As I Xi It v2.3

Ahead of my upcoming trip to Austria, I picked up a new tripod! It’s far more compact than my other tripods and extends up to my eye-level with the centre column down.

The original ballhead it came with was fine with my Canon G11, but I wouldn’t trust it with my 40D, so I’ve swapped it out for my Manfrotto 486RC2. The whole thing weighs around 1kg with a maximum carrying capacity of around 2kg, fine for a semi-pro DSLR and standard zoom/prime, but definitely not for telephotos.There are variable leg locks and you can remove part of the centre column to further reduce weight. It’s reasonably sturdy, but won’t replace my Gitzo for shots up in the Arctic. Further specs are available here – Slik Sprint Pro II GM.

Given its petite proportions, its easy to pack making it ideal for weekend city breaks around Europe.

How exciting could a mug be? Well, apart from all that commotion with the Canon mug in recent months, I came across the Sea to Summit X-Mug which is just so neat that I had to share!

Basically, the X-Mug is a drinking vessel by Sea to Summit made of food grade silicone, acepting both cold and hot beverages . It folds down to a disc shape approximately 1.5 cm x 11.3 cm and has graduations on the inside for measuring things out. Being fairly light and compact makes it ideal for those travel adventures. It seems fairly robust and there is also the X-Bowl and X-Plate in the collection of X items which all nest together when squished down. I’m pretty confident that this will replace the Lifeventure mug I usually pack for my next globe trotting adventure… assuming that this dastardly cloud of volcanic ash moves along.

I’ve just been testing the voice search on the Google app for my iPhone and I can’t say that it’s as good as I’d expected. When I asked it to ‘search Xiyu’, it returned with ‘sexy z’. I also tried ‘Xiyu online’, but got nowhere close. Now, granted that those aren’t very standard things to search, so next I tried ‘Applied Environmental Microbiology’ and it returned with ‘applying for men to microbiology’. Now, while it’s fairly close phonetically, it’s not really close enough to be of much use. Nice try Google, but I think I’ll stick to good old typing for the time being.

One more thing before I go – I’m actually posting from my iPhone using the WordPress app. It’s fairly capable for blogging on the go. I think other blogging platforms have their own apps too. I love my iPhone.

Now I thought seamless integration of my iPhone with my computer as a remote was cool, then I came across Apple’s own app which lets me control my iTunes via wifi! Works mighty well too, I’m almost tempted to get a Macbook Pro now.

See here for more info.

Today I came across the coolest app ever for my iPhone, it works pretty darn well and best of all, its FREE!! It’s the Logitech Touch app which allows you to control your computer like a touch pad over wifi. All you need is the software for the computer you want to controll here and install the Touch Mouse app onto your iPhone. If you search for “Touch Mouse”, it should be the first app that comes up.

It was surprisingly easy to set up, all I did was install the software on my computer and then opened up the app on my iPhone, selected my computer which it automatically detected and voila, all done. So now I can use my computer with ease while I’m on the exercise bike! How’s that for multitasking?

Since my mobile (cellphone or handphone for non-Brits) contract has terminated, I upgraded to the very shiny black 16GB iPhone 3Gs. I’ve got to admit that when thinking about which phone to upgrade to, I was a little apprehensive about picking the iPhone since it’s just so common. But having delved closer, I can see why it’s so popular. It looks good and is fairly easy to use. I like that it uses iTunes so I’ve only got one piece of software to deal with my iPod and iPhone. No need to have multiple software to clutter up the computer.

There are some way cool apps you can download for it. My favourite so far is probably Urbanspoon with its scope feature giving that augmented reality feel to it. There’s also What Knot to Do by Columbia, the outdoors clothing people with a guide on knots! Language Translator is pretty good too and the auto detect language tool works fairly well when I tested it with what few languages I know.

I do miss real buttons though. The on screen keyboard is fine, but takes a little getting used to it. Not sure how well it’d work for those with fat fingers.

Seeing as its been snowing rather frequently in London and I’ve got that upcoming trip up into Swedish Lapland, I ordered myself a set of Manfrotto snow shoes. Although I have a set of Slik and Gitzo tripod legs, I went for the Manfrotto because a) they were cheaper and b) Gitzo ones were out of stock at the place where I ordered my new ball head. The Manfrotto and Gitzo snow shoes look the same anyway.

You don’t have to use the snow shoes just for snow, I’m sure they’ll work pretty well on dry sand and other soft sediment. They just increase the surface area between the tripod and terrain to reduce sinking. However, I don’t recommend them for use on smooth surfaces such as laminate flooring as they’ll just slide around. I suppose they could be used for the new sport of tripod curling.

They’re reasonably cheap at around £15 and get the job done.

I’ve previously reviewed the Manfrotto 486RC2 ball head here which sits on my Slik Pro 340DX. Since getting my fancy Gitzo tripod legs as reviewed here back in May 2009, I needed a more substantial ball head to go with it.

Now, I could’ve gone all out and brought an Arcaswiss, Kirk, Really Right Stuff or Markins ball head, but given that my heaviest camera combo weighs in at under 5 kg, I thought it’d be overkill to splurge £300+ on a ball head. I opted for the more modestly priced Manfrotto 468MGRC2 ball head at just over £150.

Like the 486RC2, this 468MGRC2 oozes solidness. I have no doubt that if you were to lob it at someone, it’d take them down fairly easily, assuming your aim was accurate. My favourite thing about this ball head is the friction control which stops the camera from flopping about, something which I found rather annoying with the other ball head. The ball rotates smoothly and locks down tight without much effort. Given that I’m planning to use this Gitzo/Manfrotto combo while I’m off to Swedish lapland next month, the large rubberised knob (tee hee) would be easy to operate with gloves on. I’d assume it’d be easier to use for arthritics too.

The 468MGRC2 has a rated minimum operating temperature of -30^oC so I’m hoping that it’ll hold out while I’m shooting the aurora in in the arctic circle where temperatures are reported to reach -35^oC at night. If it does lock up, then I’d have to bind one of those self heating hand warmers to it.

Another year gone, time for another annual retrospective review. Not really in the mood to write much so I’ll just leave you with some pics summarising the last twelve months, but I’ve got to say that the highlight of my year was probably my trip to South Africa. That was really something.

A while ago, I filled out a survey by Think Tank Photo with the possibility of winning a limited edition Pixel Pocket Rocket memory card holder. I had a look, thought to myself, “yeah, why not” and filled it out.

A few weeks/months later, I got an email from them telling me I’d won one of them! Just the other day, I got a package from the States with my rather neat “prize”.

I guess a quick review is in order. It’s well made, holds 10 memory cards (CFs are ideal), has a slot for your business cards and also has a lanyard for attaching to yourself or camera bag. Does the business, I only wished the stripes were brighter and more Paul Smith like. But I’m quite glad that I got the stripey one, most of the other fabric designs were kinda gaudy. The hippos were cute, reminded me of Moomin!