Zeikos ZE-CBG50 Professional Battery Power Grip Review (Street Price $69)

Features:

Introduction

After getting my hands on the Ziekos 72″ Tripod and being so impressed with the quality to cost ratio, I decided to give them a try with a couple other products. My Opteka Battery Grip has a broken shutter button so I thought a cheap grip from Zeikos would be a perfect replacement. It’s certainly no Canon Battery Grip (lacks the logo), but it’s darn close. Double the battery power and the ability to throw in AA’s if needed is invaluable when you’re on a 6-8 hour shoot; especially if you have to use a flash. It’s also a nice weight and adds to the stability of the camera.

About Zeikos

Zeikos is a budget electronics and photography accessories company headquartered in New York. They offer a wide range of products for professional and amateur photographers.

In Use

The first thing I noticed is that the packaging was much nicer than the one the tripod came in. The box that my grip came in was clean, designed well, packed nicely with foam and a plastic cap on the connections – standard I know, but first impressions mean a lot. After pulling it from the box I eagerly grabbed my 40D, unscrewed the Opteka grip, removed the cartridge that can hold AA batteries, and swapped out the Canon batteries and battery door (just like the other grips, it has a place to store the door that must be removed before installation). The power grip feels great, it’s shutter release feels much closer to the Canon equivalent than the Opteka so that means major points from me. The FE/Magnify/Point Selection buttons don’t quite feel like the Canon’s but they have proven to be functional and since I use auto-rotate I rarely use these buttons anyway? To me they’re kind of unimportant. The selection dial feels like it’s made of the same rubber as the Canon’s, but I have to admit it feels a little thinner and maybe not quite as good as the Canon’s. Then again, my Opteka selection wheel feels worse yet and still works well. If this is the biggest issue, I think we’re in great shape.

After a few days and maybe 1500 shutter clicks later, the only other real difference I noticed between this and the overpriced Canon BG-E2N was the rubber used in the handle portion. The Canon feels like the 40D Body, where the Zeikos ZE-CBG50 has a “softer” feel. This really is a plus for me because it remains sticky when my hands start sweating and the Canon rubber gets a little slick. I’d rather NOT drop one of the core pieces of my equipment that puts food on the table.

Final Word

If you are in the market for a power grip, I’d only pay for the Canon if you want other people to know what you use – you’re essentially paying $100 more for the Canon logo to be printed on the grip. With a 1-year limited warranty and a company that is striving to take their share of the accessories market, you know they’re going to take care of their customers. The Opteka broke on me after about 6 months, but hey – maybe paying more for it is your thing. The Zeikos is not only the cheapest I’ve seen lately, it is also a great product. Now that’s something you don’t find very many places anymore – VALUE.

NOTE: I’ve also seen Adorama advertise a grip that pops up with the search term “ZE-CBG50″. I’m pretty sure it’s a different grip – probably akin to the Opteka I had break, so get the Zeikos.

You can pick yours up at Amazon, but if you find a better deal on it somewhere else let me know so I can update the links. This grip is going fast and is often out of stock, but trust me, it’s worth the wait and Zeikos told me directly that they’re filling orders everyday and are working to increase production without sacrificing quality or pricing.

NOTE:

I’ve noticed over the last couple of weeks the price for Zeikos’ products is rising slightly. I wouldn’t wait on this stuff, as it’s only a matter of time before they start out-selling their competitors and prices remain a little higher. After all, you USUALLY get what you pay for. If the couple of things I’ve picked up Zeikos are any indication, they’re certainly an exeption to the rule.

RELATED POSTS:

Zeikos 72″ Tripod Review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Joshua Camp is the owner of Caffeine and Cream, ATL Photographers and Bella Sorrisa Photography in Atlanta and specializes in a range of wedding, assignment, destination and abstract photography. His team is available for shoots at very reasonable prices andcan be contacted for quotes by visiting The Website of Bella Sorrisa Photography and filling out the Contact Us Form.

Photography is the easy part, at least for me. Search engine optimization and getting my artwork in front of potential clients…well, that’s another story all together. Since the dawn of the Internet search, man has been on a mission to trick it, twist it, and tweak it for purposes of good and evil. Most wanted to push the ranks of their websites into the tops of results pages, but some wanted (and still want) to exploit them for unethical ways to make money. I’ll talk about business ethics in  a future article, but for now let’s touch on the basics of why search engine optimization, or SEO, is so important to your photography business and how the real “evil-doers” have made it harder for us over the years (and “No”, I’m not a Bush fan).

SEO is a term that covers any action or reaction that is culminated as a direct effort to raise your ranks in search engines like yahoo and google.

I probably shouldn’t be sharing all of these tips with my competitors, but I am certainly a capitalist and believe that only through healthy competition can products, services, business, and people grow faster, better, and stronger. It’s no surprise that in a digital age you will lose your competitive edge very quickly if you do not adapt to new standards. Assuming your work is good, and people hang around your site to look through galleries, optimizing your business online will serve you better than any single ad campaign you could likely afford. It will push new business to you, give you greater exposure, and make you look to the innocent like you have been on top of the game in your market for years. The downside - SEO is a science that people spend years trying to master and yet no one can ever fully understand it. The reason for this is because of the complexity and ever-changing nature of advanced algorithms and countless developers streamlining the processes. “Bots” are the beasts that scour world-wide web using these algorithms to decide what pages are good, what pages are bad, what ones are scams, and what ones hold real value to the reader.

Now let’s touch on some of the major points you should consider when optimizing your website. These aren’t secrets, but they are known to be amongst the most important factors in ranking your site.

#1 -Relevant Content

You’ll read many places that keywords and meta tags aren’t important anymore, and sure, if you’re myspace or FedEx they probably aren’t simply because the traffic to your site is proof enough that your URL is relevant to the search terms typed into any given search engine. If we take a look at 2 scenarios you’ll see why including and updating them is important:

Your wedding photography website is crawled or indexed by google and the first major thing it sees on it’s search through your code is meta data and here’s what it records on your index page(we’ll keep it simple for now):

a. <title>Photography</title>
<meta name=”description” content=”We take great pictures for you.”>

<meta name=”keywords” content=”photography, pictures, photos, videos”/>
<META NAME=”author” CONTENT=”me”>

b. <title>Bella Sorrisa Photography Atlanta, GA</title>
<meta name=”description” content=”Bella Sorrisa Photography is a premier local and destination wedding, on-location portrait, and architectural  photography company in Atlanta, GA. Lead photographer Joshua Camp has made Bellasorrisa.com your best resource for all of your photographic needs.”>

<meta name=”keywords” content=”Atlphotographers, Atlanta wedding photography, Engagement photos”/>
<META NAME=”author” CONTENT=”Joshua Camp”>

Now comes the fun part…analyzing what these tags REALLY mean. It doesn’t take a genius to come to the conclusion that in the first example not much useful information is divulged. While it’s tempting to throw in only major keywords into your title, description, and keywords, it essentially tells a search engine that you are trying to be like 336,000,000 other sites that it ranks for the word “photography”. Guess who gets the ranking…a combination of the sites with the most USABILITY (see ease of use), the best use of LANGUAGE, and the site with the highest CONTENT VALUE (see readership, relevant link-backs, and rate of reader return). Congratulations, you are knocked out of the running and will probably never be seen unless your site seriously excels at one of the other points. You’ll also notice that in the first example that the “description” field is rather short. You’ll be pretty heavily penalized for that because search engines like their users to know what is actually on the page BEFORE they click the link. This makes their job that much more effective.

There are other problems with these tags, but I’ll have to cover that in a future article.

Keep checking back and we’ll be looking at some other points and relate them to our #1 important factor. The coming articles are:

#2 -Usability

#4 -Language

#5 -Content Value

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Joshua Camp is the owner of Caffeine and Cream, ATL Photographers and Bella Sorrisa Photography in Atlanta and specializes in a range of wedding, assignment, destination and abstract photography. His team is available for shoots at very reasonable prices andcan be contacted for quotes by visiting The Website of Bella Sorrisa Photography and filling out the Contact Us Form.

Zeikos 72″ Full Size Professional Photo / Video Tripod with Case (Avg. street price $39.99)

Features:

• Professional Photo & Video Tripod

Special Carrying Handle

Professional Foam Grip

Self Leveling Rubber Legtip

Built In Bubble Leveling

3-Way Pan Head

3-Section Leg

Quick leverlock

Rubber Legtip

Deluxe Soft Case

This product has a 10 year Limited warranty.

Spec’d to support ~10lbs

Product Details:

Product Length:  22.0 inches

Product Width:  4.0 inches

Product Height:  4.0 inches

Product Weight:  2.0 pounds

Introduction

I received my order about 3 days after payment was made and after opening the slightly ripped box I pulled out a nice (albeit cheap) nylon case containing the tripod. After opening the case, pulling it out, and clicking the lock tabs open, to my surprise the legs fluidly slid to the floor. “Wow, solid for $30, nice bubble level, good finish…”

About Zeikos

Zeikos is a budget electronics and photography accessories company headquartered in New York. They offer a wide range of products for who they consider “professionals”.

Introduction

Let’s face it, in today’s economy we’re all looking for a deal. I have been needing another tripod for quite a while and at around $30 US I figured I had little to lose by trying out this piece of gear. I got mine from Amazon, as Zeikos sells directly to the public there.

In Use

The Zeikos 72″ tripod is by no means a replacement for my Gitzo, but it works. The first thing I noticed is that the tolerances are pretty tight which makes for a solid and stable tripod. The quick-release plate is nice, but not integrated very well – it was the only thing that didn’t feel quite as secure as it should – that is, until i locked it in with a firm push. When shooting with this tripod, due to the position of the pan/tilt controls, you have to mount the camera with the tilt arm under the lens – VERY inconvenient. If you don’t, good luck getting your face to the viewfinder. At about 10″ long, it’ll poke you right in the center of the chest. The good news is, if tightened loosely, it does what it should and will allow fairly smooth movement while still supporting a heavy camera (although I personally wouldn’t use it for video). I tested this out in a variety of positions with a Canon 40D and 28-135mm IS lens – a pretty common kit. Problem #2 – the bubble levels aren’t positioned for anything useful. One circular level, sure – it works well; The tube though is set in the side of the head parallel to the camera’s side – only telling you if you’re level up and down but not with the horizon; you’ll have to use your viewfinder grid for that. A second bubble, or moving this one would be a good idea, Zeikos. This also adds to the 3rd problem I have with this tripod – in Portrait configuration, with the plate hinged up it’ll take you framing up something and locking it down instead of glancing at the level, which would be much, much more useful.

Final Word

For the money, it’s worth it. For someone wanting a light, stable tripod that they don’t have to worry about being stolen it’s worth it. For me, I think it’ll be just fine for what I intended to use it for – holding a second speedlight. This will probably be my beach tripod as well since sand and ball joints just don’t seem to get along. Overall it’s a good buy, but don’t expect it to stack up to a $300 tripod. If you think it’s better to save $$ on this than to save for a Manfrotto or Gitzo, forget it. On the other hand, if you’re like me, always needing more tripods AND more money in your pocket – I say go for it. You’re only risking disappointment if it’s the only tripod in your bag and you’re used to a nicer brand. Be prepared to be talking about upgrades(which may lead to the spouse getting you that Gitzo Explorer next Christmas).

-Joshua Camp

RELATED POSTS:

Zeikos Battery Power Grip Review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Joshua Camp is the owner of Caffeine and Cream, ATL Photographers and Bella Sorrisa Photography in Atlanta and specializes in a range of wedding, assignment, destination and abstract photography. His team is available for shoots at very reasonable prices andcan be contacted for quotes by visiting The Website of Bella Sorrisa Photography and filling out the Contact Us Form.

Logos have always been an integral part of branding a company, and your photography business should be no exception.  As I stroll through the pages of various photographers’ websites I often find myself forgetting to note the photographers name. It does little for the person on the reader end to see nothing more than a name watermarked across the gallery. As you may or may not know, the brain’s ability to enterpret sound and sight is closely connected, but not one in the same.

Let’s think about this last statement and find some reasoning behind the importance of a “visual” logo – particularly in relation to photography. When we read, we predominantly rely on the auditory cortex, which is in the temporal lobe, mainly because we have learned to “sound out” our words. If this weren’t true, we’d all be speed readers. When we are browsing through pictures, our brains resources are consumed by image processing in the occipital lobe – a different part of the brain all together. It’s no wonder us men have a hard time listening to our better-halves while we’re consumed by A-team reruns. Similarly, visuals while we browse a photo gallery are soaked up through watermarks or logos in the corner of a page, and yet we naturally “skip” the reading part. This is, in my opinion, is why names are best kept on business cards, in blocks of text, or at a minimum next to a logo. Still not convinced? Call Nike and tell them the $35 they spent on the “swoosh” would have been better spent on a Zeicos tripod.

Continue on to Logo Design 101

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Joshua Camp is the owner of Caffeine and Cream, ATL Photographers and Bella Sorrisa Photography in Atlanta and specializes in a range of wedding, assignment, destination and abstract photography. His team is available for shoots at very reasonable prices andcan be contacted for quotes by visiting The Website of Bella Sorrisa Photography and filling out the Contact Us Form.

Logo design is a funny beast. Fedex apparently spent millions on their clever “hidden arrow” and color scheme while Nike reportedly spent only $35 for the famous “swoosh”. Following a few simple guidelines can help your company gain a sharp, yet subtle edge on the competition – perhaps at the value of millions of dollars.

#1 – K.I.S.S. or KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID

VERY few companies have managed to get away with overly complex, colorful logos and with very good reason – they don’t translate well to different mediums and are not easily recognizable. Can you think of a famous logo (excluding sports teams that need mascots) that features a cartoon graphic? Not many exist in my mind, although I’m sure there are a few clever ones out there.

#2 – Less is More (in terms of color)

Why? Transfer to different mediums for one – screen printing is generally limited to between 4 and 6 colors, faxes still are used in b/w, most newspapers and magazines still charge per-color, it looks better small, and maybe the most important for you – fancy artwork and too many colors takes away from your photographic content.

Any exceptions to this? Sure – I can think of a couple – a color wheel, a rainbow, any gradient (although almost impossible to screen print). These all have my next point in mind…

#3 – Practice uniformity if possible, and make it company or service relevant.

Oh, and don’t use aperture blades – it’s been done one too many times. Look through good logos and see for yourself. www.dinesh.com has a good list for you to browse through.

#4 – Plan ahead and VECTORIZE IT

If you pay someone, insist on a vector graphic. If you do it yourself, use the right program – I’m partial to Adobe Illustrator CS5. Vector graphics are easily converted to other formats and can me infinitely re-sized. What that means for you is that in 9 years when you buy a banner on the sidelines at the Olympics you won’t have to pay someone to redesign your logo, and you’ll never be faced with a published ad that makes your IMAGING company look like it’s run by some 8 year old kid with a disposable camera.

READ Part 1 – The Lost Art of Logo

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Joshua Camp is the owner of Caffeine and Cream, ATL Photographers and Bella Sorrisa Photography in Atlanta and specializes in a range of wedding, assignment, destination and abstract photography. His team is available for shoots at very reasonable prices andcan be contacted for quotes by visiting The Website of Bella Sorrisa Photography and filling out the Contact Us Form.

Engagement sessions offer the chance for you, the photographer,  to personally bond with your new clients, increase sales dramatically, and potentially raise the quality of workmanship you can provide on the “big day”. If you’re looking for advice as a couple, keep reading as this could be very helpful for you as well.

Ok, so you’ve sold a couple (or possibly many) on your skills and have their wedding date penciled in the calendar.  Now it’s time to really get started. As a photographer I’ve come across many people that claim to not be very photogenic, are shy in front of a lens, or whatever. Waiting until the wedding day to gain the trust of your clients will ensure that you have much more time on your hands since the whole job will be completed in only one day, right? WRONG. It’ll ensure you have a lot of time on your hands in the future because even the best photographer can’t pull off a great wedding shoot if the subject is constantly shying away from the camera. This could very well help your career migrate back to that server job you left as your “last time working with food”. Engagement sessions are your opportunity to break the bad habits of your client, build their trust, and give them the confidence in you that they need to let the wedding day flow naturally with you doing your thing, and them doing theirs.

Schedule it ASAP – As Soon As Possible

The sooner the better with engagement photos. This will allow the couple time to decide if they’d like to purchase additional products well in advance of the wedding and also allow you to capture them with the excitement still in their eyes!

Make it Personal

Make suggestions on clothing, hair, make-up, location, etc. but take the couple’s history into account. Some couples spend their days off outdoors and would rather capture the essence of their lifestyle than get all done up, some are just the opposite and want to capture the many late night lounge dates they share. Focus on details like the ring, important moments or stories they share, etc. Be flexible and take things into consideration like where and how they got engaged, what their lifestyle is like. If the couple wants natural, don’t insist on using your stylist or make-up artist. Sentiment Sells! Look at a recent shoot with a beautiful couple that spends most of their time digging clams and fishing on an island that is part of the Outer Banks, we actually had to ride the ferry to get their favorite place - April Jasinski and Barrett Bodiford.

Charging the Client

A lot of photographers do engagement sessions for “free”. I personally don’t think anything free is worth doing. Charging for the engagement session gives you the leverage to negotiate with your new clients on pricing AND services. Imagine this scenario – the client requests a discount on a $2500 package. You COULD discount the package, appearing a bit desperate and then try to “add on” the engagement session to bring up the final sale, or you could simply say “I’ll tell you what, since it’ll help me get to know you better before the wedding I’ll throw in an engagement shoot free of charge…” BAM -this is called “added value”. Sure, tie it into your $5000 packages – but on a basic level it doesn’t make sense to list it as “free”.

How it ALWAYS pays off…

If they’re good (and since the client paid you they should be) then in all likelihood the couple will insist on using the pictures in their announcement at a minimum. Most of the time you can also count on them wanting prints just because…and as an added bonus, their guests will have more pictures to look through (and buy) and you’ll be generating traffic to your website since they’ll want everyone they know to see the pictures.

More “added value” for YOU

As a personal touch, design some nice 4×4 cards with your contact info (and of course web address) to give out at the wedding and/or reception instead of business cards – or if the couple agrees, to put on the tables. Let guests have an extra card when you take their picture – it encourages them to go to the site and look/buy.

UPSELL MORE

What other angles can we work? How about a studio press guest register featuring the engagement photos on each left page? Guests think they’re amazing and it’ll double as another timeless keepsake for the couple.

These are some of the things I recommend, but if you have any ideas please share..