December 2018

No, don’t build barricades and lever up the paving stones just yet. We are not going to have a riot or a revolution - just a lot of fun with street photography. Project 7:30 is an artistic and humanitarian photo venture that has raised  good deal of money for the needy. So far it appears to have been very successful in Melbourne and Adelaide in 2017 and 2018. It’s coming to Perth on the 11th of January , 2019. Essentially it amounts to turning 30 photographers loose in the streets for 7 hours to capture one iconic picture each - of the city where the event is run. Then an exhibition is assembled of finished work and auctioned for charity. They just have those seven hours to get what they need - though in Melbourne they have the advantage of all four seasons presented in the one day…Who knows what the weather will be like in Perth? There are a number of sponsors of this event - Anglicare, Ilford, Epson, Canson, Kayell, North Metro TAFE, Team Digital, the MAP group and…us - Camera...

This time of year can be hectic for everyone in the community - holidays and travel and celebrations and such. The staff and suppliers that make up the Camera Electronic community are trained to this - we could hectic for Australia - but we also want to take time to thank the clients and customers of the shop for their patience and custom during the year. We love photography and are delighted to find that the people who come in our door do too - it makes the business of photo business less business and more fun. We also salute the people who we find really ARE artists with the lens. Some of us wish it was us… But, fancy photographers or not, we wish EVERYONE a safe, merry, and photographically beautiful Christmas…and a happy photographic New Year. As Tiny Tim might have put it “ Good Lenses Everyone…”. You’ll note that we’re open pretty well all hours with the exception of 25 December and 1 January - we start at 8:30 in the morning and can sometimes run through to 6:30 in the...

MOGENS JOHANSEN puts photographic heavyweights through their paces Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this Travel Club Mirrorless championship fight. Under the bright lights in the Exposure Triangle we have three new contenders. In the red corner, Canon’s new full-frame sensor camera — the 30.3 Megapixel Canon EOS R. In the green corner, Nikon’s new full-frame sensor camera — the 45.7 Megapixel Nikon Z7; and in the blue corner, fighting slightly out of its weight class, Fujifilm’s new APSC sensor camera — the 26 Megapixel Fujifilm X-T3. This challenge has come about because of the recent spate of new releases in this category and the winner of the contest will earn the right to challenge Sony as the leader in the mirrorless weight class. All three are similar in size, compact but big enough to feel comfortable to hold. Canon and Nikon have released new lenses for the new cameras but their full range of lenses are fully compatible with new adapters. Canon’s new RF lenses are beautiful pieces of glass but look quite big on the compact EOS R. Nikon’s new Z lenses are...

Entries are now open for the 2019 Nikon Surf Photo and Video of the Year Awards Calling all photographers and videographers — show us what you’ve got! In partnership with Surfing Australia, the Nikon Surf Photo and Video of the Year awards seek to recognise the very best photographers and videographers who dare to venture into the waves. The winner of the Nikon Surf Video of the Year Award will receive the new Nikon Z6 while the winner of the Nikon Surf Photo of the Year Award will take home the new Nikon Z7. Each prize will include the Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/4 S-Line. Enter Here https://mynikonlife.com.au/surfing-australia-2019  ...

ASH - Ambeo Smart Headset, that is. It’s one of the newest good ideas that Sennheiser - the famous German microphone and stereo headset makers - has brought to the digital world. It will be greatly welcomed by the Appleists as it integrates smoothly with the iOS system. It’s essentially a set of earphones containing stereo microphones that listen along with you as you record things. The microphone pickups are small enough to sit right within the shell of your own ear anatomy - so they pick up what you pick up. You get a sense of direction. It also gives a great sense of transparency…and that makes the rest of us a lot happier too. If you are going to wander about in traffic with your eyes on a phone screen, at least we’ll be able to yell at you to get out of the way!  Joking aside, These are a great new way to record stereo information for a complete video experience - and Sennheiser have always been at the pinnacle of audio technology. Mention this newsletter for a very special...

The beautiful heading image was taken by Stan Davies in Norway. He's written about it and the mechanics of good travel photography - here's his words:   CITY SHADOWS by Stan Davies This image breaks all the rules!!! Yet it is one of my favourite street shots, taken in Oslo, early morning. Walking into the sun I was taken by the long shadows from the pedestrians, wondering how I could record this - knowing if I shot straight into the sun there would be no detail and the scene would be overexposed. By moving under the awning, the direct sun was blocked, I was able to compose the image, and wait for the pedestrians to cast their long shadows. The shops lining the street automatically lead the eye through the image and the diminishing size of the pedestrians is fascinating. Leica Q, 28mm f:1.7 lens, ISO 400, 28mm focal length, f;5.6 at 1/320 sec, aperture priority. STAN'S LENS TIPS If you want to be like a professional then you need to invest in a good quality wide-angle lens. There are several ways to go about this; buy...

Adam Monk is travelling, but never far from a computer keyboard - he's taken time from the journey to let us know a little about digital printing. He knows a lot more too, so when you get a chance to talk to him, or attend one of his classes or tours, you can be sure to advance your own printing/photographic skills. Here's his words: Seeing your hard won photographic images on a lovely bright computer screen is great, but there is nothing quite like a hard copy paper print of your masterpiece, it simply feels more substantial.  If you have reached the point where you would like to see your images on paper then a little information to dispel the mystique of digital printing might help you on your way. Basically the process is sending the digital file from camera to computer to printer, right?  What’s so hard about that?  Well, besides a couple of easily manageable technical points, nothing at all.  Colour management is the key.  Get the images to appear accurately on your computer monitor, understand a bit about basic print...

News is out that the major Australian airlines will start weighing your cabin baggage and restricting you to under 7 Kg - or charging you a swingeing price for extra weight. Their stated reason is to protect their cabin staff from heavy weights overhead. Their threat is that anything over this weight will get put in the hold under the bars of pig iron and sacks of gravel. I'm not gonna be cynical about the extra charges...