Portable big power has always been the dream. Even more, was it to have it also be a great light. But then to add the flexibility of being a light for stills and video, well that’s over the top! The new Profoto B10! brings that to our locker over and over again! This past weekend, I was shooting more for my Pilot Portrait Project and once again, turned to the Profoto B10. Shooting with the Z7 / Z24-70f2.8 you can see how I start by having a stand-in “pilot” (Sharon) to do a quick dial in of flash exposure (dialing in ambient exposure first). Shooting at f/2.8, it took just a second with the Air Remote connected to the Z7. It was so fast, I took Ben & Marykate’s portrait on the fly. On the Profoto B10 you see the Profoto OCF Octa Softbox (2′) with Softgrid and that’s it. The rest, well that’s in the video. Thanks to Brent for shooting and editing the vid!
If you follow the blog, you know I’ve bought a number of video monitors. The reason, being able to do it all by myself when shooting videos like my own videos or my Vet Chronicles. While the previous monitors all did a great job, they don’t do one thing my new Elvid 4K HDMI Monitor does for me. Shoot video while not wear reading glasses, like my last video on sensor cleaning! If I could just sit still and concentrate on just them little monitors, I’d be OK but that’s not the case. Between dealing with lighting, camera, taping and interviewing, I found myself going nuts when it came to checking the video (in particular sharpness) as it was running. The Elvid 4K HDMI Monitor takes care of all my problems because it is just gorgeous!
This is the Elvid STV-150-4KH Field Monitor. It is portable. It’s not portable that you can attach it to a bracket on your tripod, cage or gimbal, but it’s portable in that it runs on 120 or a battery (the battery rocks, goes for hours) and be taken anywhere with ease. It comes in its own case, the front and back of which comes off for use as you see in these two photos. The actual image quality of the picture is 4k beautiful! A single image like you see here, fills the screen but you can run four cameras at the same time (the most I’ve done is two) and see the signal from all four at once. It has more adjustments then I will ever use. I’ve had it hooked up to the Z7 & D850. For many of you, this might be overkill but you wildlife photographers shooting video like from a blind, this is a great monitor I highly recommend you consider at the very least. I swear by the Elvid 4K HDMI Monitor, it’s a lifesaver!
Elvid 4K Highlights
15.6″ 3840 x 2160 8-Bit LCD
Supports up to UHD 4K Video
HDMI 2.0 & 1.4, 3G-SDI, DVI &VGA Inputs
176° H/V Viewing Angle
Built-In V-Mount Battery Plate
Multiview Function
Built-In Monitoring Tools
On-Screen Markers & Focus Peaking
XLR 4-Pin 12-24 VDC Power Input
Sunshade & Removable Hard Case
Jon sent me an email with a common question, “I’m used to shooting with my D850“. “With my new Z7, going to the viewfinder and always having it black when I’m used to just seeing is driving me nut. Got a solution?” I know exactly what Jon is asking and experiencing because I was too. I’m happy to report, I do have a solution that at least works for my photography. Many photographers like myself are used to just being able to put our eye to the viewfinder and seeing through the lens without doing anything. That’s because we’re used to an Optical Viewfinder or OVF like in our D5. In the Z7 / Z6 we have an Electronic Viewfinder or EVF (the difference being a Mirror camera and a Mirrorless camera). To see through the Z7 / Z6, the system has to be active, the electricity flowing to power the EVF. No power, no see, that simple. Well, we can fix that!
The very, very, very first thing you have to do to get OVF from your Z7 / Z6 EVF is installing the new firmware upgrade! With that, you simply go to the Power Delay Setting (Custom Setting C3) and set Standby Timer to No Limit. With that, the EVF stays on all the time. The first question most ask is about battery drain. I found when shooting at Magee Marsh where shooting is hot and heavy, I could go 4-5 hours on a freshly charge EN-EL 15b before I would need to swap out battery. Is this how I use the Z7 / Z6 all the time?
When photographing birds, I often use my camera/lens as a spotting scope. Like right now I’m working a couple of nesting birds, I want to be able to just look through the viewfinder, or look at the LCD and see what the camera is seeing. At these times, I use the technique above to get that OVF from the EVF. When I’m shooting a project, landscapes, static aviation, etc., the camera Power Delay Timer is set to 20s. But I use this feature so much, as you can see above it is part of My Menu so I can quickly activate and deactivate it. The combination of the new firmware and the Power Delay have given me OVF from EVF.
Cleaning of our digital camera sensors has plagued photographers for centuries (ok, a couple of years). Just like our cameras, some aspects of cleaning our sensor have changed and some have remained the same. This updated video (which means it supersedes all others of mine) reflects what I’m doing today to clean sensors which include mirrorless. These are the tools I use to clean the sensors of my cameras:
This video expresses my methods for cleaning and it’s up to you if you follow it or not. It, in some cases, does not follow the recommendations in the camera’s instruction book. There is a risk in cleaning your sensor so if you are uncomfortable doing it, don’t do it!
Once again, Think Tank has demonstrated that KISS works! Their new Stash Master 13L is a packing cube you can use in anything you’d like for extra storage and travel. For example, you have a bunch of Larson Lights for light painting you want to have in your luggage, the Stash Master 13L is perfect. You have a favorite daypack you want to make into a camera bag for the day, the Stash Master 13L is perfect. Or, what if you want to have a little hideaway bag on the floorboards of your vehicle that blends in yet provides protection? Yep, the Stash Master 13L works perfect and is how I’m using it. You can see my basic Z Kit packed here which is: Z7, Z6, Z14-30, Z24-70f2.8, 105f1.4, 8-15Fish, 300PF, TC-14eIII, FTZ & 82mm Polarizer. It quickly and stealthily slips in or lifts out of the truck and when inside, you can’t see it. It’s an inexpensive way to organize and protect your gear. Brilliant!
