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Xencelabs Pen Tablet Medium – A true Wacom competitor?

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In recent years, new pen tablet brands have appeared, some have presented interesting products, but the vast majority of them have tried to gain space in the mora affordable pen tablets, or at least cheaper than the brand considered as the reference, Wacom. As far as I can remember, no new brand was really capable of beating Wacom. But that has changed.

Now, Xencelabs has arrived, which although it is a new company, has a team that already has many years of experience in the development of Pen Tablets, and they are aiming to the premium market. Xencelabs has just launched the Pen Tablet Medium, which can be purchased with or without the Quick Keys Remote. the version with the Quick Keys Remote is the Pen Tablet Medium Bundle, this is the one I have to test.

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Best Photoshop Plugin? DIYP Reviews Boris FX Optics

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Boris FX is a company that has established itself in the filmmaking world by providing staggering VFX and DFT(digital film tools) to major productions. Their products are used on a large portion of Hollywood movie productions, Lion King is one of them. So, when a filmmaking company released a product for photographers, I got excited. The two verticals benefit from shared experience, and I was intrigued. Taking the best from the VFX and DFX worlds, they created Optics, which is a Photoshop and Lightroom plugin aimed at stills photographers. I took Optics for a spin with real images, real photographers, and real situations. Here’s what I have to say:[Read More…]

The Slypod Pro is a HUGE step up from traditional sliders (and monopods)

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Sliders and monopods, what do they have in common? Absolutely nothing. Until now… In fact, they’re kind of meant for the opposite things, but the folks over at Moza have a really clever take on this, and they joined the two together. Now, we have the Slypod Pro, a brand-new slider/monopod combo that packs a serious list of things it can do.

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Can the Vivo X60 Pro+ match a modern Mirrorless camera?

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About a month ago,  Vivo announced the international version of their X60 series. This is a flagship-level phone, and while pricing wasn’t known at the time of the shooting, you can find it for $1,099.99 on Amazon.

All the press materials boast about the camera capabilities. So naturally, I compared it to a modern DSLR – the Sony A7III.

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The must have tool for color addicts – the Rosco MixBook

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Color.  Such an important tool to help bring a time, place, or even emotions into an image.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have something that makes working with color easier? Inside this little package is a new tool by Rosco called “Mixbook“. To help creators pre-visualize gel and LED colors.

Essentially Rosco has digitized the old gel swatch books, as you can see in my reenactment of a Rosco scientist at work. Note the old gels from my swatch book flying around as the new Mixbook arises from the smokey pot.

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I Use a 70-200mm From 2001 and I’m Not Upgrading Anytime Soon

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How do old lenses fair against new lenses? The question is often easy to answer: new is better. How about Pro lenses? With most brands releasing mirrorless glass, it’s easy to dismiss the older pro lenses as bad. For me, a fashion and portrait photographer, the old 70-200 is as good as the new one. And not only because I have a sentimental connection to it. Here’s why I’m not upgrading my seemingly antiquated 70-200.[Read More…]

The DigitalFoto Tree Frog is an awesome pocket LED light for small products and macro

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Over the last few years, I’ve become a big fan of small pocket-sized LED lights. They used to not be as good as they are now, offering pretty limited functionality and they just didn’t produce great colour. But LED tech has come a long way since in a few short years, leading us to where we are today with products like the Digitalfoto Tree Frog.

I have two DigitalFoto Tree Frog lights that I’ve been using to light my 3D printer for live streams and for shooting small product photos and b-roll. We’re still in lockdown here, so that’s pretty much all I can point my cameras at right now. One of Tree Frogs I have is a pre-production model and the other is a final retail version. For this review, I’m only going to focus on the retail version.

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Wimaxit M1400CT – The perfect portable monitor

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It was not so long ago that I was traveling quite a bit, and as such, I needed portable solutions for my workflow. The Wimaxit M1400CT monitor has the right mix of size, weight, and features to make it into my trolly when travel returns. And for a price that will not break your wallet – $189.88.

Let’s dive into this piece of gear and see how it performs.

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The Gitzo Légende tripod and backpack offer quality well above their current price point

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The Légende is the newest travel tripod and bag combo from Gitzo, with both products sharing the same name. It’s currently running as an Indiegogo campaign and will go on general sale once it’s over, with the ability to buy either item individually or both as a kit.

I’ve been trying out both the tripod and backpack for a couple of weeks now and putting them through the limited paces I can while we’re still on lockdown here in Scotland, but here are some of my thoughts on Gitzo’s new Légende tripod & backpack combo.

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