October 14, 2009

2

Cool Gadgets, Gavin Seim, ProPhotoShow

Cool Photo Gadget, Sima SL-20 LED Light review:

sima-video-lightI’ve mentioned the Sima SL-20LX on the show before, but I thought it deserved it’s own gadget of the week award. I seriously love this little light. At only about $35 on Amazon it’s a great buy. There’s even an infrared version.

It’s actually a video light. About two inches square and has thirty six LED’s and a built in rechargeable battery that will run it for about 30 min. You can place it on a hotshoe, just set it somewhere, or even hold it in the palm of your hand. The slots on the other three sides can also accept a shoe mounts from other lights so you can build a larger panel. It even includes a bracket so you can have it off to one side on your camera.

Bottom line. This little continuous light rocks. It’s cheap, solid and small and stays cool. One of them is enough for close light of a face. It’s also amazing for macro shots where you need to brighten or add soft but dimensional light. I use it all the time for ring shots at weddings.

No, it’s not going to replace your speedlights or strobes for large lighting large areas, but it’s a great little tool to have in your kit that you may soon wounder how you managed without it.

Seim_-2

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March 27, 2009

3

Nature

Opo Terser's Entomology Macrophotography

Over the past couple months, I have been keeping an eye on the photostream of Opo Terser.  Armed with a Pentax K200D, Opo’s various photos show a fine mastery of macrophotography [which is fairly tricky when working with insects].   Coming from a fellow entomology enthusiast, it is really stunning to see the amount of insect ‘head shots’ in his photos.

Getting fully focused, color rich photos of insects takes several attempts, considering how fast most insects move in comparison to a camera shutter.  Opo is also an avid astrophotrographer. What is most interesting about both his astro and macro photos would be that they are both taken with the same Pentax K200D camera.

A good majority of astrophotographers I know or have studied use an entirely seperate camera to capture images.  Furthermore, it is pretty rare to find someone willing to photograph far off galaxies as well as rare insects.  Enjoy and be inspired!

Flickr Photostream: Link

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August 9, 2008

0

Canon, Cool Gadgets, Gavin Seim, Nikon, ProPhotoShow, Review

Cool Product Of The Week. Kenko Extension Tubes!

419ffbsjutl_ss500_.jpgExtension tubes allow you to put a spacer between your lens and your body this giving you a close macro focus distance.

Canon sells these, but there a bit pricey, so I decided to try the Kenko brand. They work great! You still maintain the contacts with the lens so you have all the metering and AF (though manual focus generally works better when your shooting a macro). You aren’t adding any glass in between, so image quality stays good, and the tube attached just like a lens.

Now if your really into macro a dedicated lens would doubtless be better, but these tubes are pretty cool. I just stick a 25mm tube on my lens, and I’m off to the races! I find my 24mm works best on the 50mm range lens.Wider angels don;t seem to like the tube, but I think the 12mm might work better for those.

You can the the whole set of 3 for Canon, or Nikon off Amazon for about 160- bucks (as of writing) Or you can just get one tube and see what you think. If your getting one I’d say start with the 12mm, or 24mm for Canon or Nikon

Here’s a shot I took this morning with a 24mm tube on my Canon 50mm. I’ve always thought macro was cool, this is a great way to play with it and get great results..

macro toothpicks

Gavin Seim

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