This is the Lens Kit from Peak Design. It's a fairly new product that I've been using for several months now. This is an answer to a problem that I had of quickly and safely changing lens when shooting events and I'll describe how it works further down the page. The basic concept is that it helps you change lens quickly without having to go into your camera bag and it also protects your rear lens elements. I've seen other solutions but this one is easily the most elegant and fastest to use.

The Lens Kit holds up to two lens. The way it works is that you have one lens on the kit and one on your camera. When you want to switch between lens you take the lens off your camera, put it on the kit, spin the clip around, take off the other lens from the kit and put it on your camera. This takes only a few seconds and with a bit of practice you can even do it one handed. 

For me this is a great tool for shooting events. I'm usually switching between wide angle and medium telephoto quite frequently and before buying this kit it was a bit of a hassle. I'd tried various tactics but this one is the solution I was looking for. Using the Lens Kit means I only have to use one camera because swapping lens is fast and safe. I can often leave my gear bag somewhere safe with just one camera and my two lens while I mingle in what is usually a busy crowded area. 

After using this kit at several events I can say that I'm pleased with its performance and it works well. Problems I had with it were: Getting used to using it, getting skin from my finger trapped in the rotating section more than once and food from the usual buffets at events fall into the the top of the clip. Nothing's perfect but this is by far the best solution I've used.

You can wear this clip with most styles of clothing and doesn't look ridiculous with a suit if you're having to dress formally. You will need to be wearing a sturdy belt if you want to clip it to your waist. It's possible to have it hanging from a Peak Design strap if you don't have a belt but I find that gets in my way. Still it's an option and it might be great for your way of working. Another option is to clip the kit to the outside of your bag, possibly on the strap if you bag has no other anchor points and work from there. 

You can buy the Lens Kit on its own if you've already got the Peak Design Capture Clip or you can buy it as a set if you don't. I already have a Capture Clip Pro so I was able to save a bit of money and buy the Capture Lens on its own. You'll need to be using either Nikon, Canon or Sony lenses to be able to use the Capture Lens, at the time of writing these are the only systems supported. 

​Below is a video that shows how to use the Lens Kit with the Capture Clip. 

For more information about the Capture Clip see my post from 18/3/2016 about the Peak Design Capture Pro. You'll see that the clip can be also used separately from the Lens Kit as a method to clip your camera for easy access. 

If you want to know more about the Lens Kit then head over to the Peak Design website at this page: https://www.peakdesign.com/lens-kit 

Or for the full kit that includes both Capture Lens and Lens Kit check out this page: https://www.peakdesign.com/capturelens/

I took photos of the official opening of the new Environment Centre at Byng Road today. This building replaces the old centre and it is a collaboration between two worthy charities, Noah's Ark Children's Hospice and the Friends of Barnet Countryside Centre. 

Google are now giving away their Nik Collection plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom free of charge. These are an excellent set of plugins and at the current price who wouldn't want them. 

You can get them on this page while the offer lasts

You get the full collection of:
Analog Efex Pro. A filter that recreates a traditional film and lenses look
Color Efex Pro. A comprehensive set of filters for color correction, retouching, and creative effects.
Silver Efex Pro. One of the best colour to black and white conversion filters. 
Viveza. Helps you selectively adjust the tone of your images.
HDR Efex Pro. An excellent tool that helps you create HDR (High Dynamic Range) images in Photoshop.
Sharpener Pro. An advanced filter that helps you fine tune the sharpening of your images.
Dfine. A filter that removes noise from your images. Like the other filters you can apply the effect locally or over the entire image. 

While it's great that these professional grade filters are now free I wonder if it means that Google are going to stop developing them and leave them to rot. It won't be the first time they've bought out a company, used parts of their technology that they like and dumped the rest. 

I thought I'd give the Capture Pro with the Arca Swiss plate a try as a reputable company were offering quite a good discount at the moment on one. They are probably offering a discount on the Arca Swiss version of Capture Pro because Peak Design are discontinuing the plate. I'm not sure why they are discontinuing the Arca Swiss only plate in favour of the dual Pro Plate, personally I would much rather have the Arca Swiss plate (which is what I got). The dual plate does have the advantage of being able to be converted to use on Manfrotto's RC2 quick release system I suppose.

If you get the Pro Plate you have to screw two little adapters into the side of the plate so it will fit a Manfrotto RC2 head. Without the adapters it is an Arca Swiss only plate. Putting the adapters on is only useful if you have a few Manfrotto RC2 heads around that you'd like to attach your plate to. You don't have to put the adapters on if you don't need them, so I guess the logic at Peak Design is that you get the best of both worlds with the Pro Plate and they don't have to make different plates. You should note that the Pro Plate won't work with other manufacturer's own brand quick release systems. ​

Once the adapters are on, although it means you can mount the plate on both an Arca Swiss head and an RC2 plate, you can only do it from two directions instead of four directions because the plate will no longer be square. You might find this to be inconvenient. Also it won't work with all RC2 heads.

One thing you can do is to convert your Manfrotto heads to Arca Swiss which is the way to go in my opinion but this might get expensive if you have quite a few RC2 heads around. If you've only got one or two then you can buy either a very inexpensive Chinese Arca Swiss plate, use the reasonably priced FotoPanda (Desmond in the USA) plate or go expensive with a Really Right Stuff plate

I might really take to using the Capture Pro or it might just end up being something that gets put in the back of my gear drawer and pulled out now and again. 

It will be something I can also use with my Go Pro and if I buy the new Peak Design Lens Kit that works with Capture it will be very useful indeed. In fact the Lens Kit is something I can really see myself using. 

Mounting the Capture Pro to the top of a monopod might be a cool way to use it too. I won't be able to do portrait orientation with it if I stick it directly on the monopod. I don't currently need to be able to screw it to my monopod but it's handy to know it can be done and I might find it a useful way of using it.

For more information about the Capture Pro check out the manufacturer's website

​I recently bought the Tokina ATX-116 Pro DXII lens. This is an 11-16mm f2.8 lens. I'm not usually very fond of third party lens for my Nikon but Nikon don't make a lens like this one.

Despite the fact that this lens is in the reasonably priced lens bracket it feels like a pro lens. It has a metal mount and body. It is heavy and quite big. It is designed for DX sensors, at a pinch it can be used on an FX camera but you'll get vignetting at the edges if you go wide full frame. 

It has a quiet built in motor so you can use it with cameras that don't have a built in auto focus motor. Focusing is fairly quick and because it's a constant f2.8 you get a good view and consistent exposure. 

The zoom range is quite small but you can go for the 11-20mm version of this lens if you want more range. For me 11-16mm covered the range that I don't have covered already. 

Even though this lens is very wide, any wider and you are starting to get into fisheye lens territory, it handles distortion and chromatic aberration well.

Below is a test shot of the side of a shed where you can see lots of horizontal lines. This shot is shrunk down for the web of course but the distortion and chromatic aberration are uncorrected. This is shot
​at 11mm, which is very wide. 

We can see distortion of course and that is to be expected but in my opinion for a shot at 11mm it's pretty good.

The lens comes with a sturdy lens hood which apparently will be needed because flare can be an issue with this lens, at a least in the DXI version. I haven't had chance to experience that issue yet but in this newer version of the lens (DXII) Tokina have made an effort to improve the problem. 

I've found this lens to be sharp and I consider it to be what they say it is, a pro lens. Tokina don't make many lens and they seem to specialize in ultra wide angle lens. They are part of the same company that own Hoya and they use Hoya glass in their lenses, which I understand Nikon use also. Unusually for a lens in this price bracket it is made in Japan rather than China.

In conclusion I think that this is an excellent lens that fills a spot that Nikon haven't catered for. It feels solid and professional, looks good and does the job. On the downside it is big and heavy.

Other great features on this lens are internal focusing and internal zooming. The lens doesn't move externally

The unique clutch mechanism for switching from auto to manual focus is an interesting innovation that works well. I think I prefer the system on Nikon's pro lenses myself but I like this too.

Here's a link to the Tokina page for this lens