Review

Vector Thunderbird Butane Double Torch Insert for Zippos

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I’ve previously made a review for a butane insert that I bought for my Zippo lighters HERE . Although the insert that I bought works, it left me somewhat dissatisfied. I originally bought the butane insert to solve the problem of lighter fuel evaporation with the original Zippo insert and it does a great job at this. I can’t say if the insert has allowed for any evaporation of the fuel, but there is definitely a good bit in there. Definitely more than what the original Zippo insert would have, for sure. In terms of fuel storage, I’m completely satisfied. However, I do have another problem with Zippos and it’s with their claim of being “windproof”. Let’s be clear, Zippos are in no way windproof. They do fair very well in the wind, but not windproof. Another problem is that when it’s windy, the wind really does make it hard to use a Zippo as the flame is natural and dances around a bit. These problems are also present with the soft flame butane insert that I bought. So, what to do? The obvious next step was to try a torch flame style insert.

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I again bought a Vector Thunderbird branded butane insert because I was happy with the quality of the last one. This time, I picked up the double torch version. There are a few different torch designs to choose from but I decided on the double torch because to me, it’s the coolest. The double torch just looks insane (in a good way). However, one drawback of the double torch is the amount of fuel consumption. It’s not like you’ll instantly run out of fuel but more torches does equate to more fuel use, so just be aware of that. On the bottom of the insert is an adjuster that allows you to adjust the height of the flame. You can use this to make the flame smaller and use less fuel. You can also use this to make the flame a lot bigger and use even more fuel. This looks pretty cool, but is definitely not recommended for long term use unless you have a limitless supply of butane fuel.

So, how does this new insert fair in the wind? I would have to say that this is as close to perfect as we’ll probably get. The torch is so strong that wind hardly has any effect on it. This has made getting a flame in windy conditions so much easier and I’m not sure if I can go back to a normal soft flame after trying this out.

IMG_1261.jpg

Another benefit of this insert to the soft flame insert is that with this one, you can have the lid of a Zippo open without having butane leak from the insert. With the soft flame insert, once the cam is flipped to the open position, gas begins to leak in preparation for use. You have to make sure to keep the Zippo lid closed when not in use or shut the cam when you want to keep the lid open. With the double torch insert, there is no such requirement. The lid can be open for as long as you want without any additional butane leakage.

So far, I’ve been very happy with this insert and if I needed another butane insert, I’ll probably pick this one up again. This butane insert comes highly recommended.

If you're considering on buying any of the products mentioned, please support my work by using the links below.

Vector Thunderbird Butane Double Torch Insert: https://amzn.to/2G0qSLo
Other Zippo Butane Inserts: https://amzn.to/2U3pPzj
Zippo Lighters: https://amzn.to/2VyPIZb

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Pelican 1510 vs SKB iSeries 2011-7

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If you're considering on buying any of the products mentioned, please support my work by using the links below.

Pelican 1510 https://amzn.to/2EN2353

SKB 3I-2011-7 https://amzn.to/2UsRyKH

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Rokinon / Samyang 35mm f/2.8 AF for Sony E

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My main, every day use lens for the past few years has been the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM. This lens is on my camera body 99% of the time and is my go to for a one body and one lens setup. That being said, it is still relatively large and there are times that I don’t want to carry it around. For a paid job? No problem. I’ll deal with the size and weight all day, if I was making some money. But sometimes when I’m just walking around and want to bring a camera along with no pressure to take any photos, this can be a hassle. So, I’ve been in the market for a smaller and lighter weight lens. That’s why I picked up the Samyang 35mm f/2.8 autofocus lens for the Sony E-mount.

I’ve been using this lens for a few weeks now and want to share with you some of my thoughts as well as some samples from the various occasions that I’ve had the chance to use this lens. I just want to make it clear that this is not a pixel peeping review. I did not shoot test charts or go out and purposely try to find imperfections like chromatic aberration or distortion with this lens. I just shot it how I normally would and if I noticed something, I’ll mention it. Remember, the things that I say are my personal opinions and are based on how I used this lens. Your mileage may vary.

It should be noted that there is both a Rokinon and Samyang version of this lens. These are essentially the same company that produces some of the same lenses. I personally bought the Samyang version because it’s typically cheaper, but if you’re interested in the Rokinon version, just know that it is the same as the lens that I’m reviewing.

Construction

Although retail price for this lens is $399, it regularly sells for around $250. Let’s face it, just based on the price, you shouldn’t really be expecting amazing construction quality or premium build materials. This lens is made out of plastic and there is really no questioning of that. To be honest, the first time that I picked this lens up from the case, I thought to myself that “Man, this feels like crap.” You can tell right away that it’s made out of plastic and it’s not like one of those things that are made out of plastic but the manufacturer finished it in a way that the surface is kind of cold and feels like metal. No, this feels as plastic as plastic can feel. But again, for the price this is kind of expected.

One thing that I do want to mention with this lens is the hood. I actually really like the design of the hood in concept. How well it works? I can’t say considering that it’s so small, but it looks good and is a great cosmetic design. My problem with the hood however, is its fitment. It is very lightly held in place and takes little to no effort for it to come off. Just the slightest bump and it could possibly fall off. I feel that through my normal use of the lens, I constantly have to re-tighten the hood because I see it unscrewing after almost every shot. I’m actually thinking of just adding some tape between the hood and lens just to make the fitment tighter. Hopefully, this will help.

Again, this is a lens that regularly sells for around $250. Don’t expect the world of it. However, if you purchase it with reasonable expectations, I think you’ll be quite satisfied because the cheaper materials do make this lens very light. Sitting at 85.6 grams, this is without a doubt the lightest lens that I’ve ever held in my hands (that actually performs well). It feels like I just have the lens cap on the body and that’s great for what I was looking for, a small, compact and lightweight lens. A complete winner in that sense.

AutoFocus

Considering that this is a third party autofocus lens for Sony E-mount, you’re probably wondering how well the autofocus performs. Again, I didn’t do any scientific tests so what I’m about to say is strictly an opinion. That being said, I’m completely satisfied with AF performance because it gets the job done and that’s about it. For the most part, it just works. 

Samyang 35mm f/2.8 AF Photo Mode AutoFocus

Samyang 35mm f/2.8 AF Video Mode AutoFocus

In testing this lens, I took it to The Needle Lounge, a tattoo shop in Lakewood, WA to take some environmental portraitures of the artists at work. I wanted to specifically mention this shoot because one thing that I noticed during this shoot was this lens’ issue with eye autofocus and the fact that it was nonexistent. I could not get eye AF to work with this lens and my Sony A7RIII. Face detection worked but Eye AF just did not activate no matter how the subject was situated, facing straight towards the camera or slightly turned. Because of this, I spent the majority of the shoot manually focusing on the eyes and that gave me good results. When I got home, I did some quick internet searches and found that this lens could indeed use Eye AF. So, I went back to The Needle Lounge to specifically test for the Eye AF functionality. The second time around, Eye AF detected the eye without a problem, even when the head was turned at an extreme angle. So at this point, I don’t know what to say about Eye AF. Is it available? Yes, but from experience, I do have my reservations about it.

Samyang 35mm f/2.8 AF Eye Autofocus

Something that I do want to bring up with the autofocus of this lens is the noise that it makes because that can be audible in specific situations. The first time that I mounted this lens, I had my A7RIII in AF-S, so the camera only attempts to acquire focus on a single subject per AF activation. When I did this, I noticed a noise coming from the lens. Turning the camera around and looking at the lens when activating autofocus shows that this lens opens the aperture wide open when autofocusing and closes back it down when focus is acquire. This opening and closing of the aperture is where the noise that I noticed was coming from. This is only something that you notice when you have the aperture at anything other than wide open because if you’re at f/2.8, the lens won’t have to open the aperture because it’s as open as possible with this lens. 

Another situation where I’ve noticed the AF noise is when the camera is using AF-C or continuous autofocus in video. If you’re using these setting, you can hear the autofocus motor in the lens continuously moving. I personally don’t think that this is a problem because I can’t hear the noise when the camera is more than a foot away, even in a really quiet room. You really have to be right on the lens to hear it but if for some reason you have a mic directly on the lens, the mic may pick up the noises up.

Image Quality

4K Video Sample with the Samyang 35mm f/2.8 AF

Finally, let’s look at some image samples taken from this lens. Again, I’m not much of a pixel peeper but I will say that I did notice the sharpness of this lens. For something so cheap, I’m quite surprised at how well this lens performs in terms of sharpness. I can easily make out the details on the artist and fine details like the individual lines of a tattoo.

The bokeh from this lens is also quite nice. For a 35mm f/2.8 lens, you can get some pretty decent background blur, but this is not in comparison to any other lens. We are only looking at this lens independently and I personally believe that the bokeh is quite nice considering the specs of this lens.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, this a cheap lens that regularly sells for $250. With that in mind, I think that this lens provides such great value and performs above and beyond everything that I expected. Not only does it provide me with the small and compact lens that I wanted, but it does it with surprisingly good results.

If you’re interested in this lens, then I’m sure that you know about it’s Sony counterpart, the Sony Sonnar T* FE 35mm f/2.8 ZA Lens. This is the original E mount compact lens from which we can probably assume Samyang got its inspiration from. I’ve seen some reviews comparing the Samyang vs. Sony lens and although most comparisons will say that the Sony has a slight optical and build advantage, you have to ask yourself if it is worth paying more than 3 times the price? For me, it is not. I originally wanted the Samyang as a backup to my Sony 24-70mm GM. I don’t expect to be using this type of lens that often, so there is really no point in investing in the Sony 35mm. I’m perfectly happy with what the Samyang provides me, especially for the price.

If you’re interested in a small, lightweight and compact lens that autofocuses for the Sony E mount system, then I can’t recommend the Samyang 35mm f/2.8 AF enough. Pick one up and try it out for yourself. I think that you’ll be surprised at what this little lens can do.

Affiliate Links

Samyang 35mm f/2.8 AF FE Lens for Sony E https://amzn.to/2t5IBen

Rokinon 35mm f/2.8 AF https://amzn.to/2DcjOd6

Sony Sonnar T* FE 35mm f/2.8 ZA https://amzn.to/2SukjZL

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The Best Travel Tripod | Sirui A1205 / A-1205

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I’ve tried a few different tripods over the years and there are very few that I’m actually happy enough with to keep. When it comes to tripods, I want to know that it’s going to fit into my workflow. I also have to have complete confidence in a tripod because if I can’t trust it to hold my gear that cost thousands of dollars, then what good is it? This is why I really do not do tripod reviews. If it’s not worth keeping, then it’s usually not worth reviewing.

I’ve been using the same tripod for many years. I’ve found a setup that fits the bill and this setup consists of the Manfrotto MT190CXPRO4 legs and the Manfrotto MH055 ball head (discontinued, check out the MH057M0-Q5). This is my photography setup. I’ve had this since the beginning of my career and I really do not see it stopping anytime soon. For doing photography, this is the perfect setup for me. 

But recently, I’ve been doing a lot of videos where I need to record myself doing photography with this tripod setup, so I need a tripod for a second camera. A second camera that’s typically smaller and requires a more portable setup than what my photography tripod setup can give me. In short, I needed a travel tripod. I’ve been on the hunt for this second tripod for awhile but I think the hunt is finally over with the Sirui A1205.

When I was looking for a new travel tripod, I was looking for one that folds up small, is lightweight and holds a decent payload. You may think that these requirements are fairly simple but I actually found it difficult to find a tripod that had all of these things. It’s easy to find a really small tripod, but it’ll probably not hold enough weight for it to be functional/useful. Then you have other tripods that are marketed as travel tripods and can hold a decent payload but when considering it’s dimensions, it’s not really a small tripod at all. In contrast, the Sirui A1205 provides the best of all worlds. 

In terms of specs, this tripod seems too good to be true. Thanks to its 5 section inverted leg design, the Sirui A1205 can fold down to 14.6” but can expand to a maximum working height of 55.1”. Its carbon fiber construction allows it to have a maximum load capacity of 22 lbs while only weighing 2.2 lbs. Getting all of this in a package that only weighs 2.2 lbs is insane! My Manfrotto MH055 ball head alone weighs 2.2 lbs!

Another notable thing about this tripod is that you can actually remove one of the legs and when combined with the center column, you actually get a functioning monopod.

Now this setup comes as a combo meaning that the  head and legs are sold together, in combination. From my experience, the problem with most combos is that they are never really perfect. The legs may be nice, but the head may not be or vice versa. With something like my Manfrotto setup, you buy the legs and head separately and are able to build something that works for you. With a combo, you kind of get what you get. You may be thinking that you can just get the combo and part it out later. Maybe change the legs or the head with something better, but this is a bit difficult with something like a travel tripod because of the way that it folds up. These tripods are generally designed in a certain way for everything to fold down to a compact package. If you were to throw another head on the legs, they may not be able to fold up correctly and end up taking up more space, so what’s the point? So with a compact travel tripod, you really just have to live with whatever drawbacks it has.

With that, let’s get into some of the drawbacks that I feel this tripod has. 

First, this is completely personal, but for me the biggest drawback of this tripod is the twist lock legs. I personally prefer flip locks because with flip locks, you have a confirmation of the locks being locked. You can look at the locks and know right away if it’s locked or unlocked. There’s no in-between unless there’s something wrong with your tripod. With twist lock, there is an in-between and even after years of using them, I still find myself occasionally not locking them down fully and they move during travel or even worst, in use and I see my tripod start to lean/fall and that’s just the scariest thing. That being said, I have not had a problem with this tripod and its twist locks yet. Spend the time to make sure that everything is locked properly and it’ll hold your gear just fine.

The second and only other drawback that I can think of with this tripod is the maximum payload. Although Sirui advertises it as 22 lbs, there’s no way that this tripod can hold 22 lbs. The legs may be able to but not the head. I’ve used this tripod with about 10 lbs of gear and there is definitely some movement in the head. I often take multiple exposures of a scene, wether it’s for bracketing or focus stacking and in between my images, I can see that the composition is not the same in the pictures. I kind of knew that this would be a problem with this tripod even before buying it because tripod manufacturers really like to over estimate their max payloads. When a manufacturer says something like a 22 lbs max payload, you should really be expecting about half of that unless you’re really spending money on your tripod setup. Even though this is a well built tripod, at the end of the day it retails for about $240. You’re not making the biggest investment in the grand scheme of things. This is a rather cheap tripod in comparison to some of the other travel tripods that have similar specs. With that in mind, it’s really hard to fault this tripod considering everything else that you’re getting, an extremely small when folded tripod that is also lightweight and hold a decent amount of weight. I’m really, really enjoying this tripod and if you are looking for something similar, I’d highly recommend you check this Sirui A1205 out for yourself.

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