The Gumball 3000 is a 3,000 mile race from London to Istanbul that hits 10 countries along the way. It’s been described as the Tour de France, only with cars. And it was covered this year, in high style, with the use of some top notch gear from Rotolight!

The $200 million international car rally features some of the sexiest and most expensive cars on the planet (think: Bugatti Veyron, Lamborghini and Ferrari.)

Rotolight was on the scene to capture all the action – from driver interviews and shots of the rally itself – and keep the world in the loop via Facebook, Twitter & YouTube.

The Rotolights were used in conjunction with the the Canon 5D MKII as well as the OWLE Bubo, an innovative camera mount that adds a wide angle lens and stabilization mount to an iPhone 4.

Check out some of the shots for yourself!

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Oh, sure you can manually scroll around looking for certain photos… but wouldn’t it be nice to put that all that metadata & EXIF info to use?

Well, now you can with this cool new app for your Apple iPad and iPad2.  Sort Shots is the easiest way to sort, sequence and share your photographs on your Apple iPad.

The app uses keywords & tags added to your photographs using any number of popular photo software packages  to find your photos on your iPad.  You can also add tags to your photos via your iPad & Sort Shots – just create custom tags within Sort Shots  and add the tags to your images.  The tags are then added to your photo’s EXIF/metadata, so when you export your images back to your computer, the tags will appear without any additional work.

Once tags are imported with your images or added in Sort Shots, you can find all of your photographs associated with a specific word with just a single tap.  Too many results? You can add additional sort criteria to reduce the results (tags, type, favorite or rating).

Sort Shots also lets you rate your images with a one to five star by tapping on the rating OR note it as a favorite by tapping on the heart symbol.

Don’t like the order in which your images appear? Rearrange to any order you like by using a drag n ‘drop motion.  You can save the sort/sequence for easy retrieval or create an ‘on-the-fly’ photo portfolio at any time.

Sort Shots also lets you incorporate your iTunes Library into its sideshow option that will play in full-screen mode with a constant display of photo file names.

And, since no photo app would be complete without a sharing component, Sort Shots lets you E-mail, assign to a contact, copy or share one or more images on Facebook, Twitter,  Flickr or Picasa.

We think it’s a pretty cool little app. And we want to know what you think of it, too.

So…

We’ve got a FREE PROMO CODE for the first 10 folks to leave a comment!

(be sure to provide an email or URL when you log in to comment, so we’ve got some way to contact you with your free code!)

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Philip Nash, a multi award-winning, world-renowned photographer & current winner of the prestigious  Beauty and Glamour Photographer of the Year Award  has posted a phenomenal preliminary review of the Rotolight Interview Kit.

Check it out HERE.

And check out this fantastic demo video shot last week at the Cinegear trade show in LA!

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See it at ProFusion 2011!

 
Brian Young, Product Manager for Video & Production Technology at Vistek Ltd., introduces the revolutionary new Super 35mm, interchangeable-lens NXCAM camcorder from Sony. In this video preview, Brian provides a detailed list of the new features found on this highly anticipated camcorder, as well as describing the benefits of this new feature set for both amateur and professional videographers.

The NEX-FS100 is the first prosumer camcorder to offer a full Super 35mm CMOS sensor. This sensor is complemented by Sony’s E-Mount interchangeable lens system. This system allows videographers to attach any of Sony’s NEX lenses or, through the use of adapters, lenses manufactured by Canon, Nikon, Carl Zeiss and others, to the camcorder. By attaching these photographic lenses, videographers can achieve the coveted shallow-depth-of-field look of Hollywood cinematographers. The FS100 records full 1920 x 1080/60p, AVCHD video at 28 Mbps. For the first time on a camcorder at this price level, the FS100 also features 1920 x 1080p Slow & Quick Motion which allows over- and under-cranking to be performed in-camera, producing high-definition slow- and fast-motion effects.

The FS100 employs a modular design. The viewfinder/diopter can be detached to reveal the 3.5” XtraFine LCD screen; the side grip can be detached to expose a mounting hole for mounting the camera vertically for portrait-style displays and digital signage; and there are numerous 1/4” and 3/8” mounting holes on both the top and bottom of the camera to accommodate any rigging system. The camcorder also features Memory Stick or SDHC/SDXC recording, dual XLR audio inputs, and an HDMI 4:2:2 uncompressed output.

The NEX-FS100 will be shipping in June and will also be available as part of Sony’s K kit, which includes their NEX 18-200mm 20x Zoom Lens.

See it at ProFusion 2011!

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Okay, not really.  But these wireless memory cards are incredibly awesome. They let you automatically share & backup your photos right from your camera!

Eye-Fi has created the first wireless memory car.  It looks, stores media, and fits into cameras just like a regular SDHC card. But the “magic” of the Eye-Fi card is its built-in Wi-Fi that effortlessly transfers photos and videos to your iPhone, iPad, Android device or computer. And, yes – there’s a free Android, iPhone & iPad app.

Upon setup, you simply specify which networks the Eye-Fi card uses to transfer your media. You can even add up to 32 networks for your card to use. Then, anytime your camera is within range of a specified network, your photos and videos will fly to your computer and to your favorite sharing site. You can use Direct Mode as well to directly transfer photos and videos from your camera to your iPhone, iPad or Android.

Eye-Fi cards are also compatible with thousands of camera models & even offer online sharing; you can upload to one of over 25 photo sharing, print, blogging or social networking websites (or even your own FTP server.) Online Sharing is included as a lifetime, unlimited service with all X2 cards.

Eye-Fi cards are available in the following formats:

• 4GB Connect X2
• 8GB Pro X2
• 8GB Mobile X2
• 4GB Geo X2
• 8GB Explore X2

 
Meet the Eye-Fi Connect X2:

 
And check out it’s Direct Mode:

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Stymied by Scheimpflug?

Don’t be! Photographic creativity can be at your fingertips with this fantastic lens from Phase One. So, if you’re intrigued by tilt/shift photography and looking to add some serious glass to your repertoire, have a closer look at this Schneider Kreuznach 120mm f/5.6 TS Aspherical lens.

Not only is it ideal for studio or creative photography where tilt/shift function is required, it’s German precision at its best; sharp, crisp quality from edge to edge. It provides 12mm shift, 8 degrees tilt, and 360 degrees rotation on two axes.

And, rumour has it that in June prices will be increasing by as much as 20%, so you might want to have a look at these now!

Check out photographer Adrian Weinbrecht as he explains why he is working with the Schneider Kreuznach lenses on the Phase One 645DF system.

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From now (May 9) until May 18, Vistek is offering a fantastic instant rebate on selected Drop It Modern Backgrounds.

Click on over to Vistek’s website and peruse the lineup… savings are up to $95!

You can also check out this fantastic Product Review for details, along with sample images, on Drop It Modern Backgrounds.

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Great question! And Jim Harmer at ImprovePhotography.com has a fantastic response.

In a nutshell, unless you’re formatting your memory card 10 times a day, it should last a lifetime. But we all know that there are exceptions to every rule. So have a look, for yourself, at what Jim has to say HERE.

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Recently while we were at WPPI in Las Vegas, we came across CRU Dataports booth. I found their hard drives and Raids to be some of the best quality that I’ve ever seen. CRU was kind enough to send me the below units to test, and I’m giving you my honest opinion on them. They’re now available at Vistek stores (click the titles to find them on our website.)

WIEBETECH

Tough Tech Duo

Includes 2 500GB 5400RPM Drives. This is a beautiful looking unit, made of aircraft-grade aluminum, with a bright blue LCD readout on its side panel. The Tough Tech Duo comes pre-formatted as Raid 1 (for backup) for Mac or Windows, with 2X 500 GB 2.5 5400RPM, drives from Hitachi. Raid 1 is 500GB, Raid 0 is 1TB. Remember if you use Raid 0 you’re going to need another drive for Backup. You can also buy the enclosures without any drives, and add whatever brand drives you prefer.

What’s in the box? Includes cables for E-SATA, USB and Fire-wire. When connected via USB or Fire-wire, this drive can be used as a bus powered device. Remember if you’re a laptop user, that this will drain your battery directly from your laptop. The box contains all the AC/adapters you’ll ever need, including a unique plug that is designed with power converters for worldwide use. Also included is a nice little stand, so you can leave it upright on your desk.

I connected this to my MacBook Pro and it was instantly recognized. What is unique about these units is how easily you can swap the drives out.

I cloned my start up drive, which was about 150GB, using Carbon Copy Cloner, via mycard-buss 34 slot, using an e-sata connection, and it took 2:09 minutes. Of course all this will be faster depending on what drives you drop in here. 7200 RPM, or SSD drives will speed things up quite a bit.

RTX400-QR

For a photographer, this is the ultimate drive enclosure. What separates it from other drives on the market is the rugged construction and ease-of-use in which you can swap drives in & out of the unit – 1 click and the drive slides right out the front. Wiebetech also makes these great storage cases to house spare drives (they look just like VHS storage boxes) and they all include labels so you can clearly mark what is on each drive.

I dropped 4 1 TB drives in the unit, and powered it up. It’s default setting is RAID 5, Which will give you 3TB of usable space. So… whats so magical about RAID 5? Well, if you’re a pro photographer or videographer, you will get a mix of speed and uncompromisable security. If one of your drives fails, your data is spread across all 4 drives; simply pull out the failed drive and it will automatically re-write the data to the new drive – no worries. You know the saying, “its not a question of if your drive will fail, but when”. I can attest to this fact with first hand experience.

Read more about RAID here.

The RTX 400-QR Gets 5 Stars in my book, and will happily sit on my desk. It can be setup for RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, and 10.

What’s in the box? You get the drive enclosure which is ESATA, USB, Fire-wire 400/800, a 2 year manufacturer’s warranty, power cable, software and instruction manual on CD. You will need to load the configuration software on your computer in order to setup the RAID. It took me about 10 minutes – from unpacking the box plugging it in to configuring the RAID – to set this up on my Macbook Pro.

RTX220-QR

This unit is a 2 Bay Raid which can be configured for RAID 1 or RAID 0 with a setup a little bit from the unit above. This one is configured by the control panel on the front of the unit. Very simply – you insert your drives and turn it on. It will ask you if you want to setup a raid. You hit the enter button, and away you go.

I setup using RAID 1, for backup purposes. I installed 2 1TB Drives, which formatted & gave me 999.15 MB. I then connected to my MacBook Pro, which had to be setup using Disk Utilities, so that my Mac would recognize the drive.

On a through put note: I transferred an 11.35 GB file from my Mac to the RTX220 via Firewire 800 and it took 5.07 min. and via E-Sata it took 3.38 min. E-Sata is definitely the way to go, if you have it available to you.

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It’s that time of year again: the NAB Show™ – the National Association of Broadcaster’s annual conference (April 9 – 14), where the newest and most exciting technologies are announced and showcased in front of the global media and entertainment professionals, alike.

And, when it comes to new imaging gear, Vistek is no stranger to that feeling of excitement that comes with all the new announcements. In fact, there are a couple that bear mentioning right away!

Panasonic’s AG-HPX250 handheld P2 Camcorder with AVC-Intra

Key Features:

• 10-bit, 4:2:2 1920 x 1080 AVC-Intra 100
• Variable Frame Rates in 1080p & 720p
• Wide 288 to 588mm 21x HD lens
• High-sensitivity  1/3′ 2.2 megapixel 3MOS Imager
• Multi camera operation with genlock/time code in

Read the full Press Release here.

Panasonic’s AG-AC160 AVCCAM Camcorder

Key Features:

• High-sensitivity  1/3′ 2.2 megapixel 3MOS Imager
• 21x zoom lens (wide 28mm to 588 mm) with 3 adjustable rings
• 12-hour HD recording on two 63GB SDXC in PH mode
• Professional XLR audio input
• PH, HA, HE, DV and a PM mode
• 720p low bit rate recording mode (less than 10Mbps)

Read the full Press Release here.

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