True to my plan, I charged the battery of the Olympus Pen F camera overnight and put it into the body, added a card and a lens - the 17mm f:1.8 prime - and resolutely headed out to be a tourist. A dumb tourist. A role for which I have long studied...
Don't be alarmed - it's just me - the drunk loose in the whisky store. Or to be a little more accurate, the photography enthusiast loose with the new Olympus Pen F camera. I'm not armed and probably not dangerous, but I may be noisy.I'm setting myself up to test out this new camera upon the basis that some of our customers may occupy - anticipation but no technical knowledge. It'll only be the second time that I've handled a micro 4/3 camera. I don't have to pretend to ignorance - I have the genuine article.I'm going to pretend to be a tourist with the Pen F. A tourist with a memory card and a computer back home that probably does not have the raw conversion software for this new camera. A tourist on the street, seeing what can be seen. The only difference for me will be not putting the neck strap on and not wearing socks and sandals.The camera has the ability to shoot automatically - many cameras can do program or full auto these days - but...
We've all seen those books in the stands - the yellow and black ones refer to us as dummies and the orange and blue ones are aimed at idiots. In some cases they say they are for complete idiots - a degree of excellence that seems a little disturbing to aim for.I must take a second to say that these books are adopting such a disdainful attitude with the view of correcting our faults. They may sneer at us but they try to teach us - by the end of the book we are probably going to be familiar with the basics of hydraulic engineering or Sanskrit or whatever was printed on the cover. We can even get dummy and idiot books that deal with photography...
Sorry for the pun. Not repentant - just sorry it wasn't a better pun...
Bless him. He knows, you know.At the launch night for the Canon EOS 80D camera held last week, Stephen Scourfield made the candid admission that he knows how much pressing a shutter button costs - or rather how much it used to cost - $ 1.00.This was in the days of film and we were paying for the colour transparency or negative film. No matter how you rigged it - you shelled out a buck a shot every time you pressed the release. And this was the time when that same dollar bought you a glass of beer. You had to have a pretty compelling reason to press that shutter button with that sort of equation...
Trolling through the internet this weekend I found a DP Review post saying that the Fujifilm company will discontinue their packs of FP 100C instant film. These are the packs with 10 exposures inside that fit into the Hasselblad, Rollei, Polaroid, and other holders - the 100 series size. They got rid of their production of of the 4 x 5 packs a couple of years ago.I am saddened, but with no involvement in the HB or 4 x 5 world at present, I cannot say that I will be injured by it. Those people who still take preliminary exposures with their Hasselblad film cameras or proof out other things on other cameras will be stranded eventually. The small newsagents and others who use the Polaroid four-lens cameras to take passport photographs will be hardest hit.Mind you, they were hard hit even when supplies were readily available - the business of getting a picture with a chemical instant print that satisfies the computer whizz kids of the airport passport controls - and the grey sleeveless minds of the DFAT -...
Canon 80dI knew I had the quote I wanted when Steven Scourfield, the Travel Editor of the West Australian newspaper, addressed us at the Northbridge Hotel last night. It was upon the occasion of the launch of the new Canon EOS 80D camera and 18-135mm lens.Steven gave us samples of his travel photos and told us something of his methodology before showing the results of a trip he took with the new Canon camera. He pointed out that we all come back from our photo excursions with more than enough material but we need to sit down and work at it - work at critically looking to our own images and weeding them down to the final best few. He confessed to being a person who never throws anything away - at least in the digital world - and who is sensible enough to back up all his files on SEVERAL devices in SEVERAL premises - thus ensuring that even the most poignant disaster will not remove all his work. I do hope the audience decided to listen - I know...
A few posts back I said the Olympus Pen F was going to succeed for a number of reasons - and alluded to the styling of the camera. Here's a closer breakdown of what that means in ergonomic terms.The camera pictured is in Camera Electronic now - the illustration pictures were taken on the shelves and don't show all the care that a studio shot might...
Small Messenger PAGEBOYI called in to Camera Electronic on a day when I was taking public transport and could not spirit the latest Barber Shop bags off for studio illustration - so unfortunately you'll have to put up with in-shop snap shots.You'll remember the leather version - well there are two smaller messenger bags called " Page Boys"...
The self portrait has been a staple of the artistic world ever since men started painting and sculpting. The latter art was difficult as it involved a degree of skill but the former was easy - you just dipped your hand in sloppy clay and slopped it on a rock. You might not have portrayed a lot of you but at least people could count your fingers.Brush and canvas jobs seem to have been done by every famous and/or obscure artist who ever got up in the morning. Some were brilliant evocations of the times and accurate depictions of the face and figure of the painter. Some were daubs. And some were art that might be described as campaign promises...