The Window Of Opportunity Is Open - Take A Shot At It Now!

Well, if you are quick you get two of the best deals I have seen in this shop in a long time.

This is a chance for someone who wants two-lens kits for enthusiastic photography. I mean the sort of shooting that takes in family, landscape, travel, sports, and riots.

The cameras are the Fuji X-M1 and the Fuji X-A1. The lenses are Fujinon aspherical zooms. with each two-lens kit you get:

1.  The XC 16-50 mm f:3.5-5.6 OIS lens
2.  The XC 50-230 mm f:4.5-6.7 OIS lens

The OIS means internal image stabilisation in the lenses. Steadier shots at longer focal lengths.

The X-M1 has an X-trans sensor and the X-A1 has a Bayer-array sensor. They both have tiltable rear LCD and integral flash as well as all the Fuji specialist programs. The build quality is superb and the ergonomics are perfect for most hands.

Best of all is the price:

For the month of February the X-M1 kit is $ 998 and the X-A1 kit is $ 686. All up, all going, all good.

Be warned - there are only so many of the lens kits available. Hop in for your chop and get the best bargain in the place. Now.

It's Just 3 Millimetres...

This is a post dedicated to the mum and dad photographers - the ones who do the family snaps and the holiday pictures and the wedding groups - after the pro has posed the bridal party. The people who take pictures because they want to see what is in the pictures - as opposed to the people who take pictures because they want to take pictures...

Not that we are knocking the latter - where would we be if hordes of us hadn't gone out on every Saturday afternoon and failed to find out where the pictures are...didn't stop us from getting new equipment and neither should it stop you.

But back to the modest family photographers. More often than not they like to take landscape pictures, and pictures inside the school assembly hall, and family groups. The one thing they need more than anything is a wider view of the world - and preferably one that is neither distorted, not expensive, nor hard to get. These are not customers for the widest fish-eye or the exotic rectilinear that costs as much as a TV set. These are the customers for the kit lens.

Canon makes two good options for Mum and Dad - the EF-S 18-55 f:3.5-5,6 IS II and the EF-S 15-85 f:3.5-5.6 IS USM. The first is kitted with a number of the entry-level bodies and the second comes out with the 7D. Of course they can be put on any small-frame EOS Canon, just as you please.

The real eye-opener is when you compare their viewpoints - as you'll see in the images. That 3 mm difference in the wide-angle viewpoint makes a world of difference in what you see. Of course there is a difference in the longer end - 85 mm vs 55 mm but I'll bet in most family circumstances that wide 3 mm will be more useful than the long 30 mm.

Of course there is a cost - greater weight and higher price - but this can be spread out over a long time - Canon lenses keep their value - and it would be great to see more pictures making more mums and dads happy.

Mr. Jorrocks' Lecture

Surtees' famous grocer - Mr Jorrocks - delivered lectures to the Handley Cross Hunt on occasions. He was fueled by brandy and water and a love of fox-hunting, and however you may feel about either brandy or foxes, he did have a good bit of advice for young photographers.

These may be likened to the young sportsmen that Mr. Jorrocks was addressing - novices who might find themselves lost when approaching either sport or art. It is not likely that the new photographer will be pitched head over heels into a ditch or be roared off the field by and irate M.F.H. but one thing Jorrocks said is gold.

" Make sure you can ride one horse before you keep two."

Too often new photographers who have just learned to find the shutter button get a few images in hand or on-screen, and then read a week's worth of internet reviews and rumours - and charge in wanting to exchange the humble kit lens for the fanciest glass the manufacturers make. If their purse is strong enough to do it they charge out again expecting to produce eternal masterpieces at every street corner. Horses can produce things at street corners but it generally ain't considered to be eternal masterpieces...

The kit lens is a kit lens for a reason - it is a good estimation by the manufacturer of a standard lens for the camera for standard operation - by a standard photographer. The trick for the novice is to keep on working with that lens until they can come up to that standard - the results will be very good indeed.

If you do not have a kit lens...get one. I suggest an 18-55 or a 35 prime for the APSC sensor people and a 50 prime for the full-frame users. Use it for all it, and you, are worth. Do not underestimate the resolving power or the colour rendition and do not be put off by the snobbery of those who might consider themselves more advanced. Keep your eyes open and don't over-ride the hounds.