Don't Be Shortsighted -Try A MIOPS Pic...

I have waited a decade for a straight line like that...you may also have been waiting a similar length of time for an easy way to make special effect shots with your digital camera. Well, the time has come - the MIOPS is here.

Over the last few years there has been increased interest in doing spectacular shots - capture of lightning as it strikes - lightbulbs and balloons shattering - time lapse sequences  - sound and motion activated photography - etc. Some of these images have always been possible - even in the film era -  but the amount of equipment and specialised knowledge to arrange them has been staggering.

As an example, most photographers have seen Dr. Harold Edgerton's stoboscopic pictures and experiments with flash in history books. Or they have seen Muybridge's studies of animal motion. The results are pedestrian now but were revolutionary at the time, and the amount of grear and mechanical setup that was needed to get them was far beyond what you could carry or afford.

Lightning shots have been done for over 100 years, but not reliably and not easily. You generally had to stand out in an open field while Ben Franklin got his kite in the air...Climbing to the top of the church steeple with a metal umbrella in the middle of a thunderstorm was also a possibility but generally it was the sort of thing you only did once...

And chasing pictures of elusive wild animals in the woods? Baits and blinds and trip wires and telephoto lenses and crawling around in a ghillie suit to change the glass plates...The only simple way to get wild animal shots was to sit in a tree during bear season and make a noise like a bucket of blueberries.

Okay. Now it is the 21st century and you have a digital camera with an electronic trigger port. Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Olympus, Fujifilm....whatever. If it has a socket for a cable release you are in business. You also need a mobile phone - iOS or Android - and a teenager* to show you how to get an app to work on it.

You also need the MIOPS controller. This little box contains the ability to do sound and light triggered exposures  ( There's your lightning and pistol shots taken care of. ) and it will sit there and do the multiple shots over a very long period of time that the time-lapse photography requires. You don't need to sit there and fire the camera every 5 seconds or so - you can go about your business while it does the monotonous task.

You can get it to respond to laser beams of light or to the sudden interuption of a light beam - here's your chance to leave it in the woods for those wildlife shots without sitting up the tree. You can set up a light trigger beam to capture images of intruders. You're only limited by your imagination and several inconvenient statutes...

The MIOPS is powered by a good - sized lithium rechargable battery so that it can be on duty and responding for a long time. It is equipped with a shoe mount as well as a 1/4" tripod screw socket so you can securely couple it to the camera. There are dedicated connection cords for a number of popular camera makes - the one you see in the illustration is for Canon. Bless them, they have made the cord as well as the controls and port covers in bright orange so that you can see them when you are out the back of Doodlakine at midnight on a astro-shoot and it is as black as the inside of a cat. Would that ALL manufacturers of cords, wires, and connectors for studio use followed the same lead.

As far as controlling the controller, that is where your mobile phone comes in. The days of complex codes and strange computer words are gone - Bluetooth couples the MIOPS to your phone and as soon as the teenager gets the app into the phone, you can use it.

Expensive? No. About 60% of what this sort of thing used to cost and about 600% easier to use. And in-store right now - no need to try to find something on the internet. Save your internet time for reading this column...

* Or you could get the Camera Electronic staff to show you how to do it. They are like teenagers but without the sarcasm and eye-rolling.

Captur Has A New Product

I always follow what the Hahnel company put out as accessories for digital cameras as they frequently hit the exact spot that other manufacturers miss. That, and the fact that they are a recognised brand that has a base outside of Asia for marketing. Don't get me wrong - I use lots of Asian-branded accessories and they do mostly fine - but I know that there are odd brands that have no real store backup like Hahnel. If they break the only option is a bin.

Well, Hahnel are different. They not only develop useful gear but they listen to feedback and improve the design as they go along. The Captur range of camera and flash controllers are a case in point.

I've not explored their options of time-lapse and motion, light, and sound detectors but I have used the Captur remote flash or camera trigger and can attest that it does the job brilliantly. No time delays and no balky behaviour from the transmitter or receiver.

I put it down to the fact  that they finally got smart and included a simple source of electricity for the two units - AA batteries. These and AAA make up the bulk of what can be bought readily on supermarket and servo shelves and any equipment that use them has a better chance of of being in operation. I curse the designers who decide on some twee little Bolivian-standard battery for their units and then expect you to write back to La Paz when your flash unit or accessory dies.

This set is for Fujifilm cameras and will either fire the camera or fire the flash, deluding on how you set it up. You can get extra receivers to allow a multiple-flash setup. Not TTL, mind. It is ideal for weddings or photo booths. Or you can hold a wedding in a photo booth...

As usual, you can order them online or you'll find them on the Hahnel rack at the shop.

Note For Fujifilm Users - Hahnel Captur Is the Go.

Those of us who have Rico Pfirstinger's book on the X-Pro1 and the X-E1 ( and by extension the X-E2 ) have read the section on remote control of the camera with confusion - he speaks about a device that can do everything but is never seen here in WA. Presumably somewhere in Europe...

That's all very well, but scientific enquiry this morning revealed that the new Captur equipment from Hahnel will do just as well and we have the stuff right here in the shop.

I hooked up the Canon-compatible version of the basic wireless flash/shutter command system and used the microphone port of the X-E2 as the socket for the cable. The Hahnels now operate on AA cells rather than buttons or AAA types so powering them is easy.

Yes, it works perfectly. Press the transmitter button and the camera focuses and fires properly. This also argues that the sophisticated accessory controllers that Hahnel also make for their Captur system would also work - that's delayed action, time lapse, motion capture, etc.

It's good to have a systemic approach to this sort of thing - watch Hahnel closely in the future.

New Captur For New Capture - Hahnel Forges On

Ooh, while I think about it - "FORGED" magazine has just been delivered to my home. I subscribed to it as soon as it started publication. Excellent WA car magazine. Buy it at the news stand and see if you don't agree...

Back to cameras.

Here is the new Hahnel equipment for remote control of cameras and flashes. We've been selling their equipment for years and it has proved to be a good economical way of doing off-camera flash and remote camera control - especially for people who own cameras that are not catered for by the native manufacturer.

Their Giga-T and other products have been used in many set - ups.

Now they have released the CAPTUR range of accessories - it is a redesign of the originals to provide sturdier bodies and larger battery supplies. They have sensibly opted for AA batteries for both transmitters and receivers. There is also a range of expansion  gear that allows you to add the following:

1. Motion and wildlife capture.
2. Time lapse capture.
3. High speed photography.
4. Five built-in sensors.
5. Infra-red sensor.

Many people do more with their cameras now for science and novelty and this would seem to be a good cheap way to trigger things.

Note that while you see a Canon outfit in one picture, you can also get sets for Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, and Sony. By natural extension,there will be a number of Pentax and Fujifilm cameras that can make use of the gear.

Thank You Mr. Hahnel - Now I Can Shoot Like The Rest Of Them

Users of the Sony range of following Sony digital cameras can feel happy. They can now use one of the new Hahnel Captur range of remote flash triggers/camera triggers to get off-camera flash shots.

Note that this new range of accessory releases now uses AA batteries for power - useful if you are already carrying spares for your flash gun.

There are two specialised cables included to accommodate the Sony sockets.

Cameras catered for:

A300
A77II
A58
A7s
A7II
HX400
RX100II
RX100III

Note for mirror-less users...your kit bag is getting bigger, isn't it? All these new bits...and it won't stop...

Hold High The Stainless Banner - With The Mega mast

It must not suffer loss.*

Well, if you have been hankering for a drone to take elevated pictures of architecture, crowd scenes, landscapes, real estate, secret military installations, or the nurse's quarters...and the price and skill level need to get into drone flying has deterred you...here is the answer.

Over 8 metres of mast with an extended tripod base, locking sections, and a strong tilting head at the top. Folds down light and small enough to be transported in a car, and holds a DSLR - if you're game. that tilting head is reminiscent of a Manfrotto 234 RC2 monopod head.

Okay, I can see someone using a mirror less camera on this, with a down link to an iPad or mobile phone for sighting and firing it. While this would relieve some of the weight from the top at 8+ metres, the action cameras like the GoPros would be even lighter.

All the same, were it me, I would:

1. Always operate with the leg extensions locked out, and sandbags on all three legs.

2. Attach two guy ropes onto the top of the column before I sent it up - and have a couple of smart people on the ends of the ropes. Position them at 60º apart on the up-wind sector of the mast and make sure they pay out the ropes carefully. It would mean the assembly could be controlled even in the event of a sudden wind gust.

3. Check my insurance policy carefully. Anything that can drop on expensive property or cheap people is a worry.

* And a plate of collard greens and biscuits and gravy for the reader who identifies the source of the lyrics...

Evolution

It is the only explanation I can think of to account for the design change between the Nikon D7000 and the D7100. That or a spirit of spite in the Nikon design bureau.

If you set a Nikon D7100 menu to enable release by the manufacturer's ML-L3 infra-red controller and set the menu item that lets you fire the camera without a card in it. You can demonstrate the operation from an amazing distance - far further than I would have credited it. Full marks to Nikon.

However.

If you set a Nikon 7000 to do the same thing it won't. You must pore over the controls until you discover the firing control ring concentric on the left hand top of the camera - sure enough there is a little pictogram showing an IR remote. Then you rotate the ring to it. And then set the menu item to give instant IR release. Then check you have a card in the camera - IT WON"T FIRE WITHOUT A CARD. As I discovered trying to demonstrate this morning...

I can only hope that they will be this diligent when the next model of this fine camera comes out.

Quiet word to the Nikon designers: Spare a thought for the studio workers who want to fire a flash system but do not need to change their shutter speeds - and certainly never want to climb above the highest synch speed of 1?200 or 1?250 of a second. Do like you used to do on the D3 - give us a positive lock button or setting for the shutter speed so that we can't inadvertently change it with the heel of our hand...Please.

Do Not Touch - With Promaster

It is amazing the number of times the simple cable release is needed in photography - particularly now that most cameras do not take a mechanical cable release.

Apart from my Fuji, and your Leica, and a few others I cannot remember, most other serious cameras need an electric command to fire off. You plug something into a socket on the camera and then press a button on the other end of either a cable or a wireless link.

Promaster have catered for this sort of thing with a rather wide range of remote releases. They make them for a number of cameras; Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, etc and they can be had with either a solid cable or an IR link.

You can even get sophisticated timers that allow delayed triggering or interval shooting - time lapse photography is very much the in thing right now. Not confined to just scientific images either - the recent video of the Indianapolis 500 snail races was rivetting.

Here is a variety of their releases in their packaging. Note that they are also at a very competitive price. We like having such a large stock for different users.

Studio photographers: note the discrete use of invisible props for presenting the product to the camera. This is the sort of attention to detail that defines professionalism. Amateurs use soup cans...