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Negative Supply’s LM1 is a tiny all-metal colour and light meter for ambient and flash

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I’ve used light meters for as long as I can remember in my photography. While many don’t believe they’re still required with digital photography, I still always have my trusty Sekonic in my bag. They are very popular with film shooters, though. Light meter design hasn’t really changed all that much over the years, but one company believes they don’t really fit the aesthetic of modern film shooters.

Negative Supply (you might remember their film scanning holder from a couple of years ago) believes most people are shooting old metal cameras and so they should have a metal light meter to go with it. So, they’ve released the Negative Supply LM1, an all-metal, pocket-sized light meter that measures both ambient light and flash, as well as colour temperature, via Kickstarter.

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Cosyspeed’s new Photohiker backpacks are designed for hikers that want to carry camera gear

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All too often these days, photography backpacks seem to simply be based around “How much gear can we shove into it?” with things like comfort and actual usability brought on as an afterthought. This is fine if you’re just shifting gear between your car and a client’s location, but what if you’re carrying it all day on a hike?

Well, Cosyspeed’s new Photohiker backpack, made in collaboration with outdoor equipment specialist Vaude, is built specifically for that kind of use. It takes its carrying system design straight from high-end hiking and trekking packs to make carrying a heavy load all day as comfortable as possible while also keeping your camera gear safe and easy for you to access.

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BAD Wrap is a padded, waterproof and posable wrap for your camera gear that doesn’t need velcro

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This is an interesting piece of kit. It’s not the first product of its kind (nor the cheapest), but it does offer a couple of unique advantages. It’s called the BAD Wrap and they’re wraps for your camera gear. But these ones are padded, waterproof and hold their shape without velcro. BAD Wrap currently funding through Kickstarter, with pledges starting at $18 for the smallest one.

It’s a neat idea and I’ve used microfibre cloths and velcro straps for similar uses in the past – usually to stop lenses from banging together inside my camera bag. And if it’s going inside a camera bag, I’m not sure what extra protection it needs. But for covering up gear that’s not being stored in a bag, it could potentially be quite handy!

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The CharisMic is a magnetic lapel mic that doesn’t ruin your clothes

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Lav mics have been around for years. Virtually all of us who shoot video have used them at some point or another. But they’re annoying. You have to deal with clips that often puncture or scrunch up your clothes – which isn’t a great look for the camera. But the CharisMic thinks it’s solved the solution through the use of magnets.

It’ a neat solution that allows you to clip a microphone either on top of underneath your clothing, and when it’s underneath the magnet is hidden under one of several cute little badges. It’s already up on Kickstarter, where it’s already gone way past its goal with two weeks still to go and pledges starting at $77.

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The Dualflash wants to turn your single speedlight into two light sources

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These days, there are a lot of modifiers out there for speedlights, but this is certainly amongst the more unusual ones I’ve seen. It’s the “Dualflash” and it’s about to launch on Kickstarter. What it essentially does is turn your single speedlight into two. Kind of. It splits the output into two separate sections, but its practical uses seem fairly limited.

Like most speedlight modifiers, it slots over the head of the flash and then holds on with a velcro strap. It sits directly across the centre of the Fresnel lens splitting its output into two distinct areas, allowing you to then gel and alter them independently. At least, that’s the theory. How well it’ll do in reality… I’m not convinced.

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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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The Orbit is a single-axis robot arm that spins a camera around your head

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Well, this is pretty unique. A motion-controlled motorised orbiting camera rig. Developed by Josh Yeo of MAKE. ART. NOW. along with Axibo, the Marbl Orbit is a motion control rig that gets suspended from your ceiling to… well, spin a camera around you or whatever your subject is. And it can do it in realtime, slow motion or even timelapse.

The video above explains the goals of the product, who it’s targeted towards and what it attempts to achieve for them. Essentially, it’s a way to let you film yourself or a subject in a new and interesting way that doesn’t require a film crew. And it’s fairly affordable, too. It’s currently running on Kickstarter, with super early bird pledges starting at $799.

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The NONS SL42 Mark II adds EF mount and actually fills the medium format Instax frame

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The initial launch of the first NONS SL42 was about this time last year. It was an M42 SLR that uses Fuji Instax Mini instant film to let you make instant prints with your interchangeable M42 lenses, and you were actually able to see what the lens sees through the viewfinder so that you know exactly what you were going to get in your shot

Well, there’s a new NONS SL42 Mark II version that’s popped up on Kickstarter. The M42 mount has been replaced by a passive EF mount, letting you mount pretty much whatever you want to it (M42, Nikon F, etc) through the use of adapters. But what’s really interesting is that this one comes with a “NONS Format Extender” (NFE), making your 135 format full-frame lens fill that 62x46mm medium format frame.

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Reveni Labs is back with a new teeny tiny spot meter

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Reveni Labs, the company responsible for the tiny on-camera light meter for old SLRs that don’t have one built-in is back. And they’ve brought a new meter with them. This time it’s a still-tiny-but-not-quite-as-tiny-as-the-original-meter spot meter – once a very common tool amongst film photographers, particularly medium and large format landscape shooters, and one that’s still built into just every DSLR and mirrorless camera today.

And, yes, there are companies like Sekonic still producing excellent spot meters, but they’re not exactly cheap. Even older, used ones can still be fairly expensive. Reveni Labs’ goal with this is to print the price down to a more manageable amount for those who don’t need the advanced capabilities of more expensive meters.

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The Minuta Stereo is a 3D stereoscopic pinhole camera that shoots 35mm or 120 format film

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Stereoscopic photography is a wonderful thing. Whether you’re able to use it in serious client work or not, it’s incredibly fun. It’s something I’ve been doing occasionally for years, and even recently with digital – thanks to the Weeview SID. But there’s no experience like shooting it on film. Until you’ve developed it, there’s no real way to know if you’ve got the shot or how it’s going to look. It’s an almost magical experience.

Well, Architect Dominik Oczkowski at Oczko Stereo wants to bring that experience to everybody with the new Minuta Stereo – a stereoscopic pinhole camera that shoots both 35mm and 120 medium format roll film. It also lets you adjust the “rise” of the film plane to compensate for off-axis horizons and keystoning. And it’s coming to Kickstarter next month.

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