Spectacular Strobe Sale: Godox Ving V850 and V860

The Godox Ving is a unique speedlight that uses rechargeable Lithium batteries instead of AA batteries.  As a result, you get a far greater battery life (650 full power flashes -- claimed to be the equivalent of 12 AA batteries), and you have faster recycling times.  It's almost like having an external battery pack, but built-in to the speedlight itself! Check out this demo video by Gadget Infinity:



The Ving currently has three variants: the V850 is a manual flash, while the V860N is for Nikon i-TTL and the V860C is for Canon E-TTL.  Godox has its own wireless radio system: the FT-16, which can adjust flashes remotely, and which is compatible with the Ving and several other Godox products, such as the Witstro and their extensive monolight lineup.

The Ving has received positive reviews from Fstoppers (reviewing the rebranded Neewer TT850), Flash Havoc, Lighting Rumors and others.

SALE
The good news is the Godox Ving is on sale: buy 1, get the 2nd at 50% off, through eBay seller "zeniko_online_store":

This sale applies only to Zeniko's U.S. eBay stores (they have items listed from their stores in China, which have a lower price per unit but aren't included in the sale).  To avail of the discount, just select "2" under quantity.  The price will be updated automatically.

Note: I'm not affiliated with Zeniko or eBay, and we receive no commissions on this.  I'm just passing along this tip!

Move to Mirrorless? Mirrorless vs. DSLR; mirrorless systems comparison

Sony recently launched an ad campaign called Move to Mirrorless.  Should you?  Mirrorless cameras are becoming increasingly popular, so much so that DigitalRev recently parodied the enthusiasm about mirrorless.  In this post, I'll post my reasons for shooting with mirrorless, and also discuss situations when I would prefer a normal DSLR.

An Eye-Opening Experience & The Power Of Olympus

Ever since I got the Sony A7II, I have been using it almost exclusively, apart from my trip to UAE where it made sense to pack a MFT kit due to its small size, versatility and auto-focus (Will be covered in a different post. The pictures are ready). To be honest, I was having too much fun playing with the A7II and both the Zeiss and the legacy lenses while ignoring my Olympus kit, to the extent that I decided one day to sell all of my MFT kit and only keep the Sony with the single autofocus lens that I own. And indeed I put my MFT kit for sale, only to decline the first few offers I received. I just didn't have the courage to do it. But I kept using the Sony.

Fast 50mm Shoot Out: MFT vs FF (or why I bought the Sony A7II and a single FE lens)

You might remember from my previous posts about the Canon 35mm f/2, the Canon 50mm f/1.4 and the Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 lenses how much I appreciate and love the 50mm focal length. To the extent that I previously mentioned that if I found a fixed lens FF camera with a fast 50mm (think Sony RX1 with a 50mm lens instead), I would sell all my gear and only use that camera and a single TTL flash. Unfortunately, that camera doesn't exist yet. So I bought something a bit different. Did it work? Hit the jump to find out.

The 200L is back

Just sharing with you the very first test photo I took with the 200L (wide-open) and my A7II. The image was shot with zero ambient light, and a single manual flash bounced from the wall/ceiling to the camera right. The flash power was metered once before actually taking pictures via a light meter.

I bought a Commlite Canon EF to Sony E-Mount adapter to be able to use Canon lenses on my A7. The adapter has electronic contacts between the camera and the lens, and supports: aperture control via the camera, auto-focus (slooow but 100% accurate, same speed as live view focusing on older Canon bodies), EXIF data so the IBIS is adjusted automatically, and I think it will support stabilization in images with IS.

The adapter is solidly built, but feels quite heavy at 124 grams. The fit is perfect on both ends, if a little tight on the Canon mount side. Here's how it looks like:



 

RELATED POSTS:

Canon EF 200 2.8L II Review
Also, click on the tag/label "200mm" to see other posts re the 200L.

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Radio-based wireless TTL for Sony, Nikon and Canon

image by Nissin Group

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Nissin is producing an affordable radio-based wireless TTL flash and trigger for Canon, Nikon and, starting this summer, for Sony as well.  There are already several radio-based TTL systems for Canon and Nikon.  However, for Sony, this is a welcome addition because the only such system available thus far is the Phottix Odin, and Nissin's system appears to have a lower total cost.

Review: Yongnuo 560-TX Wireless Trigger

Hello once again dear readers. I am very happy to be back and posting. Tonight I bring you a review of the best photography gadget that I have ever owned (apart from cameras and lenses).

2013: The Camera Year

Blockbuster

This year has witnessed an incredible range of very interesting camera releases (can you guess how many?), there are a lot of tidal shifts in the market, players that are becoming stronger, and others that are referred to as stagnant and old fashioned. I am not attempting to analyze the market and company strategies in this post, instead I will be thinking aloud, analyzing what is going on around, what to do regarding any further camera purchases, and where to head to. The more I think about the new camera releases in 2013, the more I get confused, so I decided to get a white paper and a pen, and jot it all down so I can be able to make a clear analysis. Hit the jump to continue reading, and be astounded with the sheer amount of cameras released in 2013.

A Tale Of Seven Cameras, And One Subject

One camera to rule them all!

Welcome to one of my fairly long posts, but I promise you this will be an interesting one. There has been a lot of changes in my life recently, in some ways, I am re-calculating my priorities in my life, a lot of changes have resulted from this, selling all of my full frame gear was one of those changes, it's not about money, but rather time and much needed optimization, for example I sold my iPad since it consumes too much time that I could spend with my family instead, another thing I did was to remove a lot of blogs from my RSS feed. I am now giving less priority to photography (and photography blogging) than I used to do, that's why my last post was almost one month ago, and I apologize for this delay, but I admit I cannot spare time to blogging more than once or twice a month (there might be exceptions of course), and this takes us to the main topic of this blog, the tale of seven cameras, and my daughter.

Faces!

You Serious?

 

This was a fun project, my friend which you see above showed me a portrait for a bearded man with lots of face details and wrinkles, and wanted to imitate the picture, so we gathered along with my brother and played a little with lights, hit the jump for more details.

That's Why I Love My Canon 5D

Canon 5D Mark III + Canon 50mm f/1.4 @ f/1.4 - mix of florescent, tungsten, other playground colors and my flash

One of the greatest benefits of my switch to full frame was the colors and skin tones, for some reason both the 5D Mark II and Mark III gave me better skin tones and colors than I was able to get from the 550D or the 60D. They have more tolerance and are more forgiving with mixtures of different light sources.


Take the example above, this was shot at a children playground which is mainly lit with florescent, and there are various yellow/red/green rotating lights, and some tungsten to make things more challenging, I was shooting at ISO 3200 with the Canon 50 1.4 wide open, I metered for the background, and used on-camera bounce flash (with no gels) to light my subject. I was bouncing from a wooden ceiling. I always have my 5D set to auto white balance, it is that good, and I got the picture you see above, no tweaks apart from a hint of black and contrast. Really Cool.

Updated: Tamron Lens Caps (or the Mark II Canon Lens Caps) for Canon Lenses

Tamron Lens Cap vs Canon

Canon lens caps are the worst lens caps (in my opinion) amongst all lens manufacturers, they are flimsy, weak, difficult to install and take off, and incredibly difficult to use with lens hoods because they don't have a that place in the middle where you can hold the lens cap from.

Other manufacturers like Nikon, Tamron, Sigma, Tokina and Sony have similar cap with that middle pinch thingie like the one you see above, when I was shopping for lens caps, I wanted them to be Nikon, they would look contrasty with my Canon gear, but I didn't find all the sizes I wanted. I also liked how the Sony caps looked like, but again, can't find all sizes, and I ended up buying the Tamrons, they are incredibly strong and tight, and I have them for all my lenses, starting from 52mm to 77mm, they are just great.

Canon 60D & Canon 15-85

I still believe the 60D is the sexiest looking DSLR ever, the buttons, the curves, and the slanted top LCD screen. The 15-85 with the lens hood reversed looks pretty good itself.

UPDATE:

Seems like Canon were listening, check out there new Canon Mark II lens caps, now these look even cooler than the Tamron ones, do you know where can I buy them?

Credit: CanonRumors.com

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Flash Portrait in Fayoum Desert

Flash Portrait - End Result

I want to share with you a few flash pictures I took during my second trip to Fayoum desert, you might remember my three-part post about my visit there four months ago. I repeated most of what I did before, but challenged myself not to take a single picture similar to the ones I took last time.

Hands On: Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake

 
I couldn't stop myself from buying this lens, it's Canon's first pancake lens, it's extremely tiny (almost as thick as the rear lens cap), it's $200, it's f/2.8 (I know, not very fast, but WTH), it's very sharp and it has very pleasing bokeh. Hit the jump for more.

Shooting Technique – Part 1 (mshafik)

Self Portrait - Canon 60D, 35mm f/2, 580EX II

I never posted about my shooting or processing techniques, but according to our reader comments, this is a requested post, so here it is, this will be part 1, my own shooting technique, as a Canon user. Now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense to write about this topic, which is one of my favorite reading material, along with post processing and "what's in my camera bag?" posts.

The Full-Frame, Large Sensor Bonanza!!!

Credit: photokina.com

 
THE YEAR 2012
 
This year's Photokina exhibition certainly was different, a few months ago, both Canon and Nikon each announced two new high-end full-frame DSLRs (Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 1DX, Nikon D800, Nikon D4), then just before the end of the year each of them announced a more affordable (not really) full-frame DSLR again (Canon 6D, Nikon D600). And to make matters more exciting, Sony announced the revolutionary A99 full-frame DSLR, and the sweet, expensive RX1. A full-frame Leica completes the picture. Do you see a trend here?
 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur at sunset, photo taken from KL Tower (through glass) during one of the moody storms

 
This post is dedicated to Robin Wong, a Malaysian photographer whom I first knew about from Kirk Tuck's post about the BERISH 3.0 Malaysian Protests.
 
You see, I have traveled to Kuala Lumpur once and enjoyed my trip there immensely, and I really wish to go back there. I am also quite interested in Olympus M4/3 system, so when I saw Robin's blog, I enjoyed looking at his photos (especially the sharpness and the B&W treatment) and started back reading lots of his older posts that I missed, I have since been subscribed to his blog, and I enjoy reading everyone of his posts. More after the break.

Canon EF Lenses Chat: Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Review

Chandelier at an old place called Rihana

Now that I've taken close to a thousand shots with my Canon 50mm f/1.4, it is a good time to do my review, it is probably going to be quite long, with lots of smaples (see? I do what I want other reviews to do, but unfortunately they don't), so if you want the short version, here it is, it kicks ass. Click through for more details.

Lots of Canon Updates

Canon Rumors is obviously a rumors site, and I used to never care about rumors since they might not be true, until recently when I discovered that rumors "doesn't equal" not true, it might just mean that information is not official yet, and the site owner also has lots of trusted sources. I started following the site a while back, and I found it accurate enough, and anything that reaches the [CR3] rating, is pretty much on the money, so what's new to report?

Shooting Football - 5D MarkII + 200mm f/2.8

Our company has organized a football tournament between the different departments, and I went last week to one of the games to cheer for my colleagues' team and try out my 5D's tracking along with the 200mm f/2.8. I ended up enjoying the game (my colleagues won 5-4), but the photography experience was disasterous. Click to read more.