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The Kandao QooCam EGO is the best hope so far for mass adoption of compact 3D cameras

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3D cameras have fascinated me for years. When I was a kid, my parents had one of those View-Masters. Actually, they had hundreds of them (they owned a bunch of toy shops) but they gave one to me and I’d sit and stare through its binocular viewfinder for hours looking at all the different reels.

3D viewing technology’s come a long way since then, but the fascination never faded. I have a couple of small all-in-one 3D cameras, like the Weeview SID (review here) and Insta360 EVO. Some of you might remember the Kandao QooCam EGO 3D camera launching on Kickstarter a couple of months ago. Well, now I have one, and I’ve been putting it through its paces.

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The Xencelabs Medium Tablet with QuickKeys is actually better than a Wacom Intuos Pro and cheaper

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For quite a long time if you wanted a drawing tablet, Wacom was pretty much the only show in town. I’ve owned an Intuos Pro for several years now, and at first, I was thrilled with it. However, driver issues and constant lack of connectivity made me fall out of love very quickly.

These days there are a lot more choices of brands and types of tablets. Do you want one with a screen that you draw on directly? Do you want to use an Ipad? Or do you want something pretty simple that just does what it’s meant to do? The Xencelabs medium tablet and pen have been tipped as a direct, yet more affordable rival to the Wacom Intuos Pro. I was keen to find out if this was true, and whether it could actually be better.

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Projecting backgrounds behind your subject with the Wemax Nova 4K UST ALDP laser projector

Projectors have been a part of photography for a very long time. Originally, they were designed for boring your friends and family members with slides of your holiday snaps. Since then, though, projectors have become much more useful and now regularly play a creative or practical role in our photography and filmmaking needs.

We’ve shown how you might be able to incorporate projectors into your workflow before, using one as a full-screen preview monitor for video editing. This time, we’re going to take a look at the Wemax Nova 4K ultra-short-throw (UST) ALDP Laser projector with an Ambient Light Rejecting (ALR) screen as a sort of “virtual set” background projection system in the studio.

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The Huion Kamvas Pro 16 (2.5K) is a solid challenge to Wacom’s dominance in the graphics tablet market

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Whether we use Windows or a Mac, one thing we pretty much all agree on is that if you’re a photographer, a graphics tablet of some kind it’s basically a must-have item in our toolkit for working with our images on the PC. They’ve been a staple of the graphics and photography industry for years.

And that’s what we’re going to look at today with the new Huion Kamvas Pro 16 2.5K. This isn’t just your basic tablet, though. This has a built-in 15.8″ IPS display with a 2.5K QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution with an anti-glare surface. It’s also compatible with Windows and Mac, has some basic Linux support and apparently even works with Android devices.

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DIYP reviews the SmallRig RC220B LED Light – a small but mighty light

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So, it looks like SmallRig is here to stay as far as LED lights go and the RC120 (reviewed here) family got some new double-the-power members – the RC220B and the  RC220D. (Those stand for bi-colour and daylight).

From what I can tell, it seems that SmallRig has refitted the RC120 body with a more powerful LED. And this is a good thing. If you have any bags, cases, or kits that you’ve built for the 120, the 220 would feel right at home for those.

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A great Speedlight, but is it worth the upgrade?

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Godox announced the updated version of their square-headed Speedlight the V860III last summer. Having an extra portable flash unit in your bag is always a good idea, particularly if you’re like me and often end up shooting on location, so I was keen to try it out. Godox boasted several new features such as a new hot shoe lock and modelling light, but is it really different enough from both the previous V860II or the round-headed V1 to warrant an upgrade? Let’s take a look!

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Hands on with the Platypod eXtreme

We recently covered the launch of the Platypod eXtreme. It’s the latest of Platypod’s Kickstarter projects and it’s part f their flat tripod line, coming in at $119 on Kickstarter.  I have had one in my hands since late January. I took it with me to Iceland, Croatia, Wales, and a number of other places to test. Here are my thoughts.

The eXtreme boasts a few improvements on the Platypod Max (reviewed here), which is the model it most closely resembles. There are some clear upgrades to this model and it will be my go-to “tripod” for low-angle shots. The weight of the eXtreme is up there on the list, it weighs only 9.6oz versus the Max which comes in at 12.9oz (and is actually smaller). The construction of the eXtreme is where the weight saving comes in. There are more cut-outs for accessory use and to make space for the collapsible screw legs, which gives the eXtreme its angular-looking aesthetic. The material itself, which is aircraft-grade aluminum, remains the same high quality as before, and the thickness is the same.

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Wildlife photographer Steve Perry gets his hands on the new Nikon Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens

The recently announced Nikon Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens caused a bit of a stir amongst wildlife and sports photographers – at least, the ones who shoot Nikon. It may be a third of a stop slower than its F mount DSLR predecessor, but it comes with $10K shaved off its price tag and its weight over its predecessor has been cut almost in half, too. But how does it stand up to the job of actually shooting?

In this video, wildlife photographer Steve Perry takes out a pre-production version of this lens, with its Phase Fresnel (PF) optical tech – which helps contribute towards its lightweight design – to give it a spin and see how it handles. Steve details the actual shooting experience and goes over the features of the lens.

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OWC Atlas S Pro V90 UHS-II SD cards are fast, reliable and reasonably priced

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In January, OWC announced their new Atlas S Pro V90 UHS-II SD Cards, available in 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities. They’re priced very competitively, too – that is to say, they’re less expensive than many of their V90 competitors but still a little more expensive than V60 UHS-II cards.

As V90 cards, they guarantee sustained write speeds of at least 90MB/sec. According to OWC, real-world testing has provided write speeds of up to 276MB/sec and read speeds of up to 290MB/sec. Such claims are easy enough to verify – at least, one would think so – so when OWC offered to send us some to try out, we decided to put these speeds to the test ourselves.

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The Crabs are the best magic arms I’ve ever used

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You know how your camera always wants friends? A monitor, a recorder, transmitters, mics, and more. (And then the friends want their own friends, like batteries, memory cards, and so on, but this is another topic). Well, all those “friends” need a place to live on your setup, and the new iFootage Spider Crabs could easily be the BFF in this group.

The Spider Crabs are a set of magic arms. Those are articulating arms with small ball heads on either side and a central knob if you are not familiar. When you tighten the central “elbow” knob, it locks the entire arm together. This makes it really easy to mount accessories and move them with ease.

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