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March 2017

14 Mar

Posted at 23:20h in News by [social_share]

a. Give their credit card details to an unknown person on the other side of the world for a small camera accessory that they could just as easily buy in Perth?b. Air-freight a small camera accessory half-way around the world to Perth?c. Think that they support the conservation of the ecology of the planet while compelling someone to fly a jet aircraft halfway around the world to deliver a small camera accessory?d. Need a small camera accessory - since the cameras we use have every conceivable function built-in?e. Stock a small camera accessory that yields about $ 2.00 profit if it sells immediately and $ 20.00 loss if it sits on the shelf for six months?f. Take pictures that are never again looked at - sitting as they do on hard drives or in computer bodies - with expensive small accessories that have come half-way around the world?g. Enter pictures taken with small accessories into photo contests that are destined to be seen only by other people who are willing their competitors not to win?h. Put up photo contests that...

14 Mar

Posted at 00:45h in News by [social_share]

For years we have sold the Dust-Off brand of canned air made by Falcon. These are the familiar blue and white aerosol cans with the black tops and the red extension tubes that are racked up in the ink,  paper, and chemistry section at the back of the shop.I guess they aren't actually aerosols - they are compressed air in there. The cans have traditionally cost $ 25 and last for ages in most applications. Good steady seller.Originally the only use for them I conceived was in printing negatives in an enlarger. The Dust Off can was used to spray over the top surface and under surface of the negative in the holder to blow away dust.The enlarger has been gone for years but the Dust Off remains - because I have found a raft of new photographic uses for it:a. Spray the dust off the platen of the Epson V700 scanner. It's a large glass surface and attracts gunk via static electricity. I wipe it with an anti-stat cloth and then the Dust Off and it is pristine. The negs...

13 Mar

Posted at 01:18h in News by [social_share]

How many of us get a tool kit with our new digital cameras these days? In the old film days it was common for the box containing the SLR or rangefinder camera to have a complete tool pouch including a stilson wrench, set of spanners, lens brace, film jack, and a bottle of optical antiseptic. In the case of some Kodak cameras you got a 8-round clip of .30-06 ball ammunition and a toothbrush. I think we are being done - nowadays you're lucky to get a battery charger and a squidgy little lens cloth with some. Even the instruction manuals are on a CD...

10 Mar

Posted at 00:48h in News by [social_share]

Every item of equipment for sale in the photo shop is under a spotlight - and some are under enough glare to suggest a three-ring circus. This is all to the good - every camera maker and advertising department knows that every time a fuss is made about something people will focus on it, and they might concentrate long enough to reach for their wallets.The new Fujifilm X100F examined this week IS a worth successor to the other cameras of the series - the leap in performance since the original X100 I own showed out on nearly every level. Had I elected to make larger images than just the little illustrative ones for these articles, the lead would have been wildly increased. But that is for me...

09 Mar

Posted at 00:23h in News by [social_share]

And the evening, too. Not everything happens in a studio, so you have to go out to where they store the landscapes. You might be able to make convincing copies on a tabletop or in Photoshop, but if you use the original scenes it is a lot cheaper and quicker.Jandakot, again, and boiling hot. It can't be too much fun to do circuits and bumps in the heat and I daresay there is quite a lot of turbulence coming up off the tarmac. Nevertheless, I balanced one X 100 in one hand and one X100F in the other and tried to track the same planes in the same phase of takeoff.The settings are as before - ProNeg Hi for the X100F and Provia for the X100. See the difference that it makes with the grass colour? As before the X100F is on Large/Fine JPEG and the X 100 is running RAW.The picture sizes are adjusted in the final result to show the resolution. The tail registration numbers on the aircraft prove that the X100F JPEG is better than the X100...

08 Mar

Posted at 01:55h in News by [social_share]

First task for the new Fujifilm X100F  - in conjunction with the control X100 - was in the model car studio. Well, that's me and you know it already. But take what I have found and use it for product shooting, closeup work, flowers, fabrics, jewellery, etc. That's your fun.The basic focal length of X100 lenses has always been 23mm with a range of apertures from f:2 to f:16. The thing will focus down to less than four inches from the subject, but if you are going to use the on-board flash to help out you need to be back about a foot to avoid a black shadow at the bottom of the picture. Sorry to say, closeup at f:2 is not terribly sharp...

06 Mar

Posted at 00:05h in News by [social_share]

This weblog column may be a little hard to write as I am chortling and it affects my ability to type.The reason for the glee is that I have my hands on a bran-new fresh sample of the Fujifilm X-100F camera and two days in which to wring it out. I am like a P - Plater with his first Bugatti Veyron.Okay, I have to hand it back but I am going to find out if it is a worthy successor to the Fujifilm X-100 camera I already own. This isn't just idle gear-fiddling - if it is a substantial improvement it is going to cost me money later down the track. If I drop it in the mud it is going to cost me right now...

03 Mar

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

I was conscious of the anomaly of what I was doing but it was all for a good cause; I was trying to determine which of the new Mag Mod light shapers would be the best for event coverage. I had inveigled Chelsea Bunz - the Steampunk Absinthe Fairy - to come in and pose for head and shoulders shots with the IceLight 2 and Promaster LED 120 portable lights and I thought to take advantage of the chance for some Mag Mod experienmts. They were duly conducted but I am still in a quandary.For those who came in late, the Mag Mod light shapers are designed to attach firms to portable speed lights and to give either colour, diffusion, or concentration for the flash. I want something that will let me front up to Steampunk patrons of Rigby's Bar in St. Geo. Tce when they have one of their Steampunk Balls and take well-lit portraits in a flash. I need to do full-length, half torso, and head and shoulders.I most definitely don't want to do it with a tripod...

02 Mar

Posted at 00:51h in News by [social_share]

I was a bit non-plussed while reading the Photokina reports this year at the strange things that were being introduced. Some of them seemed a little odd as marketing choices. Now I have had a chance to see one of them in the shop and I am somewhat reconciled.The Sofort camera from Leica seemed a strange departure for a company that had always been known for extremely professional and extremely expensive cameras and lenses. It was, after all, an instant camera with some sort of connection to the Japanese Fujifilm Instax line. If the designers were not the same people, they at least did lunch together. Sushi and sauerbraten?The actual camera in the shop is really rather nice, and the colour decision for the blue and brown panels is delightful. Very Germanic in a high fashion way. The operation would appear to be pretty near that of the Instax line and the resultant print very much so. Note that Leica are wisely not re-branding the film packets.What they are doing is providing some fun accessories with the basic system...