From the gushing press release you would have thought it was the most revolutionary piece of camera equipement ever. But its just a bag. A rather nice bag, admittingly, but just a backpack in which to store your camera at the end of the day.
Words such as 'lifestyle', 'unique', 'cutting-edge technologies', are all very well and it may well be an 'unprececented design' and 'ergonomic' but what I need to know is how much it costs and what can be fitted inside!
Distributed exclusively in North America by Bogen Imaging the Ergo-Tech Collection offers a "futuristic design. Each bag features designated safe guard zones, where extra internal, modular padding is added to protect the gear within. In addition, safe guard zones also feature Flexi-Shield, a technology specifically designed for the Ergo-Tech collection. Flexi-Shield, Kata‚s new, high-frequency, molded flexible reinforcement, appears in the form of ridges on the exterior of safe guard zones for ultimate protection. "
Nikonians - the international club/forum for Nikon owners - has a small competition for registered users. Answer the 14 questions survey and you could win a Markins 3D Ballhead. This is a smaller and lighter head than the Markins M20 and the Markins M10 and is ideal for light tripods and monopods, like the Gitzo G11XX series or the Manfrotto 190 (Bogen 3001).
Sorry for the UK focus on todays posts - but here is another. A price comparison site that some might find useful. Concentrating on the digital camera market Camera Price Buster is a "one stop shopping website" that lets anyone locate the least expensive prices on UK digital cameras and accessories.
When I visited a few moments ago there were two special deals available. Enter the specified code and receive a 10% discount on purchaes from Jessops (excluding cameras) or a £20 discount on purchases at Curreys over £300.
A quick look at the Canon EOS350D sees a price range from a high £579.99 at Play.com down to £429 at Warehouse Express. A site to bookmark...
RentGlass. com allows the rental of camera lenses for your SLR's. A great way to test out a lens before you buy or to experiment with those specialist lenses that you would love to have but couldn't possibly warrant the expense. At the moment the site is offering the Canon 24mm Tilt-Shift at $44/$37/$32 per week for 1/2/3 weeks respectively.
At the moment only Canon-compatible products are listed (Nikon-compatible are listed as being available from the 20th July). It seems to be a popular service as the Canon page states "The Canon store is currently under extremely high demand. Please use our in-stock email notification system for the best chance of getting the lens you want."
Each lens comes with a prepaid return shipping and label - how easy can it be? Your week doesn't actually begin until the UPS tracked package is delivered.
David of Strobist has put together what he's calling the SSO-CLK, a collection of must-haves that you can cobble together to get started with off-camera lighting for about $150. Some of the equipment, like a folding light stand, will require some capital outlay if you don't have it already. Other items, though, are true DIY, like the homemade cereal box snoot.
As I was browsing through the DPGuru Flickr pool looking for a photo of the day, I came across the image to the right. I put it on my "further consideration" list, scanned down quickly to see whither it had embedded EXIF, said to myself "oh, that's nice, he's using a Canon Holga," and moved on. You can tell I hadn't had my coffee yet; it took about 45 seconds before I sat straight up in my chair, said "waiddaminute, an EOS what?!?" and clicked back.
It turns out Joachim Guanzon had the bright idea to mount a Holga lens on his 20D. He even put the directions online so the rest of can do the same. The Holga lens gets destroyed in the process, but it's probably $19.99 well spent. The real stroke of genius, as far as I'm concerned, was using a white film canister for the lens tube so you get that authentic Holga light light bleed.
When it comes to digital purchases,
most people tend not to get past the sticker shock and end up making decisions about what they can afford based on
MSRP. Paul over at The Online Photographer, though, reminds us why
that isn't a good way to run a business, or even a hobby. When comparing the TCO of an Epson Stylus R2400 and an Epson
Stylus Pro 4800, for instance, he figures the 4800 will pay for itself by the time it empties a single set of
cartridges, even though the MSRP is nearly double. Of course, we're talking about volume printing here, if you're not
going to go through a couple of liters of pigment over the lifetime of the printer, then Initial cost becomes more
important. At a certain point, paying more for small cartridges may make sense if the printer is collecting dust most
of the time. But then, why buy a printer at all? You can get a lot of giclée prints from MyPhotoPipe for the cost of any printer, all printed on the same 4800 Pro we're
talking about here.
A new camera from Casio - the EX-Z1000. Continuing the 'sleek compact design' of the Exilim range this latest
addition offers picture capture at an impressive 10.1 megapixel. The EX-Z1000 is the first in the series
to incorporate a large 2.8 inch, wide and bright LCD display. Casio have mades the most of this extra screen space
to offer two new functions - simultaneous viewing of a wide angle and a telephoto shot, and a right side set
of icon controls.
Main features are:
High resolution 10.1 megapixel
1/1.8 inch format, high resolution CCD.
Large 2.8 inch, wide and bright display; 230,400 pixel LCD displays images
The ability to zoom between 4.3x and 17.1x with no reduction in image quality
A maximum of ISO 3200.
Anti Shake DSP
Rapid Flash function enables up to three shots per second
Fast power-on function, so the first shot can be taken just 1.3 seconds after switching on.
Shutter release lag time of only approximately 0.002 seconds
High-speed picture playback of approximately 0.1 second interval
Super Life Battery allows up to 360 shots to be taken, measured by CIPA standards.
Large, wide-format LCD display built for ease of viewing
Multi-image function can display 12 images on a single screen
Photographic equipment distributors
Argraph today announced the availability of their Zigview digital angle viewfinders for digital and
film SLR cameras. They look like neat little gadgets. If you have a film SLR or DSLR that doesn't have a flip-out LCD
yet, the Zigview snaps over your viewfinder, digitizes the image there, and displays it on a 2" adjustable-angle
LCD. This turns and SLR into an instant view camera for shooting below eye-level and let's you shoot over crowds, too.
For an extra $50, you can get the "R" model, which includes an automatic shutter release (cables for most
popular SLRs and DSLRs are included). With a 999-day calendar and release intervals from 1/2 second to 99 days, it
presents almost unlimited opportunities for time-lapse work. A "motion sensor" release mode is also included
for DIY wildlife photography or Candid Camera knock-offs, but since it works by sampling changing light levels, I
suspect you'll get false positives in from things like trees casting shadows in the wind. It's a neat idea, though.
With the base model starting at $249, if it works as advertised I'd say this is a steal for SLR owners, and not
a bad deal for most DSLR owners. DSC-R1 and E-330 owners may or may not be impressed.
Tripod maker Manfrotto has announced two new 3-way heads, available later this year. The 808RC4,
which will replace the 329RC4 (pictured right), is made out of a lightweight polymer and features a spirit level and
adjustable-tension counterbalance springs on both the horizontal and vertical tilt that can support equipment up to
17.6 lbs. the 804RC2 has a level and a counterbalance on the vertical tilt that will support up to 8.8lbs.
The new Fuji FinePix F30, replacing the FinePix F10, has
similar resolution at 6.3 megapixels but improves with a new CCD and Imaging Processor
They have put in a sixth
generation 1/1.7 inch Super CCD and matched it with a second generation of the Real Imaging Processpr. The F30, they
claim, has 25 per cent less noise than the F10. The ISO rating is also increased to ISO 3200. The LCD screen has double
the resolution on the same sized unit.
Four new lenses are planned from Pentax - three are designed for use on Pentax APS-C format digital SLR
cameras, the fourth for the recently announced Pentax medium format digital camera. They can be viewed on a
PDF download.
From the gushing press release you would have thought it was the most revolutionary piece of camera equipement ever. But its just a bag. A rather nice bag, admittingly, but just a backpack in which to store your camera at the end of the day.
Sorry for the UK focus on todays posts - but here is another. A price comparison site that some might find useful. Concentrating on the digital camera market 
RentGlass. com
David of Strobist has put together what he's calling the 
As I was browsing through the 
When it comes to digital purchases,
most people tend not to get past the sticker shock and end up making decisions about what they can afford based on
MSRP. Paul over at The Online Photographer, though, 
Photographic equipment distributors
Argraph today announced the availability of their 
Tripod maker 
The new 
