The "New Gear/Willy Waving" thread

Looks to be the same size as the CF tripod head I have as well then! Yours looks better built though or the material finish anyway :)
 
jonneymendoza said:
Any good? for a pro DSLR like mine with say a 70-200 f2.8?
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As a follow up to this, took this out with me up the Shard the other day (with 6D + 24-105). It was pretty good. I didn't get much chance to try it on the ground, but when I did it was fine (obviously height was restrictive here). The only issue I had is wrapping it around some surfaces. Whilst it was fine for most of them, the weight did mean that if it wasn't quite wrapped correctly there was a bit of wobble.

I haven't quite looked at the photos yet, but I'm pretty sure they turned out alright :)

kd
 
King Damager said:
As a follow up to this, took this out with me up the Shard the other day (with 6D + 24-105). It was pretty good. I didn't get much chance to try it on the ground, but when I did it was fine (obviously height was restrictive here). The only issue I had is wrapping it around some surfaces. Whilst it was fine for most of them, the weight did mean that if it wasn't quite wrapped correctly there was a bit of wobble.

I haven't quite looked at the photos yet, but I'm pretty sure they turned out alright :)

kd
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off topic sorry***

did you suffer from reflection much? when i went at sunset it was really bad :(
 
buzzlightweight said:
off topic sorry***

did you suffer from reflection much? when i went at sunset it was really bad :(
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Yup. Absolutely awful. We were up there at sunset as well. God I wish I'd bought those grad filters I was considering on Friday. I've got an HDR that I've got to fiddle with, the Gorilla pod didn't keep it quite stable enough to have them all line up perfectly (that, or it was the wind from the Shard itself). Got a nice panoramic though (well, apart from me panning too fast for the shutter speed - rookie mistake).

But, based on the experience yesterday, I'm going up again over summer.

I've learned a couple more things, and it'll just be the case of waiting for the weather to be good again. Ours was perfect, and I really mean perfect yesterday.

The biggest shard related issues were:
Reflections (and finger prints) - Finger prints weren't actually that bad as you could focus through them so to speak. Reflections however were a bit of an issue.
Getting to the front at the picture perfect sunset moment - Queue was four people deep, had to resort to pap style shooting just holding the camera up and hoping. Also, if I can, I'd like to do sunrise rather than sunset. The view to the East from the Shard is much better as a 'London Skyline' than the view to the West.
The movement of the building itself - As I've touched upon. At the sunset point, to try and solve the lack of filters, I went HDR route, and took multiple exposures. Due to the movement of the building, and possibly some of the GPod, they haven't quite lined up correctly, so I'm going to have to talk to a few people and have a fiddle to see what I can do to sort that out.

I'll write up a full review, but yeah, I still maintain if you get good weather, it's well worth doing, and will be something I'll do again now I've been up there and have experienced it/know what to expect.

kd
 
buzzlightweight said:
Damn dhl, I would have had my lens today......... But they sent it to east mids sorting centre instead of gatwick!!!

Oh well red snapper tripod and lens tomorrow :) :D
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This often happens when the flight lands at a non London based airport. It has often happened to me, they basically ship it out on the next available flight to anywhere in the UK I believe. Sometimes goes through Germany first. I've been ordering way too much lately. :( :D

Going to send my 100L Macro back to Onestop this week as I've also confirmed it to be faulty on another body. Hoping it doesn't take long to get it back. They've given me their FedEx account to ship it back.
 
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2StepSteve said:
This often happens when the flight lands at a non London based airport. It has often happened to me, they basically ship it out on the next available flight to anywhere in the UK I believe. Sometimes goes through Germany first. I've been ordering way too much lately. :( :D

Going to send my 100L Macro back to Onestop this week as I've also confirmed it to be faulty on another body. Hoping it doesn't take long to get it back. They've given me their FedEx account to ship it back.
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well at least its not costing you, i too have spent a lot recently but im now very happy with my gear, im planning lots with it :D

good luck with your new lens
 
buzzlightweight said:
Damn dhl, I would have had my lens today......... But they sent it to east mids sorting centre instead of gatwick!!!

Oh well red snapper tripod and lens tomorrow :) :D
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Did you go with the Redsnapper head?

I am undecided what to do about a tripod, completely utterly lost atm, I only need it to hold my D3100 and maybe a range of DX lens, nothing too fancy, upto the 55-300mm dx vr lens, which shouldn't be too heavy overall, I haven't got £2-300 for a tripod :) less than £100 is more realistic.

Please post it up about your Redsnapper when you can, info and pics are a little scarce and there are no video that I can find.
 
hyperst said:
Did you go with the Redsnapper head?

I am undecided what to do about a tripod, completely utterly lost atm, I only need it to hold my D3100 and maybe a range of DX lens, nothing too fancy, upto the 55-300mm dx vr lens, which shouldn't be too heavy overall, I haven't got £2-300 for a tripod :) less than £100 is more realistic.

Please post it up about your Redsnapper when you can, info and pics are a little scarce and there are no video that I can find.
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buzzlightweight said:
I went for the RSF-284 & RSH-12 Ball Head, funny though i bought it for £110 on saturday and its now £120!

Yer will do, i have heard nothing but good things about it
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Indeed!

I posted a review of the RS324 and RSH-12 ball head, do a search back in this section for it hyperst :)

Longevity wise I had no problems with the ball head itself, it was a bit of a tank really. It did have a failing pan head knob at one point couple of months ago but RS sorted it and said they found the locking pin inside had been eaten possibly from over tightening. I also managed to lose the friction knob on holiday, somehow it unscrewed itself off into the snow somewhere, perhaps rubbed against something and screwed itself loose I don't know. I always had the friction knob fairly loose as locking was done via the main knob.

I used this as an excuse to get a new ball head :p
 
buzzlightweight said:
well at least its not costing you, i too have spent a lot recently but im now very happy with my gear, im planning lots with it :D

good luck with your new lens
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What was I saying... haha... I look at my DHL tracking and...

Arrived at Sort Facility LEIPZIG - GERMANY

You are waiting for the Sigma 35mm aren't you? A very special lens that :). Mine is constantly mounted.
 
Got this today as my working drive, to run in RAID 1.

glffiUal.jpg


It actually benches about 100mb/s read and write in RAID 1 (I didn't test it in RAID 0, not that it matters as it won't be used in that config). The Seagate USB 3.0 that it replaces benches 180mb/s !

So much for Thunderbolt ! I bet they put in a 5400rpm or something as I know the Seagate has a 7200rpm drive.
 
lemonade said:
Here's some quick snaps of the ballhead, put a mug in it for size perspective

As for what it's called it's a Weifeng Fancier WF-531BT and the ballhead is called WF-593BH. Don't think you can buy the ballhead on its own in the UK, I payed £25 delivered for it from a uk ebay shop and it comes with the tripod, ballhead and a shoulder bag.
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Looks awesome for the price!
 
Ordered on Sunday and arrived today!

I hesitated about this lens purchase while waiting for it to come back in stock at Onestop. I wondered if I really needed it. But looking over the photozone review a few times fixed that, the corner to corner sharpness at all apertures is something that's extremely appealing in such a relatively light on the wallet lens. Sigma's 85mm offering caught my eye but at nearly three times the cost hrmm, I can live with the aperture blades not being circular! :p


Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM - Box by SteveRix, on Flickr


Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM by SteveRix, on Flickr

A quick snap of a neighbours cat:


Feed Me by SteveRix, on Flickr

Seems like I have a decent copy, very very sharp!

They say this lens absolutely shines on full frame and I think after the weekend I'll agree with that statement. :)
 
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