December 2015

I love it! A chance to show off a toy car shot! Yay! Thanks, Lowepro.Well you can also say thanks when you come in to buy a Lowepro bag - they are pushing out a promotion that has a Summer Vibes Pack for purchasers of selected Lowepro bags. The Vibes Pack contains.A big 'ol fancy Lowepro drinks bottle.A pair of Lowepro stereo headphones.An inflatable Lowepro beach chair.A cool Lowepro bottle openerThere's $ 135 of value in that pack for free. The bags that are listed as qualifying for the promotion - and it is until stocks of the Vibes packs run out - are these:Lowepro TahoeLowepro Slingshot EdgeLowepro Photo HatchbackLowepro FlipsideLoweproPro TrekkerLowepro Pro RunnerLowepro FastpackLowepro PhotosportIf you want a bag for summer, why not get all the other good stuff as well while you can?...

Well, the 12 days of Christmas are swinging along pretty well. On Wednesday the 16th of December the Panasonic micro 4/3 fans get their chance to touch the money.There are a number of items on offer well under their normal price and in some cases they are also bolstered by $ 150 cash back offers from Panasonic themselves. This makes them very good purchases indeed. Look at these:DMC-GX8 camera body for $ 949...

This piece of sexy equipment from Camera Electronic needs an eighties soundtrack and purple satin sheets. Okay, we got the sheets, but you'll have to add the music in your heads.It's a flash bracket. A very flash bracket. Perhaps the most high-tech OOT flash bracket that you will ever see in your life. It is a tribute to high-grade aluminium, the wonders of CAD CAM, and a childhood studying H.R. Giger machines. It is not steam punk but it may be Techno punk...

Well, that's an interesting combination - Sigma and Zeiss.Both top quality lens manufacturers that deal in different operational concepts - one looking to make a number of value-packed zoom lenses and one seeking the prime market. The good thing for users of Nikon and Canon camera bodies is that many of their products can be found with mounts for these brands.But consider - you might find Sigma or Zeiss lenses on a lot of camera bodies. We can think of Zeiss lenses on Fujifilm X-series, Sigma on Olympus and Panasonic, Zeiss on Leica M bodies, and a number of Zeiss's devices associated with Sony.Come to think of it there are adapters that allow these products onto a lot of micro 4/3 or other mirror-less bodies. A bit of a juggle sometimes but surprisingly do-able nonetheless if one is prepared to focus and set apertures manually. A lot of studio closeups for this column are taken with an adapted lens that started on a DSLR and now fronts a mirror-less camera. It's not speed-demon work but yields a fine focus.Anyway, there...

I have been watching the development of this for a long time - and that is not just a cheap photographic joke. The Petzval lens that is currently being produced by the Zenit/Lomo people has been announced for a number of years - this is the first example that has landed in Camera Electronic. As a dedicated studio portrait shooter of historic subjects...