To celebrate an endorsement from the wonderful people at Thinktank photo, I have a chance to thank you for reading this blog.  Who’s up for winning a free Thinktank Urban Disguise 35 v2.0, worth over £120?

Having used Thinktank gear for a few years now, it’s a real pleasure to say how great their gear is.  On a daily basis, I use the Shape Shifter, the Skin 75 Pop Down V2.0, the Chimp Cage, the Thin Skin belt with an Airport Check In also often getting drafted into use.  Having started out using Lowepro bags, I got rid of them after realising that they don’t seem to spend much time thinking about the actual user.  The bags do indeed hold the cameras but are cumbersome, bulky and do what countless other bags already do.  After a brief experiment with a Crumpler bag (that made me look like Touche Turtle, even when empty), I invested in a Shape Shifter and have been using it ever since.

For your chance to get your hands on the bag shown above (obviously without the Nikon toys), simply follow @tabascokid & @thinkTANKphoto on twitter and tweet the following message;

Follow @tabascokid & @thinkTANKphoto for a chance to win a Thinktank Urban Disguise 35 V2.0 #gimmeathinktankbag

MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE THE WHOLE SENTENCE, INCLUDING #gimmeathinktankbag AS THIS IS HOW I’LL FIND THE WINNER!

I’m afraid the competition is only open to those in the UK, so those readers in Bhutan will have to find a generous soul closer to them if they want a freebie.

I would say good luck but it’s a no-brainer!  The winner will be picked at random on the 20th of January 2012.

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The competition is now over and the winner is Fraser Stephen of Fife, Scotland.  Congratulations Fraser!

Following my hijacking of Phil Coomes’ BBC “News in Pictures” blog last week, I thought I’d put my slightly revised selection from 2011 on here to continue the series that I began last year.

I’m obviously tempting fate as I have one shift left for 2011 on the 31st, so calling these my favourites of the year runs with the proviso that the Second Coming doesn’t happen on Saturday, with Jesus choosing to return for an impromptu monster truck session on Oxford Street while I’m on duty.

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First up is a scene from the Southbank of the Thames, during the build-up to the royal wedding.  With tourists filling the city and everything either draped in union flags or police tape, most photographers in London were regularly being sent out to find feature pictures on the upcoming marriage.  Aside from the poses looking like it could have been staged, the punchline to it all was that “The Queen” was in fact an Eastern European bloke.  I hope Phil the Greek knows.  The full blog can be found here.

The London riots saw some incredible images on the news wire from all agencies, newspapers and freelance sources. While I captured a good share of the flames and violence,  one of my personal favourite pictures came on the first night as I was leaving Tottenham to edit my photographs. Just as I was about to go, I glanced over my shoulder and saw a woman carrying two young children through the rubble and broken glass. The blue lights from the police vans lit her face as she walked towards the line of armoured vehicles and riot police. A few hundred metres behind her, the police were still clashing with rioters and missiles were being thrown in all directions. Being in that situation was scary enough, but as a father I can only imagine how scared this woman must have been for the safety of the children.  More images from the story can be found here.

The MCM Comic Con convention in east London turned out to be one of my favourite jobs of the year to shoot thanks to the ridiculous amount of pictures that were there to be taken, as nearly everyone attending was dressed in some type of costume. One of my favourites was Lindsay Vincent from Cumbria who dressed as US singer Lady Gaga and was happy to take time out to pose for me in front of the passing crowds.  The set of images I came away with have ended up being my favourite picture story of the year, thanks to the devotion of the fans of Cosplay and all that it involves.  Bravo, eccentric types!  More frames can be found here.

The show below is an idea that’s been done before but I loved how well matched the girls were.  While covering the “Vintage at the Southbank Centre” event, I’d spotted two girls playing around with the record covers as they searched through the stacks of vinyl on a stall.  As I approached them, they’d just found these two covers and were starting to play around with them.  I’d love to say I’d made the effort of finding out the exact covers and posing them just so but they made the frame for me.  While not being the hardest frame to capture, it still puts a smile on my face.  More images can be found here.

Covering the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships at Sheffield Arena in March, the photographers were given the chance to shoot from directly above, allowing us to catch the action from a new perspective.  At the time, I didn’t really appreciate how rare an opportunity it was until I’ve seen the “best of 2011″ images from a number of leading sports photographers have included shots from the gantry from over that weekend.

I was sitting in the office of Agence France-Presse, the news agency that I work for, on a particularly quiet day when I noticed the end of a rainbow over the financial district of London. I grabbed my camera and began taking pictures of the rainbow that could be used to illustrate a future business feature or story, when I noticed that it was starting to get longer. Within a few seconds it had become a full arc, and shortly after a second rainbow appeared over the top. By this time I’d called everyone over from their desks and they stood and watched the incredible light show as I frantically snapped away from under my coat (to cut out reflections from the glass of the office window). Then, as fast as it had appeared, it was gone.

Another shot from the first night of the London riots and it’s pretty self-explanatory but I liked how it captured the energy and frantic movement as the night developed.  With an appliance store on fire, the riot police moved forward pushing the rioters further down the street.  It’s always a challenge in this kind of situation to find the right place to be, as you’re facing incoming missiles when too close to the police but are at risk of being attacked if you’re in with the rioters.  More images can be found here.

Never having shot Wimbledon before, other than a few of the features surrounding the event, I got to cover the actual play this year with this shot being my favourite. After a long and frustratingly close rally, French player Benoit Paire threw his racquet while diving as he played against Spanish player David Ferrer.  A truly desperate move but it gave me a shot for the yearly round-up!  More images can be found here.

Another moment from the Comic-Con 2011 convention makes my list and this one was the opposite of the shot above, being a moment I spotted as I wandered around the main concourse during lunch.  While all of the attendees were connected by their love of cosplay, they still divided into some groups, so I had a poke around to see how they were mixing.  The guy in the centre was clearly quite proud of his costume and seemed to be a bit of an alpha-male of the group.  I’m proud of catching his flirtatious look towards the passing girl while the guy on the right eyes me suspiciously.  I also loved the Comic-Con show for this moment. More images can be found here.

It’s hard to fail on a story like this but when sent to cover the 25th annual International Kite Festival in Bristol, my favourite photo was of the interaction between a giant flying lobster and a spectator.  Even if it wasn’t a favourite picture, I’d probably include it anyway, just so that I could write that sentence.

While covering the on-going fighting around the town of Bani Walid in Libya, AFP journalist Dominique Soguel and I started chatting to a group of National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters as they sheltered from the midday sun on a dried riverbed running under the road. After shooting a few portraits of them, a senior figure in the NTC army arrived with a reinforced briefcase filled with wrapped bundles of tens of thousands of Dinar and started to pay the troops. With the fighting dragging on longer than hoped, the fighters were struggling to survive with families at home in need of income, so supporters had raised money by selling their possessions and sending the funds to the front line.  My posts from Libya can be found here.

The day of the royal wedding was truly one of the most stressful days of my life, but in the end it was saved by bridesmaid Grace Van Cutsem. The young girl became world famous after she covered her ears to protect herself from the noise of a fly-past, just at the point of the royal kiss, creating one of the moments of the day. I was very grateful that we were shooting from so far away, as if I’d been closer I may have tried to crop in really tight on the kiss and would have missed Grace’s moment.  The whole story can be found here.

During the visit to Britain by US President Barack Obama, I was covering a number of the meetings inside number 10 Downing Street. It included this one between the president, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Prime Minister David Cameron. I have absolutely no idea what was said, but I love the body language between the three subjects. While the prime minister had moved out of the way to allow us to photograph Mr Clegg and President Obama, the combination of the apparent giggling fit on the left, and the rather stern look from Mr Cameron, makes for an amusing caption competition shot.  More images from the visit can be found here.

So there we go.  Unless you hear about a series of crushed cars near Oxford Circus over the weekend, bring on 2012.

Having owned my Panasonic GF1 for just over two years now, I figured that technology had moved on enough to warrant investigating a new small-form camera for days off and secret squirrel assignments.  With Panasonic’s follow-up models being too consumer-based with added touch-screens and gimmicks, while still utilising the same sensor, I’d waited eagerly for the GX1.  However, when it finally arrived, it just looked, well, naff.  The problem is that in recent months Fuji have taken a leap forward by looking backwards.  Their X100 and X10 both have such classic looks, you’ll really enjoy looking at the camera itself, never mind their high quality output.  I’ve only played with them briefly but, while feeling that the fixed lens on the X100 could prove frustrating for a £1000 camera, the feel of it would probably outweigh that issue.

So, with that aside, my hunt for my next camera led me to Nikon’s latest range of “Compact Camera System” models; the V1 and the J1.  In my every day work, I use a wide range of Nikon lenses on D700, D3 and D3s bodies but have never used their smaller cameras before.  In recent years, I’d used the Canon S70 (and still do for underwater pictures) and the Canon Powershot G7 before finding the Panasonic Lumix GF1.  Thanks to the always-wonderful people at Nikon UK, I was allowed to get my hands on a range of bits and pieces from the range including the V1 and J1 bodies, the 10mm f2.8 lens, the 10-30mm f3.5-5.6 lens, the 10-100mm f4.5-5.6 lens and the SB-N5 flash unit.  Before I go any further, I’ll explain the difference between the two.  The slightly more expensive V1 has a hot-shoe and viewfinder, while the J1 has a pop-up flash and no viewfinder.  I gather that the idea is that the V1 is aimed at the street photographer and more serious photographer while the J1 is aimed at the consumer who’s less bothered about buying extra attachments.  With identical sensors and output, the extra money for the V1 buys you a host of other features including auto-sensor cleaning.  Deeper within the tech side of it, the V1 has both options of using a mechanical shutter or electronic while the J1 has only the electronic.  While the electronic is virtually silent, making it ideal for street photography, I always found myself back on the mechanical shutter.  I’d love to explain my reasoning but I can’t.  I just prefer the “feel”.  The only other difference that I could find was that the V1 has a higher resolution screen.  Basically, to wade through all of that, if you’re interested in buying one but don’t know which to go for, I’d lean towards the V1.  Yes, it’s a few quid more and you’ll have to buy the flash but I think the extra options that it provides make up for it.

Look and touch (but no fondling please)

Oddly, both cameras manage to catch the balance between bang up-to-date and retro styling with a very minimalist layouts.  The smooth form actually reminds me very much of the Leica M7 body design with no sharp edges and a lovely rounded form that sits in the hand quite nicely.  Having a father who worked in the motor industry for years, I’ve grown up with a love of things that are well ergonomically designed, so anything that sits right gets the thumbs up from me.  When held, they both feel solid and expensive, unlike many other pocket cameras that feel too thin and insignificant.  As previously mentioned, controls on the camera are sparse, to the point of being a little too minimalist.  Having worked with cameras for a few years now, it was a bit surprising to find that I had to mail Nikon for the instruction booklet to work out some of the options!  In the end it turns out that the vast majority of functions are accessed through the software menu which I’ll get to later.  The controls that are featured have the feel of a Hi-Fi separate, with a brushed chrome finish and in-set buttons on the silver J1 that I received, while the V1 definitely had the feel of the afore-mentioned Leica with a powder black finish and reasonably subtle branding.

The backs of both cameras have near identical design aside from the pop-up flash button on the J1.  One issue that I had with both cameras was the positioning of the thumb-wheel to change between certain modes.  With the controls all clustered over to the right of the screen, I found that the selection dial was very easily knocked and turned, either in use or while carrying the camera over my shoulder.  While I wasn’t using the camera in anger during these tests, it would be very annoying to grab for my camera to take a picture and find that it had rolled around to either video mode or the slightly baffling “Motion Snapshot” setting.

Optics ago-go

Moving on from the body, the lenses were quite an eclectic bunch.  With the 10mm “pancake” lens being the one that I was automatically drawn towards, the 10-30mm kit lens looked like most other kit lenses while the monster 10-100mm looked more like it was designed for me D3s!

Starting with the 10mm lens, I have to say from the start that it was disappointing to find that it was only f2.8.  While this may seem very fast to some, my personal benchmark was set by the 20mm pancake lens that I got with my GF1 with an f1.7 aperture.  It’s a real shame that even f2 wasn’t possible as it makes all the difference to those who want to have a small camera as a quick alternative to their main kit.  Aside from that, the lens is sharp and fast and has a nice slim profile so it sits nice and close to the body.

Next up is the 10-30mm f3.5-5.6 zoom lens. With very smooth zooming and sharp images, the lens is very reasonable but, like the 10mm, the aperture is too slow for me.

Last but not least is the 10-100mm, otherwise known as the “Thermos flask” due to it’s chunky size.  Oddly, after all I said about liking slim and slender designs, this lens was possibly my favourite.  Looks-wise, it’s a no go, looking like some sort of military drinks flask but when you’re sticking such a lump of glass and plastic onto the front of a slim camera, you’re doing it for one reason and that’s for the photographs.  So once you’ve got used to the fact that it’s going to look a little silly, it’s a nice bit of kit.  I’m guessing that its size is down to the amount of image stabilising that is needed to make this combination possible.  With such a light body, you find yourself holding the lens rather than the body, but it does what it should with lovely smooth stabilisation allowing shots indoors, even at the f5.6 end.  Focus is adjusted via a switch on the side of the lens which takes a little getting used to after years of on-camera focus buttons but doesn’t cause too much confusion.

All of my f stop criticism may seem harsh but I’m approaching this review with the intention of finding the right camera for me.  If you’re planning on using this camera for everyday life and will happily pop the flash on at parties, then any of these lenses will be perfect.  However, if you’re like me and want to suck as much natural light out of the day as possible before using flash, an f5.6 aperture is a bit of a no-go.

Cheeky little flasher

Take a particularly small and wide-eyed little mouse and cross it with a Nikon speedlight flash gun and what do you get?  The SB-N5 flash.  Never did I ever imagine that I’d be saying “ahhhh” at a flash unit but this truly is the cutest little bit of kit ever made.  With full 180 degree rotation horizontally and 90 degrees vertically for full bounce options, it kicks out loads of light and slots easily onto the V1.  As you’d imagine, it’s considerably more substantial than the pop-up flash on the J1 but does involve more extra outlay and more to carry around but as it’s such a gem, who cares?  Even if you don’t own the camera, buy the flash and put it in a frame.

Operation (where you’re the doctor!)

Sadly, this is the area that really lets the camera down.  Operations and adjustments that would be carried out in a fraction of a second on a camera that has on-body controls take much longer on both cameras.  For starters, changing between camera modes involves pressing the menu button, moving to the camera settings, entering camera options, scrolling up to exposure mode and moving across into the options to pick between “Scene auto selector’, Program, Shutter priority, Aperture priority and Manual.

It might not sound like much but I’m constantly moving between manual, shutter priority and aperture priority while working, often even within the same set of images so it needs to be fast and very accessible.  The same applies to white balance with the process being equally lengthy.  While these vital options are buried in the user menu, the menu wheel on the back of the body gives you the option to switch between HD video, still image, Smart Photo Selector and Motion Snapshot.  While they’re nearly all useful options, having them as the options that you have easiest access to seems a real waste.  I could understand it on the J1 as it appears to be aimed at the consumer but to have the same option on the version that’s clearly aimed at photographers who are more experienced is really odd.

Now for a quick explanation of those four options on the wheel;

• “HD video” is very high quality, up to 1920 x 1080/60i.  One neat little feature is the option to shoot in slow motion at up to 1200fps.  The problem with shooting at that speed is that you need to be FLOODED with light for it to work as it’s filming so quickly.  If you do have lots of light to play with, you can get some great effects and playing around with flowing water and the obligatory “head shake for slo-mo cheek wobble” is good fun.  Here’s a link to a snippet that I filmed in the park.  As you can see, the quality isn’t great and it looks dark despite being in the middle of the day, due to the ultra high frame rate.
• “Still image” is self-explanatory.  If you need to know what that is, I’m frankly baffled as to how you’ve got this far into the review.
• “Smart Photo Selector” is essentially autopilot for the camera.  Nikon describe it as a way “to deliver a perfect image every time. When a “can’t miss” photo opportunity arises, users can switch to the Smart Photo Selector mode which uses the camera’s pre-cache to start shooting and storing images. All of these images are analysed within the camera, and the best photo is selected based on a number of factors including exposure, focus and advanced facial recognition.“  So basically, you don’t even have to think.  While it’s the kind of thing that I can see on their consumer cameras, why is it on their camera that’s aimed at semi-pros and above?  Bad move.
• “Motion Snapshot” is a way of making those moving pictures that they have in the newspapers in the Harry Potter films.  It films two seconds of video in slow motion and combines it with a choice of four pre-programmed snippets of music.  It’s just bizarre as a choice of quick-access option.  How can this be more useful than being able to change between camera modes?  While it’s possibly a fun little feature, it should be buried in the menu instead.  You’re never going to need it in a rush.

Oh yeah, and the pictures too…

Firstly, one major problem that I found straight away was that Photoshop CS5 still hasn’t got a finalised RAW update that allows me to edit the files from this camera.  They currently have an update that is still in user-testing stage (Adobe Raw 6.6) so while it appears to work perfectly well, the finalised update may produce slightly different results.  While I know I could download and install the Nikon software, I’ve always avoided the software that camera makers provide as it’s invariably pretty ropey.  I KNOW I’ll get grumbles for saying that as I’m sure it’s all singing and dancing these days but I’d rather just use the software that I’m going to use on a daily basis.

Pictures have a definite punch to them, straight out of the camera but, as expected for a camera with a very small sensor, noise can be an issue.  Even though the camera can be pushed up to 3200ISO, I didn’t feel comfortable pushing it beyond 800ISO.  Thankfully, in everyday life, you can get away with shooting within these limits but it’s a little frustrating seeing all that extra ISO listed on the menu but feeling uncomfortable using it.

Colour in the standard setting is, as expected, quite flat and allows for some tweaking while, of the image profiles, I found the monochrome setting to have a lovely smooth tone to it.  If, like me, you shoot in jpeg and RAW, it’s quite nice to shoot in mono for instant results while knowing that the RAW file is in full colour if you want to play later.  The RAWs allowed the usual amount of freedom of post production and held up well to close inspection.

The Grand Conclusion

Oh, if only this was a simple answer.  Like anything that tries to set itself apart, Nikon have succeeded in areas while failing in others.  Their line of compact cameras was well in need of a shake-up and the V1 and J1 definitely suggest a move in a fresh direction but I think the desire to create something interesting has resulted in them forgetting why most cameras do end up behaving in a similar manner; there are designs that work really well.  If you’re going to make something radical, it needs to equal or improve upon what is already out there and the current operation lacks ease of use.  If they swapped the wheel of toys on the back for a Av, Tv, M and HD option, it would be a VERY different camera.  While it would lose some of it’s sparkly innovation, it would become usable again.  The thing is, this could easily be resolved in a firmware patch.  If Nikon isn’t prepared to offer it as an option, will someone else?

It’s a real shame that the picture quality from the camera has taken such a back-seat in the review as it does produce strong images and I think most people would be very happy with it.  While noise does become an issue at the higher ISOs, anything within the usual range (100-800ISO) looks great.  As I stated above, while the new toys that Nikon have added are fun and well worth an explore, they are just… toys.  While people buy £200-300 cameras for exciting gimmicks, I think that anyone spending up to £849 wants a solid, well-performing camera that gets the job done.  With tweaks, the Nikon 1 series could end up a great line of cameras but it’s not quite got it right just yet for me.  I guess the GF1 will remain for a little longer but seeing what Nikon nearly created here makes me excited to see what’s coming next.

Pros

Interesting styling

Solid build

Fast frame rate

Innovative touches such as slo-mo

Solid photo quality at low to medium ISO

The flash that is like a light-producing Tamagotchi

Cons

Poor operation through heavy reliance on internal menu

Lens apertures not fast enough to beat the competition

ISO noise becomes apparent from 800 ISO upwards, despite options up to 3200 ISO

Samples

Yesterday, I got an email from London photographer Teri Pengilley, regarding her decision to attempt to raise some money for the family of freelance photographer Anton Hammerl who was killed in the Libyan desert while covering the recent fighting.  Here’s what Teri has to say about her plan;

“Next Saturday, September 3rd, I am going to attempt to swim 10km along the river Dart – and I need your support.
Five months ago a freelance photographer, Anton Hammerl, was fatally wounded in the Libyan desert, leaving behind his widow Penny and their three children, Aurora, 11; Neo, 7, and baby Hiro.
Many of you are photographers or freelancers or both, and have experienced the incredible support that this community gives in times and places of need.
Anton was not backed by a big media corporation. This fund is to provide for three young children who have lost their father, a man passionately committed to the truth, to giving a voice to the voiceless.
Next weekend I shall be plunging into the murky and bracing waters of the river Dart at Totnes and attempting to swim ten kilometres to Dittisham, and I am hoping that you will pledge your sponsorship here.
I haven’t got one of those pages that ask you to pay up front – that way I could paddle off to sip scrumpy as soon as you transfer your hard-earned pennies. I want you to sponsor me in the old-fashioned way where each kilometre I complete costs you more money, and raises more for Anton’s family. So please pledge here; it’s for a very good cause.”

As you can see from this, it’s a very worthy cause and something that you should really consider donating to, whatever the amount.

Unfortunately, as Teri isn’t a registered charity, she’s hit a bit of a brick wall regarding setting up a “Just Giving”-type donation page so is having to go all old-school and rely on human decency to follow up with their kind offers.

If you want to support her fantastic mission of insanity, please head over to the Facebook page that she set up here to donate.

More of Anton’s work from Libya can be found at his photoshelter page here.

As the saying almost goes, what happens on stag weekends, stays on stag weekends.  However, following the wedding last week of good friend Carl de Souza, I thought I’d stick some of my favourite (and non-incriminating) shots up.  Being aware that I should travel light, the whole thing was shot on my beloved Panasonic Lumix GF1 with the 20mm f1.7 pancake lens.  Using the built-in “Dynamic B/W” preset for the jpegs while shooting RAW for later options, these pictures are pretty much all untouched and are straight from the card.  The only picture I will explain is the shot below, where I’m proudly displaying the “war wound” from a vicious clash with top snapper and challenge-accepter Simon Dawson.

Post macho paint-ball fracas, the weekend was spent at the “Lounge on the Farm” festival in Kent.  The names were censored to protect the innocent-ish…

I was recently sent a parcel of goodies to review/torture and while some items won’t be of use to me as a press photographer, one item stood out as being of interest; the Godox PB820 Propac battery pack.

To those of you who work in press, wedding and entertainment photography, you’ll already probably own either a Lumedyne or a Quantum battery pack.  While these are the market leaders for portable flash power, the combination of very high price and user reports of less-than 100% reliability always left me wondering what else was out there.

I originally bought two Lumedyne “Tiny Cyclers” (VHTF) before realising that I’d rarely need both so sold one.  The remaining power pack only ever comes out at major events such as the Brits or the BAFTAs so the £300 that it cost me seems a little extravagant.  If I was starting out again, I’d certainly think twice about spending so much on such a rarely used item.  With a price tag of just half the price of the Lumedyne, the Propac seems to be a much more pocket-friendly option.  Available in Black or Lime Green (only cowards go for black), the unit itself is light but well built.  With a protection cap to cover the standard Quantum cable input when not in use and a clear display showing how much charge is remaining in the unit, the design is well thought out.  While some other brand’s models opt to have a single light that changes from green to red when the juice is gone, there is no way of actually telling how much is left.  With the Propac, the top display features a charging light, a status light to indicate that the unit has recycled and is kicking out power and four charge lights that show the remaining power in the cell.  When handing it around to working press photographers in London, one of the first things that people comment on (after “what the hell is that bright green box?”) is it’s low weight.  It’s a gnats arse over 500gm, making it 2/3 the weight of its closest competition.  Aside from that, it’s a battery in a plastic case.  There really isn’t that much more to say.  Here’s a neat comparison of the Propac with the Quantum Battery 1+ though.

As I said above, I rarely use portable battery packs but, as it happened, shortly after receiving the kit, I shot two weddings as a second shooter for Kirsten Mavric.  Where better to give it a go?  The first one was the marriage of wedding photographer Nick Ray and his fiancée Camilla.  I can honestly say that the day provided a whole range of new experiences, from an open-top car-shot of a classic vintage car, through to bouncing on a trampoline with the happy couple.  It all used flash and the unit kept up with whatever I threw at it.

The tech spec of the battery cells state that the PB820 can deliver 250 – 320 flashes at full power on a single 2 hour charge, with just a 1 second recycle time at full power.  From the weddings that I shot, I used flash quite a lot in the evening and the power indicator is still showing full, so it really does store a serious quantity of juice.

In fact, I used it for a wedding, Kirsten shot a Barmitzvah with it and then I gave it a hard test with three days of car shots at half or full power during the recent News International hacking scandal, with consistently solid results.  Even after all of this, I still didn’t need to recharge.  A colleague gave it a look over as we waited for a job to begin and carried out a few tests with his Quantum unit and found that the much higher priced Quantum was only fractionally faster to recharge from a full power shot.  Pretty good for such a cheap option.

As you’ve guessed from what I’ve written so far, this is a genuinely good option for those looking at buying an external flash battery pack, but who don’t want the considerable outlay of the high-end products.  Sure, there are advantages to owning the higher-end products from Quantum or a Lumedyne, such as marginally faster recycle times and bomb-proof construction, but for those who just need the occasional extra punch, I’d suggest you give it some thought.

I should point out here that despite my praise, I’m not in fact the new owner of “Godox Industries” and desperately launching my new venture on the world but was simply lucky enough to be approached to test the battery.  They are interested in how many sales it gets through this site though, so if you want to place an order, please keep me in their good books by placing your order via this link.

Having always trusted my digital archive to a random variety of techniques, I recently decided to bite the bullet and sort it out once and for all.  Up to now, I’ve always gone for the very risky technique of storing my archive on a single disk until the end of the calendar year.  At that point, I duplicate the files onto another drive and store that one in another location.  While it’s kind of the right thing to do, it relied entirely on that first disk lasting the year without any issues.  As the common I.T. mantra goes, it’s not a case of “if” a drive will fail, but “when”.  As drives contain moving parts, they will at some point grind to a stuttering halt, taking all your lovely art with it.  Another phrase worth remembering is that if your data is on one drive, it’s not an archive, but simply stored insecurely.  Basically, it’s time to pull your socks up!

In the future, I’m sure the answer will be backing up your whole archive on cloud storage but the current prices leave this option the domain of the uber-wealthy/crazy.  For now, the safest bet appears to be RAID 1.  While RAID 0 offers faster access speeds by striping your data across two drives, RAID 1 is a simple direct mirror of the data on the first drive.  As you back-up your images, the information is written to both drives so, if at any point a drive fails, the information is still there on the second unit.  I should point out that the downside here is that whatever you do to the first disk is duplicated.  While that may sound like a purely positive thing, if you accidentally break out your fat thumbs and delete a whole wodge of data or accidentally overwrite a file with a corrupt version, you’ll need to pray to the gods of data recovery as you would if you were using a single drive.

One of the stipulations I had when first looking at this kind of set up was the need to be able to take either of the drives and drop them into an external enclosure at a later point and access the information.  If I move a drive to a second location and need to access it there, I want to be able to just plug it in and go, not lug the RAID enclosure with both drives to the location.  Preliminary research suggested that some types of RAID encrypted the data, meaning that each drive individually was unreadable once away from it’s twin. Thankfully, I found the erotically-named Icy Box IB-RD4320StU3.  Unlike using software RAID, the Icy Box uses a hardware controller, with the result being that I can pull a drive out of it at the end of the year and the information is viewable independently.  Bravo!

The unit itself is small and as pretty as a metal box can ever be. The physical size of the unit is suitably compact at only 80 x 120 x 185mm so it slots in behind my screen comfortably.  I opted for a pair of 1Tb Western Digital Caviar Black drives for my 2011 archive.  In case, like me (heaven forbid), you wondered what the difference is between Western Digital’s Caviar Green, Blue and Black drives, here’s the low-down.  Green drives are quiet and have a low power consumption but at the cost of a little bit of speed, Blue drives are the “everyday” drives and as such are mid-priced and average at everything while Black drives (being all dark and mysterious) are power-mad beasts.  Okay, not quite but they have the fastest speeds of the three, are the loudest of the three but use the most power.  Now all of this is relative so when it’s described as the noisiest, it’s compared to the Green drive’s totally silent operation.  As for power, the street lights appear to still be working on Tabasco Avenue so I think the national grid is safe for the moment.

Installation of the drives is as easy as pie (or at least the eating of) with the two drives just slotting in with no screws or clamps needed.  Once inside, you flick the switch on the back to decide what flavour of RAID you require, push a button to reset  the unit and you’re ready to go.  One slight complication for me is that I use an AFP PC laptop for work and an Apple iMac at home.  As both use different file system formats as standard, I needed to find a common ground.  Thankfully, I had to look into this a long time ago and settled on the Windows NTFS format.  While Microsoft stands firm with it’s belligerent stance of only supporting it’s own file system, Apple is rumoured to be fully implementing an NTFS option in the forthcoming Lion operating system and, until then, I use a bit of software called “Paragon“.  This simply gives OS X a bit of a prod and tells it to recognise NTFS drives, allowing you to both read and write to them.  Once, you’ve formatted the drives, a single drive icon pops up on your desktop (in OS X) or in your “My Computer” tab (in Windows) and from now on, everything that you drag onto the disk will be copied to both drives.

The biggest pain of the whole challenge was copying the data from my previous single 2011 drive over to the RAID setup.  Despite the Icy Box being USB 3.0, none of my gear is that up to date and the only connection that is shared between my laptop and my iMac is the regular USB 2.0.  While that’s fine for pen drives and ipods, it becomes a major mission to copy across 450Gb+ of data.  Predicting how long it would take, I started it off and headed to bed and thankfully it had finished by breakfast time.  The issue then was how to verify that the information had been transferred correctly.  After asking on twitter, I got many suggestions but nothing did the job.  If it’s written for OS X, you’ll be amazed how many software packages only see Apple’s HFS format drives so won’t work on my NTFS drives.  In the end, I found a free Windows program called WinMerge that chugged away through the drives. Four hours later and I had the thumbs up; Operation Home Raider was a success.

For other photographers’ views on archiving, check out an interesting post at Photofocus, Edmond Terakopian’s blog, Carter Hewson’s thoughts and, if you’re feeling particularly wealthy/paranoid Chase Jarvis’ page.  As one final note to all those who think they’re safe, remember drives have a lifetime even if they’re not plugged in and stored in Fort Knox.  The accepted belief is that it’s wise to at least plug them in and spin them up every six months or so to make sure they’re in working order.  It may seem costly but it’s also worth shifting the data onto new drives every few years too.  Technology moves pretty quickly with connection interfaces and plugs changing every few years.  That may sound ridiculous but if you needed to access it, do you have the means to connect up that old 150Gb IDE drive you have in your cupboard?  So, now that I’ve sewn the seed of doubt in your mind, take a look at your random stack of enclosures, drives and disks and consider how secure your data is.  Remember, if you make your living from your photographs, can you afford to lose them?

N.B. – A colleague has pointed out that I haven’t mentioned the actual cost of the whole experiment on here.  Cheers for pointing that out, Nick!  The total package, including the drives, cost me less than £165.  I really don’t think that’s too bad for the peace of mind.

After baring my soul in the Royal Wedding blog including all of the lows of the day, it’s time for some straight good news; I just won second place in the NPPA Photojournalism 2011 awards: “Olympic Features” category!  Whoop!

Big congratulations should also go to AFP colleague Carl de Souza for his Honourable Mention in the Sports Picture Story category with his awesome work from Pakistan.  Nice one, bud! 

Following on from my recent blog on the discovery of Dolly, I thought I’d share a few more frames from recent days.  Joining Kirsten for a portrait shoot in Denmark, I braved the x-ray machine at Gatwick airport and left the big toys at home.

Like my earlier post, these shots haven’t been edited at all so are showing the film’s grain, colour and grubbiness.  As you can see from this next frame, the tiny splits in the leather of the bellows are getting larger, letting in more light leakage.  While this adds to some of the pictures, it killed five or six of the 24 frames that I shot outright.

I discussed the dirt and scratches with Kirsten last night and she didn’t seem that keen on the blobs and fibres on the image but I really like them.  I’m guessing it’s a combination of random dust and frayed scraps of the decaying bellows on the lens element.  She cannae take it, Cap’n.  She’s gonna blow any day!

With the bizarre system of having to focus through one viewfinder before composing the shot through a second larger screen, it’s certainly not the camera to use for spontaneous action but I think I’m starting to get the hang of the framing and camera response.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to get the bellows sorted before I put anything else through it though as it’s too expensive to risk paying to develop and print whole rolls of dead film.

Before heading out to Denmark, I took the camera on a few news jobs.  Unsurprisingly, it’s not going to win many awards for Live News at the PPY but it was  fun to sneak the odd bit of analogue into a very digital workflow.  Here’s master of the lens and the drum kit Kieron Doherty on one of the pursuit launches during the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race.

To end, I thought I’d demonstrate just how bad my memory can be with this whole “winding on” thing; a wonderful bit of eyeline from British supermodel Lily Cole at the Empire Awards in London, slightly impaired by the wing of the plane that took me to Denmark.  I’m calling it the birth of my abstract “Runways and Catwalks” phase.  *cough*

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THIS IS AN OFFICIAL WARNING – DUE TO TECHNICAL CONTENT, THIS POST WILL ONLY BE OF INTEREST TO PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO USE POCKET WIZARD TRIGGERS WITH THEIR NIKON CAMERAS – ANYONE EXPECTING THE USUAL STUFF PLEASE ENJOY A POST FROM THE ARCHIVE

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Following a mind-destroying battle with technology to get my new Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 to trigger my Nikon D3s, I’ve finally had a breakthrough.  After doing everything that seemed logical to get it up and running, I was still left with a situation where a single press of the shutter on the trigger camera would cause a slight pause then a burst of five frames on the remote camera, at a slow frame rate (around 5fps).  Whatever I did, I either got the same result or just no response at all from the remote camera.

After sending an email to the technical support line, Ian Ray replied with instructions on how to get my toys up and working.  If you’ve had the same problems that I had and, like me, haven’t been able to find any info on the problem anywhere else, here’s what I was told.

“There’s a special caveat that needs to be considered when using a remote FlexTT5 as a remote trigger, when it’s also set for it’s default ControlTL mode of operation.

When using the radio set to receive on ControlTL channels, and to communicate with the camera’s TTL systems, the radio can’t listen for an incoming radio trigger while also communicating with the camera’s metering system. This metering system is “awake” and talking to the radio whenever the shutter and aperture are displayed on the top of the camera’s LCD display. This shuts off after about 5-8 seconds, at which point you’ll be able to trigger the remote camera again. This mode of operation is useful if you’re triggering the remote camera, and then want the camera to then relay a TTL signal to a remote speedlight; however, for a simple solo remote camera configuration, I’d recommend the following instead:

To disable the communications that stop the radio from being able to listen for incoming trigger signals, you can put the receiving radio in to Basic Trigger Mode via the PocketWizard Utility, under the Misc tab. I usually recommend setting up Configuration C2 for this purpose, so that you can switch quickly between configurations in the field. Once you’ve enabled Basic Trigger Mode, and configured the radio to receive on a Standard Channel, you should be able to trigger the camera as quickly as you can press the test button on the remote in your hand.”

With this information, I managed to get the remote camera firing quickly and responsively but still had the problem of a single press of the trigger camera shutter producing a ten frame burst from the remote camera.  After talking this through with top Getty sports photographer Richard Heathcote, we narrowed this down to a problem with the length of the trigger signal ie the trigger was sending out a pulse that was too long (around 1/2 second at a guess) causing the remote to assume I still had the shutter depressed.  This in turn resulted in the full-on gatling gun effect.  This would be fine for most sporting situations but if I’m in a press conference and wanting to use a remote camera, I don’t want to cause Brenda to stop her speech and enquire “Ere Phil, who the fark own’s that wretched carmera?” Looking through the software that controls the modules, there was no reference anyway to a facility to adjust the delay.  Once more, I was stumped.

Thankfully, Ian replied once more to my further queries with this mail;

“We’ve been getting a couple of reports of similar issues, and we’ve confirmed that there are some timing issues with the sync ports on the Nikon FlexTT5 units when used for remote camera triggering.

Our developers are currently aware of this issue, and we’re going to be reviewing this operation in the very near future. In the meantime, I hope that the current firmware will allow for acceptable operation while we work on a more elegant solution!”

So there we go.  At least I have some vindication in not being an eejit (at least relating to the triggers).  Now that the ball’s in their court, we just need to make sure that they bring this fix out and sooner rather than later.  If you’re having similar issues, I hope this has helped but, more importantly, I hope you write to pocketwizard’s support team to add your voice to the request to get this sorted.  Let’s just hope that PocketWizard follow the words that are written on their own product; “Test/Learn”.

Update – 22 July 2011

This morning, I received an email from Ian at Pocket Wizard;

“Hi Leon,

I’ve got some good news, and some bad news in regards to this specific issue.

The good news is that we’re currently testing a firmware fix for this specific problem, which so far appears to have taken care of it!

The bad news is that we’re still working on some other areas of this firmware which require a bit more attention before we can launch another firmware release, and at this point I don’t have an exact estimate as to when that might be. Optimistically, I’d say we’re looking at weeks, and not months from now – but I can’t say for certain just yet, as there are a few other things that still require some wrapping up.

At the moment, with the current 2.146 beta firmware ( http://www.pocketwizard.com/support/downloads/beta ), the only workaround that I’ve found is to hold the transmitting radio’s TEST button slightly longer than a “tap”, which appears to make the camera fire a little less than the burst that you’ve described. In my latest test a few minutes ago, I can control the burst down to about 3-4 frames. Or, to use the camera in single-shot mode.

I definitely apologize for the problem in the meantime – but we should have a fix available in the not too distant future!”

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Update – 17 August 2011

STOP THE PRESS!  I think they’ve only gone and done it!

After an email from London royal photographer Mark Cuthbert to inform me of a new beta firmware that was now available, I downloaded V2.160 through the Pocket Wizard utility and it APPEARS to have fixed it.  Flashes are firing consistently while, best of all, the remote camera seems to be triggering accurately and in perfect sync with the trigger camera.  Brilliant!  I’ll temper my gushing excitement with these two provisos;

• These things should have worked from the start.  They delay in releasing them was to ensure that the company didn’t have the same problems that they had with the Canon release and yet it still went wrong.  When there are cheaper products on the market that do appear to work perfectly well, the customer will only pay over the odds for a quality product and quality customer service.
• While I’m happy to report that the issue seems to have been finally addressed, it’s up to Nikon-using PW owners to test this beta firmware out now and ensure it is right before they rest on their laurels.  It’s time to get downloading and testing, people!