Lighting Gear: RadioPopper JrX

I've received a couple quesitons about what I use to trigger my strobes (when I actually use them, of course) - the short answer is RadioPopper JrX's. The long, and more detailed, answer is RadioPopper JrX's with customized/hacked RPCubes (I'll come back to the modification). Basically, the JrX series of RadioPoppers allows you to control the power of your off-camera flashes in groups via knobs on your transmitter, which sits firmly above the eyepiece on your camera. Most radio-triggers simply send a 'fire' signal, the receiver picks that up, fires the flash, and that's the end of it. JrX's send a 'fire' and a 'quench/stop' signal - which happen to be correlated to the manual flash power levels we've become accustomed to. This means you don't have to walk to your flashes to adjust power levels, it can all be done behind the camera. Before I go on about the necessary modifications that need to be done, I should let you know that other systems out there that can do radio-controlled TTL, but not at this price-point, with this high of reliability, nor with physical knobs. 

My one gripe is that you actually have to make some mods to the setup to use the product as I'm explaining. Why? Well, I shoot Nikon and RadioPopper hasn't released a hotshoe that can receive the 'fire' and 'quench/stop' signals. Sort of an oversight if you ask me, but making one isn't complicated, so I won't complain too much. I learned how to do this nifty trick by scanning the strobist Flickr forum on this topic. Instead of making you read the entire thing, here's the link you want, and below explains it all in a photo.

What you need is a Nikon AS-E900 TTL Hotshoe adapter, a stereo headphone jack, and some electrical tape - no soldering required. Just cut them both open, make the necessary connections, and test it out. If you accidentally reversed the left/right channels, nothing bad will happen. In fact, nothing will happen, that's how you know it's backwards. After it's all set, cover it up with electrical tape. All done. Tip: make a bunch of these. They are cheap to make and you never know when you'll be expanding your collection of flashes.

So like I said, the field of radio-triggers with TTL functionality is not ruled by these things - they are the ones that will give you the best bang for the buck (in my opinion).

Check out RadioPopper JrX's here.

Nikon 14-24mm Lens Quasi-Review

OK - so you know by now that I'm both a Nikon shooter and that I don't use an 'expensive' lens by any stretch of the imagination. It's more of a philosophical argument than anything - don't ask. Anyways, I gave some care and attention to the latest Sigma 10-20mm last week (which can be used on Nikon or Canon) so I figured I'd spend some time on the top-of-the-line lens as well.

Here's a blurb from StuckinCustoms:
This is the best wide angle lens I have ever used. Whenever I am standing with a fellow photographer that has a Nikon DSLR, I immediately force them to remove whatever lens they happen to have on and put this one on so they can try it out. They are amazed too.

No, this article is by no means a 'review', and the author admits that upfront. It's gives you a sense of what the lens is capable of (but we all know by know, it's really the photographer) and I think those sample images are better than you'll ever see in a lens review. Give it a look.

Read the complete entry here.

Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 (The New and Improved One) Lens Review

It's no secret - I'm a fan of the Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 lens. Yes - it's cheap. No - it's not perfect. But guess what - it's an amazing lens for the price and it can do 99% of what I need it to do with ease.

Digital Photography School just posted a review of the lens. Their conclusion…:
This lens is a keeper.  Except for the fact that Sigma wants theirs back and I can’t keep it.  I’m going to sorely miss this lens on my next trip and will likely purchase one before the month is out.  The ability to go this wide on an APS-C (1.6-Canon/1.5-Nikon crop factor) lens opens up a whole different realm of looking at the world.  Good work, Sigma.

Read the complete review here.

Canon G11 Announced

The G11 was announced yesterday and some review sites are already putting in their two-cents as to why or why not this iteration of Canon's G-line is a worthy upgrade. Here's a snippet from Photography Bay:
'The G11 has less megapixels on its sensor than its predecessor, the G10. The series went from 14.7MP down to 10MP, therefore satisfying the needs of photographers who wanted cleaner images. Further, with the coupling of the DIGIC 4 engine there should be less of a problem with the processing of the image noise in the your photos. One poster in the DPReview forums (via 1001 Noisy Cameras) made a connection that there may be a Sony sensor of some sort inside the body of this little digicam.'

If you wind up getting one of these, either to hoist onto a pole or snap some detail shots of an interior, let us know how it performs.

Check our the complete article here.

Gizmodo on Lenses

I'm a huge fan of Gizmodo (as well as many others) for gadget news. They are your go-to site for up-to-the-minute gadget releases, commentary, and an overall humorous slant on the world of consumer electronics. That being said, I don't tend to look to them for articles about photography. The following article that popped up today that caught my attention - it gave a quality overview of various types of lenses (zooms, primes, wide-angle, etc.).

Here's a clip about wide-angle lenses:
"Why is this? Film is flat, so light can come in at any angle, and the film will mostly record it. But camera sensor pixels are concave, and don't do well with light coming in from the side. Think of the pixels as little water glasses, says Sigma's Dave Metz. "You can fill them up with water by pouring it in from above, but try shooting it in from the side with a garden hose, and it's going to go all over the place." A telephoto by definition is pulling in light from directly in front of it, whereas a wide angle by definition is bringing in light from the sides, too. Hence the trouble, and the added expense."

The article is lengthy and may seem overwhelming to those just wrapping their minds around this information.

Check out the complete article here.

LowePro Roundup

Here's a good roundup of a bunch of LowePro bags including the Orion Trekker, Magnum AW, Nature Trekker, Sideline Shooter, and the Omni Trekker. They have about a zillion other bags, so make sure to check out their site here.

Read the complete roundup here.