This is the new Olympus OM-D E-M10 mk II in the hands of the old Carlos.Burke Flynn from Olympus has just set up a trade table to talk about this new camera and he'll be here until 2:00.He's got a crowd already, and the camera is a cute as a button....
We've come to momentous decision down here to put up a SNAP SALE for Vanguard camera bags and cases. The pricing guns are chattering away like Maxims and the bags are piling up like...
Well, it's the old bump and grind this weekend. Three hours of colour, movement, and loud music. And I'm going to be out the front with a camera.No, not the burlesque. That's not my beat - though I have seen some dynamite shows here in Perth and some very good publicity, event, and art shots taken by the photographers who specialise in this. I'll be at a hafla - a belly dancing show held at a suburban school.The school isn't just your regular local primary - the Saturday venue is a pretty swish one that takes in private-school money. And spends it on their theatre facilities, I might add. The main performance space and seating is very professional - more so than many public venues. They have good lighting, good lighting control, and good sound - and a large enough stage to make a real production.I'll set a fixed camera with radio wireless control to capture full-stage shots from the mezzanine ( They have a mezzanine! ) and roam the aisles and floor with a large-aperture Fujifilm lens on my...
The days of putting our films in to the chemist and hoping for some decent prints in a fortnight are long past. We now put our memory cards into the card reader and hope for some decent images in 5 seconds. The time occupied by gnawing anticipation is reduced greatly but we have also lost the consolation of being able to buy a bag of barley sugar sweets even if everything is blurry.Same with colour. We once got what we were given and liked it. Sometimes we got what we deserved. The cost of colour slide film or colour printing in the film era was considerable - and we did not waste our shots. But what came back was tied to the temperature and purity of the baths in the processor and that could be a mixed bag - and sometimes the technicians loading the machines got it horribly wrong. Ask me about the wedding that vanished...
Those of you who have delicate constitutions and elegant ears may want to leave - we are going to open the box containing the photographic equipment and there may be language.Not every packaging designer wants you to get into the package. Some are jealous of the contents or the aesthetics or the zen or some damned thing and devise ways of excluding you. You don't just walk into Mordor...
I realise that using the phrase fine art photography is a dangerous thing - it seems to be two adjectives chasing a noun. And in many cases unsuccessfully...
The first of October is just over a week away - Thursday morning will dawn before you know it and you need to be prepared for it now. Here's a Camera Electronic checklist to ensure that you will be ready in time:1. Do you have that second camera body? If your first one fails on the evening of the 30th of September, will you have a second one ready to take over? Better call into the shop and purchase another one now and get the battery charged up in time for Thursday. A couple of spare lenses would be a good idea too.2. Is your camera set properly? If you have just been fooling around recently or experimenting with different settings you may lose valuable time on Thursday morning re-configuring it. best do it now and then attach a tag to the camera strap lugs with a ready-to-go code. Flouro colours work best for this.3. Have you remembered the grounding stake and connecting cable?4. No-one likes a card snatcher - when you suddenly need more memory it is really bad...
For the last 7 1/2 years I have been coping with the business of multiplication factors for the focal lengths of lenses in the digital world. Right from the start, we have had equivalents to various things - occasioned by the size of the electronic sensors that were possible in the cameras at the time. Initially quite small, they progressed in size as the silicon chip makers learned to grow ever-larger surfaces.There were a number of stages that received what are now difficult names - difficult in that every one of them needs some sort of explanation and qualification when a customer enquires about it. We can liken the quandary to an alphabet - we all pretty well agree what a "B" looks like and unless you are Russian and spell it backwards or something, we don't have to refer to it as a full-frame B or an APS-C B or a 3/4" B.Every manufacturer would have their product better than the rest, if only in the advertising pamphlets. Thus was born the diagonal measurement of sensor size - based...
Well, you wanted to know what the manufacturers were doing with the packaging...
There's this movie in production about boxing. Not two Irishmen pummelling each other - boxing. Packaging cameras. I can hardly wait for the release.Now, this is going to be different from all the Yo' Tube videos of sad people taking their new camera out of the packaging while the rest of the world burns around them. This is going to be the inside story of the intrigues and murders in the Japanese packaging industry. If you don't believe they have them, consider these facts:1. Japan has a culture of wrapping and packaging. There is a Japanese cultural channel on Foxtel that has video reports from Japan and broadcasts whole shows on wrapping -foreigners watch Japanese retail sellers package different products for sale and ten comment on how it is done in their own country. The Japanese always do it better, and with more style.2. Japanese companies are quite competitive. Just like the feudal families used to be, They may not go round each other's head offices and shower the opposing office workers with arrows at lunchtime but the temptation is...