Johnsons Photopia have announced through their website and Twitter that they have now gone into administration. There isn’t a lot of information yet about how this came about, or how this may affect staff and future customer support for the brands they represent.
2015 DIYP Gift Guide – Lighting
So far, we’ve shared our Gift Guides for cameras and lenses. Now, we’re on to the next tool any photographer needs in his/her arsenal – lighting.
Of course, light is available all around us in the form of the sun, but sometimes you need to slightly alter that light or entirely provide your own. Below we’ve gathered some of our favorite lighting products that you can pick up this holiday season.
The Strobist Corner: Attention Pocketwizard Flex TT5 Users
The fact that Pocketwizard have a new TTL enabled unit is old news. The Flex TT5 and Flex TT1 have been shipping for almost a year now.
In the beginning the Flex units were having some hard time dealing with radio interference coming from some of the Canon flashes. This interference comin from the Canon flashes had impact both on distance and reliability of the TTX units.
The good news: Pocketwizard made a 580 radio-frequency-blocking-beer-holder for the delinquent Canon flashes. They go by the code name AC5 (I can only guess that it stands for Allocation Control, or Algorithmic Collision. Go figure).
The even better news: Pocketwizard decided to provide them AC5s shields free of charge to US photographers who bought the Flex units.
The not so good news: If you are living outside of the US, this offer is not for you. Other thing is that the AC5s will be free only till the end of the month.
Good news again: photographer Daniel Aqua posted a DIY tutorial on the Flickr pool that shows how to build a Canon shield at home.
Don’t Give Up On Your GI Trigger – Three Ways To Revive It When It Looks Dead
So you hacked yourself a gadget infinity flash radio slave and you are happy. You are shooting off camera flash and things work splendid. Actually, you really wanted a pair of pocketwizards, but it was 26 big ones Vs. 360, so it’s GI. Actually they work quite well. They worked quite well for a long while now. Then a crisis. Flash wont fire.
Camera clicks, but flash won’t fire. Darn! It was working just a second ago. What could have gone wrong? (Or in the words that the guys from the internet service hear 1000 times a day – I did not touch it.)
Here are three things to check before giving up on your cactus remotes.
Take Long Distance Self Portraits With PocketWizards
This self portrait on the left by Reuben Krabbe was taken (believe it or not) by Reuben Krabbe. Now, I know that you know that time/space fabric will tear if a person is present at two different places in the same time.
So, once we remove the impossible option we remain with the possible option – Pocket Wizards.
Calling All Agents: Kilometers Long Remote Camera Shutter Trigger
While this is not the first shutter release cable project that was featured here (we had a vanilla shutter release cable and a mouse one before) it is definitely the first to feature a walkie-talkie, and the first to beat the 3 meters range.
As a kid I was fascinated by walkie-talkies. Mind you this was way before the days of twitting-via-your-iPhone-while-getting-your-kids-picture-in-mail-and-SMSing-your-boss-that-you-are-going-to-miss-the-meeting-cause-your-stuck-in-traffic days.
The mere concept that I can talk to a friend hundreds of meters away… And do it with a Spiderman looking device…
Now, would it be nice if the same distant magic could apply to triggering your camera? Sure, you can do this with a pair of pocket wizards, but not for that distance and not for this price. Marco Jetti pulled this off. Read on for the full story.
Exploring Small Strobes: Going Wireless
Welcome to this multi-part series of articles on Exploring Small Strobes by Yanik Chauvin from Yanik’s Photo School.
In part 1 on Exploring Small strobes, I looked at why using flash guns instead of the built-in flash and studio strobes. In part 2, I went through the importance of using your speedlight off camera.
What I’ll be going through today, in part 3, is looking at how to trigger and control your speedlights off camera; more specifically wirelessly. You’re probably saying to your self, it’s about time Yanik gets to the practical stuff! And you’re absolutely right! But I had to convince you first! ;-)
Pocket Wizard Mounting Device II
One of the things I like most on DIYP is the strong warm community that has build around it. It is more and more often that readers are sending ideas, hacks and modifications that far surpass any ideas that might be having on the late hours of the night.
Reader Joseph A. Sorrentino (flickr) gets the genius-of-the-week award for moding a cable-wrap into a pocket wizard mount device.
Joe has tested several options before going with the cheapest and easiest solution I have seen so far. Here are his thoughts and reasons for designing a whole new Pocket wizard mount from scratch. In my mind all the other alternatives are very good and offer some advantages, but Joe’s mount is the best of class. (Check them all for great mounting ideas.)
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