Ralink 8188 USB wifi wireless adapter for Raspberry Pi Zero

I got it from ebay for 3.66$ but you can find it on amazon and many other sites under various names. I needed it for my Raspberry Pi Zero but I guess it can have other uses also. The only thing that shows how the price is cut down is that the USB connector is actually the same PCB as the rest of the device all the way to the antenna connector. Other than that the plastic looks good, the antenna seems decent.

What can I say about it? Pretty darn good at such a low price. Plugged it in the Pi and worked from the start. Sadly not the same happened when I tried it on a Windows 7 or 10 machine as the system couldn't find any driver for it and it didn't came with a CD from where I bought it.

Luckily after some head scratching I fixed this issue. Just googling Ralink 8188 for a driver didn't end up anything useful so instead I searched any driver that would fit the USB Hardware Ids that you can find in the Hardware Properties dialog for the device. So I found a TP-Link driver that was actually made for Ralink RT2870 but worked like a charm for 8188.

Didn't have the patience to do any range tests or any other tests but for this price.. if it works, it's great, if it doesn't, it's no wonder.

ebay "0R - 9999999R Seven Decade Programmable Resistor Board, Step 1R, 1/4W" review

To satisfy my need for a decade resistor box I was looking for something cheep and I came upon this project. The idea was nice and simple, exactly what I was looking for but the price was not so attractive, 19$ + shipping for a little PCB with resistors and jumpers is way to much.

Next step was a little search on ebay and in no time I found the Chinese equivalent of the same idea at around 10$ and free shipping, now we're talking. You can find it on amazon also but the price is considerably higher. Fast forward a few weeks and the package was waiting for me at the post office.

And the ratings state:
- 7 decades coverage with 1ohm, 10, 100, 1k, 10k, 100k, 1M stages
- 1% resistors tolerance. Planning to replace resistors if the need comes with 0.1% tolerance
- 1/4W power ratting
- 250V max voltage, like that would be the case..

It came bulletproof packed. First time I've seen such a great packing, overkill in this case but a nice touch none the less. The PCB work was nice and clean, came with the male 4mm banana plugs and a bunch of extra jumpers. Banana plugs are the cheap ones but good enough and the extra jumpers beats me what they are for because I don't find a use in connecting more resistors in parallel.

With this occasion I had the opportunity to put my newly acquired DER DE-5000 to work. Got it with TL-21 and TL-22 accessories as the TL-23 is overkill for most cases and easy to home make anyway. Plugged the TL-21 alligator adapter, did an open/short calibration and clipped it on the Decade resistor board's jacks with all jumpers set to 0. Total disappointment! 0.8ohms!! That's almost 1ohm, not quite what I had in mind in terms of 0 resistance.
 

Couldn't find any problems other than, of course, the jumpers. Fiddling with them turned out values from 0.5ohms all the way up to 4ohms which is quite a tragedy. Took a closer look at the jumpers and couldn't find an actual fault with them. The mechanical contact is quite good, there was no sign of oxidation.. that's just the way it is, nothing to do about it.

So what did I end up with? The cheapest programmable resistor with 6 actually useful decades. Not the kind of equipment you can calibrate stuff with but good enough in situations where you need to test and tweak stuff.

YongNuo YN-622C review

Well, this won't actually be a review because you can already find that here, and I highly recommend reading that first. I just thought coming up with some extras.

So, first things first, ordering and packaging. Of course you can find them from big suppliers like amazon but I got a pair from the official ebay store, payed 94$. I ordered them on 23 November 2012 and even though they appeared as shipped the very same day I received them on 15 January 2013. Almost lost hope for them but can't put any blame on the sellers, holidays were in between and a lot of bureaucracy.  Got a pleasant surprise right at the post office though, as the package was marked as a gift and priced for 30$, great for dealing with customs.

Packaging is quite remarkable. First, there's the bubble wrapped envelope. Inside is an "original" fancy cardboard box, inside it a blank one with just a "tips" label on it (read the manual, don't use the units on a high voltage flash, it's OK to torn off the protective film), then comes two individual bubble wrapped bags protecting the tranceivers and an user manual and even a quick start guide. Even more, when I opened the battery cover I found a silica gel bag used to protect from moisture. The mentioned protective films protect the focus assist lamp and the top surface of every unit. I admit, I'm very impressed with the level of care these guys put into such a cheap product and yet so feature rich.

Unfortunately the so called documentation is quite hard to read as english is definitely not an often spoken language at Yongnuo, an extra reason to read that link I was talking about in the beginning. But that's hardly a problem with the amount of online support these days. The real problem I found was the fact that the hot shoe connection to the camera is not properly aligned as both units were having a slight left twist when mounted. It's nothing major, it doesn't even affect the focus assist lamp's aiming, but it's there non the less, for reasons that I can't understand. I thought about opening up a transceiver to get a look at the insides but is seemed it needed more than just unscrewing the obvious 4 screws, and that "more" I could not find. That also killed my hope that the misalignment can be somehow fixed.

The focus assist lamp is implemented through a laser diffraction grating that gets the job done in most cases. The limitation comes from a narrow central spread of the pattern and that fact that at close focus distances that pattern doesn't even cover the center focus point but stays above it because of the lens/transceiver parallel axes. That's not quite a big issue as it can be fixed if using single spot focus moved somewhere inside the assist projection pattern.

When it comes to weight, one empty transceiver is 76g, adding a pair of enloop 2400mAh got the scale at 136g. The enloops are quite an overkill for the task and regular batteries of cheaper rechargeables will do just fine and cut the weight a little. A nice surprise came from the battery compartment. Instead of the classical design where a spring is mounted at each end, here the springs rest inside the unit and metal pads at the insert/extract side. This makes the use much quicker and easier even though adds for a little attention to look at the battery marking.

But all this aside, what about using them? Well.. it can be as transparent as using a normal optically remote Canon flash or as complicated as other radio TX/RX offers with little buttons, lights and combinations. Point is.. it does it all, or the most of it at least. Am I happy with the purchase? Actually I'm waiting to get some money for another pair so I can use 2 off camera flashes.

Gitzo GT1544T review

Gitzo GT1544T .. a dream come true I may say. Since most of my photography is outdoors during mountaineering or biking and almost never with an assist car, going light weights heavy on my mind. Every gram counts and I went to great extents to keep it as light as possible. One thing that I enjoy doing after a day's walk is that awesome nightshot before going to bed, whether it's with the sparkling city lights down below of with the star light sky up above.

Most of the times you get by with the camera on a rock, an improvised support but that always limits your possibilities. I used for a long period of time a Joby GorillaPod  but that hardly qualifies as a tripod. It's rather a tripod head replacement as you need to sacrifice all it's height and length just to give the camera enough stability and the right orientation. So that keeps you and the camera stuck to ground level, hard to look down to the valley because of grass and other obstacles, hard to look up to the sky because of limited head space for image reviewing and setting adjustment. I did get a "full feature" tripod that was travel intended, the Giottos MT8350 but with a "full feature" Manfrotto 498RC2  head and the included carrying case it gets to a whopping 2.7 kg (6 lbs). That is way less than a serious studio setup but it's far from my "going light" philosophy which means thinking for minutes before deciding to take it with me on a trip. That doesn't mean that I didn't use it, and that tripod saw from high snowy peaks to deep dark caves, but on each trip I felt it weighting heavy on my back.

Now comes our article's subject, with a black friday 30% off deal that I couldn't refuse. Saw it before in the stores but didn't dare to dream about it, even so it was a deep hole in my pockets but I really think it's worth it. Strangely enough there aren't a lot of places on the net that talk about this wonder so I decided to add my personal take.

Nothing much to be said about the box, quality cardboard, black with a slick Gitzo writing and a label attached on one end. I knew the tripod wasn't supplied with a carrying case so I ordered the separate case but I was pleasantly surprised to find inside more of a storage paper-textile-something bag. It's also just perfect when you carry the tripod inside the back pack, a suitcase or stuff like that. It's nice that if you put the tripod in the dedicated case it will still fit in the included "light" case.

Some weight figures:
- legs only: 795 g
- short metal column: 100 g, carbon tube: 95 g, complete column: 195 g
- "light" case: 25 g
- dedicated case (GC1201T): 375 g

Preferred to give numbers like this because there are multiple combinations possible.  Wanna go light? With legs, the short metal column and the "light" case you have a 0.92 kg tripod.

If I took the extra step to get the Gitzo legs, didn't feel like paying the price for a Gitzo head as I couldn't see the difference in product value so I choose the way cheaper Manfrotto 494RC2 head. With a light head to match the legs like this, you end up with a 1.24 kg (2.73 lbs ) complete tripod, ready to hold 4 kg (8 lbs ). Switching to the complete tripod with head attached and the dedicated case you get to 1.68 kg (3.7 lbs ), still way better than my old setup at 2.7 kg (6 lbs). One drawback is that when folded, the head doesn't fit perfectly between the legs and one of the legs flexes a little around the head which is not quite ideal.

You can see bellow the short metal column, separate and mounted on the legs. The top black metal "cap" holds a reversible two headed screw with 1/4 and 3/8 thread so it can connect either directly to a camera, or to a tripod head. The sideway allen key screw is used to fix the metal cap on the carbon tube when used in full column assembly. In the bottom part, there's a rubber ring that keeps the legs from scratching against the metal parts. There's also a spring loaded hook that can be used to hang stabilizing weights.

Next is the full column assembly, top and bottom view.

Next lets talk a little about the separate dedicated carrying case for his tripod.

The Gitzo GC1201T  bag is quite a tight fit. I tried it in the store with a GT1542T (which is an older revision of the same tripod) and I had a hard time fitting it in because of the slightly longer center column. Even with the GT1544T with the Manfrotto head attached the bag is used fully in terms of length and interior diameter. Actually the zipper rests directly on the tripod at the head side which is not ideal.

For further Gitzo's carry case compatibility with Traveler series tripods I also recommend a look at http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=538298&page=46.

So what does is all come down to? Well, lots of nice long exposure shots in the field with a small and light package. Of course it won't hold the heaviest equipment in the worst conditions but it doesn't have to, it's enough to fulfill the other 90% of field scenarios. Below as a test of pushing things to the limit I used the tripod fully extended with a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS with 2x extender and a 60D body. I also tried a more robust setup with only 3 sections extended, column retracted but camera on portrait position, again with no problems.

That's about all folks!

Canon 5D mark III camera protectors

As I've recently said, camera protection is quite an important factor in nature photography and faith made it that I came across three variants of a camera protector cover for Canon 5D mark III.

At first I was only confronted with two models: EasyCover and Delkin Snug-It . Did the comparison directly in the store and chose Delkin as it showed a touch more refinance with the finishing touches of the moulted cover. I was quite intrigued that my store had two models equally priced for the exact same thing as there are no other differences besides the already mentioned finishing touches.

Then came the third model which is a Walimex pro. Again, no differences with the other two. Strange though was the fact that this also had the EasyCover logo, but the first didn't have the Walimex trademark.

In the pictures bellow is the Delkin variant.

Impressions about it? Well, it's a little bit different from what I had on my old 7D as they don't seem to come from the same manufacturer. The rubber material is quite the same, difference is that time put it's mark on the 7D cover and it appears the material is not homogeneous but rather has a subtle coating that rubs off in time. Other than that, the grip area for the fingers is differently shaped, the buttons have a different shape but can't say one design has an edge over the other.

Bottom line, no matter what you choose for a Canon 5D mark III, there are big chances that you will end up with the same product. All that matters would be to search for the best price.

Multifunction Electronic Hanging Scale review

Every house should have one around because you never know when the question comes and you desperately need to know how much that thing weighs :) But enough joking around, let's get to more serious stuff.

Thought I made a bargain when I got this out from hobbyking.com for almost 13$ but it turns out you can always find cheaper, amazon has it for 9.44$.

Even so it's pretty OK for the money spent. Came in a nice cardboard box filled with infos on it and marketing all kinds of features which turn this product into a super-duper hanging scale. Ain't gonna duplicate those stuff here cause you can read them on any other site or even in my pictures. It even has a leaflet inside with instructions, not to mention the statement of a patent number for this product which is quite something if true.

Moving on, inside the box there is the storage pouch, nothing out of the ordinary but very practical for safe keeping of the scale and accessories. And when I say accessories I'm talking about a bundled strap used to help hang the weights, and maybe the batteries as the unit has no On/Off switch and I don't fancy the stand-by function for a device used very-very rarely.

So, what about the actual scale? Well, as I've said, not bad if you ask me. The built quality is so-so as expected but it has no problems reaching it's specifications in terms of accuracy and top scale. For casual use, it's only good for the weight scale, the ruler, temperature and included calculator. If you are a frequent user in sales maybe you could also appreciate the back lit display and the integrated watch.