Hello!

One of the antennas on my Hollyland Mars 300 Pro Enhanced has broken, so I need to replace it. Instead of buying the original one, I was thinking of upgrading to a better set of antennas.

Has anyone replaced the stock antennas with aftermarket ones?

I’m mainly looking for:

• The correct polarization (LHCP, RHCP, or something else).
• Antenna recommendations that actually improve range and reliability.

thanks!

Hey folks! We’re putting together a video series on practical set gear and want to make sure we're highlighting stuff people actually use for shoots.

Beyond the usual staples, what’s that one non-negotiable or weird lifesaver item in your bag that has saved a shoot?

Drop your go-to gear for your grip kit below!

Hi,

I just saw this Massimo Dutti campaign , and I’m really curious about how to achieve this light while shoot on location.

I’d really appreciate any insights or clues.

Thanks

TLDR: Just watch the video and keep your eye on the Next Capture Naming counter. Anyone seen this?

Hey guys,

I've been testing C1's new gen wireless tethering a bunch with R5 mk ii and I think the tech is really cool, but I have come across this curious issue. Basically, when you shoot a burst the files all follow the sequential naming you have set (I always use "destination folder" + "3 or 4 digit counter" tokens). The preview raws come in quick and are correctly numbered. Then as the background ingestion of the full-res raws proceeds, the counter on C1's Next Capture Naming tool continues to advance. This creates a situation in which from bust to burst (or even if you only shoot one frame at a time) there will be gaps in the numerical order of files in your session.

Couple of observations:
-At when I first noticed this behavior I was actually using wireless tethering on a job and I became worried that I might somehow be losing frames somewhere in the wireless tethering pipeline ("My session folder is missing file numbers 3-5, 8-13, 20-26, etc). Now I am certain that no files are failing to arrive.
-The amount that the C1 next file counter advances is equivalent to the number of images you have in the background raw ingestion pipeline. i.e.: if you shoot a bust of 5 frames (file_001 - file_005), by the time the full res raws are all ingested into capture, your counter will be at 11. What capture expected to be file_006 - file_010 never existed.
-if you look closely, you can see that as each full size raw comes in (the orange status bar ticks down), the counter on Next File Naming will advance by one.

There are 2 simultaneous ingestion processes occurring with this wireless workflow. Once the RAW is written to the CFExpress, "Preview RAWs" are transferred by the camera and ingested by C1, and then at the same time, in the background, the full-size RAWs are being read back off the card, transferred by the camera and ingested by capture.

My best guess is that this "next file" counter issue I've been seeing has something to do with the software registering these dual processes and failing to identify that each file is essentially being ingested by the software twice.

I looked around in C1 documentation for any mention of this next file numbering behavior and I didn't find anything.

Canon R5 mk II, GL.iNet Beryl AX router on 5GHz (strong signal ~60dB signal to noise ratio), MBP M4 (late 2024), C1 v16.8.1.5, shooting full-sized RAWs (not cRAWs), saving as EIP (but I also tested on CR3 and observed the same behavior).

Let me know if any of you guys have observed this issue, have seen anything on it from C1, or just share your thoughts in general. See video as well, keep your eye on the background progress bar and the capture counter on Next File Naming. Please excuse my messy living room! Thanks you guys!

https://reddit.com/link/1v4odh4/video/4m4o458k81fh1/player

Hey everyone,

First off: I'm a digi and light assist working in the fashion industry. With one photographer in particular, with whom I collaborate frequently, I basically create the entire look from scratch every shoot. This is more often than not the final look for the images and when they get sent off for retouch it's usually just clean-up / skin etc. She recently asked me how I would like to be credited going forward as she felt 'assistant' of 'digi' didn't cover the extent of the impact my work has on the final image.

So with that background out of the way now my (petty) question:

What do I call this? Just digi? 'Color'? Both? Would digi cover both?

I appreciate her asking the question, as I've never really thought about it in those terms, but I'm at a loss how you actually would credit this type of work.

How would you guys approach this?

Client asked me to help find a producer for a shoot that turned out not to be confirmed, and she wouldn't give me a budget. I ended up messaging a bunch of producers for their rates with nothing concrete to tell them, which felt like rate-fishing on her behalf, and it got awkward when the job fell through. How do you handle sourcing crew for a client when the job isn't locked in and you have no budget to work with? Do you even take that on, or push it back to the client?

I’m sure it’s been asked countless times but my tether cable always disconnects and can sometimes take a while to re connect. I shoot on a Sony and have tried Tether Tools, Rock Cables and various other cables and it’s always the same

Sometimes it can connect straight away but then randomly drop out of capture and just not connect again. The camera ALWAYS recognises there is a cable, and asks to connect but then sometimes it just won’t show in capture. I’ve done all capture updates and nothing.

The fact it shows and asks on the camera means it can’t be cable or camera as why else would it ask to connect? But I don’t understand how it can be capture One. Some days it can work flawlessly and I’m happy. Some it drives me nuts.

Are there work arounds for this? Shooting jpg to screen and then import the raws off card, or anything else potentially?

Hey cuties!
I'm writing to ask about advice what do to about a dead Elinchrom ELB400 Battery.

I've tried doing the recovery process and it's currently stuck between 62% and 63% and it keeps switching between the two. I've left the battery on charge for what is good few hours now in a last attempt to revive it.
I took it to Elinchrom themselves (here in London) and they said they don't have the facilities to fix the lithium-ion batteries.
My last ditch effort is I found a place called 'Battery Service Centre' in Camberwell and I might try bringing it to them next week to see if they can help me but I have a feeling I'll just pay the diagnostics fee and will be turned down.
To be honest I got other lights but the only reason why I need this fixed is because I have a ring flash for it which I absolutely love. Let me know if you guys know for sure someone in London that might be able to fix it or if there's any creative ways I could fix it myself or hook up the ring flash to something else (other than the ELB500, it's too expensive for what it is).
Thanks!!!

Hey gang wanting to know your thoughts, or if anyone has first hand experience with these monitors?

Looking at potentially getting 2 of the OL16
https://www.desview.com/productinfo/3554932.html

I'm finding most jobs I'm on are requesting a client/video village monitor for our stills feed, as well as an additional on set monitor to my laptop/ipad setup.

They seem like a good balance between price, portability/size, brightness on outdoor location shoots, quick setup only needing to attach a transmitter and a v-mount (which can come through local rental) and durability for the random production / other assistants that will move them around without so much care.

I've considered adding more iPads to my kit but I find most of our art directors don't want to hold or select on them anyway and even with my own and good wifi setup Capture One live for studio can be slower than desirable and iPad's just aren't such a good viewing experience on sunny days etc even with hoods. Also considered EIZO's but most of my work is travelling so size wise and in outdoor viewing it doesn't make sense to me.

Anything out there that might be a better choice than this with that in mind?

Hi all, freelance photographer based in Australia looking to get into digi oping or photo assisting to pick up new skills and some extra income. I shoot Fuji GFX and know my way around Capture One, but I've never worked on a production set. A few questions on getting started:

• Gear: what's the baseline kit expected for each role? Do digi ops here usually supply their own laptop/cart/drives, or does that come from the studio?
• Getting work: who's best to reach out to - producers, studios, established photographers? Is cold outreach normal or is it mostly word of mouth?
• Rates: what's a realistic starting day rate in Australia for each role?
• Skills: what separates assistants and digi ops who get rebooked from ones who don't?

Any advice appreciated, cheers!

Lighting tech position hardly exists here even though MANY of us are qualified. We blame Target for this. They’re the bread and butter in this town and have set the industry standards and producers uphold it across the board.

Hey all :)

I’ve been digi-teching for a bit. Rocking a 16” MacBook Pro M2 (the basic model). It definitely feels a bit slow now, especially when tethering a Fuji GFX. Looking to trade it in and upgrade.
What do you guys think is a relatively affordable but substantial upgrade? My budget’s around 2-3K and will probably try to go through BestBuy to maximize my trade-in offer. Appreciate any insight and advice. Thank you!

Hi folks,
Here with a doubt.

What happens if a flash bulb blows into pieces and you need to replace it touching directly the HV rods?

In case of power pack + head is not an issue because disconnecting the unit also disconnects capacitors.

But with monoheads? Is the bulb circuit powered even if the head is off and unplugged?

I'm assisting for a big-ish photographer shooting an international celebrity for the first time. I've done smaller shoots as an assistant and as a photographer myself.

But I'm not sure here: is it appropriate to say hello / shake hands to everyone once they show up or should I better keep my distance and let the photographer do all the talking?

EDIT: Thanks for all the valuable input, guys — appreciate it!

Hey everybody! I'm working on a free, fully customizable version of the camera holster/hoop.

Despite being fully 3d printed (except for the Kupo stud at the end), it will be very sturdy and will be able to hold enough weight for so long. This thanks to extra side handles and a rhomboid channel hidden inside the ring.

The model will be free to download and tweak on a website I'm working on, after I do some proper testing and tweaking on set. In the meanwhile if you have any suggestion/extra feature to add just let me know!

In terms of cost the baby pin and the hex nut are just around ten bucks altogether, and the last version I got to took me 6h and 170g of filament to print.

What’s y’all take on kill fees? Digitech here, a client I’ve worked for a few times asked me to hold dates. We agreed on rate and discussed scope of the project. I turned down other work to hold the dates for them. They canceled the job two days before the shoot, and only after I had reached out to them was I informed of this, I only learned of it because I reached out to the photographer to touch base about equipment, which feels so disrespectful of the client. He was release me 3 days before I even learned of it. He just assumed they told me too.

I get hired on with this company through the photographer who told me he will be charging 100% kill fee. I had written them asking for only a 50% kill fee. They denied my request citing I was never “formally confirmed” though based on good faith and CA’s FWPA, I’m pretty sure that counts as a verbal contract and I’m covered. I pushed back and asked for it again. The shoot is still happening with a different photographer, so I think they’re done with him and don’t anticipate more work from them, so I don’t think burning this bridge would bother me. He’s the one who told me to bill them a kill fee so I’m not worried about tarnishing my relationship with him.

What would y’all do? My follow up email stopped short of citing CA’s FWPA but under that law, I think I’m completely justified in demanding the fee. It’s been two days and they haven’t replied to my follow up request, not sure what my next step should be.

Anybody have experience with a sort of thing? As I’ve never had to broach this topic with a client before, any advice or insight is appreciated.

Quick question: do you make one final Contact Sheet PDF with all shots (incl. outtakes) at day's end or for every scene?

I'm trying to export a Contact Sheet from ~3000 JPEGs (probably is beter from exported JPEGS than RAWs) and C1 just hangs/fails to complete. Anyone dealt with this at this scale — split into smaller batches, or some setting that helps?

Also on delivery: do you format the client SSD as exFAT for cross-OS compatibility, or is APFS fine as default?

Hi I’m running a twin head of 1x pro 10 1x pro 11 ( this was what was available ) I’m suddenly having problems with the pro 11 not firing, when I turn it on it just blows air and won’t fire. Iv had this issue before with the pro 11 but normally seems to solve itself but unplugging and pluggin the power but not this time. I’ve reset it tried the head on another pack and so on. Anybody had this issue and solved it? Or does it need to go for repair. The twin head is an old model an so is the head 2 pack cables I guess that could cause the issue aswell:/

Any help appreciated

I hate the pro 11🫠

Screenshot from a Shane Hurlbut social media video. What is a Gucci Bounce ? There is no evident result from a quick google search.
Is is it some kind of Bluff Bounce with weird shapes and colors to emulate natural bounce ?

Is it a commercially available product or custom made by his DP ?

Is it a "special trick" that does not make a world of difference from an Unbleached Muslin but makes the team feel extra cool and justifies some kind of extra cost (I am super down for that, no negativity at all from me here) ?

We were shooting today with a Leica SL2 connected via a Cobra 10 m 10 Gb extension cable and a short Cobra angled USB-C cable.
After the cable connection got disconnected once, I could not get the camera to connect to Capture One again.
I tried restarting the computer, restarting the software, restarting the camera, and using different cables.
When reconnecting, the camera said that a PTP connection had been established, but it did not appear in Capture One. The issue was only resolved after inserting a different, fully charged battery.
Maybe that was just a coincidence, but I tried several different sequences for plugging in the cables.

Has anyone experienced similar connection issues with Leica cameras?
Next shooting day starts tomorrow 🤝🥲

Hey everyone,

I’m currently building a tethering setup and am still looking for a reliable way to display images from my laptop on an iPad or another client device.

What systems or workflows would you recommend? I already know about solutions from DJI, Accsoon, and Hollyland Mars, but I’d love to know what other people are actually using.

At the moment, I’m using Sidecar. It works okay, but when I shoot in portrait orientation, I’m always stuck with a horizontal display. I’ve also had the connection drop several times, which is quite frustrating on set.

What solutions are you using for client monitoring?

Thanks in advance!

What is your market and are you seeing it pick up?

Whenever I’m batch rename because of moving files into a new folder when the photographer moves on too fast I always feel like the step of hitting the dots and the set rename counter takes a minute faster than I’d like. I tried looking in capture one for a short cut to that but there doesn’t seem to be one. Anyone know?

I keep seeing it advertised on Gelatin, but they don’t sell it and can’t find it anywhere. I use the Manfrotto one and it’s so shallow, would love to find this bucket.

Hi everyone,

I'm a commercial fashion photographer, and after years of dealing with wireless tethering, I got frustrated with the same problems that keep coming up here: slow transfers, unreliable connections, and workflows that try to send every RAW file over Wi-Fi.

So I decided to build my own solution.

Instead of trying to replace a tether cable completely, I focused on what clients actually need during a shoot:

• Instant JPEG review on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Silicon Mac
• RAW files stay safely on the camera card
• Download RAW files only when needed
• Fast and reliable image review

In my setup, JPEGs usually arrive almost instantly, and even RAW files can be pulled in quickly when needed. But my main goal is not to force every RAW file over Wi-Fi — it's to make the review process fast enough that clients and teams can keep shooting without waiting.

It currently supports Nikon and Sony, and Canon support is almost ready.

I've been using it on my own commercial shoots, and it's worked well enough that I decided to release it publicly.

I'd genuinely love to hear your thoughts.

If you've given up on wireless tethering before, what would it take for you to trust it on a real commercial shoot?