My annual look back at some of the photo purchases I made in 2019.
Think Tank Airport Security v3 roller
This is a well-made roller bag and most things about it are quite good except:
1) The bag is very expensive. A friend bought a $60 rolling suitcase from a department store and added a padded divided kit from Pelican. His bag is great for use around town and cost one-third the price of a specialized photo roller. Another photographer I know uses a Home Depot rolling tool case to wheel his gear to and from his car.
2) Roller cases are great when you’re rolling them. They are a pain when you have to carry them up or down stairs, or drag them across sand, snow or gravel. An earlier version of the Airport Security roller came with hidden shoulder straps so you could carry the roller as a backpack.
3) The published dimensions of the Airport Security roller bag don’t mention that the interior narrows toward the bottom where the wheels are located. Also the inside bottom of the bag is not flat due to the embedded handle. This can affect how you pack your gear. (My Lowepro roller has constant dimensions and a flat bottom).
4) The outside stretchy pocket on the side of the bag meant to hold a tripod leg or monopod (see above photo) won’t fit any leg that has a lever style of lock like that used on many Manfrotto products. Water bottles also fall out. The problem is that this pocket is V-shaped (it narrows to nothing at the bottom) not U-shaped. The same pocket on my Think Tank backpack is U-shaped. An earlier version of the Airport Security roller had a zippered pouch on one side.
5) The roller bag uses standard inline skate wheels which should be easy to replace, if necessary. Each wheel uses two bearings. One bearing is a standard, readily available, ABEC-rated, #608 2RS bearing. But the other is a custom #608 bearing with a built-in spacer which is impossible to find. You have to buy this bearing from Think Tank.
Added 2021: Think Tank is generous with its warranty. As I found out, if you need a replacement wheel or bearing, Think Tank will send you a free set of replacement wheels and bearings.
6) The lid of the Airport Security roller case opens vertically or long-ways. This means the zipper is longer, the open lid has less support and the lid is very floppy especially when a laptop is in the lid.
By comparison, the lid on a Lowepro roller opens horizontally or sideways. This means the zipper is shorter and lid is better supported and less floppy.
The Think Tank lid takes up more space when open than a Lowepro lid.
I bought the Think Tank v3 roller rather than another Lowepro only because the Think Tank has a zippered laptop pocket. The laptop pocket on a Lowepro roller is just an open pouch. Earlier versions of the Think Tank Airport Security also had the same open pouch but it now has a zipper.
Pelican cases are stronger but don’t have any laptop options nor any outer pockets.
Think Tank Airport Commuter backpack
I bought this bag because it’s deeper than my Lowepro CompuTrekker Pro backpack, holds a similar amount of gear and yet it’s smaller. And it was on sale :–)
The Airport Commuter backpack is well made but the front laptop pocket has a design flaw: the pocket goes the full length of the bag. With the backpack standing upright, if you release your laptop into the front pocket, it will drop into the pocket and hit the ground with a thump. Should you place the backpack heavily onto the ground, your laptop may take a hit because it rests on the bottom of the bag. If you buy this backpack, or any backpack where the laptop pocket goes the full length of the bag, be sure to pad the bottom of the laptop pocket.
Sirui Monopod Head
Many photographers don’t use monopods and those who do probably don’t need this. But if you use a long lens on a monopod and you need to tilt it up or down at a steep angle, a tilting monopod head is a wonderful thing.
Some pro sports like NBA basketball, NHL hockey and pro tennis have a photo position that’s very high in the arena or stadium. This camera position produces an interesting photo angle but you have to tilt your long lens sharply down. To do this, you need to angle your monopod way down and then hunch over it. Not very comfortable or stable. The Sirui L-10 Monopod Tilt Head solves this.
The L-10 is well made and claims to support *up to* 15 kg. But with a heavy lens and camera, I have to really tighten the clamp. Perhaps a decent (tripod) ball head on the monopod would be better. Keep in mind that every manufacturer’s stated load capacity is somewhat misleading. The claimed load capacity of a tripod or monopod head is only for when the camera is directly on top of the head and the head is perfectly vertical. As soon as you tilt the head, the load capacity drops.
The downside is that the L-10 head is expensive at $150.
Rain Covers
Rain covers aren’t just for rain. Using a cover is a good idea in a dirty environment, if there’s blowing sand or you’re working near salt water.
I was tired of using plastic bags for rain covers and thought there must be something better. So this year I bought a few rain covers to compare them. Most were on sale :–)
But in the end, using plastic bags still seems to be a reasonable option.
Think Tank Photo
The Think Tank Hydrophobia 70-200 with flash cover (this version may be discontinued) is very well made and expensive. And it’s an absolute pain to use.
You must also buy a Think Tank eyepiece to fit your exact model of camera. If you own various camera models then you need eyepieces for each. Putting on a Hydrophobia rain cover will take many minutes.
The rear plastic window tends to fog up due to the plastic oxidizing so you need to buy a suitable plastic de-hazer (at Canadian Tire no less). Newer versions of the Hydrophobia cover may have fixed this.
The Think Tank Hydrophobia cover is one of the few rain covers, or maybe the only cover, that’s designed to be used with a camera on a neck strap. They can also be used with a camera on a monopod or tripod.
Think Tank also makes less expensive “emergency rain covers” which are designed mostly for cameras on a tripod; they don’t have camera straps or holes for your hands.
The Hydrophobia rain covers are pretty good but a pain to use so I tend not to use it.
Ruggard Rain Shield
This is just a piece of cheap ripstop nylon with a drawstring at each end and an opening for a tripod, monopod or maybe your hand.
It’s not designed for a camera on a strap hanging from your neck or shoulders. It’s better than nothing and only slightly better than using a plastic bag and some tape or elastic bands.
Ruggard does make more expensive versions with openings for your hands but, again, these are mostly for cameras on a tripod or monopod.
LensCoat Raincoat RS
LensCoat makes a wide variety of rain covers.
These are about the same as the Ruggard Rain Shield mentioned above but the LensCoat is a bit better made with a nicer fabric, a bigger opening on the bottom and a Velcro cinch strap in the middle of the lens area (but this may prevent you from using the opening for your hand). It’s also more expensive.
It’s not designed for a camera on a strap hanging from your neck or shoulders. But with a bit of fiddling you might make it work.
This rain cover is probably better than using a plastic bag because the LensCoat Raincoat RS won’t tear or puncture while in use.
Lightware
Twenty years ago I bought a Lightware long lens cover for $40 (it’s gone up in price since then).
Designed only for a long lens on a tripod or monopod, this rain cover is just a big sheet of some nice nylon material with a drawstring at one end and some Velcro at the other end. It’s intentionally long enough to go over your head while you’re shooting somewhat like an old-fashioned dark cloth.
You could use a large plastic bag but this Lightware cover is more durable.
There’s no perfect rain cover for a handheld camera dangling on a neck strap. Often I just use plastic bags or large Ziplock bags (because Ziplock bags tend to be thicker than most plastic bags).
I’ve bought cheap raincoats ($10) from Canadian Tire and cut off the arm-and-shoulder portions to use as a rain cover. For large lenses, I’ve bought cheap rain pants, again from Canadian Tire, and cut off the legs to make two large rain covers.
Samyang (Rokinon) 12mm f2.8 fisheye lens
I bought this manual focus lens because I wasn’t happy with the sharpness of my Nikon 16mm f2.8 fisheye lens (manual focus).
The Samyang 12mm f2.8 lens was $500, a Nikon AF 16mm f2.8 is $1,300 and a Nikon AFS 8-15mm f3.5-4.5 is $1,650.
Nikon’s zoom fisheye is supposed to be quite good but I didn’t want to pay $1,650 for a lens that will be used only a few times per year. I also don’t need the circular 8mm.
Good news:
1) The Samyang lens is sharper than my Nikon 16mm f2.8.
2) The Samyang 12mm fisheye provides a wider view than the Nikon 16mm fisheye.
3) The Samyang lens is the only fisheye lens with a stereographic projection. Nikon’s 16mm fisheye and Canon’s 15mm fisheye both use an equisolid angle projection. With the Samyang lens, objects in the middle of the frame don’t bulge out as much and objects at the edges don’t get compressed as much.
Bad news:
1) My Samyang lens back-focuses a lot on all my camera bodies. But thanks to autofocus fine-tuning, I was able to correct for this. Autofocus fine tuning isn’t just for autofocus. After the “autofocus” adjustment, the focus indicators in the viewfinder now reasonably match where the lens is focusing.
2) There’s no place in Canada to service the lens. The only official repair office is in New York. However since it’s a manual focus lens that seems to be solidly built, hopefully nothing will break on it.
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8E FL
My older Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 lens was 15 years old and I thought it was time to upgrade. I bought the new lens because it was on sale for $500 off. But unfortunately for me, six weeks later, it went on sale again but this time for $900 off.
My original Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 cost $2,200 and I sold it, after 15 years, for $600. So that lens cost me $107 per year which is very good for such a workhorse lens.
The new 70-200mm f2.8E FL lens is the sharpest 70-200mm lens I’ve ever used. But the most aggravating thing about the lens is that Nikon switched the position of the zoom and focus rings. Despite Nikon’s claim that photographers were asking for this switch, it was probably done to make it easier to design or manufacture the lens.
The switched rings means it’s a pain when alternating between various Nikon zoom lenses because the 70-200mm is the only one with “backwards” zoom/focus rings. After eleven months, I still confuse the rings.
The switched rings affect how you hold the lens. With the old design, you could better support the lens and easily zoom with your thumb and index fingers.
Another problem becomes obvious if you shoot hockey through a hole in the glass. Using the old lens, you could stick the lens through the hole and still zoom. With the “backwards” zoom/focus rings, you can’t stick the lens through the hole because you need to reach the zoom ring. I know one news agency that refused to buy the new 70-200mm lens just because of this. (Officially you’re not supposed to stick your lens through the hole but . . .)
My Last SLR
Forty years ago I bought my first SLR, a Nikon FE with MD-11 motordrive. This year I bought my last SLR, a Nikon D850 with MB-D18 battery grip. The latter cost 7-1/2 times the former.
Any future camera I might buy will be mirrorless. I didn’t buy a Nikon Z mirrorless camera this year because they don’t have the features I want.
The Nikon D850 is the best camera I’ve ever owned. Except:
1) There’s no power cord for the battery charger. Nikon stopped including power cords a few years ago but how cheap is this? Shouldn’t a $5 cord be included with a $4,000 camera? Obviously no one at Nikon has ever worked in a media room at a sports event where the electrical outlets are under the tables. Has anyone at Nikon noticed that its “cordless” chargers take up two or three outlets on a power bar?
2) No voice annotations. This is an extremely useful feature.
3) Can’t add IPTC information. This feature is in the much lower priced D500 and it costs $0 to implement.
4) No Ethernet port.
5) Nikon’s consumer cameras and mirrorless cameras have a two-year warranty. But the top-of-the-line SLR cameras have a one-year warranty. Why?
