Shop Party - It's Not Just About Cameras

We wish to apologise for the noise. We have been celebrating the the refit of our showroom here at 230 Stirling Street. This is the sort of event that happens somewhat seldom, and we have been making the most of the opportunity.

I have enclosed a number of unofficial photos found in an old camera in a footlocker...there will be better pictures from our official photographer "Mr. Ernest" as soon as he returns. In the meantime you can get a feeling for the evening from this selection.

The venue.

The red carpet.

And I'd like to introduce...

The stars of the evening...

B1 and B2

One of them belongs to Leica and one of them belongs to us...

Sam And Frodo

Oh Myyyyy...

" See? I told you...

Yes, actually. They really are...

See? There's a C in the middle of the keyboard...

Now is actually a good time to come down and see us. The walls have been freshly painted and all the electrically-operated doors still open. We are stocked to the gunwales with cameras and lenses and there is space to move round the floor. Easter is upon us so get in today before it all sells out!

Steal Me - I'm Worth It

Look at the heading image. Now close your eyes and tell me what you saw.

You saw a $ 50 bill, didn't you? And a cup of hot chocolate, perhaps...but you did see the $ 50 bill.

People are like that. We focus on what we want, whenever we see it. This is the principle that sells the Louis Vuitton bag and the low cut blouse. It drives the new camera sales whenever the manufacturers release a new compact camera - they flood the market with superb photos of the product. The cynics amongst us in the trade then take bets on which 4 x 5 or 8 x 10 studio monorail was used to illustrate it...

Back to the heading image. Did you see the black jumper draped over the bag? It cost the owner $ 7.00 apparently. A cold wind blowing on the way to work or home and that is the most valuable object in the picture.

No food for a day? Blood sugar level at nothing? There's a cup of hot chocolate there...

Somebody ringing on the phone and you need to write down the phone number before you lose it? Pads and pens are cheap things but they become invaluable in 10 seconds.

So what's the blue bit you missed? A Think Tank Retrospective 5 camera bag. You'd never know that it contains a camera, flash, and spare lens worth about $ 10,000. Neither will the bag snatchers or pickpockets. Keep it strapped over your shoulder and it just looks like a tatty old student bag.

It is padded inside, has a general utility pocket, has a rain coat included, and looks like a tatty old student bag. The webbing straps and buckles are military grade and it look like the ones on tatty old student bags.

If you too, contrive to look like a tatty old student bag, you might get busted but you won't get mugged. And your $ 10,000 camera kit is safe.

Big 1000 - The Blog Post That Turns The Corner

Social media is like social disease - everyone has read about it, hardly anyone has seen it for themselves, and no-one wants the old-fashioned treatment for it. The little umbrella...

Writing for it requires a combination of Charles Lamb and Woody Allen; serious essay and one-liner. Plus a dash of Ansel Adams - plonkingly complex technical advice clothed in  art. It is an exhilarating experience when it goes well but very sad when there is nothing inspiring here in the shop. That is also when it becomes most dangerous - you start to think on a tangent and pretty soon the irate customers start beating on the windows with rocks.

We have a company slogan: " We Love Photography." and by-golly we do. Everyone here on the floor is a photographer and we actually do what we talk about  - in most cases with the stuff we sell to you. It is the best way for us to get knowledge - if we can do it we can show you how.

Sometimes we can show you how not to do it, as well. Every one of us has approached a job at some time and shot it in the best way we could and had it look like a horrible mess in the end. Sometimes we have been consultants for other people doing the same thing. This sort of experience is wonderful, particularly if you survive and the warrants expire.

Are we doing better than the anonymous writers on the forums? I think so - in the end we can actually demonstrate the gear in front of the customer, and even if we need to have a shop-huddle to all figure out how to make the device work, at least we all learn.

We are always asked which camera or lens is best. The answer is, of course, yes. Or no, depending upon the prejudices of the questioner. Some people really do want advice - some just want a fight. Quite a few want a place to eat their lunch when it rains. In the end, we ask as many questions as we answer, and sometimes the customer actually does their own answering. Then we can argue and eat lunch.

It is fun, the business of selling cameras. Not as much fun as social disease, but you don't get itchy in awkward places in hot weather.

Uncle Dick

Doin' The Numbers - You Can Too

Went on holiday in Europe in 1973. Went on holiday in Europe in 1995. Went on holiday in Melbourne in 2013. Took 1000 pictures each time. Here's the numbers - see if you think the world has got better...

1973. S/H Leica M2 - 50mm f:2.8 Elmar, S/H 35mm f:3.5 Something Leica with spectacles, S/H 90mm Elmar f:4 collapsible. Agfa CT 18 50 ISO. Billingham bag. Slides still exist - yellow dye has disappeared from them so they are magenta monsters...

1995. S/H Nikon F3, S/H 50mm f.1.4 Nikkor, S/H 16mm F:4 Nikkor, New 85mm f:2 Nikkor. Kodak Kodachrome 200 ISO. Lowepro bag. Slides still exist  - colours fast.

2013. New Fuji X-10, 28-112 f:2 Fujinon. Crumpler bag. Jpeg images on Drobo at home.

Several ponts of interest here - the business of buying and using secondhand photographic equipment IS PERFECTLY ALRIGHT. I emphasise that because occasionally we get people who are so fastidious as to reject perfectly good gear because someone else has used it before. This can be a personal thing or a cultural thing or just a thing - but you might be missing out on some wonderful opportunities for shooting. The 35 in 1973 and the 16 in 1995 were lifesavers for the types of images I take. I couldn't have got them new, but they worked just fine secondhand.

Secondly - don't sit there and agonise over the money costs. Real photographers, as opposed to the dillettanti, spend what they need to spend to get what they want to do done. I spent money to get 1000 pictures of Europe or Melbourne and that was well spent.

Thirdly. The weight. I weighed 75 Kg in 1973 and 1995. I weigh 69 Kg now. You can ask me how I lost the 6 Kg but be warned - I'll show you the scars...The real weight question is the gear weight that I carried around:

1973 - 3460 grammes

1995 - 3520 grammes

2013 - 1080 grammes

Fourthly. The X-rays and inspections. Went through 9 airports on the European journeys; the 1973 ones had little or no X-ray inspection - the 1995 had a lot of it. The domestic Australian inspection is a breeze and if you look interesting they'll also swab you for explosives and pat you down. I was clean, but i went back for seconds because the lady who did it had warm hands...

But what about hauling film through the rays, versus memory cards. Wouldn't like to do the film, the cards seem to be immune.

Fifthly. Processing. Two weeks after I returned from Europe I had 1000 slides in boxes ready for projection. Twenty minutes after I returned from Melbourne I had 1000 images in the Drobo and had emailed the good ones to my mates.

Sixthly. When was the picture taken? I can see the sequence of slides by looking at the edge of the film, but if I wanted to have a time and date I needed to keep a paper notebook. THAT lasted about one day, I can tell you...

So - You can do the figures yourself, but you can see why I am smiling. I now shoot with a third of the carriage weight with a wider range of focal lengths, and a choice of colour or monochrome renditions at my fingertips - even " mid-roll ". One filter only. You can X ray me until my buttons melt and the pictures will be unaffected. No lens changing. As many copies of my work as I like for free and I can make them myself with a cup of coffee in hand. Plus there is a record with each shot of what date and when it was taken - and this information isn't burnt into the open face of the image in yellow letters.

And finally - an on-board flash that lets me do selfies in restaurants. You can't do that with the big flashes on film cameras. Well, actually, you can, but they throw you out of the restaurant after one shot...

Jemima Is Waiting Here For You

Would the little person who forgot Jemima Puddleduck here in the shop - near the camera bag section - please return and take her home. She has seen all the cameras and lenses and bags and is getting rather bored by it all. She needs go home where she is loved.

Please ask your little person if Jemima is missing and give us a call.

Photography And the Sense of Smell

Of all the seven senses - sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch, cinnamon buns, and road rage, the one that least suggests itself as connected to photography must be that of smell. Yet it has played a crucial part in many a photographer's career and needs to be nurtured if any future success is contemplated.

The smell of ether is distinctive and once formed a large part of the universe of the professional photographer. Gun cotton was dissolved in it to produce collodion - a sticky glue that was poured over glass plates and then soaked in silver nitrate to produce wet plates for large-format photography. How many early workers anaesthetised themselves preparing the collodion - or blew themselves up seeing where that funny smell came from with a candle in the darkroom...?

Then again when the flexible film camera came into being -and later the motion picture film - the first films had an acetate base. Fine in the initial stage but prone to breaking down chemically later to form flammable and explosive compounds. A distinctive smell coming from an old 35mm reel of motion picture film should serve as a warning.

Sniff some more. Is there a musty odour associated with your camera or the lenses in your old camera bag? Is the bag itself redolent of old socks? Or cheese? You may well be growing a fine crop of mould in your equipment. You'll need some fresh air, bright sunlight, and professional cleaning to return it from the grave - and no fair trying to trade it in to us, either. We've got noses too and we prefer our fungus sliced and fried over a steak.

The odour of a Soviet camera is also one that will never be forgotten - the Fed, Zorki, Kiev, Krasnoyarsk, Quarz, and many other products of the old empire were issued in real leather cases - presumably from pigskin in many cases - and in many instances pretty fresh from the tanning vat, if the smell was anything to go by. They were lubricated with fish oil. If you used a new one you didn't need Vitamin D tablets for a year - you just breathed deeply.

Is there a distinctive digital smell? Not really - most of the lubricants are artificial and while you might get a new camera smell, it is generally very subdued. It might be worth while for the manufacturers to enclose a scent sachet in the boxes - freshly-brewed coffee or garlic prawns or something to make you feel you have something to look forward to besides reading another manual and getting a firmware upgrade.

Paddington Bear's Camera Bag

 

Those of you with children - or who were children - will remember Paddington Bear, particularly when he dressed in his yellow mackintosh and sou'wester hat. That is the image that came to mind when I saw the new Dryzone bags and it will take some time to eradicate it.

In any case this is the second offering in the new Dryzone series. smaller than the backpack, but the same form of roll-over watertight seal. It has a unique plastic hook latch that straps over the top of the case when closed to evenly distribute weight - it would be a good bag for heavy bodies and lenses.

We joked about the wet places where you could need this - but we neglected to mention that wet needn't necessarily be dank. There are plenty of snowy landscapes that need cameras and you need water protection there too. If you are going to break your leg in Thredbo this year, consider doing it with this Lowepro case. Also thoroughly recommended for Alaska and Churchill, Manitoba.

 

Just don't expect to sneak up on your subject while carrying it - unless it is through a field of buttercups...

A Dry Camera Is A Happy Camera

For years the Lowepro people have been making a line of their bags with the model name " Dryzone ". These are intended for use in areas that have running water - running over the photographer, that is. Tasmania, New Guinea, The East Indies, tropical Queensland...rain forests, waterfalls, and leaky roofs.

The previous design in this series relied upon some pretty fierce zippers with rubber seals to exclude water - the things were difficult to operate due to the force required to separate the rubber section. The new design uses the lunch parcel concept - you roll and fold the top of the sealed plastic bag to keep it dry. It seems complex, but it is really a lot easier to work.

Do they work? Yes. One of our clients upended his canoe with one of the Dryzone bags aboard and then used it as a float to get to shore. The camera gear was fine. Those of you who remember Tom Hanks in " Joe And The Volcano " will recognise the similarity.

Lowepro - don't leave shore without it...

Suspending Your Disbelief With A New Strap

I used to laugh at all the people who made a collection of camera bags - until I counted how many I own. And all of them necessary, you understand. I went silent.

Then I took to laughing at the people who bought new straps for their cameras - replacing perfectly good manufacturer's straps. Then I looked in the various bags and counted the aftermarket straps...

So why? Why did I spend perfectly good drinking money on camera straps - and don't say it was just because I work in a camera shop. I can be as tight with my money as any of you. I did it because they all do something different.

Let me start with the manufacturer's contributions. Good for the most part, but comprised chiefly of nylon webbing with a hard edge and an advertising logo on the back. I can stand the advertisement but the hard edge of the webbing digs into my elegant swan-like neck something chronic. The camera end of one of them has a series of protective covers to prevent something - I find it chiefly prevents me getting the damn camera to my eye.

So I have an Op/Tec Classic padded strap to spare my neck. It suspends the heavy Nikon DSLR well enough to let me do 8 hours of bride-hunting. If I need to do an equal time with heavier artillery-  a long lens to capture the sword fighting - I use a Balck Rapid RS-4 and sling the thing off my left shoulder like a dragoon carbine.

All this is very well when utility is the go, but what do I do when there is a need for prestige and elegance - at the opening of the yacht club or the investiture at the palace? Why I just fasten the Artist and Artisan pure eco-friendly cotton strap grown on the south slope of the Cote des Straps and hand crafted by people with hands. I try to forget how much it costs, unless someone else seems to have a better one, then I tell them. It is a VERY good strap.

But I may have to change my tune. Think Tank have a new strap that is made up of cotton webbing and leather ends that feed into steel O-rings. It looks like it could be used as a lifting strap for panels on a tilt-up building site. And the webbing has a wavy pattern of soft plastic designed to grip on a slippery jacket and prevent the strap sliding free. I don't really need it, but....

The Optical Marsupial

Anyone who owns two lenses and one camera has a problem - at some stage of the game they are going to have to change whatever is on the camera for whatever they are carrying in their camera bag. If they do not have a camera bag they have two problems, and if they are trying to do it in a hurry on in the twilight in the deepest part of the bush surrounded by tiger snakes...well they have more than two problems.

Here are a few suggestions to ease the situation:

1. Do not go into the bush at twilight in snake season, or if you do, ask for someone to drop a daisy-cutter bomb about 5 minutes before you enter the area.

2. Get yourself a lens-changing pouch. This will save you from dropping one or both of your lenses into the dirt.

The two smaller pouches seen in this post are made by Think Tank and Lowepro. They are both equipped with a belt loop to fix them to your off-side. The Lowepro has an additional shoulder strap.

The Lowepro is a traditional flap-top design with thick padding inside. There is a secure zipper around the edge of the lid - it is fairly water-resistant.

The Think Tank design has a purse-top that closes with a draw string. There is a separate compartment under the pouch with a waterproof cover.

The idea of these is that you can carry your spare lens in it for your venture, but as you are gently juggling the camera and optics out there in the field, you have somewhere to literally drop the one you are changing while you attach the new one. Wise photographers will keep some sort of a strap on their camera to sling it round a neck or shoulder while they do this.

The same sort of idea appends to the Lowepro Passport Sling II bag - you can sling it over a shouldeer then rotate it forward around your waist to give the effect of a secure kangaroo pouch in the front. Open it, extract the new lens, drop the old one in there - all safe and sound and not too much of a war-dance to do it.

Remember - make it easy on yourself and take it easy when you shoot. No-one benefits from over-complexity - ever.

Micro Sports Bag For Maximum Comfort - Lowepro Sport

Sold a bag the other day to an active photographer. She bought it with the need for a very light but sturdy container for hiking - something that would hold a DSLR and a couple of lenses but not weigh her down in itself. She chose one of the Lowepro Sport types and went away very happy.

Got me to thinking if there was one from their range that had a similar configuration but was aimed more at the photographer that would be carrying a micro 4/3 or other mirrorless camera system. It turns out that the Flipside Sport 10L is the one.

Flipside defines it as a bag that has the main compartment zip opening toward the body and Sport is the name that Lowepro use for their light nylon-covered packs. I suspect the 10L means that it holds 10 litres of gear. This could be scientifically measured at the pub but I am confined to the editorial desk. Suffice it to say there is a good space in there for a mirrorless and as many lenses as you like, as well as a flash.

The side flaps are a general purpose pocket on the right - including a space for a hydration bladder and delivery tube - and a tripod pouch on the left side.. The usual weatherproof cover is tucked into the bottom of the case. The internal camera tray comes out and has its own integral rain cover.

The shoulder and lumbar areas are open-cell foam covered in nylon mesh - they evidently expect you to get sweaty and they are giving some relief to the areas that bear the weight.

Note on the shoulder straps that there are two "D" rings to which you can attach camera straps.

Final fillip is the pair of multipurpose hook and cord straps on the outer back that can be used to secure loose articles of clothing.

These seem to be available in a bright orange or a blue-grey. A very good prospect for the active lightweight traveller.

Now You See It - Now You Don't...The Art Of The Travelling Camera

No good me poking fun at you, like I did in my last post, without holding out some hope for the future. In the future I will also poke fun at you...

No, folks, what I mean is we do have some really good solutions down here at the shop for the tourist who wants to travel light and safe, and bring back good images.

First - cameras. Well, I favour my Fuji X -10. Other people love their Leica D-lux or their Panasonic Lumix cameras. Canon make the ever-popular G 15 and it is ever-popular because it is a great tourist camera. The Olympus Pen people also know the value of a lot of good in a small package. Pick one that you like and can afford and go with confidence

But the business of taking it along is what we are considering here - I mentioned the heavy-lift thing in the last post. If you have eschewed that look at some of the pictures of camera bags from different manufacturers that are being used to house the same example camera.

The camera is the Fuji X-20. Soooo nice. If I could think of a plausible reason to get it as well as the X-10 I would buy one, but so far...

1. Kata ZP-6 DL

A classic square bag with the addition of a sewn finger loop at one corner and a nylon neck- cord. Battery/card pocket and nice padding. $ 22.00.

2. Think Tank Lens Changer 15 V2.0

Round drop pouch with drawstring top and a very sturdy belt loop in back - reinforced with a nylon bar to rest on your belt. $ 29.50.

3. Lowepro ILC 50 Classic

Traditional box pouch with a heavy shoulder strap - the roomiest option here and well suited for quick grabs of the camera. Plenty of room inside and on an outside pocket for cards and batteries. $ 45.00.

4. Op/Tec Digital D-Shortie Soft Pouch

Wrap the camera in this soft neoprene case ad you can safely bundle it into a pocket or your main luggage. There is a harness strap that lets you pop the camera out for use but still tether it to the case.
$ 24.20.

And the model in the leading image? Jo Armstrong. I just included her because everybody needs to see beautiful girls sometime...

Thinking Inside The Box - A Modest Proposal

'Tis nearly the tourist season - the safari and cruise tour companies are gearing up for the influx of Australian tourists and the Australian tourists are gearing up for a world of pain. We are assisting them.

Not a day goes by down here but what someone comes in and tells us that they are going on a holiday and they want to take their camera. And their camera. And their lens, lens, lens, lens, lens...and the laptop and the three chargers and the flashes and spare batteries and....perhaps a spare memory card, if the price is right.

And a lightweight tripod that folds into the size of a pocket pencil and can hold a Canon 1Dx with a 100-400 lens on it rock solid in an arctic gale.

And the whole lot should go into a bag that can be put in the overhead locker, leaving enough spare room for he 1 litre bottle of duty free Drambuie.

I find lithium pills help a lot these days...

Let me put forward a modest proposal - as Johnathon Swift did - that will make your trip successful. It will involve a week of experimentation but pay giant dividends when you are out across the globe.

Day One

1. Go to the linen press and get out all your teatowels. Find the empty cardboard box your TV came in and bring it in from the shed. Get some rope.

2. Set out all the camera bodies, lenses, chargers, laptops, batteries, and tripods that you are going to take on your trip in your lounge room.

3. Wrap each component up in a teatowel. Pack the parcels into the TV box. Jump on it if they will not all fit in, but get them in there.

4. Rope the box up and then tie it onto yourself. You can tie it over one shoulder, over two shoulders, or around your waist - your choice. Use Boy Scout knots.

5. Put your hat on, go out the front door, and set out to walk to Mundaring Weir.

6. Give us a call down at the shop when your vision starts to go. We've got a book down here that records the distances of various customers - one chap made it to Welshpool from Belmont before the St. John's Ambulance people got him.

Day Two

1. Put one camera body, one lens, and one spare battery into a shopping bag. Add a tripod if you must.

2. Rope that to one shoulder.

3. Hat, door, Mundaring.

4. See how much further you got? Take the bus home.

Day Three

1. Put a mirrorless camera and one lens - or a bridge camera, or a compact zoom into your jacket pocket. Put a Cullmann pocket tripod in the other pocket

2. Mundaring is nice this time of year, isn't it. I remember coming up here when I was courting. They had water in the dam then...

Scientific note: It is possible to get an entire 2-body, 5-lens, laptop, refrigerator, and year's supply of cheese into a Lowepro Santiago DV 25 pocket pouch. All you need to do is remove all the space between the nucleus and orbiting electrons of each atom of the outfit and shake them down together. It can be done with a black hole, but only once. The unpacking is the problem...