DIY: Inexpensive Strap Mod

Today I want to share with all of you an easy solution for you to start carrying your Tripods, Monopods and even the Strobist Stands.

For quite sometime I was trying to find a good and inexpensive way to add a strap to my stands, tripods and monopods that would help me to carry them on my back without the effort of also carrying the pouch bag that comes with them.

This pouch bag was always a big pain in the a.. since that when you wanted to take a picture with your tripod during those night photography scenes you always had to first remove it from the bag and then put the bag on the floor or put it back on your shoulders and then set the tripod...

oh well this is a normal and regular procedure when you are out on the filed doing some great night shot, but after doing this 30 or 40 times a night you will eventually become a little frustrating and start asking yourself why in the hell did I brought the bag with me? - I better leave the bag on my shoulders and carry the tripod always at hand.

So if you ever think about this and your pouch bag has been pissing you out just check this out...

First things first, let's take a look at what you will need to make this.



Here is the inexpensive list:

- A bag of metal rings 18mm diam. (or you can use some rings from old key chains) 0,80 Euro cents
- Strap from and bag or carrying case that you can have in the attic
- Some nylon cable ties or braces (100 pieces pack 4,8x188mm) 3,20 Euro
- Scissors (not included in the picture) ;)

And you're done.



My tripod has a place to put a key chain on the top part near the head, but if yours do not have it do not be afraid since you can always make a loop with the plastic brace to the head just below the screw part or anywhere you feel it's good to have it. Just take a look at your tripod or monopd and see where it best fits.

So just loop the plastic brace around it (I choose the 4,8x188mm plastic braces because they are a little bit more thick and strong to hold the weight of this tripod but you can always choose the less thicker ones) and while doing so, and before closing it, grab one metal ring and put it through it or inside, call it what you want but as long as it stay inside before you close it then you are in the good way.



Tight it well and now cut the plastic brace and this part is done.



Next I made the same thing on the legs of the tripod. I choose the opposite leg to the front part I have chosen to put the first plastic brace since this will allow me to have a more balanced tripod when I put it on my back.



Hey and you are done!!! Take a look at this baby.

Now you can carry the tripod on your back or sling it through your arm anywhere you go without the inconvenient pouch bag :)



Here is a closer look of the Nylon Brace, the ring and the strap attached to it.



I first took approach to my carrying stands at the Strobist blod Lighting 101 where David Hobby shows how you can make them as portable as possible, in case you have missed it take a look here.

And as you can see on the picture above this was what I was using to carry my stands around. I drill 2 holes on the stand legs and just attached the strap to it.

On this image you can see the bottom hole on the stand leg.



Here I'm pointing at the top hole on the stand.



Let me show you where I drilled those holes.



But... if you do not like to make holes on your stands or they are not like the Manfrotto Nano 001 then you can always use this DIY tip I'm showing you today to use them the same way.

Let's take a look how to make it, and as you can see from the above picture it will be positioned at the same place as the holes and will not interfere with the way you will normally use your stand.



On the top part of the stand you can loop the plastic strap around the first part of the stand right above the umbrella adapter swivel. This is a good way to put it since it will not interfere with the extension of the stand.

And as you can see it will be position almost on the same place has the previous hole I made on the stand leg.



Next you will make a look around the center part block of the stand and almost near the edge (as showed in the above photo). This is a good place and as you can see it will stay further down the stand than the hole I made previously making it more stable while on your back or shoulder.

This is also a great place to make because even if you open the stand legs all the way up they will not touch the plastic braces.



Here is the final shot and as you can see this will be very easy to carry around and you can also loop 2 umbrellas to it with some ball bungees and you're done to the assignment.

Hope this helps you out as it's helping me carrying my Stands, Monopd and Tripods more easily.

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PacSafe The New CarrySafe100

I had already talked about the PacSafe products has one of the best on the market concerning camera and gear security.

If you have missed the article just check Secure your Luggage anywhere with Pacsafe.

Today I have received the new version of their CarrySafe 100 Straps and decided to give a small review on the differences between the old model and the new one.

At first and has you look at the package nothing has changed. It has the same good looking package and no difference can be eyeballed.

But let's get a good look inside.



Now the connection straps are different. On the above picture you can see me pointing at the new ones.



The protective covers, this protects your screen and back part of the camera from possible scratches, are pretty much the same. I did notice some surface smoothness difference, maybe they have changed the manufacturing material, but no big deal here.



Now comes the best part...

Has you can see from the image they have change significantly the locker system. The new one now has a safe locking device that makes it even more secure.



Couldn't catch my drift? Just take a closer look and you can see the locking mechanism I was talking about.



Here on the unlocking position.



And here on the locking position.



You just have to flip the plastic part from left to right or right to left concerning the position you want (Locked or Unlocked) very simple and effective. This would give you a more secure strap.



Another thing I noticed is that now the neck strap (Left) is sewed more closely to the strap in order for it not to slip under it.



In my personal use experience with this neck strap I do prefer the old ones (Bottom) because you can always adjust the strap as you want and if you position it like I did on the picture it will stay on the same place all the time has the other tend to move around too much, but this is also something you could make... just un-sew it and sew it again a little bit more loose, no big deal.



Next and final they have changed the neck strap interior.



Has you can see from the picture (Left) the interior is a more spongy and textured and the conceived materials had also change.

Here they could have had a little bit more caution on this since the new materials are a little bit more hard and with a long day use you can start to have your neck red scratched.

Call me what you want but I do prefer the old ones since they are softer and smoother.

Anyway I think the new changes are more than welcome and you can buy the PacSafe100 online here or try to find a nearest dealer at their web page.

Although Portugal is not contemplated I can assure you that deals are taking place and maybe by the end of the year we will have PacSafe products in Portugal.

I made a couple of shots of my PacSafe Anti-Theft bag net, the PacSafe 85, usage at Rock in Rio Lisboa 2008 and decided to show you how it works in the field.



Here is my station at the Press tent. You can see that I got my snack and my water bottle ;)

I have it set on the table and the computer also have a locking system that goes through the PacSafe85 this way if somebody wants to take it away they will have to drag everything out of the building.



This shot shows you how I have strapped it to the table and also through the chair this way would be more difficult to pass through the security at the Press tent with a bag and a chair, also you will make sure you will have chair when you get back to your post ;)



Just take a look at everyone admiring the system and I also made the quick photo "a la Strobist" way.
I had my GI with me on that day so it was an easy one.

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Firefox 3 Downloaded more than 8 million times

Today we got our thank you letter from Mozilla regarding the download of the new Firefox 3.

In a 24-hour period, you and your peers downloaded Firefox 3 more than 8 million times, which—though as yet unverified by Guinness—should be more than enough to secure the download record in the new category. Pat yourself on the back and grab your personalized Download Day certificate.

Go grab yours and participate on this MEGA download for the Guinness world book of records.

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You Can't Picture This

Thousands of UK residents have signed a petition against a law preventing photography and filming in certain public places.

Yet this all turned out to be a misunderstanding, and no such law was proposed.

Regardless of the law, it seems more and more photographers and film makers are going to get stopped and hassled for photography in public places.

Take a look at this impressive video while Rajesh investigates the way we view the lens and the way it views us.


One of these days we can't shoot with our camera without raising a suspicion...

Also take a look at Photographer's Rights for more informations about this.

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DIY: GI Triggers Antenna Mod

After making the "DIY: How to Assemble an Antenna to GI Triggers" and watching the excellent video I had to push myself to make this modification for my triggers.

I always wanted to make this change on mine not that I use them for distance purposes, nor to measure how far can I trigger them without really having the use for them at those far distances but I needed to make this mod for stability purposes.

Everyone knows that Gadget Infinity triggers are very inexpensive and great but they lack reliability in terms of trigger and also because their plastic is somehow very sensible and not has tough has many would think they would be at for 25,00 euros a pack I think they are more than enough when you plan on playing with your flashes off camera.

Take a look at a simple operation that you can make yourself even with a not so good experience on welding, like myself ;)



First things first, let's grab our Gadget Infinity Trigger (I will be refering to them here as GI so I won't have to write it down so many times).



These are the tools you will be needing for this:

- Knife (to cut the wire).
- Pencil (to wrap the wire and make it curly).
- Philips screw driver
- Piece of wire (I use one from the wrap cables)
- Welding Iron
- GI trigger
- Welding



Open the GI with the Philips screw driver, you can find the screw near the hot shoe adapter on the bottom part.



Here is what it looks like when you have open it... don't be afraid this is a simple straight forward task.



The wire measure more or less 19,5 cm. This was on wrap that I had that was big enough to fit the measures for the antenna. You can find this baby wrapping any cable that comes packed.



Remove the plastic cover with the knife, this you can measure as much as you feel comfortable with. I just removed enough so I won't get too much wire outside after welding it to the GI.



Here is the place where you are going to weld. You can see that there is another hole near the F6-616 and some people been using this hole to, but from what I've been reading around the left side one is a more reliable one.



See why I mentioned the pencil, this would make the wire curly so it fits inside the GI without having to make any holes on the cover.



This is what it will look like after welding it.



Before welding be sure to remove the battery, we don't want to blow out anything wouldn't we?

Be sure to put some weld on the cable before you weld it to the hole this would make it much easier to weld and you will not damage anything inside.



Here it is the final shot after welding and putting the cable inside. No holes needed on the front cover of the GI, as I said before I was not looking for distance measurements but reliability.



Here is a shot from my balcony through my kitchen, living room and the light was at one of the living rooms at the bottom of the house.

I can tell you that the walls here are pretty stiff and has you can see on the above image the GI couldn't get the job done.



The same place, or at least almost the same place and now with the mod already done.

It did triggered the GI on the other end of the house as you can see, now I can have more reliability on these inexpensive triggers and hope you will do the same to yours.

Not only you will get less misfiring from the trigger but you will also get more reliability from them even at close range.

I will let you make some distance test, since this was not my main goal when I wanted to make this mod, also as you can see from others I decided to NOT make the hole for the antenna, simply because distance is not one of my goals for the GI.

Enjoy.

Other places to visit:

* GI Cactus V2s Modification Tutorial
* How To Solder
* Increase effective distance
* Gadget Infinity Cactus V2s Trigger Mod
* 4 channel transmitter mod
* Ebay trigger antenna mod
* Cactus "ebay" V2s Trigger mod that looks good and works
* GI Cactus Mod
* Gadget Infinity Mod

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TinEye - Image Search Engine Revolution

This software is a revolution for photographers and photo enthusiasts! But I’m getting ahead of myself… excitement and all. Let me introduce you to TinEye.com. The first true image search engine to hit the Net.

I was lucky enough to be able to test a web service in beta state that promises to find copies across the Internet of the image that we may upload.

This service is called TinEye time and is accessed by invitation through its website, through this form.

The thing is quite simple. Tenemos tres métodos para llevar a cabo nuestra misión, subir la foto que queremos que TinEye busque, indicarle su ubicación en internet o utilizar un cómodo plugin para Firefox. We have three ways to carry out our mission, upload the photo you want to look TinEye, indicate their location on the Internet or use a convenient plugin for Firefox. That's it!

According to its creators, some reasons for using TinEye would be:

- Finding copies of your pictures.
- Search products using a photograph.
- Finding modifications made to an image.
- Investigate the use of images of stock.
- Using a webcam to digitize an image and look it over the Internet.

Although it should be noted that since this is a very young and fresh beta service, the database needs to grow even more, so unless you have a picture very, very famous, is not going to give you time results. Up until now none of my images was found but I think with time and after the database has grown all images could be found there.

They also have a cool plugin for Firefox, you just have to right click on the image you like to make it search for a result.

That is why I recommend you take a look at some of the results already show on its website or try the images of stock sold or used more you find.

If confirmed pledges of the company that it has created, we will be in front of a good tool to have a look to use that occurs through the network of our photos, the most interesting activity in a world where foreign ownership of what is unfortunately very common.

I leave with an instructional video of the service.

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Tripod at Hand

Manfrotto has produced a tinny, winy, super small tripod and call it modopocket 797, strange name but effective on size ;)

They have released it a couple of months ago but I haven't found it on a store up until today when I run into it on my local photo shop here in Portugal.

Well I can tell you that this baby it's so small that it almost fit on the small pocket of my jeans.

Take a look at the full review to see how small and portable this baby is.

Well when I saw it for the first time I said to myself that I got to have one of those for my portable camera.

As you may be aware I have a Canon Powershot G9 that travels with me all the time. I also have a couple o gear that goes with it, you can check it here, but I lacked a tiny portable tripod.



On the above picture you can see the back part of the card box case where it shows you how you can use the tripod.



Here is a picture of the inside case.



The instructions booklet.



And some more instructions so you can use it correctly ;)



I took up a CF Card just to make a side-by-side in terms of how small it can be when folded.

I told you this baby is really small!!!



You have a small plastic thing glued to the tripod and where you can pull it to up it up.



Then you also got a small cable attached to each part so that it could open to a certain point and be stable.



Tripod you asked? Here it is near to the red attachment. You can even attach it to a normal tripod if you like.



Here is attached to one of my ball heads.



Missed the camera, so here it is with the camera on the modopocket and attached to the ball head :)



Normally I would carry an inexpensive small tripod like the one you can see on the above image.
My only problem was that it was still too BIG for my traveling bag.



The only advantage of the normal small tripod over the modopocket is that it's legs stretches and you could get more height over the subject.



But that would not stop the modopocket from being useful. Here you can see a picture of a Canon Powershot G9 mounted on it.



And if you are a Macro lover than this would suite you like a glove ;)



Hey how about some shots of the sky and clouds today :)

At a retail price of more or less €19,00 this is a piece of gear that should go with you everywhere and you can even attach it to your key chain.

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