May 2022

My friend Carlos was carefully putting fresh stock into the Sony display cabinet on the Camera Electronic sales wall this last week when I went in to find some interesting gear. So I carefully plucked a number of things away while he was busy - things that attracted my eye and gave me to ponder somewhat about Sony photographic products. Long-time readers will know that I do not shoot with Sony myself, but that doesn't mean I do not respect and desire their goods - just that I don't have enough spare money to run two systems of cameras and lenses. One Powerball, however...

Because it's mine. It  wasn't yesterday morning when I went into the Stirling Street shop to take illustration images for the weblog. I propped up my portable product set on an unused counter top and went round gathering whatever was new. I noted that the Sony shelves were being stocked with fresh lenses and bodies - and it is darned nice to see the new display cabinetry moving toward completion in the front of the shop. Dangerous, though. The sight of new equipment, well-displayed, penetrates deep into the soul of a lot of us. There are jokes about Gear Acquisition Syndrome and how much photographers like to buy things - and there is more than a grain of truth in the humour. You must know the truth - that same desire is often in the management and staff. We love all aspects of photography; images, art, knowledge, personalities...

Now put it back in the pack while I shuffle. And here it is - the Matte Fine Art Rag! Right? You can be forgiven for thinking that the Hahnemühle paper samples  - and their Ilford and Canson equivalents - are a three-card monté trick. How could there be that many papers that you need to know about? I mean, paper is paper, right? No. Paper is a whole new universe for you  - pre-packaged in envelopes and boxes and described by more names than the observatory uses when they look at the real stars. And there are more specifications for each paper than you can well imagine. Each sheet of paper may seem no more than a flat ink absorber for your printer. You put it in the slot at the top, take it out of the slot at the bottom, and consider yourself lucky if it hasn't picked up a wrinkle or streak in the passage. But if you do not choose it wisely and use it with science, you will be disappointed nearly every time. Let's get past the printer, its...

And listen up! And this is why I am not a vlogger - the cold light of a mobile phone lens, glittering there like a spider's eye - the bright glare of an LED light, and the relentless ear of a small microphone would tempt me to become a monster of the small screen. It has done so to others and I know I am just as susceptible. But you may be different - you may be a person with something important to say. You may be a person with sympathetic friends and an enquiring audience. You may look good and sound normal  - and it would be a blessing if you could make the connection to your audience easily and quickly. Enter the Røde USB-C Edition Vlogger Kit. The stylish box contains: a. A Video Mic Me directional microphone. b. A fuzzy little microphone shield. c. A powerful little single-cell LED Light cube. d. A metal adjustable phone holder with attachment point for the cube light. e. A sturdy little tabletop tripod. I will leave you to the exercises necessary to start up your own YouTube channel or...

The Ruby Glass windowpane. The sooty red oil lamp. In short, the enchanted lantern of little light that has barely illuminated the photographer's cave since the earliest days. The dim signal that chemical magic was afoot. The safelight. Let me start out by saying safelights aren't. None of them are safe, but their degree of danger depends upon a number of factors. The ones that were fired by kerosene were dangerous as fire hazards and the ones that work with electricity are dangerous because of that. But that is only to the worker - their real danger is when they overspread and fog up sensitive emulsions and photographic coatings. They are not meant to, but eventually they all do. You defeat this by four means: a. Distance - you keep the safelight far enough away from the sensitive material. b. Time - you expose the paper or film for the very smallest amount of time needed. c. Intensity - you keep the light as dim as you can, while still benefiting from some illumination. d. Filtration - there are different filters for different emulsions. This A-P safelight is...

If you have a camera with an internal stabiliser that lets you wave it about like a paper pinwheel - and still gets the picture - well you can stop reading. Go swat flies with it. The rest of us need more support than that. We need clamps and holders and tripods. We recognise the fact that nobody wants to see our pictures or videos if they are all shaky and blurry - even if it is art. We need stability. Enter everyone who makes tripods. Big ones, little ones, plastic ones, metal ones - even wooden ones occasionally. The legs go out and the legs go in and the locking mechanisms break and the quick release plates get lost and the cycle of retail goes on turning. And every now and then someone comes up with something new. The Joby people did when they started marketing their Gorilla series of camera supports. Initially meant for the dear little compact cameras, they were three flexible legs and a small screw-mount. They were intended to wrap around a pile, chair leg, tree branch, or...

And let us praise Sony for their design department. I often suggest simplicity to photo enthusiasts when they start to get complexes about complexity. Ditto when it comes to frugality. And the third part of the good-idea trilogy is lightness. Very often we are carrying enough weight in our photo gear to hurt by the end of the day - and a lot of professional days go a lot longer than 24 hours! Anything we can do to cut the burden is a good idea. The new FE 24-70 mm f:2.8 GM lens from Sony carries a Mk II designation on the barrel, but it is easy to see the differences from the outside - the lens now has a dedicated aperture ring  and is considerably shorter that the Mk I version. That, and the complete redesign inside with new lens configurations and materials, make it 200 grams lighter than the first type. It is now notably sharper and faster as well, and has conquered the bugbear of chromatic aberration. The first version was a continuation of a DSLR design, but this new...