Freewell Bright Day Filter Set For the DJI OSMO Action Camera

Neutral density (ND) filters are a must-have for anyone aiming to capture smooth, cinematic footage with video cameras.

The filters allow you to reduce the amount of light entering the camera so that you can decrease the shutter speed to get the right 180 degree shutter angle.

This 180 degree shutter angle is achieved when the shutter speed is exactly twice the camera frame rate. So for example shooting at 24 fps requires a shutter speed of 1/48th second.

With the DJI OSMO action camera the lens is a fixed f2.8 lens so aperture cannot be controlled to decrease shutter speed so ND filtration is our only option here when the lower limit of 100 ISO is set.

Freewell does a complete range of filters, not only for action cameras but also drones so they are quite well suited to producing filters for this camera.

The filters have 16 layers premium multicoated optical glass and are waterproof, scratch , dust proof and hydrophobic coated. The filters carry a 10 year guarantee.

Fitting the filters to the DJO OSMO action camera requires removal of the existing lens cover. I found that on my camera this was almost impossible to do by hand. I had to use a pair of slip joint pliers and a piece of cloth (to prevent damage to the lens cover) to facilitate the removal. The Freewell filters screw easily onto the threads of the camera lens flange. The mounts are extremely well made from aluminium and finished in a nice black with red ring anodised finish.

As the bright day pack has a CPL plus ND filter this can be useful for reducing reflections from water, snow and foliage etc. 

By turning the front element of the Freewell filter you can adjust the polarised lens position to find the right amount of cut that you want in your image/video

Freewell website https:/www.freewellgear.com  and on Amazon http://amazon.com/freewell 

What does the Osmo Action Camera have that other action cameras don’t? Well most notably, it has a 1.4-inch colour LCD screen on the front of the camera in addition to the 2.25-inch touchscreen on the rear — a nice feature for YouTube content creators and others who would like to see exactly what they’re shooting while they have the camera pointed at themselves. 

The user interface is nicely uncomplicated, with three buttons controlling power on/off, record start, and switching capture modes; hitting the shutter button once turns on the camera from standby and starts recording in a preset mode in less than two seconds. Modes include time lapse, hyperlapse and slow motion. In addition and the camera even responds to five voice commands.

An HDR video mode is available, which DJI says stretches dynamic range by about three stops, but HDR shooting is limited to 30fps and electronic image stabilisation is disabled.

Frame rates are limited by your choice of aspect ratio — 4K 16:9 shooting allows frame rates up to 60p, but 4:3 shooting is limited to 30fps. The is similar in 2.7K mode, which reaches 60p only at 16:9. This is, presumably, because 4:3 is the native format of the camera’s image sensor, while 16:9 mode crops pixels at the top and bottom to make the wider frame, reducing image-processing requirements.

4K video recording takes place at up to 100 Mbps (this is compared to a max of 78 Mbps on the GoPro Hero7 Black). In HD mode, the frame rate can be set up to a full 240fps for an 8x slo-mo effect. It’s rated as waterproof at up to 11m and said to endure temperatures as low as -10 degrees Celsius. Built-in “RockSteady” electronic image stabilisation adds gimbal like stabilisation at the slight loss of field of view. The Osmo Action camera interfaces with DJI’s Mimo app for editing and sharing photos and video. Videos and still images are saved to an on-board microSD card.

DJI report that the Osmo Action Camera’s battery can run for up to 135 minutes at 1080p and 30fps without stabilisation, about 90 minutes at 4K and 30fps with image stabilisation, or up to 63 minutes at 4K and 60fps with stabilisation.  It takes about 90 minutes to charge a battery via the USB C type connector.

The lithium ion battery is specially purposed for this camera and has the additional water-sealing gasket fitted to it. When inserted there are two latches which show the correct insertion. If any of the latches are showing orange it means that the battery is not correctly inserted. This means that third party batteries may be a while before they make the after sales market.

The Osmo Action camera supports the following aspect ratio and frame rates:

4K (16:9) – 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, and 24fps

4K (4:3) – 30, 25, and 24fps

2.7K (4:3) – 30, 25, and 24fps

2.7K (16:9) – 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, and 24fps

1080p – 240, 200, 120, 100, 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, and 24fps

720p – 240, 200fps

The video quality can be chosen from either MOV or MP4.

For better audio recording when shooting video you can connect the Osmo Action camera with a third-party microphone through the USB-C port by the 3.5mm adapter However at the moment there are no third party adaptors that will work with this (not even the one for the Osmo Pocket camera works!) so we have to wait for the OEM version to come to market before we can add capturing better audio.

The camera features a facility to "linearise" the image formed by the semi-fisheye lens 

Below the image without the in-camera adjustment followed by the corrected image

Canon EFC-M 32mm F1.4 STM Lens

This lens is the latest addition to the lenses available with the EF-M mount.

In 35mm equivalence terms this is 51mm f2.2 so is an ideal standard focal length lens.

It is not a cheap lens £499 in the UK $489 in the USA

Noteworthy features of the EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens include:

14 elements in eight groups, including a glass moulded aspherical lens

Super Spectra Coating technology and optimised lens element placement helps minimise ghosting and flaring

Lead gear-type STM stepping motor to help provide smooth and quiet focus operation when taking photos, and near-silence when shooting video

Wide focusing ring with full-time manual focus capabilities

Compact and lightweight design: maximum diameter of 60.9mm, total length of

50.5mm and approximate weight of 235g

Maximum magnification of 0.25x and minimum focusing distance of 0.23m

The lens is extremely sharp even at F1.4 centre to edge definition is indistinguishable.

Stopping down just increases the depth of field. I have not seen any evidence of chromatic aberration in the shots I have taken.

It doesn't have any in lens stabilisation which is a great pity as the EOS M50 electronic stabilisation isn't all that effective.

Maybe the EOS M5 mk11 may have IBIS?

The implementation of manual focus is very smooth even though it is electronic, not mechanical. Full time manual focus is always available in AF modes.

The AF focus is very fast in stills mode and is almost silent in video mode with a nice slow transition from focus point to focus point.

Below is a sample gallery of images taken with this lens.

Double click for larger size and image details.

The Panasonic Lumix FZ80/82 x60 Bridge Camera

The FZ80/82 is the successor to the FZ70/72 camera, what is new in this camera, how does it perform and should you buy it.

Hopefully this review will answer those questions

Announced in Jan of 2017 the Panasonic Lumix FZ80/FZ82 is a bridge super-zoom with a 60x optical range. It updates the previous model the Lumix FZ70/FZ72. Whilst retaining the older model's 20-1200mm lens it adds a new 18 Megapixel sensor, an upgraded 3 inch 1040k dot fixed touch screen, and a more detailed 0.2in 1.7 Million dot EVF.

Also new are 4K video and 4K Photo modes, Wifi for wireless shooting and image transfer, faster continuous shooting, improved AF with Panasonic's Depth from Defocus technology and USB charging.

The new Lumix FZ80 / FZ82 shares the same optical zoom range as the FZ70/72, taking you from an unusually wide 20mm EFL to a super-telephoto 1200mm EFL, allowing you to capture landscapes or tight interiors and at the other end of the zoom range close-ups of distant wildlife or craters on Moon at the other.

The crop applied by the 4k video / photo modes, causes the camera to produce 28-1680mm EFL coverage.

In the AF macro mode  there’s also the ability to focus as close as 1cm.

New to the FZ80/FZ82 is the 18 Megapixel sensor allowing the camera to film 4k video at 24-30fps and support Panasonic’s 4k Photo modes which effectively capture 8 Megapixel stills at 30fps or let you refocus after the event.

The sensor also supports an electronic shutter, extending the fastest shutter speed from 1/2000 to 1/16000, and continuous autofocus has improved with Panasonic’s DFD technology.

Burst shooting is also up from 9 to 10fps, or 6fps with continuous autofocus.

The screen remains fixed, but now has a higher resolution 1040k dot panel that’s now touch-sensitive, and while the built-in viewfinder remains small in size, it too has received in boost in detail to 1170k dot.

The FZ80/FZ82 additionally offers 1080p video at up to 120fps for slow-motion.

The camera has no external battery charger but  can now be charged over USB, a useful feature allowing the battery to be topped up wherever you have access to a USB port (on a bus, cafe, power bank or laptop for example)

The control layout on the rear is little changed from the earlier model. There’s a button (LVF) to the right of the viewfinder for toggling between the monitor and the electronic viewfinder as there is no automatic switch over using eye detection sensor like found on the FZ300/330.

There is a dedicated AE/AF lock button next to it whose functionality can be set in the set up menu.

The camera has no lens barrel switches or buttons like the FZ200/300.

Below the LVF button is a button that is a focus mode selector button and below that the playback button.

The four-way controller allows selection of  ISO, white balance, self-timer and drive modes, and AF modes with the menu/set button in the middle.

Below it are the Q Menu/Delete (Fn3) and display overlay buttons.

Two buttons on the top panel are assigned to the new 4K and post focus modes but can be assigned to other functions, if you wish, and so are labelled Fn1 and Fn2.

The FZ80/82, like all the others in this series (FZ47/60/70) has no articulated LCD but the new screen is touch sensitive allowing menu selection and other functions to be carried out.

if I had to choose between the two features I think I’d choose touch-sensitivity over articulation every time.

As well as touching the screen to position the AF area, you can pull focus while shooting video using the touch-screen and it’s essential if you want to make the most of 4k shooting modes like Post Focus, where you can tap the screen to set the focus point after you’ve taken the shot. 

On the right side of the screen there’s a small panel of touch icons which when tapped slides out to reveal more touch controls.

From here you can activate the touch-shutter feature, apply a filter effect, set the AE metering area or access any of the touch function buttons, for example to turn on Wi-Fi or access the 4K photo mode.

The FZ80/FZ82 has a maximum aperture of f2.8, closing to f5.9 at the telephoto end of the zoom range. 

It is also compatible with Panasonic’s 1.7x teleconverter lens accessory, the DMW-LT55 converter and the LA8 conversion tube.

The FZ80/FZ82 is equipped with Power O.I.S image stabilisation which moves the lens elements to compensate for camera shake and permit hand-held shots at slower shutter speeds with a claimed 5 f-stop advantage.

Lens Performance

From 50mm EFL to around 600mm EFL the lens delivers very good resolution right across the frame and into the corners.

Optimum aperture is the widest available (lowest f-number) at each focal length thus:

70mm = f4.3, 135mm = f5.3, 400-600mm f5.6.

Video Modes

The FZ80/FZ82 has 1080p HD movie modes at 50 and 60 frames per second. New though is 4k UHD video at 25 or 30fps along with Panasonic’s 4k Photo mode – a new way of exploiting the fact 4k video captures an 8 Megapixel image up to 30 times a second.

The clever part is Panasonic equips its 4k Photo cameras with software that lets you easily capture bursts of video before scrolling through the footage and extracting the perfect frame as a JPEG image, all in-camera.

You could of course frame grab from video externally, but Panasonic has made it easy to perform the whole process in-camera.

The 4k options record Ultra High Definition video (3840×2160 pixels) at 25 or 30fps and at a bit rate of 100Mbit/s in MP4 but there’s no 24fps option to match the analogue film look.

It also records 1080p at up to 28Mbit/s in MP4 mode but you can switch to AVCHD mode and you get the same 1080/50p mode as the MP4 format, encoded at 28Mbit/s plus two further 1080/50i interlaced modes – one encoded at 24Mbit/s from 25p sensor output and a 17Mbit/s mode from 50p sensor output. 

Other video features include snap movie, which records a short clip of between two and eight seconds in length. With snap movies you can set up a focus pull in advance tapping the screen to define the start and end focus positions.

You can also add a monochrome to colour fade in our out effect, as well as a simple exposure fade. There are also Time Lapse and Stop Motion modes, accessed through the main menus rather than the movie options.

The FZ80/FZ82 also has a High Speed video feature that shoots 1080p at 100fps for playback at 1/4 speed.

If you want to slow down the action even more there’s also a 200fps option for 1/8 speed playback at VGA resolution.

You can of course use editing software to convert 50/60p HD footage to 25/30p at 1/2 speed, but it’s so much more convenient to be able to shoot slow motion footage in-camera.

On the FZ80/FZ82 you can shoot in PASM exposure modes, selected either from the video menu or by tapping the exposure mode icon in the top left of the screen when the mode dial is in the movie position.

During recording, depending on the mode, can change the exposure setting including, aperture, shutter speed, ISO sensitivity and exposure compensation.

While you can use the camera’s physical controls to alter the settings the touch screen provides a slide out panel allowing you to do so silently. You can also tap the screen to pull focus during recording.

Unlike the Lumix FZ300/FZ330 and other higher-end Lumix bridge models, the FZ80/FZ82 doesn’t offer Cinelike D and V profiles (for later grading) and also lacks the option that allows you to turn off the info display to allow the output of a ‘clean’ signal via the HDMI port.

There’s no external microphone input, remote control input nor headphone socket.

Panasonic have implemented focus peaking and zebra patterns to help with focus and exposure. 

Some sample images, click for larger size

Flash Exposure

The FZ80/82 is fitted with a hot shoe which does allow the use of external flash guns. However, flash compatibility has always been an issue with Panasonic bridge cameras and this camera appears to be the same.

For example the small compact Meike 300 or 320 do not work in TTL mode they fire at full power - just as with the case of the FZ200/300/330.

There are three Panasonic models available, the FL220, FL360 and FL500 with Guide Numbers of 22, 36 and 50 (Metres, 100 ISO) respectively however the Godox 350O is my new "go to" flash gun for the Panasonic Bridge cameras. It has a similar output to the Nissin i40 which I previously recommended. (see the following review of the Godox 650O for details)

The pop up flash can be used as a wireless flash commander which may be set to be part of the exposure or just the master to trigger, optically, other optically TTL compatible units. The Wireless flash menu is only active with the flash head raised.

Focus  modes

The FZ80/FZ82 has  six focus modes, Pinpoint, 1-Area, Custom Multi, 49-Area, Tracking and Face Detection.

With Face detection it can detect up to 15 faces and lock focus on one of them (the one registered as a primary in the face detection database). Multiple AF uses 49 areas to determine the best focus regions and there’s a single area AF option with a resize-able AF area that can be moved around the screen.

Additionally there are three AF styles, the usual AFS and AFC single and continuous modes are joined by a third AFF, or Auto Focus Flexible mode.

This AFF mode is designed for shooting subjects like children and pets that move in an unpredictable manner.

I think that it’s the touch screen that makes the biggest difference to focusing with the FZ80/FZ82. You can simply tap on the screen to position the AF area in single area mode.

Custom Multi mode allows you to select a subset of the 49 areas defined in a diamond configuration, a single row or column, or a user defined pattern, then you simply tap the screen to position your AF grid.

If I was to make a criticism of the touch focus operation it would be that it’s easy to inadvertently reposition the grid with your nose when using the viewfinder, particularly if, like me, you use your left eye. That said, you can always turn touch AF system off.

Manual focusing is selected with focus mode button on the rear panel which is also used to choose macro focus modes (there are two AF Macro and Macro zoom, the latter takes a crop from the centre of the frame). The focus is then adjusted using a slider on the screen or the left/right navigation buttons on the 4-way selector.

For manual focus the camera offers the usual array of focusing assistance including a distance scale, MF assist, magnification and peaking but it does not show the Depth of Field (DOF) as with the FZ200.

All of these make manual focusing easier than it would otherwise be, but it’s quite difficult to make fine adjustments which really limits manual focus to stationary, or tripod mounted shots.

Pro's and Con's

pro's:

3 inch touch screen.

4K video and 4K photo modes with post focus ability.

Greatly improved full resolution 10fps continuous shooting.

One of the best Wifi implementations around.

RAW File

USB charging.

con's:

poor EVF dioptre adjustment

EVF needs rubber eyecup

no audio input

no remote control input

tripod mount not on lens centre

no lens hood supplied

noisy even at ISO 80

No Cinelike D & V profiles for better video.

High Speed Video is not stabilised

My final verdict:

As it stands the FZ80 /82 looks amazing reading the specifications and in many respects it is amazing with a level of features never before seen at this price point.

But in practice the camera delivers too many not-really-sharp pictures, particularly at the long end of the zoom mainly as a result of subject movement because of the long shutter speeds needed with low ISO. It's a sunshine loving camera which needs quite a bit of taming if you want  to use it in dull situations or long telephoto shots. For those wanting those long reach images without being obsessed by image quality then this camera will deliver those expectations. For serious amateurs you will need to modify shooting habits to get good, noise free images from it but has a lot of potential and still worth consideration.

waiting to do some more noise and video tests - will be updated soon.....22 July 2018 

The Godox TT650-O Flash Unit Review for Panasonic/Olympus Cameras

I just received the TT685-O. Why did I order that unit in addition to the TT350? Well I was really impressed by the performance and build quality of the TT350 units.

Now my TT685-O, TT350-O and AD200 can be completely controlled by my Olympus EM1/EM5/GX8/GX85/FZ300/FZ1000/FZ2500 cameras via TTL.

That's why I can also use them on-camera for family events etc., which significantly expands their field of application.

In addition, I also use them in soft boxes and use the X1-TO transmitter to control them via TTL or from the Canon camera with XT1-C transmitter in Manual mode.

Although my Olympus & Nissin flashes also support TTL, but only by a optical methods (the flash pulses) and thus line of sight connection to the camera is a very necessary  prerequisite.

This is of course not practicable when they are used in the soft boxes.

So every unit is now easily controlled via the camera, whether by manual control and HSS or even with TTL.

In terms of build quality, the TT350 and TT685 are almost the same.

The TT350 is much simpler because it does not have that many settings. The TT685-O is more complex.

One Negative point, the TT685-O the flash head is quite stiff to rotate.

When mounted in the hotshoe, I'm a little worried that I apply too much power to turn it and it could lead to failure of either the camera or flash connections in the long run.

All my other Chinese Flash Units are much easier to rotate and I must investigate why the TT685 is so hard- I have seen other reviewers also complain of this.

Mounted on camera all TTL functions perform perfectly - except flash exposure compensation with the Olympus cameras above the native camera synch speed (i.e. in the HSS mode).

One nice feature is that in the setup menu you can either have the zoom display in M4/3 or 135 equivalent so when mounted on the bridge cameras ( or off camera as slave) it can be set to 135 mode and this corresponds to the zoom scale of those cameras. This helps  a great deal when adjusting the zoom position when not fitted to the expected M4/3 camera.

The TT685-O  summed up:

The TT685-O is equipped with all modern flash functions!

It works as an on-camera, as a master flash for controlling other Godox flashes / receivers or as a slave;

Supports HSS, TTL and can also perform strobe flashes of 100 flashes and up to 200Hz.

It offers a wide control range from 1/1 to 1/128 power in one-third increments.

Together with the X1T-O from Godox it can be completely controlled from the camera, in HSS mode (even via TTL) even up to 1 / 8000s.

The build quality is very good except for the flash head stiffness in the rotation mode.

Update: A very small amount of "WD40" sprayed between the Upper and lower parts of the swivel head has fixed the problem with the stiff rotation of the head!

It can be made to recycle quicker by adding an external power pack. It appears to have the Canon connection and I've been using it with the Shoot CP-E4 which I have reviewed previously. A 2 second full power flash recycle time can be cut to just 1 second

The images above: Top left Original back lit image   Top Right: Using TTL Fill Flash

                             Bottom left: TTL Fill Flash          Bottom Right On Camera HSS 1/5000 sec F3.2 ISO 200

Camera Olympus OMD-M1MarkII with 12-60mm lens  Flash TT685-O

click to enlarge images.

Godox X Series Wireless Transmitters and Receivers for Canon/Nikon/Sony/Fuji/Panasonic/Olympus

The Godox range of transmitters, receivers and flash units offer a very flexible and cost effective way of enjoying flash photography.

Unlike traditional wireless optical triggers usually employed by the camera manufactures which use the pop up, or attached, flash as the "commander" to send the light triggering pulses to the slave units the Godox X series uses a 2.4GHz radio system.

This obviously means that the master and slave units no longer have to be in "line of sight" of each other and the triggering distance is greatly increased.

How it works: If you consider the communication data between the Godox transmitter (designated by X1-T and then a letter for the flash type) and the receiver (designated by X1-R and then a letter for the flash type) it is a fixed "language" that each unit "understands".

What this means is that, for example a X1-T C (the Canon flash) can understand the communication from the hot shoe communication pathway of the camera convert it to the Godox language and then this is again converted into the language of the attached receiver.

So for example a X1-R C unit would decode the radio data being transmitted from the Godox X1-T C and convert this into a protocol that the attached flash unit will understand. So if you have a Canon flash attached to the receiver it will behave as though it was attached directly to the camera hot shoe!

Such is the power of the system is that the transmitters and receivers can be set to "communicate" to five groups simultaneously on one of thirty two channels. 

Such a system is shown below. It is using the X1-To transmitter on camera to remotely fire the TT350o flash unit.

We have -c for Canon, -n for Nikon, -f for Fuji -o for Panasonic/Olympus and -s for Sony.

At the moment the range of dedicated X1-R receivers is limited to Canon and Nikon but the dedicated flash guns are available in all types.

(see how to expand this in the later part of this article)

In addition to the dedicated receiver units Godox also have a range of flash units which have the radio system built into them.

The flash unit can be attached to the camera as normal and used as an on camera flash in TTL or manual mode or it can be set to be a master communication flash to trigger any number of flashes on the same channel.

It can be part of the exposure (such as the on camera fill flash) or it can be just the communication source for all the other flashes.

The system supports all the usual flash operations such as Flash Exposure Bracketing, Flash Exposure Compensation, High speed synchronisation and first/second curtain.

This will depend upon the flash system but at the moment the flash does not work with the X1-TO transmitter and provide off-camera HSS / TTL control as it will only synch to 1/250sec - only works with the Olympus cameras. With the Panasonic cameras automatic zoom doesn't appear to work in the off-camera remote slave mode either.

Getting Extra Benefits: One of the problems faced by photographers is the compatibility of camera systems and accessories. If you change camera systems you are often left with accessories which will no longer work with the new system.

Flash units, costing hundreds of pounds, fall into this area.

Using the Godox wireless system it is possible to partly reclaim some of the functionality of these flash units with your new system.

As an example say you had a Canon flash system but have now moved to the micro four thirds Panasonic/Olympus range of cameras it is possible by using a X1-To transmitter on the Panasonic/Olympus camera with an X1-RC receiver on the Canon flash gun to be able to use the flash in the manual mode and be able to remotely set the parameters of the remote flash directly from the camera mounted transmitter. Use the test button to initiate the change from the transmitter to receiver. Obviously the TTL signals could not be used between the two devices as they are entirely different protocols.

Versatility: in the image below the X1T-O (Olympus/Panasonic) is being used to control three other flash units in the manual mode.

This is a common studio set up for a main light, a fill light and a hair light. 

The flash units are on the same channel (1) but each group (A/B/C) can be individually set for power level from the X1-TO unit on the Olympus camera.

You can see that the Nikon flash (a TT350N) is on Group A with power level 1/4, the Olympus flash (a TT350O) is on group B with a power of 1/8 and 0.3 and the Aperlite 700C (Canon compatible) is on group C with the power set to 1/64 plus 0.7. Note the Canon flash needs the X1-RC to interface to the X series transmitter but the two TT350 units have an inbuilt radio receiver and just need to be set to the radio slave mode and channel 1 and the right group.

And Finally: To expand the system further of course you could use other units in an OPTICAL S1 configuration or use something like the Yongnuo master/Slave system to be able to set the power levels remotely and trigger that from on of the pass though contacts on a X1R device

The Godox TT350o Review (Panasonic/Olympus model)

I've tested this unit with every one of my Panasonic and Olympus cameras and it works perfectly in the TTL mode - even with the FZ200 which is a particularly hard camera to find a compatible flash for.

Like all of Godox’s more recent products, the build quality of this little flash is quite solid. All of the case seams feel well sealed and the overall construction feels like it could take a few knocks and bangs.

The buttons are well laid out and easy to press.  Surprisingly, for the cost, even the jog dial is quick and accurate. Overall, only one complaint with the buttons: the power button only requires a quick press to turn the flash off. I would much rather have a one second press-and-hold button as I have already  accidentally hit the button by mistake, thus turning the flash off.

The included plastic stand has the usual 1/4-inchx20 thread, appears to be brass and should last a while. So, if you’re mounting this on a light stand or tripod, no need to worry.

As with almost all modern flash units, you’ll get TTL, Manual, Slave, and Stroboscopic modes. Manual mode gives you 1/3 power increments from 1/1 all the way down to 1/128, with the flash duration ranging from 1/350 to 1/20,000 of a second. Two slave modes are available: one to fire immediately S2 , and one to fire after pre-flashes S2.

You also have a small bounce card and ultra-wide diffuser which sets the unit to the 14mm position.

Finally, recycle times are 0.1-2.2 seconds with Eneloop type batteries.

The head of the unit swivels 90 degrees to the left and 180 degrees to the right. It also tilts from -7 degrees to 90 degrees up and down. Interestingly, the swivel is a dampened, solid-feeling turn, but the tilt has a noisy click operation. 

The LCD is unusually orange, perhaps reflecting the Godox trade dress? . 

Information displayed includes current mode, power, groups, channels, zoom, and under/over exposure when in TTL mode. It is easy to see what your settings are at a glance.

The Wireless System:

Here’s where the real benefits of getting this unit lie. Not only is it fully controllable from any Godox trigger or other master flash, but it can actually act as a trigger and master as well.

By using it this way, you gain access to the TTL and HSS functions we’ve all been waiting for use on Panasonic and Olympus cameras. This means that if you have a Godox TTL strobe like the AD200 or the AD600 you can now trigger that from this unit set in the master mode.

At the same time, you get access to 1/8,000 second sync speed. Of course, your Panasonic/Olympus body needs to support these.

As an on camera flash, it’s not too shabby at all. With a respectable guide number of 36 metres (ISO 100, 105mm), it puts out enough power for light day to day use. 

Godox states 0.1-2.2 seconds recycle for this unit, but in my tests I found the moment of pushing the fire button to the moment the ready light came on was somewhere between 3 and 4 seconds with the unit set for 1/1 (full power). I’m using Eneloop Pro NiMH batteries, which have reduced recycle times in every other flash I have used. Using standard alkaline batteries increased the recycle time to nearly 6 seconds. But, considering there are only two AA batteries recycling the flash, this is still respectable.

One test I did do while recycling the flash was to try and invoke Godox’s overheat protection. After 50 full power flashes one after the other plus numerous multi-flash outputs at 1/4 power and 2 flashes at 4 Hz I couldn't get the unit to shut down - so normal operation shouldn't be a problem.

One thing that I don't like is the lack of any audible "flash ready" beep to tell me when it’s done recycling so I can continue shooting.

With the TT350, I have to take my eye away from the camera to check if the recycle light is on. One way to know is that it simply will not fire if not full recycled. All other flashes I’ve used will at least dump what’s in the capacitor when you trip them, even if they’re not fully recycled. Not the TT350 though.

You either get it’s desired output or you get nothing which I guess isn't a bad thing unless you are in a hurry taking your shots!

with the Olympus model there is no flash assist light, on the Fuji, Sony, Canon and Nikon units.

In Summary: 

This is a tiny flash with a fair punch. It will certainly stand up to simple day to day use.

However, for wedding or event photographers looking for something that will just go all night, this probably isn’t your option.

For me, I see this as a second flash in case I need an extra light on a scene or as an alternative to providing the wireless (radio) flash trigger for my studio flash units the AD600 (manual) and AD200 (manual and TTL) instead of the X1-T if I need the camera flash to provide some fill flash.

A superb on camera flash to provide higher output power for the Panasonic FZ200/300/330 cameras.

Full Specifications:

Godox TT350o SPECIFICATIONS:
Guide No. (1/1 output @105mm): 36(m ISO 100)
Exposure control system: TTL auto flash and manual flash
Flash exposure compensation (FEC): Manual
FEB. : ±3 stops in 1/3 stop increments 
Sync mode: High-speed sync (up to 1/8000 seconds),first-curtain sync, and second-curtain sync
Multi flash: Provided (up to 90 times, 99Hz)
Wireless flash function: Master, slave, off
Controllable slave groups: 3 (A,B and C)
Transmission range(approx.): 100m

Channels: 16(1~16)

AA batteries: Ni-MH batteries(recommended) or 2*LR6 alkaline batteries
Recycle time: Approx.0.1~2.2 seconds(eneloop Ni-MH batteries from Panasonic)
Red LED indicator will light up when the flash is ready
Full power flashes: Approx.210(2500mAH Ni-MH batteries) minutes if set as slave)
Sync Trigger Mode: Hot shoe,Optical triggering S1/S2 Wireless X System.
W*H*D: 140*62*38mm
Weight without batteries: 200g

Godox X1-TO Transmitter ... some issues to be aware of.

I've been using the system for a few days now and there are a couple of things to note on this version compared to the Canon version X1-TC

firstly the automatic zoom feature is not implemented in this mode. If you have the transmitter mounted on your camera and adjust the zoom lens the remote flash unit will not change its zoom position.

In the FN02 set up the AU (for auto zoom) isn't available. You can adjust the zoom position of the remote flash manually from the transmitter but it means going into the FN)2 screen to set the zoom position manually. If you are using the flash unit on camera auto zoom does work its only not implemented via the X1-TO unit!

As with all the X series transmitters having them too close to the receiver can put them unresponsive. There is a new fix for this which reduces the transmitter power and that works great.

To enable this new low power mode with the unit OFF, press and hold the  TEST button whilst turning the unit on. Hold the button down until you see the status light flash twice.

When you turn off the unit the power will revert to full power the next time you turn it on again.

FN06 Can set the transmitter to just 3 groups and this saves scrolling through 5 groups if you only have TT series flash units.

Using the Olympus FL-ML3 micro flashes on the later Panasonic Cameras for Wireless Flash Control

The later range of Panasonic CSC's like the GX8, GX80, GX9 (and possibly the LX100) use an entirely different protocol for the camera hot shoe connection. It now includes a contact dedicated to providing 5volts to power up a connected flash gun. Normally this would be the Panasonic flash 

Focus Bracketing App - GsimpleRemote

With Panasonic Lumix cameras with Post Focus capability it is possible to shoot a macro shot (or close up) and use the generated MP4 file in a program like Helicon focus to focus stack up to the whole of the 49 AF points which might have been captured in the image sequence.

If you have the FZ1000 then this doesn't have either a touch screen or the post focus ability. Until I found this "app" the only way I could create a focus bracketed set of images was to use a focus slider and manually advance the slider for each shot. This method does have some complications as the "perspective" of the image set changes at each advance of the focusing slide. This makes the focus stacking of the images quite difficult as the periphery objects in the image are changing position.

With this "app" it allows a smartphone or tablet device (either IOS or Android) to control the camera via a wireless link, The "app" controls the focus motor of the camera lens and has the additional feature that allows the user to define the start and end focus positions and the step increment for each image captured in the sequence.

Below are the 9 images captured with the app and these were imported into Helicon Focus 6

In the image below is a demonstration of Helicon Focus 6 with these 9 images imported.

The first image with the front battery in focus is shown in the example

In this next image the program has run and combined all the 9 images into the final image

The program is very intuitive to use and has a 30 day unrestricted demo mode. After which if you save the image, copy it to a clipboard etc it is watermarked. For most purposes I "screen grab" this final image and that is what you are seeing here in this review.

If the licensing was for a once off payment I would probably buy it however it is only a yearly licence, and costly at that, and I don't think that I would use it that often during the course of the year to get value for money.

Below is a video demonstration of how to use this "app"

Mcoplus MCO-14EXT-C Xenon Ring Flash for Canon/Nikon

Mcoplus MP-MRF18 LED Ring Light Flash

I have around eight or so Canon lenses, both EF and EFS types with three of the lenses are also being "L" series. I have also 5 micro four third cameras and I wanted to be able to use the Canon lenses on the MFT bodies. Previously I have used passive adaptors and used the stop down and twist off the lens whilst the camera is still powered up to get a preset aperture rather than full aperture.

Whilst this has been a reliable method it suffers from the fact that you cannot change aperture, you are always in stopped down focus mode so setting the actual focus is sometimes tricky and you loose any EXIF information that might have been useful in an image (such as aperture and focal length used). Also there is no image stabilisation available.

I bought the Commlite unit as this seemed to address all the above issues (except autofocus) and a fraction of the Metabones IV unit.

Mechanically the fit of the lenses to the adaptor is very good with no perceivable lateral or rotational movement. There is a very small radial movement in the adaptor to the camera body but this does not affect the electrical coupling. Build quality is adequate, personally i would have liked to have seen 5 fixing screws around the front and rear flanges as some of the lenses that I attach are very heavy and exert quite a bit of force on the tiny screws. There is a removable tripod fixing foot which reduces this force rather than attach the camera to the tripod. With the longer Canon lenses it's best to use the Canon tripod ring for support.

In use the aperture is controlled from the camera and in video mode responds immediately to the change dialed in. You can step up and down the whole aperture range and the results don't show any problem with screen flashing as reported on some Metabones adaptors.

The "boot" up time with the adaptor fitted doesn't seem that much longer to get to the first exposure as with just a native lens and during burst mode shooting the adaptor/lens combination performed reliably.

In photo mode the camera remains at full aperture for metering and manual focus and then stops down for the exposure. I did notice a strange sequence of events when using the Panasonic GX8. When half depressing the shutter button the image stabilisation would pulse on any lens that had IS and the aperture would momentarily go to 0.0 then back to the preset value. Turning off the half shutter AF option in the custom menu stopped this from happening. As the lens does not retain AF it doesn't matter anyway. Results will be entirely dependant upon the Canon/third party EF/EFS lens.

After a period of extended testing I found that any lens with image stabilisation turned on would randomly pulse. If you were recording video at the time then this would be included in the clip thus ruining it. This happened with all the MFT camera bodies I own.

It would have been nice to have had front and rear caps supplied with the unit to protect the mounts when not attached to the camera.

Although this random pulsing of the image stabilisation of IS enabled lenses is obviously an unacceptable occurrence for video shooting handheld footage I guess if the camera is tripod mounted with IS turned off then the problem isn't that bad. In photo mode the pulsing does occur randomly but again isn't likely to be a major issue. I have contacted Commlite but as yet no response from them!

Here's my Youtube video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMZmqUTnDuc 

Canon 70-300mm EF IS USM F4/5.6 Zoom Lens

Although this lens has been out for a number of years now I have only just decided to add this to my EF/EFS lens line up. My 100-400 L Canon f4/F5.6 lens is massive and heavy and for the kind of images I shoot these days it doesn't really justify me holding on to it much longer. I did toy with the idea of the 70-200 USM L lens but again I wanted just a little longer reach and the 100-300 IS USM L lens is just too expensive. Some reports have said this lens is very soft and others say it's sharp so I could not get any sensible conclusion after watching and reading several reviews. I, to be perfectly honest, have never really been a fan of Canon lenses for amateur grade cameras. All the ones I have tested (and reviewed by magazines) have confirmed that many OEM lenses from Sigma and Tokina have sharper charcteristics

I tested the autofocus ability of the lens shooting a video sequence. The USM motor gives a "stuttering" transition from focus point to focus point if you invoke a "focus pull" from the touch screen enabled camera, like the 70D. With a STM (stepper motor) lens this operation is smoother and quieter.

Here are some sample images taken with this lens on the cropped sensor Canon 70D.

Sample Images Shot Using The Full Frame Canon 5D mkIII

The 70mm Test Chart (crops from image with no scaling)

My practical video test using this lens is here on Youtube  https://youtu.be/Ei9t2DEb4RE

This recent addition to Aperlite's line up of flash guns adds a E-TTL compatible flash gun to their entry level flash units. It builds upon the manual only YH-400 by adding communication pins to the hot shoe to allow the E-TTL communication between camera and flash gun. It is essentially the same specification and size as the YH-400 so I won't repeat the description available in that review. The E-TTL is only available whilst the camera is attached to a Canon camera, it is not a wireless optical slave unit as in the case of the flagship model the YH-700C but just E-TTL via the hot shoe. It supports the same Multi (strobe) mode and the optical slave S1 & S2 modes as the YH-400. This model supports second curtain synchronisation in the E-TTL and Manual modes which the YH-400 does not have. In this flash however the flash head now has logic which forces the zoom head back to the minimum position when the wide panel diffuser is pulled out. In this mode manual zooming is not available. This is a great feature that is not available in the YH-400 entry, manual only unit or the Flagship YH-700C There is a Nikon unit available the YH-500N

Colour rendering was very good and E-TTL exposures pretty consistent, only changes being made to subjects which had varying brightness so I guess it isn't using the distance information from the lens that is available in the E-TTL protocol from Canon which eliminates some of this variability. Here are some sample images using this flash gun.

Radio flash triggers offer superior performance over the simple optical slave flash systems. They have extended range of operation (up to 100 Metres compared to the 15 Metres of the optical units), don't need to be in line-of-sight of the transmitting flash gun and can be used in sunlight.

The Neewer FC-16 for the Canon flash system is a 16 channel transmitter/receiver system and can additionally be used as a remote camera shutter trigger as well. Powered by two AAA batteries the receiver and transmitter have the same physical profiles, the receiver not having any electrical contact on the hot shoe base whereas the transmitter has the full 5 pin configuration (I'm not sure that any of the other communications pins are used though). In the flash slave mode the indicator LED on the top of each unit pulses green and when used as the remote camera shutter release pulses red. The kit comprises all the necessary cables to connect the professional level cameras like the 1DX and %d series using the C3 cable and the consumer/pro-sumer cameras use the C1 cable. Additionally the transmitter unit can receive its trigger pulse via a PC sync port from the camera if the camera doesn't have a hot shoe. In the remote camera shutter mode the receiver is connected to the remote input socket of the camera via the C1 or C3 cable. The receiver is switched to camera position and the transmitter set to either camera for instantaneous firing or delay for the 5 second delay timer. It will work on Panasonic cameras and you can get the adaptor cable for the Panasonic remote connection.

A few weeks ago I was sent for review the Aperlite YC-700 ETTL flash gun. Now I have received the less featured YH-400 flash gun for my review. Basically the YH-400 unit features just the following features.

1. Manual mode 1/1 to 1/128 power settings

2. Strobe mode

3. S1 & S2 slave flash modes

As it has only the central firing pin on the base of the hot shoe it can be used with a number of cameras but it is specifically targeted as Canon and Nikon DSLR users. Because of this the unit cannot communicate its state of charge readiness to the host camera nor can it utilise the signals from the camera to trigger things like the focus assist light. 

This unit then has potential operation as either a simple manual power on camera flash unit with a high guide number of 58 metres with ISO 100 and the zoom set to 105mm focal length or as an optical slave device triggered in the S1 ( immediate) or S2 (pre-flash delay mode). Additionally it could be used with a radio trigger/ receiver device to turn this into a standalone manual power flash unit.

It is powered by 4 AA size batteries (Alkaline or NI-MH type) or it can be powered externally for the flash charging circuit with the MK_SD8A power pack which is a Nikon speedlite socket rather than a Canon type.. It has a similar head bounce and swivel adjustment range as the Aperlite YC-700 that being 90 degrees to the right and 180 degrees to the left giving a 270 degree of rotation. In vertical movement terms it can be set from -7 to 90 degrees with detents at 0, 45, 60, 75 and 90 degrees.

The unit has a pull out wide panel diffuser which will allow wide angle lenses of the 18mm focal length to be used. Additionally if using the flash in the vertical bounce flash mode there is a pull up white plastic panel which acts to provide a "catchlight" in the eyes of a portrait head shot.

The flash recycling time using alkaline batteries was a little over 3 seconds from a full power discharge, the indication of charging being the red pilot light blinking until the flash has fully recharged where it remains steady. There is no audible warning or any front facing LEDs to indicate the charging is still continuing. In the Slave modes again there is no indication on the unit to signal that the unit is fully charged and ready.

The unit is supplied with a plastic foot which has a 1/4-20 metal threaded insert to fit the unit on a lamp stand or tripod, It also comes with a black nylon drawstring pouch however it doesn't look like the waterproof pouch supplied with the YH-700C

So in summary it does everything a slave flash gun should do, the two slave modes S1 and S2 work predictably and the manual mode adjustment is all that a manual flash gun needs. I would trigger using wireless triggers, it triggered on Panasonic and Olympus and on my Sony Q series of cameras. I would suspect, though have no proof, that being a single trigger positive voltage device it will probably work on most conventional hot shoe cameras.

Unfortunately the unit does not support high speed synch and the manual is wrong in suggesting it supports auto zoom, flash exposure bracketing and flash exposure correction - it cannot because it does not have the communication bus to the native camera

The Olympus app does allow you to make some preset image adjustments and add signatures etc before saving them as a new copy of the image. I will look at these in a later review.

So in summary you need the Toshiba app to set up some of the administrative rights for the card however you can ignore this if you just want to use the default password supplied with the card 12345678. 

The card appears to write fairly quickly in the camera and I had no issues recording 1080p video. It's great for seeing an instant preview of the image and unlike the EYE-Fi card which pushes every image to your device as they are shot with this card you select the ones to pull over to the device if you want a back up copy. I was happy to preview the images shot whilst I took a break from shooting and downloaded all the image from my card reader into my pc on return home. If you wanted to transfer and email or share an image to a social network site then providing the preview device had internet access you could do that there and then. It was not possible with mu ipad wi-fi only device out on a shoot so I couldn't test this.

The Aperlite YH-700C is a dedicated E-TTL compatible flash gun for Canon cameras. It adopts the same protocols and most of the features of Canon's Speedlite 580 EX (not the II model as it doesn't support external auto flash metering "E" mode). It is compatible with the E-TTL II, E-TTL and TTL flash modes of Canon cameras so provides backwards compatibility across a wide range of Canon cameras. 

The unit supports the camera communication protocols of exposure compensation, exposure bracketing, AE lock, aperture preview, high-speed sync (maximum sync speed of 1/8000 s), first and second-curtain sync also features automatic focus assist function and supports automatic / manual zooming. Additionally it can be set to provide the correct zoom when used with cropped sizes sensor cameras.

The flash features a maximum guide number of 58m (190 feet) at ISO 100 when then flash head is zoomed to 105mm setting.

In practice this related to F22 at 5 feet flash to subject distance when fired at full power.

The unit covers a focal length range of 24mm to 105mm and with the pull out wide panel diffuser allows 14mm lenses to be used.

It can serve as a master or slave unit in the Canon optical wireless ETTL mode and S1 & S2 modes (i.e. with and without pre-flash suppression).

It can also be used as a manual flash unit with 8 levels of output power control from 1:1 to 1:128 power in 28 increments (1/3 EV). It supports stroboscopic firing, however this is at a reduced power output which can also be used as a  "modelling light" activated from the flash of the camera DOF preview button.

It takes only 3 seconds for the flash to be fully charged after a full-level output using alkaline or NiMh batteries (4 AA size). The number of flashes per set of fully charged batteries will depend upon the flash power used and if high speed sync is used, however it is quoted at between 110 and 1500 flashes. I shot over 160 images over the period of a day and the recycle time was always very fast. Charging state can be set to provide an audible status of the flash capacitor charging and you wait until you hear the longer audio beep which signifies the flash has fully charged. This is useful if you are using the flash as a slave and off camera.

The flash head has full tilt and swivel control allowing adjustment of -7 degrees to 90 degrees in a vertical plain and 90 degree left and 180 degree right in a horizontal plain. This allows for bounce flash when used on camera and to allow the red filtered receiver window to be sighted to see the master flash transmitter's flash pulses for TTL control. The head does not have any locking facility of its position and does not (like the Canon speedlites) give warnings about the - 7 degree vertical angle or set bounce mode zoom to 50mm setting. It does not provide warning that the flip down wide panel diffuser is in place if used in a vertical bounce mode that the canon models provide.

It has a metal hot shoe but with the locking ring rather than the locking lever of the 580EX 11 model. It also does not provide the environmental waterproofing that the Canon units have.

There is PC sync socket and a socket for power packs such as the Canon CP-E3 or CP-E4 units

The unit Dimensions are 78.0 x 146.0 x 118.5 mm and it weighs 490g with batteries fitted.

The unit is provided with a soft carry pouch and a flash foot which does have a 1/4 - 20 threaded metal insert for attaching to a tripod or light stand. There is a comprehensive instruction manual that may take a little reading to fully understand the full feature set. It is better to set this unit up using the canon Speedlite menu in the camera which is part of the Canon EX flash protocol available with mid 2012 onwards cameras.

Colour temperature looks natural daylight and is quoted at 5800K. 

Construction is fairly robust, the only areas of weakness may be the pull out catch-light panel, the wide panel diffuser and the battery door.

Improvements would be the inclusion of a flash confirmation LED (as on the Canon speedlites) and a longer LCD back light time as this is quite short. I, personally, would have like to see a sturdier carry pouch with a belt loop and with space for the flash foot.

Overall a very decent flash unit and well up to serious amateur level use. It's worth buying a couple of units so that the full potential of a master-slave lighting set up can be utilised. 

A series of images taken with the flash using an ettl extension cord and with the flash set in the ETTL mode held at 45 degrees to the subject and above it to simulate sunlight.