Archive for the 'Gear Reviews' Category

Clik Elite Escape camera / lighting backpack review

14Apr12

The Clik Elite Escape backpack is a mid-sized camera pack targeted more towards the consumer market than towards the pro market. That at least was before the pros got a hold of it. This pack carries like it’s nothing on your back with a load of cameras and lenses but for me, this pack shines as my battery powered strobe pack. It’s the perfect combination of space, ease of access but all in a compact well carrying package.


This pack is the absolute perfect size for the usage of battery powered studio strobe units. My two normal kits fit like a glove. For an Elinchrom Ranger RX AS Speed + A Head, it fits with very little room to spare. There’s just enough for the pack and head in the main compartment with room in the top and front pockets for Pocket Wizard transceivers,  sync cables and other accessories. The elastic mesh side pockets and bungee straps will carry (2) small or (1) medium sized light stand or something like a water bottle. The reflectors can be strapped on to the front side of the pack with the horizontal adjustable strap.

For the Alien Bees or Einstein’s the Escape is a double barrel solution. (2) of these monolights plus (2) Vagabond Mini battery power packs, cables with room for about two more lenses, lunch or whatever you can come up with along with the exterior accessories mentioned above for the Elinchrom Ranger kit.  I’ve also tested the Escape with a Profoto 7b kit and it is just as good of a fit and carries just as well.

The top of the Clik Elite Escape camera backpack with the top flap opened.  Access to the main compartment is easy with the double zipper system.  You undo the velcro handle closure and pull it open.  You have access to all your gear in no time!



The top of the Clik Elite Escape camera backpack with the top and main flap opened revealing the main compartment.  The double zipper access on the main flap makes for very quick access to your gear.  You just pull up on the velcro handle and the whole pack opens up.


The Clik Elite Escape camera backpack side view


Detail view of side pocket elastic ties on the Clik Elite Escape camera backpack.  Light stands stay in well on both side pockets tied in with these elastic ties.


Detail view of the front pocket and strap on the Clik Elite Escape camera backpack.  The strap expands enough to hold my Elinchrom Ranger 50 degree 13″ reflector on the pack.


Detail view of the inside of the front pocket on the Clik Elite Escape camera backpack.  Plenty of room for Pocket Wizards, cables and other smaller accessories.


Detail view of the waist straps on the Clik Elite Escape camera backpack.  Three loops in the webbing to attach various accessories.


The harness system on the Clik Elite Escape camera backpack.  The straps are a bit narrow and light, but it’s not designed as a pro pack so this should work for most.  Shown with a radio and a point and shoot camera pouch attached to the loops in the straps.  This pack carries very well and is extremely comfortable in spite of the narrow straps.  The harness works well.  It’s short, narrow, and just deep enough to carry what you need, but not too big so for me, skiing with this pack is very easy.  It sticks to your back very well.  The other part of this that works great, is it carries on my chest well.  This matters when I have to haul everything myself.  I can have my main camera backpack, the Clik Elite Contrejour 40 on my back with this on my chest loaded with lighting equipment and get around myself.


Detail view of the chest strap buckle and adjustment ladder.  The Ladder only moves when you want it to.


The Clik Elite Escape camera backpack with the included rain fly on.  You won’t be losing this anytime soon with this bright red rain fly.

Specs

Camera Size: Probody SLR

External Dimension: 21″H x 10.5″W x 8″D (53 x 27 x 20 cm)

Camera Compartment: 18.5″H x 10.3″W x 6.4″D (47 x 26 x 16 cm)

Internal Storage: 11″H x 9.1″W x 1.9″D (28 x 23 x 5 cm)

Volume: 1200 cu in. (19.66 L)

Weight: 3.43 lbs (1.56 kg)

Will hold iPad: YES

Hydration Sleeve: YES

Rain Fly: YES

Tripod Storage: YES

 

If you got anything out of this review, please click the links below if you decide to buy to help support the site.

Clik Elite Escape Camera Backpack at B&H Photo

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Clik Elite ClikSit packable chair review

13Jul11

After the review of the Clik Elite Contrejour camera backpack, this review of the Clik Elite ClikSit is going to be a lot less in depth.  In fact it’s going to be real short.  This is one of those products though that when you pull it out everyone around seems to give you a WTF type of jealous look as you just pulled out some instant comfort in the middle of nowhere weighing in less than a pound and a half.  It’s small, it’s lightweight and still strong enough to support the tubbiest of people out there.  Lets face it, we stand around waiting for light, waiting for the action to happen again, waiting, waiting, waiting, why not do that sitting?  It’s not a new invention, it’s just like the As seen on TV Pocket Chair, however, it’s a LOT lighter.

Check it out here at B&H Photography

 

Lounging setup, waiting for things to go down.


Specs:

  • Folds up to 91/4” x 8” x 11/4” and weighs only 1lb 5oz.
  • Constructed of high quality aluminum, high-tenacity webbing and ballistic fabric with riveted reinforcements
  • Nylon storage bag
  • 300 lb. capacity

 

Detail of the connecting strap at the bottom of the stool.  Unfold and connect the two steel straps together and have a seat.


The ClikSit next to the Clik Elite Contrejour 40 for scale

 

Carry bag that comes with the ClikSit.  The package is small and light and fits easily in the front pocket of the Clik Elite Contrejour 40 camera backpack

Filed under Gear Reviews and The gear I use.  |1 Comment

Clik Elite Contrejour 35 / 40 Photo Backpack Review

12Jul11

If you’ve seen my reviews before you know that I don’t really review a product unless I really like it, or really hate it.  Before you go on you should know I’m partially biased since I’m sponsored by Clik Elite.  So that being said take it for what it’s worth but I’ve been using the production model of this pack for the last year, and a prototype the year before, I think it’s an honest review.

The Clik Elite Contrejour comes in two sizes, the 35L and the 40L pack.  Both of these packs are almost identical with the only difference being the 40L is two inches taller.  It doesn’t sound like much but in the terms of fit, two inches makes a huge difference if you are…..rather vertically challenged like myself.  Most men would probably like the fit of the 40L, I’d suggest people shorter than 5’5″ to go with the 35L for a better fit.

This pack has been a long time coming with Clik Elite and I’m glad to have been a part of the development.  There are a few key features to this camera pack that stick out as different from the pack.  The Contrejour has a curve to the pack to more closely follow the curvature of your back that is built into the aluminum frame as well as the rigid foam camera block that is built into the pack.  Having the camera block built into the pack makes for one less thing to move around while you are skiing, snowboarding, biking, hiking, etc to help keep the bag glued to your back while you are charging hard to get into location.

Continue reading ‘Clik Elite Contrejour 35 / 40 Photo Backpack Review’

Filed under Gear Reviews and The gear I use.  |30 Comments

Speedlight flash brackets + DIY speedlight bracket for four flashes

21Apr11

There are two reasons you are looking at this post.  You either use speedlights a lot due to their small size and weight or you are insanely cheap.  Either way, this bracket is both cheap and useful for both sides.  I tend to use big lights for most of my lighting, however on a lot of trips with air travel I’m forced to bring a limited kit due to baggage limitations.  I’ve had a 2-flash bracket setup for a while now to double up my speedlights and get a bit more output from the little guys.  After breaking one of the delrin shoe mounts on it, I decided to make a bigger one.  I’ve wanted to be able to mount three or four speedlights on one stand before so this was a great time to do so.

Now don’t try to fool yourself, four speedlights aren’t going to equal an Elinchrom Ranger, Quadra or Alien Bees 800 or 1600.  They will however boost your output to help fill in the blanks a bit more with less weight in the dreaded 50 pound limit checked airline baggage.

There are a few options out there for this application, (like the Dot Line RPS Studio Light Bar) however the shoe mounts used just do not hold the flashes securely enough for my taste.  I’d rather spend a few extra bucks on knowing that my speedlights are secure.  Another good option is the Interfit INT337 Strobies Triple Flash Bracket, it’s smaller than my bracket which is great for travel, however two of the three flashes are mounted vertically, changing the beam pattern and there’s only room for three flashes instead of four.

For all you insanely cheap people out there, you could find cheaper shoe’s out there and then just bolt them on with 3/4”- 1/4”x20 bolts and save a few bucks. I chose the Stroboframe shoe’s beceause they are bomber. I’ve had a few different ones made of delrin, other plastics with some metal, and they all seem to break. These stroboframe one’s are bomber, and have strong clamping power to keep your speedlights on the bracket, and off the ground.

So if you are willing to take a bit more time than ordering something off B&H’s website to get something a bit larger, more versitile and tougher, then read on, the directions on how to make your own quad speedlight bracket is below.

Continue reading ‘Speedlight flash brackets + DIY speedlight bracket for four flashes’

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What’s in the bag

05Jan11

inside the camera_pack

One of the things I do get requests for is a “what’s in the bag” post.  So, here it is.  This is a pretty full kit, it would be what I’d bring to an urban shoot where I’m driving to the location, or for a park shoot where it’s easy to get around and carrying 40+ lbs on my back isn’t that big of a deal.

The camera backpack is a Clik Elite Contrejour 35 L

Camera Compartment:

inside the camera_pack2

Accessories:

  • (2) Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 Transceivers
  • (2) Pocket Wizard Plus II Transceivers
  • (1) Pocket Wizard Plus Receiver
  • (5) Pocket Wizard Multimax Transceivers
  • Nikon D40 (Extra small DSLR camera body with a CCD sensor and electronic shutter capable of full-frame flash sync up to 1/1250 second.
  • Canon Powershot S95
  • Filters
  • Cokin P ND Filter Holder
  • Adhesive Backed Body Warmer (To keep batteries warm and functional in extreme cold)
  • US Customs form 4457 (Proof of ownership forms.  I keep these in the pack since I’ll probably forget to pack them when I actually need them)
  • Pocket Wizard N90M3 Nikon Motor Drive Cable (Connects Nikon camera bodies to a Pocket Wizard for remote firing)
  • Nikon MC-12B cable release
  • Black Diamond Icon headlamp (Lots of range and great for skiing down in the dark after shooting night shots up on the mountain)
  • Sync Cables
  • Lip Balm
  • AA Batteries
  • Extra memory cards
  • Gels for speedlights
  • Electrical tape (Almost as good as duct tape, but doesn’t leave a residue behind)
  • Battery tester
  • Rocket Blaster (Keep your lenses and image sensors clean!)
  • Burton AK powerstretch glove liners (best gloves for shooting in the cold, comfortable with good feel from 5 degrees F on up)
  • Fruit Leather, Cliff Shots, any other snacks
  • Aleve (Always good to have a few over the counter pain killers for rough days, and for athletes with rough landings)
  • PS3 controller (Most times when I’m shooting with Tom Wallisch, he makes really tech tricks look too easy so I’ll plug him into Amped 3 get him started on the next impossible trick)
  • Balsa wood plane (Sometimes shooting urban can get really really really slow after I’ve gotten all my shots I can get)
Filed under Gear Reviews and The gear I use.  |3 Comments

Clik Elite Volt Camera Backpack Review

18Nov10

Clik Elite Volt front view

I’ve been working with Clik Elite for the past year and while most of my involvement in development has been with the Contrejour 35 & 40, the ClikStand series of packs is something I’ve been very interested in as it would be a single consolidated package of pack and stand for my strobes.

Continue reading ‘Clik Elite Volt Camera Backpack Review’

Filed under Gear Reviews and The gear I use.  |4 Comments

Red Bull Rampage

11Oct10

Mike Hopkins jumping the 45 foot canyon gap at the 2010 Red Bull Rampage in Virgin, UtahNikon D3 / Nikon 16mm f2.8 Fisheye / ISO 200 @ 1/1000 sec @ f6.3 / Elinchrom Ranger RX AS Speed with A-Head / Pocket Wizard FlexTT5 Transcievers for Nikon

I finally had the opportunity to make it to the Red Bull Rampage this summer.  The Red Bull Rampage is the event of all events in mountain biking.   It’s an event I’ve wanted to go to since it’s inception almost 10 years ago and just never had the time or opportunity to make it.  This year I finally did.  I was fortunate enough to snag a media credential to this event and I shot it my way.  Of course, I shot it with strobes.  I’ve been testing some of the new Pocket Wizard FlexTT5′s for Nikon in development and with the lack of skiing in October, I was stoked to be able to have something this awesome to shoot and test the new gear out with.   I was one of the few that was using lighting out there, it’s a very difficult event to be doing that.  The action moves from spot to spot and at times you could see hoards of photographers and cinematographers sprinting from location to location in between runs to setup the next shot.  The event is pure madness.  From the insane action to the endless clouds of orange dust to the thunderstorms to the desert heat to the helicopters and 3d camera rigs it was just pure madness.  I’m so glad I went, I’ll have some more to share soon.

I’ll have more later about the new Pocket Wizard FlexTT5′s for Nikon.  For now though, I’ve been able to get full hypersync at 1/640 of a second with an Elinchrom Ranger RX AS Speed with A-Head at full power as well as with Alien Bees 400, 800 and 1600′s with half-frame (only the top half of the frame exposed with flash) hypersync up to 1/1000 of a second and about 1/3 hypersync (only the top 1/3 of the frame exposed with flash) hypersync at 1/1250 of a second.  With the Profoto 7b’s and the Pocket Wizard FlexTT5′s for Nikon I was able to get a seemingly endless hypersync, however the output of the flash is limited  due to the shutter speed cutting off the flash due to 7b’s slower flash durations at full power.

I’m really stoked on the potential of what I can do with the new Pocket Wizard FlexTT5′s for Nikon.  What I’ve only previously been able to do with the 6mp Nikon D40 and D70 with high speed sync, I’m now able to do at 12mp with my D3 and if need be, the 24.5mp Nikon D3x.  They will hopefully be released soon!

Filed under Bikes, Gear Reviews and Personal work.  |2 Comments

Pocket Wizard Multimax – new 7.5 firmware in long range mode

08Jun10

New Pocket Wizard Multimax with USB portA little while ago Pocket Wizard announced the new v7.5 firmware for their new Multimax units that have the USB port for firmware updates.  Included with the new firmware are a few useful features:

  • Long and short range mode
  • Noise sniffer
  • Signal strength meter
  • Radio relay (Repeater mode)

Since I just got the new Multimax’s at the tail end of my spring terrain park shoot season I was only able to test out a few of the new features.  The signal strength meter is a really good tool for sure to have going, especially in a long range situation which is usually the situations that I’m shooting on the mountain.  A lot of time’s I’m shooting with my 70-200mm lens and am pretty far away from my strobes so being able to see what the signal strength is from my Multimax is a good tool to try and pre-determine if I’m wandering out of the radio signal’s range.

The other upgrade I was able to test out was the long range mode.  I was shooting photos of freeskiers Simon Dumont, Matt Walker and LJ Strenio sliding an urban rail with Poor Boyz Productions a few weeks ago and started wandering out a bit further from the scene and my lights .  As I found my shot I realized I could have a few problems with radio interference with the shot I had setup.  My first problem was being surrounded by some steel chainlink fence, my second was not having line of sight to my strobes, the third was laying up against the steel chainlink fence.  Too add to this I was laying on the ground so I could get the grass in the foreground and to finish things off I was in an urban environment with power lines directly above me.

Simon Dumont sliding a loading dock rail in Bend, Oregon - PBP

I was about 300 feet away, a bit on the middle end of the range of the Multimax’s but with all these factors and radio interference I couldn’t get consistent signal and my strobes were firing a little erratically.  Since this was a perfect time to try out the new long distance mode I began sprinting back and fourth between my shooting location and making sure I had everything dialed with the Multimax’s on the three strobes I had setup on the scene.  The long range mode worked and in a situation I may not have been able to take the shot I wanted previously, I was able to get the shot I wanted with lighting.

I spoke with some of the people at Pocket Wizard and the reason long range mode works is they slowed down the data rates and increased the error correction.  This is supposed to have an impact on the maximum usable shutter speed, however I was able to sync this shot at 1/1000 of a second with my Nikon D40 body.  With that being said, I’ll have to do a bit more testing to see at what shutter speed the reliability begins to degrade in long range mode.

Check back later for a more complete review.

Filed under Gear Reviews, Ski Photography and The gear I use.  |3 Comments

Lowel 0133 Omni Light Stand – 9′ tall, compact + Lowell KPH Half Pole 3′ Extension

26Dec09

It’s again that time of year for me, the season is ramping up and time to replace old broken and lost gear.  In an effort to pack lighter for trips on the unfriendly skies I recently looked at my pile of light stands looking for a way to cut some weight and to get things in smaller bags.  In the past I’ve been packing my rolling ski bag in order to get my older 9 foot Bogen light stand in the mix.  The nine foot basic stand sits at 36″ long folded up and weighs in at three pounds.  While it’s a pretty good sturdy stand, packing my rolling ski bag around the airport and small rental cars really sucks.

Lowell 0133 Omni Light Stand

Continue reading ‘Lowel 0133 Omni Light Stand – 9′ tall, compact + Lowell KPH Half Pole 3′ Extension’

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You need this iphone dock if you are a photographer – Griffin Simplifi iPhone/iPod Dock + CF/SD memory card reader + USB 2.0 Hub

22Oct09

iphone_dock

I ran across this iPhone/iPod charge/sync dock / CF/SD card reader when I was at the Apple store yesterday getting my stupid iPhone fixed for the 5th time.  The Griffin Simplifi is 3 important computer accessories in one for photographers.  This thing is pretty epic and if you are anything like me, you probably have too many cords and accessories plugged into your computer as is.  Why not put two of the most often used ones accessories you have one place?  Anyways, I just ordered one and am pretty stoked to get it.  The one thing that sucks is it runs on USB 2.0 instead of Firewire 800 but for the convenience it’s not that big of a deal.

Here’s what you get:

  • iPhone/iPod charge/sync dock
  • CF / SD memory card reader
  • 2-port powered USB 2.0 hub

Here’s a link to it at bhphoto.com

More info/specs at Griffin’s product page here


Filed under Gear Reviews and The gear I use.  |3 Comments
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  • @iancoble
    if selling someone else's photos on @Kickstarter as your own without rights anything should, right?
    http://t.co/UPtSEYaSzo
    2013/05/23 11:30
  • via @tmophoto: 14 year old completely rips her cover of Eddie Van Halen's Eruption guitar solo. It's insane.
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    2013/05/22 17:38
  • phone shot of @mttwlkr at the @level1 shoot at @WhistlerParks. Thanks @WhistlerBlckcmb for everything!
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    2013/05/21 11:51
  • Thanks for the +K @tmophoto
    2013/05/21 11:42
  • MERICA!
    2013/05/20 19:01
  • Thanks @whistlerblackcomb, my season is over! Time for tank tops, flip flops and board shorts!
    2013/05/20 16:21
  • 10:53 pm. Just got in my car from a sunset shoot at @WhistlerParks w/ @Level1. Late night shooting!
    2013/05/19 22:00
  • On we go. Clouds are starting to break at @WhistlerParks! Hope it keeps up to shoot sunset tonight with @Level1!
    2013/05/19 15:19
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    2013/05/19 11:13
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    haha, of course.
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