Daily Archives: May 13, 2014

10 years ago 26

Tuesday thoughts

I got a chance to try out a new camera back pack from Guru Gear when in Florida and it is a very interesting and different animal. The Guru Gear Uinta 30L is a medium size back pack made of extremely high end materials, that are also very light weight. What makes it unique compared to the hundreds of other backpacks is that it is hollow and comes with “modules” that can be customized to hold whatever gear you are planning to carry. The bag will hold two modules and they come in two sizes a medium and small. The modules can hold lenses, bodies, flashes, and accessories. Now here is the cool part, let’s say you are going out to hike and maybe take a few images, you could put the small module in with a body and just a couple of lenses and have the rest of the bag open for your lunch, a rain jacket and a polar fleece if it gets cool! This is a well thought out bag that has a great frame, and hold anywhere from a few items to an enormous amount of gear! It can be set up to open the interior section from the front or the back and has several spacious outer pockets. It also has a wonderful accessory for carrying your tripod, that really works, unlike some others I’ve tried. Bottom line is would I buy it? Yes, if I needed to carry a great deal of gear, comfortably and securely! Through the years I’ve used bags from Domke, Lowpro, Think Tank, and Guru Gear, they all are great in their own way. Domke is a throw back bag, old school, made of older materials, but built to really last and their shoulder bags are still among the best I’ve ever used. Lowepro makes the most variety of bags and is a good place to look if your needs are very specific, if you need something very specific, they probably have it! Think Tank builds stuff that are as tough as well, a “tank”. I’ve found them to be nearly indestructible and very well designed! Guru Gear came onto the scene making very good bags, well thought out, made of quality materials and once again cleverly designed, and the new Uinta 30L is a winner.

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Don’t miss this!!! The Nashville Event is really coming together with some incredible guests. In addition to Jim Begley, Nick Coury, of course, Ricky Skaggs, and I, we will be joined by the the fantastic Pete Collins of KelbyOne, super pastor, and great guy, Scotty Smith, and my dear buddy, brother, and killer shooter Vinny Colucci!!! This event will be limited to only a dozen students with this many leaders!!!! This will be a wonderful event and we still have 5 spots available.

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Another super thing I’m loving about the Fuji X System.

While Fuji is working hard to bring a great series of lenses to the table, as of today, they still don’t have a long (200mm focal length) Macro lens, or a fast long conventional lens. Because I love to shoot long lenses and Fuji doesn’t have any, I’ve found a great alternative!! The Fuji system allows using manual focus lenses from any other camera systems via inexpensive lens adapters. I happen to own a very large collection of classic, legendary sharp Nikkor glass and because the new Fuji X-T1 has a very novel, and extremely effective manual focusing system that allows very precise focusing, it works great!!! So if your subject is not moving, and very few of mine are, the X-T1 works great on these lenses. I’m currently using three lenses the most, the 200mm Micro Nikkor, the 300mm f 4.5 IF-ED, and the 400mm f 3.5 IF-ED. Keep in mind because of the 1.5 factor of the APS-C size sensor they are a 300mm Micro, 450mm and 600 mm all at their original f stops!!! That makes the 400mm a 600mm f 3.5!!!! Imagine a 600mm f 3.5!!!!! Does it work? Check these out, and decide for yourself. ….and keep in mind I’m really not a bird shooter! Of course you’ll know that pretty soon!