12 Jan Sunrise, Sunset…
Sunrise, Sunset...
January 2018
11 Jan Products For The Not-So-Silly Season – Part One
Christmas-time was the traditional period when people searched high and low for inappropriate gifts for their friends and relations. Some were more dedicated than others - visiting designer-bureaux, art galleries, and trendy boutiques in an effort to find the most appalling present. Others were more pragmatic - they just went into the back aisle at Big W, give the nearest shelf a hefty kick, and trollied away whatever fell down. Either way the recipients of this sort of thing got a memorable Christmas, and a year to plan revenge. Or...
10 Jan Into The Deep End Of the Little Studio
Thank you, Mr. or Mrs. Canon. Thank you for thinking like I do, and more often, too. Thank you for doing the things on the Canon EOS M6 that I think are a good idea. I say this pointedly, as I have sometimes taken gear out of the box to test at the studio and regretted it. Not that the cameras were bad, but they sometimes had such arcane menus, simplistic controls, or trendy features as to baffle the mind - or at least the mind that had to get them back to the shop in under a week. I can truthfully say that I did not have one bad experience with the EOS M6 when I pointed it at the new model airfield. I turned the LCD exposure visualisation off so that the screen did not become dark during focusing, I turned the shutter to 1/250 second, and the aperture to anywhere between f:16 to f:25. I am led to believe, looking at the specs on a Canon website, that it may well go to f:38...
09 Jan The Shallow End Of The In-Depth Review
This column will come to you far enough into the new year that we won't have to go over the old chestnut of New Year's Resolutions - and let's face it - we get enough resolution out of our lenses as it is. If the NYE party left you with a bit of residual chromatic aberration you'll know to take more water with it next time. In the vacuum of time between the major celebrations I checked a Canon mirror-less camera out of the shop stocks and had a close look at what this manufacturer has done to catch up to Olympus, Sony, and Fujifilm. I use the phrase advisedly, as I realise that company prestige is involved, but Canon Australia need not get angry at me - I have a number of good things to say about their product. The example I grabbed is the Canon EOS M6 kit with a silver body and a 15-45mm lens. It has stablemates in the mirror-less lineup - the M3 and the M5 with different characteristics. I chose this one because it has a...
08 Jan Gilding The Lily With Tamron
Or should that be gilding the Quaking Aspen? It was just one of the thoughts that came to mind when unpacking this wide-angle zoom lens from Tamron - the 10-24mm f:3.5-4.5 Di II VC HLD. It was occasioned by discovering the switch for the vibration control mechanism next door to the AF/MF switch. I must say I was surprised by it as this sort of focal length range seems a little short to benefit from an anti-shake mechanism. I daresay the Tamron people will insist I am wrong, and I'll bet the lens produces some very nice results hand-held in dim interiors when you examine the results under 100% magnification...
05 Jan Lurking Beauty In Murray Street
I like to haunt* the Camera Electronic premises every so often. Retiring from behind the counter a couple of years ago but not from the editorial desk means that I need information and inspiration from the staff, products, and plans that make up the business. So I go in every week or so to see what's new and good. I should recommend the idea to everyone reading this column - not just for the fact that you might be tempted to leave money at the till, but for the fact that you might take away fresh enthusiasm for the art and science. Plus if you're retired and your wife is looking at you with the sort of speculative eye that will eventually lead to moving a piano up a flight of stairs, it gives you a chance to get out of the line of fire. The Stirling Street shop has stairs, but no piano. Well there were several good-looking items in Murray Street this week. The silver-coloured Leica Q for the fashionable and well-heeled...
04 Jan Embracing Change In Photography
Some people embrace change - some resist it. Some just search for it down the back of the sofa cushions. But whichever way you deal with it, you can't ignore the fact that it exists. No good telling me it wasn't that way in the old days. I was there in the old days and I was nosey - I looked around to see what was happening. And everywhere you looked, there it was; change. We went from big old sheet film and plate cameras to roll-film cameras to little 35mm cameras...
03 Jan Biting The Cherry
Some photographers are luckier than others - they get more bites at the cherry. Whether this means they break their teeth on the stone in the middle is another matter, but every good thing has a bad side. The shooters who do not get that second, third, or fourth bite are the ones in the sports, news, and wedding trades. What they see, whether it is at a car-race track, a political riot, or a church aisle is seen once, and needs to be captured at once. They can sometimes increase their chances of getting it by using a camera that will shoot quick bursts of continuous shots - they sort it out later on an editing desk, looking for the peak action moment. But even given this technical help, nearly all the successful ones will admit that there is a great deal of skill in the timing of what they do. Note: The equipment they use plays a vital role in whether or not they can actually get the one-off shot. It must be capable of fast multiple shots, as we said,...
02 Jan The Same Thing But Different
I jumped ship some years ago from the Nikon DSLR system to the Fujifilm X system. The reasons I presented to myself were partly practical and partly fanciful - it was the sort of thing that many enthusiasts do without any really serious thinking. I thought that I was going to get a system that would give me the same images as before, but with smaller and lighter equipment. I convinced myself that it would be a good thing. The opportunity arose - I was working in the main shop at the time and Fujifilm prices were pitched at a deliberately low level to capture new business. Did I change over completely? Yes - selling out all the Nikon gear over a period of a couple of years. I invested the money obtained into new Fujifilm bodies and lenses. Did I lose some good equipment? Yes - the two D-300 camera bodies were real workhorses and the two SB 700 flashes were state-of-the-art devices that I had learned to control very well. Even the SB 600 was pretty darned sophisticated. I was getting...
01 Jan Sony Smart Things
I have been accused of being too narrow in my focus upon photographic equipment - basing my coverage upon my own prejudices. This is hurtful. The Flapoflex digital wet-plate camera is, and has always been, the pinnacle of engineering achievement, and I will continue to force it upon you. But I am not a mean man - I can recognise good design in the work of other manufacturers and it would be unfair not to point them out when they are discovered. Thus today's focus upon the Sony A7R. I think it's the A7r...