I could carry more batteries, but I’d rather not keep changing them. So the solution for many is a battery pack. Often the cheaper option is to opt for a AA cell powered device. If I made my living using flash I’d probably opt for a Quantum or similar.

Being a cheapskate I like bargains, but I also prefer original equipment (excluding batteries). So I have a couple of original options for my Canon Speedlites:

2nd Hand CP-E2/3 between £60 – £100 if you can find one.
Canon CP-E4 at around £150

Either way it can’t compete with an Ebay price of £21 for a clone of the EP-N4.

Anyway on with a mini review.

The device itself does everything you’d want from a small compact device. It provides additional power for a compatible speedlite (550/580/580mkII/MR-14/MT-24). The refresh speed of the flash does depend on the flash power, at 1/1 power ratio you will still need to wait for flash to charge for the next shot, but it will be much faster to refresh compared to the internal batteries.

Build of compatible devices is always a little bit of a worry. Just looking at the device you can tell it’s not a quality piece of work, the plastic looks cheaper and finish on some edges isn’t great. In fact the battery cage needed a little trimming to fit better once the batteries were installed. To add to battery pack woes once inserted in to the device it requires a squeeze to slide the end clip in. Once it’s lined up and in place it holds fine.

So on the face it good at what it does, but cheap build. To be honest I have no issue with that. It cost £21 including shipping (From the UK) and arrived in 2 days.

Looking closer at the product I’ve noticed the weather sealed plug and battery flap. However the instructions indicate it’s not water proof – so I guess using it in a pond is out then. Seriously though, my Eos 5d isn’t water proof either and I’m perfectly happy to use it in light rain. Same applies to this pack. Most times when used it’s likely to be in the supplied pouch and attached to my belt.

Once fitted into the supplied carry case it’s easy to slip into a jacket pocket or put on your belt. You only really notice you have it once you install the 8 AA batteries.

So overall – Cheap product, cheap build, cheap price. With the predicted use this is going to get it should last a while. Maybe for those that are professional it may not take the wear and tear that a Canon branded device may take.

Weather Sealed Plug?

DIY trimming

Size comparison with the original Canon CP-E2

Case, also comes with a screw to attach to the tripod thread on the camera.

Caveat: People are wary of 3rd power sources – often scare stories from Camera shops will tell tale of exploding batteries/damaged cameras etc. I can understand that, I note that this device is CE certified so that may provide some reassurance – I make no guarantee that this product wont damage anything. Though if they did I’m fairly sure we would have heard more about it.

Also if you go down the Ebay route to purchase be aware that many different brands are available, often shipping from China/Hongkong – so you may be liable for import duty etc.

That’s the current dilemma, do I fry myself financially and spend £150 on a Canon branded battery pack for my speedlites or get a cheap ‘replacement’ from Ebay for £20

Well….

….in this case price won the day. O.k. it’s probably not weather shielded and the quality is probably missing in places. But the reality is it’s just a battery pack but it’s £120 cheaper from an almost identical Canon branded item. I do prefer Canon branded items, however the official one is a joke in terms of price.

So will it fry me? possibly – but only the same way the official product can. I know what this product does, it provides a more powerful voltage directly to the flash head. In certain circumstances it could be quite dangerous – so I will not be using it in a pond, or heavy rain.

To accompany tonights typing I’m listening to Martin Gore’s Counterfeit EP.

/edit It arrived, and to confirm – I haven’t fried myself yet. Noticed that the device appears to be weather sealed at both the battery end and the plug. So maybe I can go flashing in the pond then :p

Well the mouse has evolved from the single button mice of the past to current Apple Magic mouse with multitouch options (and more gestures if you use the right software). But it’s reached a limit. You can add more buttons and scrolling devices, but the one single limitation is size. Too small and it’s cramped, too big and you get the opposite effect. So the major limitation is surface.

Anyone that’s installed BetterTouchTool for the Magic Mouse will understand about surface limitations. It’s a good mouse (crap for games), but gestures over 2 fingers need more precision.

Next mouse device is the laptop trackpad, most users of laptops (me included) hated the traditional tiny mouse trackpad. I personally preferred the little keyboard ‘nipple’ mouse (couldn’t think of a better term to be honest) over the older trackpads.

Old trackpads were small, only recognised one finger press and had limited control. Later pads recognised up/down left/right scrolling, however this was limited to selected mouse areas only.

The Macbook trackpad improved greatly on this, multi touch control (though in part this was because Apple only wanted one button) and scrolling. Plus with the macbook the pad was larger so you wouldn’t have to keep lifting off and repositioning your digit.

The Magic Trackpad is essentially it’s a bigger trackpad taken from a Macbook. It works in a exactly the same way. So why get one for a desktop? This is a harder question to answer, though if you’ve used a Macbook trackpad it’s probably easier to understand. So if you’ve not tried a Macbook you’ll probably hate the Magic Trackpad already, but I urge you to try it out.

But for those that use a Macbook you’ll know how easy gestures are and once you get the same option for a desktop it sort of makes sense. The System Preferences screen is probably a better ‘table’ to list the individual gestures…….

The device itself is probably overpriced at £60, but it’s inline with most Apple peripheral prices so you do expect it. Packaging as with most Apple products is minimal – slim box with cellophane wrapped product and a small manual. Batteries come preinstalled to minimise package bulk.

Synchronising the bluetooth device is straight forward. Turn on the device and it’s detected – it only functions as a basic mouse at first, this is because a software update is required to change system preferences. Once updated it works as you’d expect a trackpad to do. System Preferences contains the usual mouse type settings as well as the multi touch gesture settings. This is where I have my only gripe with the Magic Trackpad. The gestures are fairly rigid, for example the 4 finger left/right swipe can only be set to Switch Applications (same as alt-Tab/Cmd-Tab). Now I do not want Switch Apps, I’d rather have option to switch Spaces sessions instead. Unfortunately Apple have not provided a solution to do this. Looks like I may have to install BetterTouchTool to help me with this task.

A couple of operational issues I’ve noticed are:

My wrist aches a little from using it
Click is seems a little stiff
Potentially poor battery life

With regards to my wrist, it’s mostly likely to be a reaction to a new position. I think time will tell, after about 4 days it doesn’t seem as bad as on day 1.

The click seems a little heavy at the moment, unlike the Macbook the pad doesn’t pivot to switch. The click is registered by the two rubber feet at the front of the trackpad. I guess as with my wrist it’ll loosen in time. You can enable tap to click, but I haven’t as I’ve always hated that feature.

Battery life is a hard one to judge – I can only base it on what my Magic Mouse is like. I get about 2 months use out of the 2 Alkaline batteries I use (cheapo Ikea branded ones) – so I could potentially be going through 12 batteries a year. Plus add in the fact I’ve got a Apple Mini BT keyboard I might even double that. (I notice Apple have released their own rechargables and charger).

Slight annoyance is the powering it on, well only annoying when you forget to do it. Though power up is a simple press on the right hand side. The hidden LED illuminates to show you the device is alive.

So has it replaced the mouse?

I’ll answer it in two parts:

1) Has it replaced my Magic Mouse: yes, in fact I’ll probably be ebaying my Magic Mouse quite soon. The mouse functions are natural to me after using a Macbook for a number of years. The surface of the trackpad is smooth and only requires a light touch. My daughter got used to it straight away, that’s how natural it is. It is literally point and click.

2) Has it replaced a mouse for gaming: no, I doubt it’ll be any good for HalfLife2 so I’ll keep my Microsoft Basic Optical mouse for that.

It’s not all too dissimilar to a post I made last year, on MacRumors.com. It was an Apple wish list post and I said……

And the final product…..

Looks nice, I was wrong with the overlays – maybe that’s Magic TouchPad!

I’ve not seen it in the flesh yet as it seems not to have made it to Brum. Still hopefully I’ll get to see one tomorrow (probably purchasing it as well).

Might be ebaying the Mighty Mouse then!

/edit

Was in the Apple Store Solihull today – I asked – it was in stock, yeah you already know what happened……

Just trying to get use to tap or click to operate single click. Probably will keep changing this bit. Only issue at the moment is the lack of customisable gestures. Most are fine, though I’d change the task switcher to a spaces switcher.

Hello, this is Pete with one of my occasional retail-related posts on the CiB blog.

It’s been 6 weeks since the Created in Birmingham shop closed. Since then I’ve had some time off to recover and have started thinking about beginning the process of commencing planning for the second shop, tentatively scheduled for late September.

From this you may infer a hint of uncertainly, a reticence almost, so I’ll cut to the chase.

* I think there’s a good case for there to be another CiB Shop.
* I don’t feel capable of doing a large swathe of the things necessary to get to that stage.
* And, if I’m honest, I’m not sure I want to own and run a shop in the long term.

Developing this further:

* The CiB Shop, at it’s zenith, was powered by the community. Without diminishing the time, effort and investment we put into the shop we couldn’t have done it without the incredible support of our suppliers, customers and supporters across the city. The challenge for me was shepherding this torrent.
* Since closing there’s been a huge desire for the shop to happen again. Barely a day goes by without someone asking when it’s going to to open.

I had a meeting last week with the Economic Development bod at the Council. It was a useful, if sobering, meeting but one thing stuck in my head and wouldn’t go away.

* If the community wants this to happen they should invest in it.

That doesn’t necessarily mean a financial investment. But it does mean a constructive investment in making the shop happen and ensuring it’s sustainability.

Maybe I’m suggesting a co-op or collective model, coupled with the benevolent dictatorship necessary to get a bunch of arty types functioning together. But whatever the method I think we need to go in mob handed.

I’ve booked the upstairs of The Victoria on Monday 26th July. The meeting will start at 7.00pm to allow folk to travel in. I’ll start with a short presentation covering what we’ve got and what the current options are and then chair a big discussion. With any luck there’ll be people in the room who are good at the things I’m rubbish at and who want to do the things I don’t. And then we can have a shop.

To book a ticket for the venue click here. Looks as if there’s around 50 or so already attending so it might be packed. However it is important, so if you valued the CIB shop and want to contribute then please book and turn up. A little late notice I know, but at least I did it before the event.