Sunday, January 24, 2016

Final Fujifilm X-T1 Impressions, Probably!

I've been using the Fuji X-T1 for a while now and although I can't bring myself to selling off my Nikon gear and I haven't touched the Nikon since I got it, I am loving it. Let's summarize my feelings. My wife says I should talk about my feelings more often, so here we go!

The camera feels great. Love the controls now that I'm getting used to them. I will admit, it's not as comfortable for me as a Nikon ergonomically, but I've been using Nikon for a long time. The camera is light and I can carry it around all day with no problems with the 18-55 lens on it and the little Nissin flash. The Nikon with the equivalent lens and my monster SB-910 will start to hurt my back after an hour or so.

The Fuji is great with my adapted Nikon lenses and manual focusing. The focus peaking is clear and the viewfinder is a lot better than I thought it would be. The Fotodiox adapter does exactly what it is supposed to do and mates the Nikon lenses to the camera brilliantly. I don't notice any type of image degradation compared to the Nikon and actually, because of the Fuji sensor, I think they look better. That of course, is most likely pure emotion speaking...

Image quality is top notch. I have no complaints. Low light capability is wonderful. When it does get noise, it is "like film". I quoted that, because I keep reading and hearing it in other reviews, but I'll be damned if it's not true! It really is different than a standard sensor. Don't know why, but hey, fist bump... Kudos to Fuji!

Flash. Strobist. Speedlight... Well, well. Here's a jumble of those feeling things. I've gone back and forth about how this thing supports flash and as of a couple weeks ago, I'm now almost satisfied that this little guy can meet my needs. Here's my thought process for what I need. I sold all of my studio lights years ago, so I now just use speedlights. I need decent powered speedlights that will trigger with some type of radio gadget. For studio (mostly portraits), I shoot manual across the board. Being able to control the flashes from the camera trigger is a big plus. I think I can get that with the Cactus V6 triggers. This is good.

Event and indoor photos in general, while on the move require TTL (or Auto Mode). I can use the Nissin for TTL. It's small and light and works great, although it's no powerhouse and bouncing is limited due to not having an over abundance of extra light to cast out of it's little bulb. When needed, a cute little trick is I can put my SB-910 on my tiny little Fuji, set the flash for auto. set the ISO on the flash and boom, I have tons of light. To move it off camera, I can do the same thing. Either use a cable or a trigger and set the flash to Auto Mode if needed, but I hardly ever do that. Auto on camera because I'm running round chasing stuff or manual, because if I have time to set up the flash, I have time to set the flash power.

Now, the only big deal functionality issue I have. Max sync speed is 180. No high speed sync. Sad puppy... Why is that you may ask. If you need to fill flash in bright daylight, it is really, really hard to get the shutter speed down that low without an ND filter. If you do mostly people work, like I do, you are also trying to get the shutter speed down with a wide open aperture. This is not fun and honestly, my only serious issue I have with the camera and why I am having a hard time selling my Nikon.

I only have one one Fuji lens and although it's not a fast lens, I have no complaints. the 18-55 stays on my camera 95% of the time. When I need shallow DoF for portraits, I stick an adapter on one of my Nikon lenses and go to town. Can't really complain about that too much. I do remember a time before auto focus was all the rage.

Not really sure what else to say. The camera is built well, small and light, takes fantastic photos when the guy behind the viewfinder is having a good day. What more could I ask for? I am glad I purchased it, it is so, so close to replacing my Nikon, it's scary. Fuji is great at listening to its customers and moves forward without wallowing it it's name. Every firmware upgrade has significantly made the camera better than it was before. They haven't only added bug fixes, they've added functionality improving and even adding features. Unfortunately, I can't say that about any Nikon camera I've owned. They usually add lens comparability and bug fixes and they are usually very slow to release.

You may notice, I don't go into movie mode, JPG quality, in camera editing and all that extra stuff. I just don't use it and don't care. I set the camera up once. Make it shoot RAW, then adjust shutter speed, aperture and ISO to take pictures. I'm a simple guy so if you need opinions on that kind of thing, you'll have to try somewhere else. I just don't use any of it, so I have absolutely no opinion on any of it.

If I had the cash, I'd buy another one and all the accessories and lenses to go with it. I don't have any interest in the new Nikon cameras coming out. I don't know that I can ever go back fully. If the X-T2 fills the gaps, I'll scrape and save to get one and move over completely.
 Fujifilm X-T1 16 MP Mirrorless Digital Camera with 3.0-Inch LCD and XF 18-55mm F2.8-4.0 Lens

Friday, January 22, 2016

Most Nikon flashes WILL work with my Fujifilm X-T1

Fujifilm X-T1 users that have old Nikon flashes, take note. You can use Auto Flash Mode for quick pics. The Angry Photographer over on YouTube mentioned this in a video, so I thought I would expand and share.

If you have a Nikon flash capable of Auto Mode, all the way back to the SB-24's, 28's and more, they should work. I think SB-600's won't and maybe a few others, sorry. I've only personally tested my SB-910, and none of the others. I'm not sure if this will work with other brands. It basically let's the flash figure out what the exposure is.

The way auto mode works and the way we used to do things, back in the day, before TTL, was use Auto Mode and I've forgotten about it, is the flash will fire, the light bounces back and hits a sensor on the front of the flash and it shuts it off when it thinks it is exposed correctly. It actually works quite well. You're camera just needs to fire the flash, either on the hot shoe, cable or a remote dumb trigger. If experimenting, just be careful of really old 3rd party flashes. Make sure the sync voltage won't burn out your camera. They used to be quite high. I wouldn't put my Vivitar 285HV on the show, for fear of that very thing. It may be fine, but I won't take a chance.

Basically, if you put the flash on Auto Mode, set the ISO and the f-stop to match the camera. Zoom can be set also, but I just keep it near where I'm shooting. Note the distance scale and keep within that measurement. I've found that you don't have to be 100% accurate with the f-stop, however closer the better. You can adjust with the compensation also on the flash if needed. I find it is pretty darn accurate.

From there, all you have to do is trigger the flash. It can be on the camera, cable or a trigger. Of course, you want to shoot Manual or Aperture priority to keep the camera aperture from changing on you. Just as in shooting manual, the distance scale is flash to subject. It doesn't matter where the camera is. It even seems to handle bounce fairly well.

There's a lot more tech stuff that can be talked about, but I'm trying to keep this simple. Experiment and let me know how it goes. Of course, if you have the time to set up, Manual Mode rules!

BTW, an X-T1 looks pretty funny with an SB-910 sitting on top of it!

UPDATE: It was verified to work by someone on my G+ with an SB-28, SB-80DX and an SB-800. The SB-600 will NOT work. It doesn't have an Auto Mode.

Kit lens my arse!

This thing is pretty sharp and fairly fast. The OIS is also excellent. I am taking photos at night down to 1/15th without a problem. I am having better luck with this than any of my faster non-stabilized lenses, which I guess makes sense. However, it feels better because in order to work at these slow speeds, the ISO has to hold up, which it does in the X-T1 compared to my Nikon D7000.

The build quality is great. I don't really like the thin channels on the rings. Don't get me wrong, they feel good and work well, but tiny bits of gunk get in there and are a pain to get out for someone that is OCD like I am!

Out of the 5 Nikon lenses I run with, only one is variable aperture. Although I thought the f/2.8-4 would bother me, it really doesn't. I may lose a bit of DoF, but I don't have to squeeze every bit of light to get a good photo. Next lenses will be the 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 and the one I'm really drooling over, the 56mm  f/1.2

I will have to say, I'm a little weirded out by the aperture ring not being marked and having stops at either end, but I'm living with it. Yet another thing to get used to.
 Fujinon XF 18-55mm f:2.8-4.0 R LM OIS Zoom Lens

Quick Fujifilm XT-1 update

Okay, real quick. What don't I like...

There's a shutter delay if I'm in either magnification focus mode or in the menu or viewing pictures. I'll live with it, but I have lost a couple moments because of the delay. It varies from about 1/2 second to 2 seconds and can be annoying.

TTL off camera does not exist. I rarely use this, but when things are moving quickly, it is very convenient. I'll live with this too.

Battery life does stink a bit. I can get a few hundred shots out of the battery, but I'm spoiled with the Nikon. Again, I'll live with it. I just have to take a spare battery or two.

What I do like...

Everything else, so far!

Waiting to get the Cactus triggers and will start playing with that, but I don't see any issues with it other than losing HSS. That may be extremely inconvenient in bright settings when I need fill flash or to darken the background. We'll see... More to come!
 Fujifilm X-T1

I Love This Camera! Is it the Holy Grail?

Of course not. You can stop reading now unless you want to know why...

Still here? Okay. It is a FANTASTIC camera. I'll say that right up front. The sensor and images are absolutely magnificent. Of course, I shoot RAW, but I hear the jpg's are good too! With it, I bought the 18-55mm f/2.8-4.0 "kit" lens. I quote the word kit, because I have never had a kit lens that good. I'll write about that in another article. Here are my observations in no logical order...

Sensor is fantastic. On vacation, after owning it a few days, I took it out at night and just shot. No flash, mostly at 6400 ISO. Is it grain free? No, and I don't care. The noise is just that, grain. I dare say it is pleasant. My Nikon would through out a bunch of color noise, but this one keeps that under control. My standard processing went like this in Lightroom with my presets. Slight sharpening, lens correction then tweaking. Here's the kicker. NO NOISE REDUCTION at all! Sharpen a 6400 ISO photo and don't do noise reduction? Yup... You can see some of it on my Google + Collection here.

Because of the ever moving subjects and light, I ended up just putting it in auto aperture, shutter and ISO. (P)ro mode for the Fujifilm uninitiated. I still have to get more used to the controls and adjusting settings before I can do it as quickly as my DSLR, which I always shoot full manual. It does a pretty good job. There is one thing I noticed that I am not sure if it's me or the camera. In really bright sunlight, when brought into Lightroom, the highlights seemed to always be blown out. I got red flashes all over the place. Just a reminder, these are RAW files, so the in camera adjustments don't affect them. I could pull them back down, but I can say it was annoying to have to do. I wonder also, since detail was still in the highlights if it was just Lightroom not knowing that they weren't actually blown out, but was still alerting and appearing blown. I need more investigation about this one.

The Fuji is definitely slowing me down in full manual. I am not 100% comfortable with the controls yet, but at least so far, it is making me think a little more before I take the shot. I think when shooting the DSLR, but actually moving my fingers and physically changing settings on the Nikon is second nature to me. The dials on the X-T1 are in their natural places, but having to push the button to unlock the ISO dial was a bit of a pain walking in and out of light when I shot it for the week I was in Key West. I appreciate that that it can be knocked out of its setting, but that was a little disconcerting and it ended up in auto. We'll see over time, if I can get it working for me.

I haven't had any problems focusing. I usually stick to single point in the center on the second smallest size. I use manual focus and the AF/L lock to get it to focus and recompose. It reacts just like back button focus on my Nikon. I tried using zone and all of the other fancy focus modes, but I have just never liked them, on any camera. I rarely missed focus, even at night in areas barely lit by street lights. Absolutely no problems there.

Flash? On camera TTL is great with the included mini flash and with the Nissin. Lack of a trigger makes it a little difficult to be lazy and shoot TTL off camera. The Nissin makes it a little easier to shoot in manual due to the dials. I'll probably sell or retire my Yongnuo triggers in favor for the Cactus V6 due to compatibility between systems. Once that happens, I may just roll over and start using this full time when I can integrate all of my strobes with the X-T1 for manual flash work, but sometimes, I just want to be lazy and TTL away!

Aesthetically, this camera is gorgeous. I would have opted for the graphite version, but I couldn't justify the extra money for the same functionality. That said, this is a purdy camera.

Will I keep it? Yes. Am I happy with it? Yes. Does it do everything I want it to do? Almost! The gist of the whole thing is the images that come out of this camera, coupled with the low light, high ISO noise is so good, I can't pass it up! The only real downside for me is off camera flash capability, but I will work around that soon!

After a week of vacation and hundreds of shots, I'm very happy with this little guy, overall. Definitely a recommendation from me!
 Fujifilm X-T1

Cute Little Flash

I will have to say, one of the down sides to the Fujifilm systems are the weak flash support. I have a bunch of Nikon triggers that won't work on this guy, so I'll have to get an all around solution. I'm thinking about the Cactus V6, but that's another story...

This litte Nissin I40F works great. The bounce head is great and of course, I attached a black foamy thing on it! It's not a powerhouse, by any means and is actually the weakest flash I own, however for casual shooting, it does the job. I love the controls, dials are just so much easier than buttons for me. Don't know why, but they just are! TTL works, Manual works, bounce works. It just works! I will say, the first one I received was missing the stofen (little white tupperware thing that goes over the flash head), but Amazon overnighted another and all was well with the world.

The Nissin doesn't feel as solid as my other flashes, but I don't think it will fall apart any time soon. I haven't run out of power yet, but I haven't tried to bounce it in a banquet hall or anything like that. I'd go back to my DSLR and big guns if that type of shooting is needed.
 Nissin I40FJ Flash for Fuji

Fotodiox Pro Lens Mount Adapter, Nikon G Lens to Fujifilm X-Mount

I recently purchased a Fujifilm X-T1 and I have tons of Nikon lenses, so I added this to my cart. So far, so good. All of my G and D lenses work great. This adapter comes with an aperture ring in case I need it. I normally shoot wide open but the adapter gives me 4 options. Max open and closed and 2 in between. Not sure about what it really does and don't really care. It gets close enough for me.

It was fairly cheap, works just as it should, so I have no complaints. Not much to say about it except if you're in the market and don't have or want to spend over $200 for a Metabones, go for it!
 Fotodiox Pro Lens Mount Adapter, Nikon G Lens to Fujifilm X Camera Body

What Is The Best Portable Light Modifier For My Flash?

Some of you may not have heard of this. I discovered this many years ago from a fella by the name of Neil van Niekerk. The thing we always hear is "get the flash off camera"! Well, this is a way to get if off camera under most situations, while leaving the flash attached to the hotshoe. Wait, wut?

So, what kind of fantastic tool would do such a miracle? How in the world is that accomplished? Well, most of you know what bounce flash is. That's where you point the flash at the ceiling or a wall and it bounces back to the subject. That's not anything special. And what's this about a modifier? But, wait. There's more!

So the intrinsic flaw with this is you usually get light leak from the flash directly on the subject. Sometimes that's good. Lots of flashes even have the cute little card that breaks off all the time to put a catch light in the eyes. What if you just want soft light with no direct flash? Give up yet?

Okay, I'll let you in on it. A not so secret, secret. The black foamy thing. I have used this technique for many years since I first heard about it. It works under most situations. The foam folds back when not in use and doesn't bother anything. I keep my velcro strap on for other accessories and everyone gets along great!

You need more info, don't you. You don't believe me, right? How can this be so great? I'll tell ya. Under a lot of circumstances, it can get you a huge softbox for the price of the foamy thing and some hair bands. Technically, this is a flag, but huge softbox sounds better!

Yes, I use other things on my flash, but this is a staple that I always find myself going back to.

Check it out and try it. You may be surprised. Here is Neil's site and some videos. When browsing around his site, at the bottom of his articles, he has links for more info. There is a LOT of info on this and the results can be impressive. It doesn't take a long time to start understanding how it all comes together.

Monopod? Sounded Like A Good Idea

So you want a monopod? I did too! I even have 2 of them. How many times have I used them in the last 15 years? Maybe half a dozen times? So why am I writing a post about this one? Well, I kinda like it in theory. It's made well and you may actually want to use one.

Amazon doesn't sell this model directly anymore. I guess it's been discontinued, but I didn't realize that until after I started writing this post. So as not to waste mediocre typing skills, I'm going to go ahead and post this.

Nothing bad to say. It is made really well, not too heavy and if I really thought about it, I'd carry this instead of my little tripod. I don't know why I don't... I'd recommend this just for quality and price. I know people that have cheap monopods and they kind of suck. When I did use this, I would use it like a walking stick. It's very solid. My other monopod is a 2 piece, big, solid, metal thing that you could joust with. This one is NOT the same (in a good way). Sigh, now I will have to take it out next time.
 Vanguard TRACKER AP-324 Aluminum Digital Camera Monopod

My Best Little Tripod

I'll just follow up with opposites. This little guy is my traveler. I have a bunch of tripods and the two in these posts are by far my favorites.

This little guy is small, light and extends to 60" and is about 18" all tucked in. Of course, it is not as stable as my Vanguard, but duh. It's a great little traveling companion. The ball tension is controlled by a little thumb wheel on the top of the grip and it's kind of rubbery so there's no slipping. Like this little guy a lot. Definitely a recommend at 65 bucks. There are some other travel tripods I've been looking at, but they are more expensive and do I really need a new one? Nah, just want to buy stuff. Must resist!
 Manfrotto MKC3-H01 Compact Photo-Movie Kit

My Best Big Tripod

I have half dozen tripods, at least and I use two of them almost exclusively. This one for general work and a small Manfrotto for travel. This guy is pretty tough and stable. I only have one gripe. I have an earlier model of the grip, so I don't know if this has been addressed yet, but there are two ways to loosen the ball. One is a knob and the other is squeezing the grip. Now, when you tighten the knob enough to hold your big ole camera and lens, you have to squeeze the HELL out of the grip to get it to move. It's like those grip exercisers that the jocks walked around with when I was in high school.

I work around it by just getting used to using the knob and grip and kind of getting a balance between them. I haven't heard too many complain about this (maybe my hands are weak like child?), but it has been mentioned a couple times. Other than that, this thing does so much that I can overlook that, easily. Your mileage may vary. Definitely love this one and I'll not be replacing it any time soon. At around 250 bucks, it's a great tripod with a LOT of features and nice and stable!
 Vanguard Alta Pro 263AGH Aluminum Tripod Kit

Reflectors. Gotta Have 'Em

I've had these for about 5 years and the price has dropped since then! Granted, I don't use them a lot, but when I do, they are invaluable. Not much to say about them other than they work as advertised and for under 20 bucks, mine have paid for themselves. As I'm renewing my interest in lighting, I find that I'm using these more often and I'm thinking of getting a bigger one for full body. These are 43" and a great all around size. Superb for fill when you don't want to set up another flash. Varying the distance on the shadow side gives you great control over how much you get. I even started using mine as a backdrop for head and bust shots.

Bonus! This is a much better design than the softbox as it doesn't hit me in the groin when I fold them up!
 Neewer 43-inch / 110cm 5-in-1 Collapsible Multi-Disc Light Reflector with Bag

So It Had To Happen. Close Up Filters. No Go!

I sold my only true macro lens several years ago because I just didn't use it. I had gotten a wild hair and decided I wanted to experiment and got a cheapo close up filter set. Oh, boy...

I don't know that I will ever put anything in front of my lens this cheap again. I think it has ruined me for life. At under 12 bucks, I though, what the heck? Well, does anyone want to buy a cheap, used once close up filter set? The 1 and 2 were "okay", but after that, wow. And did I mention how bad they were when I stacked them? I really don't know how this got 4 stars on Amazon.

I would have been better off with one of those overpriced lens baby's that distort the crud out of anything in front of the lens. Ewww, this one is NOT recommended. You're better off buying a reverse lens adapter or maybe even some saran wrap folded around a half cup of water and duct taped to prevent leakage on your camera lens, in order to bend the light in a magnificent and magnified way!

Enough said. Just... No...

I'm going to link it, but please, don't bother...

 AGFA 4-Piece Close Up Macro Filter Kit 67mm

Cheap Light Stands. Are They Worth It?

With my last spending spree, I also bought light stands. 35 bucks for 2 stands and a case. A word of advice. If you have money and you buy good stuff, don't sell it all, because you may not have money some day and will regret selling all your stuff. Just thought I'd throw that in there because I'm expressing my emotions. That's what my wife says I need to do! So suck it up, buttercup!

These are not bad. Not pro, but seem to be well made enough to last a while as long as they are not abused. I have definitely owned some that were much more flimsy. I don't have a problem hanging my speedlights off of these as long as they are balanced and stable. I'll talk about this in a bit. They come with a carry case which seems like it could hold 2 more of these stands, or maybe some other stuff. I'll have to see what I can stick in there. Hmmm, one of my tripods and a monopod? Just for fun. I sure don't want to carry all that around..

One thing is I would prefer to have wider legs to distribute the weight a little more. I also got a pair that were 7'6" which now I wish I had another foot or so, at least. Darn kids keep getting taller! Something to think about depending on your modifiers and what you want to do with them. I did get them for portability, so I think they are good for that. Next set will be a bit bigger/stronger/wider stanced, although again, I don't believe these will give me any trouble.

I'm eyeing another set, but I won't post anything about them unless I buy them and have had a chance to play with them. These are a great for the price. I don't believe they will fail you, but if I had another 30-40 bucks at least to spend, I'd get something I described above. That's just for my needs. We all know I'm special!
 StudioPRO Set of Two 7'6" Photography Light Stands with Carrying Bag

Cheap stuff for the YN-568EX

Bought 2 modifiers for the YN-568EX. A stofen (know what that is?) and a 1/8" honeycomb grid.

The stofen, which is the white tupperware thing that stick on the front of your speedlight to diffuse the light (not to be confused with soften!), was under 5 bucks and it shows. It is definitely inexpensive. Does it work? It snaps on, snaps off and the color balance seems to be right, so I would say yes. Holding it next to my Nikon one, it is quite embarrassing! I just don't bring them out at the same time.

The honeycomb grid is pretty neat. It has the strap to go around the flash head and the velcro straps to strap it to the strap. You know, that strap that I have to take off every time I use my SB-910 in the bowens speedlight adapter?

BTW, the YN flash fits and I occasionally use a Minolta 4000AF and Vivitar 285 for flash and I think that the 285 will give me fits on the bowens because of the lip around the end of the flash head and the 4000AF I think is a little bigger. I am usually using the YN flash in the softbox anyways because it fits with the velcro strap on. Haven't tried the other two flashes and I probably should have put this in the the Neewer softbox/adapter post. Oh well, if I remember when I'm done, I'll copy this in there, but I digress.

The actual honeycomb part feels like the fins on a radiator. VERY thin as most of these are. The ones I have had in the past were for full strobes and a bit thicker. I suppose they are normal for a little head like this? I'm kind of scared to press on it because they may crush easily. It didn't come with a case, so I may update this the first time something rubs against it and squishes the edges, or not. If it lasts a dozen uses, it will be worth it.
 Neewer Flash Bounce Light Diffuser Opteka OSG18 1/8-Inch Universal Honeycomb Grid

Neewer Speedlight Mount Tilty Umbrella Holder Thingy and a Reflector Holder

What can I say about both of these? I haven't used the speedlight mount yet, but it looks to be the same lower part as the bowens speedlight mount I got with the softbox reviews previously. Seems like strong plastic and under 10 bucks.

The reflector holder should more aptly be named a reflector hanger, because that's what it does. The reflector hangs, not to be confused with held, where it can be positioned in any other way. I knew that when I bought it and that's how I've used it.

I hung it behind my kids heads and used the black and white sides of my reflector for a portable backdrop. I also hung it to act as fill. Works as advertised and for under 7 bucks, well worth money for me.
 Neewer Flash Speedlight /Hot Shoe/Umbrella Holder Limostudio Photo Video Photography Studio Reflector Disc Holder

Neewer 32" Softbox. This is a tough one...

So, under 40 bucks. Folds up like a reflector. Made fairly well. Why am I having an issue recommending it?

Every time I fold the damn thing up, it hits me in my man part. Yeah, I said it.  It is a very strong springy wire in there. Much stronger than my reflectors. I don't know if it was engineered like that or it's just a complete coincidence. What ever it is. I don't like it. Yes, I know that I will probably after like the 100th time, not hit myself there with it, but that's 100 times!

Okay, back to the softbox. Does what it is supposed to do. The mount seems fairly strong so far, even though it's plastic. The softbox itself doesn't have a true bowens mount. The loops for the softbox kind of slip over the bowens part of the flash mount and it holds on like that. It seems to hold well, but time will tell if it will wear out and get looser. Remember how strong I said the wire was?

I got an S-type because I thought I didn't want stress on my hotshoe and this grabs it by the head. The only thing I don't like is it will fit my SB-910 head perfectly as long as I take off the velcro accessory strap I have attached to it 24/7/365. Just 1/8" more clearance and it would fit! That's pretty nit picky, I know.

Another thing is the tilt lever is long, which is great. But when the softbox is mounted, you have to rotate the sofbox in order to turn the lever around enough to tilt it because it has detents. Detents are good and this is another nit pick.

All in all, I like it. It's fairly fast to set up, get's small for travel and is pretty stable. It has an inner diffusion panel and the standard outer panel, but no grid. I like it, but I think next time I'm getting a true umbrella softox with bowens mount at twice the price.

BTW, I don't like the ones where the flash sits inside because you can't tilt them much. There is a mount that has a long neck, but I'll have to look into that more before I get more modifiers. I have enough right now for what I need.

EDIT: Copied below from the YN flash modifier post. Yay! I remembered! This is talking about the bowens mount in this post.

BTW, the YN flash fits and I occasionally use a Minolta 4000AF and Vivitar 285 for flash and I think that the 285 will give me fits on the bowens because of the lip around the end of the flash head and the 4000AF I think is a little bigger. I am usually using the YN flash in the softbox anyways because it fits with the velcro strap on. Haven't tried the other two flashes and I probably should have put this in the the Neewer softbox/adapter post. Oh well, if I remember when I'm done, I'll copy this in there, but I digress.
 Neewer Photo Studio Multifunctional 32x32"/80x80cm Softbox with S-type Speedlite Flash Bracket Mount and Carrying Case

8 Eneloop XX AA batteries for 20 bucks? What?

Rumor has it that the AmazonBasics AA High-Capacity Rechargeable Batteries are re-branded Eneloop XX. I don't know, but I run them side by side with XX and the regular Eneloops and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference without looking at the labels when I change them out. I like them. Do your research, but if you find that you believe it, get them. I did!

Of course, I needed a 12 slot charger for all of these batteries I have now. I got a FlePow 12 Bay / Slot AA AAA Ni-MH Ni-Cd LCD Fast Battery Charger. It also will discharge if needed. I've gone through a few cycles with it completely loaded down and it seems to be working just fine. Get's a little warm, but so does my expensive charger when I'm fast charging. It looks like there are a bunch of companies that have the same charger (from the pics, but I don't know) under different brands. I like it so far.

In the same order, I bought a battery caddy. The cases I have are a pain in the rear, so I thought I'd try this one out and so far, I'm liking it. It holds the batteries firmly and it is nice and compact.
 AmazonBasics AA High-Capacity Rechargeable Batteries (8-Pack) Storacell by Powerpax AA 12 Pack Battery Caddy

Tethering on the cheap? Here you go!

I wish I could afford some bright orange Tether Tools cables, but alas, I am on a budget. I found these and hey, it's 15 feet of cable that works for under six bucks. What more can I say. They also have it in black, which of course is cooler, but I figured I'm less likely to trip over a white cable than a black one.
 Monoprice 15-Feet USB Cable

More Savings. Yongnuo YN-568EX Flash

Bought this with the first set of triggers. This is a great and inexpensive flash. Tested TTL, Manual and HSS on and off the camera. Work great with the YN-622N triggers. It's not quite up to the build quality of my Nikon SB-910, but they are pretty well built, none the less. At right around 100 bucks, I will buy more of these before I get another SB-910. For me, they do pretty much the same thing at almost 1/5 the cost. Definitely recommend these flashes!
 Yongnuo YN-568EX

Yongnuo Triggers Rock!

I'm loving these. A few weeks ago I bought the YN-622N-TX and YN-622N set. Played with them for a couple days and ordered two more transceivers. So far I've tested them in manual, TTL and HSS. Oh, how have I gotten along without them for so long? They are simple to use and so far, reliable. The seem to be built pretty well and hopefully will last a long time. At just over 40 bucks each, they are definitely a bargain!
 Yongnuo YN-622N & YN-622N-TX