Today we are going to look at a new pack that is on the market from F-Stop Gear.  It’s no secret I love these guys’ product.  I currently own three of their bags, the Maverick shoulder bag, the Satori and the Satori EXP full expedition packs.  For those not familiar with F-Stop gear, they are a small camera bag company based out of St. Louis who make camera packs based around adventure photography.  So that means skiing, snowboarding, hiking, mountain biking.  You may think, well this isnt me so why would I want this for a pack.  The common thread here is travel and versatility.  These things can take a beating and unlike traditional camera backpacks where the entire inside is for your camera equipment these packs are modular with what they call ICU’s or Internal Camera Units.  Configurable to your hearts content, you can even take the whole inside out and just use it as a normal backpack if you want.

So lets take a look at the all new Guru daypack.  It is a small 28 liter pack made out of rip-stop nylon, perfect for walking around the city, a short hike or just as your general use camera bag.  This pack can fit the small and medium size ICU’s along with their new hatchback ICU – which I havent had a chance to try – and for all the photos in this review I had the pack configured with the small ICU.  As we look at the photo above you can see there is a vertical front zipper pocket for stuffing random things in a pinch.  There are also two sets of zippers that go around the pack one for access to more pocket and one for the main compartment of the pack.  On the front the two black straps are what they call gatekeepers.  Clipped into fabric loops these can be uses in this position or you can move them to the sides of the pack (more gatekeeper can be ordered as accessories).  The straps have a standard pack clip on them so you can easily hook and unhook things like tripods, hiking poles, even some skis.

As we move around the side of the pack we see the zippers that I mentioned earlier and the fabric loops if you want to position the gatekeepers onto the sides.  Also on each side of the pack is a very sizable mesh pocks for stuffing water bottles and other stuff.  You could also mount the upper gatekeeper on the side, put the tripod legs into the mesh pocket and strap the top of the sticks down  This way if you are putting your pack down in the mud or snow your tripod has a better chance at staying clean.  I will say if there is one thing I would change it would of been to add two sets of loops to the front so you could have gatekeepers mounted to the front and sides at the same time.  You could probably do it if you forced them in but once you load up the pack I think they would be pulling at each other.

Now as we turn to the back side this is where the cool stuff happens.  See with all F-Stop packs you access your camera gear from the back.  This is key.  By utilizing this system no one can rip you off if you are are in a crowded city because the access to the critical stuff is up against your back.  Also if you are on mountain and need to put your pack down to get something out, you will be putting the front down into the dirt and mud keeping the part that rests against you clean!  There’s two pads on the back the upper one is just a pad the lower one is the door to the inside.  Also visible in the above image are a nice hip strap with an accessory pocket (shown) and on the other side molle straps (not shown).  The shoulder straps have your standard sternum strap for added support, D rings for clipping in accessories and now standard on all new packs are loops to hold a water bladder system.

Above with the back opened we can see there is yet another zipper on the inside of the flap where you can stuff some small stuff like some cables or a colorchecker.  Here also is the small ICU.  On the outside of the ICU are some velcro straps that secure to some loops on the inside of the pack to keep everything in place.  With the configuration of the ICU that I have above you I was able to easily fit my Canon 5D Mark II with a battery grip and Really Right Stuff L bracket, the Canon 24-70 and the Canon 70-200.  A combo that pretty much covers just about anything and everything you might want to shoot on a day trip.

Inside the main compartment there is tons of room for clothes and other stuff on top of the ICU.  there is another sleeve inside it where you can fit a 15″ laptop an iPad or you can put your water bladder system.  When using it for the bladder system you can then route the drinking tube out the top in the black flap with the H2O written on it, which velcros shut.  Also on the top is a loop handle that which comes in handy for pickup, carrying or hanging the pack.

Inside the main front compartment there are pockets galore.  Pen pocket, a pair seemly built for some CF cards a mesh pocket big enough to toss your iPhone in and a couple of general zippered pockets.  Good for putting more random stuff.  There is also a removable key ring. this pocket is also as deep as the bag so you could also put an iPad here as well, or if you are old school some maps.  Not shown in the pictures but another key element is the pack has a removable aluminum frame for better weight distribution.  All in all this makes for a great daypack or even a main camera bag if you are just starting out and don’t have lot of gear.  There are so many pockets, straps and loops I would love to see F-Stop do some documentation of what the intent was behind all of them to give the general customer an idea of how to configure packs. So head over to F-Stop Gear’s website and check out all the tech specs for more information.  Give the bags a try, they have a 45 day return policy, you wont be disappointed.

Well I have to say right off the bat this is a cool little camera system. For those who may have missed it this week I added a micro 4/3s camera system to my arsenal. After months of current product research, and sifting through what more and more these days are accurate rumors about future products I decided to go with the Panasonic GF1. When it came down to it there were really only two options that I was looking at the GF1 and a camera from the Olympus PEN family. The one thing that made me really stick to looking at these two systems closely is that they share the same mounting system for lenses so you can use Panny lens on the Olympus and vise versa. Also both very easily with an adapter can shoot with full 4/3 lenses and Leica M mount lenses, which in my opinion really opens up the doors for this system. It’s nice to see two competing companies trying to standardize something. Now if we could only get the big boys to play a little nicer with one another.

The purpose of this post however is not to give you a full run down of the system I have only had it for a couple of day and I really need more time to learn the ins and outs of shooting with it. I can safely say that this weekend I will be firing off a lot of clicks. Rather I just wanted to share with you some initial images that were taken with the camera. The first nights have been all about noise testing and pushing the limits of it as a night shooter and it has been holding up pretty good, it’s no 5D mark II but I wasn’t expecting it to be. There are lots of review from people saying that over ISO 400 its useless. Well I can tell them right off the bat they are wrong. I have been shooting at ISO 800 and 1600 to test it out in different lighting conditions. I will say that ISO 3200 is not good at all. ISO 1600 used properly and with some good post skills to remove noise is usable for most all web applications although I wouldn’t to print anything bigger then 8×10. ISO 800 with just a small amount of noise reduction of say a Luminance reduction value of between 25 and 45 provides quite pleasing results. I actually dont mind the look of this noise either I think it has a much more film grain look to it then my 5D mark II.

So click on the thumbnails below and check out some of the first images taken with the camera.

Going out and taking pictures in the rain.  You wouldn’t believe the amount of comments and looks that I get from people with the common theme of ‘You have got to be crazy’.  Well guess what people, photo opportunities don’t only exist in the sunshine and at the golden hours, they happen 24 hours a day and just like the Post Office they happen rain, shine or snow.  If you really want to set yourself apart from the pack you have to be willing to go the extra mile and get out there in the weather.  See all the people in the photo above with the umbrella’s, that is not the way to get photos in the rain.

There is nothing more cumbersome then trying to balance operating a camera and holding an umbrella to stay dry.  Like everything in life there are varying degrees of rainy days.  You have your light mist days when you don’t even need a coat and just take your camera out in the elements, and on the opposite end of the spectrum where you have the monsoons like we are going to have this afternoon in Boston.  I guess that is also my reasoning for writing this today, I woke up with no ideas of what to post today, then it came to me, the rain!  The next thing people often ask me after I answer the questions about my sanity or insanity, is how do I do it.  Not camera setting but what do I use to protect both myself and my camera gear from the elements, so with this post I thought I would list and talk a little bit about the things that I use to keep everything as dry as possible.  This is not the end all or be all of gear, it’s also not the cheapest.  I have spent my share of time with the cheap stuff and the homemade stuff and I am now at the point in my photographic career that I am willing to spend a little bit of extra money protecting a very expensive investment.

First and foremost is camera protection.

I spent a good deal of time using some homemade rain covers for my camera.  They ranged from ziplock bags to a cheap REI raincoat that I ripped apart to create custom covers.  They served their purpose, but I am now at the point where I want total protection.  However it wasn’t until recently that the perfect solution came around.  There has always been rain gear for camera equipment, but they have all seemed to have limitations, price, weight, breathablilty to name a few. That change when a little company called Think Tank Photo released their Hydrophobia 70-200 rain cover!  It’s not cheap but at the same time its not all that expensive in the grand scheme of things.  I have had it for almost a year and I swear by it.  The cover fits my camera with my 24-70 all the way to my 70-200mm lenses.  Keep in mind when thinking about purchasing, you need to buy the cover and the appropriate eye piece (sold separately) for your specific camera. Here are the links: Hydrophobia 70-200 and here is the main page with all the products including the eyepieces.  They also make covers that will fit the super telephoto lenses for all you sports shooters out there.

Next up protecting me!

All of the following are links to REI, they are the store that I buy all my gear from.  They are a co-op company and when you join, you get tons of benefits such as profit sharing.  When you spend money there throughout the year it goes into a huge pool and then divided based on company wide purchases and your amount spent and you receive dividends back the following year in March to spend in the store, really a great deal!  The other benefit, which rules in my opinion, you can take anything back in any condition and get a new one!  I recently took back a pair of 6 month old hiking boots that I beat up pretty bad, they had tears and stuff, I grabbed a new pair from the shoe department, went to the exchange desk and left with a new pair.  Oh and I should mention that I literally walked in wearing the shoes that I returned and walked out wearing the new ones!!!

Jacket and Pants.  These are the keys to staying dry without an umbrella.  I have an ultralight rain jacket for those days when its just a light rain and I have a heavy duty hardshell for monsoons like we will be getting today.  Now I will admit that once I find something I like, that fits me well, I become very brand loyal so please dont think that just because I posted a particular link to a particular jacket that is the one to buy.  GO INTO THE STORE AND TRY THEM ON!  Whew that out of the way, I swear by the company Mountain Hardware.  I have found them to be much more durable and reliable then North Face.  I have ripped my fare share of North Face gear and when I made the switch there was no going back.

My ultralight coat of choice is the Mountain Hardware Cohesion Jacket

My hardshell of choice is the Mountain Hardware Exposure II Parka

My rain pants are  REI ultralight rainpants.  A bit about the rain pants.  There aren’t whole lot of choices when it comes to rainpants.  Ultralight pants either come with a drawstring and quarter zip legs or they come with snaps and full zip legs.  My ideal choice would be the combo snaps with quarter zip legs, but I just haven’t found them yet so this is my current choice best suited to me.  Again go into the store and try on a bunch of types see what fits you best.

Now that you know what I know, crank your ISO up to 1600 and get out there and take pictures in the rain!!!

Most of their competitors only offer a couple of sizes and limit page counts to 100 pages.  Some other companies also charge as much as and extra $2.00 per page over 20 pages.  Blurb has a very generous page range for pricing they are in 40 page increments, you can visit their site for more info on pricing.

When I decided to make a second book I was not immediately sold on using Blurb again.  While my first book was good, it wasn’t on that great level that I expect and I am not alone, there are lots of people on the forum that have quality issues.  The reason for these various issues are that Blurb doesn’t actually print the books themselves they have partnered with printing companies in Europe and the States. But at the end of the day the reasons I stated above for picking them my first time, brought me back for a second time.

With my first book I actually sent the first one back, the pages were not bound evenly and you could see some white space in the gutter and there was more white at the bottom of the gutter than the top.  The good thing about Blurb is their customer service is really good and they will respond right away and when you provide them some images showing the problem they will reprint the book for you.  There have been some extreme cases where people have received several rounds of bad reprints.  I also agree with others that the printers need to step up their quality control and not just send them out the door without giving them a good white glove page flip.

With this latest book I have now used both paper types, and I have to say that even though I love the weight of the 100lb paper, the image quality is much better on the 80lb.  The 100lb paper is matte paper, where the 80lb has a slight gloss to it which ups the quality level in my eye.  That said, I also have to say my first book was printed in Springfield, MA, they also did the reprint.  My second book was printed in Seattle, WA and it is stunning right off the bat.  Also in my first book I used the imagewrap option, which to best describe it, is like a textbook that you used to get in school, where as my second book I used the more traditional dust jacket.  After using both of these options, I must say the dust jacket is the way to go, yes it is more vulnerable to tearing, but its a great glossy finish and the image wrap is a matte finish and the blacks and other darker colors are more muted then they should be.

So with a little background on my dealings with Blurb, here are my findings of my second book.  It a big book, 12in x 12in square and 260 pages with a dust jacket.  White pages with images and text.  Some full page photos and some double truck (spread) images.  There are both color & black and white photos.  The overall quality of this book is amazing.  Here is a cover shot

One mistake that I made was putting a double truck image in the begining of the book, I unfortunately lost a lot of this image of the state house, and when I re-lay out this book I will def. just make this image a single page image.  The reason for this is the book is 3/4in thick and it is bound tightly so the first part of the book doesn’t lay flat, hopefully this will loosen up a bit with time.

The black and white images are great.  Here is a shot of a spread and then a closeup of one of the pages

The double truck images in the middle of the book came out great and the color is amazing!

And lastly here is a shot of a normal layout in full color.  Again the colors are rich and vibrant.  There were only one or two instances that I had photos that were out of gamut for the printer, and they are borderline so I think most people won’t even notice.

There are only a few things that I would do different with this book and they are minor, overall I am extremely happy on how it came out.  I should mention that I am a member of the Blurb B3 services, which is sort of an upper level tier of people that you have to be approved into.  B3 allows you to get a custom ICC profile that was produced for Blurb to accurately soft proof the images for the HP Indigo 5000 offset printer.

With Blurb you also have two options for uploading your book.  You can use their Booksmart software to layout and upload to them, or layout your book in the software of your choice and upload as a PDF directly on the website skipping he Booksmart software.  When I created my first book PDF upload wasn’t an option so I designed my book in Adobe Idesign, saved out high res JPG files from the Indesign document, then laid out those in Booksmart and uploaded.  That first book was then printed with the B3 service, which also guarantees that your book is printed with the same printer everytime.  With my second book I used the PDF upload option, at this time B3 is not a printing option with the PDF upload, this got me a little concerned, but I have to say, after getting the book today I am more then pleased with the normal print upload to the Seattle printer.

B3 custom workflow also adds cost to your book, as does the premium paper so take those things into consideration before you start your book.  Also do yourself a favor, mock up your book first.  I just grabbed one of my small moleskin books that I always keep with me and jotted down ideas like size, title, page range, and layout groupings.  While there are no official chapters to this book, things are grouped together, examples include, photowalks, athletes, urban…

This turned into a lot longer of a post then I thought it would be but I hope this gives you some insight on what to expect.  Visit Blurb to find out more info.  Below are thumbnails of the above images that will bring up some larger images for you to check out.

Happy bookmaking

Jeff