The Battery Sergeant

A few nights ago one of our photographers was using a very good little flash to assist his nighttime shots. He got great results but I could tell he was frustrated with the time required to recharge the flash between shots. I wasn't surprised - the flash only operates on AAA batteries. It is s great little unit but it is asking a lot of small cells when you flog them through a series of shots.

I find something of the same with my main portable flash - the Nikon SB 700. It fortunately uses AA batteries and I can put lithium cells in it, but even here there is a real problem of the cells getting hot as they discharge and somewhat slowing down. In the middle of a dance show I have to eject one set and let it cool on the floor while a fresh cold set go it. Granted you can get 600+ flashes from a set of batteries but you have to juggle things.

I was struck by a thought about the design of the guns and the type of battery. Would it not have been better for the manufacturer of the flash gun to make it take the same sort of rechargeable lithium cell that goes into the cameras? I am thinking of a flat pack like the EN-EL series of batteries. Then a photographer could keep a large set of charged cells for both camera and flash and quickly slip them in or out of the flash body.

This would have the advantage of selling more rechargeable lithium cells - and not losing this business to the general battery manufacturer. And of adding the sale of a charger to each flash gun.

Admittedly, that would have provided the general public with yet another opportunity to leave a charger in your hotel room when you check out. And another aftermarket sale for us...

Otus

I have been puzzling about the new Zeiss lens that has just arrived in the shop - it is the 55mm f:1.4 Otus lens. It is a magnificent thing and the write-ups from the world's photographic press seem to say that t is the uncompromising best for this focal length and the Full-frame cameras it will serve. The example I photographed for the blog is the ZF 2 mount for Nikon.

It is a big lens - no doubt about that. See the coin placed for scale beside it - that is a 5¢ piece. The weight is commensurate with he size. The focus ring movement is perfect - smooth and evenly damped. The engraved markings are a little bit startling as the bulk of the operational ones are in bright yellow. It is, of course, T* coated.

We have not had a chance to shoot with it, but will try to do so at the earliest opportunity to check out performance.

But back to the puzzle - why on earth would the Zeiss people name a large standard lens after HMS OTUS - an "O" class submarine? is it a leftover from the U-boat days? Is there a naval enthusiast in the marketing department? If we buy more of them will we have a wolf pack?

Dinner Of the Camera Party

With profound apologies to M. Renoir...

What do camera people do when they are not standing behind the counter at Camera Electronic? They dine at the Duckstein Brewery in the Swan Valley, of course. This is the holiday season and with Christmas coming up we all repaired to the Duck to recruit the tissues and revive the mind.

Aside from testing the malted waters...and I can particularly recommend the Dunkel...and the sauerkraut, we indulged in that most sporting of pastimes: shooting people. I hasten to add, for the benefit of whatever spy agency monitors this blog ( Hey! to Langley...)that we used Fuji cameras and flashes for the task.

I used the X-10 and Dom used the X-Pro 1 with the EF-X20 flash. His pictures came out better than mine but that is because he did not get served his Dunkel as quickly as I. I'm satisfied, though, as I have good souvenirs of the night, quite apart from the deadly hangover and the lump behind the ear where the barmaid hit me with the litre stein.

The trick was - Dom was using the flash and I was relying upon an extreme ISO and a steady hand. I did mention the Dunkel, didn't I? The flash and the circuitry in the Fuji were able to sort out a perfect front exposure while leaving some of the back light to imprint behind thee main subject. Make no mistake - that is the real secret of party and event photography.

Never mind light from three separate directions and diffusers and assistants and artspeak - you need a clean clear front flash or at least a clean bounced flash with a little front card light to get the best out of faces. If you can get some background light and colour, so much the better. You are looking for good grip-and-grin with couples and foursomes - after that you can plan out epic shots with your three assistants and a Klieg light.

Fuji does this - I can get good selfies if I pop up the flash at 200 ISO and set the thing on P. Dom can get great G&G with the EF-X20. If you are using one of the X100 or X100s it is even better - the whole thing is self-contained and you can instruct the camera to fire whenever it thinks it knows what you want to do better than you do.

The perfect Dunkel camera...

We Are Getting There Splendidly

Please disegard the expression on the face of our staff member, Mr. Doudakis. He is practising to be the Parthenon in a fog - grim, grey, and Greek. He is really as delighted with the progress of the new Leica Shop as rest of us.

The basic structure is up and we are setting out stock onto the shelves. Leica have an amazing range of cameras, lenses, and accessories. Their binoculars are superb - there is an entires section devoted to them at the right of the shop. We have also made provision for the pre-owned Leica stock in some very elegant show cabinets.

There will be much more coming - drift in occasionally to see the new stock go up. If you want you can buy some...just sayin'...

Another View Of Art - A New Sigma Lens

It is a bit bold to attach the term " Art " to a product. Of course if the product is a tube of oil paint or a brush or a chisel and mallet, you can see the connection. Yet...you can use oil paint to do the walls of the bathroom and a mallet and chisel to split a jaw, and there are no awards given for either achievement.

Still, Sigma have applied it to their new 24-105 lens and signalled it with a silver "A" plate on the side of the lens. Call it what you will, the lens is another addition to the new mount style that indicates their best products. You will have seen the mount style with their 35mm f:1.4 lenses and the 16-35 f:1.8 - solid, smooth, and heavy. Remember as well that the 16-35 is a star performer according to DP Review - the whole darn test chart seemed to be blue...the highest resolution and lowest chromatic aberration. Let us wait for the DP results on this one...

Steam in pretty quick to have a look at it - it is likely to go out the door in the rush up to Christmas. It will, of course, have the two-year warranty that Sigma are proud of.

Seeing Is Believing - Updating Works

A couple of days ago the national trainer for the Fujifilm company visited our shop and took us in groups for sales training. It was interesting to see the new components in the X-series cameras explained - the question of the new X -trans sensor in particular. He was a great speaker because he finally explained the real cause of moiré patterning in images and the various means that have been adopted to deal with it.

He was also a great speaker because he showed me how  to update the firmware on my X-10 camera. It was done in about 3 minutes and the difference it has made in the operation of the camera is magic.

I also took courage to re-jig an another Fuji X camera and watched it go from good to great. See the images for this post. The hot rod was taken with my standard package of Nikon D300s, 18-200 lens, and SB700 flash on a Stroboframe rig. Note limited depth of field that is just enough to get the car in.

Now look at the Fuji image - the '49 Mercury. It is under different conditions - a bare studio set and some studio lights. There is less contrast as the light source is huge.

There are some similarities - the sensors in both cameras are APS-c size. It was flash exposure so the shutter speed was about 1/250 second - no movement.

The lens focal lengths were different - 120mm for the rod and 23mm for the Mercury. The f stop for the rod was f:22 and for the Mercury, f:16. This is the smallest stop the 23mm lens can do. Of course they are both going to be affected by diffraction, but unless you sacrifice DOF by sticking to f:8, you are going to have to deal with it.

Or not - if you buy the new Fuji X-100s. There is a special computer program in it that specifically targets areas that are spread by diffraction while preserving the portions of the image that are not so afflicted - the result would be dramatically sharper resolution in the picture. I don't know, because I am still using the older X camera, but the new guys are going to get world-beating results.

Note also that the update added the capability to see "focus-peaking" in the LCD screen. It is the enhancement of the in-focus portion of the image with a black or white rime. It is evident even in small areas and allows you to get a sharper manual focus than you could do with a bare eye. I could "walk" the focus back from the headlight of the car to the front of the windshield to maximise the depth of field. Beats peering into a small viewfinder in the dim focusing light of the studio mono-blocks.

My honest conclusion is that it is an image as good as or better than that produced by my regular studio tabletop rig. Provided I want to point of view to be that of the 35mm lens on an older film camera, it is ideal. If I wish to replicate the 50mm on an old film camera it will still have to be the Tokina 35 macro - if I want wider views the Sigma 8-16 will be needed. At least I now have and excuse to have another camera!

NIKON - A New Landscape

 The shop is in a turmoil. This is not new - we import turmoils and sell them at good prices. We can service turmoils. We trade in secondhand turmoils and give three month's warranty on them.

Major changes to the cabinetry - and Nikon is the first off the blocks with a new display. Please look at the images - these cabinets are super sophisticated and wonderful to play with. You can open them without a crowbar. Or drawing pentangles on the floor...one day they are going to get stuck and we won't be able to get them open - I'm just hoping none that none of the staff are in there at the time. It will be like watching a dove in a Bell jar...

No - there are good things in there - look at the new binocular selection from Nikon - and look at the new Nikon 1 system camera on display. And there will be more to come as time passes.