Ask Bill & Dan

Freddy wants to know if he's going to get rainbows and unicorns if he spends five times as much on his next monolight flash. There are reasons to hand over the platinum card, but they may not be what you think. And Molly's friend is selling a used dSLR and some of the potential buyers are asking about it's shutter actuation count. Is that really something to think about?

Is it a good idea to build a camera system based on the plan to use adapters with your next body purchase or should you try to stay native when possible? Basically are we at the point where we're lens mount agnostic? Not quite, but Bill & Dan have thoughts. Next we tackle the question of whether it's worth using SSD drives in your network backup system. Speed, capacity, and price are involved.

It's a display question bonanza. We've got questions from two guys named Nick today from opposite sides of the world. Nick in Australia has a old semi-broken 27" iMac that he would love to use as a secondary display for his MacBook Pro, but needs some help making that happen. And Nick from New York has just built a shiny new photo editing computer for himself and now needs to decide on a new under-$1000 monitor to go with it. Don't worry, we've got some ideas for him.

First up is a discussion about Plug-ins - what's out there, what we've used, what we like, and some general theory. Then we get into another talk about sensor size and resolution. A little bit of theory and history, and the big questions - is bigger really better? Why would you choose one over another?

Our first question this week is about the double-edged sword of tethering your camera to a computer during a shoot and how it might create as many problems as it solves. Then we tackle what kind of lighting kit to build if you want to use it for both stills and video, and you only have a budget of a thousand bucks.

Our first question is about putting together a lighting kit to take yearbook-like headshots for your office, but to do so with just a little something extra. Then we help listener Ellen navigate the shadowy world of selling some of her father's unused Leica gear in order to reinvest in her own kit needs.

First up is a question about third party lenses. Is it really worth spending all that money on the name brand? What should you be thinking about before making a decision? Next up is a question about online backup. How does it really work? We also touch on backup strategy in general, which is always an important discussion.