| Images: LG, Prograde, Nanlight, ThinkTank |
It’s a new year, and after taking a little break for the holiday season we’re back with our weekly accessory roundup. It’s perfect timing – this week was CES, the consumer electronics show, where many manufacturers showcase their latest and greatest technology.
Before we take a look at the accessories unveiled this week, let’s take a look at what’s on sale.
sale of the week
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| Photo: Dale Baskin |
Canon’s EOS R6 II, a full frame camera built for enthusiasts, impressed us quite a bit when we reviewed it last year. These days its competition has become a little stronger after the release of the Nikon Z6III, but with it currently on sale its competition has increased. You can buy it for $1,999, about $500 off its MSRP.
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| Photo: Richard Butler |
If you need (or simply want) more resolution and performance than the EOS R6 II offers, the excellent Nikon Z8 is also on sale for $300 off MSRP.
a few glimpses
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| Image: Godox |
Godox’s latest products technically came out before CES, but due to the holidays we didn’t get a chance to highlight them, so we’re doing it now. The company has released three small, on-camera flashes: the iM20/iM22 – essentially the same flash in different profiles – and iA32,
The iM20-series are small manual on-camera flashes that Godox says will work with “a wide range of hot-shoe cameras” through their single contact. These have five brightness levels and a built-in battery, which the company says will get you 440 full-power flashes with a recycle time of 3 seconds.
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| Image: Godox |
The IA32 is slightly more robust, although it still uses a single hot-shoe contact for syncing. You can adjust the angle of the flash tube from 90° to -7° via a dial on the side, letting you bounce it off the ceiling or point it directly at your subject. It has eight manually selectable power levels, but it also has an “Auto” mode that lets you input your ISO and aperture and lets the flash recommend a shooting distance. It uses two AA or LR6 batteries for power, and Godox quotes 490 flashes with a 2.5-second recycle time.
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| Image: Godox |
If you’re more of a phone photographer, Godox also has MA5R announcedA magnetic wireless power bank that also works as an RGB light panel. It has an 18.13Wh battery, which you can use to either top up your phone or power the 5W LED if you’re taking video of something. It also has a small selfie light below the screen that displays settings and battery life information, if you don’t need the power of the full panel.
Thunderbolt Hub with room to grow
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The ProGrade PG20 includes three Thunderbolt 4 ports, one USB A port, and can charge your computer. Image:Prograde |
Prograde’s new PG20 Thunderbolt 4 hub puts an interesting twist on the idea of card reader docks. On its own, it splits one Thunderbolt connection into three and adds a 10Gbps USB A port. It can deliver 85W of power to the computer you connect it to, which should be enough to charge all but the most powerful laptops.
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It also gives you room to house two separately sold ProGrade card readers. Image:Prograde |
However, its top is magnetic and looks like it has a tray cut into it. That’s because it’s designed for you to put two ProGrade card readers on top of it, turning it into a combo hub/photo and video offloading station. Unlike slotted card reader docks, into which you slide modules, connecting two card readers to the ProGrad will require two of your three Thunderbolt ports. However, at $170 for the hub, it is a significantly cheaper option than currently made SanDisk Or lexerHowever those options are far more expandable.
flying camera bag
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| Images: ThinkTank |
Camera bag maker ThinkTank has updated two of its air travel-focused bags. The company says that both the Airport Navigator V2 and the Airport Roller Derby V2 are designed to be easily maneuverable, thanks to their eight wheels that can pivot and rotate in any direction.
The Navigator is a small bag that ThinkTank says can hold a few primes with lenses and two grip bodies with flashes. Meanwhile, the Roller Derby is slightly larger – it can also fit a 400mm F2.8, provided it’s not attached to the camera. The bag also has the usual set of photographer-focused features: a raincover, tripod attachment points, and a security cable and lock are included.
Airport Roller Derby V2
Airport Navigator V2
a chair for mac mini
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| Image: Satechi |
Satechi has created a combination stand and dock for the new M4-powered Mac mini, expanding the computer’s I/O options and making it easier to use. While the small desktop has enough processing power for all but the most demanding photographers, it lacks some features. The dock’s most notable addition is a UHS-II SD card reader, which lets you easily unload your memory cards.
It also includes three USB-A ports – two that run at 10 Gbps and one that runs at the much slower USB 2.0 speed – and a cutout to make pressing the Mac mini’s bottom-mounted power button easier.
You can also install an M.2 SSD in the base, giving you access to more storage that’s more or less permanently attached to your computer. This can be a powerful selling point for budget-oriented people. While the base model Mac mini includes a reasonable amount of RAM, it only comes with 256GB of storage, and Apple charges a lot for upgrades – expanding the Mac mini’s internal SSD to 2TB costs $800 , while you can easily get a top-of-the-line 2TB SSD to install in the dock for about $150 — though note that Satechi says you can only read up to 10Gbps with it. and write, so its performance will not be the same as the computer’s internal storage.
stand is due to expire next month And its price will be $99.
compact softbox
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The Rapid 90 and Rapid 120 softboxes can be folded into a very compact package. Image: Nanlight |
Lightning company Nanlight’s new softboxes have a neat trick: They fold flat, making them relatively easy to store and transport compared to more traditional designs. It has two sizes: the Rapid 90, which has a diameter of 89 cm (35″) and the Rapid 120, which has a diameter of 120 cm (47.2″).
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Once opened, it is a standard parabolic softbox. Image: Nanlight |
After you expand the Rapid Softbox, which Nanalight says you can do “in just a few seconds,” it functions largely as a normal softbox. It comes with an egg-crate grid and a standard and a “Light” diffusion layer to modify whatever light you add through its Bowens mount.
intense 90
sharp 120
a long bond
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| Image: OWC |
Ultra-fast standards like Thunderbolt and USB 4 are great when you need to move a lot of data around fast – something that’s becoming increasingly important in the age of high-megapixel cameras and >4K video. There have been – but they come with one notable downside: cables are usually quite short. If you want to transfer data over a meter or two at 40 Gbps, you’ll need something exotic; $159 price tag Apple’s 3M Thunderbolt 4 “Pro Cable” At first glance this seems ridiculous until you realize that this is one of the only options available on the market for a long time.
However, that capability is becoming less expensive. At CES, the Other World Computing announced Its active optical cables, which can carry power as well as data at Thunderbolt/USB 4 speeds over very impressive distances. The 3m version, which costs $98, is capable of carrying up to 240W of power, and while the 4.5m version can only do 60W, it’s longer and cheaper than Apple’s top-end cable, which comes in at $129.
While this is still undoubtedly a lot of money for a cable, if you need to carry a lot of data over long distances, there’s nothing else that matches this performance for this price.
Another iPhone shutter button
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| Image: Belkin |
A few years ago, Apple Made a battery case for iPhone 11 Which had an integrated camera button. Not only did this case let you keep your phone on for longer periods of time, but it also gave you a physical control to launch and control the camera. Unfortunately, the company didn’t revisit this concept when it launched the iPhone 12 and instead started building camera controls into the phone itself.
However, this year, Belkin has taken that concept even further. The Stage PowerGrip attaches to your phone via MagSafe, and can keep it charged with its 10,000 mAh battery. It’s sized to add a generous amount of grip to your phone and has a button that looks to be in just the right place to act as a shutter release. Belkin press release It doesn’t actually mention what it is for.
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| Image: Belkin |
The Stage PowerGrip has an integrated USB-C cable, a USB-C port, and an LED screen that displays how much battery it has left. Its price has not been decided yet, but the company says that it should be released in May. It will be available in five colors: “Powder Blue,” “Sandbox,” “Fresh Yellow,” “Pepper” and “Lavender.”
a 6K display
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| Image: LG |
If you’re in the market for a 6K 32-inch display, you’ll soon have another option. LG announced UltraFine 6K 32U990A MonitorWhich connects to your computer via Thunderbolt 5. Details – including price and when it will be available – are scarce at this point, but LG promises it will deliver “exceptional color accuracy” for “media professionals.”
This is not the first display with this size and resolution. Perhaps most notable is Apple’s Pro Display XDR, which sports very impressive brightness levels and is priced at $5,000, no stand included. For those willing to sacrifice brightness for savings, there’s the $2,500 Dell U3224KB, which appears to use the same panel as the LG UltraFine. However, it is housed in a somewhat odd-looking case with a very large top bezel to accommodate an integrated webcam. Meanwhile, the LG monitor has a design that appears… let’s call it ‘heavily inspired’ by Apple monitors.
