10 Dec The 12 Film Days Of Christmas
Actually there's more than 12 days to go, but the box is such a great package...
December 2021
08 Dec The Best Portable LED Lights For Your Creative Projects
Portable LED lights have transformed the way lighting is used in photography. They’re small, lightweight, and portable enough to be carried around anywhere you’d like. You can also mount these lights anywhere you wish and immediately illuminate the frame. Along with these benefits, the new-age LED lights are cost-effective too. Portable LED lights are powerful and offer a range of features, including Bluetooth connectivity for superior control and customisation. Whether you’re into photography or videography, the quality of your content will be instantly enhanced with an LED light. Therefore, it is undoubtedly the right time to add LED lights to your kit. Depending on your requirements, there are a wide variety of LED lights out there. The smaller LED lights are more beneficial for smaller studios, and you wouldn’t have to compromise and settle for the bigger ones. All you need is a single or group of LED lights, and you’re good to go. Investing in suitable quality LEDs is essential. After all, it is the lighting that can make or break your photos. We’ve chosen some of the best-LED models out there....
08 Dec We Never Know What We’ll Covet Next
That's why we have shops - we need a source of inspiration. Even when we don't know precisely what we need, we know the feeling of yearning. Sometimes it is just infatuation, but occasionally it will blossom into love. That is the case with the Edelkrone slider accessories I took a picture of way back in the 15th of October last year. I was impressed with it in the Stirling St. shop but had no idea exactly what it did. I googled the Edelkrone site and discovered that the parts form a complete camera movement package for video work. I dropped interest, but have now picked it up - I have just the job for the Edelkrone. What you are seeing in parts assembles up to a rotating cradle for your camera that in its turn can be powered to slide down those two long rails as you shoot your footage. There is provision for power from the ubiquitous Sony batteries and control from a smartphone app. In a pinch things can be moved smoothly by hand - and smooth is the name...
06 Dec The Philosophy Of The Sunday Photomarkets
This may seem an odd column to read on the website of a regular retailer - who also opens their doors of a Sunday - but stick with me here. I recently attended the re-opened Photomarkets, had a good time, and saw things. A train of thought led on from seeing some very unusual stuff offered for sale. Now, a short essay on the philosophy of the fair, the garage sale, and the flea market...
03 Dec How Guarded Should We Be About the Old Guard
Reader, you probably have some old equipment about you. Indeed, in whatever you own, something has to be the oldest bit. Should you retain it? Sometimes you wonder. Can a camera, or a lens, or a tripod, or a flash be worth keeping and using when there are newer models and different brands and advanced specifications? What if you are missing out? What if you are not? Well, I wondered that about the Fujifilm X-Pro1 body I own. I'd bought it new from Camera Electronic just before the X- Pro2 came out but never thought myself deprived by having the first model - I'd coveted it since the first brand showing down at Fremantle in 2012, and gradually got the first generation of lenses together to feed it. That's a 35mm f:1.4, an 18mm f:2, and a 14mm f:2.8...
01 Dec H/K From HK?
No, apparently, but the tale is convoluted. Harman/Kardon is a very old US maker of high fidelity equipment with many famous patents and products under their belt. But it was sold to Samsung. And apparently there are a number of Harman/Kardon plants open in mainland China - Shanghai, Suzhou, and Shenzhen. Some may make the speakers seen here, but you'd have to ask the distributor for confirmation. Wherever they originate, the quality of manufacture is superb. The speakers are of the wireless type that depend upon a signal from a smart device or other Bluetooth broadcaster. I note from the bottom of the smaller type - the Citation One Mk II - that there are some connectors - a power supply and a USB service input port. The speaker contains Chromecast and the ability to work with some of the voice-command networks. The larger one is either a Citation 300 or Citation 500 but darn me if I had the wit to turn it over and see which one. Both can do the complete Chromecast, streaming service operation the same as the smaller...
29 Nov Danish Ear Lust In Murray Street
Or " How to hear with your eyes ". Sales people in business need engineers - good ones - people who can make products that work efficiently and well. Engineers need designers who can make the products look good. Designers need sales people skilled in business who can sell the products to willing customers. It's the cycle of life, and Bang & Olufsen seem to have been able to make it go round successfully since the 1920's. We're now well past the Beogram turntables or the Beodeck cassette players of my youth, but the design team has not stopped making innovative and stylish gear for listeners; listeners who want the equipment to look good even before it is switched on. The shapes of the B&O speakers I found at Wanderlust suggested that they might be called Beocan and Beobun...
26 Nov Listening In With Captain Obvious
I do not wish to make Mr Van Gogh feel sad, so I will wait until he is out of earshot before spruiking today's goods. The use of headphones or ear phones for sound reproduction is as old as wireless broadcasting. Indeed, even when there is no radio signal involved, headphones are a valuable means of putting sounds right into the ear - particularly when there is loud external noise trying uto interfere. We've all seen airplane pilots and ship's talkers wearing various forms of headset. And nearly all of them have not been wireless - they've been attached to the switchboard by a sturdy electrical cable. You can do that at home, too - plug yourself into the hifi or the TV or whatever, and get superb quality sound despite the household din going on round you. And the household may bless yo for it, if you are getting deafer and need to turn your music up a lot more than you used to. They appreciate not hearing opera in the middle of a reality show. No need to ask me...
24 Nov Wet Lust
And not the embarrassing kind either - I'm talking about the water-based fun that you can get with Wanderlust drones. There are a lot of things you can do in the water besides your laundry. Swimming, surfing, fishing, etc. If it's you alone you can propel yourself about on any number of electric surfboards or underwater torpedoes. And you can send out drones to do your bidding as well - possibly with more safety than going in yourself. Take this one as an example - it's dedicated to underwater photography as it slips through the shallows. Find a reef and some bright sun and you can Cousteau to your heart's content in safety. Think of it as a guided action camera. The rather dramatic image ( courtesy of I'm not sure what I did...
22 Nov Wanderlust On Land
If you are going to go somewhere, go to Wanderlust in Murray Street first. You may have more fun on your journey. Of course, not all journeys are fun, and not all travellers need to be happy as they go. Occasionally a prison transport van goes by on the road and I never hear merry voices singing rollicking songs about the life of crime. But that's not Wanderlust customers - they can have a bit of fun. The wheeled goods in the shop are dedicated to this. There are electric scooters, Segway balancing wheeled carts, electric bicycles, and what looks suspiciously like an electric trail bike. The sizes ( and presumably the prices ) grow as you get the more sophisticated wheels. Ans as you go faster, you pay more...