Scout Images » CLS

New Computer…ENTER THE DRAGON

aim54x — Sat, 29 May 2010 07:05:41 +0000

I pulled an all nighter last night, but the reward was great. I am now writing this on my new AMD Dragon Platform, to add to the reward, this was the first time I had built a computer from the ground up (all the way from picking out the bits to putting it all together). I couldnt help but snap a few pics of the computer coming together.

Taken using Nikon D300 + Micro Nikkor AF-D 60mm f/2.8, lit by SB-600 and SB-800 using CLS.

The final spec is:

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 125 TDP
Noctua NH-U9B SE Cooler
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO /USB3
8GB OCZ Gold Low Voltage PC12800 DDR3 RAM
XFX ATi HD Radeon 5850 Black Edition
Seagate Barracuda 500GB HDD
Seagate Barracude 1.0TB HDD
Samsung SH-S223 SATA TruDirect DVD Burner
Corsair HX 850 Modular PSU
ANTEC Nine Hundred Case

Micro Nikkor AF 60mm f/2.8D meets XFX ATi Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition

aim54x — Tue, 25 May 2010 12:43:33 +0000

Despite not yet having found the time to go through the images that I took over the weekend (they are coming) I am going to introduce you all to my latest addition. So new to my arsenal that I have yet to have found the time to break out the light tent to shoot some product style images of this baby.

I am now the happy owner of a AF Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D. This lens is a welcome addition to the kit bag and will probably mean that my Sigma 180mm f/3.5 Macro will spend even less time out and about, but it will mean I now have another, lighter, macro solution.

Another piece of news to be shared is that I am in the process of upgrading my main computer. My venerable AMD Athlon X2 4200+ system is about to turn 5 and is starting to show its age, so it’s successor is in the process of being built. What will it be? For all those nerds out there:

AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition 3.4GHz 125TDP
Noctua NH-U9 CPU Cooler
ASUS M4A89GTD Pro USB3
8GB OCZ Gold Low Voltage DDR3 1600 RAM
XFX ATi Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition GPU
Antec Nine Hundred case
Corsair HX 850 PSU

This DRAGON system has proven to be hard to assemble with parts trickling in (still waiting on that Noctua) but I couldn’t help but to unbox the XFX. So here are some of the first shots from this lens (mounted on my D300, lighting provided by SB-800 and SB-600 using CLS).

Smoke Trails

aim54x — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:14:02 +0000

I spent the day with a friend trying our hand at capturing smoke trails, finally settling on the combination of off camera flash (thanks Phottix Duo Cable + SB-400, my friend has a D60 so CLS was not really going to be useful for him) and a candle+match.

I used my Nikon D300 and Tamron SP 17-50mm f/2.8 for these photos with some photo editing done in Photoshop CS2 and Capture NX2.

Promised Pictures: AI 135mm f/2.8 and Tokina 10-17mm Fish Eye

aim54x — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:08:24 +0000

As mentioned before (here, here and here) I have finally gotten around to taking a few pictures of my new toys, the AI Nikkor 135mm f/2.8 and the Tokina AT-X DX 107 AF 10-17mm Fisheye. Since my Nikon D300 is away (yet again…refer here) so the Fuji S5 Pro has been pressed into service. The gear used?

75cm x 75cm x 75cm light tent (sorry I have to iron the backgrounds but couldnt be bothered this morning)
SB-800 and SB-600 (at 45 deg to light the light tent, controlled using CLS)
Sigma 180mm macro, Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8, Tamron SP 17-50mm f/2.8

I got carried away and did some more images of my other lenses as well.

REVIEW: Nikon SB-400: good things come in small packages

aim54x — Sun, 24 May 2009 04:25:46 +0000

The SB-400 is the baby of Nikon’s speedlight line up, designed to be cheap, compact, light and easy to use. Lacking CLS (Creative Lighting System) compatibility, restricted manual controls, zoom and only tilting in one direction, a lot of people overlook this diminutive flash in preference for the large and more versatile SB-600, SB-800 and SB-900, and this is not an entirely bad move to make. BUT the SB-400 should not be written off as a flash that was designed to hit a price point, as it caters for a very important target market, who would really benefit from this flash if they considered it for what is does….more