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July 2019

10 Jul

Posted at 09:07h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

I stopped dead opposite the Olympus binocular shelf at the Murray Street store this last week - and that's exactly what the Olympus designers intended me to do. That's why they made the 8 x 21 RCII WP field glasses in four colours. For visual appeal outside to match the optical appeal inside. Other makers have done this as well with smaller sets of binoculars. I won't detract from Olympus here by adding another brand name but suffice it to say that if you had wanted their small field glasses in bright yellow or aqua you would have been set back a considerably higher price than these. If you want a style for value, Olympus is your go. Who needs 8 x 21's? Racegoers who don't want to carry massive glasses with them. Tourists on Alaskan cruise ships who want to see the bears or moose close-up. Mountain hikers - indeed anyone who has to hoof it and wants to see further without bearing weight. Who needs colourful 8 x 21's...

09 Jul

Posted at 07:32h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

I wrote a piece a little while ago about the action camera mounts that are intended to strap onto your dog - turning Fido into at best an unwitting cinematographer and at worst just an Alpo-fed dolly. Today's product is also amount, but this time you have to be the person to do your own dirty work. Actually, in cinematic terms, it won't be dirty at all - because this clever gimbal unit will make sure that the footage you get is a lot steadier than you can do unaided. The Feiyutech WG2X has the ability to render your images steady and correctly orientated in several planes - just like other gimbal units - but this one does it on such a small scale that it is actually wearable. Illustrations show it mounted on a motorcyclist's helmet and also on handlebars of various types. the literature mentions a chest mount as well. Of course, the mount is configured for the most popular of action cameras. Light enough on the head? The mount is only 238 g so if you can hold up a...

03 Jul

Posted at 07:42h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

I wonder if the lawyers for the Hasbro Toy company are on to this one? I thought I had seen that word before but I couldn't put my finger on it. Google turned up the answer - the Weebles were a tipping toy produced by Hasbro in the 70's for Playskool. They could be tipped over but rocked back upright as soon as you let go. Did this influence the designers of the Zhiyun Weebill Lab? It's a video stabilising rig that could conceivably be said to right itself as well. It also can be programmed to do a number of actions with a DSLR or mirrorless camera attached to it. Another suggestion that avoids the suits is that it is named after a small bird - and this is related to the fact that the same company makes a larger gimbal rig that is called a Crane. That's a nicer idea. In any case, it is a device for dedicated video shooters who want steadiness in shaky situations, the ability to pan and tilt to order, and the sort of ergonomics that...

01 Jul

Posted at 08:34h in Dick's Rant by [social_share]

One. Or none at all, if you've got a jacket with a pocket. Hello. It's the Shrinking Photographer here. Off on another adventure to see if he can get away with not carrying a bucket full of camera gear to his latest photoshoot. He's long given up the business of the monorail 4 x 5 in the field, the 6x6 and the suitcase of lenses, the DSLR and the rolling bag, and has come down to the mirror-less Gladstone bag. Now he is trying to ditch that and go with a shoulder bag and/or padded envelope from Australia Post to contain his kit. It's not laziness - really it's not. I do lots of hard work and hobby activities that involve heavy lifting. You've no idea how much effort it takes to bombard Coolbellup from Bull Creek if you have to lift your own howitzer shells. But the increasing advances in camera and sensor performance mean that so much more can be done than heretofore with so much less weight - it's time to see if the next step is possible. I took...

28 Jun

Posted at 08:33h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Photographers who may find themselves confined to their home for some time due to various reasons - illness, financial straits, or court order, for instance - can still have a lot of fun and learn many new facts by resorting to their computer and the resources of the internet. We'll leave aside the visual temptations of Icker, Monstagram, or any of the other purely presentational sites and direct you to technical ones. I mean, beautiful images are all very well for the professionals, but when you come right down to it, the amateur photographer wants specifications and technical comparisons, eh? So today's site is Dofmaster. Go to dofmaster.com and look at the variety of products you can get for your information devices. They do a number of electronic programs for the different forms of mobile phone or tablet and for the fixed computers. You can pop right into the depth of field calculator and experiment with the idea before you commit to anything. I use the free bit all the time to compare and contrast different lenses. The idea is you dial...

27 Jun

Posted at 08:38h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Ever see a Speed Graphic or Crown Graphic press camera - or any of the other US or British cameras of the 40's and 50's? Note that every one of them seems to have two things in common - a big silver handle flash on one side of the camera and Jimmy Olsen behind it. Golly Superman! The big silver handle contained as many " D " cells as they could cram in as a way of providing enough electricity to fire the big press flash bulbs. It could also provide synchronising ports for cables and a button to trigger a solenoid on the shutter. Whatever you were doing with the other hand - focusing the camera, pulling a dark slide, or fighting crime, the handle gave you a massive grip on the massive camera. The users decided which side they wanted to hang on to about evenly - the handles could be slung either left or right. Even when the smaller Leica-style rangefinders moved in for some press work, there were big handle flashes to let you keep it all in...