Hasta La Gadget!

David Hobby, the man responsible for re-lighting the enthusiasm for off-camera flash (and driving up second-hand prices of the same) has turned his lens on slavery. Not the unpaid servant kind, but the flash-triggering kind. A new article over at the Strobist blog (which you really should be subscribed to) details the different kinds of slaves, and how they work.

A slave unit is a simple trigger which closes a switch when it sees another flash. Thus, you can control many flashes from afar without wires. And while the operation is all-manual, slaving an old flashgun is way cheaper than buying the auto-everything strobes from Canon and Nikon.

There are two kinds: passive and powered. Read David’s excellent (and entertaining) post for the full run down, but the short form is that you should avoid passive units, which rely on gathering enough photons through their eyes to fire a trigger, and go for the powered units, which are a lot more sensitive. The best option is to only buy speed-lights with built-in slaves, as you don’t then have to drop extra cash on expensive adapter dongles.

A flash like the LP160 (which we reviewed a couple weeks back) is ideal. It’s cheap ($160) and the slave unit popped the flash every time in testing.

Failing this, you should buy the most expensive slave unit you can afford, otherwise you’ll suffer the rage-inducing frustrations of missed exposures. David tells us where to buy, and what buzzwords to look out for. Go read the article, and wait for part two, which will tell you how to get the most out of your brand new toy.

Understanding and Using Optical Slaves, Pt. 1 [Strobist]

Photo: Charlie Sorrel

See Also:

• Quad-Sync LumoPro Strobist Flash Pops Four Ways
• Hands-On With the Quad-Sync LumoPro Flash
• Strobist
• Strobist Designs Real Open Source Remote Trigger
• Cyber Commander: A Robot Overlord for the Strobist
• Cheap, Six-In-One Flash Mod Kit Looks Very Handy
• Cheap, Manual Flashgun: Built by Strobists, for Strobists

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

What do you know about Dwayne’s Photo Service of Parsons, Kansas? It is the place where the very last roll of the Kodachrome was processed.

Kodachrome, the slide-film that inspired songs, was discontinued by Kodak last year at 74 years of age. The color emulsion was a victim of its own weird processing requirements, which didn’t use the usual E6 chemistry designed for transparency film, and therefore wasn’t worth supporting in the age of digital.

The last roll was shot by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry, who shot the 36 exposures in New York (actually, the last three shots were exposed in Parsons before dropping off the film at Dwayne’s). The pictures will be part of a National Geographic piece in the near future.

McCurry’s film may have been the official last roll off the production line, but Dwayne’s will still process any Kodachrome that you might have until December 10th this year. And then it will shut down, forever. People may still shoot analog, but with the death of Kodachrome comes the spiritual death of film.

Last Kodachrome roll processed in Parsons [Wichita Eagle via Retro Thing]

Photo: Fay Ratta/Flickr

See Also:

• Mama, They Took My Kodachrome Away
• Film
• Five Ways Digital Cameras Beat Film

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Panasonic has released five new compact point-and-shoot cameras, ranging from the $250 TS10 up to the $500 LX5, whose premature store listing we covered yesterday. Instead of just running over the specs of the lineup, which would probably be even more boring for you than for me, we’ll take a look at the highlights, starting with the LX5.

The LX5 replaces the two-year-old LX3, but the similarities are bigger than the differences – the sensor is the same 10.1 MP CCD with tweaked sensitivity, for example. New is the redesigned hot-shoe which will now work with an optional electronic viewfinder, as is the ƒ2.0 lens, which now runs from 24-90mm instead of stopping at 60mm (35mm equivalent). Also new is a bigger grip and a GF1-style click-wheel instead of a joystick and the addition of the AVCHD-Lite format for recording 720p video. The price will be $500.

Next in line is the big fat FZ100, the new top-end hybrid which offers the bulk of an SLR with the trimmed-down functions of a compact (seriously, why does anyone buy these?). It has a 3-inch, 460,000 dot tiltable LCD, a too-big 14MP sensor and a huge 25-600mm (equivalent) zoom which opens to ƒ2.8-5.5 as you zoom. That’ll be another $500.

The $400 FX700 can be described as “competent”. It will fit in a pocket, shoot 1080i AVCHD video and 14.1MP stills and show them off on a 230,000-dot LCD, which is also touch-sensitive and does away with most of the buttons. The lens is a decent ƒ2.2-5.9 zoom with an equivalent focal length range of 24-120mm.

Skipping to the bottom-end we get to the $250 TS10, a ruggedized camera with yet another overcrowded 14.1MP sensor, which is waterproof to ten feet and can be dropped from five, shoots 720p video and has a zoom equivalent of 35-140mm. The aperture range is a pitifully average ƒ3.5-5.6.

Phew. The standout here is clearly the LX5, unless you want a bigger camera with a bigger zoom, in which case you should probably just go buy a cheap Canon or Nikon DSLR. Otherwise, buy any of these Panasonics, or any camera from any other first-tier manufacturer. Let’s be honest, they’re all pretty much the same.

LX5 [Panasonic]

FZ100 [Panasonic]

TS10 [Panasonic]

FX700 [Panasonic]

See Also:

• Panasonic Lumix GH1
• Lumix
• Panasonic Lumix G10
• A Month With the Lumix GF1, And Why I No Longer Use The Nikon D700 …

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

It’s tempting to call this information a leak, but when Panasonic posts a new camera in full on its store, and then leaves it there, its more of a “stealth launch” than a leak. The camera in question is the LX5, the successor to the well-regarded LX3.

The LX3 is Panasonic’s high-end point and shoot, characterized by a high-ISO, low-noise sensor and a fast, wide Leica lens, opening to ƒ2.0 and 24mm. The new LX5 keeps the same 10.1 MP sensor (although adds a wishful ISO 12,800 to the top end of sensitivity) and the same fast and wide maximum lens settings, but makes a lot of tweaks to an already very good camera.

First, the lens can now zoom out to 90 mm (against 60 mm) but the maximum aperture drops from ƒ2.8 to ƒ3.3 at the long end (still better than the widest aperture on most point-n-shoot cameras). The shutter speed now tops out at 1/4000th sec (previously 1/2000th sec), there is an option to use an electronic viewfinder (the LX3 only had an add-on optical finder), a jog dial instead of a nubbin for manual-focus, and the LX5 gets HDMI-out and VieraLink outputs.

There are other small changes, but they are incremental and incidental. What about price? As the LX5 has yet to appear in the Panasonic store, we can only guess. And my guess is that it will replace the LX3 and cost the same $500 RRP.

LX5 product page [Panasonic]

See Also:

• Lumix
• A Month With the Lumix GF1, And Why I No Longer Use The Nikon D700 …

Clearly “inspired” by Joby’s popular Gorillapod, the RM-110 Spide (yeah, we know: spelling fail) from Fotopro is another flexible, ball-jointed camera tripod. Unlike the Gorillapod, the Spide looks like a Terminator’s skeleton.

The Spide has a few other differences. First, the feet are interchangeable. You can choose from spikes, suction cups, magnets and regular soft-stepping rubber. Another addition is locking balls: The Gorillapod hangs on tight enough, but the Spide’s joints can be completely immobilized by clamping them shut with a screwdriver. This is probably less useful than it sounds: one of the best features of the Gorillapod is that it is so quick to deploy.

I wonder, too, about the build quality. A look at Fotopro’s site isn’t exactly confidence-inspiring. Amongst the odd sections (“shooting-sticks” and “working sticks”) you’ll such wonders as the “Charming Red Tripod” and the “Self-Fotor“. If you’re interested, the Spide will make it onto US soil in the last part of the year, for around $60. Those of you who are annoyed by bad spelling might want to save up a few Rs (or even a Y) in the meantime.

Fotopro’s fully adjustable flexible tripod with interchangeable feet [Gizmag]

Product Site [Fotopro]

Image credit: Gizmag

See Also:

• Gorillapod Go-Go: Miniature, Flexible Tripod
• CES: Joby Gorillapod Attaches Cameras to Anything
• Joby's New Tripod Gear: Magnets and Balls
• Tripods

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter..