Otherwise known as The Menu Blues. Every digital camera has a menu. It is generally accessed with a button on the back of the camera, although on the Flapoflex Digital Royale Special you wake the camera up by swearing at it. You can choose which language you do this in: Teenager, Longshoreman, or Streetwalker. Flapoflex have always staggered to the beat of a different drummer...
Are you a keen photographer looking for a bit of safari adventure? Do you like going off the beaten track and explore the wilderness...
The Nikon company is one of the smarter firms - they have produced a camera with enough internal space to take a decent-sized battery, and have taken advantage of that space well. The En - El15a will hold enough charge for an entire day of average shooting. Some of the literature mentions 800+ shots, though it does not specify whether the more power-hungry features of the camera are used taking those shots.
Not all makers do this - I have cameras that are good for only about 180 shots before they go flat. I have to carry batteries slung on a bandolier like a Mexican bandit carries rifle cartridges. In some cases the batteries are made in batches - and we don't need no esteenkin' batches...
Okay, that pun was unfair, but good battery power is essential if you are going to shoot in a profligate manner. And charging the things should be as easy as possible. I am not going to be telling tales out of school and mention the chargers that used to be made with clip-on Australian-standard adapters that saddled over US-standard prongs. They were a complete nuisance to mount and demount and used up an inordinate amount of tourist luggage space. This MH-25a has the standard kettle cord socket and is much more space-friendly.
It also has an unmistakable form factor* that means it can only accept the one battery, and only in one way. This means no false starts. Also the LED charge light is either flashing or steady - no complex code to indicate partial charge.
But should you buy a second...or third... battery? Unless you only intend to take a dozen shots a day...yes. You can never shoot if you don't have it, and you can charge it up while you are using the first one. If you are in freezing cold weather you can keep a warm battery in your pocket and interchange it as the thing gets colder and the voltage falls off.
If it gets too cold, other things fall off, but that is beyond the scope of this column.
* " Form factor " is the way of saying " shape " if you only speak Berlitz English.
If you ever want to feel as if the unbounded springs of life are about to burst inside of you, I suggest that you try not to attempt it on the roads on Sunday morning. At least not in Perth. In Margaret River springs might burst - in Meekatharra springs might burst - but in Perth the mechanism is rusted shut. At least that was my experience this last Sunday whilst looking for a suitable subject to exercise the Nikon 18-55mm f:3.5-5.6G AF-S DX lens attached to the new Nikon D7500 camera. I was looking for where it was all at, but was forced to the conclusion that it wasn't anywhere. Even the rail museum was shut. You'd think that Rotting Locomotives R Us would at least be open for business - even if they were not fired up. No. Not until 1:00. Until then you could cruise the streets, slowly work your way through the detours on Tonkin Highway, and then drive past the lost souls along James Street in Guildford. Wind it up with a tour down the back streets...
Many things are made in 40mm size; grenades, Bofors shells, and Nikon lenses come readily to mind. Camera Electronic customers may want to specify exactly what they want when they come in to talk to the sales staff...
As this is the 100th anniversary year for Nikon, I was delighted when Ricky Packham pointed out that the new Nikon D7500 had reached the warehouse shelves. Wasting no time, I grabbed one and a couple of likely lenses and departed for the studio. Note: it has been 7 years since the 7000 camera series started - and I have sold them to friends who have long surpassed me in their ability to take good pictures. Bit of a tactical blunder, that...
It is rare that you encounter a piece of photographic equipment that is arrogant. But look at the featured image of the Joby Ballhead X. If that isn't throwing the head back, holding the sides, and laughing at you...
People who read photographic columns sometimes get the wrong idea about the writers of them. Despite what we try to pretend on this side of the pencil, we do not know it all. Some of us know very little of it. And bits of what we do know sometimes get forgotten. Fortunately real life can remind us. There is plenty of real life like a situation of sudden movement or sullen lighting that calls us back to the basics of photography. I've featured the DSLR bodies from two major manufacturers to remind myself of this. I am regularly in a situation that has both sudden fast movement and bad lighting - stage dance shows - and I have on many occasions desperately wanted to be carrying a new DSLR. It's not heresy to the mirror-less movement to say this. Everyone who has tried to overcome the two burdens I mentioned has found out that their efforts have to be both extraordinary and guarded to try to cope with the limitations of the mirror-less. I do cope...
Well, it's not an asylum any more - it's a civic function centre. If it was an asylum a lot more people would have been there. Heathcote has escaped the fate of being bulldozed and replaced with high-rise luxury apartments by being a strong part of WA heritage. But it lives next door to a lot of extremely expensive real estate that you are forbidden to drive by...
One place left. One chance to be out tin the wild with a fabulous selection of Canon gear. One chance to see the wild animals before they see you...