 The Shutterhat
The Shutterhat, simply put, GO
BUY ONE! They're great!
Wimberley WH-200 Head
 I finally received the new Wimberley WH-200, the new version of the
famous Wimberley head. Dang, darn sweet!
The loss of one pound is killer! It’s slightly smaller size and less weight
is a huge improvement in these days of more and more painful air travel.
The Arca Swiss clamp is now built into the unit rather than a bolt on extra
as before. The Pan knob is now to the side and is easier to use (don’t
get your fingers pinched) and the tilt knob is now rubberized.
The Wimberley has the same action feel and reliability we’ve all come
to expect from the head. Nothing was sacrificed in the slimming down of
the head. I’m not real keen on the new finish, shows dirt and scuffs in
a heartbeat. Our Wimberley Head Cover fits the new model and is needed
even more than ever if you want to keep you head looking new.
With the smaller size and lighter weight, I think the Arca Swiss B2 which
I still used for the 200-400VR will be retired. That extra pound can make
a big difference depending on where you’re traveling but with the B2 weighing
more than the new Wimberley, the Wimberley wins hands down.
Be sure to check out the chart for
lens compatibility because some of the longer lenses need the special
Wimberley plate to work with the head. You will also need the new Flash
Arm, F-9 as the old flash no longer works.
This is a MUST have!
Nikon R1C1 Close-up Speedlight Commander Kit
 This is so cool! Digital flash photography has just taken a light speed
jump forward making macro flash and flash photography in general much
easier, more rewarding with amazing results. This is an amazingly well
thought out system!
The R1C1 (what a name) is comprised of the R1 close-up remote kit (pictured
here), SU-800 Speedlight Commander (unit in the hot shoe) and SB-R200 Wireless
Remote Speedlights (flashes on the ring). As soon as you see the box that
holds all of this, you instantly know there’s more to this unit than just
a couple of flashes. In fact when you purchase the entire kit, there is
so much stuff that comes with it, the instruction book has packing information!
That’s right, the case that holds all of this gear needs packing instructions.
But don’t freak, if you don’t want to carry the huge case around, the kit
comes with soft pouches to break everything out for easy travel. As I said,
this is one well thought out system!
 The main components of the R1C1 are the SU-800 and SB-R200s. These three
units provide you wireless macro flash capability. What’s cool, you can
simply slap this thing on your camera, place the flashes wherever you want
them (they have modeling lights to help you with lighting patterns), dial
in lighting ratios with the push of one button, fire and the iTTL system
gives you the right exposure. That’s the very basics, it can do one heck
of a lot more.
 The R1C1 system works with Nikon’s iTTL so you can have as many as EIGHT
SB-R200 on the ring working for you, either as one light bank or three banks
on five channels. You can add to this mix SB-800s wherever the subject demands
and control them all from the SU-800! You can even take the SU-800 and use
it with just SB-800s as the Master Unit so you don’t have to sacrifice a
SB-800 to the task.
What about the quality of the light? They are flash units which by their
very nature are a harsh light. Light modifiers and gels come with the R1C1
which can help. I think once you buy the R1C1 you will more than likely
by a third or fourth SB-R200 to “lighten” up shadows and mellow out the
two light sources. The SB-R200s aren’t real powerful, but they can put out
15 feet of light at f/4 at ISO 100. If time permits, I will add images the
R1C1 link in Moose’s Camera Bag in the future to give you some better ideas
of what it can do.
In the meantime, I would strongly suggest that if you do any type of macro
photography, you at the very least check out the R1C1. We have one at all
DLWS events for folks, it’s just that amazing and powerful a tool for the
wildlife/nature photographer.
Lexar’s 133x Family
 I know what you’re saying, faster cards, why? True, they really don’t
speed up the actual process of the camera writing files to the card (technically
there is an increase but it’s negligible at best). The REAL benefit of
the 133x cards is when you upload images to your computer. You can see
the basic time saving here:
4GB 133x CF
Pro Reader 11.64mps
32 card bus reader 9.46mps
4GB 80x CF
Pro Reader 8.17mps
32 card bus reader 8.78mps
But that’s not really the big difference for me. Normally when I come in
from a shoot, I have a minimum of two cards to upload and quite often four.
The ability to slam four 133x CF cards into the Pro Card Reader, have DigitalPro
automatically launch, Card Load dialog appear, a couple of clicks and then
being able to walk away while the computer sucks up ALL the images from
the FOUR cards saves me as much as THIRTY minutes of time. To me, that’s
HUGE!
Where does the big time saving come from? First, the actual speed of the
133x card and the controller in the Pro Card Reader. That in itself when
uploading just one card you can see readily. The big time savings comes
from not having to watch the computer for when one card is done and it’s
time to feed it another. Since DigitalPro uploads cards in the background,
I can do other tasks with the computer or other chores so once the images
are all uploaded, I’m ready to sit down and go through them.
I feel that any tool, technique or product that can minimize a photographers
time doing menial tasks so they can get back out behind the camera, where
time counts, is a must have. Yes, I have “old” cards that just sit in a
drawer in the process of buying the latest and greatest. I now have more
in that drawer because the investment I’ve made in the 133x cards puts time
back in the day to be behind the camera! That makes these great cards!
|
