Last Chance And We're Not Lion About It - Tomorrow's The Day

If you want to experience the best of African images and find out how they are made - and plan how YOU might go and do the same - tomorrow at the State Library of WA  is your chance.

Iconic Images International - with Denis Glennon in charge - has arranged for Shem Compion to give a seminar about his books, his company( C4 Images and Safaris ), and
his experiences in the photo business in Africa.

That's tomorrow at 9:00 to 4:30, but you'll have to Google Denis on his website: Iconic Images International. Or you can ring him on:

08 9284 7373 or  0418 923 103

If you want to go to Africa with photo equipment, see Shem and then see us. He knows the stuff you need and we sell the stuff you need.

Famous Wildlife Photographer To Visit Perth

In May of this year photographers in Perth, Melbourne, and Sydney will get an opportunity to hear one of the most diverse and celebrated natural history photographers in South Africa.

Shem Compion owns South Africa's premier photographic safari company, and has been succeeding in this difficult field for over 15 years. He's published 5 best-seller books and is working on more right now.

This is a chance to get real expertise from a leader in the field. He is to come to Australia associated with Iconic Images International. There is more information available on the web, so Goggle up Iconic Images International and follow on to their site. I believe they even have a short film available for this.

If you would love to try a photo safari you cannot be in better hands than Mr. Glennon.

Panasonic Get the Shape Right -You Get The Right Images

 You hear me bang on all the time around here about the ergonomics of the cameras and lenses that we sell - sometimes I am less than complementary about the design shape that the manufacturers settle upon. It is a subjective thing - I judge the camera form by what my own hands can hold - by what my own fingers can reach. I have just been reaching for he Panasonic GX7 and I advise some of you to do so too.

It's a micro 4/3 camera like the Olympus. The two manufacturers may be rivals but their lenses can fit each other's cameras to a "tee". The Panasonic is slightly soberer-looking - most of it is black with only a small steel ring trim.

Leaving the external appearance aside, it was the grip and the control position that won me. The battery compartment has been angles and the resultant grip shape that just suited my hand. The knot of control wheels that cluster at the NE corner of the camera are exactly in the right position with enough of a detent to them to keep in the settings you choose.

The viewfinder at the NW corner is adjustable for diopter and angle and features the eye   sensor that shuts off the main screen when you put your eye to it.

If you need a waist level finder for discrete street photography or wildflower and nature photography you just slide the screen out flat. Need a fill flash? Poke the flash button and up pops the small flash.

This is a system camera with access to a wide range of lenses with superb optical characteristics. They are none of them arm-breakers. Micro 4/3 equipment is economical in size, weight, and price. 

Thoroughly recommended.

Underslung

" Ye canna beat the laws of physics, Cap'n. Ye canna mount a long telephoto lens on the average ball head or three-way head and move it about wi' ease. It'll fa over ever time. On yer heid. "

You can, however, mount the lens with the pivot point at or over the center-line of the lens and then lay it with ease - provided you have divided the weight fore and aft of the pivot. This is the principle of the wimberley-styled head.

One of the neatest we have seen recently in the shop is the Induro. Standard 3/8" hole on the bottom and 1/4" thread on the top but an infinity of up/down and fore/aft adjustment to balance the lens. Firm secure lock in final position if that is what you need - easy movement if you are following a target.

Perfect answer for wildlife, birds, and sports.

We Are Delighted To Announce - The New Nikon Lens

If you have enthusiasm for any of the following:

Air Shows
Surfing
Football
Tennis
Hoss racing
Wildlife
Birds
Safaris
Motor Racing
Surveillance Work

...you may be very interested in a carton of lenses that have just arrived in our shop. They are the new Nikon 80-400 VR lenses - the AF-S G lenses - that I reported in a previous blog. Here. Now. For sale.

I had the privilege of using one of the demo models of this a month or so back and was vastly impressed by the handling and speed of the lens - it is everything that we expect from the modern electronic Nikon lens. It should find its way to hundreds of camera bags and as fast as possible - this is the Nikon lens that answers the question Canon raised with their 100-400 lens in the past. It will remain to be seen whether this poses a new question.

I daresay a number of prospective buyers will now start the long process of reading every internet rumour and review for this lens - I expect them to arrive with Officeworks looseleaf binders full of printout from their investigations...( Complete with impossible prices from faraway places with strange-sounding names. Calling, calling, to meeeee...)

Sorry about that. Little burp of cynicism. Better now.

Never mind the reviews. Bring your body down here - together with your camera body - and clap our demo lens on it and take some pictures outside in Stirling Street. We have arranged for the BHP company to erect a test target on St. Georges Terrace for your convenience. You will be impressed by the new Nikon lens.

Uncle Dick

A New Canon Lens With A New Feature - In-Built

The Canon rumours have finally ground through the Canon mincer and we are to see the actual new product. Quite when remains problematical, but we will be told. Betting is end of May but remember what happens to people who depend on betting...

The lens is the new Canon EF 200- 400mm f:4L IS USM Extender 1.4x. It will replace the current 100-400 zoom lens. There are cosmetic differences to be seen in the illustration of the new lens - a deeper tripod foot for one and a circular zoom motion. There is a bulge on the left hand side of the lens just in front of the mount. Therein lies the real secret of the lens.

The bulge conceals an in-built 1.4x tele-extender element. If needed, it can be rotated into the light path, extending the focal length range to 280 to 560mm. It does cost one stop of light but remember that the subsequent downshift of the shutter speed can be adequately compensated for with the new IS mechanism in the lesn. You won't notice any inconvenience and you'll have a lot longer reach for animal shots.

They have reduced the weight of the lens through use of magnesium castings.

The convenience of this innovation will be at once evident to those people who have been faced in the past with demounting the old 100-400 and trying to prevent ingress of dust and moisture - not the thing does not have to be broken in the field and most of this dust will never get a chance to get in there.

This will be the lens for Africa and Alaska. And if they can get enough lions and rhinoceroses to emigrate to Anchorage, you can do it all in one trip...

Slither Along To Cannington

If you want to see some venomous reptiles with aggressive attitudes but are tired of watching the current affairs segments on the television news...may I suggest that you visit the Cannington Exhibition Center on Albany Highway this Sunday. They are running a fabulous reptile exhibition all day.

Of course it is not all snakes - there will be lizards and frogs and newspaper journalists and everything. With a bit of luck you might find something cute and cuddly.

It won't be me, I hasten to add. I'm to give a little talk on photographing reptiles. Which will be an exercise in pure imagination ...errr...I mean careful scientific conjecture. I don't photograph reptiles. They don't photograph me. The closest we come is a brief nod across the room at a cocktail party.

I'm going to recommend two approaches - the careful/scientific and the joyous/artistic. In the one case I will be showing a Nikon DSLR equipped with a long macro lens and a flash on the end of a coiled cord. I will also advocate the use of a standardised colour card and image-correcting software so that the budding Darwin will be able to present the images with some accuracy.

The artistic will be with the new Nikon P7700 Coolpix, and an armful of construction paper. The former will render most close-up scenes beautifully and the latter will spice up the backdrops. The animals that need to be photographed from a distance - venomous ones - can also be captured pretty well with the camera and as it features the standard TTL hot shoe assembly the coiled cord and the SB 700 can also be brought into play.

Okay, folks, I'm not telling you anything you don't know, and I suspect I won't be telling the herpetologists anything THEY don't know, but at least I can help them to organise their outfits.

I wonder if they will applaud me or just hissssssss?

PS: The top image is Chelsea Bunz as a salamander...