The Practical Stocking

And its stuffing. A final guide to Christmas surprises. Many things are Christmas surprises. People buy garments on-line that they would be ashamed to put on their washing line. People buy tiny puppies without looking at the size of their feet and are surprised six months later at what runs through the house knocking over furniture. Family dinners can resemble something from either Dickens or Machiavelli. You just never know. If you would make your holiday giving into happy surprises look for odd things that are helpful. Here are three to consider: a. Lume Cubes. Mount these on your mirrorless camera, vlogging camera, or smartphone for a quick and easy solution to lighting. I have one on a stalk that sits to the side of my X -T2 when I record video - it's not the main light for anything but it is a great catchlight for eyes and a good way to pump enough light out for the autofocus mechanism to work. You can get filters, diffusers, and other accessories and the battery life is stupendous - I can do a whole dance show on one charge. And it makes a good small spotlight for miniature scenes. b. Red Whips Settle down in the back, there. The profusion of cables everywhere in our studios, camera bags, houses, and businesses is bound one day to either trip or strangle us. I can only imagine what it must be like in the hi-fi trade. The answer is to take charge and either make every blessed connection wireless or bundle up the wretched things with something like the Red Whip. Elastic, adjustable, and re-usable. these are the easy Christmas answer to the back of the computer desk or the lighting trolley. c. Fujinon 200mm f:2 lens A must-have for every Fujifilm X-mount user out there, the 200mm f:2 has the sort of performance that you think is lies when other people tell you about it. I suspected this until I clapped it to the front of the studio X-T2 and stepped out into Stirling Street. After I saw the results I was tempted to run away with it, but the staff are younger than I am and more suspicious. They made me hand it back.