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Traveling with the Leica Wide Angle Tri-Elmar

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Jun 152010

Leica is world renowned for the quality of their lenses. Unmatched optical design coupled with exotic glass, produces lenses that are head and shoulders above anything else in the 35 mm market today. Leica’s M-system rangefinders are no exception. However, due to the mechanical nature of the M-rangefinder, zoom lenses are not possible. This did not deter Leica’s engineers from creating multi-focal length lenses for this platform. The first such lens, the Tri-Elmar, was introduced in 1998 and sported three distinct focal lengths in one lens: 28, 35, and 50 mm, all at f/4. The lens was a mechanical marvel.

In September 2006, Leica announced the Wide Angle Tri-Elmar (also known as the WATE) which covered focal lengths of 16, 18 & 21 mm. It was intended for the Leica M8, the first digital M camera which sported a 1.33x cropped sensor, making the effective focal lengths of the lens approximately 21, 24, and 28 mm.

I recently took a trip to London and Paris and Leica USA was kind enough to loan me this $6000 lens and its attendant Universal Finder. I also packed my Nikon D700 kit as well and will now report on my experiences with carrying both kits on a transatlantic voyage. Please note that an IR cut filter is needed to prevent black synthetics from looking magenta tinted on an M8. I did not have an IR cut filter available for the WATE nor the filter adapter made by John Milich. When I transferred the images from Zenfolio to Flickr (via direct site to site transfer) something happened that caused some of my London images to magenta shift in the corners. I’m not exactly sure why that occurred.

Induro Introduces Revolutionary PHQ 5-Way Panheads

Accessories, Industry news, Photography 2 Responses »

May 032010

Elmsford NY, May 3, 2010 –Induro is pleased to announce a brand new series of Panheads providing photographers with freedom for camera positioning never before available in a single product.

This latest development utilizes a patent pending Quintaxial concept.

Offering dual tilt, base and top plate rotation and an Arca-Swiss style quick release system, these Panheads allow photographers to have full repeatable indexing on five axes for maximum control and flexibility.

Another patent pending first is the set of unique folding control handles which simplifies packing and transport.

Think Tank Photo Intros New Retrospective Soft-sided Camera and Lens Shoulder Bags

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Feb 282010

SANTA ROSA, CALIF – Created as an homage to classic photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, Think Tank Photo has created five soft-sided shoulder bags in its new Retrospective series. Designed for the professional photographer that wants to remain inconspicuous in any situation, the three shoulder bags and two lens changer bags retro look mixes “Old-School” with “New-School” that is a throwback to the days when bags where visually simple but highly functional.

CompactFlash Association Announces Availability of the New CF5.0 Specification

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Feb 222010

Cupertino, California – February 22, 2010 – The CompactFlash Association (CFA) announces availability of the recently approved CF5.0 Specification.

The CF5.0 work group was formed in November, 2008 to add key features to the already popular CF4.1 specification based on the PATA (Parallel ATA) interface. The new CF5.0 specification adds the following key features/benefits to the memory card that started the digital photography revolution.

Super Talent Launches Industry-leading CFast Storage Card

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Dec 022009

San Jose, California – December 3, 2009 – Super Talent, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, proudly released a brand new compact digital storage product line, CFastTM storage cards. Just like the traditional SD card and its enhanced version, SDHC, the CFast storage card, with SATA interface, has improved, unmatched write/read performance speeds.

Super Talent CFast storage card is an evolution of the traditional CompactFlashTM card which has been in the industry for over 14 years, satisfying storage needs for mobile digital devices such as PDAs, digital cameras, etc. CFast has a bandwidth of 375MB/s which is four times more than the fastest High Speed 600x (90MB/s) CompactFlash card while still keeping the small original CF mechanical form factor. The new CFast storage card breaks the speed bottleneck between the SSD and the device by using a SATA interface. Super Talent has clocked these CFast cards at up to 200MB/sec read speeds. With Super a Talent CFast storage card installed, there will be no waiting time for the camera to catch up, and it will be much swifter to view pictures on a camera or to copy them to computer.

Measuring 36.4 x 42.8 x 3.3mm for Type I CFast storage cards and 36.4 x 42.8 x 5.0mm for Type II, the same physical dimensions as the CompactFlash card, the CFast Storage Card has a single-chip controller and flash memory module. The SATA interface consists of a 7-pin signal connector and a 17-pin power and control connector. The card operates at 3.3V.

Super Talent is offering five different CFast storage cards, 8GB and 16GB based on SLC (Single Level Cell) flash and 8GB, 16GB and 32GB based on MLC (Multi Level Cell) flash. The first generation of CFast storage cards supports transfer speeds up to 200MB/s.

About Super Talent Technology

Super Talent Technology Corporation based in San Jose, California, designs and manufactures a full range of DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 memory modules and Flash based storage devices for computers and consumer electronics. An ISO 9001 certified company, Super Talent utilizes its state-of-the-art factories and leading-edge components to produce award winning products with outstanding reliability. Super Talent is an active member of the JEDEC and ONFI standards bodies. With over 250 patents, the company was ranked 38th in the 2008 Wall Street Journal’s Patent ScorecardTM for the IT industry.

Alpa Previews New Grips for Alpa 12 TC

Accessories, Cameras, Industry news 1 Response »

Dec 022009

12/2/2009 – ALPA will introduce soon new handgrips for the ALPA 12 TC (right hand side only). The more simple one (see prototype in rosewood natural) will be available in rosewood natural and synthetic (soft touch). It offers a locking mechanism for back/lens levers and a new handstrap.

In addition we are working on a different version with integrated (cable) release and a complete set of also integrated wake-up facilities for the various digital back types as Phase One, Hasselblad, Mamiya et al. It will also offer the locking mechanism, of course.

We will inform about availability and pricing as soon as possible.

In an earlier release this year, Alpa noted that:

The all new CFV-39 is the successor of the Hasselblad CFV-16 digital back for the Hasselblad V system. The sensor used is the proven 39 MP class Bayer pattern sensor from Kodak. The back writes on conventional CF cards (the faster the better, we think), can get used computer independent operated/self contained as it has a battery bay (hurray, no jumble as with the external cabling for a H type back and even the same battery type as for the ImageBank) and features a built in FireWire 800 connection. As there is no heat sink as with the H backs and bodies this back has a built-in fan which only kicks in when needed. During our test the fan was mostly not needed or when turning it was at an acceptably quiet noise level.

PhotoPlus 2009 Show Report

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Nov 172009

Once again, New York City and the Javits Center played host to the PDN PhotoPlus Expo. This year’s show had a very good turnout in spite of the fact that major players like Adobe, Panasonic, & Pentax were not in attendance.

I attended (and I spotted some of my fellow bloggers there as well) and came across several interesting tidbits I’d like to share with you after the jump.

Benro Tripods Available in the United States

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Jul 282009

Elmsford, NY — July 28, 2009 — Photographers looking for a new tripod face a bewildering assortment of brands and models, from the cheap and flimsy to the outrageously overpriced. Fortunately, Benro, who has been manufacturing tripods for more than 10 years (and has the #1 market share in their home country of China), offers high quality tripods, monopods and heads that are built to professional standards at an extraordinary value. Professionals and enthusiasts alike need only look to the full range of Benro products to truly satisfies their needs.

DataVac Electric Duster by Metro Vac

Accessories, Photography, Technology 1 Response »

Jul 192009

Tired of spending money on “canned air” to remove dust particles from your precious gear? Worried about balancing your desire for equipment hygiene and the ozone layer? Fear no more! The fine folks at Metropolitan Vacuum Cleaner Co. of Suffern, NY have the answer:

The DataVacED!

This little beauty packs a 500W, .75HP electric blower delivering 70 CFM of air to blast off dust, dirt and debris. The air is filtered and is dry since Boyle’s Law is not invoked in it’s propulsion.

Made in the USA with all-steel construction, the unit weighs in at 2.75 lbs. and is powered by a 12-foot power cord. Battery power would have made the unit too cumbersome since the motor draws 4.5 amps @ 120 volts

Included are several attachments including the Air-Pin-Pointer(tm), Air-Concentrator nozzle, Air-Flare nozzle and a 4-piece detailing tool kit. The DataVacED comes with a lifetime warranty.

Pricing is set at “less than 5 throwaway cans of air”.

For more information or to find the dealer nearest you, head over to Metropolitan Vacuum Cleaner Co. website or call them at 1-800-822-1602.

Colormunki Photo Review

Accessories, Reviews, Technology No Responses »

Jun 092009

One of the questions I often hear from my photography students is “Why does my photo look fine on the screen, but the colors are all wrong when I print it?” The moment you ask that question (even to yourself), you have crossed over into the Twilight Zone known as colorspace management.

In a nutshell, the colors your camera sees may be more or less than what your computer can see/process which may be more or less than what your printer can print. Simple, right?

Without going into a full blown discussion of this topic, I will go so far as to say that once you have come to this bump in the road, it’s time to go shopping for a colorimeter.

A colorimeter is a device that measures the color output of your display (and in some cases, printers) and produces a color profile that is then installed in your computer’s operating system (Windows and Mac both support this) where colorspace-aware applications (like Photoshop) can then accurately map the colors from one device to the next making sure that what you see is truly what you get.

In this first installment, I got to spend a considerable amount of quality time with X-rite’s Colormunki Photo, an all-in-one color management solution for PCs and Macs.

The Colormunki device looks like a black 25 foot measuring tape. If anyone in your home does carpentry, be aware that they might try to measure a 2×4 with it. It is a USB powered device, so all power and data flow through one cable.

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