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January 2020

28 Jan

Posted at 07:40h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

As readers of this column and of all the other on-line digital sites, you will be familiar with a fan-boy forum fight. That ever-so-slightly passive-aggressive set of exchanges that develop whenever any one writes about a new product. There can be flurries of anger if anything is criticised and equal flurries if no opinion is offered. If you think this is petulant and childish, I can only point you to the British sites that deal with scale model airplanes; look for the discussions about green cockpit paint...

22 Jan

Posted at 09:15h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

No names, no pack drill. But occasionally even the most enthusiastic fan of photographic equipment must be struck by the thought that the manufacturers have lost sight of the design ball and are swatting at thin air. You can see this in new releases of accessories and add-ons as much as in the cameras and lenses themselves. It's somewhat understandable with the smaller accessory market. Independent makers with access to CAD CAM machines and aluminium bar stock can go mad with stylish struts and knurled levers. No idea whether they sell, but they certainly do blossom out around the photographic show time. A few become standards and are available for years...

20 Jan

Posted at 08:37h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

And do it digitally. You all can. I attended a funeral last week of an old club-mate. In the manner of many modern ceremonies there was a slide-show presentation at one point and we got to see as many good pictures of his 94 years as had survived war and emigration. The quality of the old stuff was exceptional...

16 Jan

Posted at 07:26h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Well, you know me by now. Close-up pictures galore and somewhat of a Fujifilm fanboy, but there are still a lot of things I don't know about the subject or the equipment - and I am driven as much by idle curiosity as by scientific zeal. The good thing about idle curiosity is that you can do it when you're idle...

15 Jan

Posted at 09:04h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Let the readers decide for themselves. My jury is still out on this one, and they went out about 7 years ago. The foreman just keeps asking for coffee and pizza. The judge is getting impatient. Way Back When the first of the Peak Design camera clips were introduced the distributors generously came round and gave each one of the staff a sample to take home. It was a lighter and cruder version of the product they sell now but it worked very much on the same principle - you clamped the receiver onto your belt, screwed the foot onto the underside of the camera, and coupled the two together. A small button controlled a safety catch that kept the camera locked in until you reached for it. Some of the staff members thought it was great, and still use theirs. I tried it for a while but found that having the camera at my waist made it difficult to bend sideways. I was never nervous about it becoming detached, as the engineering of the system was good, but the location didn't...