Squiver Review: Gura Gear Chobe laptop bag

For years I thought I had a camera bag fetish. Whenever I walked into a camera store, I would spend considerable time at the bags department - picking them up to feel the weight, opening and closing the zippers to see whether they ran smoothly, counting the amount of compartments and dividers, and eventually: trying it on. It turned out I didn't have a camera bag fetish after all, I simply wasn't happy with the bags I had been using and was constantly looking for something better. When I first saw the Gura Gear Kiboko bag on one of my workshops, I was fascinated by the revolutionary butterfly design, the incredible amount of stuff that fit in there, and the supposed low weight - it sure looked like the perfect bag. I decided to get one my self, and I haven't been fumbling other bags since. The Kiboko bag is not perfect, but it's close enough for me.

When I travel, and I tend to do that a lot, I bring a lot of gear. The challenge photographers are facing all the time is how to fit everything in your cabin luggage. I am fortunate to be able to travel with Daniella on almost all trips, and she also has a Kiboko bag for her video camera and accessories. With all her stuff in the bag there is still an entire compartment that is empty, and I usually put some of my gear in there. Especially when I go on safaris this is really necessary, because I then not only bring my 200-400, but also my 600. The 200-400 can fit in the Kiboko bag easily with a body attached, and even the 600 can fit in it, but without the hood. However, if I were to put both in my bag, there wouldn't be any space left for other items - Daniella gets the 200-400 plus body, or the 600. All the cables and chargers go in my laptop bag, and the only thing that goes into my checked luggage is my tripod and my Wimberley head.

A few months ago I went on a trip to Antarctica, without Daniella. I didn't want to bring my 600, so luggage was no problem. Two weeks ago however, I was on assignment for National Geographic Traveller in India, also without Daniella. On that trip it was vital to bring my 600, so I had a logistics problem. I knew I wouldn't be able to fit everything in my Kiboko, so that meant I had to somehow fit either my 200-400 or my 600 in my stylish Oakley laptop bag. Yep, not very likely. Enter the Chobe laptop bag, also by Gura Gear.

The Gura Gear Chobe laptop/camerabag

The Chobe laptop bag

My first introduction to the Chobe laptop bag was probably one of the most surreal product demonstrations I have ever witnessed. I was leading a workshop in Kenya, when I ran into Andy Biggs, founder of Gura Gear. We were all sitting in our Jeeps, waiting for the wildebeest to cross the Mara River, so Andy decided this was the perfect time to give us a demonstration of the new Chobe laptop bag. And it worked, because I got one myself a few months later and I now use it on every trip.

What's so great about it?

The great thing about the Chobe bag is that it has the same characteristics as the Kiboko bag. That means it is very light, has lots of space inside, is made of the same material, and has a very clever design. Let's start with that last one.

Expandability

At first sight the Chobe bag looks just like any other laptop bag - it is black, it has more or less the same dimensions, it has handles and a shoulder strap, as well as a few external pockets. But the Chobe bag can do something no other laptop bags can: it can turn itself into a camera bag. By unzipping one of the center zippers, not only does the middle compartment becomes twice as wide, creating enough room for more stuff than you'll need, but with the included insert you can turn this bag into a serious camerabag with space for a few camera bodies and lenses. This means that the bag is compact when you don't have a lot of stuff to carry around, and that it is bigger when you do.

When I travel by plane, I like to bring everything on board that I need for my photography - my check in luggage does not always arrive in time, and when I'm on assignment that would be disastrous. That means not only cameras and lenses, but also all chargers, cables, remotes, filters, ballheads, flash, etc. all go in my cabin luggage. When I don't bring my long lenses, there usually is enough room in the Kiboko for everything I need, but when I decide to bring my 200-400 and my 600, things get really complicated. On most trips I travel with Daniella, so any excess camera gear can usually go in her bag (thanks honey). In those cases I only have a laptop and a few external drives to fit in my 'one personal item'. However, when I travel alone and need all my long lenses, it's a whole different story.

One of the great things about the Kiboko bag is that I can fit my 600mm in it. It will fill one compartment together with my 70-200 (I know, it's incredible). That leaves the other compartment for three bodies and three short lenses. The 200-400 does not fit in the bag anymore. A lens of that size is not something you would normally consider trying to get into your laptop bag, but with the Chobe bag you can.

When I was on assignment in India for National Geographic earlier this year, that was exactly what I did. My 600 and 70-200 in one compartment of the Kiboko, the D3, D3s, D3x, 14-24, 24-70, 17-35 in the other. The SB-900 and remote also fit in there, but that was about it. Enter the Chobe bag.

I simply expanded the middle compartment and put the insert in. I then could have taken all the dividers out and put the 200-400 in, because it really fits, but I decided to use the dividers to design the layout of the insert so that it would fit all the smaller items (external drives, cables, chargers, GPS) - neatly organized. I then put the 200-400 on top of that, and I could still close the zipper without any problems. Amazing.

Size and weight

Photographers are obsessed with weight. This is completely understandable, as everything seems to get lighter and lighter, except for professional cameras and lenses. On an average trip I bring at least two bodies (a D3s and D3x), a 14-24, a 24-70, a 70-200 and a 200-400. Add to that a flash, spare batteries, and chargers, and you're already talking about some serious weight. Getting that amount of weight onto an airplane as cabin luggage is already stressful enough, so you don't really want your 'one personal item', usually a laptop bag, to be so heavy as well. Well, no worries there, because the Chobe bag is really light - a mere …grams. With just my Macbook Pro, charger, a Wacom tablet and some small loose items, it feels as if there's hardly anything in there.

Very old Samsonite laptopbag

The size and weight are comparable to an old Samsonite laptop bag I've been using lately, but the Chobe is a bit wider and much better designed. But just as with the Kiboko bag you can't imagine how much actually fits in there until you try to fill it up. And even when you do, it will still easily fit upright in the overhead luggage compartment of most airplanes, or you can stow it underneath the seat in front of you.

The design

In terms of looks the Chobe bag is no stunner - it just looks like a laptop bag. Personally, I'm happy it's not too flashy or techy, because that could draw unnecessary attention to the bag that usually contains my most important items: laptop, external drives, passport and money. Of all the three bags that I travel with (check-in bag, Kiboko camera bag and Chobe laptop bag), it is the Chobe that I always keep my eye on. Of course it helps to know that my Kiboko usually weighs around 20kg when fully packed, so a thief that tries to make a run with it won't get very far.

The largest outside pocket can also be used for an iPad

On the outside there are two large pockets. The largest one I use for my Wacom tablet and lots of small items. The smaller one I use for flash drives, pens, business cards, connectors for my MacBook and other small stuff. A nice touch is the rubber protection piece that covers the metal zipper so that it can't scratch anything. The latest version of the Kiboko apparently features this as well - good thinking.

The right pocket features lots of space for small items

On the back there is a large zipper that gives access to a pocket that you can use for documents, but officially it is designed as a travel sleeve - you unzip it and slide it over the handles of your roll-on. I use this only before check-in on my big bag. After that, it's just an extra pocket.

The zipper of the travel sleeve is located at the bottom of the sleeve and protected by velcro

On the left side there is a water bottle sleeve that, when unzipped, fits a 1 liter bottle. This is perfect, because I like to bring lots of water on the plane, and it doesn't even cost any space inside the bag.

The water bottle pocket - it's only there when you want it to be

The opposite side features a cell phone pocket. You have to know that it's there, because it doesn't look like a pocket at all. It's very tight and does not have a zipper, and so far I have not used it for my iPhone for that reason. I'm often waiting in crowded airports with people standing close to me on all sides, and I like the idea of having at least a zipper to prevent pickpocketing. Dust is another issue. I mainly use it for wet wipes.

The mobile phone pocket is not easy to recognize. The bag is zipped to the most compact size.

The laptop pocket is just what you expect: my 13" MacBook Pro fits in there nicely, even with the bulky sleeve around it.

The expansion zipper is located on the bottom right side of the bag. When you unzip it, the bag expands an additional 2.5 inches. That may not sound like much, but it is. You suddenly have tons of extra spaceYou can then add the photo insert and turn your laptop bag into a serious camera shoulderbag. I prefer to keep the middle pocket unzipped and travel with the Chobe at the maximum size with the photo insert added. Even when I don't need it for camera gear, I still like having the possibility to use the dividers to custom build the interior of the bag. It's a nice way to keep everything organized and not have it move around the bag constantly. It's only on short non-photography trips that I remove the insert and zip the bag down to the smallest size.

Chobe expanded without the photo insert

The photo insert is included with the Chobe bag. Lots of inserts too.

Chobe with the photo insert inside

Conclusion

This bag is the near perfect solution for any photographer that has to deal with the complicated logistics of having to travel by plane with lots of camera gear. Great built quality and flexibility, very lightweight and lots of space for both camera gear and non-photographic items. It's an impressive bag with clever design, especially considering this is version 1.0. So is it perfect? No, there are a few things that could be improved upon.

First, the handles have uncomfortable sharp edges on the inside, and you feel this especially when you're carrying heavy gear inside it. I'd prefer the handles to be much softer and gentler to the hands, because most of the time when I'm traveling I'm wearing the Kiboko on my back and using the shoulder strap of the Chobe is a bit too much on the shoulders. That shoulder strap is very comfortable, but I don't like the rather flimsy connectors that are used to attach it to the bag. On two occasions I've had one of the connectors open during transport because something pushed against it. In theory the bag could fall down and damage the gear, but I'm lucky that hasn't happened yet.

The shoulder strap is very comfortable

The zippers are smooth, but I'd like them to have some sort of locking feature, for instance to be able to use a small padlock. I know it won't stop determined thieves, but it will give me some peace of mind when I'm in very crowded airports or when I leave my bag in the hotel room. A small extra piece of metal with a hole in it on the existing zipper is all it takes. I would also like to have this feature on my Kiboko bag.

Finally, everything on the bag being black, it's sometimes difficult to find the zippers. The zippers now have small pieces of flexible black material attached to them, but I'd prefer them to be brightly colored so that I can find them easily, especially in dimly lit situations.

That said, this is the bag I have been searching for for many years, and this is the bag I will be using on all my future trips. Gura Gear did it again.

Marsel

New Puzzle now available

Marsel's famous photograph of a giraffe at sunset is now available as a jigsaw puzzle here, here, here, here, here, or here :-)

Electronic games are so 2011, really. Old school jigsaw puzzles are the bomb!

Second Namibia Tour added!

Soon after this year's Namibia Untamed tour filled up, we received emails from people who were very disappointed that the trip was full and that they would have to wait for next year's trip. We don't like to disappoint people, so we pulled some strings in Namibia and managed to set up a second tour.

This second tour will start 14 June and ends on 27 June 2012.

If you were too late for the original date, this is your chance to join us to fabulous Namibia! Don't miss out this time and make your reservation here.

Naturescapes Images of the Year Awards

We're proud to announce that for the second time in a row Marsel was successful in the Naturescapes Images of the Year Awards. After last year's First Prize in the landscape category, Marsel got an Honorable Mention in this year's competition. What makes this result extra special, is that it's in the Avian category for one of this favorite bird shots.

Here is the caption that goes with the image:

"The birds are very small in the frame, you can't see their heads, eyes or beaks, there's no spectacular feather detail, no action whatsoever, and no thermonuclear colors in the sky. Yet that is exactly why I took this shot. Every year on my Japan Squiver workshop we have on average one or two days with hoar frost, in my opinion one of the prettiest winter conditions you can get. On this particular morning we had left our ryokan long before sunrise to see the whooper swans wake up and watch their fascinating morning rituals. When we got closer to the lake I noticed the hoar frost and decided to take the group to one of my favorite and very quiet spots. We had to walk through a strip of trees and dense vegetation, which would normally create a lot of noise that could wake up the swans. The snow was about three feet high though, and the perfect natural soundproofing. When I reached the shore, a few swans looked up and then went back to sleep again. I set up my tripod, took this shot, and then just sat there for a while - amazed."

If you would like to join us on our next Japan tour to photograph whooper swans, cranes and eagles in the most amazing winter scenery, please have a look at the White & Wild Japan page on our website for more information and some really cool tour impression videos.

Squiver Session: seminar workflow nature photography

Last weekend we hosted a seminar on Marsel's workflow: nature photography from the basic idea to the final print. We had over 130 people that attended the seminar and it was a great success. Marsel explained what he carries in that very heavy photo backpack of his, how he prepares for shoots, his settings for wildlife and landscape photography, what to look for in an image, how to make them look so clear, vibrant and crispy, the best way to get your shots onto the computer, back-ups, raw conversion, and Photoshop tips & tricks.

Because everyone was so enthusiastic and this one sold out very fast, we decided to do the same seminar again later this year and add another one fully dedicated to post processing and Photoshop. Marsel will then show in more detail how he works on his images - from RAW conversion to all the steps in Photoshop. The seminars will be held in the Netherlands and Belgium. So sorry - for Dutch speaking people only.

More info on: www.squiver.com/sessions/

Waiting for the seminar to start :-) 

Review: DroboPro

When I first started with photography, I shot mainly slides. I framed them, put them in a box, and the box went into the closet. After a while I started scanning some of my slides onto my computer for some additional work in Photoshop, and suddenly I had a digital backup of my best pictures on my Mac. But shooting slides was a pain, so with the introduction of digital photography I simply couldn't wait to jump to the other side.

My first DSLR was a 6MP Nikon D70. It took some time to get used to the flat and uninspiring RAW files compared to the high contrast and vibrant Velvia slides, but I soon realized there was no way back.

Initially, the size of the RAW files coming straight from the D70 seemed to be an improvement compared to the drum-scanned slides that were a 100MB each. But with slides I didn't shoot much, as it was rather expensive. RAW files don't cost a thing, so I shot much more than before and as a result my computer started filling up quickly. At the same time I also realized that my images were pretty vulnerable in case of a hard drive failure.

I decided to get myself a new computer with more internal storage, and buy an external hard drive to backup my images. This worked well. Every now and then I just updated the data on the external drive and I felt pretty well organized and safe.

I then upgraded to a 12MP Nikon D2X. I also started traveling more, shot considerably more images, and the computer was filling up again. So I added a second internal drive and bought a second external drive for backups.

And then I bought a second body, a Nikon D2Xs, shot more images than ever before, and in no time I was facing the same problems again. I needed more disk space, and I wanted more processing power to handle my every increasing Photoshop files sizes. So I bought a new MacPro. Four internal hard drives, 1TB each. The external drives had to be upgraded as well, so I bought four external drives of 1TB to mirror the content of my computer. But what if my house would catch fire, or if I got burglarized and someone took all my computer stuff? I needed a second backup to keep off-site. More external drives.

Part of my external hard drive collection.

By the time I had stored all my data in three different places, the whole backup thing had become very time-consuming and confusing. Using ChronoSync helped to make the process go faster and easier, but it became clear to me that if things continued like this, I could build my own Great Wall out of external hard drives.

I managed to keep things going until last year, when my MacPro was getting full again - the result of traveling most of the year with a Nikon D3, D3X and D3s. Three of the four 1TB drives were full, only the HD still had some space left. I like to keep all my images inside my main computer, so I had to do some sort of upgrade again. The internal upgrade was not a difficult one - simply replace all the drives with 2TB versions. But the external upgrade had to be changed once and for all. No way I was going to buy more external drives. I had been looking into multi-drive RAID boxes before, but it was all very intimidating and I like to keep things simple. That's when I read about the DroboPro - its seemed like the perfect solution to my problem.


Storage that manages itself

The DroboPro is basically an 8-bay external hard drive that can dynamically expand storage any time, and that is self-managing and self-healing. That almost sounds too good to be true, so how does it work?

The DroboPro uses Data Robotics' BeyondRAID technology. It lets you add hard drives on the fly to increase your storage capacity when needed. This means you can just buy the storage you need now and change it as your data grows. Not only that, it doesn't even matter what size, speed or brand the drives are, and you can add, remove or replace a disk at any time. Virtually any 3.5" SATA drive can be used - simply plug in a few drives and the DroboPro automatically starts doing the work. Redundant data protection without the complexities of traditional RAID setups, which require the use of equal sized drives.

The dynamic storage expansion and the fact that even I could understand how it works made me want one.


Packaging and unboxing

My new DroboPro arrived in a sturdy box that was at least twice as big as the product itself. Once opened, it was clear that Drobo doesn't trust couriers to handle packages gently, and rightly so. The DroboPro itself was surrounded by a good amount of black foam and had a smaller box on top with the cables, manual and setup guide.

Box contents:
-DroboPro
-Two power cords
-USB 2.0 cable
-FireWire 800 cable
-Ethernet cable
-User Guide and Quick Start Instructions
-Resource CD (Drobo Dashboard application and Help files)

You open the box, and you're welcomed - nice.

All the smaller items are neatly organized.

Resource CD, Drobo User Guide and instruction card.

Underneath the smaller box lies the DroboPro itself.

The Drobopro is protected by an extra cloth wrapper.

The DroboPro is a well designed, somewhat heavy machine. All the vital parts are behind a black metal sheet, the front and the back have glossy plastic covers. Normally, you would instinctively try to hide your backup system under your desk or behind the closet, but the DroboPro is so good looking that I decided to put it on my desk. And yes, those lights look pretty cool.

You've gotta love the design.

The front cover is attached to the main body with a magnetic strip - to remove it is a breeze. Behind the cover you can see the 8 bays where the drives should go. And it's as simple as it looks; just slide it in and you're in business. On the inside of the front cover is a handy reminder of what the different lights mean - good thinking.

Behind the front door of the DroboPro.

The backside of the DroboPro.

Getting Started

Unpacking the DroboPro was the easy part, the serious bit was next. Luckily, according to Drobo's website, this should be just as simple. "If you can figure out a traffic light, you can figure out a DroboPro" is what they say. What they mean is that the green, yellow and red lights on the front tell you exactly what's happening and what you need to do.

The lights work the same on all Drobo models.

I'm lazy by nature, so I decided to not read the manual and only have a quick look at the Quick Start Instructions and install the Drobo Dashboard application.

Hooking up the device to the computer took under a minute, and so did installing the software. I switched on the DroboPro, removed the front cover, and opened the Drobo Dashboard application. All the lights underneath the 8 bays turned red: add a drive here. I took one of the four 2TB drives that I bought (the same as the ones inside my MacPro, but this is not necessary) and pushed it into one of the 8 bays. Immediately the little light underneath the bay started flickering yellow and green: don't remove this drive. The DroboPro had started initializing the drive. I then added the remaining three drives and waited until all lights were green.

Meanwhile I had a look at the Drobo Dashboard user interface. This turned out to work just as intuitive. I created a single volume on my desktop and called it "Drobo". As a maximum capacity I entered 16TB, even though at the moment I only inserted 4 drives with a total of 8TB. The DroboPro separates the capacity of the arrays from physical capacity. You specify the capacity of the array when it is created, but this capacity has nothing to do with the number or size of drives installed. You set your volume size once and you create your partition on that volume size once. If later on you want to expand the available storage by adding or replacing drives, it will never require the extra steps required by a traditional RAID system. With the DroboPro there is no need to predict the exact right size in advance.

As I work with four internal hard drives, I decided to create four partitions on the Drobo volume: three for my image drives, one for my main hard drive containing my system and applications. You have the choice of Single Disk Redundancy (protection agains a single disk failure) and Dual Disk Redundancy (protection against two disks dropping out). Earlier, I had calculated the difference in terms of available storage with the Capacity Calculator on the Drobo website. This was just a matter of dragging the drives sizes that you are planning to use onto the bays. Dual disk redundancy is obviously safer, but it takes up a lot of capacity, so I decided to go for single disk redundancy.

With single disk redundancy I have 5.44TB space available. 

You can combine different sizes and brands.

With dual disk redundancy half of the capacity is used for protection.

With all lights green and and everything ready to go, I went to DroboCopy in Drobo Dashboard and started the copying of my drives. I did this manually the first time, but you can program DroboCopy to to make backups automatically at any given time.

As simple as everything might be, there will always be stuff you don't understand or would like to know more about. The Drobo site offers a wealth of information. You can learn how to get the most from your Drobo through their Video Learning Center. I particularly found the digital photography workflow video on the Drobo Broadcast Network very interesting, as well as some of the Drobo In-Depth videos.


Performance

Copying over 3TB to an external device can take a long time, and it did. I don't work directly off the DroboPro, so it wasn't a problem, but it took longer than I thought - a few days. My guess is that for a large part this is caused by the fact that not only was there a lot of data to be transferred, it also had to be organized and redundant across the drives. After the initial synchronization was completed, I changed the DroboCopy settings to let the DroboPro automatically backup my drives at the end of each day. This worked like a charm. All the consecutive backups were fast and flawless.

A simple pie chart shows the status of the DroboPro capacity

No complaints then? Well, there is one thing that I don't like about the DroboPro: the sound it makes. It is supposedly "desktop quiet", but I'd say it's a bit noisier than that. It's not so much the fans that create most of the noise - I don't think I've even heard the fans at all - it's the drives themselves. Sure, I expect the thing to make all kinds of sounds when it is working, but even when the backups are finished the DroboPro keeps producing sounds. My guess is that this is caused by the fact that there is simply a lot of empty space inside the device, because in my case it's only half full. That empty space turns it into a subwoofer and emphasizes the sounds coming from within. I expect to hear a lot less when all the slots are full.

That said, the sounds from the DroboPro are constant - it never stops. I expected the machine to become silent when there's no activity, but it doesn't. It makes me wonder what the DroboPro is actually doing when I'm not doing anything. It doesn't have a sleep mode, so you have to turn it off completely to make it stop. This is not a major issue though, because I have programmed the DroboPro to start working when I have stopped myself.

The DroboPro in the lion's den.

Conclusion

There's a lot to like about this black beauty. It is incredibly simple to use and involves zero management. Single and dual disk redundancy with a click, flexible "pay-as-you-grow" expansion, and no need to predict the exact right size in advance. If you're looking for a simple, safe, flexible and scalable solution, and you don't want the complexity and restrictions of traditional RAID systems, then the DroboPro is the way to go.

New video of Squiver workshop Turkey

It took a while, but the video impression of our landscape photography workshop in Cappadocia (Turkey) is finally ready! I am reposting for those of you that have subscribed to our blog, as the embedded video does not show in the email. You can view the video on Vimeo.

The setting for this tour is simply stunning. We will take you to the best spots to photograph the surreal fairy chimneys, bizarre rock formations and beautiful valleys where cave houses and churches hewn out in the rocks used to be. We will also visit some hidden gems far off the beaten track where regular tourists don't go - that is how you get truly original images.

Because driving times to the various shooting locations are short, the day-to-day schedule allows for plenty of daily image reviews and photo tuition. So if you want to improve your landscape photography skills and photograph the wonders of Cappadocia, this is a great tour to make it happen! 

The tour takes place early May and we still have some places left. More info and pictures can be found on our website. If you want to make a booking, you can do that here. Ballooning is offered as an optional activity and comes highly recommended. 

This image was shot by Daniella with her iPhone, and processed with SnapSeed.

Just to show you, you don't need an expensive camera to enjoy our trips!

Copyright infringement is an issue...

Unfortunately there are media that use images without the permission of photographers. When you see an image and there is no reference to a copyright (to a stock agency or the name of a photographer), alarm bells should start ringing. Because in 99% of the cases it won't be a mistake by the printer, but a deliberate copyright infringement. 

I am fortunate that many of my images are known by people around the world, and that they recognize them as mine when they see them.

Thanks to observant readers, I sometimes get emails asking whether an image they saw in their local media is indeed a legit use of my image, as they did not see my credits. This time, it was in an Australian newspaper, but unfortunately it is not the first time this has happened. Nor will it be the last. So please, keep your eyes open and let's look out for each others images in the media (also on the web). Because it is something that should be important to everyone who loves photography.

 

Review: Markins Q20 Ballhead

A little bit of history: the M20

Seven years ago I wrote my first review on the Markins M10 ballhead. Shortly after that I upgraded to the M20, and I have been using it ever since. It is still in perfect working condition, and my guess is that it will easily outlive me. From the moment I turned pro a couple of years ago, the M20 has been used and abused almost daily in various ballhead-hostile locations all over the planet.

The Markins M20 on a Gitzo GT3530LSV

Each year in february I lead a photo workshop in Japan, where we photograph in sometimes seriously cold conditions, often with snow, and this is a recipe for disaster with many ballheads. Low temperatures can cause the ball to 'stick', turning it into a completely useless metal ornament on top of your tripod. Snow and sleet can make things even worse, but the M20 has never let me down.

No matter how cold it was, the M20 always performed perfectly. 

This image of sleeping whooper swans was shot on Hokkaido, Japan, in mid winter.
The M20 kept moving smoothly, my fingers did not.

Bryce Canyon, USA. I know, it looks nice and sunny, and I'm smiling. 

Half an hour later I was in my car trying to thaw my painful, near frost-bitten fingers. 

The M20 was a lot tougher.

Earlier this year I spent over three months in the Sahara of Northern Africa; Algeria, Chad, Libya and Egypt, and later Namibia. The circumstances there were the exact opposite of those in Japan, and possibly even worse. It may come as no surprise that there is some sand in the Sahara, and photographers don't like to get it on or in their gear because we know it will cause trouble. But what can you do when there is sand everywhere, there is more dust than oxygen in the air, and when sand storms are a daily routine? With the M20 the answer is simple: you do nothing. Never did I try to protect the head from sand or dust, and it never stopped working. The tolerance in the moving parts is so small and precise, that dust and sand simply cannot get into it. Even after falling in the sand on numerous occasions, or staying outside during a sandstorm, it needed no special attention before using it again. Needless to say that I consider this one of the best investments that I have ever made. So why did I want to get the new Q20? I simply needed a second ballhead to be able to work with different setups.

The Q20

Back in 2004, my Markins ballhead was still quite exotic. Most photographers used the well-known leading brands at the time, and most of them had never heard of Markins nor seen any of their ballheads. A lot has changed since. Serious photographers all over the world now use Markins ballheads, and I regularly see them on my workshops. When I saw the first Q20, my initial response was that it hadn't changed much - which to me made perfect sense. Why change something that has already proven to be the best in its class? On closer inspection though, I noticed some interesting design changes.

The Markins Q20 on a Gitzo GT3530LSV tripod

The main knob

First, there is the knob. On my M20 the knob is made of metal with very little relief. In normal conditions this works fine, but when you're photographing with gloves on, the metal knob doesn't offer enough grip and it is difficult to unscrew and open the clamp. The new design features a slightly larger knob that has a rubber part with ribs, offering way more grip - a serious improvement in terms of handling. But also without gloves the new knob offers more grip, it doesn't get as cold, and is much easier to open and close.

The clamp

At first, the clamp on the Q20 seemed larger to me than the one on the M20, but on closer inspection they're the same size. The design has changed a little bit, making it look larger, but it isn't. The clamp now also features a spirit level. I'm not using this new feature for three reasons. First, most of my cameras have built-in spirit levels. Second, when I'm not using those, I use a small hot shoe mounted spirit level. And third, I don't really get the placement of the spirit level - it's right on top of the clamp, where the camera is going to be. That means that you first have to level the clamp, and then mount the camera. This makes very little sense to me, because I like to be able to move the camera around to fine tune my composition so I need to be able to check the spirit level constantly, and I would have to remove the camera from the head in order to do that. It doesn't bother me that it's there though, so I just ignore the little green eye.

The clamp is of the dovetail style - in my opinion the most stable connection. Markins offers a large variety of camera plates that will fit the Q20, just make sure you pick the right one for your specific camera body. Personally, I prefer to work with L-brackets. They're much larger and heavier than regular plates, but they are rock solid and never ever move one bit, they're much faster when you want to switch from horizontal to vertical and vice versa, they're better for the stability of the whole setup (you don't have to flip the head, the camera remains right on top of the center of gravity), and they offer great protection for the camera. I got mine from Kirk, but you can get them from Really Right Stuff as well.

The L-Bracket for the D3 series. 

I have two of them, made by Kirk. Much better than regular plates.

Another change I noticed right away, is that the numbers around the base of the head now have little indents. I don't think it will make much of a difference, but it does look slightly better.

Interesting

When I put the M20 and Q20 next to each other, I noticed something very interesting - they're a mirror image. I can vaguely remember that you could order the M20 for right handed operation and for left handed, and apparently I have chosen the left handed version. The Q20's got everything the other way around. It's funny that I hadn't really noticed this straight away in the field, and to be honest I don't really care; I can fasten a knob with my left hand and my right hand.

The Q20 (left) and the M20 (right): mirrored versions

The Q20 with rubber grip and spirit level (left) and the M20 (right)

Numbers

But there's more - important changes that you can't see:

-Stronger: the Q20 now offers 250 kgf-cm/217 lbf-in of torque

-Higher load capacity: Measured to be 50kg/110 lbs for a load offset of 5cm/1.97in from the center of gravity

-Lighter: the Q20 weighs only 555 g/1.22 lbs

-More efficient: The load capacity to weight ratio is 90:1

That means the Q20 is no Jaws 2, Terminator 2 or Aliens 2 - it is actually better than version 1.0

In the field

So how did it perform in the field? The first trip that I used the new head on, was our Namibia workshop. Dusty, dry air, and lots of sand. In a desert environment you'll notice pretty soon if you're working with professional quality equipment - if not, it will just stop working. The Q20 worked just as I expected. As a matter of fact, I often didn't even know which head I was shooting with, my trusty M20 or the new Q20. On numerous occasions I crawled through tiny windows in a deserted diamond mining town in the Namib desert, dragging the tripod and the Q20 through the sand. No problems there. As with my Gitzo tripod, I never bothered to clean the head, as it didn't seem necessary. It's just great to use gear that you can totally rely on. However, there was this one cold morning that the head started to 'stick'. It would move smoothly when moving the clamp in large and fast movements, but it would stick when trying to make small adjustments. This was really annoying, because it slowed me down when the light was good and I missed a couple of shots fiddling around with the friction control, trying to get things back to normal again. When I got back home, I realized I hadn't bothered to read the small leaflet that came with the Q20, which said that I should add some WD-40 to the ball to prevent this from happening. After I had done that, the problem disappeared.

How low can you go? Pretty low with the Q20 flipped sideways, 

connected to the vertical part of the L-bracket on my D3s.

Nikon D3s with AF-S 14-24/2.8 on the Markins Q20, mounted on a dolly. 

Dust was the prime ingredient here, but the Q20 kept working flawlessly - also after the shoot.

The second big test case was Antarctica. And below freezing temperatures, sea water and snow were just the right circumstances for it. On most of the landings, my camera gear was all packed in my Kiboko camerabag, except for the tripod and Q20. We used zodiacs to transport us from the ship to the shore, and the Gitzo/Markins combo got baptized by the ocean on more than one occasion - the sea can be pretty choppy at times. The M20 could handle salt water pretty well, so I figured the Q20 should be able to deal with it as well. And it did. I have never bothered to get the salt water from my Gitzo and M20, and I haven't with the Q20 either. It just kept on working after each landing, even during the odd snow storm. The Q20 passed the test.

Antarctica. Salt water is no problem for the Gitzo, icy cold temperatures are no problem for the Q20.

Even the King penguin chicks on South Georgia were very impressed 

when they saw the D3 and AF-S 200-400/4.0 VR II mounted on a Q20.

In terms of rigidity and stability, I didn't notice any differences either. I had brought my 200-400/4 to Antarctica, and with the D3s attached, this is not a light combination. However, with the Q20, setting the right amount of friction takes just a few seconds and it works like a charm. The only thing that's important when working like this, is to tighten the tripod collar on the lens or you won't be able to smoothly move the camera/lens combo. And it's critical to set the right amount of friction, or your combo will flip over and topple the whole tripod. I have used my 600/4 on several occasions with the M20, with and without a Wimberley Sidekick, and I am certain that it will work just as well with the Q20. It might not be ideal, but it works. If space or weight is an issue, it's nice to know you leave some excess metal at home.

Not so great

What else is there to say about the Q20? Well, in my review on the M10 I wrote that I would like the panning knob to not only have a friction mechanism, but also a locking one. When you attach the head to your tripod a bit too enthusiastically, it can sometimes be very difficult to get it off again, especially in cold weather. You need to tighten the panning knob really hard to be able to unscrew the head from the tripod base, but what often happens is that even a tightened panning knob doesn't provide enough friction and the entire head just slips on the base of the ballhead. The only way to remove the head from the tripod in those cases is to loosen the screw underneath the base of the tripod with the proper tool. And if you like to pan without loosening the panning knob, you can also experience the exact opposite: you can't tighten the head to the tripod base more than the friction of the panning knob allows you. This means that the head maybe turn loose as you're trying to pan without loosening the panning knob. In all these years, this problem is still not solved, even though the panning knob on the Q20 is slightly larger.

It shouldn't be too difficult or expensive to redesign the panning knob so that it can completely lock the base and prevent it from slipping, by either pushing it in or pulling it out for instance. But apparently it is, because to my knowledge other heads don't offer this either and have the same issues.

Other than that, not much, really. O, one thing though. My Gitzo tripod got blown over a couple of times on a hike on South Georgia. There were very strong winds, and the lightweight carbon fibre tripod was no match when the camera was not mounted on it. The Q20 got smashed against the rocks several times, and even though it can take a beating, I do seem to have lost the little plastic cover on the main knob. It's not a big thing because it only has a cosmetic purpose, and I should have paid more attention. It does explain why in the images above the plastic cover is missing from the main knob.

Conclusion

My final conclusion: this is one hell of a ballhead. If you're using a Markins ballhead already, this won't come as a surprise. If you're not, then you should seriously consider at least trying one. They're incredibly compact, light, smooth and rigid, and extremely reliable. There are many ballheads around to choose from, but few of them get as close to perfection as the Q20.

© Marsel van Oosten

Review: EIZO ColorEdge CG245W

My first serious computer monitor was a LaCie Electron Blue IV, an incredibly heavy, blue beast. It served me well for many years, until recently. It can no longer reach the desired brightness, so I had to start looking for an alternative.

At the time when I bought the massive LaCie CRT screen, it was one of the best monitors around. It certainly wasn't the cool way to go - that would have been the flat screens - but if you wanted to see true, solid blacks instead of mere dark grays, a CRT screen was your only option. LCD monitors were regarded as lacking the color accuracy required for photography professionals, and if you wanted to get true black and high contrast, an old school CRT monitor it was.

My old set up with the LaCie ElectronBlue IV. The device on the left is my DroboPro.

If you care about your images, you need to care about your monitor. All too often I hear about photographers that spend thousands of dollars on cameras and lenses, and almost like an afterthought, they buy a third rate display that isn't capable of correctly showing the images they've captured.

If you want to fully appreciate all the colors and tones of your images, you need a good monitor, just like you need a good camera and good lenses.

But that's not all. If you want to make sure that what you see on your screen is actually how things are supposed to look, and how others will see your images, you also need to calibrate your screen. If you're working on an uncalibrated screen, your digital image won't reproduce faithfully in print, and they'll also look different when viewed on other displays.

From early on I've always been aware of the importance of a calibrated monitor, so I bought the best hardware calibration device available at that time: the i1 Monitor by Gretach-Macbeth (now discontinued). It performed flawlessly, although the whole procedure was always a bit tedious as it involved attaching the device to the center of the screen with a suction cup, and fiddling around with the buttons on the display itself. After 15 minutes or so the calibration process was finished, and it's always a reassuring feeling knowing that what you're seeing on your screen is exactly what you're supposed to see.

Over the years, things have changed considerably. LCD monitors have become the mainstream choice for photographers worldwide, and CRT displays are a thing of the past. But with so many manufacturers and so many different screens - what is the right choice?

Making the right choice

There are basically three kinds of LCD panels: TN, VA and IPS.

VA stands for Vertical Alignment, TN stands for Twisted Nematic, while IPS stands for In-Plane Switching. I won't start speaking super technically here, but these technologies handle the way the liquid crystals move differently, resulting in different performance. Probably the biggest difference between the three, from the buyer’s perspective, is the price. TN displays are much cheaper compared to VA and IPS displays. Part of the reason of the higher price is the doubling of the number of transistors per pixel in displays, which uses two transistors.

If price is not an issue, then VA and IPS are the sure winners. VA and IPS displays do not suffer from color limitation problems, while many TN panels have limited color depth like 6-bit. To achieve better color reproduction, TN displays for instance use frame rate control and dithering but this can affect the sharpness of the image. VA and IPS displays can recreate a wider variation of colors without the use of dithering and is generally the desired technology for people who extensively work with digital imaging.

Another difference is the viewing angle. IPS displays have a very wide viewing angle and you can view the display from a very slanted angle while the image still retains its colors and you can still make out the figures on the screen. VA and TN displays, when viewed at an angle, begin to suffer from loss of color. The image becomes washed out, as if you are viewing the image through thick smoke. Furthermore, IPS technology is more energy efficient and environmental friendly. For me the choice was obvious: IPS.

The EIZO ColorEdge CG245W

After doing some serious research, I ended up choosing the EIZO ColorEdge CG245W.

EIZO? Who are EIZO?

Back in 2003 the EIZO ColorEdge series was the world’s first line of LCD monitors specifically targeted at graphics professionals. One year later, EIZO introduced the world’s first LCD monitor capable of reproducing the Adobe RGB color space. The image quality, long-term reliability, and innovative features of EIZO monitors have made them the products of choice for many photography professionals throughout the world.

While outsourcing production is now common practice in the monitor industry, EIZO continues to manufacture its products the same way it has throughout its over 40 year history — with its own staff at its own factories. This allows EIZO to keep close control over production quality and offer the industry’s only 5-year manufacturer’s limited warranty.

If you say color accuracy, you say EIZO.

The ColorEdge CG245W is a 24.1" (61 cm) LCD display, using a 1920x1200 IPS widescreen panel. It is also the world's first self-calibrating monitor - nice! I wanted a screen slightly larger than my old CRT, while still being able to keep my second monitor next to it for all my Photoshop palettes. I know, with a larger screen you can keep all your palettes neatly organized on the side, but I prefer to keep my main monitor as clean as possible.

Specs: http://www.eizo.com/global/iblick/spec/?id=CG245W

Unpacking

The first thing I noticed when the box was delivered, was the weight. Moving my old CRT screen took half a football team, but this box was anything but heavy.

The box. No need to call your chiropractor.

Opening the main container you have a long, flat box containing the instructions, a disc with the manual and software and the sections of the shading hood (for shielding the display from stray light and keeping image color consistent) for either horizontal or vertical monitor setup. A monitor cleaning kit is also included.

Getting the display out of the box was easy. The display itself was neatly wrapped in protective material.

Protective wrapper against damage during transportation.

Connecting the screen to my MacPro was as simple as any other device. Plug in the power cord and connect the USB cable to the computer, and voila. It was nice to see that when I turned on the computer, my desktop was immediately shown full screen, exactly filling the entire screen from edge to edge. With the LaCie this was definitely not the case and I had to spend quite some time fiddling with small buttons to adjust the screen before it would finally fill the entire space available.

And boy, does this screen look good!

The Screen

The design is simple, just the way I like it. There is a small border around the screen that houses the calibration device in the top bezel, while the bottom bezel features some small backlit menu buttons. You can dim these buttons if you prefer not to see them.

Simple and elegant design. If you like jigsaw puzzles, then you'll love assembling the hood.
The calibration device is shown in the active position here.

I ended up not using the supplied hood, because my whole set up is in a corner of my room, with no stray light coming from either side. Also, it would block part of the view of my secondary monitor, which I use for my palettes.

Backlit buttons at the bottom of the screen have 7 brightness levels and an off function.

Another nice feature that I was not used to, is the ability to adjust the height of the screen via the monitor’s “FlexStand”. The bearing-less design of the FlexStand requires very little force to make height adjustments.

The ColorEdge CG245W comes with a FlexStand that offers tilt, swivel, 
90° rotation for portrait mode viewing, and height adjustment.

At the back of the screen there are two DVI-I inputs that accept both digital and analogue signals, and a single DisplayPort (digital) input. DisplayPort is your best choice if you want to make use of the 10-bit simultaneous display.* In 10-bit more than 1 billion colors are shown simultaneously, which is a whopping 64 times greater than the 16.7 million colors of a 8-bit display, and gives you much smoother color gradations. DisplayPort transmits both video and audio signals.

*Note: A graphics board and software that support 10-bit output are also necessary for 10-bit display.

On the upper left of the monitor you can find two USB 2.0 ports. I mainly use these for quick access to USB sticks and my travel backup drives.

Most of the screens you see today are of the glossy kind - both my MacBook Pro and my iPhone feature these glossy screens. They're great for vivid colors and rich black tones with high contrast ratios, but they also suffer from an incredible amount of reflections. I'm therefore happy that the ColorEdge CG245W uses a non-glare LCD. It shows 98% of the Adobe RGB (1998) color space, perfect for imaging professionals, and it has an excellent viewing angle.

You can tell that EIZO takes color accuracy very seriously indeed. Each unit is calibrated individually at their factory, and they include an Adjustment Certificate, Setup Guide and Quick Reference document with each monitor.

The Adjustment Certificate (Uniformity Data Sheet) that was taped to my monitor.

Software

The included EIZO Utility Disk contains a couple of software applications. Most important are the ColorNavigator Agent and ColorNavigator.

The ColorNavigator Agent is simply an icon in your dock that changes from blue to red when the number of hours between calibrations that you have specified has passed. By right clicking on the icon you can choose directly from any of your saved profiles.

To actually calibrate the monitor, you have to use the ColorNavigator software.

I previously used the Eye-One Match software, and although that was very easy to work with, ColorNavigator proved even simpler.

Calibration

The ColorEdge CG245W features a unique built-in calibration sensor that is housed in the top bezel of the monitor. This sensor is about the size of a USB stick, and it swings down over the center top of the screen when calibration starts. No need for third-party calibration devices anymore, it's all included with the ColorEdge CG245W.

When starting the calibration procedure, the built-in calibration device swings down.

The ColorNavigator software makes calibration a real breeze. When you open ColorNavigator, a window appears asking you to select the calibrating device. The built-in calibrator is simply called 'Built-In' and it appears as the default choice.

After hitting ok, the second window appears. When opening the software for the first time, you have two choices: a profile for photography and graphic design, and a profile for printing. Choose one and click next.

Apart from using the two factory profiles, you can also add your own profiles. 
I fine-tuned the photography profile by increasing the brightness level to 100cd/m2, 
and I created an sRGB profile.

The third screen offers some last minute reminders before the calibration process starts. Hit proceed and calibration begins.

The whole process took only a couple of minutes. At the end of the procedure another window appears, showing the results of your calibration. Simply save the profile, and that's it. Your new ICC profile is instantly integrated into a ColorSync managed workflow. It really couldn't be any simpler.

Or could it?

Well, one of the really cool things this monitor can do, is self-calibration. By using the OSD menu, you can schedule the ColorEdge CG245W to self-calibrate at a specific time and at specific intervals. You can even schedule the calibration to happen during the night, when your computer is shut down and you're vast asleep - pretty cool!

Conclusion

The EIZO ColorEdge CG245W is a high-end monitor for imaging professionals and all people that take color seriously. The design is great, installation and operation is simple, the screen is razor sharp and evenly lit, colors look stunning, and the calibration couldn't be easier. No cons then? A few. This monitor isn't cheap, but you get what you pay for. The User’s Manual could be improved and at times the writing is confusing. I tried the Dutch version for a minute, but that didn’t help either. Luckily, you don't really need the manual to get things to work. Once you get it to work, the calibration process works exactly the way that I described above. Fast and simple.

My final nit is a peculiar one. I noticed there is a difference between how my images look in a color-profiled environment such as Photoshop and Lightroom, and an environment that doesn't use color profiles, such as internet browsers. When preparing images for the web, I always convert them to sRGB to compensate for the fact that web browsers don't display Adobe RGB very well. The conversion to sRGB usually does the trick. On this monitor however my images look exactly how they should in a color profile environment, but they look warmer and more saturated in web browsers etc. I have contacted EIZO about this, and apparently this is the result of the monitor simply being too good - it shows much more color information than the average monitor.

I would never have thought that you can have a monitor that is too good, and I must admit that it is somewhat annoying. As a work around I have created another profile in ColorNavigator: sRGB. When viewing images outside of my color profile environment, I switch to the sRGB profile using the ColorNavigator Agent.

My new set up with the EIZO ColorEdge CG245W.

As a professional photographer though, the thing that counts more than anything else is quality. The ColorEdge CG245W is an excellent screen and it makes working on my images a real joy. Add to that the ease of use and the self-calibration, and it's clear I made the right choice.