Single Umbrella – 44”
Alien Bees B800
D100
70-200 AFS G VR F2.8 Nikkor

The PLM™ System is a modular light modifier system that can quickly be configured as a large, high-output parabolic reflector, as a wide-beam or narrow-beam softbox, or as a bounce or shoot-through umbrella.

The PLM™ System is available in 51-inch, 64-inch and 86-inch sizes, measured tip to tip across the top arc of the open umbrella.

The updated PLM™v.2 models offer both traditional umbrella-style mountingand faceplate speedring mounting for Paul C. Buff, Inc.™ and Elinchrom units. Opening like a traditional umbrella, the PLM™v.2 has a 7mm umbrella pole that allows it to be used with all Paul C. Buff, Inc.™ flash units and a wide range of flash units by other manufacturers (any models accepting umbrella poles up to 7mm in diameter). New in the version 2 model, we additionally offer faceplate mounting with the provided speedring cage assembly (available for Paul C. Buff, Inc.™ or Elinchrom users). This unique design allows exact centering of the umbrella for accurate aiming and optimal lighting quality. Both configurations – speedring and 7mm shaft – mount with zero protrusion from the back of the light.

Einstein™ E640 flash with 51" White PLM™ using Buff Speedring Assembly

Einstein™ E640 flash with 51" White PLM™ using Umbrella Rod

Note: ALL models of the PLM™ arrive with the umbrella pole for attachment. They additionally arrive with either a Paul C. Buff, Inc.™ speedring assembly or an Elinchrom speedring assembly. To use the PLM™ system with flash units by manufacturers other than Paul C. Buff, Inc.™ or Elinchrom (using the umbrella-style attachment), either the standard Paul C. Buff™ model or Elinchrom model may be purchased.

Silver PLM™

• silver 16-rib parabolic bounce umbrella
• silver inside / black outside
• projects a soft but narrow beam of light
• produces the light pattern and high output similar to a 40° reflector
• two to three f-stops more output than a typical softbox

(Very Slick FREE Application for IPad Users – I have played with it and thou it is not packed with features it’s a great start for iPad users)

Photoshop Express comes to iPad

from John Nack on Adobe by John Nack

What do you do after more than 10 million people download your iPhone app? Bring it to the iPad, of course!

Photoshop Express–formerly called Photoshop.com Mobile–has been updated for both iPhone and iPad.  In addition to stability & performance improvements, iPad-specific features include:

• Support for portrait and landscape orientations
• Redesigned Online, Edit, and Upload workflows
• Ability to work on multiple photos in sequence from within a single workflow
• Redesigned Organizer view with simplified album sharing
• Updated icons and visuals that make it easier to navigate and use the Editor
• Ability to upload to Photoshop.com and Facebook simultaneously

The update went live yesterday, but it contained a couple of bugs for which it got justifiably dinged.  The bugs are now fixed; sorry that they got past the team initially. (Thanks, Apple, for pushing out the update quickly.)

Plenty of cool additional enhancements are in the works, and your feedback is more than welcome.

The honest answer from me is that I have one and well I have had multiple issues with it over the past year plus I have had it.

I have the Drobo Pro – Actually won it in an online contest so I am not complaining but here is the list of issues both related and none related to the Drobo itself.

1. Tons of issues with getting iSCSI setup – when it finally worked after about 6 firmware and software / dashboard updates it does work well – but there were definitely growing pains early on with WIN XP especially – it’s much easier to use on WIN7 now.

2. It’s pretty loud – just take it into consideration – I know it has to be loud but if you are putting it in your room vs. an office it is a constant fan drone you will hear.

3. I had massive drive failure issues with Seagate – Not related to Drobo – I purchased 8 Seagate drives for it and basically all of them failed in the first month of operation – Seagate replaced them all but this was pretty scary and I am very lucky I setup the pro in double redundancy or I would have lost data.

4. Speed – Unlike some here the speed over iSCSI is actually good – it’s not like a local drive but it’s good.

5. Virus Scanning – Some virus scanning software will severely affect transfer rates – you can in some exclude the Drobo location – so if you are moving files the scanner will scan them and thus slow your transfer way down..

6. Cool Feature: If you are using Backblaze etc – it will look at this drive on iSCSI as just more local drives and back it all up – that said Backblaze can get a bit overwhelmed with this much data and can cause your system to run slow when it is producing file lists each day. If that happens call Backblaze… I had to re-upload all my data twice so far to backblaze because of issues locally with the config files.

7. Support – Support for Drobo is good – thou in the beginning it was not so good – the people are great but even they did not have answers to the questions I had – after some time we got the issues worked out thou.

Pretty sure I have many other things to add – Watch this post for other issues as I remember them – Sadly one of the issues of having a blog for me is so i can post things so I remember them. To do this thou you need to remember to actually post them in the first place!

It was time for a refresh and links to all the work I seem to have accumulated online in different places. If social networking was not so helpful I would love to place all this in one location. Seems that sometimes the internet and the industry is just impossible to keep everything updated.

Modo Pocket is the world’s smallest tripod, a result of Manfrotto’s sensitivity and years of experience in the world of photography. Modo Pocket gives a wide variety of solutions for the amateur photographer, providing an answer to the need to have stable, yet very versatile support whatever the situation may be.

http://www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/site/manfrotto/pid/16411

** This is the best mini tripod I have used… Great with the Canon G10 **