30 Nov Dangerous Drug
What, you may ask yourself, could possibly cause normally sensible people to start fighting in the middle of the shop floor - biting, kicking, and scratching as they rolled through the tripods...
November 2018
30 Nov Who Planned The Road System?
Go to Jandakot Airport some early sunny morning. You'll pass through two roundabouts on the way, as will the rest of the entire population of Perth. The waiting will be good for your soul, but make sure that the petrol tank is full...
29 Nov Brace Yourselves – It’s Scale Models Again
And this time it is using the new Canon EOS R camera with the 24-105 f:4 L IS lens...
28 Nov Canon EOS R – The Glass Jar Is Full Of Glass
The choice of which lens to put on the new Canon EOS R camera was an easy one for me to make - the one in the box. The kit comes with a 24-105mm f:4 lens. It is an L lens - red ring - and has an internal stabilising system. It is a second cousin to the 24-105 f:4 L IS that has been seen on any number of Canon DSLR cameras over the last decade...
27 Nov Canon EOS R Camera – Power On
" Push The Button, Max! " There was never a better villain than Jack Lemmon in " The Great Race ". Nor a better henchman than Peter Falk. I think they would have made fine camera reviewers. Before you power up your new Canon EOS R camera you need to fill the battery. Thankfully, Canon have not charged off into the wilderness with a new battery size for this new system - the LP-6, battery charger block, and figure 8 cord are totally familiar to Canon DSLR users - and if they already have a collection of LP-6's they are set for life. I have always admired the way the Canon blocks report how far the charge has proceeded as they are working. Once loaded - and a card inserted in the slot...
26 Nov Coming To Grips With Canon
This week I finally come to grips with the new Canon EOS R camera system - or at least with one example of it. Enough stock has arrived to allow me to take one back to the Little Studio and give it my own workout. The camera is packed well. Don't laugh at me for praising the box - there have been other things in other boxes in the past that have caused serious grief. This one sets out the goods in three trays on three levels and adds additional packing for the most delicate parts. The most interesting bits are often the smallest. Note the computer harness block. The Canon EOS R will be capable of tethering to computers - and note that Camera Electronic has a full range of Tether Tools cables to assist with this. It is a measure of the determination that Canon is showing to make their new mirror-less system a fully professional one. It's a sleek and handsome camera, reminiscent of the shape of the DSLR but without the depth of the mirror box. The...
23 Nov Hope Springs Eternal – At The Wedding
Bob Hope, that is...
22 Nov The Art Photographer
If you have grown jaded and bored with defusing old land mines or milking King Brown snakes for venom, you might like to include yourself in a group of art photographers and ask them whether what they do is really art. Life will become exciting in a very short period of time. Be prepared for noise. It might be as well to steel yourself for this by going to a few photography exhibitions or purchasing some of the books that deal with the business of art. There are any number of fine monographs available from art gallery bookshops and technical book stores that will start you off. Some are general, some specific. Authors who have their work published by major firms are a safe starting point - later you can progress to more radical artists - the ones who have paid for their own publications. The recognised photo artist can be seen as well on the internet - sites devoted to sales of their images are available 24 hours in the day. Here again, an agency or overall retailer selling images will have culled...
21 Nov Thank You To The Airline Industry
Once upon a time it mattered to the pilots of the civil airliners how much weight they had on board their planes. Those were the days of the early Handley Page, Ford, and Junkers planes. The days of wicker airline seats and walking out to the plane along the tarmac-carrying your own luggage. The reason the pilots needed to know was the engines of the time were woefully underpowered and if they tried to lift too much weight in passengers and luggage, they risked not getting over the trees at the end of the runway. Then the jet engine arrived and people could take more and more with them with the prospect of getting it airborne. We all started to pack more and take bigger photographic outfits for our holidays. And ended up on the other end of the trip carrying far more than we needed. Fortunately, eventually the airline industry experienced higher fuel costs and decided to defray them by charging us more for our baggage. Cheap us, we now carry far less, or suffer for it. We buy our duty free...
20 Nov The Fight You Need Not Pick
Like the nose you need not pick, the fight you need not pick is a dark place, best avoided. This can be difficult for photographers when the manufacturers of cameras would like you to become passionate about something. In most cases, the passion they would like to foster in you is the desire to spend money. Of course you understand that this refers to the recent introduction of 24 x 36mm sensors into mirrorless cameras...