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This is, hands down, the best gaffing system I’ve used

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Any Gaffers out here? You will immediately get this system. For anyone who is new to this, let me share a bit of an intro. (Gaffers, feel free to skip to the good stuff).

As a gaffer, my main job is rigging things in the three-dimensional space. The director and DP decide on the lights they want, but getting it into position is my job. Same goes with rain machines, flags, gobos, diffusers, reflectors and basically any gear you’d need to execute a shot.

There is a lot to be said about this job, but today I want to talk about that magical tape that got us our name. Gaffer’s tape (Gaffer or gaff for short). Gaffer’s tape is that magical tape that gaffers use to stick things into position. “Give me enough gaffers tape and I can move the world” -Archimedes. Gaff tape It comes in a whole lot of colors and widths, but the common ones are black and white, 2″ and 1″. See, Gaffers constantly have to use gaffer tape. A lot of gaffer’s tape. Being able to easily use, dispense and tear tape is crucial to my work. This is why I love ToughGaff.

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The Feelworld FW279 is a super bright 7″ external monitor that can’t be beat at its price point

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If there’s one certainty when it comes to shooting video, it’s that at some point, you’ll want to pick up an external monitor of some kind. One big problem that many of them have, though, is that they can be quite difficult to see outdoors when it’s bright. I’ve tried a few from different brands over the years, but when it comes to bang for your buck, one company that’s pretty tough to beat is Feelworld.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been using Feelworld’s newest super bright 2,200 nit 7″ Feelworld FW279 monitor, now that the sun’s starting to make brief appearances here in Scotland. And so far, I really like it.

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I spent a week photographing concerts with the Canon EOS R and here’s what I think

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Canon Portugal sent me a Canon EOS R with the Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens for me to test. Unfortunately, it was only possible to keep it for a little over a week, but I still managed to make the first day of the MEO Mares Vivas Festival where I am the official photographer. This gave me the opportunity to test it during the day in good light for the assembly of the venue, but also at night in concert, which was what I was most interested in seeing.

I had already tried some mirrorless cameras, from other brands, and I confess that I was never very satisfied. Certainly, never to the point of wanting to chang I had already tried the Canon EOS R once, but only for a few minutes, which was not nearly enough to form an opinion about it.

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A comprehensive optical snoot review

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When photographers use terms like ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ light, it’s actually incredibly vague. You would rarely describe your meal as simply a ‘meat’ dish, so when a photographer says they are using hard light in a portrait, it’s just as open to interpretation as your mystery-meat.

Hard light can be anything from strong sunlight, to snoots, grids or even simple barn doors in a studio. But even with all that, none come close to the true crisp, brilliantly contrasty light of ‘Optical Snoots’.

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My adventures and experiences with the Panasonic S1R mirrorless camera over the past three months

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If you’re wondering why someone who loves Sigma cameras and gets called the ‘Foveon Wizard’ by his peers is writing about the Panasonic Lumix S1R I need to take you back to 2007.

Back then my love for gadgets and tech-related things eventually lead me to buying a Panasonic Lumix Fz8, a small bridge camera with a 36-432mm f2.8-f3.2 zoom lens. That was my first entry into the world of photography.

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Lanparte Cage for BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K Review

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The Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is a really good camera with some amazing features. But one of the challenges that the camera presents is, it’s physical size and weight. In order to really get the best out of it, you really do need to put it in a cage.

Lanparte kindly sent me their cage for the BMPCC 4K to try out. Here are some observations.

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Soonwell FB-21 – An affordable option for a flex-type led light

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The LED panel and LED Bowens mount are both familiar form factors of LED lights. In the last two years, we are seeing a third type of LEDs enter the market – the Mat LED, A.K.A Flex-LED. Essentially it is very similar to an LED panel, only instead of the LEDs being mounted to a rigid surface, they are placed on a flexible mat, hence the name – Flex light.

The Soonwell FB21 is the last member to enter this family. It is conveniently priced at $428.00, which is by far on the low end of flex LEDs. Well, at least compared to the similarly sized $1,199.90 Westcott Flex. Here are our thoughts:

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First impressions of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

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The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K attracted me the instant it was announced. I’d been looking at upgrading from my Nikons to something a little better suited to shooting video for a while and on paper it looked like the perfect solution. I’ve been in possession of one for a couple of weeks now, so I wanted to give you some of my initial thoughts about the camera and how I see it fitting into my workflow.

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Zacuto Gratical HD Review

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Just about all cameras come with a built-in EVF, so why would you spend thousands of dollars on a Zacuto Gratical HD EVF?

Well, not all EVF’s are created equal. Also, not all cameras are created equal when it comes to monitoring options. Here are some examples. The resolution and quality of built-in EVFs on cameras vary hugely. You may get a camera that is amazing, but its EVF is not the best. You may then also get a camera that has an amazing EVF, but the camera may be missing features.  When it comes to the EVF, here are some of the features that could be missing in-camera, but the Gratical adds:

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The Joby Gorillapod 3K is the last Vlogging Gorillapod you’ll need

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Joby sent us their new Gorillapod 3K pro ($151: Amazon| B&H). Now, I’ve been using Gorillapods for a while, from their old 3K kit to the aluminum heavyweight 5K kit… and even some tiny, tiny pods.

I’m going to have a deep look into the Gorillapod 3K pro, and see, how it stands between the original 3K kit and the bigger 5K kit.

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