Wireless Flash Triggers
After having my eye on a set of Pocket Wizards for so long, I finally came to the sad conclusion that they were simply too far out of my price range considering the immediate use I would put them through. You see, whilst I'm an avid fan on off-camera flash, it is a relatively new area for me. It'd be similar to someone who thinks the photos they take with their point and shoot camera are so-so and then shelling out for the top of the line 1D Mark IV or similar.
So after messing around with camera cords (which provide ETTL, but simply aren't long enough) and getting rather frustrated, I finally went out and purchased a set of Cactus V4 Wireless Flash Triggers. Now, I'll get a review at a later date, but their quirks aside, the freedom from cords is fantastic! I've only a single flash setup, but it's so much more useful than having it stuck on the camera.
So my first day with them was spent chasing the dog and the cat around, both of whom became really tired of me after a while. Fun times and more to come!
Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines… If You Can.
It's been a while since work began on the CBR, but we got around to messing about with it some more.
After changing the forks out, we'd been trying to (unsuccessfully) start the engine. This meant one very drained (and then recharged) battery, lots of huffing and puffing as we pushed the bike around the garage and quite a bit of swearing and kicking as she failed to fire.
What we should have done was turn the fuel tap off during storage and drain the carbies when she was just sitting around. Unfortunately, in our sheer laziness we didn't, and it turns out we would've had to pull the carbies in order to drain them anyway as the drain screws for the centre two carbies face each other with no way to get a screwdriver in there. Lesson learnt.
So after several failed attempts at getting her to fire (and with a few backfires and the heavy smell of petrol in the garage), we pulled the tank, airbox and carbies to have a look at the jets. Blocked. Full of crap. I took my time with them. Sliders were a bit gunky, and it was apparent that no one had pulled the carbies in a long time.
What was perhaps worrying for me was the presence of a random hose which was connected to another random box (about the size of two matchboxes) and then went, well, nowhere. I looked at it wondering what the hell sort of purpose it could serve.
Turning the engine over a bit to get some vacuum to refill the carbies with fuel sent the battery almost to death, so cutting our losses, we push started it and on the second or third push, she finally coughed back to life. She's pulling a bit to the right, although that may be my imagination since there was no right rear set, and she's running a bit rough. A proper carb balance will need to be done eventually and an oil change is definitely required before she gets any higher revs.
After quite a few weeks, we've reached the next milestone in getting her back on the road. With a bit of care, hopefully that'll be soon!
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
Canon has released an announcement confirming the release of the rumoured EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM.
The new model has apparently improved optics, a reduced minimum focusing distance of 1.2m, improved magnification (0.21x) and updated Image Stabilisation, allowing a reduction in four stops in shutter speed. Further ergonomic improvements have been made to switches and the lens focusing ring and a small 20g reduction in weight has been achieved.
It is expected to be released in February 2010, but stock will most likely arrive about mid April 2010. RRP is yet to be determined.
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