Products For the Season-Of-Relativity - Part Two

A recent meme on Facebook asked the difference between in-laws and outlaws. Apparently outlaws are wanted... I hesitated to repeat this around home as I preferred my head on my shoulders. But it did serve to remind me that holiday periods are be a test of the Theory Of Relativity. Einstein first worked this out when he footled about with atoms and the speed of light. I have adjusted the mathematics to: The index of annoyance at a family party = number of in-laws x the amount of beer squared Works every blessed time. Don't laugh - next year they're coming to your house... But back to selling photo goods. This time it was small lights to help illuminate the rellies as they cavort in the darkness of the back yard. You may want to record them as still photos, videos, or evidence for the coroner - whatever you do can be brightened up with the Manfrotto LED light arrays that you see in today's column: a. The Pocket LED. This is truly pocket size and needs only one battery to power it. Standard hot-shoe mounting. and enough light off those diodes to make proper use of the high ISO capabilities of modern cameras. If your camera maker has cheaped out and not given you a pop-up flash on your new mirror-less camera, this is the sort of thing that can take the place for some applications. b. The Lumimuse 8. Oh the name...but past that, this is a pro-quality solution to adding LED light to the top of a modern camera. The power for this light panel is derived from a USB port on your computer - no changing batteries. It can be used as a solid fill or programmed to act as a flash. The box art shows the different apperances of the various configurations - the flash one hightlights the front planes of a face without illuminating the background very much - the solid light does the opposite. There will be a good deal of shutter speed upping and downing to achieve a balance...but that is what instant replay is all about. And a final though for those who think that LED spots are too dim to help: look up next time you're in the Stirling Street shop. Those strip lights are LED's. So are half the tail lights on big rigs on the highway and indeed in the ceiling of modern houses. Have a look at the modelling lamp on some portable studio flash rigs...or where the modelling lamp used to be...