rickshooter
Offline
•
Upload & Sell: Off
|
I thought I would relate my experiences with the Foolography Unleashed, in the hopes that they might be of some use to others (especially John, whose penchant for "overthinking" I happen to share).
Last fall I did a lot of research on a GPS solution for use with my Nikon D700. I settled upon the Unleashed because:
1. I didn't want to have to sync up a GPS logger's data file with my pics during post processing;
2. I didn't want something taking up my hot shoe or flailing around on the camera strap as I hiked and bushwacked and took my camera in and out of its backpack;
3. Oliver's solution seemed very elegant, flexible and well-thought out;
4. Oliver was very helpful, to me personally and in forums like this one, in explaining his product and his design considerations.
Unleashed has a premium price, yet it seemed to me like the best product in the market, at least for my needs. So I went ahead and ordered it.
When it arrived, I was very impressed at its diminutive size. When I placed it on the camera, however, I was a little disappointed because it did not align completely squarely with the camera's body. But Oliver had warned of this someplace on Foolography's website, saying that the slight off-angle occurs in some cases because Nikon seems to be rather inconsistent in the way they install the 10-pin connector in the camera bodies. So this was something I was prepared for, and it was not at all a show-stopper.
But what I was not prepared for was the fact that the little holes in the back of the Unleashed, designed to be used for the attachment of a safety tether, turned out to be unusable. I can't remember if the Foolography site actually made reference to those holes or not at the time I was doing my original research. (I don't think it does now.) But the holes are clearly visible in photographs of the Unleashed, both on the Foolography website and elsewhere on the web (reviews, etc.). And because I'd been comparing the Unleashed to other similar competing products which not only sport such holes but are depicted and described being used with a tether, I easily assumed that this is what the holes in the Unleashed were for and could effectively be used this way. So I'd purchased the product feeling confident of this "insurance" against the possible loss of my $250 investment.
But as soon as I tried to put a tether through the two holes, applying only a small amount of force, the little "isthmus" of plastic between the holes broke through. I was rather upset about this and immediately emailed Oliver. He responded in detail, saying that the thickness of the plastic there turned out to be less than anticipated, and that the tolerances in the fabrication process also made this challenging. But he had confidence that if I pushed the Unleashed all the way into the socket, that it would seat very firmly and that I wouldn't have a problem with it coming loose unintentionally. He also discussed some other ideas which I won't go into here, but I will say that I very much appreciated what seemed to me his willingness to be helpful and to communicate honestly the challenges of designing and fabricating a complex, niche product.
So I took Oliver's advice and pushed the Unleashed more firmly onto the 10-pin socket. Lo and behold, it went in a bit further and felt VERY snug. After a little time (of using the camera, taking it in and of its backpack, etc.), I noticed that the Unleashed was coming out just a little (I'm talking like a sixteenth of an inch), so I pushed it back in, and it still felt very snug. So I thought, "well, just keep an eye on it, and push it back in every once in a while if it needs it, and everything will be fine." I never have reason to remove it. I bought an inexpensive Vivitar remote (swapping in a Phottix cable with the needed 2.5mm plug), so using wired or wireless remote with the Unleashed in place is a slam-dunk.
I should note here, almost as an aside (but obviously very important) that I was and have been extremely satisfied with the electronic performance of the Unleashed. Although the initial pairing of the Unleashed with my chosen bluetooth logger (a Qstarz BT-Q1000XT) was a bit involved, it was no big deal--especially given that I'd first read Oliver's very adequate instructions. And I was happy to make that small investment, knowing that my Unleashed would not wind up promiscuously pairing with someone else's bluetooth device later on. The performance of both the Unleashed and the Qstarz has been great over the past half year, and I've never felt like they were power hogs. (Athough I've not tried to do any quantitative assessments, the claims I've seen from Oliver in various contexts regarding the power management "smarts" he designed into the Unleashed seem quite plausible to me.) So I've been very happy with my chosen GPS-logging and photo geotagging solution, and have felt like all that homework paid off.
Until today. Yesterday I spent the day exploring and photographing some very nice parts of upstate New York. And today I noticed that my Unleashed was missing from my camera. Perhaps you can imagine how upset I was to discover this, especially as I'm now trying to prepare for many other aspects of a cross-country trip in a couple weeks. I had assumed that the GPS aspect was in the bag, but NO--now I've spent the whole day re-researching my options, because I can't feel confident that even if I were to purchase another Unleashed that it wouldn't wind up getting lost again. And as anyone (like John) who's studied this issue carefully can see, there don't appear to be any obvious, elegant ways to create an enhanced or supplemental attachment point for an Unleashed-like device on a Nikon camera.
I think Oliver is being truthful when he explains in various contexts that the fit of the Unleashed in the Nikon sockets is very snug, and that it's highly unlikely that some kind of (single) impact would dislodge it from its position on the camera. But what I believe he's failing to consider (or perhaps intentionally avoiding discussion of) is that the real risk to the continuing safe ensconcement of the Unleashed is not a one-time impact, but rather a gradual process by which it works its way out, repeatedly buffeted by hands, the corners of partitions within camera bags, etc. As you saw from my description above, I managed to catch this process several times over the last six or so months and stop it. But clearly something happened yesterday that either sped up the process and/or distracted me from keeping an occasional eye on the placement of the Unleashed. (And I even plugged the remote into it at one point early in the day.) I have no confidence that, if I were to purchase another Unleashed, that this would not repeat itself six or 12 or 18 months down the road. And without a viable means of tethering it, I'd be destined for more unhappy days just like this one. I suspect Oliver will disagree with some of what I've written here. But at this point, I'm feeling rather "Foolographish", and I believe that--given the apparent impracticality of making use of the threads on the camera's 10-pin jack--going completely "Unleashed" is NOT a safe way to go.
Rick Lightbody
|
