Drobo

Preface

Please see also the excellent information on Drobo's web site which includes a capacity calculator, images of the units and most other pre-sales information you will need.

What is a Drobo?

Drobo manufacture a number of external RAID-like storage solutions. They all feature a number of drive bays, between 4 and 8, a variety of connectivity solutions and their own system for managing the usable capacity the drives. Unlike conventional RAID you can use any combination of drives, they do not need to be of the same capacity or from the same manufacturer. Having installed two or more drives, the Drobo will calculate how much storage is available and how much is required for redundancy. Any single drive in a Drobo can fail and your data remains secure, the larger solutions can be configured to allow for two simultaneous drive failures with our data corruption. Drobo even supply an online capacity calculator to allow you to see how much storage you will get when drives are installed. Additional drives can be added to empty bays at any time, allowing you to grow your array as you need to.

How does my set-up work?

A little background would be useful here before explaining why I chose to buy a Drobo. My main workstation is a Mac Pro running Snow Leopard with three internal drives, the boot disk and two, mirrored "working" drives that store all of my photography once it's imported into Aperture from CF cards. I still use internal drives for my working data, the Drobo is used for archived images I only need access to from time to time.

Why did I choose a Drobo?

Besides needing somewhere to offload the images I was no longer working on, I had some other information on single drives that really needed better protection, I had the spare drives sitting around and I had heard Drobo through podcast sponsorship. It seemed like a good way to use my existing drives and get all of that data onto a device that offered protection against a drive failure. Due to budgetary constraints and the amount of data I currently needed to store, I opted for a 4 bay Drobo with Firewire 800 and USB, the base model.

The Drobo in use

It's really simple! Just put two or more drives into the enclosure (they slip in easily and a clip holds them in place), connect to power and your computer with the included cables – in my case I chose a Firewire 800 connection – install Drobo Dashboard and off you go. That's it! The only configuration that's required is formatting the disks and naming the array. I installed the two 1.5TB drives I had been using as my working drives plus a third 1.5TB drive to get things going. This set-up balked on the first attempt to format the Drobo but went smoothly on the second go. After that the only other problem I encountered was when trying to download Photoshop CS5 from the Adobe store directly to the Drobo, after about a minute the Drobo reset itself and rebooted, no data was lost though, it was a bit alarming nonetheless. I suspect the problem is an incompatibility with the download system Adobe uses, it worked fine when using my boot drive. Since then the Drobo hasn't missed a beat. It should be noted that I have added another 500GB drive to the Drobo since installing it with the three 1.5TBs. What amazed me was that the additional capacity was available immediately after the new drive was installed. The Drobo Dashboard software gives you an overview of how your drives are being used and allows you to configure your Drobo, it is not a requirement to access the data on the Drobo and does occasionally fail to connect to mine, a problem solved by rebooting the host machine. For those of you who are super-sensitive to noise, the Drobo does mask the clicks and whirs you expect from hard disks but it does have a fan which runs all of the time, occasionally kicking up a gear if you use the unit heavily, its not a noisy fan, nor is it as quiet as the ones in a modern Mac Pro.

Throughput

It takes a while to move the amounts of data a Drobo can store around and it has to be said that it's not the most blisteringly fast of devices, at least not in this Firewire 800 incarnation. So, to give you an ides of some real-world performance figures, I've done some tests. I have taken a folder from one of my shoots, containing 3.12GB of data in 302 files and copied it in the following ways:

• Internal boot disk to the 2x750GB internal mirror in my Mac Pro
• Internal boot disk to a single Firewire 800 external disk
• Internal boot disk to Drobo via Firewire 800

As you can see, there is quite a speed overhead for the protection the Drobo offers, so you should take this into account when specifying your system. Unfortunately I have not been able to test a Drobo S, which offers 5 drive bays and a faster eSATA interface. I would have to imagine that the Drobo S also has faster internal processing, as you can see from the graph it is the Drobo, rather than the connection, that is causing the bottleneck.

All times are in minutes and seconds, correct to the nearest second.

Conclusions

I've set-up quite a lot of RAID solutions and Drobo really does take the headache out of it. No worries about matching drive sizes and manufacturers, no waiting around for hours for arrays to build before you can use them. Yes, there is an overhead in speed, but this is not a hinderance to the way I work, my current working data being on fast, internal disks. Taking this into consideration I would definitely recommend a Drobo, the model I have comes in at about £300, if you need the extra speed, consider the Drobo S for around £500.

Think Tank Airport International V2.0

There are few things more vexing to most of the photographers than bags. We may have mastered tricky studio techniques, arcane development chemistry or scaled the giddy heights of being able to use as much at 25% of Photoshop's feature set, but ask us to choose a bag… The truth is there is no fit-for-all-occasions bag, so when you find one that has a well defined purpose and fulfils it well, it's a cause for celebration. Enter the Think Tank Photo Airport International V2.0.

Description

Let's go through what the Airport International V2.0 is, piece by piece, starting with the outside.Front face showing stretch pocket and zippered sundries pocket

The first thing to say its it's wonderfully anonymous, there is nothing about this bag that says anything other than a good quality rolling luggage that fits pretty much any international airline's carry on requirements, even the Think Tank logo is monochrome and discreet. This is a major bonus to me, being as I work in busy cities where you really don't want people to know that you are rolling around the equivalent of several months salary and the means to your livelihood. There is a well considered selection of external pockets, a stretch one on the front for a laptop with a zippered business card / pen / sundries pocket above it concealing a laptop security cable and TSA combination lock (more of which later). Below the top handle is a transparent window for a business card or other identification label, the zippered flap concealing the towing handle next to this. Also here is a zippered pocket perfectly sized for your ticket or boarding card and passport. On the side is the main compartment zipper with TSA combination lock and a side carrying handle, flanking this are attachments for tripod transportation which sit flush to the bag, minimising the risk of snagging. The back of the bag houses the wheels, a tough skid-plate to prevent damage when pulling up curbs and a flap concealing a built-in cable to secure the bag to an immovable object with a supplied TSA combination lock. The case's ID plate and serial number is just above this, allowing the bag to be traced back and potentially returned to you if lost, provided it has been registered with Think Tank. A second handle for overhead lifting can be found on the base. Back showing towing handle (part deployed), security cable and I.D. plate

Moving inside we have a good selection of velcro re-positionable dividers that offer innumerable combinations of arrangements and do a good job protecting your gear.  Inside the lid are clear pockets for all those bits and pieces that would otherwise rattle around, get lost or tangle themselves if unrestrained.Interior showing D200 and Grip, F6 and Grip 28-70 f2.8, 70-200 f2.8 etc.

In Use: check-in & Mr. Jellyfinger

This thing is a godsend. Really. It balances well when being towed, the handles are large, well padded and comfortable and everything works in a way that speaks of well thought-out design and fitness for purpose. When I first picked it up it seemed really big for a carry-on, but as can be seen from the (poor quality phone) photo, it fits easily into the EasyJet carry-on test cage and holds a huge amount of kit. On a recent trip it swallowed the following:

• Nikon D700 + MB-D10 grip
• Nikkor 28-70 f2.8 (attached)
• Nikkor 70-200 f2.8
• Nikkor 105 F2 DC
• Nikkor 50 F1.4D
• Sigma 28mm F1.8
• Nikon SB-800
• 2x Gepe Extreme Card Cases
• Cable release
• 6 x pairs socks
• 6 x underwear
• 6 x t-shirts
• A bunch of those small sundry items you know you'll need some day

The top end of the case is fitted out for two SLR bodies with or with our lenses attached. I tried this with a my D700 with MB-D10 grip and an F6 with MB 40 Grip – pretty representative of pro-sized bodies – it was a snug fit, but they went in comfortably, as you can see from the image above.

On the return journey I added a couple of books, getting the combined weight up to a bit under 16kg (35lbs), it still pulled well, the zips closed easily, despite being a bit over-stuffed and everything continued to work as advertised. Even thought was so close to maximum carry-on dimensions, very full and heavy, not an eyelid was batted by any of the check-in or security staff in London Gatwick or Helsinki Vantaa airports. It should be noted that the top and bottom handle design really helped with this, making it easy to lift without it looking as heavy as it actually was, getting it into and out of the overhead storage also felt secure and controlled, reassuring for me, the cabin crew and my fellow passengers.In the carry-on size checking cageIn the overhead compartment

Compromises

Airline travel is a maelstrom of compromises, strength-vs-weight, cost-vs-well… everything, so it comes as no surprise that compromises have been made in the Airport International V2.0. The good news is that either through experience, consultation, intelligence or other factors, these compromises are well though out and made good sense when using the bag. Lets start with the worst one – TSA locks. They suck; period. This is not Think Tanks fault, it's the TSA's, but it is worth repeating that they really, really suck. I'm not that bothered by the one on the zipper, although I haven't tried it on this bag, most zips can be compromised with any pointy object, so this lock really only prevents opening of the bag without the obvious tell-tale of a burst zipper. The one on the security cable is more of an issue, I'm going to be replacing it with something slightly more substantial for non-airport use.

TSA locksNext compromise and one of the few areas where I have seen others criticise the Airport International V2.0 is the towing handle. The instructions warn against lifting the bag by the towing handle, you should use the top caring handle instead. This is a minor inconvenience, however the shape of the bag allows you to lift it by the top handle with the towing handle fully deployed, but those of you used to swinging your roller around by its handle will have to learn new habits. I'm Ok with this and here's why: I have a check-in size rolling case with a really sturdy extruded aluminium handle which can be used to roll, lift, swing and otherwise move the bag around, it runs the full depth of the inside of the case, creating an internal "spine" which divides the interior packing space. By opting for a four-section telescoping handle Think Tank may have reduced the strength slightly but they have also hugely reduced the interior intrusion of the handle. Inside, the handle makes no impact from about half way down, creating a slight step which matches neatly to any long lens you may have packed in the bag, front element down. Also, the area between the two telescoping sections of the handle has been used for the security cable and its lock, with room for a couple of other nick-knacks too. So yes, the handle may not be as strong as you might want but it's a really good solution and flexes slightly in use, reducing the amount of stress that makes it to your hand.Towing handle, fully deployed

Where the rubber hits the road

A whole paragraph on wheels? Yup! I walk a lot, eleven kilometres (seven miles) a day being a starting average and I don't hesitate to include this distance in my journeys to and from shoots if time allows. I have towed lots of different things behind me on those walks. These are good wheels. They're easily replaceable, which is something I know I will be doing at some point and they're soft, which is good for my equipment. When I was purchasing the Airport International V2.0 I got talking to another photographer who had brought in the hood from his Canon 400mm F2.8 for repair, the catches having been rattled loose by the tiny, hard wheels on his hard luggage. The vibration problem that was now spreading to the rest of his kit. The softness and size of the Think Tank's wheels reduces the worst of the vibration city roads induce. Although the cobbles in Helsinki did have it jiggling about a bit, it was a soft vibration, not the gear destroying kind. Whilst they could be a bit larger, I had no problems with them jamming or tram-lining on any of the surfaces I encountered and rumour has it they are standard rollerblade size, increasing your replacement options. I must sort a spare pair and allen key – to be stored in the case – before I really need them.

What to improve?

Precious little. Although I don't know the history of the V1.0, this case speaks of evolved design and not much in the way of niggles. The internal dividers are quite deep, so it would be helpful to be able to split the heights of the compartments with something built-in, but a lump of foam rubber does the job. The rain cover is tucked inside (in a self-contained bag) when supplied but will fit in the external security cable pouch with the cable and lock stowed. It covers the top, front and most of the sides of the bag, looping over the bottom feet and securing with a gather cord. It should do the job but isn't quite as close fitting or comprehensive in protecting the case as you may want for extreme rain conditions. These however are minor issues on an otherwise excellent product which I'm sure could be debugged in a dot release!

Think Tank have taken a problem that many photographers face daily – getting as much gear onto an international flight as possible, as a carry on and as simply as possible – and they've cracked it. My experiences with the Airport International V2.0 so have made getting my equipment from place to place easier and airline travel a bit more tolerable.

Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VR II

The best place I can think of to start a review of the new Nikkor 70-200 is to pick out the problems I saw in using the old 70-200. As a professional’s medium-telephoto zoom workhorse, this really is a lens that need to get it right. Firstly, vignetting. The older 70-200 did this a lot on FX sensors when used wide open. Second, Vibration Reduction – which I haven’t seen much written about but have spoken with other photographers about, and they comply – had a really bad habit of softening the image at exactly the shutter speeds you needed it most at, the 1/60th to 1/125th range. Often you were able to get sharper images with VR off on the old lens and relying on old-fashioned, wetware vibration reduction techniques. The final problem I had with the old version was slow focusing. When tracking sports it was occasionally unable to move the focusing elements quickly enough to track movement and could be a bit tardy to find focus even with stationary objects, sometimes “hunting” for focus.

So how well does the new lens address the issues I had with the old one? Vignetting is now well controlled and whilst still present is very acceptable and all but gone at f5.6. Vibration reduction is also very good and does appear to improve performance by about a stop over the old version and has cured the softness issues at those critical shutter speeds. I performed a particularly ridiculous test, using VR in active mode whilst jumping on the spot (the manual’s suggested vehicle moving over rough terrain not being available), it performed admirably, staying sharp at 1/80th @ 200mm. Focusing speed is also up on the old version. The new lens is both faster to focus and more positive to lock-on. There is still a fairly hefty lump of glass to be moved around in there, so focusing is not instantaneous, but is very good for a lens of this range of focal lengths. I haven’t had the opportunity to fully test focus tracking yet, but given the improved speed and lock-on times I’m confident to interpolate improvements here over the previous lens.

Vignetting, f2.8 at 200mm

Vignetting,f2.8 at 70mm

There are a few other optical points I would like to cover. The lens can be made to flare quite spectacularly, but I would expect nothing less from a zoom. Knowing this, I would bear it in mind when framing a shot with a strong light source just in or just out of the edge of the frame. Sharpness never came up as an issue for me with this or the previous version but a lot of my photography is done at high ISOs, masking any critical sharpness problems. Tests at ISO 200 on a Nikon D700 showed it to be very sharp, second only to my Nikkor 105mm f2 DC in terms of sharpest lens in my bag. Given how much I love that 105mm, that’s high praise. Bokeh appears to be very pleasing for background elements (see window in squirrel shot) but less so for foreground elements (see plants in same), nothing particularly surprising to report there.

Lens flare, sun just out of frame, top right

Bokeh of foreground (plant) ad background (window) elements

Unadjusted sharpness, crop of above image at 100%

Handling is a real delight for a lens of this weight. The balance point seems to have been moved back slightly, giving great feel when held with fingers on the zoom ring and the heel of the hand on the tripod foot ring, the foot swung round so it’s pointing upwards. I don’t miss the focus lock button of the old lens, I never used them and I suspect that the more positive focus lock and improved focusing systems in newer Nikons makes them moot for most users. The decision to replace the area once used for these buttons with a third rubber ring (the others being focus and zoom) has been criticised in some reviews, the texture of this ring is finer than the other two, allowing for easy recognition of it by feel with an ungloved hand, so I’m not convinced that this criticism is entirely valid. Speaking of rubber, the now mandatory pro-level lens mount seal is there, as is a ring protecting the lens body around the front element. The zoom ring takes a little under 90º to go from 70mm to 200mm, the focus ring about 160º from 1.4m to infinity. As usual with AF-S lenses, it will focus beyond infinity, so check focus if manually focusing at distant objects. Why focus beyond infinity? If I recall correctly it is to allow the lens to still track to infinity when subject to large temperature variations which will change the lens’s dimensions slightly. Canon and Sony paint their long lenses white to minimise heat absorption and hence reduce any temperature related dimensional instability.

It has to be said that this is not the prettiest of lenses to look down the barrel of from the front element. So much so that Nikon have posted a support article on the subject. There are some visible screws present (see image), although I haven’t noticed the roughness some have complained about. I can’t see any real issues with this though, I’ve never had a client complain that my lenses aren’t nice enough to look down!

Looking down the barrel from the front element

In conclusion, this really is a great piece of glass. The old one was very good, particularly on DX sensor cameras, but this one brings the DX performance of the old version to FX sensor cameras and a good few other improvements as well. Do you need to upgrade? That’s an answer I have to leave in your hands; if you were particularly bothered by some of the shortcomings of the old version (I was), then yes, this is a significantly better lens  by virtue of a number of important incremental improvements.

All shots in this review were taken on a D700, the lens was fitted with a Hoya 77mm Pro1 Digital UV filter at all times to give “real world” impressions of the its performance. It’s so much easier to replace a broken filter than a broken front element. Images have not been adjusted, save for the default RAW import settings in Aperture 3.0.3. These are test images and as such, shot to test the lens, not to challenge my creative abilities (yes, I’m excusing myself)!

The bag that broke me

OK, this is the first review I’m going to post and it’s a tricky one. I’ve used the LowePro Slingshot 200AW for quite some time. It was a gift. I loved it. It broke me.

Firstly, for those of you who don’t know the bag, it’s a small to medium sized backpack with a single-shoulder harness, this allows you to swing the bag around to your chest to remove your camera without taking the bag off. Once you get used to how to take it on and off, it’s a great idea, allowing you quick access to your gear without needing to put your bag down somewhere undesirable. It has all of the usual touches that you come to expect from LowePro, velcro interior that you can reposition to fit your kit, integrated LCD protection cloth, sewn-in all-weather cover etc.

It was a really good bag, compact, but capable of swallowing a Nikon D700 with MB-D10 grip, a 28-70 f2.8, a couple of other lenses, an SB-800 flash and all the usual accessories. Therein lies the problem, that’s a lot of gear and a lot of weight. Those of you who know me know that I walk everywhere, three to four hours walking being about my average per day. Combine the one shoulder design, all that kit weight and a full day of walking encompassing three shoots; I ended up with a back full of knots and a torn muscle in my neck the following day. My own fault, but something you need to consider when deciding on which bag to take.

Shown with A Nikon F6, MB-40 grip and Nikkor 28-70 f2.8

So, would I recommend it? Resoundingly yes, with the following caveats:

• Don’t overload the bag.
• Don’t expect to use it day-in, day-out as your primary bag, it’s only really good for a day at a time.
• Be careful of how you adjust the straps, over-tightening them to reduce movement when its heavily loaded can result in all sorts of pinches and strains, I think I got them all.
• Consider a conventional backpack design for heavier loads / long duration.

The only other issue I have had is a seam on the shoulder strap opening in two places, an easy repair, but I would have hoped not to have to do. I’ve also noticed that the new version, the Slingshot 202AW seems to have made some adjustments to the accessory pocket design, which is not always optimal on this bag when accessing them with the bag in front of you.

I now own a rolling case, look out for a preview of that soon.