18Nov Canon 5d mark III on sale for $2865
The Canon 5d mark III is a great camera but it’s even better if you can get it on sale. Right now on ebay you can pick up the Canon 5d mark III body with free shipping on ebay for $2865 which is about $400 less than the street price. As usual with these ebay sales, there’s a limited quantity and the sales only last for a day or two, so if you want one you should probably move fast. This isn’t the lowest price I’ve seen the 5d mark III hit, but it’s the lowest price i’ve seen since RAW video was announced by the magic lantern team.
18Nov Senal SMH-1000 Studio Monitor Headphones – First impressions
Currently I have two pair of headphones I rely on, a low price pair of Panasonic RP-HTX7 headphones (check out the review here) for ruff situations where I just need to hear what’s going on and a pair of AIAIAI TMA-1 headphones for mixing and recording applications. Both sets have served me well but I’ve been looking from a comfortable pair of headphones that folds up into a small space for travel.
After doing a little bit of research, I came across the Senal SMH-1000 headphones. At $89 a piece the SMH-1000 doesn’t quit fall into the low cost range, but they’re a little less than half the price of my AIAIAI TMA-1 headphones I use for studio work. The SMH-1000 had mostly positive reviews, so I thought I’d give them a try.
When you open up the package you’ll find the SMH-1000 folded up in a molded plastic cradle. Included in the box are the headphones, 2 different lengths of headphone cable, and a thread on 3.5mm to 1/4 inch headphone adapter.
The included headphone cables are designed with a twist lock mini plug for the headphone attachment side and a standard 3.5mm plug on the other side. The shorter 3 foot cable is intended for short runs when you plan to have a field recorder in your pocket or around your neck, while the curly 10 foot cable works better for music monitoring applications.
The twist lock on the headphone cable is simply a plastic nub on the headphone side of the cable with 2 flat sides and a lip. Slide the plug into the headphones and rotate a quarter turn to lock, or leave unlocked as a breakaway point for safety.
Like more expensive headphones, the Leather ear pads are replaceable on the SMH-1000 and you can find replacement twist lock cables as well. The SMH-1000 headphones feel comfortable so far, but i’ll post more once I’ve had a chance to wear them for a few hours. Build quality seems reasonable and all of the folding joints are made out of metal.
In the little bit of testing I’ve done so far the Senal SMH-1000 headphones sound pretty good with slightly more low end then I was expecting but still fairly flat response. Overall sound quality so far seems to put them firmly in the upper middle level of audio quality. I’ll post more once I’ve had a chance to spend some more time with them, for now I’d say the Senal SMH-1000 headphones are pretty decent headphones for the price.
17Nov Watson Duo LCD Charger – First impressions
I’ve used a few dual charger options in past but the Watson Duo is the first one I’ve picked up with an LCD screen. Supposedly this model has a higher current output (max 2 amps) and better regulation controls than other generic charges on the market. It’s hard to come up with a test method that actually proves these claims so all I have to go on is the nameplate data.
The Watson Duo charger doesn’t come with much in the box. You get the charger, a power cord, and a car adapter. The manual basically says “it’s a charger” and that’s about it. Seems a little overpriced for what you get.
This particular charger is for Canon BP-900 series batteries, but the plates on the Watson Duo charger are interchangeable. Infact you can buy plates to fit pretty much any battery currently on the market for $1.99 a peace on B&H which is a nice feature. Carry around a single charger with 4 extra plates and you have something that can take care of all of all the batteries in your bag.
When I say the Watson Duo charger is over priced, it’s because there are 2 other brands of dual chargers available on the market that look almost identical for less than the $79 Watson charges. First you have the Pearstone Duo charger for $59 and second you have the PhotoPro Dual charger for $49. Both of these competing chargers appear to be the same exact charger with the only difference being the stenciled name on the front of the unit.
The battery adapter plates for all three of these brands appear to be the same so there isn’t much issue there. Some might have green backlights on the screen and others white, but that differences are mostly superficial. While the Watson and Photopro stay at around $79 and $49 respectively for every compatible battery type, the Pearstone duo has drastic price changes depending on the type of battery plate you use.
I’ve read more negative reviews about the PhotoPro Dual charger then either of the other two brands. Maybe PhotoPro sells the units that don’t make it through QA testing, while Pearstone and Watson sell the “A” grade models.
I’m still waiting on a few adapter plates to show up, but so far the Watson Duo charger seems to work fine on the Canon BP-900 series batteries and the USB port charges my tablet without a problem. Once the adapter plates show up, i’ll give it a test on the large sony batteries used in my LED lights and monitors and see how it works out.
16Nov Tascam TM-2X XY DLSR Microphone
Tascam has been making some pretty cool stuff lately and the Tascam TM-2X seems to be another decent idea. Basically this thing is just the microphone portion of a field recorder mounted to a rubberized shock absorbing platform in a nice little package.
For $129 you get an adjustable microphone, shockmount, and cold shoe adapter. All this with a microphone cable that’s designed to be plugged directly into your camera. There are also some basic audio controls that you see on most camera mounted microphones, mainly a low cut filter and high/low signal switch. The frequency response range is advertised at 50 Hz to 20 kHz which means it already gives you a little bit of low end roll off even without the switch being used. Not a bad idea when using a microphone attached directly to the camera.
For an extra $30 you can get the Tascam TM-2X with a short little extension arm. Chances are, if you’re already using a rig, you probably won’t need this extra bit of plastic but it is a usable option. It would have been nice to see this included with the $129 model, but that’s another story.
All in all the Tascam TM-2X looks like something that could easily compete with Rode’s iXY iPhone microphone if the sound quality is comparable. You don’t get an iphone app with the TM-2X, but you also don’t have to deal with a proprietary (and obsolete) iphone adapter. A 3.5mm stereo plug is much more versatile and compatible with a lot more devices and doesn’t leave you stuck using an old iphone 4 or tablet. I’ll have to see if I can get my hands on a review model for test, could be useful to have around.
15Nov Gopro Hero 3 black edition dwindling inventory
It was around this time last year that I picked up a Gopro hero 3 black edition. I don’t do any extreme sports and I don’t often jump out of plains so I wasn’t sure how much I would really use this little guy. Surprisingly it’s been a major benefit as a POV cam during fight scenes. I’ve also dumped gallons of fake blood on it, as well as using it for security camera style shots, opening trunks, digging in refrigerators, burial in dirt, and anything else that a small remote camera can handle. It’s size and video quality makes it perfect for all kinds of random stuff.
The new HERO 3+ black edition doesn’t offer up much more in the way of features when compared to the hero 3 black edition and the clearance price is still $329. That $70 in savings that could be used on some good Wasabi Batteries and a 64GB microSDXC card. A few sites like B&H have already started to list the hero 3 black edition as “discontinued” and “out of stock”, but Amazon still has a few left for sale at $329.
I’m guessing once the stock of original hero 3’s are gone, Gopro won’t be releasing any more. If you don’t mind using last years model, $329 for the Hero 3 black edition is a pretty good value so get them while they last. I’ve had pretty good luck with my Hero 3 Black edition and won’t be upgrading until the Hero 4 is released, 3+ has a few minor upgrades, but a smaller size and “improved sharpness” aren’t enough to warrant an upgrade for me.
15Nov Pixelstick, a crazy light painting tool kickstarter
This is one of those things that makes you want it as soon as you see it. Then after the initial impact wears off, you start to think “Will i use this?”. After all it’s a very interesting concept, but how often do you really take the time to light paint?
Basically $300 gets you the light painting kit above. To use it you’ll need to program a design into the controller, then use long exposure or time lapse to create your image. It’s a time consuming process, but the demo video does make it look very tempting. It’s a great idea if you have the time and patience to use it.
If you’re interested you can check out the kickstarter page here. I wont be pledging, but that’s mainly because I don’t have enough free time to really enjoy something like this. Still it would be kind of cool to set up some time lapse space invaders or something like that.
15Nov Used Gear watch – Canon 6d $1450
Christmas is right around the corner and people are starting to list their used gear for less. This used Canon 6d body with a buy it now of $1450 and free shipping is just one example. The 6d has become my go to travel camera over the last few months and as long as you can handle a few missing buttons and a single center point for focus, it’s a great camera to have for both filming and photography at this price
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14Nov Removing the hard drive from a Seagate Plus external drive
For whatever reason external desktop USB drives are often cheaper than the equivalent sized OEM drive. They also seem to come with better warranties, in this case the drive has a 3 year warranty while most of the lower price OEM drives from Seagate only come with a 1 year warranty.
The 3TB Seagate Backup Plus drives above were on sale a few weeks ago for $89 a peace compared to the $120 price of the OEM drives. As I write this the price is currently at $105 which is still $15 cheaper than the OEM drives. I picked up two of these drives for a raid configuration and thought it might be helpful to document the process of removing the drive from the encloser.
Remove the drive from the package. You’ll see a small strip at the bottom of the unit with the Seagate logo. Wiggle this attached base side to side and slowly pull it away from the drive.
Taking a closer look at the base, you’ll notice it’s basically just a SATA docking station. You can use this as a USB 3.0 drive adapter in a pinch and it’s a handy item to have around.
Using a small flat head screw driver, start prying at the silver facing. Start at the bottom of the drive and work your way up.
Once you’ve worked up enough of the silver metal facing, you should be able to slide your screwdriver under it as shown. Work your way up to the top of the unit. This facing is lightly glued on and shouldn’t require a lot of force to remove.
The top of the metal facing is glued to a plastic vent cover. This should snap off with a little bit of force, but don’t get to ruff with. If you keep the case intact, you can use it for another drive or save it incase a drive needs to be returned under warranty.
With the drive facing you, slide your screw driver into the lip on the top right hand side where the vent cover used to be and apply a little bit of pressure to get the plastic clips to release. Work your way from front to back until all 3 clips have come loose.
Once you have all three clips unfastened the side panel of the case should be pretty easy to remove.
To remove the drive from the case you need to apply a little bit of force to the edge of the drive. Be careful not to shove your screwdriver in to fare while working your way from left to right across the drive.
The drive comes out with 4 rubber spacers along the sides of a metal bracket. Pull these spacers off and you’ll find the 4 phillips head screws underneath. Remove this 4 screws and you’re ready to install this in your Freenas or desktop.
The removal process is pretty painless once you figure out where everything comes apart. I did a little bit of damage to the first case before I figured out the best way to get the drive out. Once I figured out how it was put together, the second case (pictured) came apart with ease. Prices on these external drives are always changing. Wait for them to go on sale and pick a few up. $89 a peace is a pretty good price to pay for a 3TB drive and i’m sure they’ll go back on sale sometime in November. If I see them on sale I’ll let you know.
18Oct Canon 6d back to $1499 on ebay
The Canon 6d body is back down to $1499 on ebay yet again. Same seller as the previous sales. The trick with these guys is that they buy a bunch of body/lens kit packs when they are on sale then separate the lens and body and sell them separately. The result is that you get a kit box with only the 6d body inside.
I bought my camera from this seller a few months back and shipping was reasonably fast and I didn’t run into any problems. My camera also wasn’t gray market. I would say this is a great deal if you don’t mind shopping on ebay.
17Oct Canon 6d body $1574 on Amazon!
Right now you can grab a Canon 6d body on Amazon for just $1574. That’s about $75 more than the lowest price I’ve seen on ebay, but then you don’t have to go through ebay. Also the 6d qualifies for prime shipping. Not sure how long this Amazon sale will last so act fast if you want one.
