Makin' Prints

I’m in the process of hanging a few prints in the new place… getting ready for the house warming BBQ at the weekend. Came across this image in the archives and just made what might be my favorite print ever. Taken in Barcelona a few years back

Metadata:
- Canon 5D
- Canon 24-70mm f/2.8, wide open at 27mm
- ISO 800
- 1/10th second

More coming soon…

[ Image Intermission ]

Downtown Calgary and the outskirts of Edmonton from the air… 

More coming soon…

[ Review ] Cactus V5 wireless triggers

I’m gonna start out by saying if you want the best wireless triggers on the market then Pocket Wizards are the way to go (the manual ones, anyway… implementation of their TTL triggers has been a little rocky). The Pocket Wizard Plus II units are extremely solid and used heavily by professionals all over the world.

The only downside I’ve ever found with the PWs is price. Although the price has recently been slashed with the announcement of the new Plus III triggers, a single Plus II will still set you back about 180 USD. Bearing in mind that you need one for the camera and one for each light you want to fire, that cost adds up quickly.

Last year I had banned myself from buying any new gear unless it was completely necessary. My method of triggering flash (even when shooting them manually) was to use Canon’s proprietary infrared wireless setup. Indoors this works OK, but outdoors it’s pretty much useless. There were a few shoots where I would have loved to get more creative with my lights but the limitations of the IR system simply wouldn’t allow it, even with a bunch of ‘workarounds’. So, radio triggers were required.

Pocket wizard investment for the number of lights I have would have set me back about €800, which was a pretty steep bill considering the self-imposed gear ban. So, after a little research, I decided to try out a couple of sets of Cactus V5’s from www.gadgetinfinity.com

The total cost including delivery, taxes and some extra sync cables was under €150. For such a significant saving you’d expect equally significant drawbacks, but I’ve yet to find them.

Pros

• Units are ‘transceivers’, so they can be set to transmit or receive the wireless signal
• Hotshoe mount built in, so you can place a speedlite right into the trigger without using any sync cables
• Units can be used as a wireless cable release for the camera (requires an additional €4 cable)
• Wireless range is far longer than I’ve ever needed to go. The system does not rely on ‘line-of-sight’ to fire, so lights can be placed outside, in different rooms/buildings and still fire reliably 
• Units run on standard AAA batteries. They’re pretty easy on the batteries too, I use mine a lot and they only require charging every couple of months
• 9 wireless channels to choose from 
• Did I mention they’re cheap??

Cons

• The location of the battery compartment is poorly placed, and tends to open when you place the triggers in a hotshoe
• The build quality (obviously) isn’t as nice as a pocket wizard product
• They’re not compatible with other cactus triggers. On the other hand all Pocket Wizards are compatible with one another 

The bottom line here is that in roughly a year’s use these little puppies have never failed me. Ever. Not so much as 1 non-firing frame!

Highly Recommended if on a budget!

More coming soon…

Silver & Light

I’m on the road today and blogging from an iPhone is a pain in the ass… But I feel compelled to share this video. It’s proper inspiration at a time when most of us are drooling over megapixels:

I hope they can endure the costs & difficulties of completing the journey. Follow the action on Tumblr here ianruhter.tumblr.com/

More coming soon…

World Backup Day??

I’m not sure what’s involved in creating an official day for anything, but it seems a few digital storage manufacturers and online backup services have gotten together and created ‘World Backup Day’, and it fell on March 31st. 

To me this seems like little more than a group marketing effort, but if it generates some open discussion and reviews of the products and services available (which seems to be the case one Twitter), then it can be looked on as a good thing. 

So for the sake of adding to the discussion, I’ll point out two products that I couldn’t be without:

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[ Image Intermission ]

I shot a roll of film at Lake Minnewanka (outside Banff) last Sunday morning. I was up early in the hopes of catching a nice sunrise, but all I got was cold, sleet & wind. The negatives from that roll came back this evening along with some low-res preview scans… I’ll make some high-res scans of the selects and stick ‘em up on 500px, the one below being my favourite:

It’s a simply stunning place to visit, even when the weather is crap. I hope to have better conditions next time I’m up there. 

More coming soon…