Gear Update
Our round-up of the latest digital photography must-haves
More exciting photo gear to tempt you to get your wallets and purses out
COOPH Heatable Photo Vest A welcome winter warmer From £266 (conversion), $339 (conversion) store.cooph.com
The COOPH Heatable Photo Vest looks and feels like a regular vest jacket – it’s got puffy sheep-wool insulation, big pockets to store your things in, and it’s reversible. But it has a heating system that warms the hand pockets and is placed to cover the kidney, back and stomach areas! It can run for approximately five hours with THERMIC’S 5200 mah battery. It also comes with a Bluetooth dongle and app to control the temperature with your smartphone.
Eizo Coloredge CG279X Incredible colour accuracy and calibration From £1917, $TBA www.eizocolour.com
This 27-inch monitor covers 99% of the Adobe RGB gamut for displaying vibrant images. It has a built-in calibration sensor to set up the monitor automatically. The widescreen 16:9 panel’s resolution of 2560x1440-pixels is some way short of 4K, but its 109ppi pixel density should be sharp enough to hide individual pixels at normal viewing distances. Eizo is claiming best-inclass colour, accuracy, consistency and clarity – more important for photo-editing than extra pixels.
Gitzo 2 Way Fluid Head A compact head for wildlife photography £290, $320 www.manfrotto.com
The Gitzo 2 Way Fluid Head is a compact fluid head, containing fluid cartridges and an ultra-precise inner mechanism for smooth movement – ideal for tracking wildlife using a telephoto lens. A rubberised Arca-swiss compatible plate and adjustable counterbalance system helps you balance up to 4kg of kit. The head itself is made from magnesium, tipping the scales at just 600g.
Gitzo Century camera straps Strap in for some quality Canon support From £45, $57 (conversion) www.manfrotto.com
Featuring Italian leather and an exclusive carbon-fibre look, the Century strap range comes in three designs. The £80 Century sling strap has a cross-body design that holds the camera to the side of the body, leaving users free to move around. The Century neck strap features a soft, suede-like texture aimed to keep your neck comfortable throughout a day of shooting. It can be had for £100.
Lume Cube AIR A cost-effective, small, continuous light £53 (conversion) /$70 https://lumecube.com
The Lume Cube AIR is small enough to fit in the tiniest corner of your camera bag. The LED boasts a CRI rating of +/-90 (Colour Rendering Index) which means pretty good colour accuracy for a small, inexpensive LED, 5700K daylight-balanced output, 400 LUX of power at a distance of one metre and a 60-degree beam angle. It even has a ‘strobe’ mode that produces a brief burst of light in sync with your Canon’s own flash.
Samyang XP 35mm f/1.2 Weighty wide-angle guns for max sharpness £TBA, $999 www.samyanglensglobal.com
available for full-frame Ef-mount Canons, the new lens is designed to maximize sharpness to get the best out of cameras like the 5DS R. Inside, the optical path incorporates twelve glass elements in ten groups – including two aspherical elements, three HR high-refractive elements and one ED extra-low-dispersion element. The manual-only lens is 117.4mm long, and weighs a hefty 1106g, partly thanks to the sturdy metal barrel.
Think Tank Secure Pixel
Pocket Rocket Keep your memory cards even safer £22, $28 snapperstuff.com
These updated versions of the Pixel Pocket Rocket card holders add the extra security of a zippered design on storage compartments. Each case can accommodate multiple memory card sizes, with plenty of space for up to twelve SDS or six Compactflash cards. The Secure Pixel Pocket Rockets come in green or black and are supplied with a detachable lanyard so they can be mounted on a belt, camera bag or clothing, enabling instant access to memory cards on the go.