Photo Accessory News

Gear wraps, those flexible, soft squares of protection we use to cushion our cameras and lenses, are pretty much all the same, right? Wrong. Although they're all used for the same purpose (more or less), each brand has its own unique characteristics. Today we look at four wraps, each of which can be crowned king of its category.

Maniacal about making backup copies of photos and video footage like I am? Then this baby is for you. When set to RAID 1, the SanDisk Professional G-RAID MIRROR drive automatically duplicates data onto a second built-in drive as it's stored to provide worry-free data redundancy.

Our new Choosing Wisely series aims to deliver concise, summarized information about products we think you'll like. You can read what Choosing Wisely wrote about the SanDisk Professional G-RAID MIRROR external hard drive here.

The Western Digital My Passport Ultra is exceptionally compact and offered in five capacities up to 6TB. Prices start at $69 and performance is superb. Everyone needs more hard drive space; here's yours.

Our new Choosing Wisely series aims to deliver concise, summarized information about products we think you'll like. You can read what Choosing Wisely wrote about this extraordinarily compact WD external hard drive here.

Gitzo turned the tripod world upside down—literally—when the company first introduced the Traveler, a true travel tripod. This lightweight carbon-fiber support was unusual for its inverted, contortionist-like design, where the legs fold back 180 degrees on themselves and the leg tips hug the ball head, making it more compact.

Manfrotto unveiled an intriguing new device at the NAB show in Las Vegas this week: Digital Director, which is the only Apple Certified interface that lets you operate, adjust and shoot photos via a live feed on a tethered iPad.

The Cooperative of Photography (COOPH) recently added a few new additions to their popular line of graphic shirts. Inspired by photography, COOPH tops are made from comfortable, soft 100 percent cotton fabric and feature a handy pocket for your lens cap. The new line of Leica inspired shirts features:

A few years back, while waiting for a beautiful but thoroughly flakey model in the parking lot of a restaurant near Liberty State Park, my boredom was interrupted by a black Lincoln Town Car that slipped suspiciously past me and parked a few spaces away. After several minutes, two men exited the sedan. They were wearing tuxedos and looked rather serious. The trunk lid popped open. Ignoring me completely, they rummaged through the trunk. One of the men removed his tux jacket and strapped on a large black holster. A moment later, the other did the same. I slid down in my seat, wondering if I was about to witness some weird reenactment of High Noon, right there in Jersey City.