Frederik Bøving – Page 13

Review: WD My Passport external HDD 4TB

Important

This is not a product designated to photographers. I know. But backups of your photography data is so important working as a photographer, that I take the liberty to review this product in that context.

I have several of these drives. I do backups at least every month and as part of my year end procedure. And do I then store it in a drawer? No, not immediately. I drive the backup far away from where I live and store it in my summer house (swapping backups with a friend also works). That way I am safe in case of fire or theft.

You may think that no one breaks into your house or that a fire is unlikely, but recently we have had a client where half of their house burned to the ground, and this was the part of the house where the pictures they had bought from us were located. The first thing they asked us was if we could reproduce the images – and I was happy to say yes, knowing that I had several digital copies of the images in several locations.

The tin

This little 4TB drive weighs around 200 grams (a little less if you go for the 2TB or 1TB versions). I find the price around 130 EUR here in Denmark very fair, but in the US and UK they can be bought for less than that. 4TB is a massive amount of data, and I manage to put several years of data on a single drive.

Content

There is not much to say about the content of the box: A drive, a little guide and a USB cable. That’s it. What you cannot see is that the drive is pre-formatted – you can get versions for both Windows and IOS. I got the Windows version.

There is also pre-installed software on the drive that allows you to encrypt the data and facilitate the backup process. I have not used this part – I simply use the Lightroom facility “export this folder as a catalogue”; then I know I can import it again and get all the edits etc maintained. Probably also possible with the backup software provided by Western Digital, but I prefer a process that is simple and low-tech.

Operation

The drive is quiet. If you lift it while it is working, you can feel the gyro effect of the hard disk drive spinning fast, but you can hardly hear it. The little light on the side of the drive flashes when the drive is working and is steady when not. If the drive is working, then it is vulnerable to say being dropped or bumping into something. The head of the drive will potentially touch the drive with severe consequences. So only move the drive when it is not at work.

There is no on/off switch. In the beginning I found that a bit odd. But the drive can sense the power disappearing and manages to park the head before the power runs out. It took me a little while to get used to.

I backup using Lightroom as I previously stated, and the combination of Lightroom and this drive is no speedy Gonzales. It takes time. But as it says very little, you can have the backup running while you are working in Lightroom; it seems to me the backup process takes very little energy from Lightroom, and as such the time required to do the backup is not issue for me.

Verdict

You may have guessed that I really like this product, as I have several of them. It provides an astonishing amount of room for data (4TB) at a reasonable price of 130 EUR, the operation is silent and the drive is only 18mm thick, and 7,5 x 10,5 cm in size. The USB connector is not USB-C, but it still manages to get the data safely across and power the drive at the same time. HDD may not be the latest and most fancy technology, but for backups I prefer proven technology, and that it certainly is. I can recommend this product.

Video link

Review: Asus TX-AX58U router – Smart WiFi 6

Back in the day…

I like Apple products. They are perhaps over-priced, but very nice in design and for me easy to understand. So when my trusty router, the Apple Airport Extreme finally gave in after many years of service, I was ready to make a replacement purchase. But I was to learn that Apple stopped producing routers back in 2018! I felt very alone all of a sudden, but also the pressure from the family missing the router for both work and streaming!

So there was nothing to do but consult the homepage of the local IT hardware pusher to see what I could find. And as I feared, the list of routers was long and intimidating, leaving only network engineers happy: routers of many different manufacturers with strange names and prices that range from next-to-nothing to crazy expensive.

I would love to claim that my purchase of the router was a rational man decision after scanning the market for all available options. It was not. This little label pushed me in the direction of the Asus router.

I know from experience that buying the most expensive gear is seldom worth it, and the other end of the scale is also to be avoided. So a good middle-of-the-road alternative is what I was looking for. Me eyes fell on the Asus RT-AX58U for two reasons: it was on sale, and it had a little “readers choice” award that lifted my confidence from zero to just a little bit. The name itself (RT-AX58U) meant nothing to me, other than sending a strong signal that Asus has hired more engineers than marketing people!

From the tin. Lots of things I don’t understand!

The “key selling arguments” on the tin meant next to nothing to me, but I have later learned that the AiMesh is a way to connect several units into the same network in a smart way. So with only the worst of expectations, I pushed the purchase button and started to wait for the parcel to arrive at my doorstep.

Setup

When I opened the box, this is what met my eyes. Intimidating for a non-engineer. But it turned out to be not bad at all.

Opening the parcel, I found what I feared the most: a complex looking compilation of items to be assembled – my IKEA complex started growling in the distance. But I quickly learned that it essentially was the router itself, a power supply and a network cable! What a relief

Power supply and a network cable. That is all that is required other than the box itself. The intimidating booklet named “Quick start guide” to the left.

However, the “quick start guide” quickly reversed that: it was a thick booklet! What! Apple’s quick start guides can fit into a single A5 paper!

The user guide is a book! But the reason is that it comes in a large number of languages. The relevant section is only a few pages – phew!

But it turned out that the size of the booklet was related to the number of languages involved, and that the relevant pages were only a few! I was back in business!

Router rear. Leftmost the power supply, then the power on/off switch, then a USB plug that I have never used, 4 physical network connectors in yellow, the network connector for the internet, a WPC button and rightmost a reset button.

So I plugged the power supply cable into the rear of the router along with the supplied network cable, which I connected to my LAN. My ISP has provided another router that connects to the internet so the role of the Asus is to give WIFI on first floor where the ISP router has insufficient reach.

You can setup the router two ways I learned from the guide: using a browser and a URL, or by downloading the Asus app and take it from there. I chose the latter, and was asked for two things during the setup: A SSID plus password, and an ID and password for logging onto the router. That’s it! After that the network just worked!

Everything I buy seems to be in need of a firmware upgrade. This one is no different. Luckily it was a fast and hassle free experience.

Of course I cannot buy a gadget without the first thing that happens is that it demands to have the firmware updated! It seems to be a thing that haunts me, and this one was no different. But it was both quick and easy.

And then – of course – I misspelled the SSID! I found that the easiest was to reset the router to factory settings and re-do the installation process, this time with the correct spelled SSID. Although there is a “reset” button on the rear of the router, the way to reset it is to turn it off, hold the “WPS” button and then turn it on. I tried to do that holding the “reset” button instead and that led nowhere, so remember that reset to factory settings involves the “WPS” button and not the “reset” button.

I love this: you push a button in the app and the network optimizes itself. It could be a big make believe button, but it feels great that I don’t have dive into technical details to have a optimized network!

The app is easy to use and hold a lot of good information, for example a list of the units logged on to the WIFI, and you can rename them from mumbo jumbo to something useful like “Frederiks Ipad” or the like. Great! Also the app has features like network optimization and allows you to give priority to certain types of network traffic over others. I have no idea if this works or not, but it seems smart.

The app has lots of interesting screens and metrics. Here a real time traffic overview. Another useful screen is one that lists all units logged onto the WIFI.

Conclusion

I found this little router easy to set-up and install, despite my track record of messing up even the simplest network things. The app gives useful information in a not-too complicated user interface.

In terms of alternatives to this router or if the price around 120 EUR is fair or not, I have no idea or baseline to assess. There are cheaper alternatives out there, and maybe they can do the job as well, but I just wanted a hassle free solution with quick installation, and that I got.

I am glad the router is in a location in the house we seldom visit. It is a little black plastic thing with 4 antennas, and the design immediately makes you want to wear a silver hat and talk to UFO’s. I have no idea if the antennas play an important role or not, but this router has no better reach than my deceased and beautifully designed Apple router, unfortunately.

Review: Ulanzi G9-5 Metal Cage for GoPro 9 and GoPro 10

No nonsense

The Ulanzi G9-5 Metal Cage for GoPro 9 and GoPro 10 comes in a small plastic wrapped cardboard box that certainly does not make a big fuzz with colorful images or the like. It signals an engineering no-nonsense approach from the very start.

Review: Ulanzi G9-5 Metal Cage for GoPro 9 and GoPro 10 — The Ulanzi G9-5 comes with in a small box with no user guide.

In the box you will find the cage itself, with a small cage for the sound adapter already mounted at the bottom.

To fit the GoPro Hero 9 or 10 into the cage, the rear of the cage has a sliding door. The door is locked into position by a small spring laden ball that fits into a dent into the rear side of door. This works really well. The door on the side of the cage follow the same principle.

Mounting the GoPro in the cage is very easy and after closing the sliding door on the rear, the GoPro is well protected. The lens is protected from the side by a metal ring, but unfortunately this metal ring also blocks a little of the view to the front LCD, which is a bit annoying, but not a showstopper in any way. The metal ring around the lens has a thread to mount filters in front of the lens.

One very important feature of the Ulanzi cage is that it holds the sound adapter for the GoPro, that would otherwise be dangling down the side of the GoPro, at risk of being accidentally pulled out. The adapter simply slides sideways into position as in kept there by a little bit of friction – this also works well and I think there is little risk that the adapter by accident will be pushed sideways out of the cage.

The cage comes with a metal door that has a small hole to give access to the USB-C connector on the side of the GoPro. This door cannot be mounted together with the GoPro door, so you have to choose between GoPro door (waterproof) or the cage door (access to the USB-C connector).

If you choose the GoPro door, then be aware that it cannot be opened while mounted in the cage – you have to take it out of the cage to get access to the battery, SD-card and USB-C connector.

As I am very dependent on access to the USB-C connector, the choice is easy, but I have to be careful with water and dust.

Another item that I am keen to keep track of is my Røde wireless recever (sound), that needs to connect to the adapter at the bottom of the cage. You can find a review of the Røde wireless Go here.

There are two cold shoes for mounting the Røde sender, either at the top or the side. If you mount it on the side, then access to the power button is blocked, so I prefer to have the Røde on top of the cage instead.

The black box on the top of the cage can easily be removed – I think it mainly serves to give some distance between the camera and the microphone, in case you want a microphone to be mounted on the top.

I have not really used the 2nd cold shoe, but I would imagine that a small light could go here to help out in case the ambient light does not suffice.

The final thing to do is mount the cage on a tripod or the like, and for this purpose there is a thread at the bottom of the cage, or more precisely at the bottom of the holder for the sound adapter.

So with both the Røde and the sound adapter mounted on the cage, and the cage on a tripod or the like, you are ready for vlogging with all your bits and bobs well under control and your GoPro well protected.

Conclusion

I really like this little no-nonsense product. It does exactly what I had expected it to. It protects the GoPro well, it gives access to vital buttons and contacts and it keeps track of the additional items that I need for sound and light. And then it enables you to mount filters in front of the lens and put the GoPro on a tripod out of the box.

The only problems that I see with this product is that it partly blocks the view to the front for LCD for vloggers that need to frame what they shoot while in front of the camera. And then the cage is not water or dust proof when you want to have access to the USB-C connector like me. But in all fairness, this is more due to GoPro that insist both an adapter and a connector is necessary to get the sound into the GoPro.

Price wise I find this product to be a bit on the steep side, but it is very well made and keeps a much more valuable product well protected. So I guess it is ok, but a bargain it is certainly not.

Shopping link

Buy the cage on Amazon here.

Review: Photo Icons, 50 landmark photographs and their stories, by Hans-Michael Koetzle

400+ pages of iconic images

The title of the book as per the headline is a very precise description of what this book is all about. It “puts some of the most important photographic landmarks under the microscope” as it says on the cover. And very much so.

Photo icons, 50 landmark photographs and their stories, by Hans-Michael Koetzle.

The 50 images are presented and analyzed over the 400+ pages of the book, giving an average of 4 pages per iconic photograph. Enough to cover the basics and tell the story around each picture.

The table of content has an excellent overview with each picture in icon size and annotated with the relevant year and page to look up. The 50 images range from year 1827 to 2001. So you can quickly dive into the images of interest (I doubt you will read the book from front to back unless you are equally interested in each image).

Photographer Peter Leibings picture “Leap to Freedom” from 1961, just after the wall between East and West Berlin was in effect.

As I “cherry picked” the images of most interest, I have not read every single page in the book, but many of them, and I really enjoyed the “behind the scenes” view that you get to each image: What was the story, the photographer, what was going on in the world at the time the shot was taken, was it staged or candid, etc. Hans-Michael Koetzle really packs a lot of information into very few pages for each picture – it is a condensed read, but certainly worth the while.

So as a photographer it is not a book that will make you wiser in terms of photo technique (f/11 vs f/5.6), but it really documents how a photograph – even with all the videos and movies available today – can be powerful and influence what we remember and how we see history. And as such it for me adds a layer to my motivation to shoot the best pictures I possibly can.

Nikon Z6ii: Focus shift shooting for landscapes

Vary the focus

Focus shift shooting is not a new thing as such, but the automation of it is new to me, owning primarily DSLRs like the Nikon D4, D750 and D700. The Nikon Z6ii offers an automation of a series of shots where the focus is shifted a little bit for each – moving from near to far. When you do focus shift shooting, the Z6ii will produce a series of images to be merged in post processing.

It is a precondition that the camera is able to control the focus of the lens, so manual focus lenses of course cannot be used when shooting focus shift. As the Nikon ML cameras do not have mechanical AF motors built into them (nor does the FTZ adapter), this means that AF and AF-D lenses do not work, nor does AI and AIS lenses unfortunately.

Focus shift shooting enables you to have images where the depth of field is indefinite, as you in post processing combine the images into one image, picking the sharpest part from each. The only “price” you have to pay is that the shots need to be taken from the same viewpoint and angle (using a tripod) and that you cannot have any moving parts in the frame while the shots are taken. But both these are easy to fulfill as a landscape photographer.

Another thing to be aware of is the lens and if it suffers from focus breathing. If that is the case, then the images will be very difficult to merge in post processing, as you involuntarily will be zooming during the shots. Merging images with different angles of view is mission impossible. So make sure to use a lens that does not have focus breathing.

Best results are achieved shooting where the lens is the sharpest, typically around f/8 or f/5.6 – avoid very open apertures (e.g. f/1.8) and very closed apertures (e.g. f/22) as your lens most likely is not the sharpest in these extremes. Use a “middle of the road” aperture, where you know your lens is sharp.

Configuration

To initiate the shooting, you first have to find the “focus shift shooting” menu in the “photo shooting menu”. It is the second last item in a long list that spans across several pages.

After selecting that one, the “focus shift shooting” menu appears. When you hit “start” (highlighted in yellow below) the camera starts shooting a series of images according to the parameters set below.

The menu above looks a bit long and intimidating at first, but don’t worry, it is relatively few parameters you will be changing after the initial setup.

The number of focus shots can be set to a very high value, like 100. The camera stops shooting new images when it reaches infinity, so for landscapes you cannot really set this value too high. I think the large possible number here is intended for macro photography. In my experience 5-6 images are more than plenty for a landscape shot.

The focus step width is not very well documented in the Nikon manual, but it has to do with how large steps the camera takes between shots. Values range from 1 to 10. You have to give it a try here. I have set mine to 5 and it works fine. In my experience, the chosen aperture has more influence on the number of shots than this parameter.

The interval to next shot is intended to give flashes time to recycle power and for landscapes I do not use flashes, so it is set to 0″ in my case.

The first frame exposure lock is important to have switched on. It secures that the exposure values are not changed throughout the shots. Provided that there are no changes in ambient light during the series, you should get consistent exposure results across the images in a series. You can of course fix this in post processing if you really know your software, but IMHO it is much easier to get right in camera.

The silent photography is switched on in my case. I like that I can hear what the camera is doing when it shoots the series. This tells me how many images are there and when the shooting is done. It is of course a matter of personal preference, so entirely up to you. But the camera is not very informative when it is done shooting, so I like to have some sound to relate to.

The starting storage folder can be handy for separating the images from others, as you will be generating quite a lot of images.

Shooting

Be fore you give the camera green lights to shoot a series, it is important that you initially have focused on the closest part that you want to be sharp in the frame. So if you have a stone or the like in the foreground that you want to be sharp, make sure to focus here before initiating the shot. Once the shot is done, the camera leaves the focus to infinity.

Other than keeping the camera still using a tripod, shooting at a middle aperture and selecting a scene with no moving parts, there is actually not much more to it than that. Only remember to focus near every time before the first shot. And then pray that the ambient light stays constant throughout the series.

Post processing

The first time I read about focus shift shooting, I was hoping that it would also do the post processing in camera, just like your smartphone effortlessly merges several images together when you instruct it to shoot HDR. Unfortunately that is not the case – we “only” get a series of images and have to do the post processing ourselves.

If you open the images as layers in Photoshop, the process is not complicated at all: first ask photoshop to align the images, then ask photoshop to merge the images and finally you may want to crop the image a bit as the edges may look funny after the alignment is done. You find the items you need in the edit menu. The first item is named Auto-Align layers… and the second one is named Auto-Blend images. When you select these a menu appears in both cases – I just say OK to the default values.

Lightroom processing — Here the 2 images in the top of the series have been taken out, and you can see how Photoshop via masks join the images into one. The two images removed (no “eye” bottom right) are the ones focusing on the near part in the picture.

I recently shot a scene with a icicle in the foreground and a path in the woods leading to some trees in the background. When merging the series of images in Photoshop, you can see that photoshop uses masks to select the sharp parts from each image – black conceals, white reveals. In the example above I have deselected the two images that deliver the part closest to the camera (the white part).

So if you have managed to keep the camera still etc., the resulting image should be one with what appears to be infinite depth of field. Everything in the frame is sharp, from front to back.

If you like this kind of shooting is of course entirely up to you. Some think it looks a bit artificial, and prefer that sharpness is a function of the aperture and a single focus point. I have added it to my toolbox as an option that I sometimes use subject to – well – the subject. It is all up to you!

Video link

Review: Røde Wireless Go

Easy to use

It is seldom that I praise a product for being easy to use. Somehow, when everybody tells me a product is easy to use, I manage to find the wrong way to go about things, and a well designed easy to use product suddenly becomes complicated. Not so with the Røde wireless go. It is just plug and play – no need to pray!

Røde Wireless Go review — The essentials: A sender, a receiver, two dead cats and a connector cable from receiver to camera (red).

It consists of a sender unit, a receiver unit and a cable to go between the receiver and the camera. In addition there are two “dead cats” to mount on top of the sender, to reduce noise from wind and the like. The sound is then wirelessly transmitted in real time from the sender (with the mike) to the receiver. No cable to be tangled up with or other cumbersome things. A simple solution to getting the sound from a microphone in front of the camera, to the camera’s mike input connector.

The tin promises that this is an ultra compact wireless solution with digital transmission and a built in microphone. All this is true. The marketing department did not exaggerate at all.

To activate the system, you hold in the button marked “ø” for a few seconds, and the units turn on. The sender and receiver connected the first time I turned them on. No need to pair them or the like. Brilliant!

The sender has a built in microphone, but I prefer not to use this one. The sound is great, but it requires that you have the unit close to the one speaking and hence very visible. The unit is small, but not very discrete when recording a video close up!

The DB button changes mike sensitivity. Toggle between high, medium and low. I always use medium.

You can regulate the sound level hitting the “dB” button. It circles between high, medium and low. I have only used the medium setting – it works fine and further adjustments can be made in post to fit your needs.

The receiver unit has battery indicators for both the sender and the receiver, so there is no display on the sender. I seldom record for more than an hour at a time, and for my needs there has always been plenty of battery power on both sender and receiver, so for my needs battery power is more than sufficient.

Two blue diodes on the sender indicate if the sender is connected to the receiver and if it has sufficient battery. If you need more details, you need to consult the receiver.

In terms of connectivity I have not stress tested the connection, but recording a video recently where I was out and about with perhaps 10 meters distance between sender and receiver, I experienced no issues with the connectivity. Clear and crisp sound all the way with no dropouts or similar issues. It just works.

The only thing that may be a bit tricky is the connector when you want to use your own microphone. The Røde Go system requires a TRS connector, and your microphone may have a TRRS connector. In that case, you need an adapter as shown in the image above. So count the number of rings on your connector, and if it is 4, then make sure to get an adapter when you order your copy of the Røde Go.

A final thing that I want to bring up is the fact that both units charge via USB-C. I cannot underline the importance of industry standards and USB-C is exactly such one. I am so glad the Wireless Go comes with no chargers at all! Wonderful! If you knew how many chargers I have on stock for my cameras and flashes…. I welcome USB-C so very much. And of course also the USB to USB-C cables that came along with the Wireless Go system.

Conclusion

If you want a simple cable-free solution to transmit sound from a microphone in front of your camera to your cameras input port, this is a really easy to use and stable solution for exactly that need. Just make sure you have an adapter if your microphone has a TRRS connector.

The solution reviewed here is not applicable if you want to record an interview or other situations where several channels need to be recorded in parallel. I believe Røde also has a more advanced solution for such situations, but that is not the product reviewed here.

I have used this solution for my YouTube videos and for my needs (walking and talking in front of a camera), this solution fits my needs spot on. It is simple to use, stable and with good connectivity. Exactly what I need, for less than 100 EUR. Highly recommended.

Review: Wild and Fearless by Uri Løvevild Golman

What a life!

When I started reading this book, my immediate reaction was: what a life this guy has had! And my next was: hmm, is my life a little boring perhaps?

The first 2/3rds of the book is a super entertaining and seemingly endless stream of adventures, beautiful women, new friendships, more adventures, great food and lots of alcohol! We follow Uri as he describes his life as a ski bum, bartender, a soldier in the Israeli army and travel adventurer.

Wild and Fearless by Uri Løvevild Golman – the epic life story of a National Geographic photographer

About 2/3rds the focus shifts towards Uri’s career as a wildlife photographer and how he and Helle (2nd wife) finally makes it as National Geographic Photographers. The adventures continues, but with Helle and photography in the center.

I must admit that I bought the book to see if I would be able to look over the shoulders of one of the greatest wildlife photographers of all times, but I was in that sense a bit disappointed. There is no description of f/8 versus f/11 or how Uri learned to photograph. Only his photography mentors are briefly mentioned. However, you do get to understand how much hard work there is in wildlife photography – one example is hiking 3 weeks in icy mountains only to come home with zero images of the snow leopard!

But I got something else: I got insight into a man with a mentality that very few posses. At age 42 he was attacked and stabbed to a degree where most of us would have given up, and he was dead for several minutes before being revived. The attack left him injured with permanent disabilities as his brain was deprived oxygen for several minutes. He says towards the end of the book: “I have finally come to terms with the truth: I will never be able to walk freely again; no more hiking under the stars in the tundra or the forest. Nor will I be able to work my camera”. However, he refuses to take the role as a victim and he does not show any signs of feeling sorry for himself.

It is Uri’s hope that the book will give others inspiration to follow their hearts and dreams. Speaking for myself, I can say: mission accomplished.

I give this book my highest recommendations.

Nikon FTZ adapter: Is it waterproof?

When it rains, it pours…

The other day I was out shooting, a happy camper that did not consult the weather forecast. I paid the price for my ignorance, and was soon caught in a heavy downpour in January. The problem with January in Denmark in combination with rain is that there are no leaves on the trees, and hence nowhere to seek shelter.

The Nikon FTZ adapter — I hope you can see here how heavy the rain came down. This is actually a quiet lake on a windless day, but the hard rain makes all the difference!

Towards the end of the shoot I arrived at a big lake where the rain came down as if I had stepped into my morning shower wearing all my clothes! I was wearing proper clothing for the weather fortunately, but my camera gave up just when I was about to take a shot of the dramatic lake.

Lucky for me, I was able to use my iPhone to take a shot. The iPhone was difficult to operate because there was so much water on the screen that the phone had difficulties figuring out what was rain and what was my fingers trying to give instructions! But I succeeded as you can see above. I am still today really annoyed that I was not able to take shots with the Nikon Z6ii that I had brought along with the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm VRii. But the camera had stopped working and the iPhone image is all I got.

If you remember mounting a lens on a DSLR without setting the aperture locked at the minimum value (say f/32), then you probably also know the “FE” error, where the camera tells you that you need to change the aperture on the lens. This is exactly the message I got in the top LCD, and a more elaborate version in the rear LCD. The camera had stopped working, and there was nothing I could do out in the rain. It was clear to me that the CPU contacts had been short-circuited by rain getting into the camera somehow.

Arriving at home I could get the Nikon Z6ii to work with a S-series lens, so the camera was fine. And I could get the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm VRii to work with my Nikon D4. So the problem was isolated to the FTZ adapter. And I found water inside the FTZ adapter, that should not be there, so no wonder the camera could not talk properly to the lens.

After drying the FTZ adapter for a few hours it all started to work again and I was very relieved. I would have been sorry to see my almost brand new Nikon Z6ii being damaged for obvious reasons, and also I would have hated my beloved Nikon AF-S 70-200mm VRii lens to stop working. I could have accepted the FTZ adapter to be damaged, but was so lucky that also this one got back in operation.

My solution to all this is to get a rain cover for the camera. They come in different sizes and price ranges, but I am sure they would have saved me for the watery experience. I know that both lens and camera are waterproof, but going forward I prefer to be better safe than sorry, and will bring a rain cover for eventualities.

Video link

Nikon FTZ adapter: When is it relevant?

The go-between solution

When Nikon launched their mirrorless camera series, they did so introducing a new lens mount called the Z-mount. It was a brand new design with a larger diameter than the classic F-mount and also it had a much shorter flange distance, both – according to Nikon – to improve image quality.

The new Nikon Z-mount is only compatible with a brand new line of lenses, known as the Z-mount lenses or S-lenses. These lenses fit directly to the Z-mount. As all the S-lenses have motors built into them, there is no need for a focus motor in the mirrorless camera bodies.

In order to give some backward compatibility with all the good glass made from the middle of the former century and still being made today, Nikon decided to market an adapter, the so called FTZ adapter, or the F-mount to Z-mount adapter. It was probably also because the amount of glass available to the Z-mount was very limited when the ML series was new, so many focal lengths were simply not available for the Z-mount previously.

Nikon FTZ adapter — The back of the FTZ adapter shown to the left. This side faces the Nikon mirrorless camera when mounted.

The FTZ-adapter allows you to shoot with all the glass that is made for the F-mount, as the adapter takes F-mount glass on the front and fits to the Z-mount on the back. The only downside of this adapter, other than the price of it and that is slows down AF speed a little bit, is that it has no focus motor built into it. All the glass with mechanical auto focus is dependent upon a motor in the camera body, and hence you are left with manual focus for these lenses. AF-S glass with the motor built into the lens of course auto focuses as it should, but many will probably hold on to their DSLRs to maintain auto focus for AF and AF-D glass.

Many have speculated that Nikon would produce a FTZ-adapter with a motor built into it, but I doubt it will happen. Nikon did produce a FTZ adapter version 2, but this one is specifically designed for the Z9 camera body, and still has no motor built into it.

So my best guess – and it is a guess – is that we will not see mechanical auto focus motors in the FTZ-adapter. I think Nikon finds that you have lots of aid in focusing manually in the ML system, if you insist to use vintage glass with the mirrorless cameras.

So the FTZ-adapter is relevant if you have F-mount glass that you love and want to hold on to, and at the same time want to upgrade to a mirrorless camera body. Other than giving you the benefits of a mirrorless camera relative to a DSLR, it also opens up a new (and expensive) world of S-series glass that in most cases have got excellent reviews for stunning results.

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Review: Waycap refillable capsules

Save the planet, save Money

No, I did not make up the headline above – it is a quote from the Waycap cardboard box! And it certainly does sound promising! I am not sure your coffee capsules can save the world, but moving from disposable coffee capsules to re-usable ones sounds to me like a small step in the right direction in terms of doing something positive for the environment. If you then in addition can save some money and on top of that have better control of what coffee goes into your capsules, then I think we are approaching something that sounds like good answers to the “why?” question: (1) Eco-friendly, (2) saves you money and (3) potentially gives you better coffee.

I must admit that I recycle also my disposable coffee capsules from Nespresso, so maybe the gain in that light is less, but saving money and making better coffee also sounds attractive to me. The review here is using a Nespresso coffee machine, but it works with many other brands according to the tin.

Waycap in the front, more traditional disposable alternative in the back. Notice the hollow ring where the needles from the coffee machine will go to.

The content of the package is two capsules, a tamper, a dispenser and a set of rubber rings to replace the ones mounted from the factory.

Content according to the tin, but you also get a range of plates to control the water flow and spare rubber bands to seal the capsules.

In addition to this a few plates with L-shaped holes in it is supplied. The point is that you can vary how long the water is to flow though the capsule, and you can experiment with different options to adjust to taste.

The plates to be mounted inside the capsule. The number of holes (L-shaped) determines how long time the coffee is in contact with the water. More holes, less time.

After you have mounted a plate inside the capsule, the simple process is to use the dispenser to get coffee into the capsule and after that use the stamper to pack the coffee.

The user guide is a bit intimidating at first, but once you get a hang of the system it quickly becomes a routine. But my first attempt at reading it Christmas eve was not successful. Find a quiet moment to take in the details.

The two capsules comes with a plastic tube to aid filling coffee into the capsule and a plastic tamper (right) to help you pack the coffee in the capsule.

A precision made super thin thread allows you to screw the lid on the capsule. It seems to me like really well made precision work by the Italian factory, and although I have not used the system for more than a few days, I would expect this to be a durable product that will last many years.

Also, there seems to be a solid supply of rubber rings to keep you going for many years forward, so this product should last you for many years.

The two capsules comes with a lot of rubber rings to replace the ones mounted from the factory.

I do miss somewhere to store both the extra plates and the rubber rings, but in daily use (once you have selected your favorite plates) the only thing you need is the capsules themselves, and they store neatly in the dispenser using the supplied lids for the top and bottom.

The plastic tube to aid filling the coffee into the capsules, doubles as a storage container, when the two lids (top and bottom) are added.

Verdict

Does it work? Yes, it does. I will say though that mounting the capsules, as well as removing it again, requires use of more force with my Nespresso machine than the disposable capsules, actually to a level where I in the beginning suspected that something was wrong. I am not sure if this will have a negative long term effect on my machine – time will tell, but there definitely is a big difference in the force you need to apply.

Any downsides? Yes, the time required to prepare a cup of coffee. One of the wonderful things about the Nespresso system is the ease and speed. And that you only make one cup, so you don’t waste coffee by brewing a full bowl only to drink a fraction. The latter is still maintained with the Waycap system, but it takes a lot more time to fill the capsule yourself. The speed and convenience drops. If you are willing to make this investment in going from fast-food to slow-food, then of course it is not an issue. But brewing 4 fast cups when friends drop by is not that easy. The use case is a bit different.

Any upsides? Yes, other than the gain for the environment, I can confirm that it is both cheaper and that you get better coffee. I love the Nespresso coffee, but you can afford to buy some really good coffee and still save money relative to the 1/2 EUR per cup that Nespresso charges. You will have to play a bit with the number of holes in the plates, the coffee type and how fine the coffee is grinded, but once you get that under control, it is a pure pleasure.

Any quirks? Yes, other than the capsules being a bit tougher to mount in the machine, I find that removing the plates with the holes from the capsules can be a pain. I think it is because water between the plate and the capsule creates a small vacuum that is difficult to overcome. The user guide also mentions that the capsules are rather hot just after you’ve made a cup, but I find that it gets cold much faster than the 10 minutes the guide recommends you wait.

Bottom line? I really like the Waycap system. It seems like a solid product of very high quality. And its key selling arguments are solid if you ask me. But sometimes I miss the speed of my disposable capsules. And for that reason I probably will use both, but the Waycap system will definitely make my use of disposable capsules drop dramatically. And that is not bad at all.

Important

The tin

Content

Operation

Verdict

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Setup

Conclusion

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