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August 2018

28 Aug

Posted at 07:24h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

First LED panel off the rank is one of the smaller variety - the 0Amaran ALM9 from Aputure. It comes with a detachable front diffuser, a grey filter, a hot mount clamp, and a USB charging cord - all packed in a padded case with a carabiner to attach to your belt. It's tiny and light, but features a couple of multi-step power buttons on one edge. The charging time was indeterminate as I plugged it and another panel in and went to bed. Okay - here's rundown on the two tests done in the studio - it was completely dark and no walls close to affect the light as it went from the camera position to the test stand. The distance was about 2 metres - an average sort of place to be taking digital pictures from. The first test was to shoot with ISO 800 and as close to f:8 as could be maintained. The shutter was left to operate itself with a the camera using a spot metering pattern The camera was the regular studio Fujifilm X-T2 on a stand. This...

27 Aug

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

I am a little restricted this week in my typing, being reduced to the right hand and two fingers of the left one - there has been a slight accident in the Little Workshop* and it will be several weeks before the bandages come off. There may be some typographical errors in the meantime. I shall therefore use the facilities of Science and Industry and the spare time of convalescence to answer some questions that have arisen recently. To start with - how good are the portable LED light banks that have been flooding the market? How much light do they actually put out in comparison to other sources? What is the colour temperature of it? What is the spread of the light? Are they a viable alternative to flash? To determine the answers I have brought four different product off the shelf and tried them against a standard studio monolight and a speed light flash. The trials were done at night in the same studio environment that normally sees dancers or toy airplanes - in this case it is the slightly more...

24 Aug

Posted at 09:20h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

The subjects of today's column will not make you a better photographer. They will not improve the resolution of your sensor or lenses - nor reduce distortion or correct for chromatic aberration. You will not get more dynamic range or depth of field and your bokeh will remain as it has always been. ( Mine is old and fuzzy...

23 Aug

Posted at 12:45h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

I have just been watching some of the live streaming video from the Nikon company regarding their newest camera system - the Z -mount mirrorless cameras. The presenter is quite precise in his speech if a little general in his words - this is to be expected on a professional level. Ever since the inception of the mirror-less concept - making a digital camera with a decent-sized sensor and interchangeable lens system - there have been increases in specification by other makers. You might liken it to the campaigns of the mid forties in the Pacific. First small gains, then major advances, then a stranglehold on the photo market. Then someone drops something big - full-frame big - on the market and eventually the heads of formerly-imminent photographic companies have to admit that the commercial war has not necessarily gone to their advantage...

23 Aug

Posted at 09:38h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

I sound too boastful - I defeated it only by one day. It doesn't pay to be lazy when the sun is out in winter - you only get small windows of possibility. The student flyers at Jandakot know that well. I was sure that, as Tuesday was fairly fine, they would be circuiting as hard as they could go to get time in before the big fronts hit the coast. Sure enough - the rotary as well as fixed-wing students were up and down as fast as they could taxi. The M Zuiko ED 300mm f:4.0 IS PRO is the angular equivalent of using a 600mm lens on a full-frame camera. That's well into shake territory, but there is stabilisation both on othe lens and in the body. I have no idea which mechanism was working, but as soon as I took a half pressure on the shutter button the EVF image settled down and I could clearly frame the subjects. I read the manual and set the camera to do a pre-shot continuous focusing as well - As I kept the rig pointed...

22 Aug

Posted at 08:40h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

You might be wondering if I was going to pair the title with a lead line that implied there are times when they get it wrong. Relax - nothing of the sort. I am in a positive mood despite the wintry weather. My goal was to try out a longer lens on the Olympus Micro 4/3 system than hitherto. Oh, I've shot with long lenses on bridge cameras and even gotten out to 400mm on a APS-C sensor but this time I lusted after the M Zuiko ED 300mm f:4.0 IS Pro. As it has to be used around the metro area - no hauling it to Bali for surfing shots - the local airport scene was going to be the testing ground. But first the other part of the test bed - the camera body. Olympus make a number of OM-D models that could handle the lens - generally labelling them as E-M1, E-M5, or E-M10, with different target markets, price points, and specifications. There are now Mk II variants and I noted one camera was up to a Mk III...

21 Aug

Posted at 09:22h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Nobody ever shot at me with live rounds. Blanks, yes, but no lead. I never returned the compliment either, but had I been in the position to do so, I think I would have chosen a Nikon camera to do it with. Starting with the Nikon rangefinder cameras and lenses ( which were drawing on a number of influences from the Zeiss cameras ) in the early 1950's photojournalists had a rugged 35mm camera that could be used in Korea, Indochina, and any number of war zones. The camera bodies were improved in a direct line until the idea of the SLR took root in the late 50's. Then the Nikon F soldiered on all during its production life. The battle camera needs several things: a. To be as rugged as possible. Metal body. Metal lens barrels. b. To be as small as possible. Light is better, if you are hauling it and 80 lbs of other gear into and out of ditches. c. To be as simple as possible. Big controls for tired fingers. Locking controls if possible. None of the occasions where it will...

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...