Posts in Tech

Enflo Portable Power Station 97Wh with AC Outlet 110V Review

Tech

For more info, check out this battery pack on Amazon (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/3YgA2K9

This battery pack was smaller than it looks in the picture, but functions just like described. Has plenty of juice to charge your phone and additional accessories. Took three or four hours to fully charge from 30%. 

I tested out charging my MacBook Pro from 15% to 99% and it took about two hours to fully charge it. It dropped the charging reserve on the battery from 100% down to 30%.

It’s not gonna last you days and days, but as a back up for when power goes out or for keeping your devices charged while off the grid, it works perfect! Looking to pick up a larger solar panel to use when camping to keep it charged☀️

Another Game Changer from DJI! DJI RS3 Mini Review

Camera Gear Tech

OK, OK. Maybe not a total game changer…, But definitely a super useful piece of kit for all the smaller cinema cameras that are coming out.

Before I get into my review, I just want to say that I highly recommend this gimbal… With the caveat that you obviously keep the weight of your camera and lens set up within the specified weight of the gimbal. I run a Sony FX3 with a sigma Art 24-70 mm lens, and it balances fine… Though I am close to the end of all the adjustments for balancing. 

 I’ve had the original ronin, the ronin Mx, and the RS2. I tried another company’s smaller gimbal for my Sony a6500, but it was just not up to par with the motor algorithms like DJI’s. I was skeptical at first with the RS3 mini, but my wife of all people insisted I give it a try. We travel a lot for work and we’re always looking for ways to save on weight and size. it works just like it’s big brother and with my set up, I dare say even slightly better. For some reason with my RS2 I have issues with the motors when I add a variable ND filter on the front of my set up, but with this, whether I have it balanced for the filter or not, it works great!

The one issue I had was when adjusting the roll, I was not able to get it perfect, as the included Arca Swiss mounting plate, wouldn’t slide over far enough. I fixed this issue by simply pulling the quick release off and flipping it around backwards.

I do highly recommend watching some YouTube videos on how to balance your camera properly. As with this gimbal, if you are running a set up that is closer to the weight limit, mine is just over 3 pounds, you need to know the proper way to balance it to get things just right.

I wish this came with a carrying case, but I’m sure I can find one that’ll fit it and it’s small enough that you can just throw it inside your camera bag and not take up too much room. If anybody’s interested, I’m selling a gently used RS2.😆

[2 Pockets] Afterplug External Hard Drive Travel Pouch for Laptop, Reusable Stick On Holder Review

Tech

I have the smaller version of this already, and love it! However, with larger hard drives, it’s a real squeeze to get them into the smaller version (if they fit at all), which made me really excited to see this larger version. I would still stick with SSD drives to fit in here, but you could probably fit a regular external hard drive in here too if you really stretched the material. It has two pockets on it, one which works for your SSD drive and the top pocket where you can store your headphones, pens or other odds and ends. This thing works great when traveling and I need to edit off my SSD drive on the go . This keeps the drive from sitting on my lap or falling off the table and gives me peace of mind that I’m not gonna accidentally unplug the SSD drive in the middle of a crucial edit.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Brightin Star 16mm F2.8 Full Frame Ultra Wide Angle Sony E-Mount Review

Camera Gear Tech

So wanted to say to start that I’m not much of a pixel peeper, so if you’re wanting to know about the chromatic aberration of this lens, or how it handles distortion along the edges, you’ll want to read some of the other reviews for it. I am one to care more about the physicality of using the lens and as long as it returns decent images, I’m good 🙂

The build quality of this lens is very solid. It’s tiny compared to the lenses I’m used to using coming from Canon, but since I’ve switched over to Sony, I’m definitely enjoying the plethora of tiny e-mount lenses you can get. I love the all-metal construction on it and the feel of the de-clicked aperture ring and manual focus ring. The rings are little stiff when you first get it, but that will loosen up in time. Given that the focus throw of this lens is very short, I’d rather it be on the stiff side to make it easier to hit my marks. Image quality wise, the lens is decent. Obviously for the price point, you cannot expect a G master series image coming out of it, but it is definitely usable and has no glaring issues with it. I am using this on my full frame FX3 and do not notice any vignetting issues in the corners. To get the most out of this lens, definitely treat it more like a vintage lens than a brand new lens. Like others have mentioned, it’s soft or wide open, so to get a sharp Image you will need to stop it down. As long as you have your expectations set properly, you can get some beautiful images from it and it’s a no-brainer to have in your kit for when you need the wider field of view.

FEELWORLD FL125D 125W Video Studio Light Review

Tech

Feelworld’s been around for a while, producing monitors and other camera accessories, so when I saw this COB light of theirs, I was excited to give it a try. I ordered this light over two months ago, and had numerous issues with the first version.

To their credit, Feelworlds customer service was very apologetic, and informed me that they were making changes to some of the internal components, and if I sent my light back, they would send me an updated light as soon as it came in. That took almost a month and a half to get it to me.🤦🏽 The light still doesn’t feel completely finished and ready for retail yet. The good of it is that it’s bright and well-built. Body is made out of plastic, but the mount is aluminum and feels nice and solid when you attach it to a light stand. Brightness wise, it’s a little bit brighter than my Amaran 100D and the body is a couple of inches longer. It does come with a nice long power cable that has a Velcro strap on it, allowing you to hang it from your light stand, so you don’t have a power brick dragging on the floor. The case is quite large for the size of this light, I feel like they could’ve made it smaller if they had re-configured the layout a little bit. As it is, you might be able to fit a couple of extra cables in there, but no modifiers.

The reason I feel like this is not ready for prime time yet is that the fan is still pretty loud, which was one of the issues with the first one that I received. The noise is not high-pitched, but a little drone, which can probably be removed, relatively easily with audio software, but why go through the trouble when you can get a light that is significantly quieter? Usually have enough other things to worry about with audio without having to constantly remove the hum of the light fan. When put up against the Amaran 100D, the Feelworld light was significantly louder. That being said, if you have it across the room from where you’re picking up audio, you probably won’t notice it too much, as the sound of the fan now is a lot more pleasing than the one they had in it before… Which had a really grating high-pitched whine to it.

Something else annoying is that they have not included a US plug for the power cable. They have what is most likely a Chinese Configured plug on the end of the power cord, but they do include a little travel adapter that allows you to plug the power cable into it and adapt it for US use. However, like other people have noted, it is just a two pronged plug without any ground, which is a safety issue. Customer service has informed me that they will be shipping out a US version of the cable at some point, but why they did not include it in the kit to begin with, I’m not sure. This makes it feel like the light was originally made for a different market, but they’re trying to rush it into the US market.

I do have to give it to Feelworld for listening to customer feedback and making updates to the light, but they are things that should not have been dealt with before releasing the light, not as customers complain about them.

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