I’ll come clean, when I saw these, I didn’t understand what I was seeing! Tripod camera heads with no knobs, what’s the world coming to? Larry has shown us the future and it’s bloody Brilliant! The Platyball, Ergo & Elite literally turn heads on their head and bring to us an incredibly stable, smooth, sexy, shinny and very simply way to secure and work with our camera gear! You can wear the bulkiest gloves, tie one hand behind your back and you’d still have no problem in quickly setting your camera exactly where you want it with a Platyball.

These incredibly inexpensive heads are so incredibly well built. Larry was kind enough to send me prototypes to field test. Monument Valley sand, Montana Rain, Maggie tongue, nothing has phased the function of these heads. Watch the video, I think that will fill in the gaps. And thanks Larry for showing us the future, today. Platyball, bloody brilliant!

I love, just love the compact size of the Z bodies! They go in so many places that bigger DSLRs don’t and are simply fun to carry about. That’s how my main body, the Z 6II lives in my kit, body only. My Z 6 though lives attached to the MB-N10 and when I’m doing an air-to-air, the Z 6II is attached to the MB-N11. Why do I use which and when, and why? Well, good questions, lemme answer them for ya.

The Z 6 is now just a video / time-lapse body and the MB-N10 is killer for that. Why? That’s because with the MB-N10 you can hot-swap the batteries. That’s to say that when one battery goes dead, you can switch it out and the camera still has power from the other battery to keep running (you can do this to a fashion with the MB-N11 at least until Battery B goes dead). Doing an eight-hour time lapse, no problem (MB-N10 LEDs tell you status of battery charge with a push of a button on the MB-N10. MB-N11 you need to access Battery Info in body Set Up menu.). Doing a two-hour zoom presentation, slam dunk. The MB-N10 doesn’t have a vertical firing button though but the MB-N11 does. Because MB-N11 has a vertical firing button you can’t hot-swap batteries. It has its batteries in a single try that has to be pulled out completely to swap batteries. That’s the compromise to include the vertical that I need for my air-to-air work. I have them all in my kit and when I need or don’t need them, they are there to power away.

Note: the Really Right Stuff plate for the Z 6II fits on the bottom of the MB-N11 perfectly. Doesn’t look the most elegant but functions perfectly.

I love it, simply love it … the Z105mc! The last month has been an interesting journey for me as I dive into a genre of photography I find horribly challenging that the 105mc has made so fun! The Z105mc is so bloody sharp and easy to use, it really puts the pressure on to get it right in the viewfinder. That challenge I love and can deal with, it’s the creativity part on that tiny scale I find spooky. I’m sure you’ve heard what a killer lens the Z105mc is for macro photography but it’s spectacular for portraits as well (I would post my tests taken of Sharon but they didn’t get her approval). It is a 105mm for goodness sake!

I added the Z105mc to my kit for upcoming book projects shooting intimate portraits of tiny parts but I need all gear to serve multiple roles. Being a 105mm, I turned it towards folks and shooting at f2.8, it does a spectacular job! In fact, since it weighs less and does macro, there are going to be times now when the 105f1.4 will stay in the locker, being replaced by the Z105mc (I will never get rid of the 105f1.4!) in my kit. The beauty of this lens is the working distance it provides for bringing in lights such as the single SB-5000 I used to light the spark plugs. With its superior edge-to-edge sharpness you have to really pay attention to the depth of focus making sure your subject is sharp and other elements either are or are not based on the story you are telling. I just love this lens, its performance and how it’s pushing my photography. I can’t say enough great things about it!

Technically are far as wireless operation is concerned, no difference between the original WR-R10 and the WR-R11 units. The new 11s connect to the bodies the same way, pair with the flashes the same, have the same range limits and unit limits. So then why are there new ones? I wondered that myself so got an WR-R11a in my hands to use. The first big thing you notice is that for the circular 10pin, it is no longer a two-part unit. It’s now a single unit with a hinge. It’s more robust, built better I guess you could say. The WR-R11b square 10pin (goes in like the Z bodies) is also much more robust. That’s it, that what the 11s bring to the game, great technology in a robust package.

The anticipation use to kill me! I’d go off on an adventure and not until the day AFTER I got back in the office I’d see the images from the trip. And then only after that would I know if I got the image sharp. Those were the days of film and manual focus, now thankfully long ways in the rear view mirror. Today we have digital and with it, autofocus with animal eye-detection AF. Many ask me if it works. It does and works very well but you need to meet it half way to make it a great tool in your photography.

It starts by turning on Animal Eye-Detection in your camera. I have it active in both my D6 and Z 6II and in the Z 6II you can see the yellow box appear and grab onto the eye telling you it’s working graphically. The key to making this work though is the image size in the viewfinder. Helping one shooter who wasn’t have any success, I quickly learned that if you have a small image size (depending on cropping in post for your final image size), the eye-detection is not as effective. Shooting as I do to get the image size I want in the viewfinder, the D6 / Z 6II locked on easily. The two eyes of the Kodiak Brown or the one eye of the Roadrunner, the cameras locked on brilliantly. Get that critter in the viewfinder so it’s not a micro dot meeting the system half way, it will become a valuable tool in your photography!

Snapbridge keeps getting more and more powerful! For example, you can update your firmware in your Z 6II & Z 7II via Snapbridge now. Or, you might want to add location data which you can do as well. All ya gotta do is you see above prior to shooting. You might be thinking there should be more instruction to make this all work but it’s that simple. It works really well!!!