I'm leaving on assignment Monday, and today was my day to attend to some tiny but irritating gear issues. This won't make much sense unless you're really into your camera kit, but here goes.
An issue with the Canon 5D Mark II is the batteries. Specifically, how you tell when one is exhausted. The battery covers have this window in them that, when you flip the orientation, should show you the status of the battery. But there isn't enough contrast between the light blue of one side of the battery, and the light grey of the other. I corrected that today, with some bright enamel paint. Now, when I have a pile of batteries in the pocket of my camera bag, I'll now know which is which without squinting.
Gitzo tripods are the best in the world. It's just true. But, the legs loosen up sometimes, and the modern ones don't have a 10mm nut on the legs anymore, but require a specialized #25 star wrench.
On my last assignment the tool shop on campus actually gave me a tool to keep the leg tight (I kept stopping by, and they got tired of me bothering them). It's dodgy whether I can get it through TSA security at the airport (it's big and long and pointy), so today I bought a set of allen wrench-like star wrenches. I'll slip the one I need into the camera bag.
These tiny details are the things that, when you use your gear hard, become important issues to attend to. You want to not have your gear get in the way of why you're there.
I numbered my batteries and put the label on both the battery and the cover. I go through them sequentially, so when I pull #2 out, I know I'm ready for #3.
I suppose that works for me because I have only one camera that can use the 5D MkII batteries, but it has worked for me so far.
Posted by: Tommy Williams | June 26, 2010 at 09:02 PM
I ought to do that with my old 5D batteries. Some of them won't hold a charge anymore, and I keep getting confused which are the good batteries and which are the bad ones.
Posted by: Doug Plummer | June 26, 2010 at 09:09 PM