Hi,
I have written a new review. This time it is about a monopod, the Gitzo GM3551 carbon fiber monopod. Good camera support sometimes is an important key to obtain good quality pictures so don’t be afraid to spend some money on it! 
Jakke
Hi,
I finished another review for the website. It is a review about the Pocket Wizard Plus II. These are units to remote trigger your flash and/or camera. Many professionals and amateurs use them because of their reliability. You can find the review on my website.
If you have any questions or comments please leave a comment and I will answer.
Jakke
I have finally found the time to take a couple of pictures to accompany the reviews I have written. I am finishing up a couple of reviews so keep checking the blog and website for the updates. For now I have putted the review of the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS online.
If you have any comments or remarks you can always leave them here in the comment section.
Jakke
Like I said before in one of the previous post I am writing some reviews. The second review that I’ve put online is the one from the Canon 24 – 105 f/4.0 L IS.
If you have something that you want to read a review about, you can always leave a comment. I’m planning to post another review at the middle of January. I still have to decide which one it will be but I will keep you updated.
You can find the review on my website.
Jakke
Hi,
As I said before, I would write a review of the LowePro Flipside 400 AW. It is a nice backpack for people who want very good carrying comfort and protect the equipment they need on long walks or hikes in the mountains. I used it for a couple of long walks trough nature and I didn’t have any shoulder ache. At that time the backpack was weighing about 8 kilograms.
With the Flipside series LowePro has invented a new way to access the main compartment. With most backpacks the main compartment is accessed by laying the packpack on it’s backside. This has the disadvantage that the backstraps and the backside can get dirty which isn’t nice when you put it back on. With the Flipside series you access the main compartment from the backside. This makes it possible to access the main compartment without putting it down. To do this you have to close the waistband and swing the backpack to the front. This comes in handy when you can’t put your backpack down. Personally I always put this backpack down because swinging it around is kind of a hassle for me because it weighs a lot. I tried the same with less in it, then it is easy to swing it in front of you. I have made a movie about this so you can see how it works. (see bottom of this posting)
The main compartment can easily hold a SLR-body with a batterygrip and a big lens like a 70-200 f/2.8 or a 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 attached and 3 or 4 other “small” lenses. You can easily adjust the main compartment with velcro-dividers. The inside panel provides 3 memorycardpockets and 1 bigger pocket. The front compartment is big enough for your manual, 2 flashes, filters and wires or wathever you want to put in there. At either side of the backpack you have a mesh pocket which comes in handy to hold a bottle of water for your long walks with it .
At the front it also has a tripod holder which isn’t that practical in my opinion. If you want to keep optimal carrying comfort, you can only attach light tripods. Otherwise the backpack leans backwards a lot and the tripod swings left to right while walking. At the side of the backpack there is a strap so if you want you can attach your tripod there to keep optimal carrying comfort however attaching you tripod there is only recommended for shorter trips.
The AllWeathercover is a nice feature, especially in a rainy place like Belgium. You can also use it to protect your gear from sand if you go to the beach or the desert.
Because it’s a LowePro everything is made of good materials. The zippers are solid and covered up. The fabric is strong and dirt doens’t stick on it that easily. The clips are made of a good and endurable plastic.
Conclusion
Pros
Cons
You can find more detailed info about this backpack on the LowePro website.
The Front Pocket
The Side
The Back
The Inside Panel
The Inside
Hi,
As you probably know the photographer of the present is obliged to edit his photos on his computer. But when you edit your photographs on your computer you have to know that the colors your screen is displaying are
correct. That’s why it is very important to calibrate your computerscreen. There are a lot of tools to calibrate your screen. You have the pure software versions and a version where you get a hardware component. I don’t have to tell you that the ones with the hardware component are much more accurate than the software versions. The product I bought is a DataColor Spyder 3 Elite. They have different versions of the DataColor. If you want an overview of the differences between there products, just follow this Link.
It works as follows: of course you install the software first before using the device. Then you attach the hardware component, actually it is a colorimeter, onto your screen and press calibrate my screen. It then displays some colors and measures how the color is being displayed by your screen. The software then knows how to adjust the output to your screen so the colors are being displayed properly. When the calibration is done you can see a before and after screen.
I must say when I calibrated my screen the difference was astonishing! I have an apple screen and they are well known for their good and accurate color reproduction so I was really amazed. Now I’m wondering what the effect would be on cheaper screens.
If you have any questions about it, you can always post a comment or sent me an email.
Like I said before I bought some PocketWizards and would write a review when I had used them a couple of times.
The PocketWizards come in 2 versions, the Plus II and the MultiMAX. The big difference is the amount of channels and the possibility to set a delay. There are a lot of other functions too but I’m not a specialist in the MultiMAX.
The PWs are not cheap. I found it a bit dissapointing that for that kind of money you only get the PocketWizards and not the necessary cables. I know that you need different cables for different equipment but you should get at least one cable with it and while ordering you should be able to choose the type of cable you want. I even believe that in the USA you get as standard a jack to pc cable that works with a lot of things.
Everything comes nicely packed in a box. Inside you find the PocketWizard, 2 AA batteries, a lanyard and a velcro-kit to attach the PW to your system.
The first time I screwed the PocketWizard on my camera I noticed that the part with the screw thread was made of cheap looking plastic. Although I have never read anything about a mishap with this part, I would like to see this on the next generation in a better material. The on and off switch is a bit cheap looking too in my opinion. You can find all the pictures at the bottom of the post.
The use of the PocketWizards is very easy and they always work! I have never had any misfires and they have a big range (about 500 meters). Although I have never used them further than 125 meters.
I also bought a cable that allows me the remote trigger my camera. It allows me to shoot a close-up and a wide-shot at the same time using 2 cameras. On this cable is a switch. When it is switched off the camera acts normal, when switched on the camera acts like the releasebutton is pressed halfway.
I just read on the site op PWs that they are releasing a new model that allows ETTL. This isn’t posible with the current models. This means that if you want to adjust the power of you flash you need to do this on your flash, which I find most annoying certainly when the flash is placed in a difficult location or a long distance away.
My conclusion: they are not cheap, some parts could have been of better quality but they just work great! If you have the budget I wouldn’t go for anything else than PWs!!
Jakke
Front view
Back view
Top view
Locking mechanism
On/Off switch
