Equipment Review: 1j - Canon TC-80N3

I'm running late as usual. But I grabbed a minute to mention Canon's TC-80N3, which is a very flexible and handy "cable release". It can do multiple exposures with timing, self-timer, long exposures, plain old "cable release" duty so you don't touch the camera for very sensitive exposures where you need to reduce jiggle, etc. Amazon currently has it for about $139. I use mine when doing table-top tripod long exposures of band equipment, normally with my Canon 5D and 15mm fisheye.

And, if the provided cord length isn't enough for you, there is a 33' extension cord, ET-1000N3, for about $80 at B&H, that let's you get way back far from the camera, either to be in the picture or to be away from the camera so as not to scare wildlife!

If this is too pricey for you, Canon also has the RS-80N3, which is just a simple cable release which Amazon has for about $48. You really need one of these in your camera bag if you use Canon EOS bodies with the N3 adapter.

Equipment Review: 1d

Busy, busy, busy, busy! Lots of boxing work and family things. But I am back although this will be fairly brief, to do slot #7, which contains one of my Canon 1D Mark III bodies with a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS. I have two of both of these items. They are by far the most used combination of body/lens I own. This pair generally sits in their slot as a pair that I rarely take apart.

The Canon 1D Mark III [not to be confused with the 1Ds Mark III which has about twice as many pixels and costs almost twice as much] is a 10.1 MP photojournalism body. It can expose 10 frames per second, has very high speed AutoFocus (recently fixed by firmware update 1.2.3) and a huge number of features that I have barely tapped. I'm not going to go through the feature list as that is on the Canon website as well as many other places on the internet and there are myriad reviews of the body and lens. It is a photojournalism body because of its frame rate and adequate pixel dimensions. I will talk about how I use it for various things after I get through the general equipment review.

The 70-200mm f/2.8L IS [IS stands for Image Stabilization, a very useful feature for us old shaky people] is probably Canon's most often seen lens. When you see the newspaper 'togs lined up to shoot some celebrity, a large percentage will be shooting with the 1D Mark III and a large percent of those will have the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS. It is just one fine combination. It comes in a non-IS version but that isn't nearly as useful. It also comes in an f/4 version.

Well, that's it for this entry. I promise things will get more interesting along the way. :-)

Be Safe!

Dwight

Equipment Review: What I Have & How I Use It: Part 1

I've been promising for a while in various places to explain what equipment I have and how I use it so I am starting a multipart series on just that. The way I am going to do it is to work my way through the several Pelican cases I use and then go to other equipment. I will do my best to include explanatory photographs.

So, here is my primary Pelican case and it's contents. This is a Pelican 1610 with dividers. I have labeled the compartments with both contents and numbers. I will use the numbers to talk about the contents. You should be able to click on the image here to see a much larger version where you can actually see the equipment and read the labels.

For this post I will just enumerate the equipment and in subsequent posts I'll talk about how I use it and give additional images as needed. #1 in the upper left corner has Eclipse Fluid for cleaning sensors. [Sensor Swabs for use with the Eclipse are in #18.] Under the fluid are a 1.4TC and 2.0TC in their provided cases. Finally there is a quick release clamp for my Bogen 3021 tripod.

#2 Contains a 1D Mark III body.

#3 16-35mm f/2.8L lens. The white booklet to the left is a 1D Mark III manual.

#4 Two slots that used to hold 1D Mark IIN batteries that are currently unused.

#5 CF case. There's CPF in there, too, where I usually have an Epson P-2000.

#6 Filter case.

#7 1D Mark III w/70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens.

#8 Some Ziploc bags. One has Etymotic ear plugs. One has Dynatech Gray Card. One has DEMB flash diffuser.

#9 Gitzo tabletop tripod.

#10 300mm f/2.8L IS lens. This is my very favorite lens although not my most used ... but I'll talk about that later.

#11 Rocket blower to get dust off sensors.

#12 Spare loose rechargeable batteries for my 580EX II and a battery test meter.

#13 Stack of business cards in Ziploc.

#14 580EX II. What you can't see because of the Ziplocs is a Canon Compact Battery Pack CP-E4 and two CPM-E4 battery holder inserts each with 8 rechargeable batteries in it. The holders slip into the Battery Pack. I'll talk about how I utilize these later.

#15 Trifocal glasses. I only use these for shooting and for that they are essential. Oddly I can't seem to get used to using them for anything else.

#16 Leatherman Charge tool in case.

#17 Canon 15mm f/2.8 fisheye lens wrapped in lens cloth on top of Canon 14mm f/2.8L lens wrapped in a lens cloth. I haven't found a better way to keep them both in there.

#18 TC-80N3 remote release. Flashlight. Sensor Swaps and lens fluid ... this lens fluid is not used with the Sensor Swabs.

#19 Several Mark III batteries that can be used in my two 1D Mark III's and my 1Ds Mark III.

#20 24-70mm f/2.8L

So that's it. That stuff goes with me almost anywhere I shoot with a few exceptions that I will discuss in subsequent posts. Please feel free to ask questions. I'll talk about each of the items in here and then move on to my other cases.

Be Safe!

Dwight

So Much Going On ...

I have a lot of projects underway and there seem to be quite a few people who are interested so I am really, really going to try to post regularly on this blog, sigh. My studio is on the very verge of being ready and I have new things going on at the Chumash Casino Resort and new equipment with more on the way that I will post about, as well as my critiques of some equipment and vendors, good and bad. So, I will try to post a couple of times a week to let you know what I'm doing and even more, I will try to make the posts educational.

So, I'll be back shortly with something interesting!