Christmas is closing in and the problem we all have when we get to this time of year is what to put on the wish list. I have found something that I like and some things that I would not mind finding under the tree.
Joe McNally – Moment it Clicks
This book is just brilliant. It’s kind of a mix between a coffee-table book, a teaching book with some great small stories mixed in. I have read it from start to finish twice and looked it loads of times besides that.
A little video about the book:
[youtube 7xpxA7pyBSs]
Gorillapod SLRzoom
I bought one of these small guys early this summer. I did not think much about it but I did not want to drag around a normal tripod on my vacation. I was going for the light package with just two lenses one body and a flash. So this little guy fitted the bill perfectly. It slipped into my shoulder bag and was very light weight. Don’t get me wrong this is by no means a replacement for your normal trusty tripod, but it was a brilliant solution for the holiday and none critical work. The smart thing is that you can twist the legs around railings and what ells you can find.
Gorillapod Slr Zoom
You can read more about the Gorillapod here:
Manufacture homepage
On Amazon
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
This should be my baby but I not waiting for it to be under the tree. If everything goes to plan it should be in my hands before this week is over. I want put much about it here since I already have put up post about it.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Read more here:
5d Mark II Samples, video & pictures
5D Mark II – Specs and info
Where you buy it, is all up to you but I don’t think you will find it in stock at the moment.
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended
Adobe has released the new CS4 suit including of course a new version of our beloved Photoshop. If you have not already upgraded I strongly advice that you make sure this is under your tree this year. It’s a huge upgrade and the speed alone is worth the money. Besides the speed improvement you have loads of new great features. If you or the person giving you a present can afford it then go for one of the suits. If money is short I guess you will have to make do with just Photoshop.
Adobe Photoshop CS4
I will link you directly to Adobe where you can find more information and shop both suits and Photoshop.
Some time ago I wrote a post about the new CS4 that you also might want to have a look at.
Lynda.com
Lets face it today’s photographer has to be up to speed with the new software. Lynda.com is a company that makes it easy to get training in the software you need. You will find training videos for a wide range of products of course including all the Adobe software. The difficulty level is from beginner to advanced so there should be something for everybody. You can choose access to online training or have a DVD shipped to you.
The quality of the training videos it very good and loads of them have exercise files so you can follow along.
Head over to their site and find the software you need training for and test some of the free videos out.
Kelbytraining.com
If you have a hunger for getting wiser you should also check out kelbytraining. It’s started by Scoot Kelby the president of NAPP ( National Association of Photoshop Professionals ). This site contains loads of training on the Adobe products but they also taken it a step further. They are offering training on photography and light. Here are some examples of training titles: Working with Nikon SB-900 Flashes, Corporate Photography, Landscape Photography – Ground Work, The Business Side of Photography and loads more.
The teachers are all high profile people such as Joe McNally, Moose Peterson, Rock Sammon and of course all the Photoshop guys and the people from Layers magazine.
Head over to Kelbytraining to choose from DVD’s and online training.
Lenovo ThinkPad W700
If you don’t already know Lenovo is producing the IBM notebooks so what we have here is really a IBM notebook not some random Chinese stuff 🙂 This is I am sure to date the best notebook for photographers and people working with digital art. The machine is awfully powerful boosting 3.0 GHz Core 2 Extreme quad core processor, up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, 1GB NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M graphics and dual HDD Bays configurable in RAID 0 or RAID 1. It also comes with a 7 in 1 card reader, 5 USB ports, optional blueray drive and compact flash card reader. The screen is of course top of the line with its 17″ and WUXGA resolution with a build in colour calibrator. Many of you might also work with a wacom tablet and if you don’t I suggest you look into it 🙂 This new monster from Lenovo comes with a build in wacom tablet so you don’t have to drag one along or live with the normal crappy mouse that comes with notebooks.
Lenovo W700 – Photo by: Gizmodo
You can see some different configurations of the W700 and find links to dealer’s right here.
Ray Flash
This is a little goodie I bought this year. It’s a small very light weight unit that you clamp on your speedlite, the result you now got a ringflash. This is of course not as powerfull as the ringflashes with a build in flash tube but the price is also smaller and the weight lower. It eats about 3/4-1 stop of power but that easily fixed with a bit of compensation on the flash. The Ray Flash works fine in both ETT and full manuel.
Ray Flash is both easy to use and install.
Ray Flash
And a small video from Dave Cross on the Ray Flash
[youtube fpnK8tNRyb8]
Visit their website to se examples and find out where to shop.
Drobo – Backup
Most photographers are more or less afraid of losing all their pictures. Drobo can help you sleep easier at night. It’s an external backup solution. The difference between the normal external hard drive and the drobo is the robotics in the drobo. It monitors the drives and their health and gives you a warning if a drive goes bad or you are running out of space. But not only do you get a warning it will also move files to the other hard drives to protect them.
The drobo contains up to 4 hard drives of different sizes. The max drive size you can create in one drobo is 16tb of data. This will require bigger disk than what you can get now, but its good to know you have some future security.
Drobo has a video on their webpage that does a good demo of their product. If you buy one there is also a section on how to set up the drobo even though it’s so easy I can hardly believe you will need it 🙂
Drobo
Epson Stylus Photo R2880 Printer
Every photographer needs a printer. Epson R2400 has in long time been one of the most used A3+(13×19″) printers for photographers. Epson has released and update to this printer and it’s called R2880. This new little wonder lives up to the old version with no problems. The color prints are amazing and you know how black and white always have color cast, well no longer.
Epson R2880
Stop by Epson to find out more.
Wacom A5 Wide Special Edition
As a photographer, retoucher or digital artist a wacom tablet and pen is simply a most. It might cost you a little money if you don’t get it for Christmas but you should really have one on your table. It speeds up the work a lot and ones you have started working with it you really don’t see any way back.
The A5 wide is in my opinion a very good solution it’s big enough but not too big. I have tried working with both the A4 and A3 version but they simply get to big.
The special edition is a very good deal, you can find it online for the same price as the normal version and you get the bonus of an extra airbrush pen and a nice black finish.
Wacom A5 Wide Special Edition
This is the gift that you need to give yourself if nobody ells gives it to you 🙂
Go to wacom for more information.
This is some of the many things you as a photographer could wish for this Christmas. They are not in the cheap end but then again it’s only Christmas once a year right…
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