What's up Ya'll? Hope you're having a great week. This week I want to do a gear review on a new camera backpack that I recently purchased. The Shimoda Side Lite 22 camera backpack. Now I love Shimoda bags. I first purchased a Shimoda bag off of a "Kickstarter" Project years ago. It was the Shimoda Action X 30 Liter bag and is a great backpack and is the most comfortable backpack that I have ever used. So why would I get another bag? The Action X 30 bag that I have is built for larger cameras and for hiking long distances with your gear which it is great for.  But it is not suited for urban or street photography when you're walking out and about. You look like you're on an expedition. Since I have downsized my camera kit the bag although still great is a bit too large and too outdoorsy if that makes sense. I also would like to have a backpack for a traveling backpack when I'm out in the MAV (Max's Adventure Van) or when traveling with my photography group or even better when flying with my camera kit. So that was the mission. Find a smaller backpack that doesn't scream hiking or outdoors but could be used as such. Here is a link to Max's Kitchen Gear Talk Video about the Side Lite 22. Its on my YouTube channel and a like and subscribe really helps out the channel get seen by more people and doesn't cost you a dime.

I looked at many camera brands from Lowepro to ThinkTank and all sorts of brands. But I kept coming back to Shimoda. I love the craftsmanship the innovation and most importantly they are so comfortable. Now Shimoda has many models to choose from and the decision was still hard to make. Most of their bags open from the rear so you have to lay the bag down to open it up to the camera compartment. Which in Landscape photography isn't too bad but in travel or street can be cumbersome to find a place to set your bag down. It was such a hassle that I would not take the shot or change the lens because of the inconvenience. So I wanted to access my gear without putting my bag down. So a side access bag seemed to be the choice. Now my Action X can be accessed from the side but mainly it's a back access pack.  Shimoda has a series of bags that are just side access called the Side Lite, Street, or Country. There are three levels of bags. Depending on which one you get
each one has its own purpose. The side street is built for street photography it comes in only two colors black and a tan color. It has a roll top , a laptop sleeve and comes in 22 liter and 28 liter. The Side country is a larger bag comes in 28 liter and 32 liter. Now this bag was out of the question because it was too big but a great bag I'm sure. Now the Side Lite the one I chose is more minimalist of a bag. It comes in one size 22 liter and has no laptop sleeve. It was built to be lightweight and no nonsense bag. Just what I was looking for. Let me explain the bag.

The bag is a 22 liter roll top bag. I like the roll top because it gives you a little extra room in the top if you need it for a coat or jacket or if you bought something while you were out. The straps are much like the Action X in design and they (Shimoda) can also make the straps for women to fit their bodies better. Not many bag companies do that. When you have the bag on you don't feel weight on the top of your shoulders but more in the breast area which is more comfortable in my opinion. The straps have load lifters on them like the Action X which you can adjust for the wight of the pack. The straps also have two pouches on them . One for a phone which will take an extra large smart phone and the other can be used for a small water bottle (500ml) if you like. They also have a place on the left strap for a capture clip of some sort . I use the Peak Design but other companies make them also. If you open the top of the roll top bag there is a removable liner that can be used as a tote bag if you needed one with handles on it. I don't see too much use for this but maybe if you went to the store without your pack you could use the bag to carry items back. On the front of the pack is one large pouch which could handle an outer shell like a puffy jacket or a rain jacket. On the sides there are stretchable water bottle holders with straps so you could put a travel sized tripod on one if you want. On one side there is a zipper section that when you unzip there is a place that you could put action camera in or something small like that and also a little organizer. On the other side zippered in is the camera compartment.  This is where your camera lives. I can put my crop sensor Sony A6700 with a 18-50mm lens, a 70-300 lens and a 10-18mm lens all in this pouch. That is my whole Travel setup! There is also enough room for my polarizer filter kit to bi in the pouch. Which is pretty cool but that's not all. This compartment is called a "Top Loader" System. This whole section can come out and be a shoulder bag. It comes with a strap that is padded that you could hook to it. So if you arrived at your hotel and didn't want to walk around with a backpack you can take this out and you have a sling type bag. The backpack also comes with a waist belt that you could take off and put on the top loader system and use like a big fanny pack. The top loader comes with a pocket on the front that can hold things like filters and your phone if you want. It also has an expandable bottom that can open up and hold even longer lenses . It's pretty cool. The pack is actually 3 bags in one. The liner bag, the backpack and the top loader as a sling bag. It also comes with a rain cover that can protect your stuff in a downpour. I have taken off the hip belt as I don't really need it for the kit that I'm carrying. The material that it is made of is Cordura which is recycled plastics and fishing line which gives it a very durable and water repellant property. But not rain proof that's why they give you the rain cover.

I have taken it on a hot sweaty hike and it did great. I was able to access the camera and lenses without setting the bag down. Thats with a hiking stick attached to one arm and Forrest the Wonder Dog attached to my waist! So I'm pretty pleased with the hiking portion of the bag and am sure in an urban environment with no hiking stick or dog attached it will do even better. For me this is a perfect set up. It doesn't look like a camera bag, it's lightweight, small, and has an included shoulder bag. This should be perfect for travel. I'm really looking forward to taking some trips with this bag. Whether I'm in the MAV or on a plane this should work great .  I do have some trips planned but that's not for now it's for later blogs. Until next week. Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

If you want to check out my YouTube Channel you can see it here Max Stansell Photography
 

Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great day. This week I want to talk about purchasing a new camera and what is the most important thing the camera must have for you to buy it. The deal breaker thing. The make or break item that you must have to purchase the camera. I got this idea partially because I just bought a new camera and because of a podcast that I listen to that just explored the subject. The pod cast is the Digital Story by Derrick Story. He does a weekly podcast and has over 1000 of them. The podcast that I piggybacked off of  was The Most Important New Camera Feature. This is a great podcast and he did a poll of the most important items when buying a new camera. Please visit and listen to his podcast I think you will enjoy it like I do. So when I went to get a new or a (new to me) camera I had to figure out what were the things that were deal breakers for me. Now you know me and I have different camera systems for different things. I have my travel kit and I have my EDC camera (Every Day Carry) camera. I think that I may have different answers for different situations. If you have only one system it may be very easy to come up with your must haves. But everyone is different. So I will go over the obvious things that people look at when making a choice of a new camera.

Megapixels. For years the industry has been pushing Megapixels. Camera companies have been having megapixel wars for years. For some this may be the deal breaker. The more megapixels the better some may say. If your style of photography needs to really crop in like maybe wildlife or sports photography this may be the deal breaker. In the early days of digital more it did mean better. But now most cameras at any megapixel can give you great photo's and quality ones to boot. For me Megapixels was never a deciding feature and in my camera's now 26 megapixels is the highest I have. Where 40 and 60 are the norm what I have is very small.

Camera Size. Some want bigger and some want smaller. Depending on what type of photography again. Larger lenses a larger camera kind of balances out the weight. But if you're using smaller lenses or doing photography that you want to be nimble and mobile and able to walk a lot a smaller camera might be what you need. For me I like the smaller cameras . It can be very high on my must have items. When I was purchasing my travel and EDC camera's it was very high on my must have's. It was the reason that I got my Sony Crop sensor camera was for the size when traveling in my van the MAV (Max's Adventure Van) the smaller the better. And my EDC camera is was high on the list but not the highest.

Camera Loyalty .  This is a biggie for some folks. You have Canon folks and Nikon folks and they shouldn't even think of another camera. Even saying the other company's name is forbidden. LOL But there is something to it. You get used to the buttons and dials because they don't change much from model to model. The menu's is another big reason . You know where all the items are and they are familiar. And no one likes change. But the biggest reason may be the lenses you already have. Thats one reason I picked Sony for my Travel Camera. I already had quite a few lenses that can be used on the new camera so sticking with my camera brand was a choice I picked. I was looking at Fuji but Sony won out because of the lenses I already had.

High ISO Performance. This is another item that camera companies tend to push and in the early days of digital you could get some really noisy photos in low light. But sensors have come a long way . They do make sensors that are fantastic in low light. If you are in to low light photography like astro photography or shooting in low light situations this may be your must have.

View Finder vs Back Screen. If you're like me a view finder is a must have and the primary reason I replaced my EDC camera. My old one didn't have a View Finder and I needed one. It was the deal breaker. I wanted a compact camera that had a viewfinder and that is what lead me to the Leica I recently purchased. For some people this is a deal breaker. In bright conditions using a back screen can be tough but a viewfinder works all of the time. For me this has become a deal breaker. What about a flippy screen or a fully articulating screen. Me I like the flippy screen and not the fully articulating screen. But for some the fully articulating is a must have maybe because they do video and they can film their selves with the screen turned around.

Camera Stabilization . Modern cameras can be more stable by either using in body stabilization (IBIS) or by using lens stabilization. This is particularly useful if you are into video. I think these would be a must if your camera is mainly a video camera. But for photo's it can be very useful also. For me some sort of stabilization is needed. In my travel camera it is IBIS and in my EDC camera it is lens stabilization.  Some sort is a must for me and most cameras offer this.

These are just a few of things that can be deal breakers. For a lot of people how a camera looks can be very high on the list. Sometimes it just the "Bling" of it. Other times it's how the camera operates. Does it have a retro look? Does it have lots of dials and buttons like analog cameras? Some people like this and others like more of a digital feel. Some folks don't like to use a view finder and only the back screen . It's just how people like to use their camera. It's like asking what is the best camera. There is no correct answer. Everyone is different and everyone likes different things. What are some of your deal breakers? Let me know. Until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everybody! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Not too bad I've got some new gear to talk about and pretty excited about. It's a small little flash. The Godox iT32 flash. Now I've been using strobes and flashes for years and have had everything from Studio Strobes to hand held flashes and of course on camera flashes. When used correctly they can really make a photograph.  As photography is the capturing light knowing how and controlling that light is really important and I think everyone should know how to use flash. When I started it was all manual and you really needed to know how to meter an adjust the light accordantly . But with modern TTL (through the lens) metering the flashes do most of the work for you. Now on camera flashes are okay they can be used for fill flash and if you can move the head you can bounce the the flash off of the ceiling or off a wall but the real advantage of flash is being able to get the flash off of the camera . To do this you need a trigger to send the signal from the camera to the flash. And if you had more than one camera brand you needed a different flash for each brand because their hot shoes on the camera were different. This is where the new Godox iT32 comes in.

The Godox iT32 is a small flash. It's not intended to be flash you use for a big model shoot or to shoot a wedding although you could use it in these situations to a point. I have lots of flashes and this one is the smallest one that I own except for a little flash I got with my Leica. Let me go though some of the specs of this flash. It is a TTL (through the lens) metered flash which makes it easy to use. It has a touch screen control panel and even comes with a screen protector in the packaging. It can be used in manual also if that's the way you like to control your flash. It has a built in battery. Which I really love I don't have to look for AA batteries anymore to use this flash I can just plug it into a USB C charger and I'm good. It has a magnetic face so it will take Orange filters that are magnetic to adjust for white balance . These filters come with the flash. It has a magnetic stand that comes in the package that you can use to connect to a light stand or just sit on a table. And the best part it comes with a remote trigger that hooks to your camera. Let me tell you how this little flash works.

First you buy the flash unit. It's a generic unit that can be used with any brand of camera. You get the flash head , defuser, filters , stand and charging cable all for about 80ish dollars. Then you buy the trigger for your camera for about 20 bucks. So for me I got a Sony to fit my Sony cameras and a Leica one to fit my new little EDC camera. Now the magic ! The trigger and the flash head magnetic together and you can hook to your camera like a regular on camera flash. But when you want to get off camera you just pull them apart and the trigger stays on the camera and you can either hold your flash in your hand and it works! This is fantastic but that's not all. If you have a trigger on another brand of camera you can just put the head on the other camera's trigger and it works with that camera. So you have one flash for two different brands of camera's. This is pretty fantastic! But that's not all. It can be a trigger for other Godox flashes if you have them. I really like the Godox line so I have quite a few of them if I wanted to use it as a trigger. It can also be controlled by another Godox trigger like I would use for my more professional strobes. So I could use it for say a hair light. Now that's pretty awesome! It can also shoot in High Speed Sync for those who like to shoot ant a higher shutter speed than your camera's flash sync speed. So if I had a Canon, Leica, Nikon , OM System, Panasonic and Sony I would just have to purchase one flash at 80 bucks and just different triggers at 20 bucks a piece . I can remember when a flash for a Nikon cost over 300 dollars if I wanted one for a Canon it would be another 300 dollars. But now I could get one flash and trigger for all the cameras mentioned above for less than one of the Camera Proprietary flashes. Thats pretty cool. Now if Godox does this for their larger flashes this would be ground breaking. But I like the way they are thinking on this smaller flash. If you like to use flash I would recommend using one of these flashes. They are great for around the house doing product photography and and out and about street photography if you're brave enough to use them in public. (not me) LOL

So until Next week Get out and Shoot some flash!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link