Fulaim X5 Wireless Microphone System Review

So a company reached out to me and asked if I wanted to take a look at their wireless microphone system and I agreed. I am really glad I did too. They sent me a review sample for free and I am happy to say it works exactly as advertised…at least it does from what I tested.

Fulaim X5 Webpage

You see these kinds of products usually have some sort of glaring issue that makes them basically unusable for the most part, but this one is different. It actually works as advertised.

So Fulaim sent me the X5 kit to test and write a review on and when it came in I noticed right away that they were really wanting this to have a great presentation. The box is the kind you normally associate with Apple products, the really nice heavy type of card board. So once everything is out of that box, the first thing I noticed was that the charge case is setup for just the microphones and receiver, but the receiver is normally used with the mic cable and there is nowhere to store this cable… Small detail, but frustrating as on the very first outing to test the mics, I forgot this very cable…I attempted to use a AUX cable I had in the truck but it was apparently bad and introduced a ton of noise into the audio, lesson here, check your kit before you leave…

So once I get a good cable and go back out, I tested the Fulaim X5 microphone on my Leica SL2, this camera actually records great video and will record 4k video as well, so I figured I would experiment with the microphones on this camera and also shoot in 4k for a change too.

The charge case is a cool device, when you put the mics and receiver in it and close the lid, it turns them off and starts charging them, when you open the lid, it wakes all three of them up and sets them in motion communicating. That is nice. The battery life on the Fulaim X5 mics and receiver is supposed to be on the order of 9 hours, I would say it is probably closer to 4 or 5 in reality as the 9 hour claim is said for offline recording so if it is powering the radios, then it will be less. But still I have used it for several hours on two different occasions and have not have one die yet in a normal session. The charge case will charge them from dead to full charge twice before needing recharging itself too. This is nice as you are not hunting an outlet after juicing up the mics one time.

In the video above, I test the main factors that matter to me for a microphone I use to make YouTube videos. Distance from the camera that the audio is still good on, extreme distance function, audio fidelity, and offline recording for getting simple audio like wild sounds or when you need dialog for voice over but don’t need video with it too. It passed all of these tests with ease and done very well to be honest. The audio quality is first rate and I couldn’t tell if it was the Zoom F2 (which I have to sync in post) or the Fulaim X5 (which I do not have to sync in post)

There are so many little Easter egg type features built into them that it is hard to keep up, like the spring clip on the mics is made of steel from what I can figure and there is a round rare earth magnet with one so you can magnetically stick it to the lapel of a jacket and hide the mic behind the lapel with only the little black magnet showing. This is brilliant. The spring clips are sized so they will slip directly into a camera hot shoe, so you don’t need a hot shoe adapter at all. There is a port for a lav mic on each transmitter, there is also a port on the receiver for headphones to monitor the audio with, the wind muffs are made with little locks to keep them from falling off the mics, the mics will record in offline mode without the need for memory cards as there is 4GB of internal storage in each mic, You can USB charge them so if the charge case is dead, they can still be charged, they are compatible with smart phones and can be USB connected to laptop computers so you can have wireless mic support for things like zoom meetings…the list goes on but you get the point.

Can I recommend this microphone? Absolutely, the copy I have works perfectly and if this is the production version, you will love it too. They sell them direct on their website but I don’t get anything if you buy one, so don’t worry about using an affiliate link or some such, just get one and use it. Simple as that.

Fulaim Website for the X5 Microphone Kit

Episode 2 of the Canterbury Pilgrimage

So we pick up the adventure in Arlesford and head out for Alton, this turned out to be a longer day that I thought it would as I would decide to hike all the way from Inn to Inn on this one…

This is a quaint little town that is really neat and I did some street photos the evening before we left as the light was too good to pass up.

This is the hotel we stayed in and it was simply adorable. The whole first floor of the part you see here is a restaurant/pub and the hotel is L shaped with a significant portion out back behind this street facing portion. The rest of the town is also really neat to me as well. Like the image below of the building supply.

You can tell that they have been in this one spot for a long time. I was not able to get photos of the inside as I didnt not get out to take photos till it was well past closing time and we would be leaving in the AM before they would be open too. I kinda wished we would have planned the trip a little differently so that we could have stayed in a few of the towns an extra day to be able to explore them better…

So the next morning we leave out for the next town and make pretty good time. Alton is a larger town and we are hoping to be there by lunch, well turns out the girls decided to take public transportation after about 5 miles or so and I decided to leg it on in… this would prove to be painful.

I had looked at the map and speculated it to be about 10 miles to Alton and figured I would probably cover the remaining 5 miles in about 3 hours since I would be stopping to get photos and the erratic nature of the trail layout and such as that. Well, this turned into a 6 hour slog that added up to an additional 13 miles for the day! It even got to the point where I realized I needed to cover ground more rapidly or I would miss supper so I stopped capturing video for the YouTube channel all together and just grabbed the occasional photo instead.

Now to be fair, I did cross a lot of beautiful countryside on this leg of the trip and I don’t regret making the trek this day, but I failed to drink enough water and had debilitating cramps later that night from dehydration. The lesson here is to drink more water, especially if you are doing an activity that is physically demanding in any way.

The English countryside is some of the most picturesque terrain I have ever laid my eyes on and for the local is it just …home… I have seen a lot of beautiful places on this earth and they all have a charm. The charm here is the people and how they groom the landscape for agriculture beautifully. It is literally a post card in almost any direction you look. So I did just that, took photos in every direction, and wound up with something like 1400 unique images when I got home two weeks later.

Here we have the road crossing into Alton where you walk under the road to get into the town proper. This is the kind of things you don’t see much where I live and I found interesting. The footpaths are so important to the English that they build this kind of infrastructure to keep them operational. I wished we would have done this with the old hiking trails from our countries early settlements and made them into hiking trails today…just a thought.

The next day we really didnt do much hiking as I escorted Sierra to the airport and then went back and linked up with Teresa and we made our way by train over to Farnham. We really wanted to explore the town and Kelly had already went ahead on her own so it was the perfect opportunity. We had a great time in Farnham and found Kelly later so it all went great. Then the next day we leave Farham and make our way over to the stepping stones which is a huge deal on this trail and I didn’t even know about it till this morning.

These stepping stones are part of the trail system and when we found them we decided to make a small event of it and enjoy a few minutes at this location to make it a little more memorable. If you would like to see the stepping stones just watch the video linked above. I didn’t get my camera out of the dry bag here for obvious reasons so I only have video from this location. These kinds of treks are not just about seeing how fast you can cover ground or seeing how many miles you can hike in one day, but about stopping and smelling the flowers or grabbing some photos. This is what this pilgrimage was about for me.

Test driving the Leica Q2...sorta.

If you want to see more photos and some more discussion on the idea, follow this link to the video where I do this walk. Other wise, read on friend!

I went for a little stroll in downtown Chattanooga and decided that on this photowalk that I wanted to simulate the Leica Q2 to see if i really wanted on. Photography is a funny thing, some photographers will buy one camera and use it all their life and others will change out lenses and camera bodies numerous times.

My simulated Leica Q2 for the day.

I am a little of both as I love to play with new gear as well as use gear that has become my favorite kit so to speak. Well, I have the Leica SL2 and I also have a nice little Asahi optical 28mm prime lens that I have an adapter for so I figured I would put this together and see if the shooting experience would be close enough to the Q2 to give me an idea of what it would be like without having to spend 6000$ on it.

I really love those Leica colors for some reason, maybe it is a bias I have towards the brand but to me the images just seem more rich in color. I really love how they turned out though and the idea of the Q2 is a great one for a general street camera. The high megapixel sensor combined with the 28mm lens is a potent street combination as you can see below where I shot the image as a candid just in passing and was able to adjust the composition later in post to get what I was looking for.

This photo was shot about 10 feet away and with the 28mm on a full frame sensor it looks MUCH further away. But through the power of cropping… I can make it take on a couple of different looks as you can see below.

This is a 12 megapixel crop of the original image.

This is a 16 megapixel crop of the original image.

As you can see I can get two very different feeling images from this single frame. That is kinda powerful to be honest. I mean, you can change the entire dynamic of the image with a simple crop. That is actually liberating to be honest. I mean just look at the two again. One has this lonly, almost bleak feeling to it while the other has a warmer almost restful feel to it. That is really cool to me. So this is a perk of the Leica Q2 in my book.

So what else comes with the Q2 that I didnt have today? Well, autofocus is one, another is larger aperture. This lens is f3.5 which is two full stops slower than the lens on the Q2. This would matter more in low light as I was shooting most of this day at f11 to reduce the need to adjust focus. Range focus at f11 on a 28mm prime is basically 4 feet (1.3 meters) to infinitiy. So it literally was point the camera, press the shutter and the image was in focus. But if I wanted to shoot indoors or in the evening, the f1.7 aperture would be nice to have to keep my ISO down some or be able to raise the shutter speed a little to freeze action better.

What I really liked about the 28mm was that it made me interact with the people more. The photo above is a great example of this, these two guys were walking by and I just asked them if I could grab a quick photo, they were stoked and so was I. This is honestly a problem I have that I am working to get past. I don’t like bothering people and will walk by potentially great photos simply because I don’t want to bother them. The 28mm forces you to get closer if you want the detail in the photos so I have to get closer to do that. So I think honestly, this is going to have be a perk of the 28mm Summilux lens after all…

All in all, this kit performed really well for me and I think the Leica Q2 would perform equally as well. BUT I do really like the ergonomics of the SL family of camera bodies so for me I will keep my SL2 and use a 28mm lens when I want to have the Q2 experience in a camera. So until next time, get your camera out and go take a photo with it.

Just capturing everyday life…

When I decided to take some time away from youtube and just explore my photography, I didnt know how much fun it would be to just take the camera and an extra battery. It blew my mind to be honest.

Still I found myself starting to look for more interesting photos when I am out and about these days. Something else I have really come to realize is that you cant get the photo if you dont go out with your camera.

Here is an example of what I mean by getting out and shooting more. You are not going to be where the action is if you dont get out and shoot. Just being out in the field greatly increases your chances of getting a photo. That being said, I am the worlds worst at failing to get the shot. I got the one about due to range focus being set on the lens so I didnt need to even bring the camera to my eye. I literally saw it unfolding and just raised the camera and snapped the frame. It is also heavily cropped too so I can get the composition I wanted. That is a luxury of the 47mp sensor on the Leica SL2 that I was using that day, it gives you options.

Here we have a photo I have taken a couple of times now. Every year our hometown has an event in this park and the kids play in the creek is flagrant defiance of the posted sign. It is such a cliche photo that I can’t pass it up. Obvious civil disobedience to signage if a fun photo so if you see one of these scenarios just get your camera out and take the picture. You just might like what you end up with.

Here we have a scene of “small town Americana” that I thought was kinda interesting. These little carnival foodie trucks are a common sight in rural America and I wanted to capture that essence if possible. I am not sure if I was successful but to me it is a cool photo.

Here I found something interesting when I went to Cloudland Canyon State Park to setup a POTA activation the other morning. A cloud inversion isnt real common until the fall, but conditions were apparently just right. So I grabbed a photo before turning on the radio and now I have this photo.

Here is the last photo I want to talk about. This was a quickie iPhone capture that I saw and just had to get right quick. Use what you have and get the photo, that is the rule of the day. I have come to learn that when you get something like this in your head just go take the photo and be done with it, it will gnaw at you forever if you dont. I think some of the best photos, street or otherwise, come from just capturing everyday life. What do you think?

Photography on a movie set

What do you photograph when on a movie set to capture the essence of the set? I felt my job was more to do that than to capture the movie per say. That’s the movie makers job, not mine.

Here I started at the front gate. If you will notice, it’s nondescript and you really have no idea what is here at all. This is by design for obvious reasons but I still found it interesting to see how bland it was.

The sound stage is a controlled space where “sets” are built to look like locations but the film makers can control literally everything in the environment such as sound, light and weather. It was important to me to get this “side” of the set to tell the whole story.

This is what the other side of that rough framed wall has on it. A complete first century Roman executive office ready for the official to go to work. As you can see, this set of photos is not what you would normally see when watching the movie.

Another aspect I wanted to capture was the people that were there both as tourist and as employees of the location. This shows all of that in one photo as well as how the “more permanent” set features, and then a tarp to protect something not weather resistant too.

Here we have visitors, film crew, actors, film production gear, in a period setting all in one photo. This is what a behind the scenes photo should look like to me. Capturing what is NOT on camera rather than trying to see what is being filmed. This is where the interesting part is at for me. Of course most other people don’t see things like me. They want to see things like the photos below.

Notice how I framed out anything not period correct…

This is fine if you are wanting to maintain the aesthetic of the period in your photos, but that is not my goal.

This is more my speed. Here we have a prop stored in an out of the way spot that is in stark contrast to the modern building in which it is located. Below is another image I quite like. You have a Roman quarter with a prop guy working on decorating the area for an upcoming scene. His presence brings a contrast to the image that makes you wonder about it.

Above is a great example. Here we have gear carts stored in the shade for filming in a nearby area. The juxtaposition is intriguing to me for some reason.

The above image is more subtle though. At a glance it is period correct, but upon closer inspection things will start to appear that should not be there. Like the wheel of a cart or a tarp in the back ground.

As you can see it is fun trying to tell a different story from what the set was built to be used for. The set has become a different part of the actual story which is the behind the scenes life and not first century AD. I hope this has inspired you to do something similar with your photography and thanks for following along!

Getting a fresh perspective on a common event.

Today I had a thought about what sets my Sacred Harp photos apart from everyone else’s photos.

I thought about this for a while and figured out that my goal is not to simply capture every leader (although that is kind of a side quest) but rather I want to capture the essence of the event as a whole. The reason I say this is because I see others capturing images of just the leaders and usually just from the front straight on. Now to be fair, this does produce good images but for me they are not as interesting. Hence…

When I goto a Sacred Harp singing there is a specific location that I want to be at in the room. It is near the bass section where it meets the tenor section. Now if I were more serious about the photos, and less serious about singing with the class, I would actually goto the other side of the room as most people mark time with their right hand. This makes getting a good photo, which I will spell my recipe for below, even harder since I am on their right side and their hand blocks their face alot.

My “recipe” for a good photo is as follows:

  • I want them looking at the crowd and not their book if possible (I want to see their eyes)

  • I would love a strong expression

  • I want the face to look relaxed and not contorted from singing a strong note

  • I want their hand in motion and slightly blurred from movement

  • I want their face properly exposed

  • I want good white balance

  • I want them 75 to 80% offset to the side for deep “look space”

  • Finally, I also want photos of the rest of the event (this is kinda separate but it helps tell the story)

So with that daunting list of requirements delineated let’s take a look at them a little more in depth.

I want them looking at the crowd.

This is kinda standard composition information but this creates a bond in the photo between the leader and the class visually. I want the photo to hold the viewer and have them explore the image.

I love getting a strong expression.

This is really hard to do most of the time. I have certain leaders that I know will give me this and I actually look forward to these leaders for this reason alone. This draws the viewer into the photo and lends an emotional aspect to the image.

I want the face of the leader to look relaxed.

Most of the time, when people lead, they are nervous and it shows in the photos. So I watch for them to relax a little. This usually happens towards the end of the song so I will watch for opportunities to get a better photo then if I can. Sometimes people have odd expressions when they sing as well and this contorts the face to make them look less appealing in the photo, so I will look for pauses in the music to where they might be catching their breath or their part is silent so I can grab a quick photo then. My goal here is to get them actually enjoying the song and not just leading it.

I want the motion blur of them marking time with their hand.

This gets me that “action” look that I am wanting that shows something is happening and that they are not just standing there I want that photos to show that the event is “alive” with activity if possible. By having a little motion blur from the hand moving, it does this without making the whole image blurry. At least for me, it does.

I want their face properly exposed.

This as it turns out, is a really hard thing for me to get right while on the fly. Seems there is almost always a window in the frame and the sunlight is wreaking havoc on the light meter in the camera. I do my best to compensate for this, but sometimes it just doesn’t work right and the person is almost a black silhouette. As a good photographic rule though, this is normally a well exposed part of the image.

I want good white balance.

Again, you would think this would be a no brainer, but as it turns out, this is a lot harder than you would think. You see these events happen normally in venues that are poorly lit with mixed color temperature lights so you never really know what to expect. I will normally grab a white balance value at the beginning, and again at lunch as the sunlight will dope the reading and make your pictures look yellow…

I want them offset way over to one side.

We are talking way past the rule of thirds concept as I am not trying to follow that concept at all, but rather I am wanting to tell a story and it is not about one person, but the class as a whole with the leader just one part of it. The singers are just as important so I want as many of them in the frame as possible to give more context to the image. Sometimes I get a good image and this isn’t the case like with Terry (1st at the top), but this is not what my usual goal is. He leads very uniquely and I love photographing him for this reason.

I want photos of the rest of the event.

You see, there is more than just the singers and the leaders and them singing songs. There are people just there to hear it, kids playing and people eating… Plus this is sometimes the only venue where some people ever meet up so there are lively conversations sometimes as well and lots of laughter. I want to try to capture this as well.

The desert table alone is worth the trip in my book!

This is a tall order to be sure, but I normally get one or two “real keepers” from these singings that will meet either all or nearly all of my rules for leaders. So of those rules are pretty low hanging fruit, like proper white balance, just takes me remembering to take a sample of the interior occasionally to make sure it has not changed on me. some are much harder, like getting position and facial expression and exposure right when they are moving around while they lead… Something I dont strive for though is perfectly sharp images, a little motion blur just adds character to the photo and makes it look like they are actually doing something instead of posting up static for a photo. Also I dont care if the eye isnt tack sharp either as the photo isnt a portrait but rather something closer to reportage in my mind. I like it when the eyes are sharp but it isnt on the list if you will notice. I dont list it because the story is more important to me than that aspect. I dont know why, but that is how I see it. Everyone loves the images when I share them too so I am happy with most of them too…

Do you have a favorite venue or event you like to shoot and do you have a set of personal rules that make us your perfect photo from that event? I would like to hear about your version of this story!!!

Prime lens primer

So you have never used a prime lens before… well let’s change that.

Leica CL with the TTArtisan 35mm f0.95 APS-C prime lens

A prime lens is like a window into another world of photography. They can be had in much larger apertures than zooms usually, they are smaller under most circumstances, and if you get vintage ones…they can produce very unique results.

Another thing that prime lenses are good for is they teach you to compose based on the environment. You have to work within the confines of the focal length which means you will have to either move closer or further away to “zoom” with your feet to get your composition. Sometimes this means not getting a certain shot at all because you would have to stand in the middle of a river to get the composition or something like that. But I rarely run into this problem and once I start seeing in focal length it seems I filter out these problems subconsciously anyway.

Leica CL with the TTArtisan 17mm f1.4 APS-C lens.

You will also learn to see in your chosen focal length over time as well. That is, once you shoot a while with just one focal length… You hear street photographers talk about the 28 or the 35 and they know what the photo is going to look like based on experience.

I will be honest here, it is really liberating to have such a small and potent setup when I run prime lenses. Zoom lenses give you versatility, but I see people that use zoom lenses still carrying a camera bag. This seems overly redundant to me, I use the one lens all day and get out in the environment, but I am not everyone. Some people prefer to have all the options on hand so they can setup and shoot whatever comes their way I guess. Maybe they have missed a opportunity in the past while using a prime and now want the versatility of a zoom to give them better odds in the future should that happen again, I don’t know. Those are some of the speculations I have had, but for me, I just like having something dedicated like the prime brings to the table.

Zoom lenses do serve a purpose though, they are the work horses of the professional photography world. Giving the professional the ability to change focal lengths instantly on demand to fulfill the job at hand. Primes force the professional to move around a lot more to build the composition that the zoom makes short work of. This is important when you are on a clock. Anything that saves time also saves money so zooms have their uses.

So what makes a prime appealing over a zoom? That large aperture and the small size are some of the magic that the zoom lens lacks.

Lenses like the one above with it’s f0.95 maximum aperture can create an effect that nothing else can produce. The “Bokeh” or blurred out background is something that large apertures are well known for. The portrait below is a prime example of the feature. The background was probably 15 feet behind him when I shot this photo.

Primes lenses come into their own when it comes to vintage lenses too. This is where I have found my passion. The old Pentax glass along with the Nikon and early Canon stuff is all phenomenal. I do have some early Leica stuff but the Pentax / Asahi branded glass is just awesome. I also will try about anything to see what the photos are like as well. I have even adapted some glass that should not be able to be adapted like some Argus lenses. I documented that process on my YouTube channel if you want to see how I was able to make that work. Argus had a unusual way to drive the focus on the lens and it posed a challenge to get it to work.

One of my favorite vintage lens brands is Pentax and the Asahi Optical company.

With the advent of the mirrorless camera, we now have a flange distance that is conducive to adapting these vintage lenses to our cameras easily and the electronics in the camera make using these lenses even easier than ever as well. Things like focus magnification and focus peaking as well as exposure preview to see how the image will look before you press the shutter are great for coupling vintage primes to your new shiny mirrorless camera. Some even allow image stabilization via sensor stabilization so you even get that feature with vintage glass sometimes.

So if you have not used prime lenses in the past, I implore you to get a simple one, like the 50mm f1.8 on full frame (affectionately named the “nifty fifty”) or it’s APS-C little brother, the 35mm f1.8 DX (Nikon uses the term DX for their APS-C cameras) and put it on your hobby camera and leave it there for a month. It will either make you hate primes or fall in love with them. For me I got the 35mm f1.8, installed it on my Nikon D7000 and left it for almost a year without removing it. I really loved that lens.

So until next time, get your camera out and go take some photos with it!

My loadout for flying with camera gear.

Traveling over the years to locations that require flying commercial has taught me a few things about what to take.

I once carried almost everything I owned when I traveled so I was sure to have whatever I needed for a certain photographic event. Well, with time comes wisdom… I have been adjusting the loadout and searching for the best solution as far as bags go and have finally found the perfect setup…FOR ME. You see, different people have different needs and your loadout will vary depending on your personal needs and wants.

When I traveled early on, I carried a large shoulder bag, very large mind you and a ton of kit in it. I had to fill it up you know! Lol.

Well after a couple of trips like that, I learned that I needed a different bag. So the giant Vanguard bag was retired and replaced with a Thinktank Airport International v2. This was a nice upgrade and allowed me to travel with more confidence in knowing my gear was protected better and it was also a roller bag! No more lugging that massive shoulder bag all over creation!!!

Well, I still use this bag from time to time, but only for roadtrips in my truck. The irony of this statement is not lost on me. I bought a literal aircraft carry own style, camera bag and now I dont even take it when I fly at all.

Thinktank Photo Airport International 2.0

So I learned the hard way something about marketing with this bag. Thinktank Photo will tell you, probably with an asterisk, that this bag will fit in standard overhead spaces. This isn’t so and I learned this the hard way on a trip coming home from Hawaii one year. On the last leg of our long journey, we boarded a small commuter jet and the overhead storage bins were just too small. This is when I got a VERY sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. You see, this meant I had to valet check this bag at this point. If you have never watched baggage handlers loading luggage then you dont know the horror movie I was imagining my expense and fragile camera gear was about to experience. They can be quite rough with check bags, we have had them arrive at baggage claim with wheels missing and such. So I tell the flight attendant my plight and she saves the day by stowing my roller bag of camera gear in what amounts to her broom closet. I almost cried in appreciation. That was the straw the broke the cameras back of roller bags for me.

Pictured here are the Peak Design Everyday Messenger bag and the Thinktank photo street walker backpack.

After the Airport International “incident”, I decided I needed to downsize my kit for multiple reasons. The main one being that I didn’t want to have to valet check my bag because it wouldn’t fit in the overhead bin.

The next reason is the most important though. I was tired of carrying gear I didn’t use or even need.

Taken with the Nikon Z50 handheld and using the kit lens.

So I decided to get something new and smaller. I chose something that had been on the market for just a short time at this point. I chose a Peak Design Everyday Messenger Bag. It is a wonderful way to carry camera gear for the most part with one exception. I cant really carry my big telephoto lens I use for wildlife. I tried it for a couple of years and at the time, I was using a large system consisting of a Nikon D810 with battery grip and the 200-500mm super zoom lens. This combination is very large and would leave me with room for just a couple of smaller lenses. It also came with another problem…pain. Single strap bags are great as long as they are not heavy, which is exactly what mine was at this point in time. So the search continues and I found another Thinktank Photo bag.

The next bag I chose was the Streetwalker v2. This is a smaller bag that is backpack style and is really comfortable. The single shoulder strap on the messenger bag would make my shoulder incredibly sore after just a couple of hours of carry. I tried this for a couple of years and paid the price. The streetwalker solved that problem in short order. It was at this point in my photography journey that I was finding smaller cameras like the Fuji XT3. I took this camera to Israel for a ten day trip and it was on this trip that my eyes were opened to carrying excessive equipment is wasteful. I took three lenses with me and only used one of them. Yes, I used the KIT LENS for the whole trip and it worked gloriously!!! All the while I was carrying around all this other crap and just getting back to the kibbutz tired every day.

Current travel load out, Z50, 500mm PF, 16-50mm Z Kit, and 10-20mm F mount Nikkor/FTZ adapter.

Well, I finally figured out that the smaller pack was the way to go, but it really didn’t have room for the big wildlife rig I liked to use… It also had one other critical shortcoming that I noticed from regular use. The pack opened to the top when unzipped. What this means is you take off the pack and lay the side that normally sits against your back, on the ground facing down to access the gear area. At this point, I was doing a great deal of photowalks and hikes to waterfalls and such and this caused lots of dirt on the back of my shirt… To say this was frustrating is an understatement but I carried on till…

Enter the Thinktank Photo Retrospective 15L. For my needs, this is as close to perfect for a camera bag as I have ever found. It opens from the back, the side against my body which means you lay to outside one the ground, keeping all the leaves, twigs and dirt off of my shirt. It is slightly larger (15 liters in size) so there is room for my wildlife kit. It is REALLY comfortable and it is made of stone washed canvas. So it has a nice look (it doesn’t look like a nylon camera bag) and has a great feel. This is a hallmark of Thinktank Photo from what I have seen. Their backpacks are very comfortable. So now that I have landed on the perfect camera bag after almost a decade of searching, I can now shift focus to the gear I put in it.

Taken with the Nikon Z50 with the FTZ Adapter and the 500mm PF Amount lens.

The gear loadout for my photography usually involves at least two bodies, three general purpose lenses and then my special purpose lenses and all the support gear too. Like a whole cleaning kit complete with blower bulb, dry wipes, wet wipes and solution and sensor swabs… way too many batteries, like I must have thought I was going to take 10,000 photos per day or something. I never needed most of this crap either. I mean almost none of it. What I had was a case of “fill’er up” syndrome. If there was bag space I felt compelled to put something in that space for some reason. This is a terrible way to operate if I must say. You end up tired, sore and resentful of the hobby as you brought all this kit for nothing.

The Nikon Z50 with kit lens makes for a powerful little general photography kit.

So this trip, the bag is scaled WAY back. I mean, there is room in the bag for stuff and nothing is in those pockets. This is a milestone for me, as I am a prepper at heart and want to cover every conceivable contingency under my normal mindset. To be honest, I probably brought at least one lens more than I will need and could have lightened the load some more there, but we will see. So my takeaway from all this is, your hobby is a journey and you will have to figure out your kit for that hobby as you go. For me, it is still an ongoing journey to be honest. Hopefully I can stop spending tons of money on it and just enjoy it. Let’s be realistic though, probably not…Lol.

How important is the time of day when you shoot a photo?

When you take the photo is just as important as what you photograph

Seems there is all sorts of information out there about what to take pictures of, but no one (other than landscape photographers) talk much about the TIME you take your photo. In this article, I want to explore this a little with a simple location that is right down the road from my apartment and show the difference that just a few hours can make in the mood and feel of a location that is being captured.

The camera of choice with my the Leica CL with the TTArtisan 17mm f1.4 lens shot off of a tripod so shutter speed isn’t a problem. I will be maintaining an ISO of 100 for all photos and an aperture of f11 on all photos, so shutter speed will be what I have to change to keep the exposures to where I like them.

The time of day is something that a lot of people think about a little but really don’t put much effort into the planning of the photo. It takes a good bit of reconnoitering to get the location scouted with the vibe you are wanting in the photo. I see these locations all the time, when I am driving around in the day time and when I see them at night it is a completely different scene. Some people like shooting in the daytime, some like the blue hour or golden hour and some, like me, prefer the night… So seeing a night photo while viewing the scene lit by the sun is a problem. I can get somewhat of a visual based on previous photos I have taken of other locations, but until you see it lit by the street lights and 8’ fluorescent tubes, you just don’t know what you will be getting.

I don’t know why I like shooting at night so much, but I do. The low light and the negative space just do something for me and the photos reflect it.

Ybor City has some interesting light that is only available at night.

I do like some blue hour stuff to add the touch of blue sky to my images at times, but not always. Another perk to shooting at night is that it is cooler in the summer months, with temps being generally lower and the sun in not beating down on me, I am more inclined to stay on a location longer and get better images. Street photos at night are a little tougher as I need larger apertures to keep ISO manageable, and this means focus is a lot more of an issue as depth of field is significantly shallower than in the daytime, but it is manageable if you think about it first.

I normally set focus traps and shoot in burst mode and this will usually net me a sharp photo of a scene at night at even crazy large apertures like f1.4 or f0.95… It just takes a bit of practice and patience.

The gear matters…

The gear you use at night matters just as much as the subject you are shooting. If you have the wrong equipment, you simply won’t get the shot.

Fast glass gives you options.

Take for instance, street photography, this is dynamic and has movement in it. For most human movement, a shutter speed of 1/250 second will freeze action sufficiently. 1/200 in a pinch if the subject isn’t moving too much will net sharp photos. Well, to get a decent exposure, you will need fast glass, shot wide open and will still probably need a fair amount of ISO to compensate.

Now, if you are shooting static subjects like buildings or scenes and motion isn’t an issue, you can just let the shutter stay open until the exposure is good, but once you cross about 10 seconds, humans tend to vanish from the scene… Cars make long lines with their headlights as they drive by and things begin to look different. So you can see it all depends on what you want to capture to drive your gear choices here.

I personally like to have fast glass if possible as this is the most versatile lenses. These lenses can still be stopped down for times when you want deeper depth of field and opened up when you need the extra light gathering power of “fast glass”. So whenever possible, I will always opt for the larger aperture option over the smaller, if just makes sense to me to have that extra optional aperture when needed. The old adage “better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it” comes to mind…

Water reflections are magical in low light or night photos.

Now that lenses are talked to death, what about the camera? Well, honestly any camera will do. It is the least important part of the equation to be honest. As long as it can be controlled manually for all three major functions, it will do. You see, it must be able to adjust shutter speed, ISO and aperture manually to be able to get creative results at night. The camera running in automatic mode will make choices in these controls that will not be what the photographer wants most of the time. It is guessing and will most likely guess wrong… But just about all reasonable cameras will let you control these functions and this is where it gets good…

The time of day.

Back to the original subject. Here are two photos taken from the same location, with the same camera and lens combination, at two different times of day.

Here we have a daytime scene of a garage.

Here is the same composition at night. Notice the change in mood.

Here is the same scene, but the overhead lights are turned off (different day). This changes the mood even more and gives the scene a different feel. Take a look at the scene below of the Dutch Motel sign I found the other evening. The daytime photo isn’t much to look at, but the night time one has all sorts of interesting features that make it unique and otherworldly since it is distorting time so much with the incredible shutter time of 10 seconds!

The Dutch Morel sign isn’t much to ponder during the day…

1/400 second ISO 100 f8

Once nightfall comes and you slow down the shutter, the magic happens

10 seconds ISO 100 f8

This is just a couple of examples too, there are many others that I have noticed over the years. So if you want a certain feel from an image, the time of day absolutely matters. There are some things that a strobe just won’t overcome and the sun is one especially if you are shooting buildings and not portraits.

So if you want to learn more about low light photography, check out my youtube channel here. David Saylors Youtube Channel.

Why don't I shoot more landscape photography?

The short answer…it is out of my reach.

Mid day sun is “flat”…

You see I have always loved shooting nature and landscape photography and such but once I started really looking at it seriously, I started to realize that it can only be shot at certain times of the day or it doesn’t have that magical look to it.

Deep blue hour adds to this image where the building is white and red neon primarily.

Where the sun is at in the sky makes a ton of difference to how the image looks and for the most part, the higher the sun angle the less interesting the image. Just watch most landscape photography youtube videos and you will see them getting up several hours before dawn so they can get the sky colors like they want with the mood of the terrain like they want as well. Most of the time it is dawn or dusk only for the photos they want. This is for good reason too, the images just won’t be interesting otherwise.

You see, the shallow sun angle makes all sorts of things different and not just the direction the light is coming from. It changes the color of the light, the size of the shadows, how dark the shadows are, the sun controls lots of environmental elements like fog rising off of the grass or water, and if there is frost or not in the image. These are just a few of the things the sun directly controls, but you get the idea.

The main thing for me though is that I am not able to get out at these times of the day so I end up shooting either mid-day or early evening. Both of these are terrible for landscape photography and the images out there prove it. You just can’t get good images of wonderful vistas at those times, it only takes a moment to search the web to see this is true.

I do occasionally get out at the right times and will snag a cool photo or two of some cool landscape stuff, but for the most part … not…

What I do get are photos like the one below. I can get out at night some, and mid day as it seems to work out, but not at golden hour or blue hour either for the most part, but sometimes I will get that chance, so instead I have embraced night photography as well as high contrast mid day photography, which works well for street photography if more people were in the area.

I will also do some local documentary style photos of stuff like buildings in the town that are changing or if there is some kind of activity. Most of the time though, I end up just walking around.

This also turns out to be a good practice as it gives you perspective and you will start to notice images that you didnt see before. It makes me more observant of the environment or so it seems.

Well, I successfully wandered down a rabbit hole anyway… lol. You get the idea though, I am pretty sure I am not alone in why I cant do landscape photography and I am also sure there are more reasons than these. what do you shoot because of your circumstances instead? Leave a comment below and until next time. Get your camera out!!!


What does lens focal length do to me psychologically when shooting street photography?

Photography and the human mind…

I have found that when I put on a wide lens, I suddenly loose the fear of getting close to people for some reason. I am still guarded with people and don’t approach a lot of them, but I will still get closer. This is a real struggle for me and I find it even harder due to time constraints that I have to shoot street. I don’t normally get to go shoot street when the large crowds are out and about. I end up being in the areas when there is little to no activity. So for me to get a good candid street photo is pretty special. I don’t get dozens a week like some photogs I see, but maybe one a month…maybe.

17mm APS-C photo on the Leica CL

I find that I like to get two kinds of photos when I shoot wider than 35mm and a different kind of photo when I shoot 35mm or longer. I didn’t even realize it until the other day when I put the 17mm on my Leica CL (like a 28mm on full frame) The 28mm is also what happens to come on the Leica Q series cameras. This particular machine is quite costly and you can’t change the lens either. But for street photography , the 28mm is a great choice and lots of people LOVE the Leica Q2 and Q2 Monochrome just for this reason!

17mm APS-C photo on the Leica CL

When I put the 17mm TTArtisan APS-C lens on the camera I consciously know that the lens is very wide and that I am going to have to get close if I want to fill the frame. Then I fill the frame with images that make me happy for some reason. It is really strange that if you want better photos, sometimes you just have to get closer… Photography is strange, people have all sorts of different ideas about what it is. You know what? They are all correct. Every single one of them. What is that all about? LOL

35mm APS-C photo on the Leica CL

When I put on the 35mm (50mm equivalent) The mindset shifts to scenes with people in them or portraits on the street when I use longer lenses for some reason. It just happens too, I don’t even think about it, I just do it. I start looking for interesting things across the street when running the 35mm or longer lens. I also noticed that I like to compose from different view points too. I will end up shooting from a lower angle with the wide lens and from my eye level with the longer lenses. I think this is because of the viewing angle when I look at the photos in post, but it is a very strong phenomenon.

The Leica CL has become my de-facto street camera with either the 35mm or the 17mm as of late. I really like the form factor of the Leica CL and I also use a grip frame on it. This grip frame is made by LIMS that is currently out of production from everything I have seen. This grip frame is awesome because it has a ARCA SWISS tripod adapter on it and there is an opening for the battery door in the bottom plus it has the grip extension on the right side that makes this basically the perfect street camera for me. I like the form factor of this machine the most, it being very unassuming yet has exceptional image quality, makes this a wonderful little street camera. My only thing I would like better would be to have the Leica Q2 Monochrome as I love monochrome AND the low light power of that camera is phenomenal! But for now, I really want to use the CL all the time.

I say that with a bit of sarcasm, you see as as of late I have really started to embrace color photography more and more and have not shot in monochrome on my digital machines in ages. So the monochrome might not be the best solution for me, but I really like the idea of the low light powerhouse that it is. That is the real appeal for me to be honest about it.

The Leica CL adorned with the TTArtisan 17mm f1.4 APS-C manual lens.


So there you have it, a small treatise on my thoughts about the focal length and what I instinctively shoot with each one. I am odd and I know it, so this is by no means a definitive explanation about anything, but rather just an observation into what I do when I use certain lenses and what kind of gear I tend to lean towards when I go shoot.

Now get your camera out and go take a photo with it!

TTArtisan 35mm f0.95 APSC Manual Lens Review

Ok, yall. This has been in the works for a few weeks now and I am finally ready to publish it.

The short answer… it is totally worth the money if you like manual glass.

The long answer… read on.

Handheld at f0.95 at night shutter speed is 1/80 second. The image is nice and sharp.

Shot at f8 with the focus trap method.

This little lens is a wonder of modern engineering with how they kept the size so small and also kept the optics so clear at the same time. I unboxed this lens and noticed immediately the packaging is top tier, reminiscent of the iPhone styling but in a nice grey/cloth texture for the cover with the lens nomenclature clearly on the top of the box. If the box is a clue to the lens quality then this is going to be a real winner! (Spoiler: It is)

It is no secret that I like to shoot 50mm on my full frame cameras like my Leica SL2 and the 35mm is about as close as it gets on APSC, so I shoot a lot with 35mm on my Leica CL when I am out just shooting street for me. So when TTArtisan reached out to me and asked if I would like to take a look at this beast, I quickly agreed and they sent me a lens.

Now for the whole disclosure part: They(TTArtisan) did give me the lens for free. They also told me that they had no “rules” they wanted me to follow or anything at all to be honest. They just said that if they liked my review that they would like to have permission to share it on their social media. Which I also though was a great idea. So I am free to say what ever I want as I come to this review. With all that said, let’s get started.

I deliberately wanted to shoot with it for a few weeks before rendering judgement as this will allow the “honeymoon” phase of getting something new to wear off a little and I can be more objective in the review for you guys. I have shot a variety of subject matter with it and have come away loving this lens immensely. It only has a couple of things that I dont like all that much and they really are not deal breakers.

Shot at f0.95 in the dark… hand held and manually focused on the bottles.

What do I like about this lens?

Well for starters… THE APERTURE GOES TO f0.95!!! You just have to love some fast glass and this little guy has it, and then some! At one point I stopped down to f4 for a photo that needed some depth of field and realized I had stopped down 4 1/3 stops to do this! That is lunacy! I am just blown away that they can pack that much aperture into such a small package. Speaking of aperture, the aperture blades are nice and round but when stopped down it still produces some glorious sun stars!

The light stars are pretty epic in my book. (I love light stars though)

Stopped down to f16 & 12 second exposure, for this extreme example.

The double bladed one on the left is because there are two bulbs in the street light.

The physical appearance of the lens is really nice. It has a 52mm filter thread. The text is Leica styled with deep, clean engraved characters throughout (yes, the text, all of it, is engraved into the lens pretty deep, it will not wear off…ever) and painted really well for ease of reading. The external controls are easy to find and use. The focus throw is just right, there is a good amount of dampening in the focus barrel and it is smooth. The aperture detents are not like the other two lenses I have from them. My other two lenses are smaller than this one (the 35mm f1.4 and the 17mm f1.4) so there might not be room for a very strong aperture detent system in them, but on this little guy, the detents are perfect. They even have a nice little click as they slip from one detent to the next. I was so happy to see this issue I have with the other lenses, to be resolved in the new lens. This lens contains zero electronics of any kind so the semi-conductor shortage shouldn’t affect your ability to get your hands on one of these little guys. This is also part of the reason it is so small, there isn’t need to make room for a focus motor or any other electronics.

The lens cap is one of their signature solid metal threaded lens cap that screws on to the filter threads, this is good as it protects the lens glass AND the filter threads at the same time. Even so, I do not prefer them and the only real reason is the time to deploy the camera is much longer as it takes some time to remove the lens cap. On top of that, I can never seem to get them to go back on easily, it takes me a couple of tries every time to get the cap back on. Is there a trick to this I am not aware of? Leave me a comment if you have a trick on the lens cap, I need it!

Now, if I was worth two pennies, I would just remove the lens cap before I start shooting and then reinstall it when done…and this is exactly what I do most of the time. We have gotten spoiled to the quick deploy “pinch” style caps, so can I really call this a detractor? The level of protection these caps brings is unmatched by anything made of plastic so there is that to consider…

Shot at f0.95 in the daytime. This car was moving… Shutter speed is 1/400 sec.

The next thing that I noticed is how nice the images are coming out of this lens. The guys over at TTArtisan have really done their homework here as most super fast glass is in one of two categories…crazy expensive or not great image quality wide open. These guys seem to have broken through that glass ceiling (see what I did there? LOL) and have brought us a super fast lens, with really nice image quality, for really, really reasonable money. I dare say that these little lenses they sell are under priced and once they figure it out, the price will go up, so you better get your copy now.

So is there anything I DONT like about this lens?

The grip area on the aperture ring and the focus ring are not knurled (which is what I would have preferred) but instead is a mill cut series of notches. Now, I come from a machine shop background and understand the reasoning for this past the aesthetic look of the lens. These are easier to make, faster to make, more consistent when run at speed, and are less abusive on the machine to make as well. Knurling is one of the highest strain operations on an engine lathe/turning center and if not flooded with copious amounts of coolant or oil, the little tools that make the diamonds will clog up and destroy the part quite easily. By milling the shallow notches it was a simple mill op repeated a number of times, as the part is indexed a few degrees between cuts. This makes manufacturing VERY fast and produces beautiful results…that just don’t feel as good to me. Because I am accustomed to the rough texture of the knurled rings and these are not like that. That is not to say that they don’t work, quite the opposite, they work really well actually, but may post a problem with gloves into the winter. But now I am splitting hairs, so let’s look at some photos!

f0.95 basically in the dark with the shutter speed at 1/400sec.

Some notes about shooting with this lens. It is easy to use for street photos and the such when stopped down. It is not as easy when wide open… The reason is because all large aperture lenses have super shallow depth of field when shot wide open, well f0.95 is so wide open that you have to take a few shots as the subject will move in and out of focus pretty easily. Don’t just shoot one and call it done, it is probably out of focus… lol. I laughed here, but it probably is out of focus… It is the nature of fast glass with manual focus. I am not bothered by this, but some people are, so if you need tack sharp on the first try, then maybe you should buy the native autofocus glass for your brand of camera.

With the previous said, it seems that the more you practice doing it, the easier it gets to get sharp photos. I guess practice does matter… lol. Another thing to remember is that since the lens has no electronics, there is no meta data nor is there anything to help meter, other than the newer mirrorless machines can meter off the sensor, and the only mode of operation on the camera is manual mode. I can get away with automatic ISO as the camera meters off of the sensor in my Leica CL so it doesn’t need the lens to know the metering, but you might need to keep this in mind on your camera. The lens also comes in a plethora of mounting solutions so it should be able to be installed on pretty much any APSC camera out there, just check their website HERE for more info about it.

So there you have it, another wonderful little lens from the fine folks over at TTArtisan and I am not surprised to be honest, they have come on the scene and are taking over the 3rd party lens market by storm. Hope you have a wonderful day and get your camera out and go take some photos with it!

Minimalist YouTuber Kit

So I get the question from time to time, “What do I need to make YouTube videos?” In the past I have always had this convoluted answer that included WAY too much stuff.

My current camera is a DJI Osmo Action on a GoPro Selfie stick that has a tripod in the base.

Now I have been making videos for a while and have found, what I feel, is the perfect “location” kit that can do double duty for your studio kit in a pinch.

Videos can be made with virtually any device these days. Anything from your smart phone, to a ARRI Alexa is in use on YouTube. What I have found for me that works really well though is a good action camera. I have used GoPro cameras with great success as well as my current machine, the DJI OSMO Action. Mine is the “gen 1” camera so they are really inexpensive now, and it works great once you learn its limitations. The main things I like about this little camera is that it has the front screen to help with framing the shot and that it has REALLY good stabilization for something so small. It is so good that I don’t bother with a gimbal at all. It isn’t perfect, but it is good enough for me.

The tripod is a nice touch and I use this more than I like to admit as it is so handy. The only problem is that I still have to find a surface tall enough to set it on to get the shot I want.

This is something that lots of creators forget for some reason, batteries and lots of them, especially if you plan to shoot a lot of B roll as well as A roll. I carry at least 3 on every trip and usually more if they are charged. Batteries are cheap and you dont want to have to shut down a project to charge a dead battery…

Next thing I like to have is this little GoPro to cold shoe adapter that allows for POV recording on your camera hot shoe. This is awesome for the times when you want to share how you got the shot as well as the finished product.

Now we are done with video and the next thing we have to address is sound. No one will watch your videos if your sound is trash. It is true. Just try to do it yourself and you will see, sound is arguably more important than the video footage itself. So I learned a while back to record audio off camera with a separate recorder, this was before the on camera solutions were so prevalent and I still use it today because it works so well. This is the Zoom F1 field recorder and it comes with the lav mic in the picture. It works REALLY well and allows you to get audio when you are far from the camera as well as right up next to it. Shotgun mics that mount on the camera work great for talking to the camera footage but don’t work when you want to get a shot of you away from the camera and are still talking about what you are doing. This is why I like separated audio. It is pretty simple to sync up in the video editor too so it isn’t a problem for me to do it this way.

This is a wind muff, loving called a “dead cat” by the Rode microphone company…lol. It stops the wind noise when you are outside and softens the audio somewhat too, I love these and use them literally everywhere when recording audio. Even when I don’t need them.

Of course these are spare batteries for the recorder as it uses standard AAA batteries so I keep some in the little bag in case my rechargeables go dead before I am finished for some reason. These have saved a shoot more than once…

I bought this lens pouch off of eBay to house the “kit” so that it is a ready to go system that I can just grab when I want to work on a video. It was not very expensive at the time since it was used and works really well and since it is Thinktank Photo is even has a rain cover in the base of it! A lot of times I will wear it on my belt just to have to extra pocket it provides. It is perfect for my needs here.

Did you see or notice anything that is missing or that needs updating? Let me know! Then get your camera out and go take some photos!!!