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02 Oct

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

Well, the Three Legged Thing people are back again with another little accessory. It is one of their brightly-coloured ones so you can use it with a cheerful mien. The 360 Cl assembly is a panoramic clamp and turntable that allows you to use any standard tripod and three-way or ball tripod head to take accurate panoramic images. It joins the same sort of apparatus made by a number of other firms. but does so in real style. Underside it has the standard screw sockets for attachment to the heads - or to bare tripod legs , if you wish. Above the pivoting turntable is an Arca-Swiss compatible clamp and one of Three legged Thing's orange-anodised camera plates. Nestled into the runner of the head is a universal bubble level. You needn't use a Three Legged Thing tripod for the support - but they are stylish as all get-out so if you are buying one, give it some thought. Is it absolutely necessary to use a 360º rotating turntable to take panoramas? No - with the ability of the Photoshop program to stitch...

01 Oct

Posted at 07:10h in Blog, Dick's Rant by

Not to mention the camel exhausts and general air pollution of Cairo and surrounds. I not to mention this because a friend is  touring Egypt - the cities and the Nile up as far as Aswan - and has sent back some glorious photos via our social network. Unfortunately, I think many of them have been taken with a mobile smartphone and the lens has not coped well with the atmosphere. Perhaps it has been fingerprinted as well...

27 Sep

Posted at 07:44h in Blog, Dick's Rant by

I go into the Camera Electronic shops in Murray Street and Stirling Street for four reasons: To see the new equipment and learn about the photo events to come. I need this information for this weblog column. To take illustration pictures that can be used in the reports. I'm always a little nervous about taking images off the net for the column - if I shoot them myself, while they may not be as perfect as the wholesalers or factory advertisements, I cannot be criticised for pinching intellectual property. As none of my writing is particularly intellectual, people can then bandy it about with impunity. Just get the name of the store right: Camera Electronic...

26 Sep

Posted at 07:34h in Blog, Dick's Rant by

We considered the mathematical fun of Dofmaster in a previous column - today it is another indoor amusement you can indulge in without spending money  ( Note: save that money for a trip to Camera Electronic. ) Today we go forum-surfing. Unlike real surfing, photographic forum surfing doesn't have sharks, stingrays, and sea-snakes to endanger you. It has brand-fans. And their venom is far more powerful than anything the sea can throw up. Look at the front of your camera - at the name plate. Type that name into your computer with either" rumors " or " forum" after it. You'll get a slightly different product with each - the first will have a mixture of wild predictions and press release repeats that will focus on your camera brand. Depending upon whether the forum administrator has a connection to the company in question you may get some hints of future releases or planned exhibitions. There will be a lot of speculation repeated from other enthusiasts and also a good deal of sales promotion and special deals from large mail-order firms in Europe...

25 Sep

Posted at 10:51h in Blog, Dick's Rant by

Well don't touch that dial, Folks. The wireless just got a lot more fun! This is the message for our eastern states listeners who will be tuning into John Stanley on the Macquarie radio network fortnightly from October 9th this year. If they are listening on Wednesday nights from 9:05 PM AEST to 9:20 PM AEST they'll hear our heros talking about all things photographic. Now Saul and Howard already do speak on air here in Perth on Fridays  - again a fortnightly show with Simon Beaumont on Afternoons - it airs from 1:30 to 1:50PM and it is a lot of fun to listen to. Despite what they might think, they really do sound like themselves on-air as they talk about all things photographic. I sit here at home trying to pick holes in their performance but so far they have done very well - they are rarely stumped for a good sensible answer. The topics that the eastern states listeners will hear are much the same as we get here - cameras, drones, repairs, exhibitions, photographers, and the occasional memory of...

25 Sep

Posted at 09:37h in Blog, Dick's Rant by

An earlier column mentioned Tamron as a brand name and poked a little gentle fun at the Adaptall system that this company used in the film era. Readers may have gotten the impression that we thought little of the lenses - such is not the case. Camera Electronic and probably tens of thousands of Australians have a keen appreciation of the worth of the Tamron brand and products. It has developed over many items and many decades. Here's an example of what Tamron could do in the analog days  - do for themselves and do for you. It's a 17mm f:3.5 lens with a Nikon AI mount affixed to the back. A similar lens would have been available for most of the major mounts in those days. If its design reminds you a little of Nikon or Tokina remember that the Japanese companies did see people and ideas flow from one to another. Its mount is all metal, as things were in those days, and is sturdy and precise. The lens grind is excellent and the coating does a good job. And...

23 Sep

Posted at 08:17h in Blog, Dick's Rant by

I am going to have to be careful with this post - I wish to make a comparison to a mega giant of industry. I am well aware that they have lawyers and I don't. So it will be no names and no pack drill. I bought a computer - which is recording this column right now. It is the fourth major product from a well-known manufacturer, and it is doing the job pretty well. So did two of the other major products from this same firm...

20 Sep

Posted at 07:49h in Blog, Dick's Rant by

I have to be careful with that title - I tried typing in Olympus Superzoom to the net to see what help it could be and it routed me off to old eBay sellers who have 35mm cameras for sale. Eek. I wanted to see if there was a comparable model from them that matched other major makers - something that had a small sensor but an enormous lens out the front. The sort of thing that cruise and safari tourists take overseas. It looks as though they might have had something like that some while ago, but are concentrating now on the things that can be done with their Micro 4/3 line of mirrorless cameras - and that they have just come out with a new lens to do it. The lens Carlos showed me is the Zuiko 12-200mm f:3.5-6.3 - possibly the longest zoom range lens for any mirrorless camera. It's the 35mm film equivalent of 24mm to 400mm. And we never thought of that in the day...