Category Archives: Review

ioSafe Rugged Portable

Posted on October 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

Tough, Tough & Tough!

ioSafe Rugged Portable at the pool. Royal Hideaway Placar, Riviera Maya, Mexico. July 12, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

ioSafe describe their Rugged Portable drive as an aircraft black box for mobile date; I must say that I agree. I’ve been using their 500Gb model for over three months now and I am very impressed. From the moment you pick it up you realise it’s no ordinary portable drive. It is solid; really solid, yet not too heavy. The case is a solid piece of aluminium covering the top and the sides, with another solid piece of metal covering the bottom. Just by knocking it you can feel that this thing is built to last and designed to take knocks. ioSafe say that it will withstand a three meter drop and is crush proof withstanding up to a ton of weight. It’s also water proof! Yes, a waterproof portable hard drive! It can withstand being immersed in up to three meters of water (salt or fresh). The titanium and SSD versions of the drive can withstand even more abuse. To top things off data recovery and a no quibble warrantee finish things off nicely.

I took this drive on assignment to Cancun. As with my G-Tech Minis, it stood up to the knocks of travel well. One thing however I would not do to any other drive out there is take it to the hotel pool. I even immersed it in the pool, threw it around underwater and knocked it about a bit. Some bubbles escaped from the interface sockets (FW800 and USB 2.0), but that was it. I was absolutely certain though that I had killed the drive! I then took the drive out, dried it up and went back to my room, where I washed it in the sink! After drying out the contacts, I plugged it into my MacBook Pro using FW800 and it started up without issue, mounting on the desktop immediately. Checking through my data, all was safe; no issues at all. I for one was absolutely stunned, shocked and in a state of disbelief.

ioSafe Rugged Portable in the pool. Royal Hideaway Placar, Riviera Maya, Mexico. July 12, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

ioSafe Rugged Portable in the pool. Royal Hideaway Placar, Riviera Maya, Mexico. July 12, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

ioSafe Rugged Portable at the pool side, dripping with water after being submerged. Royal Hideaway Placar, Riviera Maya, Mexico. July 12, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

My only wish would be for a faster drive, as the one used runs at 5400rpm. My guess is this is purely to manage heat build up, as without ventilation slots a 7200rpm would probably fail. Having said that, 5400rpm is more than adequate for backing up. Our data is important to us; for most, it is vital. Most of us work in hazardous environments from time to time and on top of this, accidents will happen even in normal surroundings. I’m so impressed by the way this little yet solid drive has worked that I will definitely become a customer of theirs. With the SSD and titanium versions offering even more protection, it comes as a no brainer for me to recommend you look at this range of Rugged Portable drives by ioSafe. Very impressive indeed. Amazon UK price this drive at under £195 which is good value in my opinion. You can find other UK stockists here.

ioSafe Rugged Portable is washed in the sink. Royal Hideaway Placar, Riviera Maya, Mexico. July 12, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

The company also has a range of desktop solutions, which add fireproofing to the mix. Lastly, they are on Indiegogo crowd sourcing funds for their new Disaster proof private cloud NAS RAID box.

ioSafe Rugged Portable plugged into a MacBook Pro after being dunked int he pool. Royal Hideaway Placar, Mexico. July 12, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

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Posted in Archiving, Computers and Software, Review, Storage, Travel, viewpoint

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SD Card Holder

Posted on September 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

SD Pixel Pocket Rocket

It’s often the little things that make life so much easier for the working photographer. Carrying memory cards has always been an issue. Personally, I found the perfect way to carry mine when Think Tank Photo came out with the Pixel Pocket Rocket; a way to carry ten CF cards and some business cards, in one nicely made, slim, wallet. The cards themselves came together in their individual pockets when the wallet was rolled up, making the wallet extremely rigid.

The new Think Tank Photo SD Pixel Pocket Rocket. September 14, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

As we now shoot much more SD cards, the company has thankfully addressed that issue too with their new SD Pixel Pocket Rocket which can accomodate nine SD cards as well as some business cards. Any digital Leica M, Micro 4/3, Sony NEX or small DSLR photographer is going to love this. Small, compact, well made and extremely useful and usable. Lastly, as with the other Pixel Pocket Rockets, it has a loop which makes attaching it to the inside of your bag or pouch extremely easy.

The new Think Tank Photo SD Pixel Pocket Rocket, which can carry nine SD cards. September 14, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

My workflow is that I put my empty, formatted cards in face up (with the logo on the front showing). When I’ve shot a card, it goes into the wallet face down. That was I know which cards are used and which are blank.

It’s a simple accessory, but I can’t emphasise just how totally useful this is; get one!

For the UK, check out the local distributor Snapperstuff for your local retailer or to order direct. Other countries can check out Think Tank Photo’s website to find their relevant source.

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Other World Computing

Posted on August 13, 2012 | 10 Comments

The Fastest; Accelsior PCI Express SSD

Long Term Test

OWC stands for Other World Computing, a title which I felt was very apt for this article. Since I started using OWC’s adapter for modifying my Mac Pro to take multiple SSDs in the optical bay and installing their blisteringly fast SSD into the optical bay of my MacBook Pro, I’ve become a fan of this company. Their adapters and SSDs just seem out of this world; great design, well made and extremely fast.

It was with great interest when I first heard that a PCI Express SSD card was going to be introduced by the company. The advantages of using a PCI Express SSD card are numerous. Firstly, one is directly plugging into the motherboard, using the fastest interface, without having to go through the SATA connectors, adding some speed to operation. Secondly, it frees up your SATA connectors and drive bays for more SSDs or conventional hard drives for storage. In my Mac Pro, I now have four conventional hard drives in the drive bays which I use to store my RAW files amongst other data including documents, music, video and so on. I also have two SSDs installed in the optical bays. One is used to clone the Accelsior every night which is my OS drive, and the other is used for video files when editing  a project. Having FCP X run on the OWC Accelsior and the ProRes 422 video files run from a OCZ 120Gb SSD makes for a very fast and fluid editing experience.

If you’re on a PC, the Accelsior will also work. Regardless of which system you’re using, the helpful thing is the card does not need a driver, so will just work once installed. On a Mac, you will naturally need a Mac Pro as the iMac does not have PCI Express slots.

I decided to go for the 240Gb version which is enough space to store the OS, applications and Documents. Via iTunes I did move the iTunes folder to another drive though as it was simply too big. The card uses Sandforce controllers and several systems to ensure that the SSD chips are used efficiently and kept running smoothly. The SSDs themselves are on smaller circuit boards which clip into the PCI Express daughter card; this means that in time if you want to upgrade to a larger size, it’s easily done.

Speed

Using OWC’s own figures, comparing their top of the range traditional SSD (Pro 6G) to the Accelsior makes interesting reading.

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G – Read 559MB/s Write 527MB/s (Peak Data Rate)
OWC Mercury Accelsior  - Read 762MB/s Write 763MB/s
Traditional 5400rpm Hard Drive – Read 75MB/s Write 77MB/s

These are test figures so real life use will vary, but it will vary proportionally, so the speed advantages are clear to see.

Compared to my previous OS SSD, the OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS which was very quick, the speed advantage of the OWC Acceslior is immediately noticeable, even without timing.

I did perform some comparisons though using my early 2009 model Mac Pro.

Reliability

Speed isn’t the only consideration to have though. I’ve had the Accelsior installed in my main imaging workstation, a Mac Pro, for three months now. It has performed without a single hiccup. I installed it when running OS Lion, cloned the OS drive onto the Accelsior using the superb CCC and upgraded to OS Mountain Lion a few days after it’s release. My Mac Pro is on 24/7, used for photo editing, photo archive use, Giclée printing, video and audio editing and general computing too. It’s hooked up to a Sonnet D800 raid with a PCI Express RAID card as well as countless other peripherals and I didn’t have a single issue at all! The Accelsior just performed with 100% absolute reliability and speed.

Final Thoughts

As new technologies come and go and we take leaps forwards, some leaps are giant. The leap to SSDs being one. They are still too costly for storage, but for using as our OS and program disks, the capacities are more than there and the prices have dropped to affordable levels. Although purely on paper the jump to PCI SSD doesn’t appear huge, it is much more than just the speed increase; it’s the convenience increase of freeing up a drive bay for storage too. I for one can’t recommend SSDs highly enough; however if you have a machine with compatible PCI Express slots, then the OWC Accelsior is an absolute no brainer. You’ll love it!

European Buyers – Macupgrade has kindly offered readers of this blog a 10% discount with the code: macupgradephoto

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Posted in Apple, Computers and Software, Mac, Review, Storage, viewpoint

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The Perfect Battery Accessory

Posted on July 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

Think Tank Photo DSLR Battery Holder 4 Review

Lenses, cameras, cards, computers, software and bags – all important equipment that helps us work and make great photographs. There are those little things though that can make life so much easier, especially for the photographer on the road. Enter the Think Tank Photo DSLR Battery Holder 4.

Think Tank Photo DSLR Battery Holder 4. Photographed with Canon LP-E6 (for the Canon 5D MkII, MkIII) and a set of 4 AA Batteries in one of the compartments. July 4, 2012. Photo; Edmond Terakopian

So simple it’s perfect! Designed to take four DSLR batteries, it can also hold four AA batteries in each compartment too. Naturally smaller batteries (Micro 4/3, NEX etc.) will also fit. I bought two of these, one for my Canon gear and one to house my Leica M9 batteries. They each now stay inside the relevant camera bag.

Think Tank Photo DSLR Battery Holder 4. Photographed with Canon LP-E6 (for the Canon 5D MkII, MkIII) and a set of 4 AA Batteries in one of the compartments. July 4, 2012. Photo; Edmond Terakopian

One very cool design feature is their footprint; being thin and long, they take up minimal room and can either put upright in a shoulder bag’s main compartment, or laid flat in a front pocket. Also, they fit nicely into the lid pockets on roller bags and backpacks too.

Think Tank Photo DSLR Battery Holder 4. Photographed with a set of 4 Leica batteries for the M9. July 4, 2012. Photo; Edmond Terakopian

Not a brilliantly designed lens nor a superbly engineered camera, but nonetheless, it’s an essential bit of kit and has my absolute recommendation.

If you’re in the UK, you can order them from Snapper Stuff or check out the Think Tank Photo website for details of your nearest supplier.

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ioShutter Review

Posted on June 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

The Ultimate Timelapse Tool?

It was one of those “oh, wow!” moments. In 2011, at Focus On Imaging, I was chatting with James Madelin from Enlight (the makers of the Orbis and Frio). He shared with me his plans for an iPhone app that could control remote firing a DSLR. I thought it was a cool idea to have a cable release always with you, so was impressed at this simple, yet extremely helpful idea. Then, I got more impressed as he expanded on the project, sharing that it was in fact a complete intervelometer allowing full control over time and frequency of shots.

Behind the scenes as Sotheby’s prepares the Gunter Sachs Collection ahead of the sale on May 22nd and 23rd, 2012. The IO Shutter in action with a Canon 5D MkII, on a time lapse. It is being triggered by an iPad 3 in the Sotheby’s bag. Sotheby’s, New Bond Street, London. May 17, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

I now have this rather super ioShutter cable with me and it has become part of my regular camera kit. The interface is just genius and very intuitive to use. It also works on the iPad and newer iPod Touches. To control the camera, one has to download the ioShutter app from the iTunes App Store. There is a free version with limited ability or the full on pro version offering much more control. Naturally, I would fully recommend the Pro version of the app to allow full creativity.

I had an assignment at Sotheby’s to make a timelapse video of the Gunter Sachs show being set up. I had three cameras on the go, covering various angles and rooms. For an overhead, fisheye type shot, I had my GoPro HD Hero clamped around a lighting rail using a large Joby Gorillapod (tripod). I had one of my Canon 5D MkII cameras on a tripod being triggered by a Pocket Wizard MultiMax which I’d put into intervalometer mode. On my other 5D MkII I had my iPad attached, using the ioShutter cable. First problem was finding a way to attach the iPad and a Sotheby’s carrier bag proved an elegant and workable solution!

I made sure the volume on the iPad was turned way up (as the IO Shutter cable plugs into the headphone jack), set my duration between shots to five seconds and set it to shoot. First attempt in the field and no problems. The app and cable worked perfectly.

This assignment started around 9.30am and finished around 5.00pm and the system just worked. I carry my Pocket Wizards in my location lighting bag, so unless I’m planning to use them, the Pocket Wizards aren’t always with me. With the ioShutter, I have the cable now in my Think Tank Photo Airport International roller, so it’s always there. I also always have my iPhone and usually my iPad with me, which now means that if see an opportunity for a timelapse, I can just shoot it.

Screen shots of the ioShutter Pro App.

Compared to the Pocket Wizard MultiMax, it’s also a cheaper option, with the camera control cable on the MultiMax costing considerably more. It also has various other uses, as a timer or a sound triggered release too. Lastly, it’s available for Canon and Nikon DSLRs.

Thinking back to our first chat about the ioShutter, I was very excited by the idea but had doubts about it materialising as it was just too good! Well, it’s here, it’s real and it’s genius. Very highly recommended.

If you’re in the UK, you can get the IO Shutter cable from Snapper Stuff.

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Think Tank Photo Retrospective 7

Posted on May 31, 2012 | 25 Comments

The Perfect Camera Bag?

Think Tank Photo Retrospective 7 shoulder bag. Shown with two Leica M cameras; L-R: Leica M9 with 50mm Noctilux ASPH and M9-P with 35mm Summilux ASPH. May 31, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

As photographers we spent our years searching for that perfect image. Any photographer who has been in the industry for any length of time has most probably spent a sizeable amount of time also searching for the perfect camera bag!

Think Tank Photo Retrospective 7 shoulder bag. Front view, showing a lightmeter in the side pocket. May 31, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Firstly, I would say that no such thing exists as “the perfect camera bag”. It’s taken me a couple of decades to come up with this conclusion. I would say though that the perfect camera bag system does exist. One type of bag simply will not work for all situations, types of equipment or types of assignment, therefore having a system of bags is the answer. I’ve been a user of Think Tank Photo bags for many years now and was so impressed with them that I even joined the design board a couple of years ago, for a year. (I hasten to add that I’ve had no input into this bag, so it is a straight forward review). I now use a system of roller bags and backpacks which allow for transportation of gear to an assignment, and then a selection of belt pouches, chest bag (the Change Up) and shoulder bags, to work from (I choose what suits the assignment best).  I choose what will suit a particular assignment as carefully as I choose my camera or video gear. This way I can work both comfortably and quickly, with the equipment not getting in the way of the job at hand.

Think Tank Photo Retrospective 7 shoulder bag. Rear view, showing a lightmeter in the side pocket. May 31, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

I’ve been actively using the Retrospective 7 on assignment for several weeks now and must say I am very, very impressed. It now houses my Leica M outfit, comprising of an M9, M9-P, 21mm Elmarit, 28mm Summicron ASPH, 35mm Summilux ASPH, 50mm Noctilux ASPH, 90mm Summarit, SF 58 flash and various accessories. The main thing with this bag though was that it was designed to take an Apple 11″ MacBook Air or iPad too, so depending on what I’m doing, I will slip the appropriate computer in the rear zipped and padded compartment.

Think Tank Photo Retrospective 7 shoulder bag. Rear view, showing an Apple 11″ MacBook Air in the rear pocket. May 31, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Like the other Retrospective Bags, it’s lightweight, unconstructed and soft, with a moving base (made up of several padded sections that move with the movement of the bag). This makes the range, and this bag too, an extremely comfortable shoulder bag to work with and work from. It also has the genius silent velcro system which comes in very handy in quite press conferences (and will suit every wedding photographer when it comes to working in a church environment).

Think Tank Photo Retrospective 7 shoulder bag. Rear view, showing an Apple iPad 3. May 31, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Although I house my rangefinder outfit in the Retrospective 7, it will also be perfect for any Micro 4/3 system by Panasonic or Olympus and the Fuji X-Pro 1 kit. It will also take smaller DSLRs (without grips), including the 5D MkIII or D800, with lenses up to the 24-70 f2.8s and smaller prime lenses. It’s an extremely versatile size and can be configured to house a wide variety of gear, including a means to edit and send pictures.

Think Tank Photo Retrospective 7 shoulder bag. Interior shot, with dividers set up specifically for a Leica M outfit. May 31, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Is it the perfect bag? Well, I’d say it’s the perfect shoulder bag and it’s now my favourite shoulder bag of all time. Highly recommended.

The Retrospective 7, along with most of that range is available in Black, Pinestone and the new Blue Slate colours. If you’re in the UK, check out SnapperStuff where you can order directly or find your local dealer. Otherwise, check out the Think Tank Photo.

Addendum: Macjim has kindly sent me this picture showing his Retrospective 7 with the Apple 13″ MacBook Air in the front pocket. I wouldn’t say it’s ideal, but appears a workable solution if needs must.

 

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