I may have mentioned before that I intend to upgrade my equipment in January 2009. This will involve replacing the trusty old 20D with something a little more updated.

Initially I was toying with the idea of the Canon 1D MkIII or the more expensive 1Ds MkIII, however, the Canon rumour mill is suggesting that replacements for either or both these cameras will come in 2009. I therefore don’t want to spend the money on a camera which will be replaced possibly only a few months later.

The 5D MkII is out now and looks promising. I’m now leaning towards getting that in January and then a 1D MkIV (or whatever it will be called) if Canon announce that next year.

I get my Canon rumours from the Northern Images website. The latest info is suggesting a possible announcement by Canon in the first quarter of 2009.

In the meantime, I’ll have some fun with the 5D MkII together with some new lenses.

I plan to upgrade my equipment in January. A new camera and some high-end lenses are on the wish list.

Just when I thought I’d decided what to get Canon go & release the new 5D MkII. This has kind of set the cat amongst the pigeons as far as my new camera goes. I’d planned on replacing the 20D with either the 1D Mk III or even the 1Ds Mk III. The 5D has upped the ante with its new 21mp full-frame sensor, expanded ISO rating up to 25,600 & HD video recording mode. It now equals the 1Ds MK III in terms of resolution & is over two grand cheaper.

The dilemma now is that the 1D Mk III is being left behind, Sony have just released the Alpha 900 with 24mega pixels. If I get the 1D Mk III, am I buying in to old technology?

Visit any of the camera forums & they are rife with rumour & suggestion that Canon will be replacing the Mk IIIs in 2009. Anything from 16mp up to 34 are being suggested with further rumours that Canon may release a 50mp DSLR. Some suggestions are leaning towards a February release, they say Canon will need to release a replacement for the Mk IIIs as they are already getting left behind by the Nikon D3, among others.

So, do I go with a Mk III or hold off on the basis of these rumours for the replacement which may not even come next year?

I suppose I could get a 5D Mk II in the meantime & then see whatever replaces the Mk IIIs. You can read more on the Canon replacements at Northlight Images’ Rumour Section.

I have about 2 or 3 compact flash cards which I use when I’m out and about on a shoot. Rather than having bucketfuls of cards I prefer to save my shots straight from the cards onto a portable hard drive. For the last 3 years I’ve been using a 40GB Vosonic XS-Drive, which is a small battery-operated device with slots for several different memory card formats. You slot in the card, press the transfer button & it saves your shots onto the hard drive. When I get home I transfer them across onto the PC.

When I upgraded the PC I also changed to Vista (bloody awful experience but that’s another story. One of the things which didn’t work ever again with the Vista PC was the XS-Drive. So I had to transfer my shots onto the kids’ PC, then save them out onto either DVDs or USB memory sticks & then out onto my PC.

This was a complete pain so, to be honest, when the XS-Drive died recently, I wasn’t too annoyed.

I researched around for a new device but decided I’d prefer to have a viewing capability so needed one with a screen. The Epson ones look pretty good but at around £400 are a bit out of my price range. In the end I settled for the Vosonic VP 5500. I got mine from WarehouseExpress delivered the next day. They were out of stock on the 160GB so I got a 120GB version.

They have a great little 3.5inch TFT screen. They come with a replaceable SATA hard drive, so they can be upgraded with a bigger drive. They do eat the battery if viewing a lot of photos but at about £6 via eBay you can get spare Fuji batteries for them, so I have a spare which I charge up & take with me; they just slot in via a tab at the bottom, no screwdriver required.

They view many RAW files direct so you can view your shots straight away. With the small LCD screen of the 20D, this is an ideal alternative to viewing your shots in the field.

I’ve only used it a couple of times but am already finding it a really useful addition to the kit setup.

I got a laptop last week. I’ve not owned a laptop since I had a second-hand old 386 many years ago. I still have it in the loft somewhere.

Having used one at the baby Shoot I did a while ago so I could show Mums their shots there & then (I borrowed my wife’s) I thought it would be a good addition to the armoury. It will also mean I don’t have to spend so much time shut away on the main machine in what I euphamistically call ‘the office’. I might still spend far too long on a computer but at least I can do it in the front room with my family.

I bought a Asus Notebook A7U-7P274C AMDTL58 1.9GHz 2048MB 250GB 17" widescreen DVD-SM WLAN webcam card reader Vista Home Premium 2 year manufacturer’s warranty, phew! If you’re interested in the spec you can see it here. I purchased it from ebuyer & got it for £399 including VAT which was a pretty damned good price considering it’s currently on offer for £472 on MicroDirect’s website, which usually is fairly competitive. It’s currently out of stock, I’m not surprised as it seemed like a great deal for the specification, eBuyer gets most of my custom for PC-related stuff & has done for several years, their prices are usually among the best.

I’ve stuck Lightroom & Photoshop CS3 on there and although slower than my desktop, it seems to perform OK. Mind you, my desktop has 6GB RAM compared to the Laptop’s 2. It’s got a 17" screen which is great for graphics work. I’m currently processing some of my F1 Testing shots on there.

I got a USB mini-mouse as I can’t get used to those bloody touchpad thingies. I could always plug the Bamboo into it for graphics work. 

I managed to persuade my resident model - my eldest daughter - to spare 15 minutes this evening so I could give the DIY Beauty Dish as quick test.

I didn’t have enough time to give it a thorough testing so just fired off a few comparison shots with the flashgun, beauty dish & DIY Milk Carton Diffuser which I made a while ago.

I still haven’t found a mirror to go inside the CD case to reflect light back out into the dish, so in the end I have made a small circular cone out of thin card & covered it in aluminium foil which reflects light from the flash out into the dish & then out onto the subject.

I set up the flashgun on a tripod using a wireless trigger mounted on the camera to fire the flash. The flashgun - Sigma DG 500 Super - was set on manual. Camera was hand-held & I used the Canon 50mm f1.8 for all shots.

All shots were taken using the following setup. I clipped a black cloth to the living room curtains for the backdrop.

Plain Flash

This shot with the un-diffused flashgun - 1/160 @ f18. Note the light is quite harsh with stronger shadows.

Beauty Dish

This shot with the Beauty Dish - 1/125 @ f6.3. Note the light is less harsh, more diffused with softer shadows.

Milk Carton Diffuser

This shot with the home made diffuser - 1/125 @ f3.5. Note a more even light including around the top of the head, due ability of the diffuser to bounce flash off the ceiling as well as straight ahead. Much softer shadows still.

Milk Carton Diffuser with Reflector

This shot as above but with the addition of a 80cm silver reflector to the left of the model - 1/125 @ f5. Note more light available to the left of the model’s face, hair & shoulder.

I think overall, while the DIY Beauty Dish does soften the harsh light of the flashgun, I prefer the look of the Milk Carton Diffuser for the overall softness of the light. It’s more portable & much cheaper to make than the Beauty Dish!! Having said that, this isn’t a full test & I’d like to do more test shots using all three setups.

I recently saw a tutorial for a home-made beauty dish for flash photography & decided to give it a go myself. This is basically just another item designed to diffuse the harsh light from flashguns when taking portraits.

The dish consists of a rounded garden plant container & a plastic CD container painted white & used to deflect light from the flashgun onto the subject.

The components were made up of a pot from a local garden centre. I had searched several DIY outlets & not found one. Unfortunately, after paying £5.99 at a local garden centre, my wofe advised me that they were quite expensive at that particular centre, so you can probably find them cheaper if you look around the garden centres. 

An item recommended on the website I saw this on originally, used a black plastic rectangular tube affair which is used to slide the flash head into the pot. It’s part of a drainpipe connector widely available in the States, but I couldn’t find anything similar at Focus, Homebase, B & Q & a couple of local shops. We must have a different gutter system because the nearest I could find were square & slightly narrower than the width of my flash head. I originally planned to use the metal brackets seen in my picture here, but found I didn’t actually need them as I cut a hole just a little wider than the flashgun & when sliding it into the opening it forms a really nice, tight fit, so won’t fall off without some work.

I cut holes in the plant container & the CD container & screwed the black plastic CD base onto the inside of the plant pot.

The CD top just slips into the base as it does when it’s full of CDs. The original design calls for a convex mirror fitted inside the CD top to reflect light back into the pot so it can be diffused from the pot out onto the subject. Apparently these are available for a few dollars in USA at car parts shops but I;ve not found any locally yet, so until I o, I’m using the reflective surface of a CD disc.

A few coats of enamel spray paint - black outside & white inside - later & the DIY Beauty Dish is complete.

Now all I have to do is to test it out, when I can find a willing volunteer to pose for some shots!

I currently have the Sigma EF-500 DG Super flashgun. For diffusing I bought one of the Stofen Omnibounce flash difffusers which is a small white plastic cup which fits over the front of the flashgun. Unfortunately, last time I used it out & about at a music festival it appears to have slipped off the flashgun & I’ve not seen it since.

I tried to get a new one at my local photography shop, they said they’d ring me when one came in, but they never did.

I had a ‘flash’ of inspiration & decided to make my own.

In order to make a diffuser like this you’ll need the following:

• 2 pint plastic milk bottle
• 8-10 inches of velcro
• small piece of stiff card
• 8" sq tin foil 

This is what I used to make my diffuser, a 2 pint milk bottle. I don’t drink milk so I don’t know whether it’s the same for all milk bottles but this one came from Morrisons, it has a handy ridge around the handle end which I’ve outlined in black pen in the picture. Using this ridge as a guide I cut around the ridge with a scalpel & discarded the lid/handle end. This leaves a scoop-type end to the plastic which is the end that goes over the flash head.

In order to fix the diffuser to the flashgun I’ve fixed some velcro around the carton. I bought 1M strips of sticky-backed velcro in my local branch of Wilkinsons. It cost 99p.

I’ve used one longer strip of the hook side of velcro & stuck that the the outside of the carton. I then used 2 shorter strips of the eye side of velcro & stuck those to each end of the hook sections, fixing them to the inside of the carton. 

As an addition to the diffuser I have an optional reflector which I can fit inside the diffuser if I want some extra light. I fix this with an additional piece of velcro just inside the main part of the carton, you can see it in this next shot, it’s white velcro in this shot.

Next I made the reflector which fits inside the diffuser for extra oomph. I made this with some cut offs of mounting board, but any card will do. I measured out the rough area inside the diffuser. I made the back plate & top plate which are the same width & then added two side panels which are about an inch wide. I stuck them together with tape to form the shape you can see in the photo & then covered it with tin foil from the kitchen, fixing it down with double-sided selotape. I added some Velcro to the back of it to hold it in place when it’s inside the diffuser.

Here you can see the refelctor & how it fits inside.

Once the build is finsihed you can then fit it to the flashgun:

This is the completed article. It gives a nice height above the camera. You can use it in either portrait or landscape mode, but if you use it in portrait mode the diffuser has to be fitted to the thinner edge of the flashgun to enable the flashgun to be swivelled. The downside is that the light then comes from slightly off centre unlike in normal landscape mode.

So that’s it, total time to make is under half an hour & the total cost was about 30p.

So what results does it give?

Well, the idea of any diffuser is to diffuse the sharp harsh light of the flashgun to give a more pleasing effect, this is especially important for people & portrait shots. We don’t generally want harsh shadows on skin.

Unfortunately, as I lost my Stofen, I can’t do some test shots to compare them like for like but I think it would probably compare quite favourably, considering I could make 50 milk bottle diffusers for the same price as a Stofen.

 Here are the test shots I did. All shots were taken on manual settings in RAW. They have not had any enhancements other than slight sharpening in Lightroom, the exposure & colours were not changed at all.

In each set the first shot is straight flash, second is with the diffuser without the reflector fitted & the third is with the reflector fitted. All taken with Canon 20D & Canon 50mm 1.8 Mk II

1/250 f5

1/125 f5

1/125 f2

Well, I hope you’ll agree the 30p Milk Carton Diffuser seems to make a pretty good job as a flash attachment.

If you have any questions or suggestions for improvements, please let me know.

I mentioned on my post about going to the Focus on Imaging show in Birmingham, that I bought a mount cutter for framing prints. It arrived a week or so after the show & I’ve used to to make help frame 4 prints.

Given the tens of thousands of photographs I’ve taken, it’s something of a surprise that I have very few on display in the house. There is one of the kids walking in the woods, taken about 5 years ago which has been in the hallway for a few years. There are one or 2 holiday snaps in small frames dotted about the house but nothing else on the wall.

I did have some military aircraft shots at the bottom of the stairs but a burst water tank leaking through the ceiling onto them ruined them, they were never replaced.

I bought the cutter in an effort to make sure I framed some shots to put them on the wall. And maybe to prepare some other shots for display elsewhere, should the opportunity arise.

So I bought the Longridge Duo Plus system bevel mount cutter. It’s a bit of a mouthful for a system which basically cuts out holes in mounting board. So this is the kit, it’s quite large as you can see on my kitchen table. I went for the Duo Plus - there are several sizes, this is a medium, you can get smaller, this one should take A0 card.

The kit comes with everything you need to make perfect beveled cuts in mounting board. And consists of: 

• The cutting plate & rail
• straight cutter
• beveled cutter (which can be used left or right-handed)
• spare blades
• spare blade holder for beveled cutter
• screwdriver
• pencil & marking out tool
• tape measure
• tutorial DVD

My project was to take some portrait photos of my daughters, print them out & frame them for display on the wall. I took the shots a few weeks ago & selected 3 between us which we liked. I printed them at A4 on the home printer, although I’ll probably get Photobox to print out more permanent prints & replace them later.

I got some frames from the hobby superstore down the A1M & found some 300mm by 400mm which happened to be in a sale. The next shot shows what I was working with.

Using the cutter didn’t take long getting used to at all. I’d seen the demo at the Focus show as one of the sales team gave me a personal run-through of how to use it. I also watched the DVD which gives you the techniques required to get perfect square beveled cuts. 

I got some mounting card from the local art shop in town, I think it cost about £2.95 for a sheet & they have a wide selection of colours. I bought 3 colours to run my first tests.

I measured out a 400mm section from 2 contrasting coloured card sheets & cut them with the straight cutter, it’s just like running a guilotine up the silver guide rail & performs a perfect sharp cut, I then trimmed them down so I had 2 sheets each 400mm by 300mm to fit the frames I’d bought.

You then turn the card over, coloured face down, and mark out your frame using the supplied marking tool. You then slide the card under the rail & butt it up against a stop so it doesn’t slide off away from you. Then you put the bevelled cutter on the rail and slide it to the exact position where your line meets the cut out ‘V’, fix a plastic stop, move the cutter to the other end of the line & fix the other stop.

The blade is on a swivel, you push it down into the card & slide it from one stop to the other, thus getting a perfectly bevelled & straight cut. You then switch the card round 180 degrees and do the same for the other side. You then have to adjust the stops to do the last 2 sides. Provided the blade is set to the correct depth, you get a perfect cut-out every time. Marvellous!

So after doing both mattes, making sure the inner one has a smaller aperture than the outer one, you’re ready to mount your photo.

This is the finished product after cutting.

I’m really pleased with my new mount-cutter. They’re not cheap but they do a brilliant job. I just need to get more prints sorted out. The problem will be finding the wall-space now that I can produce nice bevelled frames.

You can find more information about the Longridge Bevel Cutters at their website: http://www.longridge.co.uk