Manfrotto

Manfrotto adds RedBee-310 and 110 to its Pro Light backpack range

January 8, 2019 by fotovolo

Manfrotto has added two new backpacks to its RedBee Pro Light camera backpack collection, with an emphasis on new types of users and image capture devices, from DSLRs through video capture and drones.

The larger RedBee-310 (above) is designed to hold a pro DSLR with a 400mm lens attached plus an additional DSLR body, 2-3 extra lenses. It can also accommodate a modular video camera and lenses, via a system of flexible dividers and zippered mesh to keep camera gear separate from other items, such as a 15-inch laptop or tablet.

Camera gear is accessed via the rear for extra security, but there’s also a side access point for when you need to get at your camera gear in a hurry and quick access from the top, too. A rain cover is included.

The RedBee-110 is slightly smaller and designed for two premium mirrorless bodies, one with a 70-200mm lens attached, plus additional lenses. Alternatively, it can be configured to hold a foldable drone and handheld gimbal.

Manfrotto’s keen to embrace all kinds of content creators with these backpacks and not just traditional photographers but videographers and “independent content creators” too (bloggers, right?)

Find out more: Pro Light Collection – Professional Camera Bags | Manfrotto

Manfrotto launches Befree GT carbon tripod specifically for the Sony a7 and a9

September 30, 2018 by fotovolo

Manfrotto has announced a special Sony-specific version of its “top performing” Before GT carbon travel tripod.

How can you have a tripod specific to a single brand (you ask)? It’s all in the custom-made version of the Manfrotto 200PL-PRO camera plate, apparently.

This is the plate that screws to the bottom of the camera and then clips into the tripod head. The new plate is specifically designed for the Sony a7 and a9 to offer maximum grip, performance and stability at all shooting angles. Like the one in our picture, for example.

That’s not the only Sony customisation. There’s also an “exclusive” tube graphic to match the Sony design and colour scheme.

This is actually the second Sony branded product from Manfrotto, following a collaboration first announced in September 2017.

So if you’ve got a Sony a7 or a9, you want to flaunt it and you think the specially designed plate might be worth a shot (these are cameras you DO NOT want to slip and slide), you can take a closer look via the link below.

We’re told the Befree GT carbon’s legs are brand new for rmaximum lightness and sturdiness, and the tripod has a maximum payload of 10kg.

Available: now
Price: £399.95 (UK)
More information: https://www.manfrotto.co.uk/befree-gt-carbon-fibre-designed-for-cameras-from-sony

Manfrotto Lumimuse 8 with Bluetooth review

April 13, 2018 by fotovolo

Verdict: 5 stars ★★★★★

You can get the same amount of light – and more – for a lot less money, but the Lumimuse 8 scores on build quality, its size/output ratio, convenient USB recharging and accessory filters. The Bluetooth control is surprisingly useful, too. (Sorry, but that natty little stand is separate.)

£105 is a lot to pay for a small LED light that clips on to your camera’s hotshoe, but then there’s a lot more to this kind of light than meets the eye, and there’s a lot more to the Lumimuse 8 in particular.

First, the basic specs. This is an 8-LED light with a power output of 550 lux at 1m. To put that in context, it’s not going to be much help out of doors in regular daylight, and it’s only going to come into its own after dark or indoors. In these situations, though, it provides a surprising amount of light for its size. You could use it as a sole light source in near-darkness or for supplementary light for window-lit portraits or still lifes, for example.

What can it do

Manfrotto Lumimuse 8 with Bluetooth review — So here are three sample shots. Starting from the left, the first is shot with ambient light alone, the second with direct frontal lighting, and the third with side-lighting from the left.

The key here is not to think of the Lumimuse solely as a camera-mounted light. You can use it for that, but the light will always be flat and harsh, just as if you were using on-camera flash.

Instead, you should experiment by moving the light off-camera to control the direction of the light on your subject, light the background instead or even bounce the light off a reflective surface for a softer kind of illumination.

You need to keep in mind that there’s not a whole lot of power for these kinds of experiments. You press a button on the side of the Lumimuse to cycle through four different brightness settings, but even though the brightest looks pretty intense to the naked eye, it’s a long way short of the kind of power you get from even a modest flashgun.

This means you’ll need to bump up the ISO setting and probably use wider than usual lens apertures to get reasonable handheld shutter speeds. However, if you use a tripod the exposure times won’t matter and you can experiment a lot more freely without compromising the image quality.

This makes the Lumimuse very effective for still life shots, for example, or even for adding some targeted lighting in outdoor night shots. Its great advantage is that its continuous lighting. What you see is what you get, and you can use the camera’s own meter to gauge the exposure.

Included accessories

Your experiments can take on a new dimension when you use the three filters supplied in the box. Each filter has two small lugs for clipping them into the supplied filter holder, which attaches to the Lumimuse with a quick and simple snap fit. The filters and holder come in a separate circular box small enough to fit in a shirt pocket.

These filters include a diffuser to help soften the light (it does, a little, but not really by enough to notice) and two warming filters to help you match the colour of the lighting to ambient artificial lighting, for example, or to give portraits a warmer look.

In fact you can get further Multicolour, Portrait and Classic filter kits for £16.95 each, and each one contains 8 different filters that attach in the same way. Is this going a bit too far? Perhaps – but if you get bitten by the portable lighting bug it might be worth it.

Don’t forget that the Lumimuse can be used for video too. You wouldn’t use it for corporate shoots or commercial videography, but it’s perfect supplementary lighting for bloggers, vloggers and Instagram influencers.

Included in the box is a small square accessory shoe. You slide this into the base of the Lumimuse and you can then attach it to a camera hotshot or, via a tripod socket in the base, straight on to a tripod. This is where it gets interesting. You could attach it to one of Manfrotto’s now PIXI table-top tripods, for example, or to the brilliant MP3-D02 pocket camera stand, with its dinky little fold-out feet – both are sold separately.

Also available separately is a small ball head, which slots into the base of the Lumimuse where the shoe adaptor goes. The ball head doesn’t come in the box, even though it appears in some of Manfrotto’s product shots (tut tut). This is handy where you want to change the angle of the light but you’re not using a tripod with its own ball head.

So why Bluetooth?

So far so good – but surely the Bluetooth control is overkill? Actually, no – in fact it’s rather useful! You won’t need it if you’re shooting with the Lumimuse within arm’s reach, but if you start placing it in different parts of the scene to light specific areas, it really is useful to be able to adjust the intensity without having to keep going to over to the light. Manfrotto’s free Lumimuse app is super-simple to use, and once it’s been paired with the light it will automatically recognise it whenever it’s switched on and within range. In fact, the app can control separate Lumimuse lights too, adjusting the intensity for each independently. Oh, and there’s one more thing – while the button on the side of the Lumimuse offers just four different light levels, the app lets you set the intensity steplessly between 1 and 100%.

There are just two more things worth mentioning about the Lumimuse 8. The first is that its metal bodied construction feels in a completely different class to the cheap plastic alternatives flooding the market. The second is that it uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery rather than removable AAs. This will power it for around an hour between charges, and you can recharge it via a USB cable from your computer, laptop, mains adaptor or portable power bank. This is just so much better than relying on regular AA batteries.

Manfrotto Lumimuse 8 with Bluetooth verdict

The Lumimuse 8 isn’t cheap, but it’s beautifully made, pumps out a surprising amount of light for its size, and is powered by a convenient, reliable and easily recharged lithium-ion battery. You can have a lot of fun swapping out different-coloured filters, and the tripod adaptor makes it easy to try out much more experimental off-camera lighting. And with the Bluetooth control and the potential for adding more lights, this isn’t just a portable light, it’s part of a clever little lighting system.

Anything that gets you experimenting with light and photographic techniques has got to be a good thing, and for that alone the Lumimuse 8 deserves some serious consideration.

Rating: ★★★★★
Price: £104.95
Find out more: Manfrotto website

Manfrotto Pro Light FastTrack-8 review

April 6, 2018 by fotovolo

Verdict: 5 stars ★★★★★

If you’re prepared to put up with a short learning process to try something new, the FastTrack-8 shows it’s not a gimmick and is actually a great idea. It’s a really good sling bag with lots of pockets for all your other paraphernalia, and it’s also a way of keeping your camera to hand, ready to shoot, but still secured on a strap.

This is a bit different! The Manfrotto Pro Light FastTrack-8 is a sling bag with a built-in shoulder strap. Sling bags are a cross between shoulder bags and backpacks. They go over one shoulder but are shaped to rest tight against your back rather than swinging freely against your side. When you need to open the bag to get your camera out, you swing it round under your arm to get access to the contents.

The FastTrack-8 current comes in one size and is designed for compact mirrorless cameras, though you could probably squeeze in a compact APS-C DSLR if you had to.

What’s different about the Manfrotto Pro Light FastTrack is that there’s a camera shoulder strap that runs parallel to the sling strap and is attached to the same anchor points at either end. There are attachment loops for your camera, and these are designed to slide up and down the strap so that you can leave the camera hanging at your hip or quickly slide it up to eye level without having to move the strap itself.

The idea is that you get the convenience and comfort of a sling bag, the speed and access of a shoulder strap, and without having two straps getting tangled up and fighting with each other.

The FastTrack has two compartments – one in the top for your camera, and one in the side for your lenses and other accessories.

How to wear a sling bag

If you’re not used to them, sling bags take a little acclimatisation. You need to hold them upright and then put your head and one arm through the strap loop. You can wear the FastTrack over either shoulder, but it works best if you put your head and right arm through. You can get to the top pocket where the camera is stored either way, but if you put the bag over your left shoulder, the side compartment opening will be on the underside of the bag.

The trick to using sling bags – well, this one, anyway – is to shorten the strap so that the bag rests snugly against your back, and you do this by pulling on the top of the strap where it passes over your shoulder to pull the bag against your back. Otherwise, if you just swing the bag under your arm, it will hang loose. When you swing the bag round to the front, it will pass quite close under your arm and sit at about upper chest height – sling bags aren’t designed to sit at hip or waist level like shoulder bags.

This guy shows how the whole sling and sliding strap arrangement works.

Pockets and compartments

The FastTrack’s top compartment is designed so that you can put the camera inside, even while it’s still attached to the strap, and zip it up leaving a small gap between the zip tags for the strap to pass through. Alternatively, if you’re putting it away for longer, it only takes a few moments to unclip the camera attachment loops from the strap so that you can close this compartment completely. There’s even a stitched in loop that slips over the zip tags to prevent the bag being easily unzipped behind your back (very literally).

Manfrotto Pro Light FastTrack-8 review — The top compartment has room for a mid-sized mirrorless camera or maybe a small DSLR.

Inside the lid of the top compartment is a velcro flap which looks like it conceals a small pocket but actually opens (with a bit of effort) to reveal a slim, padded compartment running the full length of the bag.

The side compartment has space for two longish lenses, or more if you’ve got a collection of shorter primes and don’t mind stacking them on top of each other. They’re protected by a single vertical divider in a padded insert that’s stitched to the bag on one side but has a gap on the other for sliding in a tablet. It’ll take a 9.7-inch iPad very snugly. This is the space you access via the velcro flap in the top compartment. Oh, and the top of the side compartment padded insert has an elasticated strap for securing a small tripod like the Manfrotto PIXI, or some other accessory.

The side compartment has space for a couple of long lenses or 3-4 shorter ones if you don’t mind stacking them.

This side compartment is closed by a single zipper, and this has its own small securing loop to prevent it being opened easily. In the lied are a couple of mesh pockets with fold-over securing flaps for storing memory cards, batteries or other small bits and pieces.

We’re not quite done yet. On the other side of the bag is a small zip-up pocket which would be idea for passports and other travel documents, and on both sides the compartment lids have elasticated flaps ideal for storing maps, water bottles, sunglasses (probably not expensive prescription ones) or any other bits and bobs you might need in a hurry and where it wouldn’t be the end of the world if they fell out.

There’s also a small zip-up pocket in the top and a much larger full-size pocket in the back, which is accessed via a zip in the side and would be ideal for larger documents, or maybe your tablet.

How the strap works

This requires a bit of concentration at first, but once you’ve got the hang of it, it works really well. The strap length is adjusted independently of the sling strap, but will probably end up a similar length, and just in case you’re worried about having two straps, they don’t end up in a tangle when you’re putting the bag on or taking it off.

You attach the camera to the strap by looping these buckles through the camera’s strap eyelets…

… then you clip these to the sliding buckles on the strap.

The trick lies in how the camera is attached and how it then slides up and down the strap. You get two buckle attachments which you can quickly loop through the camera eyelets and then clip to two sliding buckles fitted permanently to the strap. The camera can now slide freely up and down the strap, resting just below hip height at your side when you’re not using it and then sliding easily to eye level when you want to take a picture.

The natural stop point for this upward slide movement is the clip used to adjust the strap length, so in practice you position this clip so that the camera comes to a stop in the right place. This does leave the camera hanging quite low at just below hip level when you’re not using it, but it doesn’t take long to get used to that.

These little zipper tab loops are clever – they make it more difficult for anyone to pull the zip back without you noticing.

You could use the elasticated side panels for water bottles, sunglasses or maps, for example.

Manfrotto Pro Light FastTrack-8 verdict

First, sling bags are not to everyone’s taste because they take a bit of figuring out. Up is down and down is up, depending on whether you’ve got the bag on your back or swung round to the front. It’s disorientating.

Second, be aware that you’re not going to get even a mid-sized DSLR into this bag’s top pocket. It’s designed for the smaller bodies of mirrorless cameras – though you could probably squeeze in a Nikon D3400 or a smaller Canon EOS DSLR.

Third, this idea of combining a sling bag with an integrated strap takes a bit of getting used to as well. It looks like an overcomplicated gimmick, right?

Probably your first hour with the FastTrack is going to be spend fiddling with the straps, re-checking the photos in the leaflet and staring at a mirror wondering why you don’t look like the guy in the photos.

Soon enough, though, you figure it all out. You learn how to sling the bag over your shoulder, adjust the strap lengths and learn the movements needed to swing the bag around, shoot with the camera and get to your gear.

And that’s the thing – if you’re prepared to put up with this short learning process to try something new, the FastTrack-8 shows it’s not a gimmick and is actually a great idea. It’s not just a really good sling bag with lots of pockets for all your other paraphernalia, it’s also a way of keeping your camera to hand, ready to shoot, but still secured on a strap.

Rating: ★★★★★
Price: £109.95
Find out more: Manfrotto website

Manfrotto Lumimuse 8 brings Bluetooth control to portable lighting

March 8, 2018 by fotovolo

Pocket-sized LED lamps don’t pack the power of a full-size panel or a pro flash setup, naturally, but they’re a lot more useful than you might think. They provide handy short-range illuminations for portraits and close-ups and if you’re feeling creative you can tuck one away behind the scenery to add some interesting background lighting indoors or at night.

When you’re using them off-camera, though, changing the intensity becomes a bit of a faff, which is why the Lumimuse 8 with Bluetooth’s wireless connectivity starts to make a crazy kind of sense. This is an addition to the range – there is already a Lumimuse 8 without Bluetooth, so don’t get them confused.

Using the free iOS Lumimuse app, you can control the intensity of the light, from 0-100%, from your smart device. In fact, you can control up to 13 separate lights from the app, including Manfrotto’s larger LYCOS LED lights when they’re equipped with a Bluetooth dongle, allowing some quite complex and sophisticated lighting setups.

You can control more than just the light intensity with the Lumimuse 8. It also comes with three colour filters and a diffuser for changing the colour temperature and softening the light. YOu get a static shoe mount too, though you can also mount the Lumimuse 8 on a regular tripod (or one of Manfrotto’s PIXI tabletop tripods, say), thanks to its built-in 1/4-inch screw fitting. It will also attach to various Manfrotto lighting accessories and arms, including its Twist Grip smartphone rig system.

It’s not cheap for a small LED panel, but it has a smart aluminium body and it’s powered by an internal rechargeable Li-Pol (lithium polymer) battery which gives it a run time of up to 60 minutes. You can recharge the battery via a USB cable or, apparently HDMI – there is an HDMI charging cable included.

Compact LED panels like this are a relatively new idea that’s yet to gain a whole lot of traction with regular stills photographers, who tend to look for a little more light output, but it’s perfect for relatively short-range work and ideal for bloggers and vloggers who need immediacy and speed rather than time-consuming lighting setups.

The Lumimuse 8 with Bluetooth is available now and costs £129.99.

Links:

Manfrotto Lumimuse lights

Manfrotto adds RedBee-310 and 110 to its Pro Light backpack range

Manfrotto launches Befree GT carbon tripod specifically for the Sony a7 and a9