Review: Trek-Tech Essentials Tripod Kit
Last modified on 2010-04-02 22:49:29 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I wish the adage “the best camera is the one you have with you” also applied to tripods. Unfortunately, tripods are often essential, and seldom convenient. They are too big, long and heavy to fit in a camera bag or backpack. The market has yet to respond with a small, stable and easily transportable tripod to provide convenient access to stable shots for still cameras, small prosumer camcorders, and lightweight professional cams. With these thoughts in mind, I evaluated a unique solution from Trek-Tech that packages two tripods and useable accessories in an easily accessible, transportable, and convenient kit. The company’s multipurpose collection of tools performs well for most jobs, but isn’t intended to be a complete solution for every job. It’s worth a look, particularly during its promotional pricing.
What’s Included. Trek-Tech’s Essentials Kit consists of four lightweight tripod modules and table top tripod that travel conveniently in Trek Pod Go! PRO’s carrying case. Included are a set of MagMount ball heads, a tripod clamping arm, and a small pan/tilt/swivel head. The kit weighs about 28 ounces, breaks down to under two feet, and qualifies as carry-on luggage.
TrekPod Go! PRO. The Go! PRO sets up quickly into multiple configurations. It can be configured as a telescoping monopod, or small footprint tripod. For monopod use, thread the lower tube to the leg assembly, and tighten the locking nut. Insert the middle tube into the lower tube, adjust to desired height, and tighten the middle locking nut. Height reference guides are conveniently located on the middle tube at set intervals. Attach the shorter top tube, and tighten the locking nut and you are done. The top tube includes a “ski style” wrist strap to assist while hiking. For tripod use, simply extend the three tripod legs.
The MagMount Pro ball head fastens to the top of the Go! PRO. A smooth Life Force adapter is used for smaller, lighter equipment or cameras, and a beefier STAR (Square Tooth Anti Rotation) adapter is used to lock in larger, and heavier cams and devices. Thread the adapter into your device, and then attach it to the Rare Earth Neodymium Magnet on the MagMount. Rotate the safety lock until to clicks to further secure the device to the ball head.
Once set up and tightened down, the Go! PRO provided good stable shots with my Leica D-Lux 4 and Nikon D300s, but less so with my Panasonic AG-HPX170 camcorder. The cam was securely attached, but as a full height tripod the PRO exhibited some minor shaking. In a pinch, however, it produced some good solid shots over handheld, and worked much better at lower heights. And it worked just fine as a monopod. For smaller camcorders like the Panasonic HMC-40, this would be convenient and useful.
Trek-Tech includes a small “optimount clamping arm” accessory for attaching a camera, light, shoes, or other gear to the Go! PRO and tripod legs up to 1.25-inch in diameter. The pan/tilt video head accessory incorporates the MagMount system for attaching devices, uses a ¼-20 threaded stud or a 3/8th stud, swivels 360 degrees, up and down in a plastic assembly.
The Table Top T-Pod. The diminutive Trek-Tech T-Pod uses the same MagMount quick release system to attach cams or gear. Setup takes seconds. Unfold the legs, and adjust the length of the upper tube to extend the height of the unit to about a foot and a half. Or attach the ball head directly to the T-Pod legs to configure a highly stable 4-inch high table tripod. The unit easily and solidly supported our D300s with 200mm telephoto lens and the Panasonic AG-HPX170. The ball head can support a maximum of nine (9) pounds. I had no hesitation when using the T-Pod with our 170.
The Attraction. The company rates the ball head magnetic locking assembly, using the Rare Earth Neodymium Magnets, at 13.5 pounds. I had no reason to doubt that claim during my tests. Our HPX-170 with battery and two p2 cards weighed about five pounds, and the connection was solid. Be careful when attaching device to the magnets, because you can easily pinch your fingertips.
The Specs. The Go! PRO weighs 30 ounces, and is constructed using aircraft grade aluminum alloys, high strength polymers, and stainless steel. It extends to just under 58-inches in the tripod mode and 62.5-inches in the monopod mode. The fully extended tripod legs fit in a 22-inch square space. The travel case is 23”x4”x2.5” and the longest tube is less than 22-inches. Each Mag Adapter is constructed from nickel plated steel with a ¼”-20 threaded adapter. The MagMount Magnet is a Rare Earth Neodymium Magnet.
The T Pod weighs 13 ounces and fits into a 3.5”x1.5”x8.5” carry case. Its open leg base is 13.5-inches and its maximum height is 13.5-inches. Both products carry lifetime limited warranties.
Summing Up. The Essentials Kit is well constructed, easy to set up, and eminently useful within the context of its multipurpose intended use. In this sense, the kit is akin to multi-use printers that combine inkjet printing with scanning, faxing, and copying. Each function is supported, but not necessarily as well as if an individual device was used. The Essentials Kit isn’t a perfect solution for every locked down shot, but it certainly is a convenient and serviceable one. For those of you who occasionally say “I wish I had something to help stabilize this shot” — this might be your solution.
Related articles
Free WiFi From 1000 Feet – WiFire
Last modified on 2010-03-25 21:37:02 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Internet access is becoming essential in today’s world, particularly if you travel with your laptop. Accessing email, web pages, or uploading images or video to sharing sites depends on an available wi-fi hotspot or network. Some networks may exist nearby, but their signals may too weak to be identified and accessed by your built in laptop wi-fi card.
Enter Wi-Fire from HField technologies, a $59.95 lightweight antenna that connects to a USB port on your Mac or Windows laptop. The device looks like it shouldn’t work. Once set up and configured, however, this dimunitive antenna identifies significantly more wi-fi connections than your built in wi-fi card and at greater distances. The company claims three times the range of your internal. While I didn’t get quite that range, I was pleasantly surprised at how many previously invisible networks existed nearby. In fact, Wi-Fire saw three to ten times more than my Airport card. Some were encrypted, and some were not, and one was a city-wide access point that I never knew existed in my area. A connection was made by simply electing an available, unencrypted network from a pulldown menu and clicking on the connect button..
I tested Wi-Fire on a mid-2009 MacBookPro 13-inch laptop running OS 10.6.2. Installation was fairly simple. Remember not to attach the antenna until the device driver is installed and the computer reboots. Connect the antenna to an available USB port, and the device configures automatically.
A drop down status menu similar to Airport lists available hot spots within the range of the antenna. In my testing, Airport recognize two additional networks when used in my residence, and Wi-Fire saw triple that amount. Information on encrypt status, signal strength and network name were displayed. Click on an available unlocked network, and the device connects to that network. You can also launch the Wi-Fire Connection Manager to configure access.
The real surprise came when I walked outside. I clicked on the refresh button, and the list grew to about eighteen networks. Again, any connected network displays green progress bars for signal strength and connection quality. The company claims connection strength to 1,000 feet which, in all probability, assumes ideal circumstances. We did access a solid signal from a location well over 500 feet away, and several that Airport didn’t see from about 350 feet or so. Significantly, the number of available hot spots increased, which indicates that Wi-Fire’s reach greatly exceeded our Airport card.
The bundle ships with a short USB A/Mini-B 4 pin cable to connect the antenna to a USB port. Longer USB extension cables allow the antenna to be positioned further away from the laptop or outside the walls of your house. Theoretically, this should increase the range of the device, but I did not test for this. The antenna is perched at the top of your laptop screen, albeit a little precariously. It can be rotated to achieve better reception, but we didn’t see any quality or strength improvements when doing this.
We experienced one concern after installing the device driver. Our MacBookPro tended to boot a little slower because the driver becomes a startup item as your computer boots. If this causes an issue, simply disable driver as a startup item in your system preferences, and launch the application manually as needed.
Despite initial expectations entirely based on appearance, Wi-Fire identified a significantly higher number of wi fi networks than our built in Airport card, certainly within 300-500 feet.
This is a nice device, and one that you’ll find useful in your mobile production environment.
iStoragePro iT2PKTV 2.5″ RAID Enclosure
Last modified on 2010-03-25 21:36:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
The Pocket View RAID unit is a solidly built triple interface two drive RAID enclosure from an ostensibly new kid on the block, iStoragePro. The unit ships with enclosure, and two hot swappable 2.5-inch drive carriers populated with 7200 rpm SATA Seagate drives. The unit has two bus powered FW800 ports and single connections for eSATA, and USB2.
Although there is no FW400 port, a FW400 to FW800 conversion cable is included. External power, USB2, SATA, FW400/800, and FW800 cabling is provided together with a pdf manual on a CD. The drive is solidly built, warranted for three years, and proved to be a big value in a relatively small package.
What’s In The Box. My unit shipped in attractive packing with two Seagate Momentus 320GB, 2.5-inch 7200 rpm SATA drives. Other configurations are available from the company up to 1 TB. iStoragePro sells portable single drive enclosures and RAID configurations for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives as well. It does not sell bare enclosures, however, to maintain integrity with drives and hardware. The cables were top quality, and the packaging was economical and attractive. There is significant attention to detail in this package.
Out of the Box. The unit is formatted as a Mac OS Extended and immediately mounted as a single drive — which quickly confused me because the drive volume equalled only 320GB. A quick look at the release notes confirmed that the two drives were configured as mirrored RAID. Configuring the drive to a different set up is a three fold process consisting of setting two jumpers on the back of the unit, powering up the device, pressing one button on the enclosure’s front, and then reformatting it to using the Mac Disk Utility – it takes about a minute. Here are the RAID setting and instructions:
The instructions are straightforward, but the bear a little explanation. Power off the unit after unmounting from the desktop. Switch the jumpers to match your requirements, and power up the drives. The LCD on the front of the drive will report to push the re-init button.
Then wait for the unit to initialize and an OS X alert box appears prompting you to initialize the device. Open the Disk Utility and format the drive. It’s that simple. Depending on what you’ve elected, you will have a striped 640GB drive or a spanned/mirrored 320GB drive.
The Specifics. The enclosure is solidly made with an aluminum finished appearance which helps to disperse heat. It appears tank like, but without the bulk. A small front mounted LCD provides feedback for RAID configurations, and set two buttons implement your choices. The unit’s back is populated by two FW800 ports, and connections for USB2 and eSATA, power port and jumper switches. The drive carriers use plastic levers to remove the carriers and attached drives from the unit. Push the carriers forward to lock them in the unit. A power cord is provided, but there is no on/off switch.
If a drive fails, the company asks that you return it under warranty. However, replacement drives can easily be substituted for the failed drive by removing four screws on the drive carrier. The company is selling additional drive carriers through third party vendors and a soon to be live company web store for $15.00. Note that the disclosure does not provide for JBOD configuration, although single drives can be mounted individually for client/job backup.
The Appearance. The unit measures approximately 7.25”x4.0”x3.0” inches and weighs about 2.8 pounds. In comparison, the G-RAID mini 320GB/5400 enclosure approximates 5.875″ x 3.25″ x 1.5″ and weighs just over a pound while the CalDigit VR mini is similarly sized (5.49″ x 3.25″ x 2.07″), but only 1.54 pounds. This size and weight of the iStoragePro unit make is less portable than others, but these factors are compensated by its durability, versatility and construction.
As I stated earlier, no FW400 interface is provided, an omission that is increasingly inconsequential as FW400 fades as a protocol. Even so, a FW400 to FW800 conversion cable is provided. I tested with USB2, eSATA and FW800 and the enclosure worked uneventfully. No bundled software is included, and the enclosure has a limited 3-year warranty.
Two Seagate Momentus 320GB 7200 2.5-inch drives were housed in the case. An active heat sink and relatively quiet fan cool the drives. The unit supports 3G SATA speeds, although nothing close to that speed was achieved with the Seagate drives in this form factor. I’d love to put a couple of fast Intel or Crucial SSDs in the unit and test that throughput. Here’s what I did test.
Testing With AJA System Test. I used AJA’s System Test software to measure drive performance. I used the three available protocols to test on newly striped and formatted unit with empty drives on a Nehalem MacPro 2.26 GHz tower with OS 10.6.2 installed. I used the manufactured supplied USB2, FW800 and eSATA cabling and with the later protocol, and Sonnetech Tempo SATA E2P board.
USB2 drive results:
Firewire 800 drive results:
eSATA drive results:
These are impressive results for 2.5-inch drives in any enclosure and should sustain high definition multi-stream editing of DVCProHD, ProRes, and standard definition video editing in both desktop and mobile editing environments.
My Thoughts. It is inevitable to compare this enclosure system with competing products from G-Tech and CalDigit, both of which have an excellent product offering. In today’s economy, purchasers are understandably value conscious, particularly for storage and media drives. The CalDigit VR mini, for example, provides similar specs including two removable drive modules, frontside LCD, RAID 0, and 1. It adds JBOD, FW400 software configuration, and support for firmware updates in a slightly lighter unit. These additional features come with a $699.00 price tag. A one year warranty is provided, and an extended three year warranty is priced at $149.00. The product is excellent, and I readily disclose that I didn’t have an actual CalDigit VR mini in hand to evaluate it in detail.
The iStoragePro PocketDrive weighs slightly more, provides comparable or better performance, includes configuration support to enable over 2TB drive capacity, supports FW800 daisy chaining, but doesn’t have direct JBOD or FW400 capability - for $250.00 less than the CalDigit VR. Throw in what appears to be a comparable enclosure build, quality drives, throughput specs, a standard 3-year warranty, performance, and ease of use, and you have a compelling product.
Solidly Built Portable Multiple Interface RAID Solution
640GB (7200 rpm) Seagate Momentous
$450.00
FXFactory Pro 2.0.2
Last modified on 2010-02-10 22:57:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Noise Industries released FXFactory v.1 eighteen months ago to coincide with the introduction of Apple’s FXPlug architecture for Motion and Final Cut Pro. The debut package was an impressive bundle of filters, generators and transitions, all of which were optimized for GPU-accelerated rendering. You could even author custom filters and plug ins using Apple’s Quartz Composer for use in FXFactory. V.2.0.2 improves and refines many of the plug ins, provides Leopard/FCS2 and FCE4 compatibility, and adds new capabilities to enhance the production value of your Motion, FCE4 and FCP projects. Some previously bundled filters are now sold separately, but the total number offilters has increased in the base package. It remains an excellent value.
Unique Installation. Unlike many FCP/Motion plug ins, FXFactory organizes its tools in an intuitive application/control panel that resides in your Applications folder. The pane is used to install and manage trial and purchased FXFactory and 3rd party filters. A help menu is available to explain the use and parameters of installed plug ins and new search function is included. The pane installs and uninstalls packages, registers serial numbers for new purchases, and provides a simple, attractive visual summary of what is available.
What’s New and Improved. FXFactory is a Universal Binary app compatible with Leopard, FCS2 (including Motion 3), and FCE v.4, as well as later versions of Tiger. Check the web site to determine if your OS and pro apps are supported. The CoreMelt Editing and Motion packs are now unbundled, separate purchases. Despite losing these bundles, FXFactory actually increases its total number of filters. The Pro version breaks out to more than a hundred filters, generators and plugins.
To incentivize an upgrade to Leopard, some new plug ins require Leopard to run. The dot version 2.0.2 upgrade includes five new effects — Mask From Color, Color Accent, Cell Phone Browser, Color Fill and Replace Range. Many filters have presets that are accessed via a drop down menu and serve as starting points to achieve a custom production look.
There are examples of each filter at NI’s web site, or you can download a time limited trial version of FXFactory to evaluate the package. Third party developers provide free or time limited trial filters as well. Several filters are emblematic of the application’s reach. They include an interesting Perspective Reflection, various glow filters, a Video Conference transition, paint and bar wipes, and the extensive availability of masks. There are dozens of filters available in Motion as well. A Slideshow generator will quickly produce a basic slideshow from a folder of stills you designate.
The Experience. NI’s FXFactory demonstrates attention to detail in its interface and help system, two factors sometimes missing in other plug in packages. As noted earlier, help menus are available to explain each effect and its parameters both in the FXFactory application and in Motion or FCP/FCE4. The company is responsive to user suggestions, and works continually to update and improve its offerings. There are literally dozens of available generators, filters and transitions with distinctive styles, multiple presets, and numerous adjustable parameters.
Improvements under the hood, among other things, include a high-precision output clamping option for several effects.
SupaWipes – Object Based Transitions. SupaWipes is an object-based wipe transition that is entirely controlled by parameters and requires no key framing. In a word, they are “cool.” While not appropriate for every project, they can add production value in the right environment.
The wipes are object-based, which mean alpha channel based graphics such as CDs, dollar bills, airplanes, oranges, soccer and football control the wipe. You can even create your own alpha channel wipe object from a client’s graphic or logo and use SupaWipes to animate it.
Numerous controls in the transitions pane govern rotation, angle, width, motion blur, use of a drop shadow — and a lengthy list of presets is also available. Custom object wipes can be created in any graphic format that supports an alpha channel.
Final Thoughts. Noise Industries continues to refine, update, and expand its FXFactory motion effects package. The company is responsive to user feedback, and responsible in its development package. It quickly hammered out an update to FXFactory when an earlier version proved incompatible with p2 card input. Although the CoreMelt packages are now available separately, the FXFactory bundle has actually expanded its reach.
No one will find every filter useful, but most projects should benefit from at least one or several of these filters. To be a good value, a motion effects package must be easy to use, affordable, and provide a good mix of useful and customizable plug ins. On these factors, and others, FXFactory exceeds the criteria. It remains a true, affordable value.
http://www.noiseindustries.com/