CPT# 41 Podcast: Holiday Gift Guide 2015 Continues!

This is a Cool Photo Tools podcast episode number 41, November 16, 2015, sponsored by audible.com who has more than 180,000 audiobooks and spoken word audio products. Get a free audiobook of your choice at www.audibletrial.com/coolphototools. Good morning everybody, and welcome to you and Rhonda Spencer who is standing outside in the snow.

RHONDA: I wish it would snow.

JAY: No, no, no, don’t need chains or parkas or snow blowers.

RHONDA: Yah but out here nothing is more beautiful than the snow on a saguaro cactus.

JAY: Perhaps, for about 10 minutes.

RHONDA: That is all it lasts is 10 minutes.

JAY: Good riddance. It is the middle of November and the holidays are rapidly approaching us. We are to continue on this week with more of our coolphototools.com/gifts.

RHONDA: Remember, this list is not just for giving this is a good wish list for your spouse or family to have great hints for what to get their Cool Photo Tool fan for the holidays.

JAY: Print this list out and take one of those yellow highlighter pens and mark your favorites and then leave the list laying around in strategic locations until the hints are properly dropped.

RHONDA: When they say what is this, you can say oh nothing really, I was just looking at things I would like to have.

JAY: I just say this is the stuff that I want, and it better be here by the first of the year or I am going to be really honked.

RHONDA: Jay is more blatant.

JAY: The wife just says whatever, best of luck with that, actually she has a hand signal for me but I am not going to go there. Okay, where should we start?

RHONDA: I want to talk about something that is a really inexpensive little gift that would make a good stocking stuffer, or something to give one of your casual acquaintances who is a photographer. I know you have seen these before, they are the little SLR camera 4 gigabyte hard drives that look like a camera.

JAY: Oh yeah, I have almost ordered those, they are a little thumb drive.

RHONDA: I know, and I think they are so cute and would make a great little incidental gift. They look just like a little camera and you pull the little lens off, and that is the USB drive, these are only $4.65 on Amazon. Oh my gosh, what Jay has just pulled out was more fitting for Halloween. He has handed me a thumb drive that literally looks like a real thumb. This is kind of creepy.

JAY: Sadly, it doesn’t work, so it is funny looking but this particular one is worthless. For gifts under $50 for anyone who has a camera they probably could use an extra battery. The camera manufacturers, for some reason, think that their batteries are made out of gold and they can get fifty bucks apiece for a spare battery. Realistically, the components in there can’t possibly cost that much, so let’s just say that there’s some other companies that rival the camera manufacturers. If you go on Amazon and do a search for Wasabi batteries and charger, they’re a third-party manufacturer, and their cells are usually manufactured in Japan of very high quality Lithium. For most any camera you are going to get a couple of batteries and a wall charger and a cable so you can also hook up to your cigarette lighter charger, for about $20 or $30 bucks depending on your type of battery.

RHONDA: If you are going to buy someone great batteries then why don’t you buy them a Sandisk 32 gigabyte SDHC flash card?

JAY: Oh so, an add on of some memory for your camera, because everyone can use more memory, so that is a no brainer, and you can never have too much memory. Memory is getting pretty cheap, and I have some pretty large cards, and don’t fill them up very often, but memory is something you can’t hardly live without. Another thing I have on my list here is not actually a camera thing. It is the Amazon 7-inch tablet that runs their fire operating system. It is a spinoff of Android and made specifically to work with some of the Amazon features. These are 50 bucks and if you buy six of them you get them down to about 42 bucks each. These are not the highest resolution tablets in the world, but for the money, I don’t think you could beat it. If you had one of these to just kick around with, if you lost it you wouldn’t be devastated, or you could give it to the kids, it is just a great deal. These came out about a month ago and they have gotten very good reviews.

RHONDA: That is pretty amazing, who makes them?

JAY: Amazon makes these themselves, look for the Amazon 7-inch tablet that is $50. I will put a link in the show notes and of course in our gift guide as well.

RHONDA: Jay is going to get a good laugh out of this, but for gifts under $100 I say the Hoodman Loupe.

JAY: Why didn’t I see that coming?

RHONDA: With the Hoodman Loupe you can chimp those photos on the back of your camera in bright daylight. It goes on the back of your camera, and it’s an eyepiece that you can adjust to your own vision, so if you wear glasses it’s okay. This allows you to look at your images from the back of your camera to see if you got the shot you wanted in bright daylight. This is such a big deal for me, I hate trying to see the image in bright daylight without this device, it is impossible.

JAY: I have a bag that I use to carry my cameras around and it’s not camera bag. It’s actually a tactical bag which you know you if you’re like on a SWAT team would be another use, but they do make them in pink so I think they realize that there are other uses. The one I have is his dirt colored, a nice desert tan because the soil here gets on everything, so this is already the color of dirt and never looks dirty. This is a messenger style bag, made by a company called Maxxpedition and the make a bunch of different sizes, but I will put this in the show notes so you know which one it is. This bag goes around you messenger style and hangs on your hip, it has all kinds of pockets, so you can put a water bottle or a thermal cup. This is not a camera bag so is there is no padding in it and you have to add one more piece to this to make it a good camera bag. The thing that you need to add to it is from a company called Ape case, and it is a camera bag insert that goes right into the bag. This one that I have is not a huge one, they make some big ones, but I don’t prefer them that big because they get too heavy. If you use a mirrorless camera you can easily put the camera body and a couple of lenses and a flash with still room for more stuff in it.

RHONDA: Now for us ladies, since Jay is talking about the Ape case, I could see that working really well with a nice big purse that could then double as a camera case. If any of the gals out there have ever looked at the camera purses, they are horribly expensive.

JAY: In my case when I use this Maxxpedition bag and I have people stop me and ask me every single day that I wear it, where did you get that camera bag?  Well it is not a camera bag but they are really well made, and are only about $120 on Amazon. They vary a little bit in price but are really a nice sturdy bag that I really like and use all the time. There’s an Imitator you can get which is not as good, but if you just want to try one of these out to see if it is your thing, these are called the U TG Multifunctional Tactical Messenger Bag. They make these in camo, black, tan and they are usually around $25. These imitators are not the same quality of course, but they are not bad especially if it is just something you want to try out.

RHONDA: Since we are talking bags, Tamarac just came out with a minimalist bag, which means that it is very plain looking, and one of the people that reviewed it referred to it as butt ugly.

JAY: I know just the camera to go in that!

RHONDA: I don’t know how to pronounce this but it is spelled Derechoe bag. The only thing that is cool about it is that it is a messenger bag and has lots of pockets, padded dividers, lots of zippers and is made of more contemporary materials than leather and canvas. It is kind of a neat looking thing and has a special buckle system that uses magnets, which is very handy for anyone who likes to yank their cameras in and out. The price range is anywhere from $74 to $104 so very affordable, and they are calling it a camera bag for minimalists.

JAY: Here’s a gift item that you may not think about immediately, but if you have any kind of a home studio type stuff or use light stands to hold up various lights or reflectors, if you take them outside and you get into a breeze invariably what happens is the wind blows them over. If you have a soft box or a reflector they act just like a sail and catch the wind. These gift items are called sand bags, and you get a set of four for $16 or $17 on Amazon, these are bright yellow and black striped to alert them as a trip hazard. The sand bags are designed to be filled with sand and have a little fold in the center so you can put it on the leg of a stand and weight it down so it will not blow over. I know you wouldn’t think that a sandbag would be a holiday gift, but for a photographer they’re pretty cool and useful. I have a trick to share with you on sandbags, don’t fill them with sand, use pea gravel, some of the commercial ones are called shot bags and come filled with ball bearings, but they are a lot more expensive.

RHONDA: Along the same lines, from a company called “Frio”, and the product is called ENLFRC1A  and it is a hot shoe mount for tripods that only costs $10. If you have ever put a soft box on to the less expensive light poles and noticed they were flimsy, this actually allows you to screw this on to your tripod mount and attach your hot shoe there.

JAY: I am trying to envision what this thing does.

RHONDA: It is just a hot shoe that attaches to your tripod, plain and simple. I think it is one of those gizmos that you didn’t know you needed, but once you have it you use it a lot.

JAY: Let’s pause for a moment and pay some bills. Audible is offering our listeners a free audiobook of your choice and free 30-day trial membership, simply go to audibletrial.com/coolphototools and choose from over 180,000 audio programs. Why Audible, because Audible content includes more than 180,000 audio programs from the leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine, newspaper publishers and business information providers.

JAY: The thing that I think would be a really nice gift, and if somebody wanted to put one in my stocking I would be pleased. This is a camera strap from a Kickstarter company called Peak Design. They make a larger one for DSLR’s and a smaller one for the mirrorless. These straps have little buttons on them that go through the lugs on your camera and they are tested to 80 lbs. so you will not have a camera that is too heavy for them. These little plastic buttons slide into latches on the end of the strap and they click down so it makes it really easy to take off or put on the strap. It is a nice design, particularly the bigger strap. Again, Peak Design, they make a sling strap and also a smaller one for lighter cameras.

RHONDA: Well, if you are going to plug camera straps, I will have to plug Jodie’s camera straps. I love her stuff, and if you want a custom made camera strap with your name or your logo on it, or anything else, please look her up. For $50 you get the strap with your name or whatever embroidered on it.

JAY: Instead of Canon or Nikon you can put Rhonda Spencer Photography.

RHONDA: Funny, that is exactly what mine says.

JAY: This is something that is not necessarily a camera item, but I think is a good quality product and this is a thermal cup for travel. This is made by a company called Zojirushi, and they seem to have the thermal thing down to a fine art. This is a really nice cup that seals down and has a flip lid and is made of steel so it is thermal, hot coffee stays hot and cold drinks stay cold. These are the highest quality that I have found, and they are not cheap, for a 16 oz. They are around $25 or $30 and if you look them up on Amazon they have 5-star smoking reviews. The thing that people really liked about them is that you can disassemble them and really clean them. They impressed me by not leaking liquid or heat and you can lock the lid and toss them in your backpack and it is not going to leak and in five hours you will still have intact hot coffee. The only downside to this travel mug is that when you flip it open to drink the lid does block your views so I would think this is this is more of a backpacking mug and not so much a driving mug, just as it does obstruct your vision when it’s in that position.

RHONDA: The next thing on my list that is my favorite of favorite things is my Manfrotto Lummi. The Manfrotto Lummi is a light source that is battery operated, and about the size of a deck of cards, so you can put it on your hot shoe or actually hold it in your hand. The Lummi has three variable lights and is white balanced, sunlight balanced and is brighter than heck. You can use this to supplement lighting wherever you’re at, it fits in your cargo pants and if you’re doing night photography it’s bright enough that it will light things right up.  It’s amazing the light that is coming out of this this little piece of equipment. If you see it, then it will sell itself.

JAY: This is in our gift guide. Those of you who have been using an external flash on your camera, may have been stunned and surprised and shocked at how much some of those units can cost from the manufacturer. An external flash unit that slides on to the hot shoe, top-of-the-line units can be five or 600 bucks easy. That’s a lot of darn money for an on camera flash and especially if you want to add a couple extras maybe to do supplementary lighting or studio type lighting on location. I would like to recommend to you a company in China called Yuong Nuo, and they make a lot of electronic camera gear but they make some extra nice electronic flash units. These are not the fully automatic kind that you would put on your camera, so they are not TTL. They make some models that are fully automatic but the one I am talking about here is not, it’s a manual flash unit and you would use it in manual mode, which is not that hard to do, because if you’ve got a flash unit you know the shutter speed is going to be fixed. If you have a DSLR your shutter speed is a 200 thru 250th and that is the flash speed, there is only one speed you can use with flash. the only adjustment you have to make then is the iris or the f-stop, so they are easy-to-use. You can see results on the back of your screen and you don’t have to have a TTL flash, especially if you are doing studio or set up work. The best thing about these is a price, and that is about 80 bucks. I am sure they are made right around the corner from where your Nikon or Canon ones are made in China. You could afford six or seven of these for what you would pay for the Canon or Nikon top-of-the-line flashes, but they’re not as rugged and you have to replace it once in a while so I say it is a no-brainer. This company also makes wireless triggers Yuong Nuo wireless triggers, so you get the one it’s made for your camera. I also have some generic ones as well. I will put the link to this on for you. Then you can put the flash anywhere you want. You put the trigger on your camera and the flash can go anywhere. They make different models, and some are as cheap as 25 bucks and some that are more expensive and support TTL flashes are under a hundred. These are great deals.

RHONDA: Moving on, I am going to go back to cheap again. I like cheap, okay, this is a two pack rain cover for DSLR cameras, and they are very handy and are easily put your backpack. They are clear plastic with a drawstring front so that you can put it around the front of your lens and pull it tight. I suggest you put these in the bottom your gadget bag and keep them in there all the time in case of inclement weather. These rain packs totally protect your camera, even if you have it on a tripod, and it will still allow you to shoot with it on the camera. I say for $10 you should never be without one.

JAY: Here is another gift that would be good on everybody’s Christmas list, and this is a new camera. This is not just any camera, and I know you probably do not have one of these. This is from a company called Ricoh, a parent company to Pentax cameras, and they have come out with a specialty camera which is a photosphere.  Now if you are familiar with photospheres, you know you can take photospheres with your camera phone. You set this to the photosphere app or the camera app on an Android or IOS system and you take a picture and then you move the camera a little bit and take another picture, and so on until you end up taking a 360-degree sphere of pictures. Now this could take four or five minutes and if there’s people moving in the scene of course then you will end up having the bottom half of somebody in one part of the photosphere and their top half will be somewhere else so it is not a foolproof thing. The photospheres are cool when you look at them online, you can spin them around 360° and look up and look down. A big plus is that Google has just announced support for these on Google Maps where you can imbed photospheres and also You Tube will support them, so now here is a camera that can shoot photospheres. This is the Ricoh Theta S their newest model and it is about $350 and it can take a photosphere with one snap. So you can nab a full 360 degrees with one button press. As another cool feature you can take photosphere movies up to 30 minutes in length, watch a movie and grab the mouse and pull it around so you can see what’s behind you what’s on the side and what’s above and below you.
These are really crazy, a new category of camera, the Ricoh Theta S photosphere.

RHONDA: Now Rhonda is talking about stuff that she finds near and dear that she really really loves, and Jay should be able to guess what it is.

JAY: Well, you have already talked about the Hoodman Loupe, so what else are enamored about? Is it that new 85mm F1.2 lens that you own?

RHONDA: You’re getting closer, it is a lens, under $500.

JAY: It has to be the other lens then the 15 mm.

RHONDA: It is, it’s the Venus lens. I don’t know the company name, I just know it as venuslens.com and they are made in China and are a little below $500 which is a reasonable price for a lens. It is a macro 15 mm wide angle lens, and the more I use it, the more I am loving it. This is also a tilt shift lens, and it is fully manual, you can get these for Nikon, Pentax, Canon, and Sony. When I ordered mine you could only get it out of China, now you can get it from B&H and Adorama but they are selling them out really quickly.

JAY: For a tilt shift under $500 is way good, and the weird thing is you’ve got a 15 mm ultra wide that is also macro.

RHONDA: You can focus so close that your object can be touching the front glass of the lens and still be in focus. I don’t have any other lens that can do that, and it is great for bugs. This does give a different look to your photos, because before when I was using a true macro on a bug shot, the depth of field was so shallow I would get the front leg in focus but not the back leg. With this being a wide angle you are not only going to get the bug in focus, but even get the trees in the background. It causes you to look at your composition a bit more because you will be able to see what is in the background.

JAY: It’s is time to wrap it up for this episode of Cool Photo Tools already. To find out about all the cool holiday gifts that Rhonda and I recommend just go to coolphototools.com/gifts and click on those links and those will take you to Amazon.com where if you purchase from them we get a small commission. We would appreciate it ever so much and it helps us keep the lights on here at the studio.

RHONDA: I use it all the time and Amazon and I are like the best of buddies, if I can find it on Amazon that is where I buy.

JAY: Sometimes they have things that you just can’t find anywhere else.

RHONDA: They deliver on Sundays no less, speedy and well packed, they really know what they are doing in the delivery business.

JAY: If they say two-day delivery, they are not kidding, so go spend all your money at Amazon and go through our link to be supportive of Cool Photo Tools and in general to be really good Tool Heads. Have a great holiday and we will chat again next week.