Photography Gadgets

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YouTube member John Waskey writes in and shares his secret to a budget Motion controlled Timelapse slider. As an Astronomy fan, he uses a Telescope Motor mounted to a Kessler Dolly. Probably one of the best variable speed motors i've seen that can run you just under $40 bucks, specs on it state it can last up to 40 hours on a single 9 volt battery. What's the top speed? I'm not sure, but it can move slow enough to produce great time lapse footage, and it's already boxed up ready to mount. You can find these motors available below. [Thanks John]

via Amazon:
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find-price-button Telescope Motor Drive

via eBay:
Telescop Motor Time Lapse
find-price-button Variable Speed Telescope Motor for DIY Motion Time Lapse Slider

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With all the new cameras making SDHC media the standard you'd think prices would hold. Or would it be the new SDXC format pushing SDHC prices down? Check out the Transcend 32GB SDHC Class 10 media cards dropping down a few more dollars.

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find-price-button Transcend 32GB SDHC Class 10

Also available via Amazon Transcend 32 GB Class 10 SDHC Flash Memory Card

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Wanted to put the T3i's new 3x Zoom featuer to the paces, so I shot some bugs with the 100mm F/2.8L IS Macro. At 10x you do notice it gets soft and it's pretty hard to see what's going on with these little guys. So for now here's an all 3x Zoom video which shows the original camera position. (except for the first few seconds. You'll see the text change). The shakiness was because it was a windy day, it's not from the camera. It's also pretty hard to pan at 3x Macro, everything is exaggerated.

I know what you're thinking. Wow, what a rare treat to find a flower full of sooo many lady bugs with great fill lighting? A very unique experience to have outside in nature. Ok, I admit. I cheated. Just a little.

I'm going to try this again in a more controlled environment when I get my real lights setup. I was at home and limited to what I could use. You can't use bulbs that generate too much heat or the flower will wilt and the lady bugs will 'crisp'. These little FLO's don't output as much as the LED panels which i'll try (maybe tomorrow).

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find-price-button Canon EOS Rebel T3i 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR

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The Canon T3i is in, and so far looks very close to a Canon T2i. There is one cool feature that none of the other Canon's have and it's the 3x-10x Zoom feature. The T2i and 60D had something similar but could not perform this while shooting in HD resolution. The Panasonic GH2 already had this feature built in, so it's nice to see Canon stepping up with the same.

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The new T3i has this Zoom ability that can only be used in 1080 either 24fps or 30fps. You can't use this feature when shooting in 720. It's not a hard set Zoom factor, as you can start at 3x and slowly work your way to any Zoom in between all the way up to 10x. For people trying to find a solution to shooting far (wedding guys?), this new feature can essentially change my 100mm F/2.8 into a 1600mm F/2.8. So a simple 50mm F/1.4 can become a 500mm F/1.4. You see where this can come in handy? Oh and because my 100mm is one of Canon's finest 'Macro' lenses, the 10x feature on this lens is 'INSANE!!'. A must see, I mean seriously this is where this feature really really shines. It's crazy....

Let's hope Canon has the ability to throw this feature in via Firmware updates to our older cams, but don't hold your breath.

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find-price-button Canon EOS Rebel T3i 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR

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Yongnuo-RF-603

Thanks to David for reminding me about Yongnuo's new RF603 Wireless Flash Triggers. The new RF603 version (replacing RF602) is both a transmitter and a receiver hence the name 'transceiver', so you can use each one as both. The old RF602 version required both a separate transmitter and reciever unit in order to work. There's a few more new features that make the RF603's a better buy if you don't already own a set, but a bit of bad news is that they are 'not' compatible with the older RF602's. Blah. I have quite a few of the RF602's.

One thing that might be confusing if you're looking at the product pages would be the difference between Canon and Nikon versions. The units are all the same and the difference is the provided shutter cable. The RF603 Transceivers can also act as a remote and receiver to fire your Camera's shutter wirelessly (sorry no video starting). You can find out more information about Yongnuo's RF603 following the link.

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find-price-button Yongnuo Transceivers RF603 Wireless Flash Triggers

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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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I'm still set on getting some type of Tilt Shift lens (eventually), but if you just want to experiment putting some videos together you can do this without an actual Tilt Shift lens. One of the popular tricks is to shoot far. Really far. Here's an example of a Tilt Shift video I posted that used post processing software to create the effect: http://cheesycam.com/tilt-shift-without-the-tilt-shift-lens/

Here's another example from Vimeo member Mark Rigler. In order to get these shots, he used an inexpensive Samyang 500mm mirror lens. Afterwards, the Tilt Shift effect was added in post.

Sounds like a monster telescope, but mirror lenses use a technique to multiply the image inside a small form factor. The cons to using this technique is some softness and loss of light and the best of the best Mirror lenses at 500mm might be about F/6.3. The pros are you're able to get a crazy distance in a lightweight lens for super cheap. These lenses are often rebranded so Samyang is just one name. You can also find them in Rokinon, Vivitar, and Bower. Imagine using this lens on a GH2 or T3i with new Cropped modes - Crazy far!

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find-price-button Cheap 500mm F/6.3 Mirror Lenses

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find-price-button Micro Four Thirds 4/3 Tilt Shift 50mm F/2

Owning Canon DSLR's make it pretty expensive to get into some decent Tilt Shift lenses, but for Micro Four Third cameras there's more options and come a bit cheaper. Looking to get some Tilt Shift action going on the GH2 there's a few inexpensive lenses I've been following. These lenses mostly shop themselves around under the name Photex, Arax, Big, Fotex, and Arsat names. Commonly found in an 80mm F/2.8, but for Micro 4/3 systems they have a 50mm F/2. Plenty of still images via Flicker with these popular tilts, but nothing I could track down for videos or Timelapse. Anyone got links to samples of these Micro Four Thirds Tilt Shift lenses in use?

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With the Canon EOS T3i / 600D out in the marketplace, this marks Canon's second Vari-Angle LCD DSLR. Thinking of a different way to mount a View Finder to cameras similar to the Canon 60D's swivel out monitor, I tinkered around with the idea of using the some cheap hot shoe adapters.

In this configuration you'd be able to lock in a view finder while still maintaining a hot shoe to mount other accessories. By slotting the flat bar, you'd still have a quick release way of detaching the view finder without dismounting your hot shoe accessory 'i.e. Microphone'. By using Velcro to attach a View Finder, this type of adapter would pretty much be 'Universal'. Somebody needs to refine this idea....

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find-price-button Shoe Adapter 1/4 x 20 Threaded

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find-price-button Cold Shoe Adapter Threaded