LATEST ADDITIONS

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.

The new model Outlander 50L and the K5 v2 80L features a removable camera pod that can accommodate a PRO DSLR body with up to 9” long lens with additional 3 to 4 more lenses, flash and accessories and has the ability to strap on the front harness. It enables you to keep hiking while the pack is on the back and the camera pod is at the front should you need to snap a quick photo. Some outdoor photographers just use it as a weight balancing. The main additional feature to the redesigned Adventure K4L v2 is a pull out camera compartment with the ability to tack it to the front waist belt or simply use it as an independent waist pack or shoulder bag with the included shoulder strap. The K4L v2 camera compartment is designed to accommodate a PRO DSLR body with battery pack attached, 1 long lens up to 8.3”, 2 more small lenses and other accessories.

Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in the United States and Canada, although up North it’s the second Monday in October. Other places around the world observe Thanksgiving celebrations as well and I’d like to celebrate it here by thanking the people who make this column possible. Big thanks goes to Editorial Director George Schaub and Managing Editor Andrea Keister, who occasionally suggest sites for the column but mostly just make me look good. A big thank you goes out to all of the magazine’s readers for their support over the years. In recent issues I haven’t had as many Shutterbug Reader-of-the-Month sites but I’ll make up for it this month, starting with…

While black and white digital photography is based on the conversion of a color (RGB) image to monochrome via software, those who remain adherents of film photography have an entirely different route to obtaining a black and white image.