Just got my new PocketWizards!

Just took delivery of my new PocketWizard FlexTT5 and MiniTT1 after a LONG wait. I can't believe that B&H Photo insist on full payment for a product even when they are on a lengthy backorder. Oh well, I was happy to pay but them having close to $1000 of my money for 2 1/2 months seem a bit rich.

There has been quite a lot of negative feedback about the actual range of the new PocketWizards. When I placed my order they advertised range up to between 800 and 1200 feet. I notice now, following many negative reviews, that the spec page has changed to a range of 30 - 1200 feet depending upon variables. Hmmm. I will do my own short video review and post it on here soon.

Technical timelapse assignment - want to help?

Hi readers!

I am fortunate enough to have landed a great timelapse assignment that is slightly trickier than normal. I am 90% sure I have it all sorted but would love some feedback on some of the "tech" parts.

• Camera is to be mounted on a train, which will be travelling all over the state of Queensland, Australia (area - 1.85 million km or 715,000 miles)
• Images are to be captured over a five month period in various increments from sunrise to sunset every day
• Images are to be transmitted immediately after capture
• Images need to be of a high enough resolution to be used as single 'stand-alone' photographs as well as be put together in resolutions from full HD down to YouTube size
• I want my client to have access to any of the images at any time they require

I am fine with the type of camera, the software and so forth but I thought some of you might be able to help with the final transmit part.

The camera will be connected to a mains powered netbook running Windows. I was considering using DropBox and having the camera put its captured photos in the DropBox folder which would then instantly sync with the DropBox web interface and any computer connected to that DropBox account.
The computer will have a 3G wireless data card connected to Telstra's NextG service. The NextG service has excellent coverage (as shown below) however undoubtably it will be out of range at times.

Here are a couple of questions...

• Any recommendations on a particular netbook/notebook? It will only be running timelapse software and wireless connection software as well as the background DropBox software but will need to be on and reliable for five months.
• As the netbook will be unattended have you got any good tips on achieving maximum reliability?
• Any idea of the longest run of USB cable that is reliable? (from netbook to camera)
• Should I set up some sort of remote software so I can log in to the computer and fix any problems?
• Any other things I am forgetting?

[Click image to see fullsize]

Handyman with a soldering iron!

Had a bit of a brainwave today and realised I could adapt my cheapo chinese intervalometer (which is AWESOME!) to work with both my 1DMKIII's and my new G10. I cut the 3 pin N3 type plug (for EOS1DMKIII) off and soldered on a 2.5mm stereo plug wiring it as pictured below.

I then added a 2.5mm female stereo socket to the left over bit of cable with the 3 pin N3 plug wiring it so that it matched up with the wiring as above. Both work perfect!

New Nikon D3 rumours and something I want!

Nikon are due to announce a replacement to the D2X and its subsequent update, the D2Xs anytime in the next few days. I won't be adding any of the rumours I have been hearing but I can tell you some of the things I personally hope it will have.

1. Greatly improved low light / high iso image quality.
2. Elimination of any back-focus problems.
3. SD & CF card options (like Canon).
4. Rubber body covers that don't fall off.

That is pretty much all I need improved. I know it will have higher resolution, faster fps, better metering and faster AF so if all of my wishes were included as well I would be a happy snapper!

There is one thing however that I hope/dream someone will build/design in the near future.

I wish someone would come up with a simple remote transmit unit that would eliminate the need for a laptop or pda and would allow you to SIMPLY transmit INSTANTLY from the sideline without an assistant or tech. No need to stop shooting, download cards, select images, caption, edit and transmit. This would ALL be done in camera with a simple setup before an assignment.
It could either screw underneath the body or sit on the hotshoe (like a pocketwizard) and connect to the camera via the 10 pin plug. Better still, how about Nikon and Canon build bluetooth into their next models! Then the bluetooth enabled transmit unit could go in a pocket or waistpack and not get in the way at all.It would be designed to work with participating high-speed cellular data networks, like Australia's NextG network and would require the relevent sim card inserted. Imagine something about the size of a cigarette pack with an lcd display.

I might be able to easily explain its use by describing how it would operate.

Before commencing assignment the unit can be plugged in to a laptop (even better, use a portable bluetooth keyboard and enter info straight into the unit via the lcd display) and data added to an "iptc stationary pad". IPTC details like job name, photographer info, relevent generic caption details, copyright info etc. that are automatically added to images sent via the unit. The unit could also hold numerous ftp connection details which could be edited and saved. How about built in smtp mail software if your client doesn't support ftp? Include the smtp server details, email address, message and max message size and your images will send via email.
What about specific captions with particular players names I hear you ask? Well, if you record a voice caption in the camera (which all pro models now offer) it will be uploaded alongside the picture file so the client can adjust the caption at their end.
What about filesize? Well, you could set options like quality of jpg compression, resize to specific pixels on the longest side, max file size.
Finally, how would it know what pics to send? Well, this would have to be done in a similar fashion to the old Canon D2000/Kodak DCS520 where you 'tag' a file in camera. Once the file is tagged it is automatically sent and a confirmation would appear on the transmit unit lcd when the file had been uploaded.
Ok you tech companies, feel free to steal my idea and get to work on this. I am SURE that tens of thousands of these units would sell all around the world to companies like AP, Reuters, Getty, AFP and all newspaper publishers.

By the way, I want a freebee!