Category Archives: News

BeachTek Accessories for 5D MkII

Posted on April 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

BeachTek have recently announced a couple of video accessories for Canon 5D MkII users. The first is the DXA-5D XLR adapter which has a host of very interesting and useful controls on it. It allows the use of professional quality XLR microphones with the 5D MkII, but it goes a step further by allowing the user to override the camera’s built in AGC and set an input volume manually and also to use a headphone to monitor the sound being recorded. Anyone who has shot any video on the camera will appreciate just how crucial these features are.I’m eagerly awaiting a review model, so watch this space!

KELOWNA, CANADA – April 9th, 2009 – BeachTek is happy to announce their new DXA-5D XLR adapter that has been highly anticipated for the Canon 5D Mark II camera. The DXA-5D provides an easy way to connect professional microphones and other audio gear to this popular camera. This adapter brings a whole new functionality to the Canon 5D Mark II that was previously unavailable. It is now possible to capture professional sound with control and monitoring ability. The suggested list price of the DXA-5D is $379.00 in the United States. Expected shipping date is May 26th, 2009.

The DXA-5D features dual transformer-balanced XLR inputs with phantom power and built-in level meters. In addition, the built-in headphone jack allows the user to monitor the audio – a feature missing on this camera. The trim controls allow the user to dial in the proper signal levels for optimum recording quality.

Most importantly, is the unique AGC Disable function which was the most sought after feature by users of this camera. The AGC Disable circuit is activated by a switch which controls the wild swings of the Auto Gain Control in the camera to reduce the hiss generated by the preamplifiers during quiet moments of recording. It works by sending a high frequency inaudible tone to the left channel of the camera. This feature greatly decreases the camera noise which has always been a problem in the past.

The DXA-5D also provides an unbalanced mini-jack input for many wireless receivers that use mini-plug connectors. There is an additional mic level output jack for connecting the adapter to external audio recorders such as the popular Sony PCM-D50 when very high quality recording is required. The LCD display shows the state of the various switches and battery life, as well as a vu meter that shows the audio levels from – 54dBu to -33dBu. This allows the user to verify the proper recording levels and eliminates any guesswork.

BeachTek is the original and most popular maker of XLR adapters for DV camcorders. The company specializes in making unique audio accessories for demanding video professionals.

BeachTek is located in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. For additional information on BeachTek or the products that they offer, including full specifications on the DXA-5D, visit their web site at www.beachtek.com or call (416) 690-9457.

The second item is a rig called the Multimount 5D which allows several hotshoe accessories to be mounted onto the camera.

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Skype For iPhone

Posted on March 30, 2009 | Leave a comment

Although I’ve been using Fring on my iPhone, I’m delighted to see that Skype will now be available on the iPhone and should be on the App store sometime tomorrow (Tuesday, March 31).

CNET have had a first hand look and a bunch of screenshots, so check them out.

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Posted in mobile phone, News

Twitter – Follow Me?!

Posted on March 24, 2009 | Leave a comment

Twitter?? For those who have yet to discover it, its a very quick and abbreviated way of blogging, or as its called properly, micro blogging.

I’ve been using my iPhone a lot to update my Twitter feed with pictures and info, so if you’d like to give it a try, you can FOLLOW ME on Twitter.

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Posted in News, viewpoint

iPhone Saves The Day

Posted on March 17, 2009 | Leave a comment

The title may seem a tad excessive, but I assure you its not!

I had an assignment near Bristol a few days ago, involving a portrait of someone and several thousand trees they had planted. The best way to illustrate this was to get the subject in a helicopter and photograph them with the landscape below.

Photo taken in the air on the iPhone

I got onto the helicopter and we made our way to the subject’s farm. As we got close to the town, the pilot realised that there didn’t seem to be a grid reference for the location of the farm (although he did have one for the second location where the trees were). Now anyone who has the slightest idea how expensive helicopters are to hire will begin to feel my panic!

I had a brain wave (instead of a heart attack) and got out my iPhone. Started up Google Maps and hit search, which found us (I have yet to see a faster moving icon!!). After typing in the postcode to the farm it showed that we weren’t too far away and we managed to locate the correct field and land in it, just by following our location in relation to our destination on the iPhone’s screen. Phew, the job was saved!

Now I’ve often resorted to using my iPhone when my car’s built in and rather expensive Sat Nav fails to find where I want to go, have also used it when on foot, and even used it for cab drivers who get lost, but never in a million years did I think I’d use it in the air!

Update: Good news folks. The iPhone V3.0 software has just been announced by Apple and its now got the facility for developers to write “turn by turn” Sat Nav Apps for it; Tom Tom, bring it on!!

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Posted in mobile phone, News

Unseen – The New BPPA Book

Posted on March 16, 2009 | Leave a comment

Anyone who knows me, will know that along with a few colleagues, I spent most of last year working on a book. After countless meetings with colleagues, calls to photographers, meetings with publishers and designers and our sponsor, its finally done…..and looks fantastic. I’m naturally talking about the new BPPA book called Unseen.

Its a collection of great images taken by our members over the years, which have remained unseen. As most photographers know, our best work is often not published, even from commissioned assignments. The reasons are wide and varied; from clueless picture editors and designers, to the image being the wrong shape, or it not fitting with political or ideological stance the paper is taking on a given story.

In this book we have gathered, in our opinion, the best of this work and would like to share it with you.

I’d also like to personally thank Canon who have again stepped up to the mark and supported great photography by being the sponsors of this project. My gratitude goes to Matt Beard and Nick Millen from Canon, who after a couple of conversations made this project a reality.

The book itself is being launched on March 25th, 2009, but is available for pre-order from Amazon.

*UPDATE* – Unseen now available at SnapperStuff.

About UNSEEN

In 2004 our ground-breaking retrospective book and exhibition Five Thousand Days underlined our commitment to bringing outstanding photography to the public. Since then we have been constantly working on new projects, and new ways to showcase our members’ work. UNSEEN is the culmination of one such project. It highlights one of the Association’s every day frustrations: that huge numbers of brilliant pictures never see the light of day through too tight deadlines, design limitations or editorial indifference. The images in UNSEEN were selected by a jury of BPPA members, and offers a glimpse of the variety and extraordinarily high standard of the members work.

After spotting that the author Jilly Cooper had written a letter to The Times in June 2008 highlighting the lack of proper photographers bylines, the Association wrote to her to ask that she write a foreword for Unseen, and was delighted when she accepted. Here is an except:

“Thank goodness for Unseen. “The sweetest songs,” wrote Shelley, “‘sing of the saddest thought”, and these photographs are so beautiful yet compassionate that, despite their appalling images of death, loss, mutilation and destruction, one feels an overwhelming elation and relief that someone has drawn attention to such suffering. Without photographers invading the worse troublespots, armed only with their cameras, so much tyranny and brutality would go unrecorded.”

Unseen – Photographs from The British Press Photographers’ Association is published on 25th March by Skateboarding Duck and the project was sponsored by Canon.

It is a cloth bound 170x240mm book with 176 pages and 108 photographs (both colour and duotone) and was designed by Stuart Smith (Five Thousand Days – The BPPA, Personal Best – Elliot Erwitt, Inferno – James Nachtwey) the ISBN is 978-0-9561801-0-0 and has a RRP £19.95

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Posted in News, Photography