Brightcast Variable LED lights

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Brightcast Variable LED lights

We love gear that helps us work faster and gives us less to carry. Can these super thin and flexible lights really be the solution to traveling with lights?

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Nebula 4100 Lite Review

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Nebula 4100 Lite Review

Is this updated version of one of our favourite bits of gear worth the upgrade?

If you found this review useful and would like more, please subscribe with the button on the bottom right of this post. 

A review of the Nebula 4100 Lite

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I have opinions

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I have opinions

My latest article on Fstop Lounge is a review of a new bag from ThinkTank.

Trifecta 8 from ThinkTankPhoto

I was lucky enough to get my hands on this bag about 3-4 weeks ago, so I’ve had a really nice play with it.

I was after a bag for street photography mostly, but also wanted something I could use to carry my gear for video shoots where I didn’t want to bring in the whole kit and caboodle. I have bigger bags for when I am out on big corporate jobs, but I wanted something relatively small that I could carry one camera with some lenses and accessories or two cameras and well, fewer accessories. I also wanted something that I could carry an iPad.

There’s a lot to like about this bag. To start with, I think it looks really cool. I really love the curves of the bag. I appreciate that’s a very personal thing, but I really like it.

The reason it’s called a Trifecta, or at least, why I think it’s called that, is because there are three ways to get into the main compartment. This gives me options and I really like options.


It has one big door on the back which gives you full access to the main compartment and, while you pretty much have to take the bag off to access this, it also has doors on either side of this compartment so you can access each half from each side. So, one side could have your camera and one lens. While the other side could have two other lenses, microphones or something slightly larger than a memory card.

There are some dividers in here so it’s pretty easy to keep the side separate and then have two things padded from each other on each side. I would have liked it if they provided one more divider, so that one side holds two things and the other side could hold three things separated instead of the two.


Speaking of memory cards and batteries, one of the side doors has built-in pockets for storing these items. This is a great feature because you have really easy access to the accessories you need most often.

On the back of the big back door you have a pouch for an iPad mini, although I’ve found my full-sized iPad Air 2 fits in there as long as it goes in there naked without a case or cover. This brings me to one of my few gripes with the bag: I am not sure why they didn’t make this pouch just a touch larger and make it fit a full size iPad or other tablet. It isn’t anything major, but would have been nice. I know the Think Tank Trifecta 10, which is the DSLR model of this bag, holds a full iPad, but this idea of “they are using a smaller camera therefore they must be carrying a smaller tablet” is a bit silly I think.


This Trifecta of access makes it really easy to just loosen one strap, twist the bag to your front, and grab what you want from it. You just have to remember what side your stuff is on!

On the top, there’s another compartment with plenty of space and two pockets. I use this area for my sound gear normally. I would have liked some compartment divider options here as it is a pretty largish compartment and it would have been nice to be able to have dividers as an option here as things can flop about. This is more a compliment actually because this compartment is almost Tardis like in how surprisingly large it is.

 

There is also a loose pocket in the front but I haven’t quite worked out what to put in there – maybe you could hold small tripod in it?

The Trifecta 8 is really well padded. Not that I would want to take it into a rugby match, but it would probably be fine in a mosh pit. The straps are super comfy and it also has a centre clasps to hold the straps together across your chest which is a feature I really like on backpacks.

Would I recommend it? Yes. I really like the bag. At first, I thought that only two compartments wouldn’t be enough for me, but I’ve found this bag to be deceptively large in what it can hold and it’s very comfortable to wear. I can easily see myself grabbing the Trifecta 8 for all my smaller jobs and every weekend and I wouldn’t be surprised if you do too.

For a read of the article on the site, you can find it here - https://fstoplounge.com/2015/06/review-of-the-new-thinktankphoto-trifecta-8/


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Fun with Sime

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Fun with Sime

I've spent the last few months working on some very exciting corporate work, that I can't show anyone just yet.

Though I thought you might like to see some of the fun stuff I've also been working on with my friend Simon Pollock. Simon does a lot of work for various camera related companies and so we've been going out and shooting things like hard drive reviews and backpack promo videos.

Of course we did try and put in a bit of humour into some of them. I hope you enjoy :)

A fun short I made with my mate Simon Pollock for a review of the ioSafe hard drive. Use this link to read the full review - http://digital-photography-school.com/the-ultimate-on-location-storage-solution-iosafe-rugged-portable-ssd-review/ To learn more about me and my work, check out my site - www.capturingpassion.com Music by Cinephonix Get 10% off the purchase of any music with the code MAK10 This can be used as many times as you like, so pretty much 10% off forever at cinephonix.com :)

A fun short I made with my mate Simon Pollock for a review of the ioSafe hard drive. Use this link to read the full review - http://digital-photography-school.com/the-ultimate-on-location-storage-solution-iosafe-rugged-portable-ssd-review/ To learn more about me and my work, check out my site - www.capturingpassion.com Music by Cinephonix Get 10% off the purchase of any music with the code MAK10 This can be used as many times as you like, so pretty much 10% off forever at cinephonix.com :)

A fun short I made with my mate Simon Pollock for a review of the ioSafe hard drive. Use this link to read the full review - http://digital-photography-school.com/the-ultimate-on-location-storage-solution-iosafe-rugged-portable-ssd-review/ To learn more about me and my work, check out my site - www.capturingpassion.com Music by Cinephonix Get 10% off the purchase of any music with the code MAK10 This can be used as many times as you like, so pretty much 10% off forever at cinephonix.com :)

A short clip I made with my mate Simon Pollock to show off some of the features of the new Mindshift Gear, Rotation180 backpack. Check out more details about the backpack at - http://www.mindshiftgear.com/products/rotation180-horizon To learn more about me go to - www.capturingpassion.com Music by Cinephonix Get 10% off the purchase of any music with the code MAK10 This can be used as many times as you like, so pretty much 10% off forever at cinephonix.com :)


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