TTArtisan announces a folding Instax film camera
A new Instax Mini camera from TTArtisan
Wow, I did not expect to see a new Instax film camera announcement, especially one from lens maker TTArtisan. There’s no price announced yet, but TTArtisan is already advertising this beautiful looking camera on their Instagram and it natively accepts Instax Mini (the best Instax format in my opinion). If it is under $150, I may have to pick one of these up as it looks like it has a leaf shutter?!
Shooting with the Plaubel Makina 67
I love this camera.
A lovely little video showing the photos you can get from a Plaubel Makina 67.
Fading Smile by Wes Knoll
Photographer Wes Knoll walking around in NYC.
Photographer Wes Knoll talks about a new book called Fading Smile in which he documents New York, the people of the streets, and his overall philosophy of life. I really admire photographers like him because of their ability to talk to strangers and really get a good enough conversation going to eventually leave with a photograph.
Unfortunately, his book is currently sold out at Printed Matter.
SHAPE introduces the 40” WAGON cart
Another cart to take a look at.
SHAPE is entering the production, camera, and DIT cart game with the introduction of their 40” WAGON. The most obvious comparison to this cart would be Inovativ’s own offerings such as their Voyager or Apollo carts.
The SHAPE camera cart weighs 116-pounds unloaded and can fold for transport (but honestly, this thing is way too heavy for me). I haven’t seen one in person but it looks to be a near-copy of the Apollo cart at a fraction of the price ($1899 at pre-order). You get what you pay for though as the SHAPE cart only comes with a 3-year warranty.
Have you used one? Let me know what you think below!
Braided USB-C tether cable
A test of a braided USB-C tether cable for extreme durability on set.
One of the most common issues I encounter as a tech is having my very expensive USB-C tether cables go kaput because of extreme bending due to the use of a cable lock or tether block. Sometimes, there isn’t much I can do as the cable is just a tool to complete a job (there’s no way I’d be telling a photographer to stop holding a camera a certain way or anything), so in the end, I end up trashing way more cables than I’d like. Of course, on big jobs, this just ends up being seen as a consumable good and that’s fine considering all the other things rented on a shoot.
However, I still don’t like the waste of it all so I’ve been testing my own braided USB-C tether cables and so far they are really preventing the extreme bending through the design of the cable itself. It’s the best case scenario! The braided cables are a lot more durable and actually physically cannot be bend backwards onto a tether block due to the construction of the braided fabric sleeve. It’s designed this way for durability and no photographer I’ve used it with lately has even noticed the change in cable. It’s invisible design at work!
I’ll do some further testing before opening it up to the masses but honestly, this looks like the solution I’ve been searching for for over 5+ years.
New RoboCup accessory adds a plate to the mix
New accessory for RoboCup owners.
I believe the RoboCup was originally designed for boating to hold fishing poles, but over the years, the place I’ve seen it used the most is on photo sets and photo/video carts to hold drinks. Nobody I know has the “large cup holder” attachment, but I can totally see myself and others buying into this super durable and easy to install “plate” to add to a standard RoboCup setup.
The RoboCup Plate slots directly into one of the RoboCup’s cup holders and lets you have a protruding surface to place phones, other cups (like mugs), keys, and even hard drives or small routers. No drilling necessary. Plus, at the end of the day, you really can toss this across the room and into a case without having to worry about it breaking.
How to loosen a stuck ball joint on an articulating arm
Quick tip for stuck articulating arms with metal ball joints.
I use an articulating arm like this Smallrig one to mount some random accessories to my laptop station when I’m out in the field at work. But lately both of the ball joints have gotten a bit “sticky” due to the ocean breeze and water occasionally coming into contact with the joints. Short of buying a new arm which isn’t that expensive, I wanted to see if lock lube or metal lubricant would work to loosen the ball joint without losing the ability to later have the ball joint lock precisely in place.
Well, good news. The lock lube works! I picked up a small spray bottle of lock lube metal lubricant and sprayed the tiniest amount into the metal ball joints of my articulating arm and it instantly loosened it up when unlocked. It was like new! And more importantly, when I lock the articulating arm, the lube does not make the ball joint slip at all.
Godox MA5R is an LED fill light and power bank for your iPhone
A handy MagSafe light for exploring (and I guess food photos).
I have one of these small rectangle shaped LED RGB lights but have never considered how one simple addition would make it just that much more useful. That change? MagSafe.
The Godox MA5R has digital creators in mind with its MagSafe LED RGB light attachment but I’m specifically seeing this as a useful fill light for urban exploring. And with the power bank feature, I don’t really have to worry about my phone dying while I’m stuck in a dark basement somewhere.
In all seriousness, this is kind of neat. I’m not 100% sure if you can disable MagSafe charging to prolong the light battery (it all draws power from the same source), but if you can and the light can remain fixed on your phone via MagSafe without transferring power, that’s pretty great! One less thing to carry when jumping over those fences or crawling through those windows.