dSLR Dad

I just received my Joby Gorillapod Focus in the mail today.  All I can say is that I think I have found my new travel tripod.  Most of you have probably already seen Gorillapods in the stores, the Focus is a whole different animal:

1. All of the socket joints are made out of anodized aluminum. They are made out of aluminum because:
2. This little unit can hold up to maximum of Eleven pounds (7kg)!
3. It is large for a Gorillapod at 11.4 by 3.6-inches (289 x 92mm), but the Focus is still extremely compact for my intended use as a travel tripod. The weight is still a respectable 1.1-pounds (500g).
4. Like any Gorillapod, it’s legs can bend to and contort into any position. Since each little socket has a rubber ring around it, you can even wrap it around a fencepost. Again, it will still hold 11-pounds!
5. Since it has some decent size to it, those dSLR Dads whole can also shoot video can use this as a steadycam rig.  Just angle out two feet in front of you and hold on the third like a hand grip.
6. You can mount to both a standard 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch mount, via the included adapter screw. That means that you can even attach your nice Kirk or Really Right Stuff Ballhead to it, which is what I plan to do. Heck I may just wrap this around the top of my regular tripod if I need to.
7. The street price is $99.95.

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I never used to worry much about my Canon 20D’s LCD screen.  It was only 1.8-inches and had plenty of camera body wrapped around it.  Now, with most dSLR screens taking up more than half of the back of the camera, keeping that LCD clear is becoming more of a concern.  There are many solutions on the market, but most involve a thick additional piece than usually just ends up getting in the way.  The best solution I have found for protecting that big piece of glass on the back of your camera is the invisibleSHIELD by ZAGG .

ZAGG’s invisibleSHIELD is a thin polyurethane film originally created for the military to protect the leading edge of helicopter blades that is highly resistant to scratching.  The results can be seen in this comparison video (more…)

‘It’s time for the Holidays, and that means taking batches and batches of photographs on your new Canon Rebel XSi or Nikon D90. As a dSLR Dad, you’re constantly chasing around your little photo models and snapping as many shots as you can.  Or, if you have the Nikon D90, then you’re probably shooting a bunch of HD video clips.  Either way, you want to keep your dSLR’s image buffer as empty as possible, so you want to write those images to your card as fast as you can.  But if your dSLR Camera takes an SDHC memory card, which one should you choose? Does it really matter?

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The following is part eight of a much larger dSLR Dad Holiday Gift Guide:

Everybody wants to try Macro photography, but not everyone can purchase a separate macro lens. Especially if you’re new to macro photography and are not sure exactly what you would need. Well here is the perfect solution, the Canon 500D Close Up Lens(77mm at Amazon or B&H Photo). This is a two-element, precision optic that screws on to the front of your lens like a typical filter. It then reduces your lens’ focal length, so you can get close to your subject and fill the frame. It’s so good that I know Nikon professionals who swear by it. (more…)