March 2016

Standing in the shop one day idly throwing gravel at the staff to while away the time, I found myself bemused while looking in the Leica cabinet.Of course everything in there was pristine - Leica insist upon this standard of presentation in their shop displays and frankly, for the price asked for the equipment, this is fair enough. You could hardly expect the latest SL or Monochrom cameras to be piled up in end-of-aisle wire baskets. But what struck me was the variety of lens hoods hat Leica put on their cameras.Now some other equally reputable manufacturers have designed their lenses in different focal lengths to have the same front diameter and bayonet lock, and as a consequence have found that that several lenses could share the same lens hood. Of course, the extremes of focal length and aperture mean that there are especial ones for some lenses. But when they can double up. they do.Two big makers of DSLR cameras make a large variety of their own glass, but have dedicated lens hoods for each one. The sales staff...

Did goe to the BP service station at Baldivis South Saturday even and was greatley amused.It was the site of an unofficial organised impromptu motor car show. A meeting of minds at the McDonalds. A pouring of passion at the petrol pumps. Sort of a cross between Saturday Night Fever and American Graffiti, but nobody looked like Harrison Ford  or John Travolta. There were a couple of contenders, mind, but they were both mature women so I was respectful.Well, the cars were wonderful and if you want to see more go to hrhoa.wordpress.com but the interesting thing proved to be the way the post-sundown twilight made the cars easier to photograph, and the artefacts that started appearing as soon as the sun was completely gone. Both observations will serve me well in the future.Note these two pictures of '57 Chevys. Top one is the first taken, and the bottom is the second.Note the flare and light spots of the first one. That's a clean B+W UV filter on the lens - I keep them on as a matter of course...

Sony made a cracker of a mirror-less camera with an APS-C -sized sensor in it - the A6000. Whether coupled with a short zoom or with one of Sony or Zeiss' prime lenses it was just the camera that many travellers and enthusiasts wanted. It also gained somewhat of a following when people wanted to have a portable video shooter - the camera was able to follow action better than many rival mirror-less systems.Well, they've revamped it with more resolution, more AF capability, and a better viewfinder. There's far more AF points in the sensor and the viewfinder used in continuous shooting/continuous focusing is said to be the best in any mirror-less. This, and the 4K video capability, mean that this may be the best choice for sports and action photographers tending to get away from the larger DSLR cameras.It wouldn't affect me as my shooting in most cases is done of static subjects in careful set-ups...

That's a famous phrase from a former CE employee - uttered when the deal had been done and the customer was going out of the shop with the precious new camera held gingerly in both hands. It was an injunction to go have fun - to explore - to shoot a thousand shots and discover what the equipment was capable of.Occasionally you would discover that the equipment could go mad by itself.Case in point is the adventure at the Hyde Park Community fair on Labour Day. I attended and had a good time. I scored an old-fashioned* lemonade from the Girl Guides,  avoided the attention of the worst of the political pressure groups, and photographed the veteran and vintage cars.Hyde Park is a full-sun and dappled shade venue and you need a fill flash and your tongue stuck in the corner of your mouth sometimes to get acceptable exposure. In some cases you get science and in some you get art. In the case of the FIAT sports car I seem to have gotten a little of both, mixed with...

Do you " Q "? I didn't for a long time but now I do - and my photographic experience has been vastly improved.I'm not referring to the somewhat magical Leica Q camera - the Typ 116 fixed-lens camera. It is in a class all its own as far as elegant engineering, but as I only have counterfeit printing plates for $ 7.00 and $ 8.00 bills I probably can't afford one. It takes me all my time just to pass enough to buy petrol and tins of sardines. Perhaps if I can forge Lotto tickets I might get one...

If you are studio flashing it or speed-lighting it it out at an Easter party, drop by the shop today for bargains up to 78% off of selected lighting sets and accessories.Theres some quirky bits on offer, as well as some standard flash units. Heavy-duty professional stuff, light shapers, portable continuous lighting, speed lights, etc. Even the video people are catered for.In store goods, one sale one day...

This may seem like a repeat of a previous post on the new Olympus Pen F camera but bear with me - it's the first time I've gotten the thing off the shelf and into the hand undisturbed - and the first time that I've gotten a clear studio light into some of the bits.I've used all sorts of cameras and lenses with all sorts of controls - all the way from a Russian wooden plate camera with brass helical track for focusing and wooden plate holders through the range of roll-film and 35mm cameras to the plastic button land of digital cameras. I've poked, prodded, twisted, slid, revolved, and flapped to control focus and exposure and done far worse to change the film. Some cameras were a symphony of elegant ease and some were songs of pain. I can say that I have never flung a camera into the fire but I have put some down and never picked them up again.The controls on the Pen F are as cleverly worked-out as those on a modern jetliner. The reason...

Day 3.You've got the filter and the memory card and the tripod and the bag and the camera body. Now at last you can get the lens and take some darned pictures!March Madness moves amongst the lenses today. It's Wednesday the 23rd and all day they'll be selling selected lenses for all sorts of camera mounts at discounts ranging from 13% off to 45% off.You don't get that sort of thing haggling in the vegetable markets...