For photographers, speeding up common tasks can add up to huge time savings. For editing and processing images, a lot of these repetitive actions take the form of keystrokes for image browsing and rating or dragging sliders, respectively. Enter the TourBox Neo.

The TourBox Neo is a input device for your computer that features over a dozen controls that can be customized. What's more, with the TourBox app, you can customize each of these buttons with essentially infinite variations, with custom functions for any given application.

This all sounds good in theory, but how does this custom input controller work in practice? Here's my overview of the TourBox Neo for Photographers, with a specific look at using this device for Photo Mechanic and Adobe Lightroom Classic.

Why Use an Input Controller like TourBox?

OK, so why does the TourBox exist? There are two main benefits:

First, the promise is essentially that you can customize this device and its controls to very quickly access your most used functions. Second, you can use multiple controllers to more quickly and easily make adjustments. The options for a scroll wheel, a jog dial, and a central knob are all big draws to the TourBox. Most other input devices catering to photo workflows don't offer close to this level of choice.

While using keybinding software and customizing peripherals can offer some of the TourBox's functionality. However, I'd argue that the third reason for the TourBox is a more ergonomic input and an array of control choices as well. More on this in the design section.

The Design of the TourBox

The design of the TourBox is reminiscent of gaming controllers, with subtle curves and a soft, rubberized exterior. The TourBox can be comfortably held in one hand or used on a desk surface.

The TourBox is a pleasantly weighty device without being difficult to hold or pick up. It has just enough weight to feel solid and sturdy — not cheap.

While there's a central knob, the overall layout feels somewhat generic. I don't mean this as a negative. On the contrary, the seemingly arbitrary layout of the controls invites one to use the device however you feel most comfortable.

The TourBox is an ambidextrous design in the sense that it doesn't force you to use one single grip or position. I feel this is a huge boon.

This design decision does come at the expense of some controls being more comfortable to use with one hand over another. For example, if you're using the TourBox with your right hand, the scroll wheel and jog dial are easily accessed by your index finger and may emphasize their use. Using your left hand, these two controls are still easily accessible. However, if you want your index finger to hover over them it means that your hand is off to the side of the device, rather than over the center of it. Ultimately, it all comes down to personal preference and these details are inherently neither good nor bad.

TourBox Neo Controls

The TourBox Neo includes 11 buttons and 3 rotary controls. The buttons themselves are well spaced and grouped in the layout, without forcing any one single kind of use. This kind of “generic” approach offers an easy kind of flexibility.

Key to this layout is the rotary knob in the center of the controller and the D-pad just below it. Their central placement are easily accessible regardless of which hand you use for the Neo.

While the layout itself feels relatively like a blank slate, there is hierarchy in the design. Button placement relative to the center, scale, shape, and so forth all inform you'll customize this controller. And that's a good thing.

USB-C Connectivity

The TourBox Neo features USB-C connectivity. There is the new TourBox Elite that features Bluetooth wireless. This is a great option if you want to cut down on cable clutter on your desk. Bluetooth is also a good option if you want to frequently move the TourBox.

Aside from the wire vs Bluetooth operation, the TourBox Neo and TourBox Elite appear nearly identical in their function, with a few exceptions. So if you're considering the Elite, most all of this review should apply.

The Software: TourBox Console

Key to the TourBox Neo is the TourBox Console software. This app is very easy to setup, but also offers a huge amount of customization. From this home screen, you can see that you can customize the controls globally and also by specific application.

Here's how I have my Lightroom preset setup so far. (This is very close to the default, but with just a few tweaks as I use the TourBox more.)

In addition offering customization of all of the dozen input controls, you can also customize combinations of buttons. This is a super smart feature and the TourBox software makes this very easy.

It's easy to see that the TourBox is essentially infinitely customizable. Between the ability to customize the 11 inputs and also combinations of buttons, there are endless possibilities.

Creative Software Integration

Diving into the software a little more, the TourBox offers custom options for a number of apps. Integration with Adobe Lightroom is baked into the console software at a deep level. This is one of the super interesting aspects of this device and advantages of TourBox. This level of function mapping isn't quite so easily replicable on a standard macropad or input device. Here, TourBox is clearly catering to creative professionals.

In this screenshot below, you can see how essentially every single panel option of Lightroom can be set as a shortcut.

In addition, this above screenshot shows that TourBox Console also has essentially every command available as an available shortcut to set. This is hugely helpful as it can saves you time having to reference commands in Lightroom itself, or trying to discover the correct keybindings. I love the attention to detail here. This is again one aspect of TourBox Console that helps set it apart from a generic macropad and many other input controllers.

Customization of Input Methods

I'm a massive fan of jog dials and tactile controls. Rotary controllers are such an intuitive and efficient way to make adjustments. There's a reason we've seen dials like this frequently used on consumer electronics like the original iPod and countless others. They just work.

In addition, the individual knobs, jog dial and scroll wheel can be set to adjust one of several different functions:

• software selected slider
• selection of an HSL color
• slider based on mouse hover

For my use, I'm personally using the “Adjust Slider (Mouse Pointing)” option most at this point. This is closest to my normal input workflow where I'm used to mousing over a panel slider and adjusting the setting using the arrow keys on my keyboard.

Utility & Performance

Personally, this is the best customizable input device I've used in a photography workflow. It's a great companion device. My main input is a Kensington Slimblade Trackball, which I absolutely love. But this is just what I use as a pointing device. Otherwise, I'm mainly using my keyboard.

Where the TourBox comes in is as a replacement to the keyboard. For the most part, I still use my trackball for UI navigation and pointing, but the TourBox has replaced a lot of keyboard use. This includes both shortcuts and direct input.

Photo Mechanic Performance

I've written about the use of the software Photo Mechanic by Camera Bits before. It's a piece of software specifically designed to cull images with extreme efficiency. In my workflow, I edit my selects first in Photo Mechanic first. Then, I import just those selects made in Photo Mechanic to Lightroom for final selects for processing and export.

For use of Photo Mechanic, this includes the arrow keys to scroll through images and to the number keys to assign star ratings. Here's how I have my Neo setup at the writing of this review:

With the TourBox Elite, I'm mainly using the knob and job dial controls to navigate very quickly through images. For star ratings, I have customized the arrow cluster of the TourBox for ratings of 1 through 4. I have them ordered with 1 at the top, then clockwise in ascending order.

Overall for Photo Mechanic, the knob and scroll wheel allow for extremely fast image navigation. Overall it's a much more intuitive process than using arrow keys to navigate, as you'd expect from controls that allow for continuous rotation.

The jog dial in particular is extremely nice to use when you want to scroll through images quickly. This is especially true when you're looking for a specific image or moment, rather than spending time on each image individually.

The one “gotcha” with Photo Mechanic

One thing I haven't quite worked out with the TourBox is a way to use the scroll or dial adjustments to set star ratings. Unlike Lightroom, there's no set command for increasing the rating or decreasing the rating. This makes using the scroll wheel and dials an imperfect fit for the ratings, even with macro functions. My ideal would be to have a scroll wheel up to increase ratings and down to lower it. Still, my arrow cluster solution works OK.

Ultimately, I'd really love a set of keys/buttons in a row that I could directly assign to correspond with 1-5 star ratings. This isn't a deal breaker but it would make the Tourbox a much better fit for my Photo Mechanic workflow.

I've also made a feature request with Camerabits, the maker of Photo Mechanic, for relative keyboard shortcuts to increase and decrease ratings. I've been told this will be incorporated into the next version of Photo Mechanic, which is going to make the utility of the TourBox for this app so much more flexible for me.

Adobe Lightroom Performance

For my use in Lightroom, I'm personally making very fast adjustments. Mainly, my adjustments are limited largely to the Basic RAW adjustments panel. I'll normally adjust these parameters, generally in this order:

• White Balance
• Tint
• Exposure
• Contrast
• Highlights
• Shadows
• Blackpoint
• Tone Curve

The Lightroom default TourBox actually has most of these tied directly to the buttons so they can be accessed with a single press. I can see how this is useful if you're not using a mouse/pointing device.

Here's how I have Lightroom for the Neo setup:

For me, as I'm using a trackball in my lefthand and using the TourBox with my right, I prefer using the dials/scroll wheel to control inputs, and to just hover over the slider I want to affect.

Adjustment of the sliders is very fast. I'd love to see some more granular control over the inputs for the knob, dial and scroll wheel. For example, being able to change exposure by 0.1EV (the default is 0.02EV adjustment, extremely granular) or slider levels by increments of 5 (the default is 1 unit). There is the ability to change the input to a unit of 20, but I find this a little too coarse. Somewhere in between would be a great addition to the TourBox Console software.

Advantages of the TourBox Elite

Aside from the addition off Bluetooth for wireless control, the TourBox Elite (soon to be released) also features haptic feedback. This is a massive and welcome addition. I'd love to try out the TourBox Elite for this feature alone.

With the TourBox Neo, the scroll wheel does include small detents as you'd expect on most scroll wheels you'd find on a mouse. However, the knob and the jog dial spin freely without offering any tactile feedback. The addition of haptic feedback would be extremely nice to have and I hope to try the Elite with this feature.

Review Conclusion of the Tourbox Neo

Overall, I'm really liking the TourBox Neo. It's an incredibly fun controller and input device if you're someone like me who loves trying to optimize their workflow. The TourBox Neo can be customized almost infinitely.

The only limit to the device is really in its software support. For very widely used applications like Adobe Lightroom and other Adobe creative applications, for which TourBox has extensive support, it makes the controller a dream to use.

For software like Photo Mechanic that is arguably more niche (though still widely by professionals, but not necessarily hobbyists or amateurs), the TourBox is still an excellent option.

If you're an Adobe power user, I think you'll love the TourBox. The intelligent software and deep Adobe support makes it a super powerful controller with a lot of utility with apps like Photoshop and Lightroom in particular.

The post TourBox Neo Review for Photographers appeared first on ishootshows.com.

Buying new cameras, lenses and accessories is a perpetual temptation for photographers. Whether you call it GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) or you are always eyeing the latest and greatest, it's important to understand when upgrading your photo gear really matters.

Want advice for when to upgrade cameras or upgrade lenses? Here's a breakdown for looking at when and how to upgrade gear in a meaningful way, and suggestions when it's important and when to skip the urge.

This advice is overall geared toward professionals. If you're a hobbyist making images for pleasure, many of these same principles still apply. But without the need to view photography as a business, the lines are a lot more blurred.

Upgrade when new gear solves problems

Generally speaking, the best time to take the leap to buy new gear is when it will solve problems for you in a meaningful way. Not just incremental upgrades, but leaps in performance that directly translate into solving existing problems.

One example of this might be upgrading to mirrorless for a 100% silent shutter if you're working on documentary photography or unit stills photography on set. Here, a silent shutter solves the problem of working unobtrusively with zero sound from the camera. For me, upgrading to the Nikon Z 9 with the completely silent electronic shutter was essential for my work.

Another example might be when you have a hard technical spec like needing 4k video, or regularly require a telephoto lens for a festivals or large concerts as a music photographer. These are the relatively easy upgrades because it's clear when you need the solution.

Ultimately, most of the very best reasons for upgrading your gear fall into this rationale of problem solving. We'll look at a few more specific examples of what gear solving problems means for buying new photography gear.

Upgrade when new gear will make you more money

From a business standpoint, the best time to buy new gear is when the expense will make you more money. Think about cameras and lenses that will enable you to either book entirely new clients or charge more to your existing clients.

Examples of this are lenses like an ultra wide angle or a super telephoto that enable you to create new types of images and increase your offerings to clients. Or even better, to book entirely new types of work.

My purchase of the Nikon 400mm f/4.5 gives me a compact super telephoto and lets me create images that aren't possible with my conventional kit. In addition, I can charge this specialty gear cost to my clients, so the lens pays for itself and becomes a source of revenue.

Another example would be investing in proper studio lighting that elevates your portrait game — again, letting you book new or at least a higher tier of paying clients. Here, upgrading solves a business problem by increasing opportunities to make money. Easy.

Upgrade when new gear is a meaningful leap in performance or utility

Another great time to upgrade or invest in gear is when that new gear represents a meaningful leap in performance. For example, if you're photographing with a kit lens with a variable f/3.5-5.6 , upgrading to a 24-70mm f/2.8 is going to represent a huge jump in quality and performance.

Here, the faster, constant aperture as well as optical performance are a massive difference that present multiple stops of improvement.

Another example for meaningful jumps in performance would be upgrading from an APS-C sensor to a full-frame sensor. This is not just due to the 1 stop improvement in high ISO image quality, but in access to more professional features, lens choices and more that typically accompany moving from a brand's crop to full frame options.

In contrast, there are times when new gear is only an incremental upgrade. For example, upgrading from a f/1.8 lens to an f/1.4 is going to represent diminishing returns. This is especially true of new mirrorless glass where even the modest f/1.8 are stunning performers.

While there may be some aesthetic advantages to a wider aperture lens, at 2/3 stop difference, realistically there are very few images you couldn't make with the more modest f/1.8 that would have a real world difference, particularly when it comes to paid client work.

Upgrade when you new gear makes work easier

We know that the best tools make work easier. While this is a much more fuzzy factor, upgrading photography gear when it makes your work easier or faster in a meaningful way can be hugely important.

Upgrading to a new laptop that exports a batch of RAW files four times as fast is great example of making work easier. Another example would be upgrading from a DSLR to mirrorless if the advanced eye and face detection AF modes benefit your work.

Both of these examples might not let you make new images or book new clients directly, but they can improve productivity and ease of use to the degree that they are important points of upgrade.

Ultimately, what is easy and “worth it” are entirely dependent on your business and photography needs.

While this is the fuzziest category for deciding on a worthy upgrade, thankfully it's also the one with no wrong answers, too.

When not to buy new gear

So, when shouldn't you buy new photography gear? There are few scenarios where upgrading often isn't essential.

Lateral “upgrades” and diminishing returns

Upgrades that offer offer the same features, range or general specifications are often lateral moves rather than an actual upgrade. This might be trading in an older 70-200mm f/2.8 for the newer version. The new lens may well boast optical improvements, better vibration reduction or similar. That said, for most uses, the differences may not mean much to the paying client — only pixel peepers.

Single generation upgrades

With regard to cameras, upgrading a single generation model often comes with many enhancements. These might be incremental improvements to image quality, resolution, AF performance or speed. However, these are rarely so impactful that it's worth upgrading every one or two years of a product cycle, at least from a business standpoint.

The exception would be when there are longer product cycles, and the model in question would see a remarkable upgrade due to advancements in tech.

When it doesn't truly matter

The honest truth of photography is that the best tools make the work feel effortless. They make photography easier in terms of removing or minimizing constraints or freeing you up to focus on essentials like composition and timing rather than purely technical aspects.

We probably all know photographers who create incredible images with modest gear. Cameras several generations old, a kit lens, you name it. We all intrinsically know that the gear doesn't make the photographer, but it does make the work easier.

Summary

Upgrading your photo should gear should always have a purpose. Outside of collecting gear or just trying new lenses or cameras, many of us require our gear purchases to serve a more utilitarian goals. Hopefully this article has given you a few rationales for deciding what is most important to you as you upgrade or buy new cameras and lenses.

The post When to Upgrade Your Camera Gear appeared first on ishootshows.com.

As I always say, music photography is all about “low light, fast action and high ISO.” All these challenges mean that your camera gear can matter a lot more than in other genres of photography. This especially includes the right lenses for concert photography. At the very least, having the right gear makes the task of music photography much, much easier.

Do you have the right lenses for concert photography? Here's my recommendation on the essential lenses to photograph live music.

Choosing the right lenses for concert photography can seem like a daunting task. In this article, we'll cover the main lenses used by professional live music photographers. With this focus, this does exclude faster prime lenses, which can be extremely useful if not necessary for small, dimly lit clubs.

This list of lenses covers zooms exclusively, due to the fact that the utilitarian nature of a zoom lens has massive benefits for music photography, where the photographing positions, access and time are often extremely limited.

As such, the utility and convenience of zoom lenses is almost universally embraced by professional music photographers. If you're interested in seeing my full kit for music photography, visit my Concert Photography Gear Guide.

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Now, with that out of the way, let's get to the lens recommendations!

The Holy Trinity of f/2.8 Zooms

For professional music photographers, there's really only three main lenses that everyone seems to agree on: the “holy trinity” of f/2.8 zooms. An ultra-wide zoom, a midrange zoom, and a telephoto zoom.

In my kit, this set includes:

• Nikon Z 14-24mm f/2.8
• Nikon Z 24-70mm f/2.8
• Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8

You have everything from ultra-wide at 14mm to telephoto at 200mm covered in three lenses in a constant f/2.8 aperture. This three-lens kit covers nearly everything you could reasonably be expected to photograph as a live music photographer.

For professional music photographers, these three lenses are the ones you'll find in everyone's kits, almost without exception.

Now, let's look at these individual lenses and their uses in music photography, but slightly out of order. Instead, I'll cover these lenses in the order that I recommend you buy them as you build your photography kit.

24-70mm f/2.8 — The Midrange Zoom

A 24-70mm f/2.8 is called a midrange zoom because it covers the middle range of focal lengths, from wide angle to short telephoto. For most general concert photography from a photo pit, where you're not very close or very far from your subjects, this lens is often the most used. The 24mm to 70mm range is simply super useful for general music photography.

While a 24-70mm lens may not have the visual impact of an ultra-wide or a tighter telephoto lens, its often a single “do it all” kind of zoom range. The exceptions to this are for very large festivals where you have photo pit access, but when the stages are so tall that a 70-200mm f/2.8 becomes more useful.

For most photographers, the 24-70mm f/2.8 is the first zoom lens you should buy. It will excel in all but the very smallest venues right up to arenas and amphitheaters.

70-200mm f/2.8 — The Telephoto Zoom

After the midrange, a 70-200mm f/2.8 is an essential lens for live music photography. For most music photographers, this is the second zoom lens you should buy to round out your kit.

The telephoto range here lets you easily close the distance between you and performers, allowing for isolation and beautiful close-ups.

A 70-200mm is most useful for larger venues such as arenas, amphitheaters and festival setups. In addition, a telephoto zoom will be perfect for photographing individual performers and especially members of the band who may be further back, such as drummers. Remember: Don't forget the drummer!

14-24mm f/2.8 — The Ultra-wide Zoom

Lastly, the 14-24mm f/2.8 is the final zoom lens that most concert photographers will want to add to their bag. This is an extreme wide angle lens that gives dramatic perspective distortion.

An ultra-wide lens like the 14-24mm is ideal when you can get very close to a subject or the front of the stage, as well as for capturing atmosphere of a venue and the scale of a crowd at concerts.

My Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8S is the perfect lens for photographing a massive crowd in an arena or amphitheater. It's also one of my favorite lenses to use to photograph drummers when I have stage access.

The reason I recommend buying an ultra-wide lens last is that due the extremely wide perspective, the ideal situations for using such a lens are more limited than the midrange and telephoto zooms we've detailed above. In addition, the look of an ultra-wide lens is very particular and even with the ideal circumstances, the effect can come off as more one note

Summary of Essential Lenses for Concert Photography

These are my recommendations for the essential lenses for concert photography. Almost every single image of my photography portfolio has been made with one of these three lenses.

Of course, there are exceptions to these recommendations. Read by article on the Best Lenses for Live Music Photography for more options including prime lenses, as well as a lot of examples of images made with each lens!

The post Essential Lenses for Concert Photography appeared first on ishootshows.com.

As a fast follow up to the recently firmware 2.0 for the Z 9, Nikon has released Z 9 firmware 2.10. While 2.0 was a massive update with several new features added, the Nikon Z 9 firmware 2.10 is less dramatic but still adds several new features.

In this article, we'll break down the highlights from this newest firmware update for the Nikon Z 9 mirrorless flagship.

Like most firmware updates, the 2.10 includes bug fixes and improvements to existing features. However, there are a few key new features added with this update as well.

Z 9 High-Frequency Flicker Reduction

Nikon has added high-frequency flicker reduction, which is their lead feature in this release. While other features are largely refinements or fixes, the high-frequency flicker reduction is a substantial addition to the Z 9's feature set for those that benefit from this function.

Nikon Z 9's Existing Flickr Reduction

The Z 9 already features a standard flicker reduction that detects flicker in light sources automatically and times the image capture based on that analysis. This standard flicker reduction is designed primarily for light sources in a scene — say, artificial lighting in an interior scene, or lighting in a film studio.

The Benefit of High-Frequency Flicker Reduction

The addition of this new high-frequency flicker reduction (HFFR) now adds even more granular adjustment. Think of it as a manual mode to the existing auto flicker reduction. This new mode is designed to solve for high-frequency flicker that is seen in LED lighting, which can be from key lighting but is often seen in large LED displays. These LED displays may take the form of electronic billboards seen at sports arenas or, for my music photographers, we know these sorts of LED walls are employed heavily in live music productions.

When the shutter speed is out of sync with the refresh rate of the LED, banding can occur. That's where HFFR comes in.

How High-Frequency Flicker Reduction Works

This high-frequency flicker reduction is a feature lets a user choose shutter speeds manually at a very granular level to eliminate flicker in LED light sources. With the new high-frequency flicker reduction mode, users can now set the shutter speed in increments as small as 1/96 EV.

This firmware 2.10 update will let users choose much more precise shutter values. So instead of using a standard 1/250 sec shutter speed, you can select for example:

• 1/250.5
• 1/252.3
• 1/254.2
• 1/256.0
• 1/257.9
• and so forth

The idea behind the extremely granular level of increments is that you can precisely sync with the refresh rate of very high speed refresh displays or light sources.

Traditionally, the solution to solving banding was to use a low enough shutter speed that you enabled the full refresh of the LEDs. For sports and concert photography, where we're often looking to freeze motion and action, this has meant choosing between motion blur or clean LED displays in the background of our images (think electronic billboards or video walls). With HFFR, one massive benefit is the potential to still use high shutter speeds AND eliminate banding from LED lighting.

High-Frequency Flicker Reduction is usable as a custom button function. Press the button to enter the mode. Press the same custom button to exit.

In addition, it's possible to save the HFFR setting, so the camera will remember the shutter speed setting last used. So this makes it very easy to toggle the effect on/off once you've found a shutter speed that eliminates flicker.

This flicker reduction feature is available between shutter speeds of 1/30 and 1/8000.

Nikon Ricci gives a demo of how this works here:

Z 9 Autofocus Improvements with Firmware 2.10

In addition, Nikon boasts autofocus improvements for small subjects and enhanced eye/face-detection AF. This means the ability to lock, track and keep focus on small objects.

As a separate line item, Nikon states that AF is more accurate when using eye/face detection.

The immediate apparent benefits of the improved AF performance are for wildlife photographers photographing small animals — birds and other subjects that may not be filling large portions of the frame.

If I'm going to read into these two improvements, I'm going to extrapolate that we may see that this Z 9 firmware update will also improve eye/face AF at further distances than before. This result seems like a natural combination of being able to track smaller subjects (including eyes/faces) at greater distances than before.

Nikon Z 9 Firmware 2.10 Analysis

For me, the addition of high-frequency flicker reduction and the AF improvements are two fantastic advances. The AF improvements are ones that I can see benefiting everyone.

The improved small subject tracking is a very literal interpretation of engineering results. What I read into this, knowing how understated and literal Nikon's approach is to conveying features, is that the Z 9's already impressive AF has been further improved, and this will help with smaller subjects. Obviously size is relative to the apparent size of an object.

This means better face/eye AF at further distances, as well as photography of subjects that are simply smaller naturally (small animals, etc).

On the high-frequency flicker reduction, as a music photographer, I am extremely excited by this advancement. Video walls or large displays are extremely common for live music production. High shutter speeds often produce visible banding. Even using slower shutter speeds below 1/200 sec may not be enough to resolve, if the shutter speed doesn't perfectly match with the refresh rate.

Now with the new ability to fine tune the shutter speed down to an extremely small increment, I'm excited to see how Nikon has solved for this common issue.

Full List of Nikon Z 9 Firmware 2.10 Improvements.

• _{[High-frequency flicker reduction] has been added to the roles that can be assigned to camera controls using Custom Setting f2 [Custom controls (shooting)]. For more information, see the Supplementary Firmware Update Manual.}
• _{Autofocus is now better at tracking small subjects.}
• _{Autofocus now produces more accurate results with human portrait subjects detected via eye/face-detection AF with [Continuous AF] selected for [Focus mode].}
• _{Fixed an issue that resulted in the camera focusing on the background when [Single-point AF], [Dynamic-area AF (S)], or [Dynamic-area AF (M)] was selected for [AF-area mode], or when [Wide-area AF (C1)] or [Wide-area AF (C2)] was selected with a custom focus-area size of [1×1].}
• _{You can now expect better results from vibration reduction during panning shots taken with the camera pointing up or down and an option other than [Off] selected for [Vibration reduction].}
  
• _{Fixed the following issues:}
  • _{With certain Z mount lenses, choosing [Focus] for Custom Setting a1 [AF-C priority selection] with [Continuous AF] selected for [Focus mode] would sometimes disable the shutter release even when the subject was in focus.}
  • _{[Aperture lock] could not be selected for Custom Setting f4 [Control lock] in modes M and A when an F mount lens was attached.}
  • _{Assigning [Recall shooting functions] to a control using Custom Setting f2 [Custom controls (shooting)] would render [Save current settings] unavailable when an F mount lens equipped with an aperture ring and power contacts was attached.}
  • _{Auto distortion control would sometimes not be applied to pictures taken with [ON] selected for [Auto distortion control] in the [PHOTO SHOOTING MENU].}
  • _{The camera would not recognize custom Picture Controls saved to a memory card using the Mac edition of Picture Control Utility 2.}
  • _{Recalling shooting functions would sometimes result in unexpected changes to exposure if:}
    • _{ISO sensitivity was set to a fixed value in mode M,}
    • _{an option other than [Exposure maintenance off] was selected for Custom Setting b7 [Keep exp. when f/ changes], and}
    • _{[Recall shooting functions] or [Recall shooting functions (hold)] was assigned to a control using Custom Setting f2 [Custom controls (shooting)] both with no option (or mode M only) selected for [Shooting mode] and with no check next to any of [Shutter speed], [Aperture], and [ISO sensitivity settings].}
  • _{When [Recall shooting functions] or [Recall shooting functions (hold)] was assigned to a control using Custom Setting f2 [Custom controls (shooting)], subject detection would not function as expected if the setting for [AF subject detection options] recalled by pressing the control differed from the option currently selected for [AF subject detection options] in the [PHOTO SHOOTING MENU].}

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Looking for a replacement to your MacBook Pro AC adapter? You can not only ditch the bulk and weight, but you can get even more ports. The uGreen 100w and 65w options are dramatically smaller and offer even more functionality than the OEM charger. Here's why these two GaN chargers for MacBook are the best you can get.

GaN Chargers for MacBook

Apple has made strides in improving the charging bricks for its MacBook Pros, bringing back MagSafe and switching to a USB-C connector. But as battery capacity goes up, the chargers have gotten even more massive.

The current 16″ M1 MacBook Pro features a huge 140w AC adapter. It offers a ton of power to charge your MacBook quickly and also service power to any peripherals you connect to it, but it's large and bulky.

GaN chargers are a new type of chargers that use gallium nitride (GaN) as a superconductor. The benefit of GaN is that it produces less heat than other conductors used in chargers. This means the components can be more tightly spaced and thus more compact.

In addition, GaN chargers also often offer more ports, a great benefit if you're a photographer on the go connecting multiple devices. I've already mentioned uGreen GaN chargers as a must-have in Essential Gear for Tour Photography. Here's more on why I love these chargers.

Size Comparison

Here's a size comparison between the stock Apple 140w charger and the uGreen 100w and 65w GaN chargers. As you can see, the uGreen 100w charger is about 2/3 the size of the Apple charger. The uGreen 65w charger is about 1/3 the size.

And here's another view to show the ports of these chargers as well as the relative thickness.

If you travel with your MacBook Pro, the size difference is noticeable. More than that, the new generation of GaN chargers like the uGreen models offer increased functionality as well.

USB-C and USB-A Port Selection

Unlike the single USB-C port on the stock Apple charger, the uGreen models offer both USB-C and USB-A.

The 100w charger features 3x USB-C ports and 1x USB-A. The 65w model features 2x USB-C ports and 1x USB-A.

What multiple ports means for you is that you can charge multiple devices at once. If you travel with your laptop, this means that a multi-port charger can replace the adapters for your laptop, tablet and phone, all in a single unit.

In practice, this consolidation saves a ton of space in your gear bag and reduces clutter. Instead of fishing around for multiple adapters, you can just grab a single chager.

Charging Performance

The 100w model features a ton of options. Using a single port, you can charge at a full 100w, or balance between other output modes.

Charging multiple devices at once will mean that your may charge more slowly. In addition, if you're using the latest MacBook Pro with a 140w charger, the 100w charger will not charge as quickly.

Still, I feel like this is a relatively small tradeoff for the flexibility of being able to have access to multiple ports when you need it.

100w will charge and sustain your laptop just fine for nearly all instances. It'll just take longer to reach full charge than the 140w default MacBook Pro 16″ charger.

Arguably, the lower wattage and slower charge is actually better for the battery long term. Personally, the one time a super fast charge is needed is when the batter is already depleted and I'm in a hurry to be mobile without the ability to charge (think needing to charge up before a flight on an airlines without AC outlets).

For most other instances, I'm more likely looking to trickle charge and/or just not draw down on the battery excessively.

Here, the benefits of these small GaN chargers are perfect. If you're looking for a GaN charger for your MacBook Pro or MacBook, for me the uGreen 100w and uGreen 62w chargers are perfect. The additional ports, smaller size and much lighter weight far outweigh the one advantage of the OEM charger's higher wattage.

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