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September 2015

15 Sep

Posted at 01:14h in News by [social_share]

Did goe to the Mandurah Camera Club laste night and was greatley entertained.Any club that meets in a bistro with a bar and snacks is doing it right. This was the Mandurah Bowling club - new premises - and it has the advantage of being easy to find, easy to park, and serviced by a freeway.Photographers are a funny lot. Sometimes funny haha and sometime funny hmmm. The Mandurah CC are funny fun - their photos were good and their welcome was warm. And there was a large roll-up...

14 Sep

Posted at 02:41h in News by [social_share]

The future, as George Orwell would have it, is grey. We can supply it in varying strengths and configurations, we might add, and it in different diameters. Big Brother would approve.The neutral density filter makes things go darker. You can make things go darker by one f stop - or two, three, four, six , nine, or ten stops quite readily with commercially available products. You can get filters that allow variable density from 1 to 8 stops - just by rotating the filter. You can get filters that start out at the top with a dark patch and then fade out half-way down. You can even get in-built neutral density filters in some special cameras.The uses that people out these humble little bits of glass or plastic to are manifold: Landscape shooters position the partial filters so that bright parts of their scene are brought into the camera at a lower intensity  - the sensors then cope with the highlights much better.Special effect photographers stack up extremely dark filters to allow long exposure times - and eliminate people from cityscapes...

14 Sep

Posted at 01:48h in News by [social_share]

One of our principals and one of the sales staff have just returned from attending a photographic conference in Albany - a delightful country city located on the south coast of Western Australia. They took a large Mercedes van stuffed to the gills with equipment down over the weekend and presumably entertained the masses. We are in the process of emptying the van and restocking the shelves in the shop.Looks like they had reasonable weather - the rains have hit the place today but they are back up here in the sun. The Albany run is fairly long, and they would have had a busy and tiring weekend of it.Country conferences and open days are generally good things - the local people out in the bush are as keen about photography as those of us here in the city and as a fair amount of the landscape in Western Australia is stored out in the country - they have the ocean out off-shore to keep most of the water together - the country people can sometimes get out to the...

14 Sep

Posted at 01:04h in News by [social_share]

We hear this from clients quite regularly and note internet warnings about stolen photo equipment every month. Insurance companies contact us for quotes to replace cameras and lenses. It is really becoming a series of horror tales.We cannot say who steals the stuff, nor can we say what becomes of it. Anything that is presented for sale or trade here is VERY thoroughly scrutinised by the tech staff, the sales staff, and our second-hand expert. Then it is vetted by the WA Police through their computer and investigative services. So far I have only seen one instance where our commercial vigilance needed the attention of Mr. Plod, but when it did, the response was fast and magic.Unfortunately we often hear that photographic equipment has been stolen from motor vehicles while the owner is off taking pictures. This would seem to argue that some of the more popular photo locations have a population of thieves that monitor who is visiting. and what they have in their car. We all have a tendency to take more than we use, and if we...

11 Sep

Posted at 01:32h in News by [social_share]

We have a great deal of studio equipment here at the shop - lights, stands, backdrop materials, clamps, accessories, etc. Some are very well-known brands - Manfrotto, Profoto, Elinchrom, et al. Some are surprises - Kupo, JinBei, and Plain White Box.With the former you can get quite detailed catalogs, both in print and on-line. There are always new things coming out and catalogues need to change to reflect this - some are on the ball, like Manfrotto, and some are tardy. If in doubt, try to trace it on the web - despite the Chase-Me-Charlie nature of some internet research, there are good companies out there.If you are contemplating the big part of the studio - the lights - you need to think ahead. You might start with a small space and small ambitions but find that your scope widens and the space you need to light gets bigger. When you essay to go bigger, the power you need from your flashes grows exponentially. Plan ahead so that you have some reserve now - for later.Also plan what sort of...

11 Sep

Posted at 01:08h in News by [social_share]

Over the last few years the swinging LCD screen has become popular. Like other forms of swinging it has its hazards - my wife discovered this with a video camera that featured a screen that swivelled out to the side. When she rounded a corner suddenly with the camera and the screen hit the wall...

10 Sep

Posted at 02:05h in News by [social_share]

Here'tis. The long-promised successor to the Panasonic Lumix GX7 camera - the panasonic Lumix GX8.The family resemblance is striking - Panasonic fans will recognise the tilting viewfinder  immediately, as well as the GX8's ability to take all the Panasonic Micro 4/3 lenses in its stride. The one you se on the heading image is a big piece of glass on a system camera - it's the Leica Nocticron 42.5mm f:1.2 which would be wonderful for street shots in really bad light.It's a big lens and heavy, as befits the metal barrel and enormous amount of glass inside, but remember that Panasonic make a whole range of other lenses that would make the system a smaller prospect - just choose the focal length that works best for you.There are new capabilities added to the mix - the swinging LCD screen for one. I noted that the hinge and axle that it turns upon feels a great deal more solid than some of the ones used by other manufacturers. Of course it parks screen-in for secure carriage.The screen is touch control as...

09 Sep

Posted at 02:55h in News by [social_share]

Well, that's what the packaging says. Examine yourself in the mirror to see if you qualify - right now we can cater to black personalities and silver personalities but apparently you can also get these little brackets that are made for blue, purple, and green ones as well.What it is  - the SideKick 360 - is a bracket that mates a mobile phone to a tripod. There is a pair of screw-clamp jaws that sits either side of the phone and gently grips it while the whole rotates on a ball-joint mount. The base of it is aluminium with a choice of 1/4", 3/8", and Arca Swiss foot mounting. You can mount the phone in landscape or portrait orientation.Useful? Well, if you are a phone shooter, yes. You'll get to use longer exposures ad get steadier shots. It will let you stand your phone on a tabletop or a cistern for a selfie and leave your hands free to make gang signs.You could mount it on the dashboard to allow hands-free.Works on small and large mobile phones....