@photonewspn | photographynews.co.uk
GEAR / 47
TESTED: SHURE MOVEMIC 88+ KIT
Shure thing for super stereo sound
£439
shure.com
The receiver is compact and fits to a coldshoe, where it can be rotated forward to make it less obtrusive
Shure’s latest Movemic 88+ audio kit is the wireless stereo condenser mic and its companion receiver, costing £439. The mic has built-in wireless so can communicate to a smartphone with no accessories needed, but to plug it into a camera then the Movemic Receiver is essential. The mic can be bought alone for £289, though. This is the first wireless stereo mic with selectable polar patterns.
TESTED: POLARPRO CHROMA VND/PL FILTERS
McKinnon’s magic filters do double duty
Verdict Overall rating 8/10 Well-built kit that lets you record in different patterns wirelessly, straight to your smartphone or camera receiver and the menus are navigated by a small joystick, which is better than the tiny touchscreens some brands use. The audio is clear and bright, and the stereo works to really create a three- dimensional soundscape. presets, high-pass filter and noise reduction are via the Shure Motiv smartphone app or receiver. The receiver is compact and fits to a coldshoe, where it can be rotated forward to make it less obtrusive. It plugs into the device with a 3.5mm jack, and there’s also a headphone jack with a volume control. The mic quickly connects to the For example, monocardioid is an omnidirectional pattern and is ideal for recording general sound. Or you might want to set adjustable stereo so viewers can detect where the sound is coming from – ideal for wildlife filming or shooting a live band. To record two people talking at once, such as in an interview, then bidirectional is an ideal setting. And there are five built-in presets: speech, singing, flat, acoustic and loud, so you can get recording quickly. There’s no auto-level, but these settings can still get you reasonably close to what you might need. Fine-tuning of gain, EQ, mute,
£239 polarpro.com Trendy filter firm Polarpro made its name with high-grade variable ND filters, designed and promoted heavily by magician-turned-YouTuber Peter McKinnon. The newest versions are available in a VND/PL style: a combined variable ND and circular polariser which can be used to cut out reflections and add colour saturation to certain parts of an image like the sky. The Chroma VND/PL McKinnon Edition II filters have an adjustable ND filter in click-stops from 2-5-stop, which we tested, or there’s also a 6-9-stop. The Chroma glass allows the filter to have two independently controlled elements for neutral density and polarisation. The new glass also increases the filter’s colour accuracy. When you carefully rotate the whole filter around – without changing the VND setting – you can see the effect of a polarising filter. You can see glare and reflections changing, and the sky darkening, for example. What you see is what you get, all from one filter. But there aren’t any click-stops or specific
markings to let you see how far the polariser has moved. The simple screw-on Chroma VND/PL McKinnon Edition II 2-5-stops filter is £239. The same filter in a Helix Maglock version costs £300, plus you need the right-size £25 adapter to fit your lens. The system uses a baseplate to screw onto your lens, then the actual filter uses magnets and a small bayonet system to make them fast to attach. The results are even better than with the original VND version. The image quality is even more impressive and the polarisation works incredibly well – even using a wide-angle lens, when the sky can darken more in one area than another. We found very little evidence of this.
Verdict
Overall rating 9/10 The best VND filter system we’ve ever used
THAT’S A WRAP The whole Shure kit comes in a roll-up pack, and is so much more than a typical wireless mic kit
Always in my bag: The one item I simply can’t live without…
unpleasant yellow background and blown highlights. By using a flashgun, I can fill in the shadow areas and balance the exposure of the subject and background. Finding a flash that’s quick and easy to use and light enough to carry all day, with sufficient power to use in bright sunshine, is a challenge. I’ve tried many options, including the big hammerhead guns and Canon’s flagship Speedlites with external battery packs. These packs frequently become detached or shut themselves off.
When Canon released the pro-spec Speedlite EL-1, it solved everything. It’s extremely powerful and very easy to slip on and off the camera. The rechargeable battery recycles very quickly too. The only downside is its hefty price tag of £1200, and that’s if you can even find one. I use it on my EOS R1, and Canon hasn’t launched a replacement flagship flash with the smart hotshoe yet. For the kind of demanding outdoor work I do, the EL-1 has earned its place in my kit.
“My Canon Speedlite EL-1,” says Steve Dawe. As an event photographer, I often have to shoot in midday sunshine. My subjects
are horses and their riders – and in competition, riders must wear helmets, which all have peaks that create hard shadows across faces. I can turn and shoot into the sun, and expose for the shadows, but this often results in an
Powered by FlippingBook