Think Tank Multimedia Buyer's Guide

Photo Courtesy Think Tank
I don't have any Think Tank products (except for its see through bag for cables and stuff), but I must say that it's one of the companies that seems to be in lock-step with the industry's evolution with multimedia.

Here is it's latest effort in the multimedia field which is the Multimedia DSLR Buyers Guide. It's essentially a fluff piece about various products that can be used by photographers as additional tools for story-telling purposes. While some of the information is pretty basic, I found it quite useful when I got to the Accessories and Wired It Up sections. Naturally, Think Tank also lists its various bags as "must-haves" in the guide, and deservedly so.

As readers of this blog know, I do not advertise products of any kind, unless I've tried and liked them. I haven't tried Think Tank bags but I like what it's doing with its product line. Otherwise, I have no relationship of any sort with it.

New Handheld Recorder Zoom H1

Photo Courtesy Samson Audio
Ay...I hate innovation. Well, not really of course, but a new (and occasionally improved) gadget always turns up a few months after a purchase, and this is annoying. Why can't the stuff I buy stay fresh and on the cutting edge of things all the time?

I'm kidding...sort of. But here's the H1, a new handheld audio recorder from Samson Audio, which may not have the top of the range recording schemes, but is a handy portable stereo recorder at an unheard-of $99 price.

It's supposed to give you 10 hours of battery life on a single AA cell, and can accommodate up to 32GB of removable microSDHC storage. Its microphones are configured in an X/Y pattern for optimum stereo imaging.

At this price (and assuming its performance is as good as Samson claims), it'll be a hit for entry-level multimedia photographers, and perhaps many others. It's available on July 30th, so keep your eye on it if you're in the market for a low cost handheld recorder.

I've read Samson's blurb, but didn't find the accessory on the H1's list that allows it to be set on top of a DSLR's hot shoe as shown in the above photograph. The H1 has a tripod mount on its back, so this doodad connects it to the hot shoe.

Got it! Panasonic GF1 + 20mm f1.7 Lens

Having lost patience with Amazon's delivery system, and the fact that its delivery was now estimated to be between June 1 and June 14, I called yesterday and canceled my order. The customer service lady was extremely pleasant and nice, making me feel somewhat guilty for a while.

My guilt didn't last too long after I saw that Adorama had a Panasonic GF1 with a 20mm/F1.7 for $847 excluding NYC tax, but including some stuff like an 8 GB SD Sandisk memory card, a Lowepro carrying case (I much prefer my own pouches), a wonderful USB 2.0 SD card reader (like a memory stick), and a cleaning kit (of dubious use except for a nice lens brush).

I walked over to the store, got served by a lovely young woman (inexplicably wearing a scarf in NYC's heat) and had my new camera and accessories in under 10 minutes.

As with every camera and electronic gadgets I buy, I tried to work through the controls and settings without opening the manual. I got reasonably far, and was stumped a number of times, especially as I am used to a Canon "nomenclature". So I'll have to spend some time studying the manual after all.

I will soon test the GF1 and will post some of the street shots here. However, my first impressions holding it, shooting a few interior shots and so forth, gave me a sense that it's a solidly-built small camera. Not a point & shoot, not a rangefinder...but a hybrid in between the two.

POV: The Guardian Eyewitness iPad App

I saw this posted on various blogs, and thought I'd add my two cents. It's the newly released Guardian Eyewitness app for the Apple iPad, shown off by photographer David Levene. I can't argue with the premise that it's gorgeous...but what does it bring to the table beyond what a laptop and/or netbook already does? The Guardian photographs can be appreciated on a laptop/netbook as well, no?

I have a Mac Book Pro and its display is equally gorgeous. I have a cheap Acer netbook, and its display is certainly not as great, but it's cheaper than the iPad, and it allows me to use all types of software, and fiddle with my photographs using Lightroom...infuriatingly slow perhaps, but it does, and iPad does not.

I frequently visit the Apple store in the Meatpacking district to play with the iPad (by the way, there are fewer tourists on the second floor, where iPads are also available).

As I've said before, I haven't seen anything to convince me that the iPad is a must-have for photographers...so until it does, and despite the Guardian's app and others like it, I'll wait and see what comes with the device's future iterations and new apps.

POV:iPad & Photography Redux

The New York Times reports that Apple announced it had sold one million units of its iPads as of Friday last week, and that demand outstrips supply. Apple also said there were now 5,000 iPad-specific apps available for the device.

Macworld also published a first look review at Apple's $29 iPad Camera Connection Kit, which confirms that the device can upload and store RAW images (nef and cr2) but there isn't a way to edit these images as yet. The iPad generates JPEG versions of these files, and it's these that iPad users can email, create sideshows with, and edit with 3rd party applications.

I am not convinced this device is an accessory can serve photographers in its current iteration. Some photographers (mostly studio) perhaps will use it as a viewer during photo shoots, and wedding photographers are thinking of buying them instead of wedding albums to send to their clients...while others will use it instead of portfolio books to showcase their work to important clients.

Other than that, the bottom line is let's wait and see....there's no just meat on these bones for me.