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Platypod Pro and Max Review – A Tripod Alternative

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Platypod-1

I have been looking for a small portable alternative to carting my tripod around with me for quite some time now. There have been many occasions when I’ve been out photographing and could have used the support that a tripod provides, but could not be bothered to lug my tripod with me. I have tried using a variety of small tabletop tripods. None of them were strong enough to support a DSLR and heavy lens. Beanbags are cumbersome to carry around as well. This past summer I stumbled upon a Kickstarter campaign for Platypod Pro Max, and I was intrigued. Could this possibly be the answer to my search?

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Improving Your Cityscapes with a Polarizing Filter

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810_2484

One of the easiest ways to substantially improve the image quality of your daytime cityscapes is to use a circular polarizing filter. Putting a polarizing filter on your lens is like wearing a pair of polarized sunglasses over your eyes; the polarized glass blocks random light waves from passing through, creating a clearer image. Randomized light tends to be lower quality than direct light. As such, a polarizing filter will help ensure that only the sharpest, most colorful light hits your image sensor.

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FLM Ballhead Review (CB-58 FTR, CB-48 FTR and CB-32 F)

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FLM CB-58 FTR

As a landscape and travel photographer, I heavily rely on tripods. After making a number of wrong purchasing decisions early on in my photography career, I realized that a solid tripod and tripod head are very important – sometimes even more important than choosing a camera or a lens. A poor tripod setup can create many headaches and really mess up images, and tripod heads play a big part of that. Many cheap tripod heads sag even after they are tightened. Some can barely hold gear and shake like crazy in wind or when they are touched. Others have poor plates and attachments, making them very frustrating to use in the field. Unfortunately, many of us go through a number of bad tripod heads before realizing that we should have gotten something solid to begin with. For the past seven years, I have been very happy with the Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead. In fact, after using the BH-55 for a few years, I ended up buying a few more ballheads from RRS for other needs such as travel. However, after attending a few trade shows and seeing other options from other companies, I wanted to see if there was something even better than the RRS ballheads that I have come to trust and love. I bumped into FLM at Photo Plus New York last year and after talking to the company, I decided to give their ballheads a try and see how they compare to RRS. Thanks to FLM Canada, I was able to obtain three ballheads to test, the CB-58 FTR, CB-48 FTR and CB-32 F. In this review, I will go over these three ballheads in detail and discuss their pros and cons.

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Peak Design 20L Everyday Backpack Review

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Peak design everyday backpack dual side access

Backpacks are a sore spot for many photographers. Personally, I’ve owned so many different types over the years that I truly can’t remember them all. I know photographers who have entire gear closets filled with bags, and nothing else. The problem here, I think, is that bags look amazing online (or in a store) — seeing them, reading reviews, and even trying it on for a few minutes — but then reality kicks in a few weeks later, and you realize that your new purchase isn’t all that spectacular. That brings me to the company Peak Design. I’m sure you’ve heard of them; they made headlines a couple years ago after fundraising millions of dollars on Kickstarter for their lineup of bags. We haven’t yet reviewed one of their bags on Photography Life, so, when they reached out to send a copy for testing, I decided to see how it measures up. This review specifically covers the 20 liter version of the “Everyday Backpack.” So, does it live up to the hype? Can you finally clean out your closet of bags and turn it into something more productive? The answers are more nuanced than you might think.

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Shimoda Adventure 60 Backpack Review

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Shimoda backpack review thumbnail

If you do a lot of hiking and long-distance treks as a photographer, you might have some difficulty finding a good backpack to carry your equipment. Sure, regular camera backpacks will protect your gear and allow quick access, but they might not be comfortable for long travels. The other option is to get a hiking backpack, which works for longer hikes, but won’t let you access your gear as easily (or potentially protect it as well). That’s where companies such as F-Stop Gear and Gura Gear jump in with something in between — hiking bags built around carrying cameras. There’s a new company on the scene, too: Shimoda Design. I’ve been testing out the Shimoda Adventure 60 bag over the past month, and it ticks a lot of boxes for what this sort of bag should be. Below is my review, along with the pros and cons of this intriguing new backpack.

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Tripods and Heads: A Landscape Photographer’s Guide

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Featured thumbnail tripod article

Say that the sun just set, and you’re trying to take photos of the blue glow that now sits on the horizon. Seems like the perfect backdrop for a beautiful landscape, doesn’t it? But in order to capture the photo you want as well as possible, there’s one piece of camera equipment that is absolutely essential: a tripod. Landscape photography and tripods go hand in hand, but there’s a lot of important information about them that many photographers don’t know. In this article, I’ll cover the ins and outs of tripods, including what you need to know if you’re buying one yourself.

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TerraMaster D2-310 Hard Drive Enclosure Review

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TerraMaster D2-310 Drive Enclosure

Depending upon the number of images or videos you have, you might need to rely upon external hard drives for much of your daily photography work. The biggest issue, though, is that this can result in a significant slowdown compared to editing photos via an internal drive, especially SSD or flash storage. What are your options? One possibility is to use an external hard drive enclosure capable of RAID configurations, letting you speed up your storage or mirror the information on your drives automatically for peace of mind. The TerraMaster D2-310 Hard Drive Enclosure is one such entry-level RAID enclosure, retailing for $160 (not including the two hard drives it can accept). In the review below, we will dive into the D2-310 and explain whether or not it is a good piece of equipment for people seeking a more advanced external hard drive solution.

MIOPS Capsule360 – A Versatile Motion Control Box

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Capsule360 Panning and Tilting with Slider

Our good friends at MIOPS have recently announced their latest project Capsule360, a versatile motion control box capable of performing sliding, panning and tilting moves while capturing photo or video. MIOPS engineers were able to use their extensive knowledge from their prior successful product launches, such as the MIOPS Smart Camera Trigger and bring together a single, “do-it-all” product capable of everything from timelapses and 360° photography to panoramas, star tracking for astrophotography and smart object tracking for motion video.


Peak Design 45L Travel Backpack Review

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Peak Design 45L Travel Backpack

Carrying the right amount of camera equipment in a comfortable, accessible bag is an eternal problem for photographers, or at least for me. At this point, I’ve settled on a system of a technical hiking backpack with a camera insert for my longer landscape photography trips, but I haven’t yet found the perfect bag for more moderate travels. Enter the Peak Design 45L Travel backpack, advertised as Peak Design’s top travel bag. Does it fit the bill?

Hoya Pro1 Digital Circular Polarizing Filter Review

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Hoya Pro1 Polarizing Filter

This is a review of the Hoya Pro1 Digital Circular Polarizing Filter in both 72mm and 77mm filter thread sizes. Polarizing filters are designed to reduce glare and reflections of light while at the same time greatly enhancing the natural colors and saturation of an image. This filter is produced by Hoya which is one of the most respected producers of photographic filters, ocular lenses, and optical components in Japan.

Recommended Gifts for Photographers (2019)

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The Photographer's Ephemeris

With the holiday season fast approaching, it’s a good time to decide what to buy for the photographer in your life (or for yourself). In this guide, I’ve compiled a list of the best gifts for photographers in 2019. The products below are arranged by price – under $20, under $50, under $100, and over $100. I’ve used almost all these items myself and strongly recommend them. The ones I haven’t are on my own wish list this year!

Palette Gear Expert Kit Review

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Palette Gear Expert Kit Review-13

In this article, I’m going to review the Palette Gear Expert Kit. This is a control surface that consists of buttons, dials and sliders, all of which are meant to be used with a variety of photo and video editing programs. They can also be used with everyday computer operation such as web browsers and operating systems. Personally, I use it with Lightroom for working with photos, Premiere Pro for working with videos, and Chrome for web browsing.

Printing Photos On-the-Go

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Fuji Instax SP2 Prints

I am currently in Uzbekistan, doing some photo work for the ministry of tourism (more on the trip in my upcoming posts) and I wanted to quickly share my experience with a piece of gear that I will now be bringing with me to every trip going forward. When photographing strangers while traveling, I have always struggled with the issue of being able to deliver images to those who asked for them.

Hard or Soft Graduated ND Filters? It Depends on Your Lens

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100mm Example Photo

One common question I see from photographers about lens filters is whether to get a hard or soft graduated neutral density filter. Which one is better? You’ve probably seen a lot of photographers recommend soft GNDs (if you can only choose one), since they’re more versatile when photographing uneven horizons. But that doesn’t capture the whole story. Instead, the optimal GND filter depends as much on your lens – wide vs telephoto – as the scene in front of you.

Do You Need a Remote Shutter Release?

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Before I ever started out in photography, when I was just about to buy my first "real" camera, I made a list of all the extra accessories I'd need. Above nearly everything else was a remote shutter release.

Why a Solid Tripod is a Life-Long Investment

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Really Right Stuff BH-55 and BH-25 on Gitzo

It has now been almost 10 years since I purchased my Gitzo Traveler tripod. I have taken it with me all over the world, and it has been my favorite tripod to use for travel photography. I wrote a detailed review of the Gitzo Traveler Series 1 Tripod back in 2012, and I praised it highly for its versatility. Unfortunately, I managed to break one of the legs of this tripod on my last trip, which was very disappointing.

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