Review: Cold Shoe Handle Grip

Full name: LED Flash Light Cold Shoe + 1/4" Screw Mount Handle Grip - Black
Webshop: DX.com (Deal Extreme)
Price: $7.30 (Free shipping)

Good, solid, plastic handle grip for mics, lights and other equipment.

Pros:
This one seems to be pretty solid. Plastic, of course, but anyway. Perfect for holdning a mic, flash, a LED light or something like that. It also has a nice 1/4" screw mount underneath the handle to attach it to a tripod or other equipment.

Cons:
Don't know if it's a con, but the handle is pretty big, bigger than expected. Meaning you don't get a really good grip around it unless you have huge hands. I would also have loved it if it had some kind of rubber on it.

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Review: Medium Size Digital SLR Camera Rain Cover

Full name: Medium Size Digital SLR Camera Rain Cover - Black
Webshop: DX.com (Deal Extreme)
Price: $15.00 (Free shipping)

Affordable, pretty good quality rain cover for your camera. This was tested with a fully extended Tamron 18-270mm lens so in other words it is pretty big and can take some fairly long lenses. Well worth the money, for this price you could buy 4 of them and still pay less than an expensive brand rain cover.

Pros:
Very good price. Quality seems OK. Some of the seams feels a bit cheap, but then again they are doubled and should work just fine. Very lightweight and pretty big. I could use a fully extended Tamron 18-270mm on my Canon 60D without any problem.

Cons:
Some cheapish seams and the velcro isn't of the best quality. No problems so far, but I can just feel that the velcro will weaken sooner or later.



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Review: Canon ES-62 II Lens Hood for EF 50MM F/1.8II Lens

Webshop: DX.com (Deal Extreme)
Price: $3.70 (Free shipping)

Another cheap, but functional replacement lens hood, this one is designed for the Canon EF 50MM F/1.8II Lens.

Pros:
At only a fraction of the price of an original this one is great. It does the job, is easy to use and looks OK. It looks pretty much like same plastic as the lens, it has the same matt finish and an even more matt surface inside the outer ring.

Cons:
Maybe the plastic isn't of the same quality as the original, but it seems pretty good anyway.

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Review: Lens Hood for Canon EF-S

Webshop: DX.com (Deal Extreme)
Price: $3.80 (Free shipping)

Nice and affordable replacement for the original lens hood.

This one is designed for the following Canon lenses:

• 28-135mm f/3.5-4.5
• 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
• 28-90mm f4-5.6
• 28-80mm f/3.5~5.6

Pros:
This is a cheap replacement for the original and it does the job it should do. The outer finish is pretty much the same as on the Canon EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5 - 5.6 IS lens.

Cons:The plastic feels a bit cheaper than on the original, but what would you expect at a price like this. The inner part of the hood has a rugged finish, to keep the light from reflecting into the lens, but this finish seems a bit too shiny anyway. Not that I've seen any problems so far, but then again I haven't really put it to test either.

If the inner finish should happened to be too shiny it would easily be fixed with a quick round with some sand paper.

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Review: Hot Shoe Bubble Spirit Level

Full name: Resin Hot Shoe Bubble Spirit Level for DSLR/SLR Cameras
Webshop: DX.com (Deal Extreme)
Price: $2.04 (Free shipping)


Fairly useful tool for your DSLR camera. It was more than just for fun, since it worked pretty good, but I don't know if it will be used that much since I often use my hotshoe for other equipment.

Pros:
It is cheap so I bought this one mostly for fun, but after I got it I saw that it wasn't as bad as expected. I haven't tested it against a real spirit level, but when tested with the one in my camera it seems to do the job well.

Cons:
Not many cons, but it may be a bit too good of a fit into my hotshoe (Canon 60D). What I mean is that it can be a bit hard putting it on and getting it off again - it's pretty tight, but I guess that can be a good thing as well.

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Review: Crab Clamp Magic Arm Clamp for Camera Camcorder

Full name: Crab Clamp Magic Arm Clamp for Camera Camcorder - Black (S-Size)
Webshop: DX.com (Deal Extreme)
Price: $15.00 (Free shipping)

Great and very useful tool. When you need it, but don't have it, you will regret not buying one or two of these (I think I have to get me a couple more of these).

Pros:
This one I loved, it feels great, it is very useful and it even looks great. It has a matt black finish combined with a brushed steel kind of finish. The quality seems to be very good and to have both the 3/8" and the 1/4" attachment holes just makes it even more useful.

Cons:
No cons so far, maybe it's a bit small, but then again maybe not

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Review: Aluminum Alloy Mount Clamp for Camera Camcorder

Full name: Aluminum Alloy Mount Clamp for Camera Camcorder - Black (Big-Size)
Webshop: DX.com (Deal Extreme)
Price: $13.90 (Free shipping)

This is a good clamp for a good price. It's tight and sturdy and my guess is it will hold up for å long, long time.

Pros:
Here's another good clamp. A very useful tool to have. I've tested and reviewed another one from F&V and this one seems to be of almost as good quality. It has both 3/8" and 1/4" attachment holes.

Cons:
Not many cons with this one. Maybe it looks a bit cheaper than the F&V one, it has bit shinier finish and a bit different build than the more expensive one, but it does the job.

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Review: EIRMAI Classic Canvas Fabric Shoulder Bag for DSLR

Full Name: EIRMAI EMB-SS05 Classic Canvas Fabric Shoulder Bag for DSLR - Green (Size M)
Webshop: DX.com (Deal Extreme)
Price: $52.10 (Free shipping)

Good shoulder bag with a boring color, but a great bag for all kinds of uses. This Eirmai bag is just about the same as the equivalent National Geographic NG Earth Explorer bag. There are only minor differences from an old NG-bag I have, but these differences could also be because this is a much newer bag.The equivalent NG Earth Explorer bag will cost about $20 more than this one, and both are made in China so it's a big chance they both have the same manufacturer.

Pros:
Apart from the color it looks great. The material is thick and sturdy, it fits a small/medium laptop in addition to a DSLR with some extra equipment. It has a waterproof cover for when it's really raining or snowing, but even without this it is pretty weather resistant. It also have good, padded protection for photo gear. And finally, it is cheaper than the NG Earth Explorer bag even though it is pretty much the same thing.

Cons:
Not many cons, but the color is boring. But that is easy to change with some fabric dye.

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Review: Swivel Clamp Holder Mount for Studio Backdrop Camera

Webshop: DX.com (Deal Extreme)
Price: $11.20 (Free shipping)

Another useful tool for a number of things. Great for a flash, a small light or a GoPro, or something like that, but I wouldn't use it for a DSLR or something equally heavy.

Pros:
It has a pretty good grip, more than expected. The ball head swivels when loosened so you can put the screw where you want / need it. The ball head is also screwed onto the handle with two screws so it should be pretty sturdy.

Cons:
The handle is a little bit too short, it should have been about a centimeter or two longer for easier handling. For some reason it smelled a bit funky :-) And it could have been a bit cheaper.

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Review: Universal Aluminum Alloy Straight Flash Bracket for Camera

Webshop: DX.com (Deal Extreme)
Price: $10.90 (Free shipping)


This one is a nice lightweight bracket for a number of different uses. It is a bit thicker than it need to be and this can be problem in some cases. Other than that the quality of all the of the parts seems to be good.

Pros:
Good quality aluminum so it is lightweight even though it is about 7mm thick. It has a nice matt black finish that seems to be able to take a punch without breaking up the finish. The two screws has 1/4" screw holes so you can attach other equipment underneath them. The middle part of the bracket has both 3/8" and 1/4" attachment holes.

Cons:
It is a bit thick (about 7mm) so it won't be easy to use just any screws if you're looking to attach things with other screws than those that came with it.

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Reviews of affordable film and photo equipment

Too often one will find that good quality film and photo gear is way too expensive and when seeing cheap gear one may think it's bad quality. So let's have a look at some of the low-priced gear found out there and see if it holds up.

Many people will say (or think) "Made in China" is a sign of poor quality, but the fact is that many, if not most, well known brands have their equipment made in China to keep cost down so you might as well find gear of equally good quality to a much lower price when surfing around the net.