Photography News Issue 54

Photography News | Issue 54 | photographynews.co.uk

30 Accessories test

Show stoppers! This year’s The Photography Show event was full of great new gear for the discerning photographer, but if you couldn’t make it, or didn’t see all that you wanted to, here’s PN’s pick of the bunch Buyers’ guide

ProMediaGear Katana Junior Gimbal head Gimbal heads are indispensable for long lens photography whether you’re shooting sports, action or wildlife. A gimbal head balances the weight of long, heavy lenses, making them feel almost weightless, so you can shoot withmore comfort and great sharpness, due to reduced camera shake. Launched about a year ago in the US, ProMediaGear’s Katana Junior was shown off at TPS, and drew lots of attention due to its high strength and low weight. Made of anodised, scratch-resistant aluminium alloy and precision machined in the US, the Katana Junior weighs only 1.09kg, but can support loads of up to 22.7kg, comfortably supporting the heaviest of body and lens combos. It also comes with a five-year guarantee. The head uses independent locking pan and tilt knobs and accepts Arca-Swiss style quick release plates. £549 promediagear.com

Manfrotto Pro Light FastTrack-8

Expanding its range of photo bags, Manfrotto showed off the new 2-in-1 FastTrack-8 sling at this year’s TPS. Unusually, the bag features an integrated camera strap; essentially you can attach your camera to the adjustable strap, meaning that it’s secured while in or out of the bag for increased safety. Lockable buckles ensure that the camera is safely attached and guard against the camera strap and shoulder strap getting tangled. As well as an area for your in-use body and lens, the FastTrack has a second compartment catering for additional lenses. There’s also a sleeve for a 9.7in tablet and additional accessory pockets. The bag’s outer is made of reinforced water-repellent fabric, and its internal storage usesManfrotto’sprovenCamera Protection System. £109.95 manfrotto.co.uk

Serif Labs Affinity Photo Affinity Photo is an image-editing package with a range of great features, and it’s a lot cheaper than Photoshop at only £48.99. Originally launched in 2015, the software has attracted plenty of plaudits, and this latest 1.5 version builds on these with some enticing new features. There’s a new HDR engine which merges exposures to give 32-bit linear colour space images, and also a new workspace for tone mapping the resulting files. As well as that, there’s full support for Raw files, layers, adjustment layers and masks; non-destructive editing; text and vector tools; focus stacking; lighting and blurring effects; a lens correction filter; and all the selection and retouching tools you’d expect to find in Photoshop, including a built-in frequency separation mode for improved portraits. £48.99 affinity.serif.com

Interfit LM8 100WLED light While lighting is vital for any video you want to produce, advances in both LED and camera technology are alsoopeninguppossibilities for continuous lights instillsphotography.NewfromInterfit is theLM8, a 100W LED studio monolight with a flicker-free output of 14100 Lux (at 1m) giving it plenty of punch close up and stepless control, allowing apower range of 10 to 100%. Thedaylight balanced light also claims a colour rating index of >95%. Weighing 2.12kg and with dimensions of 27x24x16cm, it’s compatible with a broad range of modifiers: the light has a pop-up softbox ring, Bowens S-mount andumbrella tube formounting brollies. LM8 heads are available individually, or as part of a kit with two heads, stands, pop-up softboxes and a bag. £189.99 interfitphotographic.com

Tetenal ChromaLuxe distribution The year’s TPSwas a huge showcase for great print products, and in that vein leading supplier of digital and inkjet printproducts,Tetenalwaskeentohighlightthatit’snowanofficialdistributorforChromaLuxe,theworld’sleading manufacturer of highdefinitionsublimatableprintmedia. TheChromaLuxeprocess allowsproductionof beautiful aluminium panel prints which are both UV and scratch resistant; images are infused directly from sublimation paper onto specially coatedmetal panels providing exceptional quality, resolution and longevity. Although Tetenal can supply all the equipment and consumables for you to produce your own ChromaLuxe prints, for enthusiasts, the route ismore likely to be Tetenal’s Outlab Print Service. From£27.50 tetenaluk.com

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