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November 2015

23 Nov

Posted at 01:42h in News by [social_share]

Sounds like a Disney movie title, doesn't it - possibly starring the corpses of Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews bolted together.No, as we are featuring columns dedicated to expounding the Manfrotto Way Of The Studio we must not neglect the smaller bits - because they are what ties the whole thing together. In fact, these are the items that you most frequently tip out the storage drawer to find when you are working. Let's go by the numbers:118 - the Short 5/8 Spigot with male threads on the ends. You get a 1/4" on one end and a 3/8" on the other. If you are only used to working in metric measurements try not to hyperventilate - photography still has a lot of imperial measurements as common currency.Light stand spigots are 5/8" and proud of it, even if they come from Italy. The wonderful thing is that even if the designs get ripped off by oriental manufacturers - and they do, they do - the size is still kept to 5/8". Nearly everything fits with nearly everything else.These spigots...

20 Nov

Posted at 01:16h in News by [social_share]

 You're not going to get Leica SL all week - here's a column about something else entirely.Today's cameras use a lot of batteries - particularly if the user:1. Shoots lots of video.2. Reviews every single image for five seconds.3. Takes 5000 images when 5 would do.Take the gentle scolding as you like, but if you are using a lot of Sony or Olympus battery power these days you are doing a lot of charging - and the little battery chargers that you get with the cameras can only deal with one circumstance at a time. Unless you are prepared to get up repeatedly and change batteries, all night, you need help. Here's Hahnel help.The Pro Cube is a power block that can be configured to charge tow lithium ion batteries at one time. It is 12V DC in or connection to a USB portout. The blocks themselves are interchangeable to allow for the following batteries:2 Sony NP FW 502 Olympus BNL-12 Olympus BLS-52 Sony NP BX-14 rechargeable AAmany mobile phones and smart tablet batteries inside their own casings - that's...

19 Nov

Posted at 13:21h in News by [social_share]

Two other of our divisions of electronic babble - pardon me, I meant social media - have probably apprised you of the contents of this post but here goes anyway: Canon Australia are giving out double cashbacks now. Theres a few rules you follow but they are simple:The cashbacks range from $ 50 to $ 200 on selected Canon Cameras. That's a given and worth while in itself. They go until the 24th of December, 2015.IF you then buy $ 200 or more of Canon products in the same transaction ( and this does NOT work with buying the lens os a standard kit...

19 Nov

Posted at 00:29h in News by [social_share]

Thursday last was the nearest thing to a circus I can remember. It had the ringmaster, the clowns, the pretty girl in spangly tights, and the tightrope walker. There may have been elephants but I left before they passed out the brooms and buckets...

17 Nov

Posted at 00:57h in News by [social_share]

Wesentliche.Means the essential. The gist. To the point. The nitty gritty, if you will.Leica as manufacturers have often had products that fitted this description. The first Leica A cameras - the Leica M cameras - and, dare we say it, the Leica reflex camera of the 1960's - the Leicaflex SL1. We might not have thought of it as wesentliche at the time but history has shown us different.At the time of the SL1, Leica made magnificent rangefinder cameras and lenses - the M series system*. If you wanted the highest quality 35mm portable camera in the world, it was the Leica M. But the design of the M as a rangefinder meant that 135mm was about the limit in focal length that the camera body could swing in its basic form. You could add devices like a mirror box and pentaprism and end up with a film SLR - but you needed to operate a lot more things on it to get the best out of Leica 1800 and 240mm optics. This writer knows because he had just such...

16 Nov

Posted at 04:51h in News by [social_share]

No?Motor over to Shoot Photography Workshops next door to the shop and catch a brilliant talk by Megan Lewis on the subject of mindful photography.As she is an award winner who uses a camera system - Fujifilm - that I thoroughly endorse, I think it will be well worth hearing her.Contact the shop or SHOOT this afternoon for more details....

16 Nov

Posted at 04:39h in News by [social_share]

And do Leica have news for you!Last week saw the demonstration night for the Leica SL camera and the new 24-90 f2.8 lens made for it. Two of our management people went to Germany for the big initial launch, three of our senior staff went to Melbourne for the Australian initial launch, and the rest of us just had to wait here in town until the circus pulled in.There was a bit of speculation in local minds about the size of the camera - based upon the DP review preview pictures. It looked like a very big body in very small hands and the size of the zoom lens was also exceptional. Yet...