The Answer Is Right/Left To Hand

Yesterday I was discussing camera operation with one of our clients - he had just finished a trip to take surfing and landscape shots up through some wild country in the Dutch East Indies.

He was using a couple of the bigger DSLR bodies for his work, and was very successful in his capture - the surfing shots are perfectly timed and the village and lagoon images are wonderful art. All good for him, but he mentioned the difficulty he had in trying to operate a camera while he was travelling on a motorcycle.

The M/C had a throttle on the right handlebar and trying to operate a standard DSLR while controlling the bike sounded like a juggler's nightmare. Lucky he and the cameras are still in one piece. Right-hand operation being the absolute for all cameras now, he was in trouble.

Readers will remember that film Exakta cameras were left-hand operation, but this was a long while ago and a long way away. No-one seems to have been inclined to repeat  the design for the digital era.

Puzzling - the operation of digital cameras is electronic. That means the shot is done with the closing of an electrical switch. It might then cause a lot of electronic commands inside  but it starts with two bits of metal touching because you pushed your forefinger down.

Well, you can push your left forefinger down as well as you can your right one. More particularly, if the little designers in Japan can make a bolt-on camera grip with a trigger that sits on the right of the camera, they can make one for the left hand side as well. All it's gotta do is close that first circuit...

AND WOULDN'T THAT BE A HELLUVA WAY TO GRAB THE CAMERA MARKET AWAY FROM YOUR COMPETITORS?

You could dial into 30% of the population right there and you wouldn't have to redesign the main body. Just make a LHS grip with a switch.

GO, Boys. DO it. And remember that I could use another trip to Japan as a thank-you for the idea...

Davy Crockett, D-76, And Digital

I wasn't born on a mountain top in Tennessee, but I have done my share of shooting with the old-fashioned muzzle loading rifles. Mostly range targets, some little hunting, the occasional tin can - mighty tasty them tin cans, if you stew 'em...

I learned early on that the car-load of rifles, pistols, shotguns, cannon, and associated accessories necessary for a day at the range - or a weekend at the state championships - was an absolute assurance of one thing. Dirty firearms to clean. No trophies, no medals, no ribbons - just barrel after barrel of black sooty goo to boil out and oil up. I loved it, of course, but I did realise that there was never going to be any sporting success.

Different on the hunting field. One firearm ( generally a flintlock ), one small bag containing a powder flask, a bit of oiled rag, and six lead balls. If you have to walk all day in the heat, if you are dumb enough to walk all day in the heat, it is better to walk light than heavy. No hunting trip needed a variety of arms because the wise hunter went out for one thing only and if he got it, came home.

Note: I also learned 50 years ago not to shoot anything big in a bog. It is hard enough hauling your own carcase uphill let alone something else's...

In the film era ( D-76, remember) I had to relearn my lesson. I hauled a heavy leather box full of heavy brass and glass German cameras and lenses on a vague weekly hunt for photographic subjects. As I did not know what I was looking for, I took something in case I found it, and as I never found it, I just hauled the equipment home. Uphill, as often as not.

Digital. I carry one camera, with one lens, in one bag. I pick my subject field before I set out, clip on the lens that I need, and away I go. The percentage of success over failure has increased and the reward of comfort is inestimable. This colours my sales behaviour in the shop when people come in looking for bags, cases, or steamer trunks to carry their gear. It also means I am selling smaller camera systems to people who can benefit from their focussed capabilities.

That's not just a pun, folks. Focus. If you are going to Europe for a tour, take a zoom lens by all means but take a small one on a small camera. Your shoulders at the end of a hot day traipsing about Magnetogorsk in January or through the snow drifts of Madrid will thank you.

And never shoot a moose in Madrid. You'll be skinning it for hours and where are you going to put 1000Kg of meat on a Kon Tiki tour bus?