Forget Forgetting - Carry A Spare In The Boot - With Promaster

No end of people need a tripod for the occasional landscape or group shot, but never want to carry their big studio model with them. They sometimes try to get a tiny travel tripod to attach to their camera bag but are horrified when they see the weight and size equation that this creates.

Overseas travel needs this equation to be solved with very small figures - but that means that the price goes up. That is inescapable - and if you add a further requirement of large lenses or camera bodies you need to go even further up the price scale. Eventually it becomes cheaper to just import the landscape rather than buy the tripod that you need to go photograph it...

If you are only going to be in the city, state, or country and plan to drive your car to the shoot, think about having a really cheap and light tripod in the boot of the car. It will be best suited to mirror-less cameras and it will not have carbon fibre or super complicated head but it will be there when you need it. If your wife drops a bag of superphosphate on it you'll only be out 50 bucks.

We've got good, cheap Promaster Vectra Delux tripods in store right now  for $ 50. Flip-lock legs, central rising column, three-way video head and even a little quick-release plate. You can afford it and you might just need it.

Something for the weekend, Sir?

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...

Elegance As Part Of the Equation

I have been looking at the pile of cameras in the corner of the studio - from the newest digital ones on top down to the old daguerreotype ones mouldering into mulch at the bottom - and have decided that there is very little beauty in the business when it comes to equipment. For all we go on about the magnificent L..... or the classic design of the N.... or the C.... they are either utilitarian or overblown.

There are space-age constructions from the late 90's, Soviet optical tractors, and a few Disney characters with lenses in their stomachs, but few that could be described as elegant.

Contrast it with the Fuji X-M1 we have been stocking recently. This is a fully-equipped APSC-sensor digital camera with a 16mm-50mm zoom lens, articulated LCD screen, and all the associated bells and whistles incorporated inside it...but have a look at how nicely the Fujifilm designers have encased it.

Leather is always elegant. If it wasn't, cows wouldn't wear it all the time. Cows and French people are elegant and they wear leather a lot. The Fuji you see here has a wonderful body covering like tan leather. It combines perfectly with the silver finish on the rest of the body.

Now some professionals think that they can only use black cameras to create their art...but then some professionals think that they need to dress in dreadful old ratty clothing to express their individuality. I could show you albums of identical ragged professionals...

Wouldn't it be great if some of them got a shave and a new suit of clothes and a good looking camera? You can beat them to it - buy a Fuji X-M1 now.

A Weekend Of Discovery

You can learn a lot when you are stupid. Of course you can learn a lot when you are smart, and it generally doesn't take as much skin off, but the knowledge gained from ignorance seems to sink in better. Thus my weekend...

Round one. Read the label. Whether you are mixing a cake or setting a camera or purchasing bookcases from IKEA...read the label. Saves you hauling three giant cardboard boxes back up the freeway in a Suzuki Swift to exchange them for one of the right size.

Round two. Hook up a mirrorless camera to the studio lighting system and try to use it in the same way that the DSLR system operates. In my case I have an adapter that lets me use the same lenses as my Nikon. Oh boy, I bet it is going to be better...! Oh boy, am I wrong.

The lenses and the sensors being equal...the images are the same size and proportion. And the depth of field is the same - thats a function of focus distance, focal length, and aperture.
No gain there.

When I am using a camera in studio mode - manual setting for both aperture and shutter speed - DSLR's  let me see through the viewfinder at full aperture and then check depth of field by pressing a preview button. Mirrorless cameras don't - they compel me to open and close the aperture by the click-stop ring and I am liable to push the whole assembly out of position as I do it. Do-able, but much more inconvenient.

Moral of the story? Use the regular heavy old DSLR for studio work in manual mode. Save the new you-beaut mirrorless for convenient field shooting.

Round three. The new you-beaut mirrorless camera can be mounted in a wooden box and triggered with a standard cable release. It is absolutely soundless when in the box, but will do perfect automatic focussing and exposure. It will also do a pretty good recording in sepia straight out of the camera. Steampunk Time!

A Conflict Of Disinterests - Camera Choice For The Perplexed

Working at a camera shop is wonderful. You can play with cameras all day.

Working at a camera shop is horrible. You have to play with cameras all day.

Neither of the sentiments above apply if you are a customer. Then being at a camera shop is exciting...but totally confusing. The modern world is presenting you with so many choices and alternatives that you are hard pressed to make a decision. You might want to press the button, but unfortunately Kodak is no longer there to do all the rest.

The keen enthusiast dives into the internet and reads every forum and rumour site there is.  If they are of an (ahem)..."older generation"...they look out CHOICE magazine from the local library and photocopy pages of advice. I can say this because I am of the same generation and go to the library regularly to look at the lingerie magazines. Readers of CHOICE would do well to remember that every public library has a fiction as well as non-fiction section...

Okay, armed with a looseleaf of papers and a mind full of internet camera equipment flame wars, the prospective customer comes in the shop. If they know what they want, see it on the shelf, open their wallet and whack out their credit card, the whole thing is easy. If they present 5 different opinions about 5 different cameras gleaned from other sources, it all starts to look like the battle of Verdun on a wet night.

One of the smartest things that the prospective camera buyer can do is draw up a list for themselves...in their own handwriting...of what they are NOT interested in. If they don't do portraits in the studio they don't need a portrait lens. ie. they don't need an 85mm f:1.4. If they don't want to go out taking landscape shots of the beach they don't need a 10-20 f:3.5 lens. If they are not interested sports shots they don't need a pro-DSLR with 10 fps capability. And so on...This can eliminate a lot of worry.

After the person thinks out what they don't want, they can think what they do want. Family shots, wedding coverage, fungus in the forest at f:4...whatever. Just as long as they are honest with themselves about their core interests.

Finally, they can see if there are any really odd things that would be fun, but not be absolutely necessary. Automatic toast recognition. HDR food baby sunset mode. With star trails. No matter what the customer can think of, they cannot think wider than the Japanese designers, because the Japanese designers drink at lunchtime. The trick with this category of features is not to make them the central point of choice.

Or CHOICE, if it comes to that...

No Gripe With This Grip

If you are going to purchase the new Sony A7 or A7r mirror-less camera, please consider purchasing it from Camera Electronic.

Why?

Because you will get a FREE VG-C1EM battery grip for your new camera, that's why. With the front and rear command dials and two control buttons as well as the shutter button, this give the Sony user all the professional handling of the larger DSLR cameras...but at a much lighter weight.

The shape is a direct fit to the camera body and exactly duplicates the body line. If the body fits your hand, this grip will too.

Yet another reason to think about getting that new Sony from us...

Moving Right Along - With The Panasonic Lumix

This advertisement is the right price - we have just made sure of that!

The Panasonic Lumix GX-7 is a beauty of a mirror-less camera - it is one of the best handed cameras in this sensor size - the controls fall to your fingers without strain and the multi-angle viewfinder and LCD screen mean that you can operate it in any position - close to the ground for macro flowers or high above your head for event shots.

The files it produces are clean and clear - it handles low light very well.

It takes all the micro 4/3 lenses from Panasonic and other manufacturers. And here is where this deal gets sweeter. We have the perfect family party and tourist lens for it  -the Panasonic 20mm f:1.7 lens.

Today and tomorrow we have four of these camera body/lens combinations available - silver body and silver lens - with all the accessories for a snip price of:

                                        $ 1189.00

The lens alone sells for $ 450 so it looks as though this is the bargain of the day. We're trading until 5:30 today and until 3:00 tomorrow. Ring us up with the credit card and secure one.

New Fuji - Wooo....Geee....

Did goe to the launch night of the new Fuji X-E2 camera laste night and was greatley entertained.

The man who heads the sales for Fuji nationally - and the man who heads the sales for Fuji in this state brought a man who uses Fuji to shoot wonderful documentary essays through out the world. They also brought the new Fuji X-E2 cameras - black and silver bodies and kit sets as well.

The speaker, Mr Piccone has been a photojournalist and a documentary photographer for decades - and has chosen to take some very confronting images in dangerous places. He showed a moving anti-war essay on the screen as part of his presentation but then had a happier message as well - he uses the Fuji X system in Thailand and Cambodia and was able to show some charming things as well. he certainly likes the X-Pro1 and the X 100 cameras - and has taken a shine to the new 23mm f:1.4 lens. We let him have one to show but we made sure we got it back...

Quite a turnout amongst the Perth street photographers too - To their credit they polished off the sushi and a great deal of the cheese platter but they were very well behaved during Mr. Piccone's presentation. And they didn't ask funny questions afterwards - they were quite to the point. I was proud of them!

Note the little report pictures are also taken on a Fuji camera - EXR mode and literally point and shoot. makes it easy to gather images for the web.

Final note - the Fuji X-Pro1 isn't meant to be a diving camera but we saw a film of Mr. Piccone sprinting through the rain in Cambodia with one in  hand - possibly he misjudged the weather forecast- apparently the Fuji survived as well as he did...

The Steadier You Are, The Steadier You Are

Not all our jobs can be done in the studio with the big tripod or studio stand to secure the camera. Not all can be adequately lit. But we still need sharp results. Here's an old new tip to help with this.

I discovered it while taking pictures at the Doll House Exhibition. No, not that one...these are real doll houses. I was in Bogan Central under moderate halogen lighting and wanted to frame pictures accurately with my Fuji X-10 - so, like everyone there with iPhones or compacts, I was using the LCD screen on the back to sight with.

Some of the shots were at 1/15th of a second and were looking decidedly shaky. Rather than boost ISO and lose detail, I elected to have a cup of coffee and a sandwich. During the break I shortened the neck strap on the camera so that it sat mid-chest.

Then when I was standing in front of the subject I pushed forward on the camera until the strap was taut. I could still see the screen but there was at least one more usable stable shutter speed. Win.

If your compact camera does not have two strap lugs, you might have to attach something like a Steadepod to the tripod socket and pull up against your foot. Same gain - sharp pictures.

Lighten Up On Monday Morning

So, it's been a big weekend, has it? Feeling a little wrung-out, are we? Tired and emotional during the weekend?

Perhaps it was the effort required to haul 100 Kg of camera equipment to the BBQ that did it. That weatherproof pack with the automatic rain cover and the tripod strapped on the back in case you needed to do a quick award-winning landscape photo while the snags were cooking. The pack with the integrated water bladder, in case you were trapped more than 200 metres from a Dan Murphy's...

Bit of a pity that you didn't get a chance to take all your cameras and lenses and laptop out of the pack and hook up the tethered cables - it would have been the hit of the night. They could have done selfies in HDR at 36 megapixels and 120,500 ISO. And the waterproof feature of the bag would have been useful after the third slab of VB...

Steel yourself to look at the illustration of the back pack. If the background colour is a little hard to take, just think of Berocca...The interior colour is absolutely correct - KATA have realised that photographers work in dim spaces, not a few of them mental spaces, no I never said that, and the black-coloured equipment that the Pro's use is easy to lose in the black-coloured bags. So the made it bright yellow and clean and soft in there. You might still be grubbing around desperately trying to fish out the fisheye but at least you'll be able to see it.

The rest of the bag is tough but light - it has a set of human-shaped straps that will not dig into your diaphragm, and it has enough interior space to take anything that you could humanly need on a tourist holiday or a your next BBQ. Including the Berocca.

Big Blog Day - Gorgeous New Lenses Just Unpacked

I am starting to be surprised by the improvements in the packaging of new photographic equipment.

 Oh, sure, as a sales person I still complain about the way SOME manufacturers package new cameras in a way that you cannot get the component parts back into the box so that the customer can take it home - and SOME manufacturers of inkjet paper have such confusing packaging as to harm their own sales...but there is a new run of goods coming that have benefitted from real imagination in the shipping.

Case in point are the new Touit lenses from Zeiss. Of course the lenses themselves are beautiful, as one would expect. These are the specials intended for use on Fuji X-mount and Sony E-mount. We've gotten examples of each type in today - the 12mm f:2.8  and the 32mm f:1.8. The boxes they come in are so nice I have just opened them and photographed the wrapped lenses - I shall leave it to the buyer to go further and expose the actual lenses.

I particularly love the way the Zeiss people have stated on the top of the box that you opening it is the moment they live for. Clever, clever marketing.

A Guide For The Perplexed Pixel

I noted recently that my little 3-D stereoscope - I got it as a child - has been repeating itself over and over. I think it is a Déja-View Master... Those of you old enough to appreciate this will also like the next bit.

We get all sorts of service calls here for repairs and maintenance to digital cameras. One of the most frequent worries is material contaminating the sensor and showing up in the image.  Here is a little guide to understanding what you see and what to do about it.

1. Vague grey blobs on an even grey ground are dust particles on the sensor - they shade the surface and thus it is darker, with a fuzzy outline. You may see a crescent-shaped item - likely a hair on the sensor.

You can clean the sensor yourself with a number of commercial brushes and swabs, but in the hands of the ham-fisted, this can carry a real danger of scratching the delicate surface. Ruin the sensor and you might as well buy a new camera...

Better plan is to let the technicians here at CE clean it for you. They do not ruin sensors, and the cost and time required for this service is not excessive. $44 for a small mirrorless camera, $55 for an APSC sensor, and $77 for a full frame DSLR.

2. The well defined grey blob with eight legs is a spider in a bathtub. Don't scoff - in 40 years in the trade I have seen a number of film and digital cameras infested with mites and crawlies of various types. Insecticide fumes and a mechanical cleaning get rid of them. If you discover a Huntsman in your mirror box, don't take off the lens, whatever you do...

3. We were asked how to get rid of this irregular-shaped mark on the image. If it is just one-off I would suggest Photoshopping it out with the clone tool. If you get a have a lot of these recurring, get yourself a Mossberg .410 and a box of No.7 shells.

4. This is harder to get rid of. And you get yourself in real trouble with the DCA if you try. Best idea is to turn away from it and photograph another bit of the sky. These marks rarely intrude themselves into interior shots or family portraits...