Rodney Campbell's Blog

First a quick summary – in short – at this stage don’t bother…

The WU-1b wirelessly connects your camera to iOS and Android devices. With this adapter, you can transfer photos directly to your smartphone and tablet or turn it into your camera’s remote control.

Currently this adapter supports the D600, Nikon 1 V2, Nikon 1 J3 and Nikon 1 S1 cameras. There is also a WU-1a adapter which currently supports the D3200 and D5200 cameras.

The key features of this device are:

– Easy Transfer: Images from the camera can be downloaded to a compatible smart device as they are taken, or existing images can be downloaded from the camera’s SD memory card.

– Wi-Fi Shooting: Images can be taken remotely using a compatible smart device using the camera’s Live View preview on the smart device to frame and compose the subject.
Note: Smart device is used to remotely fire the camera, maximum distance is up to 20m and the smart device can’t be used to adjust settings on the camera

The way it works is that the adapter creates an ah-hoc wireless network and you install an app (Nikon supplies the free WMAU app in the app store) which then connects to your adapter and controls your camera.

Pro’s:
– the adapter is surprisingly small – much smaller than I was expecting it to be
– relatively cheap – I purchased mine from B&H for under $60 (not including delivery – I was already buying other stuff)

Con’s:
– it’s flaky – it’s probably not the adapter but rather the software is flaky – it disconnects whenever it feels like it – which is often – this isn’t just limited to the IOS version I use but a friend also has one and gets the same result on Android. I hope it’s just the software and this gets fixed in future because this basically makes the device very unreliable and thus unusable
– it’s limited – I knew this to begin with but it would be nice (since the device plugs into the USB port on the camera instead of the remote trigger input) if it also supported other features like:
– intervalometer
– adjusting camera settings – Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, WB, Metering, Focus Modes, Bracketing, etc
– exposure bracketing (virtually unlimited steps, stops, etc)
– control focus for focus stacking
– movie recording
– I guess it might be technically possible for third party apps in future to implement some or all of the above – I hope so

Didn’t have to go far for this one – taken out my bedroom window with the bigstopper ten stop ND and heliopan CPL on the 70-200.

We had some nice colour in the sky (clouds) and they were moving nicely so I figured we’d try a long exposure – in this case 300 seconds (5 minutes) – I had to bump the ISO to 400 so I didn’t have have to wait too long (20 minutes). Taken just as the sun was setting so I’d get some nice reflections in the glass.

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Over the weekend my wife participated in the Sydney Coastrek 50-100km Team Challenge in aid of the Fred Hollows Foundation.

My wife walked the 50km Night Event which involves a walk throughout the night from Balmoral Beach to Coogee via the Sydney coastline and harbour foreshore, starting at 6PM at Balmoral and her team finished just around 7AM the next morning.

I must firstly say how very proud I am of her entering and finishing this grueling challenge (but don’t tell her that :)) – especially for someone who’s never participated in sport, etc. They had pretty wild weather here in Sydney over the weekend so it rained fairly extensively for much of their time out and they had ferocious ocean winds for their trip along the southern coastline from South head down to Coogee. I’m really pleased she worked so hard and persevered to the end – even if they were literally completely wrecked by the finish.

I was picking the team up from the finish of the walk at Coogee and since I was getting up at 4AM and going to be there before sunrise I figured I might as well take my camera gear just in case – you know how it is :)… It was a wet and windy morning and the sky was thick with grey cloud so there was no actual sunrise to speak of and no colour in the sky but since this ocean pool was a mere 50 metres from the finishing area I figured I’d try a few quick compositions whilst I was waiting for them to arrive.

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

This one was taken at 6:20AM from the top of the steps leading down to the pool looking South along the coast with Coogee beach there on the left

Blue Dawn

The morning was pea soup grey muck so since the images were all fairly monochromatic anyway I’ve taken it the whole way… 6:50AM and just after the supposed sunrise…

Coogee in Grey

and here is what the finishing line looked like earlier when I first arrived (around 6AM) and I was doing a little setup testing to try and balance ambient sky with the flash. When I found out my wifes team wasn’t going to arrive for a while I decided to see what was in the area – and found the pool…

Finally Coastrek participants are raising money to support the Fred Hollows Foundation in their work to restore sight to the needlessly blind (right now, 4 out of 5 people who are blind in the developing world do not need to be). So if you’d like to support their work then you can of course still make a tax deductible donation to sponsor my wife on her sponsor page at: http://www.coastrekfundraising.com.au/louisecampbell

A day ago a friend tipped me off with a directed message to me of “So guess whose work I saw in a magazine today” followed up by a few questions on Light Painting.

It turns out a couple of my images along with an interview and other information has been published in an article on Shooting at Night in the March 2013 edition of the Australian Photography + Digital magazine.

For those who are interested you can take a look on pages 36 to 43 of the just released March 2013 edition. I even get a full page of one of my images (the first below – taken at middle harbour fort) and the large full double page middle spread of another (the second at Bondi sculptures by the sea).

I was originally contacted by the editor and writer many months ago (Sep 2012) after they’d seen some of my light painting images and they asked if I’d be interested in being involved in an article including some of my images. I didn’t exactly know what was involved but I supplied specific shooting and other information on about half a dozen of my images along with doing an interview over the phone with some follow up questionnaires via email.

I’m pretty chuffed to see my work and information published (in print) – and my children appeared to be pretty excited to see it 🙂

Burning Man

NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 12 mm, 205 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200
Middle Head Fort, NSW, Australia
Light Painting Stravaganza @ Middle Head Fort – Part I

(I note that for the above image – in the magazine they actually print the shooting data and information from one of the other completely different images I’d supplied :))

The Tap

NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 15 mm, 60 sec at f/9, ISO 100
Bondi Sculptures by the Sea
Light Painting Sculptures by the Sea at Night