Camera
Accessory Roundup: CES edition!
| Images: LG, Prograde, Nanlite, ThinkTank |
It’s a new year, and we’re back with our weekly accessory roundup after taking a bit of a break over the holiday season. It’s just in time, too – this week was CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, where many manufacturers show off their latest and greatest tech.
Before we take a look at the accessories unveiled this week, let’s see what’s on sale.
Sales of the Week
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| Photo: Dale Baskin |
Canon’s EOS R6 II, a full frame camera aimed at enthusiasts, thoroughly impressed us when we reviewed it last year. These days its competition is a little stronger following the release of the Nikon Z6III, but it gets a leg up by currently being on sale. You can pick one up for $1,999, around $500 off its MSRP.
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| Photo: Richard Butler |
If you need (or just want) more resolution and performance than the EOS R6 II offers, the excellent Nikon Z8 is also on sale for $300 off its MSRP.
Some small flashes
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| Image: Godox |
Godox’s latest products technically came out before CES, but we didn’t get to highlight them due to the holidays, so we’re doing it now. The company has released three small, on-camera flashes: the iM20 / iM22 – essentially the same flash in different profiles – and the iA32.
The iM20-series are small manual on-camera flashes that Godox says will work with “a wide range of hot-shoe cameras” via its single contact. They feature five brightness levels and a built-in battery that the company says will get you 440 full-power flashes with a 3-second recycle time.
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| Image: Godox |
The iA32 is a bit beefier, though it still uses a single hot-shoe contact for syncing. You can adjust the angle of the flash tube from 90° to -7° via a dial on the side, letting you bounce it off the ceiling or point it directly at your subject. It has eight manually selectable power levels but also features an “auto” mode that lets you input your ISO and aperture and let the flash recommend a shooting distance. It uses two AA or LR6 batteries for power, and Godox quotes 490 flashes with a 2.5-second recycle time.
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| Image: Godox |
If you’re more of a phone photographer, Godox has also announced the MA5R, a magnetic wireless power bank that doubles as an RGB light panel. It has an 18.13Wh battery, which you can either use to top up your phone or to power the 5W array of LEDs if you happen to be taking a video of something. It also has a small selfie light under a screen that displays settings and battery life information, if you don’t need the full panel’s power.
A Thunderbolt Hub with room to grow
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The ProGrade PG20 adds three Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB A port, and can charge your computer.
Image: ProGrade |
ProGrade’s new PG20 Thunderbolt 4 hub puts an interesting spin on the idea of a card reader dock. On its own, it splits a single Thunderbolt connection into three and adds a single 10Gbps USB A port. It can provide the computer you connect it to with 85W of power, which should be enough to charge all but the beefiest of laptops.
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It also gives you a place to put two sold separately ProGrade card readers.
Image: ProGrade |
Its top, however, is magnetic and looks like it has a tray cut out of it. That’s because it’s designed for you to put up to two ProGrade card readers on top of it, turning it into a combo hub / photo and video offloading station. Unlike card reader docks with slots that you slide modules into, connecting two card readers to the ProGrade will require taking up two of your three Thunderbolt ports. However, at $170 for the hub itself, it is a substantially cheaper option than those currently made by Sandisk or Lexar, though those options are far more expandable.
Flying camera bags
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| Images: ThinkTank |
Camera bag maker ThinkTank has updated two of its air travel-focused bags. The company says the Airport Navigator V2 and the Airport Roller Derby V2 are both designed to be easily maneuverable, thanks to their eight wheels that can turn and roll in pretty much any direction.
The Navigator is a smaller bag that ThinkTank says can hold two gripped bodies with lenses, along with a few primes and flashes. The Roller Derby, meanwhile, is a bit bigger – it can even fit a 400mm F2.8, provided it’s not mounted to a camera. The bags also have the usual suite of photographer-focused features: an included raincover, tripod attachment points, and a security cable and lock.
A plinth for the Mac Mini
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| Image: Satechi |
Satechi has made a combination stand and dock for the new M4-powered Mac Mini, expanding the computer’s I/O options, and making it easier to use. While the diminutive desktop has enough processing power for all but the most demanding photographers, it lacks a few features. The dock’s most notable addition is a UHS-II SD card reader, which lets you easily offload your memory cards.
It also includes three USB-A ports – two that run at 10 Gbps second and one that runs at much slower USB 2.0 speeds – and has a cutout to make pressing the Mac Mini’s bottom-mounted power button easier.
You can also install an M.2 SSD in the base, giving you access to more storage that’s more or less permanently attached to your computer. That could be a powerful selling point for the budget-oriented. While the base model Mac Mini includes a fair amount of RAM, it only comes with 256GB of storage, and Apple charges a king’s ransom for upgrades – bumping the Mac Mini’s internal SSD up to 2TB costs $800 while you can easily get a top-of-the-line 2TB SSD to install in the dock for around $150 – though do note that Satechi says you’ll only be able to read and write to it at up to 10Gbps, so it won’t have anywhere near the same performance as the computer’s internal storage.
The stand is due out next month and will cost $99.
Compact softboxes
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The Rapid 90 and Rapid 120 softboxes can fold down into a very compact package.
Image: Nanlite |
Lightning company Nanlite’s new softboxes have a neat trick: they fold up flat, making them relatively easy to store and transport compared to more traditional designs. There are two sizes: the Rapid 90, which has an 89cm (35″) diameter and the Rapid 120, with a 120cm (47.2″) diameter.
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Once unfolded, it’s a standard parabolic softbox.
Image: Nanlite |
After you expand the Rapid softbox, which Nanlite says you can do “in just a few seconds,” it pretty much acts as a normal softbox. It comes with an egg-crate grid and one standard and one “lite” diffusion layer for modifying whatever light you attach via its Bowens mount.
A long tether
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| Image: OWC |
Ultra-fast standards like Thunderbolt and USB 4 are great when you need to move a lot of data around quickly – something becoming increasingly important in the age of high-megapixel cameras and >4K video – but they do come with a notable downside: the cables are generally quite short. If you want to move data at 40Gbps over more than a meter or two, you’re going to need something exotic; the $159 price tag of Apple’s 3m Thunderbolt 4 “Pro Cable” seems ridiculous at first glance until you realize it’s one of the only options on the market that long.
That capability is getting less expensive, though. At CES, Other World Computing announced its active optical cables, which can carry data at Thunderbolt / USB 4 speeds, along with power, over very impressive distances. The 3m version, which costs $98, is capable of carrying up to 240W of power, and while the 4.5m version can only do 60W, it manages to be longer and cheaper than Apple’s top-end cable, coming in at $129.
While that’s still undoubtedly a lot of money for a cable, if you need to move a lot of data a long way, there’s not much else out there that can match this performance for this price.
Another iPhone shutter button
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| Image: Belkin |
A few years ago, Apple built a battery case for the iPhone 11 that had an integrated camera button. Not only did the case let you keep your phone running for longer, but it also gave you a physical control for launching and controlling the camera. Unfortunately, the company didn’t revisit the concept when it launched the iPhone 12, and instead started building camera controls into the phones themselves.
This year, though, Belkin has taken that concept even further. The Stage PowerGrip attaches to your phone via MagSafe, and can keep it charged with its 10,000 mAh battery. It’s shaped to add a substantial amount of grip to your phone and has a button that looks perfectly placed to act as a shutter release, though Belkin’s press release doesn’t actually mention what it’s for.
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| Image: Belkin |
The Stage PowerGrip has an integrated USB-C cable, a USB-C port, and an LED screen for displaying how much battery it has left. It’s price is yet to be determined, but the company says it should come out in May. It’ll be available in five colors: “powder blue,” “sandbox,” “fresh yellow,” “pepper” and “lavender.”
A 6K display
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| Image: LG |
If you’re in the market for a 6K 32-inch display, you’ll be getting another option soon. LG has announced the UltraFine 6K 32U990A monitor, which connects to your computer via Thunderbolt 5. Details – including price and when it’ll be available – are scarce at this point, but LG promises that it’ll deliver “exceptional color accuracy” for “media professionals.”
It’s not the first display with this size and resolution. Perhaps the most notable is Apple’s Pro Display XDR, which sports very impressive brightness levels that come with a whopping $5,000 price tag, not including a stand. For people willing to sacrifice brightness for savings, there’s the $2,500 Dell U3224KB, which appears to use a similar panel to the LG UltraFine. However, it’s housed in a somewhat strange-looking case with a very large top bezel to accommodate an integrated webcam. The LG monitor, meanwhile, has a design that appears… let’s call it ‘heavily inspired’ by Apple monitors.
Read the previous accessory roundup
As a photographer with a strong interest in history, I often find myself captivated when the two worlds collide. Looking at pictures of historical events, even seemingly mundane ones, sparks my imagination and transports me back in time.
More than the historical events themselves, I’m drawn to the people in these photos. I try to envision their lives, their experiences and the world they inhabited. I remind myself that they aren’t just historical figures frozen in time but real people who lead lives as complex as you or me, and I often wonder about their experiences, the people they knew, and the eras that shaped them.
Perhaps this is because old photographs serve as a reminder of our own mortality. Historical photos whisper to us that our time on Earth is finite and that one day, we, too, will become subjects of historical curiosity.
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| Photo: Nelson and Roswell Moore |
This fascination with the past, coupled with my interest in photography, is probably why a recent video by the BBC caught my attention, telling the story behind portraits taken of some of the last survivors of the American Revolutionary War.
The Revolutionary War was fought between Great Britain and her American colonies from 1775 to 1783 over Americans’ desire for independence. Ultimately, the colonial forces prevailed, and, as we all know today, the United States became an independent nation.
“Historical photos whisper to us that our time on Earth is finite and that one day, we, too, will become subjects of historical curiosity.”
Fast forward about eight decades, and the US found itself embroiled in yet another conflict: the American Civil War. It was around this time that two brothers, Nelson and Roswell Moore, photographers from Connecticut, got the idea to use the then-nascent technology of photography to preserve images of the last surviving veterans of the American Revolution.
According to the BBC, newspapers at the time would publish details of the United States federal budget. This included lists of Revolutionary War veterans who were still receiving government pensions. Don Hagist, author of The Revolution’s Last Men: The Soldiers Behind the Photographs and editor of the Journal of the American Revolution, told the BBC that by the 1860s, it was becoming apparent that very few Revolutionary War veterans remained. This realization spurred the Moore brothers to track down what they believed to be the last six living veterans to capture their portraits.
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| Photo: Nelson and Roswell Moore |
The Moore brothers’ portraits were unveiled in 1864 and subsequently published that same year in the book The Last Men of the American Revolution by Reverend E.B. Hillard. The book also included biographies of each veteran, based on interviews conducted by Hillard, although, according to Hagist, Hillard likely employed some creative license in his biographical accounts.
Fortunately, these invaluable photographs are not confined to the BBC’s archives. They’re preserved and freely available for download from the Library of Congress, an exceptional resource for historical imagery of all kinds.
As it turned out, the six men photographed by the Moore brothers weren’t the only remaining Revolutionary War veterans. Following the publication of their photos and Hillard’s book, other veterans came forward. However, the images captured by the Moore brothers remain invaluable historical artifacts, preserving the likenesses of men who fought for America’s independence. Gazing into their eyes, I’m struck by the realization that these men could have met George Washington in person.
One of photography’s enduring truths is that we often can’t predict which images will hold significance for future generations. History will ultimately be the judge. However, as photographers, we possess the ability to capture and preserve these visual records, even if their immediate importance is not readily apparent.
Next time you see an old historical photo, pause for a moment to think about the person or people in that photo. Who were they? What were their lives like? And reflect on the fact that, someday, far in the future, someone may be looking at a picture of you, wondering the same thing.
Finally, have you had the opportunity to capture any photos of historical significance or photograph something important before it disappeared forever? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
| Image: Panasonic |
Panasonic has made it clear: the torch has passed from its Lumix Sync app to the Lumix Lab app. If you own one of the company’s modern phase detect autofocus cameras – that’s the S5 II, S5 IIX, G9 II, GH7 and S9 – Lumix Lab can now do pretty much everything that Sync could do, alongside all the new features it brings to the table.
When Lumix Lab originally launched alongside the S9 in May, Panasonic was clear that it wasn’t ready to fully replace Lumix Sync for its older cameras; it didn’t support critical features such as remote shooting, remote shutter control, image transfer, or live streaming.
That’s changed this week, though. Panasonic released firmware updates yesterday, as well as an update to Lumix Lab, which work together to let you fully control and sync your camera from your phone.
Enter the LUT lab
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| Lumix Lab lets you download LUTS made by creators and gives you a library to manage those LUTs alongside the ones you create yourself. |
Beyond the functions that already existed with Lumix Sync, Lumix Lab adds several features around Look Up Tables, or LUTs, which are essentially color presets that you can apply to your photos and videos. It has a section that lets you download ready-made LUTs from creators, and you can even create custom LUTs using the app’s photo editor. You can then use those LUTs in Lumix Lab, applying them to photos you’ve synced over from your camera, or send them to your camera, where you can use them with the Real Time LUT that can automatically apply them to your JPEGs and videos.
Lumix Lab also has fairly robust editing features for both photos and videos. You can use it to adjust colors, exposure, sharpening, and more and to apply effects like grain and vignetting. Continuing the LUT focus of the app, if you like the adjustments you’ve made, you’re able to save them as a LUT for later use. Lumix Lab also lets you apply a variety of pre-set crops to stills and videos, making it easy to share them on platforms with a specific aspect ratio, and you can trim videos if you only want to use a small portion of them. Finally, you can share your edited photos and videos straight from the app.
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| Lumix Lab has a relatively full-featured set of photo and video editing tools, and lets you save your adjustments as custom LUTs. |
The future of Sync
At the moment, it doesn’t seem like the Lumix Sync app is going anywhere – owners of the S1, S1R, the newly released G97, and other older cameras will still need to use it to sync photos to their phones, after all.
However, if you haven’t given Lumix Lab a shot yet, and have one of the cameras it works with, it’s probably worth a try. It can now not only do the things Lumix Sync could, but much more, making the experience of shooting with your camera and sharing with your phone that much nicer. Even if those don’t interest you, it’s also worth noting that the latest updates to the S5 II, S5 IIX, GH7, and G9 II could make it more annoying to use with Panasonic’s older app, as a camera-to-phone Wi-Fi connection will now require password authentication – the ability to use the app without inputting a Wi-Fi password has been removed.
Lumix Lab is a free download from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
| Image: SmallRig |
SmallRig has announced it is expanding its lineup with a new cage for the Sony a9 III and a1 II. Like SmallRig’s existing offerings, the new cage aims to add additional protection for the camera. Perhaps more importantly, it also offers expansion options, making it easier to attach additional gear like phone mounts, monitors, microphones and more. It offers what SmallRig calls a “brand-new streamlined design with precision-fit protection and unobstructed button access.” It’s available for purchase now for $99.
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| Image: SmallRig |
SmallRig’s latest full cage features a leather grip that fully wraps around the grip of the camera. The leather design allows it to blend in a bit more to the camera, and results in a more polished look worthy of the flagship cameras.
The cage features a three-point locking installation to keep it securely attached to the camera, but doesn’t require removing the D-rings. It uses an integrated bottom Arca-Swiss quick release plate for seamless use on a wide range of tripods and gimbals. It comes with a magnetic wrench on the bottom of the plate for easier attachment or removal.
Buy now:
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| Image: SmallRig |
Of course, one of the main benefits to a cage is all the extra attachment points for gear, of which this new offering has plenty. It features 1/4″-20 threaded holes, 1/4″-20 locating holes, ARRI 3/8″-16 locating holes, cold shoe mounts, strap slots and QD socket. All of those attachment points make it feasible to add on a long list of handles, microphones, lights, monitors, straps and more. Plus, the HawkLock H21 NATO rail allows you to quickly add or remove handles.
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| Image: SmallRig |
In addition to the full cage, SmallRig also released an L-Shaped Mount Plate for the Sony a1 II and a9 III. The plate is still marked as “coming soon,” and details are sparse in comparison to the full cage. SmallRig did specify that it will offer unobstructed access to switching orientation and feature an integrated bottom Arca-Swiss quick release plate. Perhaps most interesting, though, is the AirTag compartment, helping users keep track of their cameras.
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