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August 2015

31 Aug

Posted at 05:57h in News by [social_share]

Olympus Tough cameras are.The TG 820 in its basic form can dive safely to 5 metres - take wonderful still or video images - and then come up safely.Should you wish to go deeper, however, even this little toughie needs some help. The Hollywood Robot case you see here is the Olympus answer to it. It's the Olympus PT 052 underwater housing.Mounting the TG 820 couldn't be simpler - undo the lock on the side of the PT 052, rotate the lever, and the back swings open. Carefully push in the TG 820 and it will slide into a padded cradle - no screw mounting needed. When you swing the door closed and lock it there will be appropriate fingers and rods to translate your button pushing on the outside onto the buttons on the inside.The marvellous part on the back is the large screen and the rubber shade around it - you get a clear view of what the lens sees as you swim around. It will be dark at 45 metres so the camera flash will be needed...

28 Aug

Posted at 04:14h in News by [social_share]

Either you are or you aren't. You'll know for certain and the people around you will have a pretty fair suspicion, but either way you'll need to come in and see us here at the shop to spend money.Well, that's what we are here for, isn't it.In this case you are either going to be a person who stands outside in the rain with a camera or a person who stands inside out of the rain with a camera.For the former, we recommend that you get yourself a packet of Op/Tec Rainsleeves for your camera and lens before you go out. You can get drenched as much as you like but have a little pity on the expensive electronics. For $ 9.95 you get two sleeves and you can cope with the wet.For the latter, we recommend a Datacolor SpyderCheckr 24 card and a set of LEDGO LED lights. Armed with the card you can balance out whatever light exists inside the home with the soft light of the LEDGO panels and do wonderful portraits and tabletop shots inside in...

28 Aug

Posted at 03:13h in News by [social_share]

Well, with a shop full of things, that's a good question. Which one for what would be a better question and as soon as we start that line of enquiry the thing becomes clearer.Let us postulate a client with an APS-C sensor camera who wants one lens. Only one lens. Has the body, wants to take pictures, hopes to take good ones.Lots of the manufacturers of the digital bodies supply short-zoom lenses to start people out - and most times it works well. People get a chance to see the world from a moderate wide angle to a mild telephoto, and can shoot in moderate light levels. The results contain the distortions that zoom lenses are prone to but as these are far less that ever they were, and probably far less that the new user is used to...

28 Aug

Posted at 01:34h in News by [social_share]

I've just been asked whether it is better to buy things from the shop or make them yourself.  At the risk of giving the management asthma attacks, I have to say yes and no.Yes, it is better to buy your lenses and camera bodies from the shop rather than make your own out of wood. Artistry and skill only go so far when the material is white pine and the end result is a DSLR. We have seen a rather wonderful little wooden camera made by Leica but it is a toy rather than an working instrument.Likewise, knitting your own memory cards is fun but the failure rate is high - better to buy San Disk or Hoodman at the outset and save the needles for socks and gloves.The question gets a little closer when you consider accessories for a studio. A commercial light tent is still a good buy if you need to have a portable environment for product photography. You could make one yourself but you'd end up with a big monster that would not pack away when...

27 Aug

Posted at 04:25h in News by [social_share]

The first supplies of the black-bodied Fujifilm X-T10 cameras have arrived here in the shop this morning.Precisely the same as the silver-bodied ones, but in black. the top and bottom panels pass the lip test - you can tell they are metal by the temperature when held against the lip. Magnesium castings, as it happens.Magnificent little instrument. Perfectly complemented by the current series of X lenses...

27 Aug

Posted at 00:58h in News by [social_share]

That's a coincidence! We just had a training talk by the Sony representative yesterday on the new Sony A7R Mk II camera - the full-frame mirror-less system camera - and today Thomas informs me that the camera is now available for hire from our Rental Department.The extra new features of the camera that revolve around the 5-axis stabilization and the very high spec auto-focus system will be two of the factors that excite new camera users - particularly if they are also contemplating using it for video work.I am never a full bottle on these but my chance to handle it yesterday assured me that the AF system is quite amazing - particularly the facility it has to track a subject back and forth across the frame and keep it in focus. That, and the brightness of the viewfinder  - and the overall open-ness of the view - struck me immediately. I wear spectacles and the business of peering into some viewfinders can be a time consuming process. The Sony lets it all be seen at one glance.And again -...

26 Aug

Posted at 03:06h in News by [social_share]

Manfrotto does some pretty marvellous thinking when it comes to the design of their products. As our regular readers will know they have been making heavy-duty camera and lighting stands, accessories, and all sorts of studio stuff for decades. They are always thinking out something else that can be done with cast aluminium or magnesium. Their really big pro stuff has a lot of steel in it - when it falls on you you stay underneath it...

26 Aug

Posted at 02:38h in News by [social_share]

Sometimes the humblest of products can be exciting.Witness the two new boxes of paper from Ilford - we received supplies of double-sided matte paper this last week:1. Ilford Galerie Prestige Fine Art Smooth.A4 size and 220 gsm. Smooth bright white on both sides. boxes of 25 with the gold label. Appropriate profile in the Ilford website.2. Ilford Galerie Prestige Fine Art Textured.Again A4 size and 220gsm. This one has textured bright white on both sides. and again there is an appropriate profile for it.Ilford media is the standard of he industry for many applications - this matte paper and Epson, Canon, or HP inks and printers wold make very good art book and presentation material.Of course there is always the extra concentration one needs when making anything double-sided - you need to be careful with borders and spacing and remember to get your orientation right before you push the 'print' button. I have made a number of errors in all these things over the time and it does teach you eventually - at a price.In any case, these are not...