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October 2020

21 Oct

Posted at 09:57h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Tools. Use Tether tools. Specifically use Tether Tools' Case Air Wireless magic box on the top of your camera. If you've got a Nikon or canpn camera you're going top be very pleased. What does it do? it creates a WiFi hotspot on your camera that your mobile phone or tablet can pick up. The app that comes with the little connecting box lets you play with all the different phone and operating systems. And then you: Compose. Focus. Adjust aperture. Adjust Shutter. Adjust ISO. Bracket. HDR.  Focus stack. Do time lapse. See the darn image clearly as you are working. That last one was not in the advertising blurb but it's the most realistic one. We all get older as we get older...

19 Oct

Posted at 09:55h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Proof of concept is a very useful idea when you're a photographer - particularly when you want to come down to the shop and spend money - but can't think of what to spend it on. You are floating in a limbo and you need a lifeline. Every new photo idea needs to be thought out well, but after you've done all you can with coffee and scribbled diagrams you need to start making it real. I'm sorry to say that you generally can't design it 100% on a screen or a yellow pad - you need to block it out with pinewood strips, cornflakes packets, and expensive camera equipment. We don't sell wood or cornflakes but we may be able to help with the camera gear. You have a studio idea. It need a backdrop - we sell 'em. It needs a stand to hold the backdrop - we sell those, too. Lights? Yes. Camera? Yes. You provide the action. And you'll only know if it works when you give it a go. Be prepared to fail. With a bit of luck...

16 Oct

Posted at 09:50h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

I feel I should be writing for the cast of " West Side Story ". Switchblades were always a forbidden topic when I was a kid and I'd bet they're not all that legal nowadays, either. However, you can satisfy your desire to own one with an accessory pack for the Go Pro camera - you won't use it for gang fights, but it'll be a real help when you're diving underwater with the action camera. Over the years the GoPros have built up an enviable reputation for underwater work - all the way from the first models that were displayed on a video stand here in the shop. There was more excitement buying the camera than most of the Hollywood block-busters of the period. It's still that way, but divers know that physics and optics can play against them even when they get the best chances. Put succinctly, life might be in full-colour up here in the dry, but it's a blue-green world down there and it gets bluer the deeper you go. The sunlight that filters down becomes blue-green and unless...

14 Oct

Posted at 09:55h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Every time I go wandering through Camera Electronic I find something more that I want. This is pleasant but dangerous - it can disturb the even flow of my bank account and cause me to look upon my present equipment with a jaded eye. I'm reasonably safe in the camera section right now as I seem to have the camera bodies and lenses that will do the things I want to do. I have my desires, of course, and review the announcements from my chosen manufacturer with close attention. Who knows when a pleasant surprise will appear on the horizon...

09 Oct

Posted at 10:34h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

I've gone through a number of photo eras here and in North America and can look back to compare and contrast them. So, very likely, have you. If you've not experienced them so far, here's hoping you'll get a chance to in the future. The great thing is if you could keep your eyes and ears open to what is being shown and said - you'll find this changes as new tech appears. And it also changes as new advertising agencies get hold of the trade. Way, way back ( dinosaurs, Elvis ) it was the era of the film SLR . They started small and got bigger, rising in price and bloating in size as new features like TTL metering were added. They got bulkier and blockier - I recommend you to some of the Topcon bodies if you fancy yourself something of a weight lifter. Then the size war turned to another front and the compact SLR came in - see the Pentax MX as prime example of small thinking - the Olympus OM series as well. Then the automatic...

07 Oct

Posted at 09:39h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

I am not a user of the action cameras. I don't disapprove of them - far from it - but I 'm not that active. People want to see themselves bicycling down Niagara Falls, not sitting in the workshop painting a model airplane. My pictures stay still, and so do I. But you may be different, and that is where the GoPro and other action cameras of the past decade have scored such success. They are mostly easy to use and mostly successful. There have been constant improvements in performance and the price has not soared past the point where most people can afford them. And they have been blessedly easy to use in most cases - all the way through to the bit where you show the vision on the family television screen and people wince in fear or embarrassment. And they have been remarkably sensible in keeping the mounting and operation design criteria constant through the development time - while making enough optional accessories to equip an army of enthusiasts. Sometimes it is almost like looking at an old Leica...

30 Sep

Posted at 09:50h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

Our featured image is somewhat of a scoop for the Camera Electronic Weblog column Rumours Section. It is a hastily-snatched image of the new control panel on the Flapoflex Digital Overreacher camera. Taken on the testing track at a secret location outside of Northam, it shows the user-friendly nature of the streamlined interface that Flapoflex will be introducing in their new range of cameras. A lot of us have complained about the number of times we have had to push buttons to steer through a menu. On some of the smaller compact cameras nearly all the commands were done with the menu button and you daren't decide to change from one major setting to the next if there is any action going on - the fistfight in the ballerina's dressing room will be long over before you get all the darned buttons pushed. Plus sometimes the buttons are so small and so haphazardly-placed as to defeat us. Not so with the Flapoflex Overreacher. Every knob, slider, pushbutton, and socket on this camera is there right in front of you and they are...

29 Sep

Posted at 19:25h in Blog, Dick's Rant by [social_share]

After guessing your way through the focus bracketing, shifting, or stacking settings on your camera and setting yourself up to take 25 shots of the flower in the garden you might set the thing going and be surprised at the results: a. The program refuses to stack all the pictures. Some of them are too far out of whack to stack. The subject moved in the interval of the shots and the Adobe goblin inside Photoshop refuses to work. Answer? Protect that flower from the wind with a big sheet of cardboard around it. Use light blue or neutral green. Reduce the interval of the shots to 0 and use the electronic rather than mechanical shutter. Use a tripod. b. The camera buzzes along merrily but stoped at 14 shots when you set it for 25. Don't feel bad. The processor that has been recording the shots has looked at the sharpness in each one and stopped taking them when it has judged that you've got enough. This could be when you reach infinity or when you just run past the edge of the flower...