Reviews Archives - Craig Rogers Photography

How I Use The Merlin Bird ID App In The Field (Video)

27th October 201913th February 2022Craig Rogers

I have been wanting to create this video for a while. I often get asked to recommend an ID book for bird life of Portugal and I always ask, “Do you have a smartphone?”. Of course, often the answer is yes and my reply is to download the amazing Merlin Bird ID app by The Cornell Lab.

This app is totally free and very powerful, its Photo ID feature really sets it apart from other Bird ID apps. There are other apps I use, particularly the locally developed FollowBirds App which I will hopefully be reviewing soon.

This video is a bit long but worth the watch if you are interested in identifying bird species using its fantastic Photo ID Feature.

The app is available for both Android and IOS and can be downloaded from the links below;

Android

Apple

In case you are wondering, no, I am not being paid by The Cornell Lab or anyone else for this video, I just wanted to share how great it is.

{Remember to watch in HD if possible}

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Review of “Exposure Calculator” App for Android by Quicosoft (Video)

7th August 201724th January 2018Craig Rogers

There are plenty of resources to calculate changes to the Exposure Triangle and as a photographer you really should be able to work them out in your head. However, sometimes it’s easier to cheat when out shooting so that you can concentrate more on getting those shots than working out exposure times.

As I’m about to try my hand at Moonlit Night Landscapes, a new thing for me, I wanted to be able to take test shots to check for lighting conditions. Moonlit photography can demand very long exposure times at base ISO (the lowest your camera will go without any extended ISOs) which means getting the exposure correct means less time standing out in the dark.

Adobe Lightroom Mobile 2.0 for Android Review

2nd March 20163rd March 2016Craig Rogers

Crop Tool with Auto Straight — Lightroom Mobile 2.0 (Android)

Adobe’s Lightroom Mobile has been around for sometime now and gave photographers the ability to syncronise their Lightroom edits on their PC or Mac to the Adobe Cloud and then continue to edit them a mobile device through a Smart Preview file rather than the original RAW.

Personally, I have never had the need to use this although can see it as a useful tool for some photographers.

Now, Adobe have released version 2.0 on the Android platform which allows you to edit your RAW files (DNG format) captured on your Android device (providing the camera is capable of capturing RAW files).

Adobe Lightroom Mobile 2.0 is completely free, you don’t require a CC subscription to use it. The only function that you need a subscription is to synchronise photos back through Adobe’s Cloud to your desktop version. If all you want to do is take a photo and make some edits and share them, it’s totally free. I think you have to sign up for an Adobe ID, but there is no charge.

You can get the app on Google Play. At time of writing, this new feature is not available on the IOS platform due to what I believe to be Apple restrictions.

REVIEW: Outdoor Photography Gear Lens Covers

17th October 201523rd March 2016Craig Rogers

Lenses can be an expensive outlay that luckily, in most instances, return value when you come to sell them on and therefore are investments that need looking after. In my case, I not only wanted to protect my lenses but also blend in with the environment when photographing wildlife.

I trawled the internet and stumbled across Outdoor Photography Gear Ltd at www.outdoorphotographygear.co.uk and thought that their prices were very reasonable and so I bought my first lens cover for my newly acquired Nikon 300mm f/2.8 lens.

If all you want to know is what I think of them, since that purchase quite a few months ago, I now have 6 different lens covers! I think that sums it up!

Outdoor Photography Gear Ltd have many different lens covers available for many different manufacturers, they also offer various different camouflage and non-camouflage patterns. Just for the balance of my review, I have no connection with Outdoor Photography Gear Ltd and these are simply just my findings.

The photo below shows my lenses and teleconverters with their covers fitted. As a complete coincidence, I recently purchased a 2nd hand Nikon 500mm f/4 VR lens and it came with an Outdoor Photography Gear lens cover already fitted.

{Click any image for a higher resolution}

Left to Right, Back to Front

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/4G ED VR
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm F/2.8 ED VRII
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm F/2.8 ED VRII
Nikon Nikkor TC-17E II – 1.7x
Nikon Nikkor TC-20E III – 2.0x

UPDATE: I now also have a cover for my Nikon Nikkor TC-14E III

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Cheap As Chips Remote

7th October 20159th October 2017Craig Rogers

MC-30? (Tiny lens? Yes, it was a quick shot and the camera hasn't a lens fitted) — MC-30? (Tiny lens? Yes, it was a quick shot and the camera hasn’t a lens fitted)

For a while I’ve been meaning to get a cable remote for my D810, something simple that I just connect to the 10-pin socket on the front and just has a shutter button. I already have a Hahnel Giga T Pro II Wireless Remote that can also be used as a wired remote but not only does it need a battery but also switches off after 1 minute of not being used, hence the need for something simple.

Just a cable and a button.

Nikon offer the MC-30A which is exactly that, a 10-pin socket, 80cm of cable and a button. Perfect you might think? Well, not at almost £70 it isn’t.

There was no way I was going to pay £70 for something I could probably make myself for a few quid.

Then I stumbled on Ebay and come across something called the “Shoot Remote Switch MC-30”, yep, the Chinese didn’t even come up with their own model number. Guess what, although it actual unit is a different design, it’s essentially a 10-pin socket, 80cm of cable and a button. It even has a trigger lock just like the original.

Half the price you might think? Try less than £3!!!! Yes, £2.97 with free postage. It was in the UK too and took 2 days to be delivered.

I’ve only had a quick test and it’s actually nice, the button is two stage (half press focus) and has quite nice feedback with a firm spring.

Could it let you down? Who knows, only time will tell and I’m not expecting it to still be working after 30 years (or even 30 months). I’ll only be using it when I need to have the camera very steady on a tripod, night sky shots for instance, so if it mis-fires, it’s not the end of the world. To be honest, at the price, I could always carry 20 spares and it would still cost less than the Nikon trigger.

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