Category — Gear

Last week I received an email from Geoff Barrall, CEO & Founder of Data Robotics Inc. makers of Drobo the “storage robot”. [Read more →]

I nearly fell off my chair (actually my couch) as I was fast-forwarding my DVR the Nikon logo caught my eye. I backed up and viewed this incredible TV commercial.

Has Nikon finally established a marketing department?

Looks like they have invested some serious cash in marketing with top level talent like Ashton Kutcher as a wedding photographer. Its great to see some of that D3 cash at work.

I hope this is the start of some aggressive marketing campaigns from Nikon.

My blog updates have been a bit slow the past couple of weeks, stay tuned I have some updates in the works.

Humility is a grace in the soul and with a name known only to those who have had experience of it. It is indescribable wealth, a name and a gift from God. - Saint John Climacus

We are not having another baby, we are most certainly not having twins & we are not getting another generator. Today we welcomed into our home the latest addition to my camera bag. The new Nikon D3! This camera is sick!

Thats right folks, as part of our welcome to the family celebrations Nikon has decided to join in by launching a much needed facelift the their US based website. Here is a preview.

Big thanks to Nikon for helping me celebrate the new arrival! And finally big thanks to Riccis for the help securing my place in line.  :) 

Who is that incredibly cool looking photographer?
Isis Panellas snapped this picture of me during a wedding on Saturday. I had to fade the camera away as I am still under protective custody for showing off my top secret Nikon D3!

This was an incredibly intimate wedding with a small group of the bride & groom’s closest friends. The ceremony took place at St. Augustine in Coral Gables. I will post some of the images later this week.

My good friend Uncle Ray just got a new Boda Bag and this thing looks sweet! I am going to check it out on Thursday.

Be sure to visit his blog and check out the video demo.

I receive a call from Brandon Kirk VP of Marketing at Tamrac. He was responding to my recent experience with my order for a new Tamrac LP2 bag. I could feel the genuine disappointment and willingness to do whatever it took to make things right. He was calling to offer me a replacement kit that converted my “new” LP2 with the “old” LP2 internal configuration. He sent it FedEx next day delivery, I now have it all setup. For me this is the best of both worlds. This is without a doubt the perfect camera bag for me!

A big thank you to B&H and LowePro for knowing what it takes to exceed customer’s expectations. These companies both know what taking care of the customer means. I specifically want to thank Henry Posner from B&H and Maury Cohen from LowePro. Both companies assisted me with my recent experience ordering some Tamrac gear.

During my trip last week with Mike Colon he gave us a tour of his camera bag. See picture at right courtesy of Marie Moyers. For over 6 years I have been a loyal LowePro user however last week I placed an order for a Tamrac StrongBox LP2 rolling bag and a Photo Messenger 9 bag. These two bags were exactly what I have always wanted. My only concern was the LP2 was not officially airport carry on approved. I was willing to look this over given it was only an inch or so larger. My guess is you can still get it on a plane, have you seen the size of bags some people take on a plane?

Prior to placing my order with B&H I visited the Tamrac website to make sure I had the proper model.

The image to the left is the picture on the Tamrac website for the LP2.

Looks like Mike’s?

I thought so. I immediately went to the B&H website and placed my order.

A week later my order arrived. Upon opening the box it seemed a bit smaller than what I remember. The feet and the wheels also looked different. After visiting the Tamrac site it looked like the SpeedRoller 2. I called B&H and they immediately issued an RMA and shipped me a new one over night delivery via UPS.

The new one arrived today and again it was wrong again, the tags say it is an LP2. I called B&H and they recommended I call Tamrac. After speaking to Tamrac I learned they redesigned the LP2 and consider it the same thing. It is not! It is slightly smaller, the support “feet” in the front are different and the wheels are different, I believe all of these changes are for the better.

Unfortunately they also redesigned the dividers and it now holds significantly less equipment. The picture above has two bodies and under them is a compartment where you could place additional bodies. This is gone. Take a look at the shot to the right. this is the bag with a fraction of my gear in it. If I recall correctly Mike has two D2XS and one D200 plus all his lenses, minus the 200 2.0 of course!

In a perfect world they would keep the new exterior design but maintain the inner dividers of the “old” LP2. Oh, and update your website so that others do not experience this same problem.

Needless to say I am not happy and I am left wondering if I should just return it all and stick with my LowerPro. For this weekend its back to looking like a dork with a backpack.

I am going to think it through the weekend.

Oh boy this is going to be a g$$d one. The newest addition to the Nikon lineup has been announced. The Nikon D3 full frame sensor at 12.1 megapixel. This thing can do 6400 ISO! It has 51 auto focus sensors, do we need that many? And this puppy has UDMA support built-in. Full story is available at dpreview.com.