The Uniqball 2-into-1 tripod head is one of the top three best heads available

Tripod heads come in many sizes and formats. There are heads that enable you to position your camera very accurately, in small degrees and in each of the three dimensions individually, while others allow you to freely move the camera in any direction or angle you want by simply releasing a lever or screw. The latter category includes ball heads. Usually and because they're made to freely move your camera in all directions, ball heads are not suitable for anything but keeping your camera still when shooting with long exposure times or with heavy lenses mounted. In theory, ball heads would be great for videographers — free movement in all directions is what we think about when shooting a movie. However, ball heads don't restrict movement at all, meaning you can't easily keep them level with the horizon either. Unless you're using a special one, the Uniqball.

Screencasting on the Mac more fun, efficient with ScreenFlow 7

Fancy creating a screencast or a presentation involving demos of iPad apps, or a PiP (picture in Picture) video presentation of new software? Then ScreenFlow has been your best option for some years now. Telestream recently released version 7 of the application. It comes with new options, such as text animations, a global media library, multi-pass x264 encoding and more.

Need a great performing TTL flash with transceiver built in? The Cactus RF60X may be all you want

The Cactus RF60X flash is a speedlight with a built-in radio transceiver, SSH and stroboscopic capabilities, support for four groups and delay functionality. It’s compatible with the Cactus V6 II, V6 IIs and older V6 flash triggers. Its radio operates in the crowded 2.4GHz radio bandwidth, but it has 16 channels and 999 radio-IDs to choose from to avoid interference.

Metz Mecablitz 64 AF-1 digital, a speedlight Rolls-Royce

The Mecablitz 64 AF-1 must be the Rolls-Royce of speedlights. Its quality of build, feature set, controls, sounds it makes — everything oozes quality and professionalism. Made in Germany it says on the box and as cliché that may be, it shows. The Mecablitz 64 AF-1 is as dependable as its beautiful minimal, business-like design suggests. It’s probably a lot better than any camera-brand flash as well.

A flat but flexible or a coiled HDMI cable for recording to your Atomos Shogun?

You can buy any HDMI cable for video recording to an external monitor/recorder equipped with an HDMI-port and it will do just fine, provided it can handle the HDMI specification you’re shooting with. That is undoubtedly true, but the influence of the quality of assembly and an issue with cable management could make you buy an expensive coiled cable. There’s an alternative that works just as good, though, and it’s much cheaper.

The LumoPro LP605M convertible compact light stand and monopod

A light stand is nothing to get excited about, but the LP605M Convertible 7.5in Compact Light Stand and Monopod is a two-in-one stand, designed to lighten the load for location photographers. It was developed with industrial designer and photographer Eric Au and builds on the popular LP605 Compact Light Stand.

Cactus V6 II and IIs are robust and dependable flash triggers

We all know Cactus flash triggers as a cheap alternative for expensive PocketWizard products. The V6 II and V6 IIs (Sony) are not just cheaper but also viable replacements. They also come with unexpected features, including cross-brand TTL, high-powered HSS, stroboscope support, group sequencing and more.

IK Multimedia Syntronik: 17 famous synthesisers in one

IK Multimedia's Syntronik is a virtual synthesiser that allows you to tap into 17 famous synthesisers, including several models by Roland and Moog. Syntronik uses advanced sampling techniques combined with a new hybrid sample and modelling synthesis engine. Add to that a new analogue modelled filter section, a very user-friendly arpeggiator and the option of having four instrument layers, each occupying their own zone of your keyboard. With over 2,000 preset sounds covering a wide selection from 38 of the most iconic and painstakingly multi-sampled vintage synthesisers and you know that Syntronik is a music 'system' that you simply must have.

Audiophiles should try the RU Connected RCA interconnect

What’s in a cable? If you believe the audiophile, there’s an awful lot going on in an audio cable. Audiophiles are happy to shell out well over €1000 for an RCA interconnect. They claim to hear a difference with any lead that’s cheaper. But none of these chaps has ever succeeded to pick the expensive cable out of a bunch of cheap ones without knowing which is which.

Your up-to-20TB backup device, the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual

The OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual features two Thunderbolt 2 ports, one USB 3.1 Gen. 1 port and all of the cables you need to start using it immediately. You can set this small-footprint unit to RAID 0, RAID 1, disk spanning and JBOD modes. It has a black minimal design and you can buy it as a bare enclosure or with disks already installed. I got the chance to test the 2TB version.