I've reviewed photobook products from Saal before and therefore this review will only cover the quality of this book. Their customer service and design software are still great, but if you want to read slightly more about that then please find my previous review blogs.

Overall Thoughts
A fantastic upgrade in their product range which I'm personally impressed by and should suit most photographers who don't need to provide the best of the best for expensive client projects. To any eye that isn't critical of photographic printing, this photobook would make a fantastic quality album, however if you're providing a top of the line service (with a price tag to match) then there are higher quality book printing services. For the cost of £100 I received a 'leather' bound 30x30cm photobook with 30 pages, from previous orders with Saal this is exactly as I would imagine it to be priced so it's nice to see that they're not inflating their prices for the 'professional line' products.

So, lets talk quality...

Binding
Unfortunately this is the one aspect of the book that I think could bother clients. I left this book on a bookcase sandwiched by other books for around a week and already the covers are starting to bend. Below you can see an image of the covers. I don't imagine that they would bend too much more than this, but if the folks at Saal are reading this, then placing a thin and stiff material below the cover material should keep this from happening.

Paper Quality
This is a shorter section as there isn't too much to say. The paper is thick and stiff enough to allow the pages to lay flat when needed for panoramas or more interesting image layouts that simply one on each page. The gloss doesn't pick up a massive amount of fingerprints, although it's always necessary to be careful with gloss coatings in this sense. There is only one problem to mention here and I don't think it's fair to say that it's a problem with Saal, rather it's a problem with lay flat pages and images extending over the break at the spine. Below you'll see an example of how the ink wears away at the centre crease and how in this case it doesn't have an extremely detrimental affect on the image as a whole. I think the Saal photobook holds up as expected if not better than expected.

Print Quality
This is where we progress beyond what most clients will notice and on to what you will notice as the photographer and whether you want your work displayed in this format and quality level. Here are two close ups to show the great level of detail in the printing.

Unfortunately though, there is a negative to talk about before rounding this up and that is colour rendition. There are two images in the book which have colour gradients, nothing too intense but when the printing process can't deal with all the colour across the gradient you can see a stepping between the colours. Hopefully the examples below can show this, but it was hard to take an image that accurately showed what I could see with my eyes.

For the example of the pier, the enlarged print is made from the same (size adjusted) file as the photobook, however the colours on the enlargment all flow from one to the next without any noticeable jumps. It's hard to see in the example, but with the book in my hands I can see jumps across colour to colour in the photobook version (it's most apparent around the top third). However, the colours in the photobook version are actually more accurate to the original scene, so that's a positive for Saal. The second example of the full moon rising is quite a strong gradient and the banding became a lot more obvious, simply because the jumps from colour to colour are larger. I'll leave it down to you whether you think that it's a real problem or not.

​My Summary
Without repeating what I said at the start too much, I'm really impressed by the print quality of the images which has got to be the main point of a photobook. I think Saal could work on small details like the book cover bending and whilst they have  made improvements with this line of professional photobooks, I think there's slightly further to go for this to become fully useable by all professionals.

For my personal use as a portfolio piece of my favourite landscapes and wildlife images, it works perfectly. If I were providing a wedding package for a couple sub-£2000 and wanted to include an album, this would be a really good option. However, as a single purchase product for high end clients I may look for a more expensive book specialising printing service. Below is a gallery of the images that were used in the review.

Thank you for reading and please get in touch or comment below with any questions about the product!

Introduction
Zor.com, an affordable printing company based in Belgium, kindly offered to send a print my way for the purpose of reviewing. I chose to get a print that I've previously ordered from other 'cheap' printing companies so that I could see the difference and compare Zor.com directly to a company that I admire for their quality and price. I received the prints about a week after ordering and overall I am impressed with the quality given the incredible price of printing... and it really is cheap!

As I said before, Zor.com are based in Belgium and whilst they offer only 3 print types (aluminium, plexiglass and PVC), they come at very low prices and good quality.  The item that I am reviewing is a 70x35cm ‘alu-dibond’ photograph of a scene I photographed in Costa Rica.  Zor.com will print up to 120x80cm and the cost range is as follows: a 20x30cm print is a mere 3.99EUR (£3.50~) and 2.99EUR on PVC, whilst their largest size on their most expensive material is 77.99EUR(£70~), an absolute bargain... but does the bargain come at a cost?

As I said before I ordered this particular image so that I could place it in direct competition with another company, Saal Digital.  The landscape image I've used has a good range from white to black and most of the scene is full of rich and contrasty shades of green.  It's not a particularly challenging image to print, but it does give an idea of how the whitest white and the blackest black come across on this material at this price.  Speaking of price, this print cost me £15.63!  For the same print I'd be paying £49.95 at Saal Digital.  This is absolutely incredible, I've not found better prices online, personally. Comment below if you know of somewhere cheaper and can verify that they make good quality prints.

It’s hard to portray the quality of a printed photograph in an image, but with this alu-dibond print I was impressed, very impressed, as for the price I was expecting there to be an immediate flaw (at least to my eye), but no... The print is punchy and colourful, sharp and the highlights and shadows are well controlled.  Viewing up close there seems to be a slight amount of noise/grain in the image that I've not noticed in Saal Digital's version - and to clarify I used the exact same file for both companies.  From an ordinary viewing distance there is no issue, the colours are punchy and the image looks great, if anything the colours are a little too punchy.  It's not a problem in any way, but I believe the Saal Digital print to be a closer match to the original file and the Zor.com print to be slightly more saturated. I've placed two galleries of images below for you to inspect the detailed differences between Zor.com and Saal Digital.

Overall, Zor.com are (for the price) one of the best printing companies I've used. ​I'd like to see Zor.com offer more mounting options, they do offer 'hassle free' mounting strips at a small extra cost, but I would prefer a rail system to come already attached.  Maybe this is something they can expand into in the future, but as soon as I got my print from Saal Digital it was ready to hang on the wall, this wasn't the case with Zor.com. 

If a client of mine wants a large scale print and is paying hundreds for it, then I would be using the highest quality printer available, based in the UK for quicker turnaround times; however, I will be using Zor.com in the future for the more budget conscious buying options.

Thanks for reading this review, if you have any opinions about the prints or have other printing companies that you think rival either Zor.com or Saal Digital on price and quality then feel free to comment below! If you're interested in purchasing from Zor.com then follow these links: zor.com/en/ or https://zor.com/en/photo-on-aluminium-dibond.html.  
​To stay up to date with any blogs and reviews that I am bringing out please see my social media links below!

Facebook - Alex Greene Photography
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Saal-Digital have given me the opportunity to order and review some of their wall art and I've just received an Alu-Dibond print through the post!  I have recently reviewed one of Saal-Digital's photobook and so I won't be covering the ordering process as you can read the other review where I cover it in detail: https://goo.gl/sfOJZJ.  

Overall, the print is sharp, has punchy colours, a clean finish and is at a very fair price, but carry on reading to find out more in-depth information about the product.  

​
I wouldn't hesitate to use Saal-Digital again for an Alu-Dibond print, unless of course you wanted a glossy finish in which case you'll need to find another printer which offers the finish.  The aluminium subframe option seems to be the best in my opinion and the matte finish is going to be useful if you have a lot of light sources in the room you wish to display your print in as it reduces reflections.  However, as high quality as this print is, it does lack the punch that you expect from a metal print when you take away the glossy finish.  If you haven't seen a glossy metal print in reality then you won't be able to appreciate quite how much 'pop' it can give an image.  

 
Thank you for reading this review, if you're interested in purchasing from Saal-Digital then follow this link:  https://goo.gl/qj6pn7.  To stay up to date with any blogs and reviews that I am bringing out please see my social media links below!

Facebook - Alex Greene Photography
Instagram - @alex_greeneee

Saal-Digital is a German company, promising high-quality photo products with quick delivery (their words, not mine). They offer a good amount of services at very reasonable prices and although I am specifically reviewing 19.3 x 19.3cm Photobook, I'll also be looking at the services that the company offers for photographers.

​I would recommend Saal-Digital to anyone compiling a photobook for a friend or family member, maybe to remember a birthday or holiday!  The paper is durable and the prints look lovely, although with slightly less contrast than expected.  If you're like me and would like a small/portable and cheap portfolio of your favourite work, then I'd say that this is a good option, but there are companies which would allow more paper options and I'd consider those companies to really add another level to your photobook. The paper that you choose to print on should be customised to the image/set that you are printing, certain images suit certain papers better than others. The paper options you are given by Saal-Digital are 'glossy and 'matte' but in reality the 'matte' option is 'lustre' paper.
I'd recommend the leatherette feature for hardcover books as it adds a professional feel with none of the cost.  Saal-Digital themselves were responsive the questions and made the whole process quick and simple.  Delivery from Germany (their printing HQ) cost £4.95 and takes 4-5 days to arrive. 

Now let's delve into the details and see whether Saal-Digital can make a product that you'll be proud to show off!

Here is what I'll be covering:
 - Services Offered
 - Product Design Software
​ - Product Quality
 - Image and Text Print Quality
 - Further Thoughts and Recommendations

** For the purpose of full clarity, this Photobook was paid for, in majority, by Saal-Digital; however, this will not affect the outcome of the review.

When you first arrive on the Saal-Digital website you get a choice of products to see more information about.  These are: Photobooks, Photos, Wall Decor, Greetings Cards, Fine Art Print, Poster Print, Photo Booklets and Calendars.  Once you follow the 'Photobooks' link, they start to feed you information about the product, but there is no option to 'buy' or 'create'. This is because Saal-Digital have two options for creating your photobook; you can either download their own software or prepare your book in a program such as inDesign and then upload the file thought the 'Professional Zone' at the top of the website.  I personally chose to use their software, just so that I could review this too.

Now, in terms of the actual photobook they say that they will supply a book with; no logo (barcode removable), lay-flat binding, flexible page count, a quick production time and 'absolute colorfast' (long lasting print quality).  

At the time that I am writing these first two sections, I have designed the book and sent it off to print but have not yet received the product.  I have chosen to do it this way so that there is no bias toward my review of their product design software - as their would be if the product was really good (or bad).
​

I won't bore you with the setup of the program, it's as simple as any other and the file size makes for a quick download and setup.  Jumping straight into the design, the first stage is to choose the settings for the book; these options are cover, cover finish, cover padding, spread finish, barcode on/off, gift box option, page count.  I personally chose leather saphire black, unpadded, matte, without barcode and no gift box - this amounts to a total of £44.95 incl. VAT excl. shipping costs.

​Now we get to the interesting part, adding elements to the book and everything that that entails.  Overall I was happy with the software, it was simple and easy to use with quick results, but there were a few issues which I'll now cover in a little more detail.

Information
There were times when I could have done with more information about the the product; for example, I couldn't find out whether the very first (and last) page of the book were a different paper type than the photographic pages in between - I had to email them to find this out and the answer was yes, the paper on the inside covers is photographic paper. Another was the exact paper type that they were using, you have the option for either 'matte' or 'glossy', but nothing about the paper stock/manufacturer - again, an email sorted this out.  I don't expect that there would be a variety of paper options for a cheap(ish) photobook, but I think that they should shed some more information about the paper that is being used.  There was no information about how they would print text on the front, which would normally be okay, however I chose a leather cover, so I don't know whether it would have been ink or embossed - either way, I wanted a plain cover so it didn't affect me.

They were quite informative about most other things though, such as the bleed and they also tell you what quality your print will be in regards to its resolution which is handy if you are unaware of the relationship between print quality and resolution.

User Interface
Once again, I was pleased with Saal-Digital on this front.  The UI is slightly clunky/old fashioned looking, but everything seems very natural to use.  The program lets you use all the keyboard shortcuts that you usually would in MS Word or some similar program, as well as that you have options for editing your images inside the program (although I wouldn't recommend it).  You also have basic layout options (such as alignment) for the text/image boxes down the right-hand side. 

The first problem that I found was the grid that you can toggle on/off and change the size between the grid lines. Even though you can customise the grid, I didn't find a way to lock the images to that grid, and the grid was even throughout the page, this meant that I couldn't get the image and equal distance from each edge - you can see this below:
​

​For the price I am impressed with the overall product; the use of good materials is obvious from the get-go.  I have already said a small amount of my impressions at the top of this review, therefore I'm going to jump straight the details.

Hardback Cover
A definite strong point of this photobook is the lovely finish of the leatherette hardcover.  All the edges/corners are well folded and pressed to provide a professional look, that I wouldn't be worried about showing any client.  I chose to leave mine blank, partly because I am a fan of the simplicity, but also because there was no information about how they would print onto the leatherette and I didn't want to risk it looking tacky.  The book is also not very heavy, I was definitely expecting it to be heavier (and thicker) before it arrived and was surprised by the packaging that it came in (bubble wrapped inside a large card envelope), but after handling it for a while I am really liking the lightweight and small book size.

​
Paper
My first problem that I noticed as soon as I opened the book was that the paper is 'lustre' and not 'matte' as described. Now, to the average consumer of this form of photobook this would possibly go unnoticed and if it were noticed it would not be a problem.  Companies often use lustre as it provides a middle ground with the colour reproduction of glossy and the texture of matte; but I specifically asked for matte.  I wanted matte because having a gloss (or semi-gloss) finish will leave you with fingerprints after you've handled the book.  I suppose that because the paper has this finish you can clean it easily - which, if you are gifting this book to somebody who has young children, could be a positive.

The paper is quite heavy (368gsm total) because it is two sheets of photographic paper stuck back to back (for obvious reasons).  I contacted Saal-Digital and they have told me that they use Fujifilm Crystal Archive Album paper, whether this is a paper you like or dislike is purely down to whether you have experienced it in the past. I would describe it as 'plastic-like' and durable with a grippy feel (due to the mix of a slight gloss a matte texture).  As promised by Saal-Digital this paper is guaranteed to hold its colour for 75 years, which I guess can only be a positive.

Colour
Impressive!  Compared with the other prints of the same images the colours are extremely similar and, in some cases, preferable...  However, there is noticeably less depth to the blacks than I was expecting.  Again, in some images this is okay and I am not a fan of heavy contrast, however it means that all of the images are not quite as I edited them.  The white areas seemed to print fine, with little to no obvious gradation as the hues got brighter.

The image on the left looks perfectly fine from an arms view distance, however it has some very harsh artifacts on edges of heavy contrast (like dark grey/black on white).  I imagine this is down to the process of compressing the design file before printing and I will stress that it really is only a problem on some images.  Below I have placed a close up image of the print on the left and the original digital file on the right.  

​It's hard to convey the actual colours of the print by photographing it and so I'll say that I'm very happy with how the black-and-white printed, it was just the right amount of contrast for what I wanted and the only problem is the artifacts along the edges of the branches.  Now, I said it was a couple of images that were affected and so here is another image that had the same problem - albeit less pronounced throughout the whole image, it's quite strong underneath the neck of one of the swans.

Text was also affected by this problem (which I could only describe as a 'dark halo'), but it's much less of a problem because it just looks like the characters have a slight border to them.  Still, I have placed an image below to show you the extent of the problem. 

Further Thoughts and Recommendations
I would say that I've been quite harsh so far, as overall I rate this product highly for its price-range.  The printing is high quality (although watch out for edges of harsh contrast) and the colours are strong, whilst the contrast is slightly lower than prints from other photo-labs.  

If this is a present for a family member or friend and you are planning on filling it with old family photographs and iPhone pictures then I'm sure this will suit all your needs and the recipient would be extremely happy!  If you are an amateur (or newly professional) photographer who has just done a portrait shoot or covered an event and would like to give the client a photobook to remember the occasion, then I'd would consider a photobook from Saal-Digital.  However, please realise that it is far from the only option out there and your business will be judged on the final products that you give to the client, maybe you could look for a company which would allow you to choose the paper type.  The option to change the paper type would have changed the pricing but would have drastically changed the overall quality of this book.

My personal reason for buying this book was to use it as a short-but-sweet portfolio of some of my favourite work.  If somebody asks to see some of my work, I won't have to send them to my website - where their screen quality will affect the images - I can instead show them a physical version of my portfolio.

Saal-Digital's customer service throughout the process was good, albeit a little slow.  It took them 2-3 days on average to reply to an email and 1 day to reply to a Facebook message.  Once they did reply to the questions they were very helpful and informative, so 4/5 stars on that front.


​Overall, there were certain problems which turned out of be acceptable; the artifacts on the text and the lack of contrast in the images. There were problems which can't be overlooked; the artifacts on the images and the paper being 'lustre' rather than 'matte'.  And there were definite positive points to the book; the price, the size and weight, the lovely colour reproduction, the lay-flat pages and the leatherette hardback cover.  If I needed to score it out of 10 it'd be a 7!

*******************

If you're interested in designing a photobook through Saal-Digital then please follow this link to their website:  http://www.saal-digital.co.uk/.

Thank you for reading my review and I hope that it can be of some help!  Feel free to jump into the comments with any questions!

An awesomely small and feature-packed flash head, the MeiKe MK320 is an affordable flash for both on and off camera uses.  To summarise (in case you didn't want to read everything) the flash is: small, well constructed for the price however, it's not going to be weatherproof, has a quick charging USB port, many modes (i.e. TTL, S1, etc...), useful modelling lamps and an unreliable battery warning.  There you go, if you want more detail then carry on scrolling, if not then I would recommend this flash to nearly everyone, with the main drawback being its lack of 'waterproofedness' - which easily fixed with a plastic bag being thrown over it!

Personally, I will be using this head (along with a second one) for macro photography.  In the image that you can see below they are mounted on a macro flash bracket and a D810 with Sigma 150mm F/2.8 OS.  This post will be about my impressions of the flash as I've only had a couple of weeks to play with it, however I will cover the flash fully in a later post and the set-up as a whole in a another review too.

When you first open the box you are greeted by the flash and diffuser which are in a well padded foam.  Once you remove this you'll find a few booklets about MeiKe and their products, a cloth, a small bag and a foot for the flash.  One thing I appreciate, not for any important reason, is that the flash foot has a metal tripod screw instead of the usual cheap plastic ones.  

The first impressions are really positive.  The flash feels well made, the plastic feel as sturdy as you'd imagine for £50 (~$70), the screw to tighten the flash to the hotshoe has good grip, but there is only one problem...  The USB port for charging the flash (which I'll cover below).

• GN 32 (Iso-100)
• 5-second recycle time (NiMH)
• Powered by 2 AAs
• Tilts –7° to 90°
• Swivels 60° left, 90° right
• TTL, manual and stroboscopic modes
• Optical slave S1/S2
• LCD control panel
• LED modelling lamp
• Dimensions: 110 x 65 x 36mm

* information taken from: http://www.lightingrumours.com/

So, I mentioned the USB charging port earlier and said that it was a problem.  The first reason for this being a problem is that the port is exposed.  It surely wouldn't have cost them much to add a bit of rubber to cover the port?  Secondly, they don't provide a USB lead; most people have one laying around and so it's no big deal, but again, it would have been nice of them to throw one in.  Getting past those two problems and it's actually a fantastic feature.  If you aren't shooting in rain/sand/dirt very much then you'll be fine and probably appreciate the convenience of charging the batteries without needing a separate charger.

​The best feature in my opinion (as they are being used for macro photography) is that there is an LED modelling lamp.  Incredibly useful for focussing in dark and close-up situations, I don't really see how much use it would be for your everyday shooting or portrait shooting; as the likelihood is, if you need a modelling light for your work, you have more powerful lights for this specific purpose.  Also they will be quite demanding on the battery life.  The picture below was taken with just the modelling lights.  I found that whilst in slave mode, the LED modelling light won't turn off and fire the flash when you take a picture, instead you simply have the full power modelling light - which is not adjustable by the way...

The flash has several settings; TTL (for the brand of camera you use), S1, S2, Manual and repetitive firing mode.  These have all been pictured below, other than the repetitive firing mode.  The next part is another problem unfortunately.  When you want to change the output of the flashes, each press of the button will take the output up or down by only 1/3rd of a stop.  This could be a really good feature, if you were also able to change the output by full stops when you wanted - but you can't.  

These pictures also show another problem I have with the flash.  When I first turned it on, I was surprised and very happy to find that it has a battery percentage display.  However, I've found that it is completely useless at displaying the actual amount of battery left.  Any other flash I've owned hasn't had a battery display and so the fact that this one doesn't work doesn't bother me at all and probably wouldn't bother you!

The flash is quite moveable/flexible - by which I mean it has a 90 degree up and down tilt and about 160-170 degree left-right swivel.  The last thing to mention is that all of the buttons have good feedback; it's not a huge deal but it's nice to not be unsure about whether or not you actually pressed the button.  

If you are considering purchasing this flash, it'd much appreciated if you would follow the Amazon affiliate link below.  It comes at no extra cost to you, but I will receive a commission equal to a percentage of your purchase!

I've now owned this bag for a month and have waited this long to write the review in order to have put it through a few scenarios which have tested it a fair amount.  Before I purchased the bag, I was looking for reviews and although a couple were quite intensive when talking about the features, they didn't show the inside of the bag with a configuration that differed the standard images Lowepro sent out.  So that's what I wanted for this review; I will cover the basics of all the compartments (although you can find info on this anywhere), but more importantly, my personal configuration and how it works in the field.

​So here goes, but if you want a summary, then head to the bottom of the post and I should be able to sum it up in a couple of paragraphs!

I knew what gear I had and used on a regular basis before I bought the bag and so I was looking for certain specifications when researching what bag to buy.  As I couldn't find any pictures of the inside of this bag with gear other than the configuration Lowepro promoted it with I needed to work out the measurements of the gear I had a work out whether or not it would fit comfortably or be a bit of a squeeze.  Hopefully I can shed some light on this now...

With all my lenses in the bag, I can carry two flashes and two filters (although more will fit as you can see) with one space left over for odds and sods, such as cleaning stuff or a remote trigger.

To summarise this section, it easily holds a lot of equipment with some sacrifices with respect to the ease of access pouches (which I will explain in the next section).  I would say that the bag is best suited (and designed) for those photographers not using long telephoto lenses, but this doesn't mean its bad for those with telephotos.  If you have a fair amount of equipment that includes a 500mm F/4 or larger, you will want a large backpack, such as a 600AW.

                                                                                                           *******

                                 Pockets, Access Points and Handy Features
​
I've created a gallery of images showing the different compartments and small features that the bag possesses and makes life that little bit easier!

I'll start off by continuing with the camera section of the bag; the pockets on the back panel are just what you would expect from this range of bags.  Like most Lowepro bags now, the pockets are made of strong material with sturdy (feeling) zips and a feel that they won't be breaking any time soon.  I use one for cards, the other small one for a cleaning kit (brush and cloth) and the larger pocket for pens/notepad or any clean (small) clothes like t-shirts, socks, etc.  The back panel also holds a laptop compartment, as you would expect.  This has a good amount of padding and I'll have no problem trusting it with my laptop.

Next comes the part of this bag which for many will be the selling point and for some (including myself) has been made obsolete by owning a long lens, as well as making use of the optional add-ons (which I'll come to soon).  The bag has two side openings and one top opening for quick access to a camera with a lens attached.  After spending ages trying to configure the compartments for my own equipment and trying to make use of these 'extremely useful' side access points, I gave up and decided to put filters in that part.  One of the side pockets has been rendered useless by adding the water bottle holder to the side of the bag.  Once again, this is a great feature for those photographers that are using wide to medium length lenses (70-200mm at most - as you can see with Lowepros configuration images   >>   link here ).  I do like the added feature of having a hard top, it isn't that necessary I don't think (as you don't often drop the bag on its head or have things falling on the head of the bag), but it does give you that little bit more faith in the bag.  The top compartment has yet another pocket to store odds and ends in.

This brings me to the outside of the bag and probably the most interesting (unique) part of the bag as whole.  This is something that I expect a lot of bags will pick up in the future simply because it makes so much sense.  The 'SlipLock' technology is a series of straps surrounding the bag that allows you to move the accessories to wherever you want them to be.  When you buy the bag you are supplied with three accessories; tripod holder, water bottle holder and a small bag, I found myself not using the small bag as there are enough pockets around the bag for me.  The main reason that I wanted this was not for the purchasable accessories, but because I am going to Costa Rica for the summer and being able to attach para-chord, tarp, camo and more onto the outside of the bag (instead of taking up room inside) is going to be so useful!

Not a huge point but something that I thought I should mention, is that the bag has two small pockets on each side (I should say tiny, they just fit my phone in) and two small pockets on the waist belt too (only slightly more useful than the two side pockets).

Finally, comes the 'ActivZone system', which is not as cool as it sounds.  You can see it in the final picture, it is the padding on the back panel.  Basically, I have used bags with better cushioning and bags with better cushioning.  It does a good job and overall the bag feel great, better than most I have used, but this is more because of the shoulder straps than the back panel cushioning.  
​

The handling in harsh environments is the last point to mention.  I have used it in torrential rain without the all weather cover for about 10 minutes to see if water got in the zips and through to the equipment.  After 10 minutes the bag was perfectly fine, but with a lot of equipment on me I didn't want to push it any further and so I put on the all weather cover and obviously it worked perfectly.  No problems here at all!

For just under £200 I don't think I could have found a better bag for my personal needs.  As I am spending two months in the rainforest over the summer I will make great use of the outside 'SlipLock' strap system with shelter material like tarp and parachord, whilst the very good weather sealing without the cover will also be useful.  The first configuration that you can see at the top of the page is close to what my set-up will be out there, so there's just enough room for my equipment.  

​The only problems I have are the amount of padding on the back (there could be more, although its still very comfortable), that the access points aren't that usable with the equipment that I have and that there is no non-camera related, large pocket.  The type of pocket that you can put a jumper or your lunch in.  I guess that by including this you would lose the outside strap system, so I'm happy with that trade-off.

If you are a wildlife photographer with a lens larger than a 300mm F/2.8 I would say that this bag will not be the right fit for you, but if you are a photographer that uses a couple of bodies and a fair few lenses maxing out at 200mm then I'm sure this bag will be fantastic for you!  You will be able to make use out of the access points, great customisable inside compartments and weird amount of small pockets throughout the bag.

So there you go!  I hope you enjoyed the review and that it may help you make a decision if you had this bag in your basket and couldn't quite press purchase.

Thanks for reading!

I'll start this post off with a phrase that seems be becoming tradition lately... sorry that I haven't posted for a while!

I was out today in Falmouth for about two hours with my new Nikon 200-500mm F/5.6 (< plus a few more acronyms).  There is a brackish (mix of salt and fresh water) pool called 'Swanpool', which provides very easy situations to photograph a few species of birds.  The body that I was using for all the images was a Nikon D7100, which has a 1.5x crop factor (due to the DX sensor) and therefore I was effectively using a 300-750mm F/5.6.

So not to bore you, I have provided a link (click here) to DP Review where you can read all of the technical information about the lens.  Now I can show you some real world tests exploring sharpness, focus speed, tracking and more...

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This was my favourite image from the shoot and possibly the sharpest and yet it has been cropped a fair amount, about a 35%.  Although it has no specific purpose for being taken, I thought that I would start the review with a nice image!

​With the purpose of this shoot being for a review, the edit for each image is only with highlight/shadow, contrast and exposure changes, no sharpening has been done.

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Bokeh
The aesthetic quality of the out of focus areas of an image can also be called 'bokeh'.  For me, this aspect of the optics is make or break when I'm thinking about purchasing a new lens.  The Nikon does really well, I'm not going to say that it is the best out there, but it is unobtrusive and clean.  The next image was taken for the purpose of displaying the bokeh.
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Wanting to accentuate the out of focus area, I used F/5.6 on this line of gulls.  Firstly, I'd like to point out how sharp the image is at the widest aperture and longest focal length.  But focussing on the bokeh and you can see that within about 2 meters of the subject the out of focus gulls look quite nice.  The edges are soft and although with a wider aperture you would gain a nicer effect, the quality for this aperture is very good.  You may notice that it doesn't look as nice on the legs of the furthest gull (at the very top of the frame).  In a way that is a little bit distracting once you notice it, but what you can take away that is positive, is the 'rounded' look of bokeh at this distance.  This is due to the amount of blades that the aperture is made of, the more blades and the fact that this lenses' blades are made to be circular, means that the 'bokeh circle' is smoother.

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Focus Speed and Tracking
Again the lens did very well in the test and delivered most images with acceptable focus.  I was putting it through a bit of a harsh test because (like the first image of the Tufted Duck) the subjects were constantly moving on the water.  However, on still subjects the focus was always correct.  The speed was good, over the past year and a bit I have got used to using 500/600mm F/4 lenses which has superb focussing and so it may be slightly slower to grab the subject (the difference is extremely minimal), but once it was locked on to the subject it didn't fault and tracked really well.  As a harder test of the tracking I spent a little time photographing the gulls in flight.  

I turned off the VR for these images as it's a bit unnecessary and battery consuming.  Although this could have been a time to test the 'sport VR' mode, but not having a full grasp on the VR modes I chose not to try it out at this time (it will come in further reviews).

I thought that you would appreciate a change in focal length, because after all, this is a zoom lens.  As I expected when buying this I will use this at 500mm 95% of the time.  In fact I found myself moving backwards to fit a bird in the frame, when I suddenly realised that I could just zoom out, but I guess this is habit and will change after a few weeks of use.

Anyway, this next image was to try out the tracking and optical quality at the wider end of the focal range.

You would probably expect it to be a little, if not quite a lot sharper than 500mm, but from my tests it seems that the change is extremely minimal, if there is any at all.  I am not a pixel peeper and prefer 'real world' opinions and images rather than graphs and charts.  Therefore you may read reviews which show quite drastic differences between focal lengths or apertures (or at least make it seem drastic), but in reality it is superb all round.  Which brings me on to the next point...

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Aperture and Sharpness
As I said earlier, I haven't noticed massive differences between apertures and I came to that through tests around my house and changing between F/5.6 and F/8.  So today, I though I'd see if there was a difference between F/5.6 and F/11.

The following images are of a boat which was quite a way off shore and I'll also show you 100% crops so that you can compare yourself and draw a conclusion.  However in my opinion, I can't see enough of a difference to actually bother shooting at a smaller aperture, in fact it just makes me more confident in being able to shoot at F/5.6 whenever possible!

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Chromatic Aberration
One of the problems that all lenses face is chromatic aberration (also known as colour fringing).  It's fairly complicated, but put simply it occurs on high contrast edges.  I didn't actually have chromatic aberration in mind when thinking about what to write about today, but I though I'd find the worst case of it from the shoot and show you.

​Thanks for any likes and shares and feel free to comment below!