Gear Update
All the latest new digital photography kit waiting for the Buy Now button
Lomography Naiad 3.8/15 Lomography expands its Neptune system £389/$449 www.lomography.com
The recently launched Neptune system is a trio of prime lens modules that share a single aperture base. The new 15mm Naiad is the fourth Neptune Front Lens module. It’s a manual lens with full-frame coverage and a 135° field of view, that’s also able to focus as close as 1cm for macro shots. The lens must be used with the Neptune system base, but there is a Naiad+base kit available.
WD My Passport Wireless SSD 02 The humble portable hard drive, reworked for photographers £200/$230 www.wdc.com
AT its core this is a fast portable solidstate drive, available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities – but it’s a bit more special than that. Thanks to a built-in card reader and battery, this SSD can be used in the field to back up images from your memory cards. Once your shots are on the drive, you can then view them on a smart device, as the Passport is also a media server with a Wi-fi hotspot.
Lastolite Hilite Accessories Take your portraiture to the next level £109/$155 www.manfrotto.co.uk
high-key lighting is what you get when you position a bright light source behind your subject, creating a pure white background free from distractions. Lastolite’s Hilite Background is basically a huge softbox panel to produce this effect. Now Lastolite has added accessories for the 1.8x2.15m (6x7ft) Hilite panel. The Window Voile gives the illusion your sitter is in front of a real window, while the Shapers and Masks can block out sections of the light so you can achieve dramatic silhouette effects.
Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-d A wider lens choice for EOS M owners £499/$499 www.laowalens.co.uk
Venus Optics has been busy adding new lenses to its Laowa range, and this ultra-wide lens for mirrorless cameras is available in a Canon EOS M fit. It has an effective focal length of 14.4mm on these cameras and an angle of view of 113 degrees. The ‘Zero-d’ in the name means it’s been designed to produce minimal optical distortion, but it is a fully manual lens, so you’ll need to use old-school manual focusing and exposure skills.
Gitzo Adventury Backpacks Silly name, serious bags £220/$250 www.manfrotto.co.uk
Designed for nature and landscape photographers, Adventury backpacks come in 30L and 45L sizes. The smaller option is spacious enough for a EOS-1D X with a 70-200mm f/4l attached, plus a second body and four extra lenses. Step up to the 45L and your Canon can have a huge 600mm f/4l attached, alongside a second body with attached lens, and even more extra glass. Both backpacks can accommodate a 15in laptop and a tablet, while also sporting straps for attaching a hefty tripod.
Benq SW240 Photovue Bigger colour for the smaller wallet £399/$399 www.benq.co.uk
high-end photographic monitors are pretty expensive, especially those that display the preferred Adobe RGB colour gamut. But the SW240 could be the answer. Benq says it displays 99% of the Adobe RGB colour space (which is about as close as any monitor can get), plus 100% Rec.709 and 95% DCI-P3, two key colour spaces used in video. It has a 24.1-inch screen and a resolution of 1920x1200, so it doesn’t come with 4K resolution, but it doesn’t have a 4K price tag either.
Tenba Cooper 15 Slim The slimline shoulder bag for any occasion £215/$280 www.tenba.com/uk
This addition to the Tenba Cooper range is a stylish everyday bag that’s slim enough to manoeuvre on buses and trains, smart enough to take into meetings and capacious enough for a camera and four to five lenses, including a 70-200mm f/2.8 attached to the camera body if needed.