Posted by Foto Care | Posted in Foto Coach, Product Reviews
Posted on January 11, 2012

A RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, has become an industry standard for easily protecting your photos.  Most RAIDs are freestanding pieces of hardware that look and function like a large external hard drive.  In a RAID, multiple hard drives work in unison to provide a single storage “drive” with a couple of configurable features.  RAIDs have many different configurations, but we are going to focus on RAID 1 and RAID 5s.

More on RAID’s after the jump…

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Posted by Foto Care | Posted in Foto Care Rental, Product Reviews
Posted on October 3, 2011

Ever since we started carrying the Go Pro HD Heros at Foto Care two things have happened.  One, everyone has been sticking the mini sized 1080p cameras on everything, and two, we’ve realized that some of our co-workers are crazier than we thought.  From ripping through Manhattan traffic on a track bike to deep sea fishing for marlin off the coast of Jersey, we’ve been doing our best to wreck one of these things and have had no success.  We culled down some of our favorite Go Pro videos from around the internet to share with you.

Tricks

Experience Human Flight

Jeb Corliss and Roberta Mancino-wingsuits

Jamie Pierre, extreme skier

Tumbles

Skier takes a 300-400 ft fall

Go Pro survives 2.5 months underwater

Climber takes a big fall on lead

Timelapses

Panning Timelapse

Haboob dust storm in AZ

Tampa to Dulles in a minute

Animals POV

A boxer explores his yard

Seagull steals a GoPro

Posted by Foto Care | Posted in Business and Marketing Tips, Photography Apps, Product Reviews
Posted on September 27, 2011

Just how popular has the iPad become?  Apple holds 68% of the market share of tablets in the U.S. between the two generations of iPad.  The iPad 2 has sold over 9.3 million units in the few short months it has been on the market.  Software and app development for mobile computing is growing exponentially, and the potential for the tablet is being acknowledged by the photography industry.  Personal computing is seeing a shift from the laptop and desktop to the tablet, because how much power do you need to cruise facebook and watch cat videos?  When we’re not watching Maru play with a giant box, here is how we use the iPad for photography.

1.  Portfolio

A screen might not ever be able to replace the beauty and detail of a good print, but it just isn’t feasible to carry a traditional portfolio around with you everywhere you go.  With an iPad (and the help of an app) you can carry thousands of images and different portfolios in the double digits.  I have about 10 different “portfolios” of images that I can swap in and out in a couple of seconds, tailoring my book to whomever I am showing work to.  One of our favorites is Padport for its level of customization and ability to play video.  There are a bunch of these available from the App Store, so poke around and read some reviews before making the leap, at an average of $5-$15 per app trying them all might be prohibitively expensive.

2. Keeping clients happy while shooting tethered

Before you get too excited, tethering directly to the iPad is not there yet.  Update: Yesterday Eye Fi rolled out an app that, in combination with their wireless memory cards, allows for tethering using an iPad without jailbreaking.  We haven’t played with it yet, but when we do it’ll be on the blog.  However, by using the latest version of programs such as Leaf Capture Remote Server, Capture One, and Phocus, the iPad can free up your digital tech to continue working on his monitor while clients can still view images at their own pace.  These programs allow you to view, rate, and zoom in on any picture from the shoot, as long as the computer you are tethering to and the iPad are on the same network (wifi is easiest).  LC Remote Server has the same functionalities as the other two, but does not have a rating system.  Both Phocus and Capture One also allow you to change aperture, iso, shutter speed, and remotely trigger the camera.  Capture Pilot’s camera control is $15, while Phocus integrates these capabilities in when shooting with a Hasselblad.

Leaf Capture Remote Server 2

Capture One’s Capture Pilot

Phocus for iPad

Phocus Camera Controls

3.  Sun Seeker

With the iPad 2 came a revolution in “augmented reality” that had only previously been seen on mobile phones, and on.  The Sun Seeker app uses the rear-facing camera to overlay the path of the sun (and moon) over the street in front of you.  There is also a built in compass as well as an overhead view with arrows indicating where the sun will be throughout the day.  The date can be changed in the app to show you the position of the sun on specific days throughout the season.

4. Photo Editing and snapshot camera

By using the Ipad Camera Connection Kit you can download images on your way back from a shoot or use the iPad as a backup.  Also, if you shoot RAW+Jpeg on an dslr you can use an app like Snapseed to start roughing up how you would like to retouch the images.  Also, the camera on the iPad is not dissimilar from your normal cell phone camera, making it ideal for quick photos.

5.  Photographer Entertainment

Posted by Foto Care | Posted in Product Reviews
Posted on August 14, 2011

Do you have the skills required to retouch your digital photographs on your own? How good are you at color management when it comes to matching printed colors to the colors displayed on your screen?

The EIZO CG245W color monitor comes with an industry-first: a built-in calibration sensor that allows you to schedule the monitor to self-calibrate at your convenience, making this one of the world’s finest calibrated monitors, and with some practices–you a superstar image maker.

Click below for a few tips from the experts at EIZO about Color Management:

First, perfect color matching is basically impossible, even with professional equipment. This is due to differences in color reproduction methods between monitor output and printers, and due to discrepancies in the color gamut that can be rendered. Their are various procedures and precautions for using ColorEdge series monitors to achieve as close a visual match as possible between printed and monitor output. Take a few moments to learn more to get started on your path to improving your color management skills:

Color Matching between Your Monitor and Prints

Color Management in Practice

Choosing the Right Monitors for a Color Management System

Monitor Calibration

Posted by Elizabeth Stacy | Posted in Product Reviews
Posted on February 16, 2011

Wiebtech has just introduced the world’s first mini RAID system.  The Wiebetech ToughTech Duo is a high-performance RAID storage system using dual 2.5″ notebook hard drives and is bus powered from a Firewire 800 interface, making it the perfect device for on-location archiving.

It has been designed for photographers with all needs.  It’s default setup is RAID1 mirroring to assure data integrity and protection for on the road but it also gives you the option of RAID0 or single drive operation.  It’s user friendly display menu makes it easy to change the configuration and setup as well as monitor the system for optimal performance.

Exclusively available at Foto Care, starting at $600 for the full system this is a deal you can not pass up.

Specifications

• RAID1, RAID0 and Single Drive operation modes.

• Default RAID1 Mirroring to assure data integrity and protection on the road.

• Designed for optimal heat dissipation.

• Easy-release removable 2.5” drive sleds.

• Designed for Solid State (SSD) & standard SATA HDDs.

• Quad host interface: eSATA, FireWire 800/400 & USB 2.0.

• FireWire is daisy-chainable with bus power.

• BUS powered from FireWire 800 interface.

• New user-friendly display menu, input selection & drive health monitoring.

• Uses S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) to track hard drive health, diagnostics to detect data loss and prevent failure.

• User-selectable temperature warning and alarm settings (LEDs & Audible).

• DC power available for USB & eSATA operation.

• Drive sleds allow for drive insertion/removal without tools.

• Ability to set PIN for configuration control

• Insertion rating ~ 25,000+

For more information call Foto Care Sales at 212-741-2990

Posted by Elizabeth Stacy | Posted in Product Reviews
Posted on December 13, 2010

We recently saw this blog post on Eric Meola’s blog about the new canon 70-300mm lens and wanted to share this with our readers:

Canon’s New 70-300mm “L” Lens, by Eric Meola

When I started this blog, I deliberately decided not to write anything about gear, especially cameras and lenses.  As a Canon “Explorer of Light,” I think my judgments can be looked at with a certain amount of skepticism.  More importantly, all of the online pixel peeping and blogging about gear has created an obsession with perfection.  Many of the greatest images ever made were taken with manually focused lenses, well before the age of auto focus or  auto aperture, let alone image stabilization.

Occasionally, a piece of gear comes along which is quietly revolutionary, and in that regard, Canon’s new 70-300mm “L” lens is, to say the least, extraordinary.  Yesterday I went into New York with the intention of shooting some test shots to show just what this lens is capable of producing.

A few caveats: all these images were made on a 7D body, which is not full frame.  Is the lens equally as sharp corner to corner on FF ?  Honestly, I haven’t tested it yet on the 5D2.  On the 7D, at the 300mm end, it has an effective focal length of 480mm.

Though I shot some images wide open, I deliberately chose apertures of anywhere from f/8 to f/22 for many of the shots as I wanted depth of field when I wasn’t shooting parallel to a building.  The first image here, was shot at f/13 and 1/45th of a second.  You read that right.  1/45th second, 480mm focal length.  Hand held.

Besides being the sharpest zoom I have ever used—whether from Canon or Nikon—there is no visible barrel or pincushion distortion at any focal length, nor is there any chromatic aberration.  And yes, shooting at f/13 should be way beyond the “diffraction limit” of the 7D’s 1.6X sensor.  So much for theory.

This lens is a tank.  Relatively short, thick, and somewhat heavy.  Yet compared to, say, the 70-200mm f/2.8, it’s a “baby.”

There is one thing, though, that sets this lens apart—I can hand hold it, CONSISTENTLY, at 1/30th second and get sharp images.  The image stabilization of this lens, combined with its balance, shortness and heft, put it beyond the Twilight Zone of reason.  There are some lenses that are examples of the best art and science of optical design.  The Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 Distagon is one, as is the Nikon 14-24mm zoom.

Obviously, I feel that the Canon 70-300mm “L” is in that league.  For the first time ever, I can shoot at an effective focal length of 480mm, at 1/45th or 1/30th of a second, and get extremely sharp, distortion-free images.

Yes, I know, you want to know about “bokeh,” or how it does wide open, or full frame, or…well, like I said, this is not supposed to be an analytical examination about “line pairs” of resolution.  This is one sharp lens that makes it easy for me to make images that I could never make before.  That’s more than good enough for me: Canon 70-300mm L.

Posted by Foto Care | Posted in Product Reviews
Posted on July 28, 2010

We recently saw this article on the Bron Imaging Blog about power packs and wanted to share this with our readers:

A gas generator can get you power where you need it. While there there are plenty of battery packs available you might think that you don’t need to consider the extra hassle or weight of a gas generator.   Battery packs like the 2400 watt second broncolor Verso pack will work seamlessly between battery and AC power and give you more output than any Elinchrom or Profoto battery pack (Verso=2400 WS!).  And the 1200 ws broncolor Mobil a2r is small and easy to transport  and has 2 heads for about the same price as a single head Profoto 600b and only a few hundred $ more than an Elinchrom Ranger (yep broncolor quality at Elinchrom prices!).  But no battery pack will run all day with full power output and modeling lights cranked up all the way.

Sometimes you just need to be able to plug in your strobes, camera batteries, laptop, a few props, a makeup light , and whatever else you might have -  so you need a generator. Or maybe sometimes you just need to shoot all day (or all night) with the modeling lights on.  And you hate that anxiety about whether your batteries are really gonna make it through the whole shoot.   Running off a generator can get you those extra hours on your shoot using regular AC power packs.  But be careful!  Most packs are not designed for use with a gas generator and not all gas generators are created equally.

Broncolor Scoro packs work on any microprocessor controlled sine wave inverter style generator.  The 3200 watt second broncolor Scoro A4S requires a maximum of 15 AMPs at its fastest recycling setting. This is by far the lowest power consumption for any 2400+ watt second pack.  The Scoro works by using a gentle – but still insanely fast recycling charge system (faster than any other pack out there).    And then on top of that, the Scoro has a power control circuit that is a lot more intelligent, basically analyzing the power coming in and changing its own power control behavior before a spike has a chance to damage the circuitry.

Power pack manufacturers generally don’t publish their pack’s power consumption, but even if you don’t have a power meter, you can do a simple test to get a general sense of its consumption.  Just take any 2400 watt second pack and plug it into a regular 15 amp 110v plug and start banging away.  Some of them will blow your breaker if you fire 2-3 fps at half power for around 20 seconds.  That wil tell you that you are drawing more than 15 amps.  Go ahead give it  try with a non-broncolor pack (but don’t call me if your pack blows up).  Oh, and if your pack cant do 2-3 fps at around 1200ws you should take a look at the Scoro.  You’ll need the power consumption information when looking at taking a pack out in the field on a genny.  Remember that Watts =Volts x Amps (w = va) – therefore the genny you need will depend on how power hungry the devices attached to it.   A Scoro draws 15 AMPS at 110V which means it pulls around 1650 watts.  So you need a generator that is rated for at least that draw.  As an example, check out the Profoto 8a documentation.  Their user manual recommends a 6000 watt generator for a Profoto 8a 2400 ws power pack – more than twice what we recommend for the 3200 ws Scoro!

When calculating the total power requirements for your setup don’t forget to add in the modeling lights.  broncolor heads use a 300 watt modeling light when running at full output.  So for each head you run with modeling lights you need to add a approximately 3 AMPS to your setup.

So how to you select a generator? Not all of them are created equally.  We tend to recommend the Honda EU 3000.  The Honda EU inverter microprocessor controlled generators provide stable sine wave output as long as they are properly maintained.   If you have got a clean one then it can provide you with good clean power without any problems for your Scoro.  Of course there are larger and more powerful generators – I just walked past a Con Edison 40 foot Genny Truck running at full power on 40th street in NYC yesterday.  This thing was running backup power for an entire building – but for the sake of this article we are just talking about what you can fit in the back of a mini-van.

I just read a great article in Pro Lights and Staging News about how generators work most efficiently and how to know if the load you are going to place on a genny is going to actually work.  Richard Cadena covers important issues like calculating load supply for a given generator.  Richard also touches on how to size your genny correctly.  He says that running a genny at around 80% of its load rating will give you the best result. Check out his complete article here:  PLSN.com That’s a Load of Watts

If you are shooting with 2 packs its best to get a Honda 6500 watt generator (or 2 3000 watt generators).  Keep in mind that as you go up in output that the generators get much heavier.  As an example a Honda EU2000 watt model weighs around 50 lbs; a EU 3000 watt weighs around 130 lbs; and a Honda EU 6000 weighs around 265 lbs.   One way around the extra generators is to change the recycle or “charge” speed.  If you set a power pack to recharge more slowly then the pack will pull current through the line at a much slower rate and thus enable the pack to work when less amperage is available.  Remember its always better to have a little more power than what you think you might need.  One of the biggest causes of blowing up a strobe power pack while using gas generators comes from using a generator that is not powerful enough.  Basically what happens is that after you fire your strobes, the pack tries like crazy to refill the capacitors with juice.  When the pack draws all that juice from the generator the power level in the generator drops.  But the generator tries to quickly compensate for the drop in power and drives up the output of current as fast as it can.  A good generator will control the compensation and thus the stabilize the amount of compensation, but a bad one will overcompensate and simply spike up the power to a level that will cause the power control circuit on most strobe power packs to explode – a costly repair.  The Scoro’s power control circuitry is designed to reduce the creation of the spikes in the first place as well as to adjust quickly to compensate for these spikes when they do happen – but any electronics will blow if the power spike is really big.  So while a Scoro gives you you flexibility and forgiveness than other power packs there are limits.  So use a microprocessor controlled generator and you can fire away without worry.

Key Requirements for Generator Selection:

* Electronically controlled (aka microprocessor controlled) sine wave inverter output
* Rated for at least 15amps at 110v (~2000watts or above)
* Look for something that is relatively quiet (but a genny will never be as quiet as a battery)
* Recommend Honda EU series 3000 watt and above

Benefits of Gas Generators Over Battery Strobe Packs:

* You can power other stuff (laptop, backup storage, fans, props, whatever)
* Go all day long (a little extra gas will keep most gennys running all day long)
* No stress about how fast your batteries are being consumed

Drawbacks of Generators:

* Fuel:  It burns explosively and can therefore be a pain in the butt to handle…especially near a city.  Check your local fire codes for rules about handling fuel and generators inside (or even near) buildings and public places.
* You can carry a ton of batteries for the same weight as a genny

For more info about using the broncolor Scoro on gas powered electrical generators see the instruction manual.  Go ask your favorite brand of power pack if you can use their pack on a genny…the answer is usually that it will void the warranty.  Not with Scoro.  The Scoro’s low power draw coupled with an advanced power control circuit will give you great results on a clean power generator like the Honda EU 3000.

In addition to gas powered generators we are also starting to work with some really cool battery packs from LibertyPak .  The Liberty Pak Products put out so much juice that they actually call them Little-Genny and Big-Genny.  These products provide serious battery power.  They are not like the little JackRabbit battery packs – the Little Genny is a serious power supply that can handle powering a 2400 ws power pack.  The Big Genny can actually power Kobold HMI lamps for about 45 minutes.  We will cover the Big Genny and Little Genny more in a future post.

Posted by Foto Care | Posted in Product Reviews
Posted on May 3, 2010

Offering a comprehensive combination of speed, accuracy and image quality, the EOS-1D Mark IV is the perfect choice for professional photographers and subjects on the move.

With a completely redesigned 45‐point AF system including 39 cross‐type points, a new AI Servo II AF focus tracking system with improved algorithm, combined with 10 fps continuous shooting, the EOS‐1D Mark IV fast and powerful, and can handle high‐speed situations with ease.

An APS‐H sized16.1 Megapixel CMOS Sensor, Dual DIGIC 4 Image Processors, a spectacular ISO range of 100 ‐12800 (up to 102400 in H3 mode) with an advanced noise reduction system helps ensure sharp, low‐noise images even in low‐light situations.  Add advanced Live View shooting, full HD movie recording with selectable frame rates, and manual exposure control plus a host of new features that enhance every facet of the shooting process.  The EOS‐1D Mark IV is the choice of professionals looking for the ultimate in SLR performance.

Professionally Proven, High‐Speed AF.
New 45‐point Area AF sensor including 39 cross‐type AF points with f/2.8 support plus new AI Servo II AF with improved algorithm.

The EOS‐1D Mark IV has a newly developed, high‐precision Area AF sensor with 45 manually selectable points including 39 cross‐type, high‐precision AF points for exacting and fast focusing no matter the subject. New AI Servo II AF focus tracking features improved algorithms that help improve stability, reliability and focus no matter the situation.

Whether shooting a fast‐paced soccer game or shooting a close‐up of a bee on a wind‐blown flower during macro photography, AI Servo II AF helps ensure sharp focus every time. AF point selection has been improved as well. Photographers can select their own point through either the camera’s Multicontroller or Main Dial/Quick Control Dial. Automatic selection is as simple as the press of a button. With Custom functions, photographers can select their own default focus point to automatically switch between horizontal and vertical shooting and can even choose to have primary focus supported by adjacent focus points for more accuracy with moving subjects