The crowds were thicker and the aisles were narrower: The new, compact version of Photo Plus Expo.
Let’s look at some items that caught our attention:
Spyder LensCal calibrates lenses
We start our walk through the narrower aisles with the just-announced Spyder LensCal from Datacolor, which is used to calibrate lens microfocusing accuracy. Lens focus accuracy can shift over time or with frequent use, and the LensCal is designed to easily determine the real focus accuracy so you can retool to compensate for any slight shifts in focus.
SpiderHolster Black Widow holster for smaller cameras
The Spyder LensCal should not be confused with SpiderHolster, a company that debuted last year with a nifty shoulder camera strap that screwed into the camera’s tripod socket, so you don’t need to fiddle with those fidgety camera strap holders. That was fine for big rigs including camcorders, but what about more compact cameras? This year SpyderHolster introduced the Black Widow, a holster that clips onto your belt and holds smaller (read: consumer-level) DSLRs and compacts like the Olympus Pen series.
LumiQuest Goes Wide and Narrow
With all the strobist-friendly light modifiers introduced in recent years, let’s not forget who introduced the first popular serious on-camera flash modifiers. That would be LumiQuest, a company that has been showing their wares at Photo Plus Lightbox since the late ’80s and continues to innovate. Their two latest products are the Softbox LTp (that’s Quest Couch, owner of Lumiquest, modeling the unit, above), which folds flat to 10×14 inches and provides 120 square inches of shooting surface, making it a useful tool for soft portrait lighting and the biggest LumiQuest softbox yet. LumiQuest also introduced the Snoot XTR, which distinguishes itself with a unique telescoping extender that narrows the light to a 5-degree area of coverage. All LumiQuest flash modifiers attach via fabric fastener.
DxO Adds Single-Shot HDR
DxO announced and demonstrated Optics Pro 6.5, and the big story here is single-image HDR and noise reduction. While it won’t give you the dynamic range that comes from combining multiple images at different exposure, single-shot HDR lightens up the shadow areas of images and at the same time reduces the digital noise. The caveat? It only works with RAW images. The demonstration images we saw were definitely improved by this feature.
Rogue Flash Benders light Modifiers
Expoimaging’s Rogue Flash Benders are fabric light modifiers that have flexible wiring inside that will hold any shape rigidly. You can shape it curved or straight, depending on how you want to mold the shape of the light. You can even make a tube and use the Flash Bender as a snoot. The reflector fabric is said to be made of optically neutral material, so you don’t have to set a custom color balance.
PocketWizard MiniTT1 Amps Up Nikon Flash System
PocketWizard impressed us with its new MiniTT1 Radio Slave transmitter for Nikon, a Plug & Play TTL remote which lets you operate selected zones (groups of flashes) at the flick of a button, and with hypersync high-speed flash, which lets you shoot with the Nikon flash system at sync speeds up to 1/8000 second. By adjusting the electronics and the timing of the burst, they were able to eliminate exposure duration limits when shooting flash. The $200 transmitter slides into your Nikon’s hot shoe and has a cold shoe on top so you can add a flash. A nice touch: It has a USB port so you can upgrade the firmware in the future.
LowePro Solves Lens Juggling Awkwardness
Has this ever happened to you? You are carrying a spare lens in a lens bag and need to change lenses, so you juggle: Lens A comes off the camera and you put it…where? In the crook of your arm? Under your chin? Whatever. You take Lens B and mount it, thereby making it possible to put lens A in the case. Well, the LowePro Lens Exchange Case 200AW, shown at Photo Plus, holds one lens but when you open it up, a second lens compartment opens. Place Lens A in the second compartment, then take out Lens B and put it on your camera. No more awkwardness with the lens you just took off the camera. Nice.
Gossen Shows Digisky Meter
Photo Plus was, for most photographers, the first chance to check out the Gossen Digisky light meter. It’s an ambient flash and incident light meter with a iPod-influenced LCD screen for navigation of the meter’s functions. Expected to ship in December, the unit can measure in ½ and 1/3-stop increments, can operate flash via radio contact, and had a logical menu structure that could be navigated via a toggle ring below the LCD screen.
Benro Introduces Travel Tripods
Benro offered up some impressive new tripods especially designed to meet the needs of travelers for whom space and weight are critical. The Travel Flat tripod folds up so it can be stored flat, rather than the usual 3-way configuration. This makes for more comfortable organization of carry-on or check-in luggage.
Induro 5-Way Pan Head
Meanwhile, Induro announced the PHQ Series 5-Way Panhead, which features pentaxial positioning that lets you position and pan in a variety of ways (including nodal-point orientation), plus folding front/rear and side/side tilt handles which can fold flat against the tripod when not in use, but can be quickly flipped up to work as regular handles when shooting. The photo above shows the handles in the fold-flat position.
More post-Photo Plus news on Friday!
