The readers of our PiercingMetal Musings Product Reviews might remember that I discussed the “Urban Disguise 30” in this area several months ago and for those that don’t – it was a product review of a very stylish photography equipment carry bag that came courtesy of the folks over at Think Tank Photo. The bag was perfect for those photographers who had the bare essentials in terms of the gear they were trekking around with and towards the tail end of the product dialogue I mused aloud about how if you were one of those who carried a lot more stuff than someone like me did – that perhaps you needed to look into a different type of bag to serve your purposes. Now while I cannot take credit for instilling the ideas in the company’s head about this additional spacing thought it does seem that the timing was rather fortuitous as they deliver what they call “The Streetwalker Hard Drive” backpack to the consumer. I got my eager editorial hands on one of these backpacks recently and dug into it to see just how it would work out for those of you who had read my Urban Disguise 30 piece and crossed their fingers about something just a wee bit larger for your use. Let’s get down to business shall we…..”The “StreetWalker Backpack” is exactly what it sounds like and is a line of sturdy, school bag type carry all of your gear holder and depending on which model you opt to purchase offers up varying sized spaces inside for you to bring your business of photography out into the world. The model that I am reviewing is called the “Streetwalker Hard Drive” because it is large enough to fit a 15” laptop in one of its pouches and offers said device sufficient protection. Below you will find a graphic of the whole bag and see how the laptop fits snugly inside.
Continue reading “The Streetwalker Hard Drive” by Think Tank Photo →
If you are like most of the photographers that I know, you are probably always wondering how you can best care for your memory cards, business cards and some of those other small accessories that you wander around with in the field. With that being said, those fine folks over at Think Tank Photo have offered up a handy little wallet type folding holder that they call the Pixel Pocket Rocket. Here are a couple of photos of the thing and as you see it looks rather nice when folded up as well as being rather spacious for the cards when you open it up to see how they are stored.
If you are like me, you might not actually have ten memory cards on your person when you do your photography adventures so you will most likely try to see what other kind of things can be stored in the PPR. There is room for some business cards, but not more than about 20 of them. I like carrying a lot of those around with me since I have a website to sell, but you might only need the 20 with you. I would have liked to see a spot where I could place a couple of dollars for those quick instances where I need a buck or two and didn’t want to dig my wallet out of the jacket but there was no such a space. You can fold a bill in a couple of halves and store them like that if you are on the creative side and while its not as precise as I would have liked, I do keep the extra battery for my point and shoot in one of the sleeves. The whole thing closes with a velcro strip and its about 3.5″ inches long and a little over 2 inches wide.
Continue reading “The Pixel Pocket Rocket” by Think Tank Photo →
Last Summer I purchased my friend’s Creative Zen Vision M music player as he had chosen to get something much smaller and not as cumbersome as he felt this particular player was (it’s no worse than the size of the I-pod but he can be rather fussy at times). I think he went with a smaller Creative Labs device in the end and since I didn’t really have a player of my own yet I was totally interested in it. The size was 30GB and while smaller than the newest I-Pod I was one of those consumers who wanted to give the other guys a chance (plus he had not cleared off all of his music before giving it to me which was cool since he had a number of albums that I didn’t own on CD to upload myself). I was happily rolling along with said device and even did the proper tech guy stuff of updating its firmware and making sure everything it needed to be a cool addition to my arsenal was put into place. Better categories and stuff along those lines but after several months the device started to grow tired of me and chose to run off with the thief who rifled through my bag while covering an event. Believe it or not, this wasn’t even a Metal show, but something a little higher brow, and that’s where the friggin’ thing gets lifted from me. “Bah” is all that I have to say about that occurrence. Of course this began the craving for a new device because I was now officially addicted to having a music player on me so while I had debated upon an I-pod I found the price of the one I wanted to be too pricey. Creative Labs had a newer Vision M which was 60GB but it was around the same price as that I-Pod I just mentioned which was far bigger – alas what to do and what to choose was beginning to drive me crazy. Then it hit me – a few members of my PiercingLegions were using Microsoft Zune’s and while they were the initial run of the device, they had said that the really liked the difference and it also made them feel good since they were so anti I-pod. Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti I-Pod at all, and rather like the ones that my friends have but I tended to agree that perhaps I should continue the aspect of “giving the other guys a chance”. As luck would have it they now offered a device that was in my price range and also the newest model on the market. Having tried my friends 30 gigabyte Zune I was immediately impressed at how much lighter this 80 gigabyte one was and I immediately ordered myself one via Amazon.com – I’ve provided a link below for you to do the same should the rest of this musing about the item fall in line with your own thoughts. Keep reading to find out what I liked and didn’t like about it.
Continue reading Microsoft’s “Zune” Media Player Is “Zune-tastic” →
Let’s face it – when you are a photographer or even just someone who likes to take pictures, you often need to carry around a whole bunch of stuff to do it properly. The amount of said gear is generally based on the level of professional that you actually are in the larger scheme of things. However, whether you are working for Rolling Stone, The Daily News or just capturing the family memories there is something that we all have in common – our carry cases often scream very loudly “hello everyone, please be aware that there is expensive equipment in here”. Having to worry about your gear’s safety while you travel should not be something that risks you carrying it around or even worse something that gets in the way of a perfect shot because you are all stressed out.
With this in mind the talented folks over at Think Tank Photo have fashioned a clandestine carry all that goes by the name “Urban Disguise” and I was able to get my hands on one of these bags so I could determine just how good it would be for the tasks at hand. The Urban Disguise comes in a number of different sizes which is a very good thing based on the fact that different photogs have many different needs. There are those who might have a lot of stuff to lug around like some of the super powered paparazzi that I see on a regular basis while others have only one or two things to bring along with them when they hit the Field. For a regular guy like me who currently only sports a camera body, a couple of different sized lenses and some accessories it seemed that the Urban Disguise 30 was going to do the trick just fine for my purposes. Here is a photo of the bag we are speaking of, so please absorb its sleek look and design before reading on.
Continue reading “The Urban Disguise 30” by Think Tank Photo →
Where Heavy Music & Pop Culture Collide
