Memoirs Of A Flasher - With Promaster

" Well, Officer, it was like this...it was all dark and I wanted a picture of it and I had a digital camera and  Promaster flashgun and it was all over in a minute. You wouldn't have a cup of coffee and a doughnut, would you? "

Okay, now that we have your attention, you'll note that there is an advertisement in the newspaper from our shop for the Promaster flash guns - all different sizes and lots of fittings for different cameras. We can fit out Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Panasonic, Sony, and Pentax users and do it in TTL style.

Lots of cameras have small flashes that pop up from the top of the mirror housing or top plate of the camera - some on articulated arms that look like the pantographs on electric locomotives. These are fine as far as they go, but they do not go far. Use them for catchlights in eyes or macro work, but don't expect to light a group of people with them. For that you need a bigger tube and more power.

The Promaster flashes have guide numbers that range from 20 to 58 ( in metric terms )so they can suit a number of situations. If you don't know what a guide number is, Mr. Google is your friend. The TTL provision in many cases obviates the need to worry about it but there are still times when you need to know it to see if you have enough illumination power for your proposed exposure. Just be thankful that you do not have to juggle the mathematics of flash-bulb type vs guide number vs aperture vs subject distance vs reflector size vs subject reflectivity that was once the lot of the film worker. It was not uncommon for the photographer to burst into tears trying to do the equation and throw all the gear into a snowbank and go away searching for strong drink...

The other advantage of using a Promaster flash is it works on AA batteries ( rechargeable or one-use ) and thus does not draw down on the li-ion battery in your camera - more shots per charge. Some of the models can be switched to manual control and you can then use wireless control accessories to get an off-camera result.

And all Promaster gear has a lifetime no-quibble replacement policy.

THAT'S PRETTY FLASH!

Fastest Thing In The Shop - Hoodman 1000X

I think this is it. The faster than the proverbial speeding locomotive. Faster than a seagull on a chip or the ATO on your pension. The fastest thing in the shop.

Hoodman Steel 1000X cards have arrived in-store. These are professional Compact Flash cards in 16 Gb size. They are in a steel-clad case so that you cannot squash or distort them. They are tested individually in the USA to make sure that Hoodman can offer a lifetime warranty on them.

Fast? These will accept data at 120MB per second and fire it out at 150MB per second. I suspect that this far outstrips most of the camera equipment and computer ancillary gear that we use right now....BUT imagine what transfer speeds will be in the future. The new USB 3.0 standard is just now starting to appear in computer connections and the associated readers and has speeded life up - imagine how this will accelerate in the future.

Note that the Sony XQD cards list a read/write speed at 125 MB.second but these are currently only going out to service the Nikon D4 cameras.

Any rate, back to the Hoodman 1000X. These are an ideal match to modern professional cameras that will be trying for a high burst rate - or seek to record full HD video shooting. They are perfectly suited to the Hoodman RAW Steel Superspeed USB 3.0 reader - and this sort of combination should be at the cutting edge of imaging for some time.