoIyITE4

Videos

Hey folks,

Just made a video on my initial thoughts of the 16-35mm f/4 VR wide angle zoom lens as well as my camera, the Nikon D90.  I hope these videos help and if you want me to cover anything just toss a comment below.

Video: Lens Review 17-55mm f/2.8G DX

Hey folks,

Just made/posted a video review for my 17-55mm so I hope it helps!

Tom

Video: Cameron Mini-Max Beauty Dish Set

Hey folks,

Since my beauty dish blog post was so popular I decided to make a video review of it which you can find Here.  I hope it helps and that you enjoy the video!

Tom

Video: 35mm f/1.8G Review

Hey folks,

Here is my video review of the 35mm f/1.8G since it was such a popular post on my blog!

Hope that helps!

Review: iPad 2

Thought I would review my very lovely, slim and stunning iPad 2.

Review: iPad 2

This lovely device was purchased so that I could have a portfolio because I didn't want to keep printing off photos/books as I took photos.  So here is my full review of my iPad since I already did an initial one after I got it.

Thoughts and Opinions:

The iPad is quite the piece of technology.  I expected no less from apple but boy oh boy is it something.  So I will be focusing on it as a tool for photography and it is amazing.  I know I am maybe not using it to its fullest potential but I just needed it for photography.  As I mentioned in my initial review, I was planning on getting some apps which I did end up doing.  I got a portfolio app which I have reviewed already (Portfolio for iPad, Link) and I have also gotten a contract app which I also reviewed (Photographers Contract Maker, Link). From my initial review I said it was user friendly which has not changed.  I love how easy it is to use and that goes the same for my clients as well.  My clients use it to sign contracts or flip through my portfolio and have had no issues with it which is great.  Really makes for a interactive and sometime fun experience for my clients as they use the iPad.

I also mentioned the oil smudges on the screen in my initial review but that is, as I said, one of the things that happens when you have a touch screen.  I personally don't mind it since you can't see it when the screen is bright and you are looking at it dead on.  You can notice if the screen is dim or from the side.  

Image quality is great on the iPad.  I love the ease of flipping through the photos, zooming in on them.  The ability to get an app for a portfolio that allows you to have even more control over how you present your photos is great.  I wrote the review for the portfolio app I have(Link).  The contract app I have is also very good.  The freedom of having no paper, and e-mailing contracts instantly to my client after it is signed is amazing.  The abilities of the iPad itself is amazing plus the additional apps you can get for it, is quite remarkable.  

I also got an eye-fi card which I will review soon.  The ability to upload photos wirelessly to your iPad to view the photos is very cool.  It is a little slow but still very useful since it is nice to see the photos on the iPad screen instead of the camera screen (In my case 3 inches on the D90).

The size is great since it isn't too big it is awkward but big enough to present my photos well.  The one thing about the iPad that threw me off a little was the weight of it.  It is a little heavier than expected however I am used to it now.  But it is lighting than a usual portfolio book.  

The ability of apple products to work together is quite amazing and the iPad has a couple of amazing tricks up its sleeve.  If you have an apple TV then you can mirror your iPad on your TV as well as play music and share photos onto your TV.  This is a great way to share your photos at home or anywhere with an apple TV.  Also on a side note, watching TED talks that are shared from your iPad to your TV is quite a fun thing to do.  

Usage:

I have used it to present my portfolio, sign contracts, and media things like Facebook/e-mail/Twitter etc.  Also I have tested out all the other functions of the iPad like FaceTime etc however I won't cover that here since I like to keep this photography related.

It has been an amazing tool for photography with the portfolio and contract ability alone.

Pros:

- Compact

- Great Design

- Great Display

- Ease of Use

- Battery Life

- Large Amount of Functionality 

- Versatile

Cons:

- Oil Smudge (But again, it's a touch screen)

- Cost

Conclusions:

It is quite the device and I love mine.  I highly recommend the iPad for a portfolio and using it for contracts.  I have used the eye-fi card a little however not a lot but what I have done with it has been very cool.  I am sure there are many other functions I could take advantage of however I want to keep my iPad photography related so it stays professional.  I don't want to worry about other application interfering with my photography.  

So all and all, a very very useful device.  I highly recommend it as a portfolio or a device to sign contracts with electronically.  If you do decide to use it for everything it is able to do, then I am sure you would get a better experience with it.  I just don't want to have a scrabble notification popping through my portfolio or contract app.  

Review: Beauty Dish

Sorry for the small delay on my review of my beauty dish however I wanted to use it enough to make sure I could give a good review.  

Review: Cameron Mini-Max Beauty Dish (Set)

Recently I purchased a beauty dish because I wanted to create different lighting that had more character.  Before the beauty dish I was using two umbrellas with my SB-600 and SB-900.  Most of my portraits had no shadows and were perfectly lit however I wanted more attitude sometimes which two umbrellas couldn't deliver.  So I decided to get a beauty dish.

Thoughts and Opinions:

It was one of the hardest things to assemble since the instructions did not make sense.  Once I decided to ignore the instructions it was easier to built.  However I had never seen how a beauty dish was setup so part of the could have been my lack of knowledge.  Anywho, it is a 20 inch beauty dish and it came with the brackets and a diffuser as well as a honeycomb grid.  The size is great for my SB-900 and the beauty dish and its pieces are well made.  I am not worried about it being cheap and breaking easily.

So far it is a very great light modifier to have.  I do love the light it makes, especially with the grid.  If I need to go back to my shadowless lighting then I can usually achieve it from just using the bare beauty dish or with the diffuser.  

I think it is a great beauty dish to use with a speedlight and is a good size for what I use it for.  I have no complaints with it so far and it is doing everything I need it to.

Usage:

I have used it in five shoots now and I really like the results.  It does add a lot more character than an umbrella which is great.  I am very impressed with the lighting and I find that I am learning to use it even better with each shoot.  

Pros:

- Good Size

- Great Lighting

- Versatile (grid + diffuser)

- Well Built

Cons:

- Springs holding the dish in the centre might lose their spring over time (however there is a spare set)

Sample Images:

Portrait - 50mm f/1.4 D

Portrait - 35mm f/1.8 G

Portrait - 105mm VR Macro 

Conclusions: 

Overall very impressed with this light modifier and I am very impressed with what I have gotten from it.  Well built, lightweight and produces great light.  I hardly have any faults with it and I really like the effect it is having on my portraits.  There isn't much to say about it other than it is a great addition to my lighting setup.

Additional Info (Added October 2012):

Here is the link for my video review of my beauty dish: http://youtu.be/ZUU4LCUCuZM

Hope that helps!

App Review: Photographers Contract Maker

App Review:  Photographers Contract Maker


Description:
This app allows you to write (or use pre-made templates/alter them) contracts or releases for your photography.  It comes with a "Photo Shoot, Model Release, Copyright Release and 2nd Shooter-Work For Hire" contracts.  It allows you to have placeholders where contact information can be inserted into contracts.  This is easily done by the model just filling out a contract sheet and it automatically puts that information into the placeholders in the contract.  The app also allows you to do signatures so there is a signature written on the contract.  It also allows you to have all your information imputed into the app so your information can easily be placed into contracts each time.  The signed contracts also save on your iPad and can easily be e-mailed from your iPad to the client(s) (and yourself).  As well, if you work repeatedly with models, it saves the contact information in the app so the model only has to input their information once.  It had more features to make the app easy to use but those are the main ones in my opinion.


Thoughts and Opinions:
This is a very helpful app to a photographer.  It is so much easier to do releases on my iPad since I don't have to print out releases ahead of time and always have them and a pen with me.  The ability to make your own contracts is a huge plus as well as signing them electronically.  E-mailing the contracts also is a huge plus for me since it again saves paper.  Very impressed with this app.  The placeholders is also a good idea which makes the contracts easy to do.  Overall the app is well thought out and easy to use.


I did a shoot with a model who needed a parent/guardian signature however there was no placeholder for that sadly.  So I just made it as "a witness" however I made sure the wording of the contract made it clear it was the parent/guardian signing.  It did not matter since the placeholder naming doesn't stay in the contract but always good to be clear with clients when signing legal contracts.


Also on a small tangent it is kind of cool for people to use the iPad and such for the contract.  It adds a small cool/fun factor into signing releases since paper work (especially legal papers) isn't fun for a lot of people.


Pros:
- Ease of Use
- Simple
- Usefulness
- Ability to Sign Contract on iPad
- Placeholders
- Ability to E-mail the Contract
- Cost (2.99 CAN)
- (as a side note) also works on my phone! (iPhone)


Cons:
- Pre-made (which is good) placeholders however not customizable (not good)


Conclusions:
Overall a very useful app that is very easy to use.  I know it is a new technology and such but it is hard to describe this since I would say it is a tool for photography.  What I mean is, it is like describing how useful a hammer or drill is to someone in construction.  You should/need to have signed release when working with models and this makes that very ease so I would almost call this a tool rather than some fancy extra app.  So 10/10 on usefulness and it is a great app as well as it is very easy to use.


I highly recommend this app for any photographer who works with models or signs contracts with clients a lot.  All you need is an iPad (or iPhone).

App Review: Photo Carousel

Description:
This app is an app that is used to access your Flickr account.  It also allows you to do slideshows of the account as well as the ability to open multiple Flickr accounts.

Thoughts and Opinions:
I had a Flickr app for my iPhone however when I went to open it on my iPad it was only the iPhone size. I scrolled through Flickr apps and this one was free and seemed very straight forward.  I was not looking for a lot of crazy features, I just wanted to see my photos if I needed to show my Flickr photos.  I really like how simple the display is.  There are no distractions, just the photos.  You can then open the photo in full screen by tapping on the photo.  You can then open that photo in the normal Flickr window to view it's comments and views and such.  I really like this app because you go from a non-distracting view of all your photos, to full screen and then to Flickr's usual setup.  This way, it is easier to show photos than it usually is just using Flickr.

Pros:
- Easy to Use
- Simple Design
- No Distractions
- Good Features

Cons:
- None

Conclusions:
So all and all a great app for showcasing your Flickr.  You can still manage and view your Flickr however it was more designed to showcase your photos which I thought was a great idea.  So for anyone who uses Flickr for their portfolio this would be a great app.  I have no complaints with this app.

And just as a side note, this is my 100th post!  That was definitely a lot more than it feels like.  Hope everyone has enjoyed them thus far.

App Review: Portfolio for iPad

Description:
This is an app for the iPad which as it says, it a portfolio for showing off photos.  It allows you to make different folders to display different content.  It also lets you have control over what folders are displayed if you only want to show certain folders to certain groups of people or clients.  This app also allows you to lock the app so if you pass your iPad around to clients, they cannot access the hidden folders or your settings.  These are just some of the features this app has to offer.


Thoughts and Opinions:
So far I love it.  Thought I would start off with that.  It is very well designed for a photographer (or anyone who may need to present photos) and is very easy to use.  The features are very useful.  I really like only showing what folders of photos I want to be very useful since a potential model doesn't care about seeing my landscapes.  You can rate the photos and then review the folder of photos based on the rating.  This makes the portfolio very useful to me for narrowing down ideas with a client.  Uploading and organizing the photos was easy and I did it with almost no difficulties.  I think I overloaded the RAM a little moving photos around and it did close on me once or twice.  This was fine since I think I was doing a little too much at the same time, organizing and uploading simultaneously.  Another thing I like, is it gives you a place to put a logo which is great.  Not only does it give you a spot, it tells you the exact pixel dimension of the slots for landscape/portrait/external screen layouts.  I currently have my cousin, who design logos, cooking me up one so I haven't fully used this feature but I know when I do it will be great.


Pros:
- Easy of Use
- Great Features
- Well Designed
- Good Presentation Layout


Cons:
- $14.99 is fair but probably could be cheaper


Conclusions:
All and all a very good app.  I really do love this app since the main reason I got an iPad was for it being a portfolio and this app makes it do that for me.  It turns the iPad into a very good portfolio.   I have very little to say against this app.  I would highly recommend this app for anyone who needs to present a portfolio.  I did look into other portfolio apps but this one just looked the best designed and it looked like it had a lot of thought put into it.


I will be using this app a lot more (hopefully) in the future and will update this review as I use it more.