30 Jun Clickless Go The Shears, Boys
Nothing, nothing, nothing...
June 2017
29 Jun The Light Fantastic With Olympus
Pardon the heading - part of the business of writing a weblog column is re-cycling trite phrases to suit the content. Just groan and read on...
28 Jun Welcome To The Fast And Silent
It is cold these evenings, and it takes a deal of energy to bestir yourself to go out and do something after dark. I kept this in mind as I watched the Northbridge Hotel function room fill up last night with Perth pro and enthusiast photographers. They were there to see the Sony A9 show and to find out what the new camera could do. It turned out that it could do a great deal for a specialist clientele - the people who need to shoot fast-moving subjects in poor light...
27 Jun Seriously Close-up with Olympus
I mentioned the strange little symbol on the control dial of the new Olympus TG 5 yesterday. The one under the blue arrow: At first I though it was something in Klingon, but after I rotated it to the index mark to start the function I discovered that it is the macro function command...
26 Jun What You See And Why You Need Olympus
That's a pretty bold statement. Not the what you see bit - the why you need it part. We don't set out to be dictatorial very often because it generally doesn't work. Photographers have their own ideas and will insist on thinking them. But read on - This is the new Olympus Tough TG-5 that has just popped onto the display shelf in the Stirling Street shop. And it is a camera that I am delighted to have for a test run. Like all the waterproof and rugged Olympus cameras, it has a one-hand configuration - they realise that if you are going to be swimming or rock climbing you are only going to be giving one flipper to photography - you will be using the other one to save your life. Same as a sailor on a sailing ship or a man bathing a cat. Note the big strap attachment bar - and the fact that both the nameplate and the box illustration show the camera in a vertical mode. Olympus are not trying to make you into portrait photographers with...
23 Jun Photography By Ear
I always treasure my visits to the Camera Electronic store as I think that otherwise my week would be lacking in the bizarre. When I feel my supply running low I drive on in to either Stirling Street or Murray Street and top up again. This time it was the Swing Master. Apparently, this thing that looks like a bleach bottle on a stick is intended to train golfers how to swing their clubs. They put water in the bottle to the level indicated - see the legend on the side - and then stand out on the lawn whizzing it about them as they would a golf driver. If they do the correct ritual the Swingmaster does not make a gurgling sound throughout the stroke. And presumably, it trains the muscles and mind to do the same thing with a real golf bat out on the field. Then the player can get their puck into the basket or whatever they are supposed to do with it. One can only hope that the Swing Master does not fly in two as they play with...
22 Jun The Second Day – The Second Thoughts
Armed with my trusty Fujifilm X-Pro 1 and equally trusty 18-135mm f:3.5-5.6 zoom lens, I visited the hot rod show again on their second day of operation. It was in the spirit of scientific enquiry, as well as the spirit of having another day out looking at cars and avoiding having to fold the laundry. Science by itself is all very well, but there are certain social sweeteners too...
21 Jun The One Ring
I do not intend to rule the world, or bother going to see any more of the Tolkein movies for that matter, but the idea of one lens to take all my pictures is a rather attractive one - particularly when it means keeping it on one camera and not having to open the hatch to let dust in. I will excuse studio illustration work as I have a dedicated camera, lens, adapter combination that does that right now. I feed batteries and cards into it and extract images and as long as it churns the pixels I am going to pronounce myself satisfied - but there are more shots than just upon a product table. I go out to dance shows, car shows, and general affairs. The dream of one focusing ring to cover all is tempting. Did I use a full-frame DSLR or mirror-less body, I would opt for a 24-70 f:2.8 from whichever manufacturer I fancied and be satisfied with that. If I were using a small-frame DSLR I would ask for a 17mm or an 18mm to 55mm...
20 Jun The Car Barn
I'm really doing the Royal Show people a disservice with that title. The Silver Pavilion and the Robinson Pavilion are far nicer than barns - even if they do sometimes have animals on display there. Or hot rods and custom cars, as was the case this last weekend. Apart from the one time they fired up a methanol-powered sprint car inside the main space, there were no bad smells, either. But I drift...
19 Jun The Trial Run Is Up And Away
I have never used this lens before - any experiences I have with it are going to be new. Whether they will be rewarding or not depends on a number of factors: The job in hand. The degree of skill I can bring to it. The expectations I have beforehand. The lens is the Fujinon XF 16-55mm f:2.8 R LM WR and I have attached it to the Fujifilm X-Pro1. The reason I have chosen this camera body instead of the X-Pro2 or the X-T2 is because I own the X-Pro 1 and it has not failed yet. I do not expect it to fail now. Recent experience has shown that the ISO rating on this camera need not hover at the 200-400 mark as previously thought. It can readily be set to 800, 1600, or 2400 ISO for reportage and the images do not suffer. In addition to this capability, I have a new Fujifilm EF-X500 flash gun and it pumps out plenty of light. Previous trials with slower lenses than the 16-55 have had mixed success - particularly when there was...