Going On Safari? Come Up And See Me Sometime...

The Safari Season is upon us. People are gearing up to look at the wild animals in Africa, Alaska, and Europe*. As we speak tourists are packing backpacks the size of refrigerators with DSLRs, lenses, flashes, laptops, and waterproof apple corers. Because you never can tell when you will need to can apples in Constantinople in a rain storm.

Wise tourists who have done this before and have the chiropractor's bills to show for it may elect to take a smaller rig this time. Consider if your ambitions and plans might well be suited with a camera that has a 30X zoom lens, 4 second to 1/2000 second shutter, manual aperture and shutter wheel, and GPS built-in. And a Leica lens. And a proper viewfinder on the LHS of the body. And full HD video with stereo sound.

And fits in your top pocket as you go through the door of the airplane. And for which you have not paid excess baggage.

Panasonic TZ-60.

You may not know which wine to drink with your biltong or cheese fries, and you may not know a bear from a banjo, but you can capture the fun and the scenery without making a guy or a mule of yourself. You will be less likely to attract the attention of the local pickpockets, or at least they will concentrate on your passport and wallet, if you are not carrying a camera shop on your neck. The grizzlies and hyenas will be less likely to demand a fee for posing if you do not shoot with a DSLR.

You'll still have to deal with the Europeans, but at least you will have your hands free while you do it.

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.

Flash Bang Wallop! New Leica Vario News! Here! Now!

Pardon the exuberance, and be grateful that Blogger only allows a moderate size of font - otherwise we would have a WAR DECLARED! banner above this post.

The New Leica X-Vario that we blogged about on Wednesday night at 9:00:15 ( to comply with the advertising embargo. Oh it is all intrigue in the camera game...) is HERE! NOW!

Brent the Storeman is prising it out of the packaging with a jemmy bar as I type and you can come in to the shop and give it a test shot today - provided there is a bit of German electricity in the battery.

Saul is beside himself. You can add whatever punchline you want to that one, but do come in and have a look at the new camera.

Uncle Dick

A Green Light For Your Holidays

So you're going on holiday? You're going to travel? And you want a camera that will take good clear pictures? And you want it to be compact with a real optical viewfinder that you can see through even if it is in the full glare of the sun?

And you want to pay under $ 500?

Have we got the answer for you - if you are quick. We've just got a snip of Fuji X-10 cameras bundled as a package with their fitted leather case for $ 499. This camera is the closest thing to the 35mm compact camera that digital has yet produced - and it has the added fillip of a zoom lens and and a whole fridge of fresh film built in...

The Fuji X-10 has a wonderful section in the menu for film simulation - you can take pictures as if you had Fuji Velvia, Provia, or Astia film. as well as the black and white Acros film. You can switch between films with a button push and you can make the pictures bigger or smaller at will. If you remember the old days when you carried a packet of filters for contrast control in the sky - well you have them built-in.

Does it take a good picture? The heading image is taken with an X-10, as is this one. No special processing - jpeg straight out of the box. It will do RAW files too, but the jpegs are gorgeous just as they are.

Limited number in the shop right now - pop in as fast as you can and pick up the bargain of the season.

PS: If you want a silver one, you'll have to get the new X-20. Bit more money, wonderful camera.

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...

Whole Lotta Pictures - New Nikon Lens Spy Photos

Hahahahaha. Got my hands on a pre-production model of the new Nikon 80mm - 400mm AS-S Nikkor f:4.5-5.6 G ED lens and ran out of the shop. The industry reps are at a meeting with one of our owners and this is my chance...

First, the studio pics of the lens itself. Note the new style of the barrel and the inclusion of a the 4 slider controls on the LHS of the lens. The bottom one is a lock to keep it from creeping open when you are transporting it. The barrel shape is a very elegant curve at the back there that leaves plenty of room for the fingers of your right hand.

The feel of the lens is very smooth and the results appear to be superb - the VR snaps in with authority and I was able to hand-hold all of the featured shots. It's a cool day out there with mild contrast and not a lot of atmospherics so we got a pretty neutral look at things.

The tripod foot is greatly redesigned in comparison to the previous model - much neater.

I cannot say how much this is going to cost, nor when we are going to have them in store. We'll announce it when we know.