Derek

About: Derek Martin


Hey there, my name's Derek Martin. I'm the decidedly different, reasonably rational, always alliterative and atypically attired web guy at Roberts. I make widgets work, gizmos go, pages pop, flashes, er, flash, and oh yeah-- I know my photography pretty well too. My web duties keep me away from the sales floor most of the time, so my experience with the camera world is a bit different from that of my fellow bloggers. Additionally, I'm a shooter myself, but not with aims of going commercial, I prefer to work with photography as an art medium. So, my takes on equipment and technique is a bit offbeat, a little out of focus, if you will. Do I like equipment? You bet, I think digital SLRs are among the most fascinating gadgets available to buy today. I shoot Olympus digital cameras myself (but that's a post by itself). I'll be keeping up with equipment on here, but I also want to do more than that. I want to keep up on camera education, technique, and try to look at how everything relates to the current market, both for art photographers and for working pros.


Recent Posts by Derek:



PocketWizard TTL System For Nikon Makes Appearence

So, while PocketWizard’s two TTL solutions for Canon have been available for a while now, but the often-promised Nikon ones seem to keep encountering constant delays. So, it’s with much joy that a video showing them surfaces. OK, sure, they’re apparently pre-alpha, which leaves some time before we get our excited little hands on any, [...]



All A-Titter on Twitter

So, who remembers when we used to post on the website what manufacturer’s had more stuff go up that day? Anybody? Didn’t think so. But, I still think it was a good service. I also think there should be a better way to let you know what products are just added to the site, and [...]



Lee Filters Coming Out With Adapter for Nikon’s 14-24mm Leviathon

So, this is up on El YouTube, voyeuristic capitan of everything video, but doesn’t seem to be up on Lee’s site yet, but apparently Lee Filters hasn’t taken the conundrum of how to put a filter over the bulging eye of Nikon’s 14-24mm f2.8 lens lying down. No sir, showing a resolve the likes of [...]



Panasonic Announces Cameras, Since It Was a Sunday We Slept Through It
Panasonic DMC-G2

So, not having any apparent consideration for us 9-5 types, Panasonic announced its new products this past Sunday. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m something of a tech junkie, so while I was still clearing the sleep from my eyes I read about them in my feed reader. But, then, see, I slept again after [...]



Gadget Lab Casually Reviews Lensbaby Fisheye and Soft Focus Optics

So, Charlie Sorrel, Gadget Lab’s resident camera nut, has finished his casual hands-on review of Lensbaby’s two newest optics, the soft-focus and fisheye swappable optics for all of the current generation Lensbaby lenses. And, he tries them on a D700 and a Panasonic GF1, so you get both ends of the sensor-size spectrum.
Now, maybe it’s [...]



Olympus E-P1 Gets Firmware Update

Olympus has issued a firmware update for it’s E-P1 M43 shooter. According to their site:
E-P1 Firmware Ver1.3 has incorporated the following upgrade.
[Modification]

Resolved issue in firmware version 1.2 where LEVEL GAUGE display did not move when using MF (manual focus).

If you’ve never updated an Olympus before, you’ll need to dig up the USB cable that shipped [...]



Canon Pre-Announces Better Video Firmware for 5D Mk II

Seriously Canon? How do you pre-announce something? It was weird enough when Olympus did this for the E-3. Teases.
Anyway, Canon yesterday mentioned it’s going to grace your 5D Mark II’s with even better controls for video, such as adding 24fps (well, 23.976 fps) and 25fps options, changing the 30fps to the NTSC-standard 29.97fps, adding levels [...]



Olympus Posts Slew of E-PL1 Videos

Olympus, maker of tough, waterproof point-and-shoots and DSLR’s that I’ve been famously known to run under a sink and stand-on at parties, only to then photograph the onlookers, and co-pioneers of the mirror-less compact interchangeable lens camera frontier, sent us an email today telling us about their new YouTube video spots about their E-PL1.
These 11 [...]



Finally, A Reasonable Set of Lens Recommendations

So, I know it’s popular right now to love primes, especially among hobbyists, but for my money I think guest blogger Chris Folsom over at DPS is on to something when he says the three best lenses for a beginner to own (or anyone, for that matter) are a standard zoom, a telephoto zoom, and [...]



Nikon 70-200mm VR II Gets Thouroughly Reviewed

So, Nikon’s new top-pro standard telephoto zoom, the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8G ED VR II, has been reviewed by the venerable review staff over at DPReview. The conclusions are so unsurprisingly positive as to be pedestrian, but they’ve got their really useful sliding charts for sharpness at all focal lengths and apertures, so that’s worth [...]