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Friday, August 1, 2008

Essential Landscape Accessories


Filters, tripods and other extras will help you find and capture the perfect landscape

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Canon Speedlite 580 ll
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Nikon SB 800 Speedlight
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Metz Mecablitz 58 AF-1
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Lowepro Super Trekker AW ll
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National Geographic 5159
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Tamrac Expedition 8x Model 5588
Backpacks
It’s essential to find a comfortable way to carry all of your gear. Lowepro, National Geographic and Tamrac offer backpacks with enough space for multiple D-SLR bodies, lenses, flash units, tripods and other accessories. Some even have room for a medium- or large-format field camera with film holders and lenses. Foam-padded dividers allow you to customize each bag’s fit, and advanced weight-adjustment systems help ease those long-distance hikes.

Flash
Landscapes with gloriously lit skies often come with underexposed foregrounds. A flash is an obvious solution to this problem. But when shooting directly from the hot-shoe, the light can come off as flat or too strong. By shooting with the flash from off-camera, you give your foregrounds more depth.

For use with Canon Speedlite flashes and most Canon EOS cameras, the Canon OC-E3 Off Camera Shoe Cord extends up to two feet while retaining all on-camera flash functions, including E-TTL II automatic exposures. The Nikon SC-29 provides full TTL control for Nikon Speedlights when used with Nikon cameras that have a TTL hot flash shoe. The SC-29 is three feet long, and the included AF Illuminator gives AF assistance to cameras in low-light conditions. The Sunpak PF20XD works with digital and film cameras with or without a hot-shoe. The Metz Mecablitz 58 AF-1 is a compact wireless flash unit with a USB interface. Estimated Street Price: $60 (Sunpak); $74 (Canon, Nikon); $300 (Metz).


11 Comments

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  1. Gitzo carbon fiber sticks and Arca-Swiss Z1 with a Kirk QR (the Arca QR releases too easily). Both will set you back a bunch, but you won't ever need another tripod. Also a Hoodman Loupe--makes a HUGE difference in looking at your in-camera images.
  2. It’s pretty helpful!! Thanks.Taking a snap of a landscape is not a typical job if you have enough patience and creativity with in you.
  3. Ditch the backpack!!! I only use a backpack for carrying stuff on board a plane, train, in the car, etc. Once I'm where I need to go, out comes the vest. The vest is SOOOOO much faster and easier to quickly grab whatever you need for the shot.
  4. I have started using the Cokin P-series filter system for my Nikon. They have square filters of all types such as graduated neutral density and a circular polarizer. The beauty of this system is that for each new lens diameter I only have to buy an adapter plate. For the P-series, the adapter rings will go to 82mm and cost approx. $15.
  5. A tip I've learned about buying a polarizing filter is to buy a very high-quality filter (e.g. ultra-thin, multicoated) at the largest diameter of your lens collection. In my case that is 77mm. Then simply get step-up rings in order to fit the filter to your various lenses.
  6. An LED headlamp is a great accessory - I LOVE mine (I have one from Petzl - a Zipka Plus model). It frees up your hands and allows you to work in your camera bag and with other items. The Zipka can even go around your arm, a tripod, or other item if you need to strategically place the light in a fixed spot for awhile.
  7. Maureen (and Pablo), I believe that the reason the article mentioned TTL metering is that there are two different kinds of polarizing filters: regular, and circularly-polarizing. As you might expect, regular polarizing filters are (on average) cheaper than circularly-polarizing ones. However, you need to be sure that you have the circularly-polarizing type if you are going to depend on your camera's TTL metering. (I believe I'm correct in saying that if you use a handheld meter, and do the numbers yourself, it's not an issue.) For reasons too obscure to go into here, a non-circularly-polarizing filter will "confuse" your camera's TTL metering. So the article just wants to make sure that you get one of those -- independent of whether you get an an "entry-level" one or a "high-end" model.
  8. Pablo... B+W's entry-level CPL (circular polarizer) is more than adequate, and they offer several quality steps above that. Singh-Ray's products are marvelous, but the difference in image quality is exceedingly fine, and may only be of use to extreme hobbyists and pros. More important is to have a strategy for equipping yourself with filters: think about the lens(es) you have and those you want, and buy filters to fit the largest lenses first (usually 77mm). Then you can use step-up rings to mount those filters on your smaller-diameter lenses before deciding if you need to invest in a whole series of different diameter CPLs and neutral gradient filters.
  9. Should a begginer start with the $77 one, or the $210 is the one that really makes the difference?
  10. Maureen, yes, you should absolutely get a polarizer and it will work great with your DSLR. You will love what it does--in my opinion, a polarizer is close to indispensable. TTL stands for through the lens--just means that your camera will still meter correctly and autofocus even with the polarizer on.
  11. eing new to SLR's, Digital SLR in particular, I'm interested in a polarizer. But your short description mentions that this filter is for TTL exposure metering and autofocus lenses. So, I guess this lens would not be for a Digital SLR, correct? We just purchased our first ever Digital SLR and we have never had a SLR, so most all of the abbreviations are unknown. Thanks for all the great information.

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