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August 2018

20 Aug

Posted at 09:17h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

This post is pretty much a cut and paste copy of one I wrote for my own photography blog. I don't normlly plagiarize myself but the whole thing worked out so well that think it can help other people. Here goes:   For years I've been flashing in public. Never arrested for it, I'm proud to say, and in many cases paid good money to do it. It is one of the job advantages of being an event photographer. Of course I flash in the studio too, but no-one ever takes any notice. At the dance shows I cover - the Middle Eastern-flavoured haflas - there is always a good deal of wild colour in the costumes and makeup. The venues are less bright, however, and in some cases the lighting rigs are unbalanced. I've discovered that flash illumination is a good way to overcome this, and I have purchased portable speed lights for my various cameras. These got smaller and more sophisticated as time went by and are little computer powerhouses now. A recent failure of the new flash, however, left me in...

16 Aug

Posted at 08:37h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

You may be forgiven for thinking that the Nikon F camera with Photomic T finder and Nikkor-S 58mm f:1.4 lens shown at the top of the page has been dropped into a gravel crusher. Possible, but it's likely that it got that way from harder use - newspaper work with the local photo-journalists. Duncan Dodd acquired it to add to his collection and brought it along for studio illustration - and we got to test it out against a modern digital lens. Well, the Nikon F was a battleship of a camera - hard body and sharp edges, and design decisions carried over from the rangefinder Nikons of the 50's. They look crude now, but they are still working now...

14 Aug

Posted at 09:40h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

I've kept my promise to the WA Nikon Sales Manager. I have not rung him up every hour asking for secret details about new Nikon products without mirrors. I have not burgled his office nor gone through his emails. I have not sat in the bushes opposite his house and glared at him through the leaves. Not that I haven't been tempted, mind. But I've realised that the best way to find out what is coming out is to wait until an official launch. That, and haunting the rumour sites and YouTube clips. You can do a great deal of good, and even a greater degree of bad, with internet speculation. But it doesn't help to frazzle the rep. The photographic world changes constantly - I did not realise how much until I entered the trade again in 2008. Quite apart from the catch-up needed to go from sheet film to second-generation digital, there was an almost weekly addition of new equipment and rising specification in the major brands. The designation of " major brand " also shifted perceptively while I watched,...

13 Aug

Posted at 12:02h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Leica users have had a rough time of it in the past - they have always had access to the best of optical performance in most fields - but they may not have known it was available. The traditional Leica presentation of street photography in Germany or field photography in Africa has mostly revolved around the use of rangefinder cameras used with stand-off lenses. Unless one was using the 35mm SLR cameras, one was going to have to do a lot of hard work to get macro and close-up shots. Well, not any more. The digital revolution and the availability of live view and the LCD screen has changed all that. The Leica shooter can go in as close as people using other systems. It just needs the lenses and determination. The Leica Macro Elmar M 90mm f:4 is one way to go. 1:2 close-up ratio and incredible resolution. You need to stack the Macro Adapter M in between the lens and the body to do it...

13 Aug

Posted at 08:41h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

We've just seen the closure of the 100 years website that the Nikon corporation drew up to celebrate their anniversary year. It was worthwhile looking at as the corporation had the best stocks of information about their products over that time - and, of course, an immense number of a landmark productions in the time. But what was their biggest landmark for you - what was it for me? Did we have the same experience of the company over that time? I first encountered the brand in 1966 - when I took up amateur photography in high school. It was far beyond my reach financially, but I had no idea why...

10 Aug

Posted at 08:56h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The proof of the lighting is in the shooting. And whether or not the new Sony HVL-F60RM looks like it is too big for the Sony Alpha 6300 and the 30mm f:3.5 lens or not, that's the rig that goes to the museum today. The Air World museum is a new venture. It's been erected just west of the Wet Dog Regional Airport in central Alberta - the old RCAF Wet Dog station. The Canadian Deprtment of Transport runs it now and they leased the vacant land to a private operator. It's still being completed, but a few of the exhibits are being moved in - they dismantled the old RCAF control tower and re-erected it as a display along with the vehicles they had left over. The museum halls will ultimately house a collection of Canadian aircraft - civieian and military - and hold air shows in the summer months as a tourist attraction. At least out in the prairies they won't have a parking problem. Hotel and motel accommodation in...

09 Aug

Posted at 08:06h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

The Sony HVL-F60RM made this whole week. It was the product that leapt off the shelf into my hands as soon as I saw it - because big fancy flashes are the sort of thing that I want to see in every manufacturer's range of products. Sneer if you like, but I have always regarded a flash as an essential tool for photography  - inside and out. Whether it's the fixed flashes of emplacement in the studio or the battery-powered field guns, I want to see bursts of light I can depend upon to go where I want to see something. And I want my camera to work with that flash in the easiest possible fashion. Before you assume that's just advertising bumf, consider: a. You need to be able to fire a flash on the camera full-bore straight out. Sounds simple but sometimes you need that deer-in-the-headlights look. Then you need to run. b. Sometimes you don't need full-bore - the TTL mechanism lets the camera and flash decide what to do when you don't know or don't have time to do mental...