October 2018

I have come to accept the need for aids in living. I'm not at the stage yet where I'll need an ear trumpet or a wooden leg, but the time cannot be far away. I already need aids to the memory - whenever I enter a room with a vague expression on my face the family has been trained to shout out " Now what have you lost? ". Sometimes they stop what they are doing and help me to find whatever it is, and sometimes they just push me back out of the room...

I am surprised that Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton were not keen digital photographers - because anyone who attempts to do photography these days needs to be a mathematician - and it might have been the other way round. We're all familiar with the off-sets and multiplication factors that are needed for understanding focal lengths when people are assessing what big or small sensors do - but we're not that familiar. And it's still possible to flummox us with science when it comes to equivalences in exposure between f stops, T stops, and other ratios. Fortunately for most of us TTL metering and Automatic flash can put most of the hard work at a distance while we take the actual pictures. I was brought to this thought when i checked out two tele-converters from the Stirling Street storeroom this week, looking to tes them out with the lenses I own. I was prevented from this by the construction of the tele-converters themselves and by not owning the right lenses. I'm not alone in this confusion, though, and it is a recurring them that has...

I proceeded to the Murray Street premises of Camera Electronic and interviewed the store manager, Domenic Papalia. He opened the Canon show cabinet and took out a Canon Macro EF-S 35mm f:2.8 IS STM lens and a Canon 70D camera. After ascertaining that there was a charge in the battery, Mr. Papalia admitted that the lens had an inbuilt lighting system that could be actuated by a button on the side. Subsequent tests showed this to be the case  - the button has three positions: high power, low power and off. The lens has aperture stops ranging down to f:29 - which is quite unusual for many small digital lenses. It autofocuses, as well as manually focusing once you release the locking. It contaains internal stabilisation. The picture of the SD card may not be art but it is science enough to show you how close and big it will go. The advantage of the two LED lights is seen when you are this close - otherwise, it is nearly impossible to obtrude other lights in front of the lens at such a distance....

Well, you cannot fault the makers of cameras for being dull bodies - they let their design departments run with the colours and in the cameras we've seen this week we've had a different shade each day. The Fujifilm XF10 today is Champagne Gold. How the Fujifilm people got away with using the word " Champagne " when it is debarred from local winemakers is a mystery. Perhaps they have better lawyers. Whatever, they do have an attractive pocket product here. It's the newest of the quartet and probably contains the newest circuits - but it also has one design decision that the others did not make - no zoom lens. This camera has a fixed 18mm lens feeding onto an APS-C Bayer-pattern sensor. Due to the nature of prime lenses over zooms, and fixed construction over erecting lenses, as well as that large sensor...

Eye Eye, Captain. Sorry about the tortured jokes, but the weather is cold and we've run out of rum. The reason the word " eye " has been mentioned is that the camera today - the Panasonic Lumix TZ90 - has a real live viewfinder for your eye - as well as a fully tilting 180º LCD screen. This is still a pocket camera - though like the Nikon Coolpix A900 it has bumps and protuberances. You'll not get it in your jeans pockets but the good old sports coat inside pocket is fine. You'll note the metallic grey finish - sort of halfway between the silver of the Canon and the black of the Nikon. You'll also note the 30X Leica zoom lens, onboard flash, manual focusing for macro shots, 4K video, and the first of the really useful thumb rests. PASM and art filters to while away time with. What you won't see is the post-shooting focus ability - this camera can take multiple frames to let you select the peak of focus. It can also take stop motion animation. And...

The days of the good old compact camera are numbered, they tell me - but then they have told me that you can't get film any more and we have fridges full of fresh stocks of it. And people buy it by the bagful...

The Coolpix model name was a brilliant piece of branding by Nikon - if there was ever any word that would work on the mind of the young and hip, it was that. This camera lives up to it. The portability of the Nikon Coolpix 900 is not as good as the previous little pocket - it has more bulk in all dimensions when closed and more controls protrude from the surfaces. But it also contains more actual machinery and capability: 35 X zoom lens, larger sensor, onboard flash that rises away from the lens axis, 4K video, the ability to access PASM settings, 180º flipping LCD screen, and the Snapbridge circuits to connect it easily to smart mobile devices. You can change image sizes and formats, change ISO and white balance, and do many of the photographer things that you've become used to in your larger camera. Of course the camera has some of the circuitry that modifies images for art effect, as well as a setting that will do most of the scene selection settings for you. Not a feature to...

We must leave you to define tours, travels, and journeys for yourselves - you'll all have different concepts of which is best - based upon what has happened to you in the past. But here are a few hints for the coming few months about trips - with cameras - that you might like to make: There is a 2018 competition that Nikon Australia is advertising that will take winners to Kenya in 2019. That is 6 days of wild animals at the Sanctuary Olonana with a great deal of luxury and adventure. They promise to bring you back in one piece...

The use of any particular brand of camera is a uniting force for many people - just mention a maker's name at a camera club meeting and watch the arguments start. But sometimes it goes beyond this to make an actual community throughout the country. Fujifilm Australia found this out with the Fujifilm X AUS site that they started on the internet. More and more Fujifilm users turned up and added their images to the board - more and more users were interviewed by Fujifilm and asked to show what they do and how they work. And more and more good advice was added by the Fujifilm Australia team of technicians, demonstrators, and representatives. Every trade show and conference added more people. Well, now it has added us*- Camera Electronic is proud to point people to the Fujifilm social media sites as well as their international technical sites. More events will be featured as they come to Perth. More equipment will be featured as it is released. New and exciting developments as well as the famed Fujifilm after-sales updates will be noted. *...