MasHD Blog

Sony has officially launched their latest iteration of the Alpha A7 - the A7 IV (Mk4), the new camera, announced as a successor to the A7III from a few years back brings many improvements such as improved autofocus,4K in 60fps, a fully articulating screen and a new sensor that comes close to the first gen A7R in terms of megapixels. The design of the new A7/4 brings no noticeable design changes and thus it looks similar to previous sony bodies with the exception of the larger chassis found on the A7S III and the R4 series, the major differences between the models now lie in the form of a fully articulating screen which can now be moved 180 degrees unlike predecessors who were restricted to just tilt-up-down functions, the new display also has a 1,03 million dot 3" touchscreen with Sony's new menu system which grants touch access across the whole menu. The top of the camera features a new customizable wheel with a push button to lock and unlock the wheel - this spot was previou...

Canon has officially announced a speedlight with brains – the new Canon 470EX-AI . The new speedlight , designed for both beginners and professionals , determines the distance to the subject and the ceiling by measuring reading based on a pre flash , then based upon the reading , the flash will automatically reposition itself to the best suitable position for bounce flash . The flash also has a orientation sensor which can detect whether the user has shifted from portrait to landscape orientation , once the orientation of the camera is changed , all the user has to do is double tap the shutter button to allow the flash to position itself to its previous bounce setting . The flash also has a memory setting where you can automatically set the flash to a pre-set position set manually . The flash also supports manual override so if you want to bounce it manually , all you have to do it turn the head . The flash , which is expected to go on sale for $400 (in April 2018) has a gu...

If you are in the market for an affordable manual speedlight then Phottix has a solution for you . The new Phottix Juno , a speedlight designed to take on similar products from Godox and Yongnuo (plus many others) brings a long list of features for shooters for an affordable  $130. The Manual flash features a  built in Transmitter/receiver for Slaving your flash , a Canon CX power input port to connect to your external battery packs , a PC sync port , a large LCD display port and scroll wheel to set the power + features makes this sound like music to many ears ,but do keep in mind that the flash will not serve those who want to TTL . The Phottix Juno is set to be compatible with their Ares II and Stratus II line of flash triggers . The unit , which features the ability to shoot upto 1/250 shutter is good enough for most portrait sessions or events , but it does not feature HSS (A feature found on some rival products at the price) T...

Profoto has officially announced their latest strobe/speedlight unit called the Profoto A1 . The unit , designed around Profoto's wireless lighting solutions , allows A1 users to control other master/slave connected  Profoto gear using the built in Air remote .The speedlight part , which consists of a rechargeable Li-ion which gives the flash a 0.05s - 1.2s recycle time and about 350 full power 1/1 shots before requiring a new pop in battery .  With support for TTL and HSS , the flash is certainly capable in meeting the demands of working professionals . The Fresnel head , which houses a magnetic circular clip , can hold magnetically connected dome diffusers and filters  allowing the A1 to basically work without any 3rd party accessories out of the box. And if you fancy , the light also features a small LED modelling lamp which features a dual tone mixing array just below the main flash head . With an output of 76Ws ,the lamp (according to many art...

Godox - a company that has built a solid reputation for providing value for money lighting equipment has introduced a new product for smartphone photographers - a speedlight+beauty lamp for your phone ! Say hello to the Godox A1 , the unit , designed to provide a pocket flash option (similar to how the AD200 started to make waves in the photographic community ) to smartphone owners who are limited by the mediocre flash available on smartphones .  The units specs , which at the time has still not been released , is expected to  connect via Bluetooth  low energy and possibly work through  its own Apple and Android Godox client app (with manual controls including exposure settings) or possibly through third party apps (adobe lightroom maybe?) as the native camera app may not feature controls for manual  settings in iOS and some Android phones . The unit , which contains 3 LED's will also function as a lamp and sits at the bottom end of the two ...