Induro Gear Guide Part 6 - Wrap Up

Welcome to Part 6 of my Induro Gear Guide. Hopefully the information I've provided in the first 5 parts will prove to be useful to anyone that's going through the process of buying or considering upgrading a tripod, ballhead or investing in a Gimbal Head. Shown below is my back yard birding blind. I know, I have it pretty tough don't I. Nice Lanai (upgraded with a ceiling fan this weekend!) and a glass of wine make for a fine time shooting or just watching the birds. I try to spend some time each day out here shooting and my default setup is what you see here. Depending on my mood I'll either shoot with the T2i or 7D. My investment in Induro gear breaks down as follows:

CT314 tripod - $550.00
Short Center Column - $55.00
BHD3 Ballhead - $228.00
GHBA Gimbal Head - $204.00
Extra long lens plate - $27.00

Did I ever dream I would have invested over $1000 in a tripod setup? Not in a million years but am I totally satisfied with my purchases? Absolutely. If I were doing it all over again there's probably one thing I would have done differently. No, I don't think I would have. Right now having the ability to just use the ballhead or use ballhead and Gimbal Head gives me many more options than I would have if I bought the GHB1 Gimbal Head. When the day comes that I do get the Canon 500mm Super Telephoto you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be buying either the GHB1 or GHB2 to use with it. When it comes to tripods, ballheads and Gimbal Heads Induro will always be the first place I check when it's time to buy new gear.

Birding Location
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Picture of the Week (POTW) #7

Picture of the week for the period 25 Jul - 31 Jul 2010. Donna took this one while photographing a Ruby-throated hummingbird at our window feeder. This is the same hummingbird pictured in the Bad Hair Day post. In this one as you can see the hummingbird is looking into the house while our cat, Tiger is looking out at the hummingbird. She shot this with her Rebel T2i and EF-S 55-250 lens at 55mm. Exposure was 1/90th at f/4, ISO 125 (the camera must have been set for auto ISO to get that kind of ISO number).

Looking in and Looking out
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This is two weeks in a row for Donna. Looks like I need to step up my game a bit.

Bad Hair Day

So have you ever wondered what it's like to be a Ruby-throated humming bird and get caught out in a rain shower without your umbrella? Well the photo below should give you some idea. :)

Bad Hair Day

Donna took this one through the window in the dining area of the kitchen. She used her Rebel T2i, EF-S 55-250 zoomed to 250mm, 1/80th at f/5.6, ISO 800. 

Rule of Thirds with the Canon Rebel T2i

Recently I've noticed a trend where photographers have been talking about getting it right in the camera to minimize the amount of post processing that is done. One way of getting it right in camera is, if you follow it, is to use the rule of thirds when composing your shot. If you're not familiar with the rule of thirds here's a very brief overview of it.


For any picture if you were to place a tic-tack-toe grid over it where the horizontal and vertical lines intersect are the best spots to position the main subject of the picture. There's more to it than that but that should give you a basic understanding which is all that's needed.


This morning I was experimenting with the Rebel T2i and wanted to see if any of its 9 individual focus points aligned the a rule of thirds grid. I mounted the camera on my tripod and then one-by-one shot the same picture using each of the 9 focus points. Afterwards I loaded the images into Photoshop and added a rule of thirds grid over them.

Simulated Rebel T2i Focusing Screen

I have some mad Photoshop skills don't I? I created that simulated focusing screen from scratch! In each of the photos below, numbered 01 through 09 the number below the photo corresponds with the focusing point shown above. For all shots I focused on the hole in the front door of the birdhouse. Also you can click on each image to view a larger version which makes it easier to see the grid.

01

This 1st picture was taken using the center point. As you can see everything is nicely centered between the two vertical lines of the grid. The center point is probably the most used focusing point when folks don't use all 9. I know I used it a ton when shooting sports and still use it quite a but when trying to shoot birds in flight. The center focusing point is also the only cross-type sensor on the camera which means it works better than the remaining 8 due to its extra sensitivity.

02

This 2nd picture was taken after moving the focus point to #2. As you can see it does a pretty good job of aligning with the intersection used by the rule of thirds. I plan to use this focusing point from now own whenever I want to compose a picture where the main subject is in the upper right hand corner.

03

This 3rd picture was taken after moving the focus point to #3. As you can see it's outside of the grid lines so I really can't think of a time when I would use it off the top of my head.

04

This 4th picture was taken after moving the focus point to #4. Just like with #2 is does a darn good job of lining up with the rule of thirds grid. So far points #2 and #4 are on the "to use" list.

05

This 5th picture was taken after moving the focus point to #5. While doesn't line up with one of the vertical lines it does remain on the lower horizontal line so it's one I would use in a pinch. #2 and #4 remain my preferred choices for subjects on the right side of the frame.

06

This 6th picture was taken after moving the focus point to #6. Like #2 and #4 before it I'll use this one for subjects appearing in the lower left hand portion of the frame. We're up to three preferred focusing points #2, #4, #6.

07

This 7th picture was taken after moving the focus point to #7. It has the same issues as #3 only on the opposite side of the frame.

08

This 8th picture was taken after moving the focus point to #8. Like #2, #4, and #6 it does a very good job aligning with the horizontal and vertical intersection of the grid. It's one I'll use for sure.

09

This 9th picture was taken after moving the focus point to #9. Like #5 it falls along the horizontal line so it's one that I'd use if for some reason I didn't use #2 or #8.


Am I trying to say that I'll only use 5 of the 9 focusing points on the Rebel T2i from now on? Nope, not at all. What I'm suggesting is when you want to follow the rule of thirds (and we all know rules were meant to be broken) I'll use focusing points #2, #4, #6 and #8 as the composition I'm going for warrants. I would encourage you to repeat this same sort of test with subjects you like to shoot. 

Oh and for the curious all shots were taken with Donna' Rebel T2i and EF-S 55-250 lens set at 55mm. Lens and camera were mounted on the Induro CT314 Tripod. Aperture was set to f/8 and shutter speed varied, ISO 100.

Induro Gear Guide Part 5 - Balancing Your Camera/Lens on the GHBA Gimbal Head

Welcome to Part 5 of my Induro Gear Guide. This part was originally going to be the wrap up but while reading some documentation about the GHBA Gimbal Head I decided to add another part before the wrap up. Basically the documentation said that a properly balanced camera/lens should remain in the last position you place it even with the main tension knob for the Gimbal Head completely loose. This got the wheels turning because I was wondering how close to achieving this I have been with the way I have been mounting the camera/lens onto the Gimbal Head. Normally I would align the center marks on the clamp and quick release plate and shoot away as shown below.

Initial Installation

Normally I keep some tension on the camera/lens using the main tension knob so for grins I decided to loosen the tension knob completely to see what would happen. The result is shown below.

Not Good

Not good at all! Clearly the camera was way out of balanace and needs to be adjusted within the quick release clamp. Since it was tail heavy I knew I needed to slide the camera/lens forward in the quick release plate and try again. I tried moving the camera forward about half of the available distance I could move it forward. Locked it down and then manually leveled the camera. When I released the camera the nose still tilted up, but no where near as bad as it did the first time. I don't have a picture of the camera/lens that's not zoomed in on the clamp but you can get an idea of how it looks based on the angle of the camera/lens as shown below.

Better

While the balance was certainly better after the first adjustment I decided to move it a little further and try the test again. This time when I released the camera/lens it didn't move or if it did it barely moved. As you can see from the picture below I had to move the lens plate pretty far forwad to achive the proper balance. I haven't had a chance to shoot with the camera/lens in this new postion but I'll be trying it out this coming weekend and will post a follow up next week.

Balanced

If/When you buy a Gimbal Head you'll probably want to invest in an extra long lens plate which is what I have attached to the 400 lens. The one I bought is from Berno and costs $27.00. The link below is for the plate on Amazon. If you use it to buy the plate I'll earn a small commission and you'll get a plate that'll allow you to achieve a perfectly balanced camera/lens combo on your Gimbal Head.

Scott Kelby's Lightroom 3 Book

Without a doubt one of my favorite photography related authors is Scott Kelby. I really connect with his writing style and sense of humor he includes in his books. When I ordered the replacement GPS Photo Tracker I also ordered his newest book for Lightroom 3.

Scott Kelby's Lightroom 3 Book

I bought Lightroom when version 1 was released but didn't really use it much. I felt Canon's Digital Photo Professional (DPP) was good enough for me (yes I'm an idiot sometimes). When Lightroom 2 was released I upgraded and the decided to really start using it. Man oh man am I glad I did. Now that Lightroom 3 is out I rarely launch DPP and when I do it's normally to check the details of a photo to decide if I want to import it into Lightroom or not. After I've had a chance to go through the book I'll post an in-depth review of it. If you want to pick up your own copy from Amazon use the link below to buy it and I'll earn a small commission.

Replacement AMOD GPS Photo Tracker

AMOD GPS Photo Tracker

Last weekend I was an idiot and left my GPS Photo Tracker on the hood of the truck while Donna and I left to go shoot some pictures. After searching our yard and neighbors yards we came up empty so I ordered a replacement and it arrived yesterday. I use this to record a track log while Donna and I are out shooting and then use RoboGEO software to embed the GPS information into the EXIF data stored in the image. Once that is done I can upload the photo to flickr and it will automatically appear on a map showing the exact location where the photo was taken. Another cool feature is when your photos contain the GPS information is the Photo Album on our iPod Touch and iPad have the ability to show a map where the photos were taken. I have used this model of GPS tracker for a couple of years now and it has always performed flawlessly. It uses 3 AAA batteries and easily records a full day of our travels to the log files it creates. What I normally do is turn it on before we leave the house and then put in into a holder on the front strap of my backpack and there it'll sit all day dutifully logging our position while Donna and I are out shooting photos. If you want one the link below will take you to Amazon where you can buy it and I'll get a small commission.