31 Oct Yellow And Black And Money Back!
Yes!There is nothing quite as nice as getting money back...
October 2015
29 Oct When Is A Soft Box?
When indeed. A question that might puzzle the ages - it certainly has received the attention of the manufacturers. Some of their answers are worth looking at.We all know what a standard soft box looks like - we get the medium size square ones when we buy an Elinchrom D-Lite 4 or D-Lite 2 kit. Four metal rods, a funny-shaped ring, a black fabric pyramid , and a diffuser screen for the front. Clap it together and it does the soft-box look beautifully.Big ones from this same manufacturer can come in octagonal, rectangular, or narrow strip configuration - the all have their own characteristics and they are all needed for certain classes of photography. You can even get generic ones from other makers that will fit the Elinchrom and some of them have umbrella-like self erection. Great for travelling with it.Really huge ones are also made, but photographers contemplating putting these together need a will of iron, muscles of steel, and the language of a stoker on a bucket dredge. Once erected, they provide a buttery-soft light but when they...
29 Oct Stop The Screens!
STOP THE SCREENS!*News just to hand; Leica are releasing improvements for the Leica T camera ( Typ 701 ) via firmware update.The Leica T camera system shares the same L bayonet as the upcoming Leica SL system camera - updating firmware will make it possible to operate the new SL lenses on the Leica T.Customers wishing to bring the camera up to date can download the firmware version 1.4 from the Leica website at www.leica-camera.com or come into a Leica Dealer and receive it as part of a complimentary service.Note that you will shortly be tempted by a new Leica Summilux-TL 35mm f:1.4 ASPH lens in both black and silver.A little further down the track you will also see the Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm f:2.8-4 ASPH, the Leica APO-Vario_elmarit-SL 90-280mm f:2.8-4 and the Leica Summilux-SL 50mm f:1.4 ASPH.Exciting times.* Like STOP THE PRESSES! but updated for the digital era...
28 Oct Turn Off The TTL And Turn On The Light
Nearly all the flashes I own are TTL except for the ones that are not. And fortunately the ones that are can be switched back to manual control.This may puzzle the newcomer to the sport - after all the Nikon, Pentax, Canon, Olympus, Fujifilm, Sony, and Leica people all make a great deal of telling us that their various flashes are TTL - indeed in most cases this mode is the default one when you switch the speed light on. There are lots of occasions upon which it is exactly the right thing to do and many people can rely upon it to give them what they want.One of the joys, in fact, of demonstrating a modern Nikon or Canon flash to a first-time flash buyer is to put an SB700 or 430EXII onto their camera, glance at it to see that it is set to Auto or Program, TTL and AF, and then just point the thing at them and rip off half a dozen portraits right there. The TTL balances whatever the shop lights are doing and nearly...
28 Oct When You Don’t Know The Right Thing To Do…
You are also in the happy position of not knowing the wrong thing to do. Provided you are not engaged in defusing sea mines you may have some leeway in experimentation. A lot of photography is like this.Case in point: in the dear days of dinosaurs, Elvis, and Plus X film, 125 ASA was the giddy limit for sensitivity in photo emulsions - at least in the sort of films that they sold in the local drugstore and that I could afford. I was new to the sport and dutifully exposed the Plus X at exactly this meter setting ( and took a careful meter reading for each and every exposure - even when neither the light nor the subject ever changed...
27 Oct Hot Shoe – Cold Shoe – Flash Jack Again
Once upon a time there were glaciers covering the land and only cold shoes on cameras. Flash guns of various types were slotted onto these and the photographers then left to devise their own ways of synchronising the things - and there were any number of ingenious devices bolted onto the tops of Leicas, Niccas, Leotaxes, Contaxes, and Canons to do just that. Sometimes they worked.Then a genius somewhere decided that spare dangling wires and delicate plug ends were unnecessary - the business of providing two contact points and a positive mate for a flash gun could be done at the base of the flash itself - as you slid the shoe on it made a connection for the electrical circuit. The flash might have been only on-camera but you could be pretty certain it would go off when you needed it.Then the idea of firing a flash off-camera started up. First it was a length of insulated wire running from camera to flash - it was strong enough to trip you over in the dark and weak enough to...
26 Oct In Praise Of Dull Days
Yesterday was a dull day. I am delighted to say. It was full of imperialist mayhem and murder but enjoyable withal.You see, the bane of the outdoor event photographer - the sun - was veiled for the better part of the morning by a cover of clouds. Not an unusual thing but the timing of this sort of meteorological assistance is never sure - you go to events prepared for battle.Camera Electronic sells the goodies to fight the sun. Diffuser screens for portraitists, portable speed lights for fill flash, and battery-powered strobe sets for the more well-to-do. ( Who want to carry more break-the-back stuff on their treks...
23 Oct Worth Travelling To See – Steve Scalone And The Canon AIPP Awards
This is a column written in a fit of jealousy. The equivalent of an electronic tantrum. You see, one of our staff members got to do something and see something that I would have loved to experience...
22 Oct Stan Davies Is All Wet
Let me rephrase that.Stan Davies frequently takes photographs whilst waterborne - he uses one of the most intriguing of the Nikon cameras to do this. During the course of these adventures he may become immersed. When he visits the shop he is dry - and dressed. All is well.Now, Mr. Davies will be visiting the shop to tell people about the Nikon 1 AW-1 camera system and the explain about his upcoming workshop.He'll be conducting the event over two days in the Margaret River region near the start of December. As it is to be on a weekend there will be an opportunity for a lot of people to travel to it. And it is to be somewhat unusual:Attendees will be supplied a Nikon 1 AW-1 waterpoof camera for their use during the event.It will be in and around water so attendees will need to bring their bathers - and i would suggest thongs as well.Attendees will need to bring their own SD card and a small tripod - and to arrange their own overnight accommodation in the area.They'll meet...
22 Oct From Those Wonderful People…
Who brought you the M3 Leica.They haven't stopped. Well, they haven't stopped making the M-series Leica cameras because there are a number of models of them in the shop right now, and an equally wonderful cabinet of lenses to go on them. Come down and buy a round dozen for the weekend...
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