As this is the 100th anniversary year for Nikon, I was delighted when Ricky Packham pointed out that the new Nikon D7500 had reached the warehouse shelves. Wasting no time, I grabbed one and a couple of likely lenses and departed for the studio. Note: it has been 7 years since the 7000 camera series started - and I have sold them to friends who have long surpassed me in their ability to take good pictures. Bit of a tactical blunder, that...
People who read photographic columns sometimes get the wrong idea about the writers of them. Despite what we try to pretend on this side of the pencil, we do not know it all. Some of us know very little of it. And bits of what we do know sometimes get forgotten. Fortunately real life can remind us. There is plenty of real life like a situation of sudden movement or sullen lighting that calls us back to the basics of photography. I've featured the DSLR bodies from two major manufacturers to remind myself of this. I am regularly in a situation that has both sudden fast movement and bad lighting - stage dance shows - and I have on many occasions desperately wanted to be carrying a new DSLR. It's not heresy to the mirror-less movement to say this. Everyone who has tried to overcome the two burdens I mentioned has found out that their efforts have to be both extraordinary and guarded to try to cope with the limitations of the mirror-less. I do cope...
Well, it's not an asylum any more - it's a civic function centre. If it was an asylum a lot more people would have been there. Heathcote has escaped the fate of being bulldozed and replaced with high-rise luxury apartments by being a strong part of WA heritage. But it lives next door to a lot of extremely expensive real estate that you are forbidden to drive by...
They rarely quote the engine displacement in the specification sheets for cameras. Megapixels, frames per second, focusing points, yes, but you never get to read how many litres the engine actually is. Or, for that matter, the sprung weight of the chassis. I guess people can just be overwhelmed by figures. Well, if it helps here, the Canon 80D is the 6-cylinder sedan model of the Canon DSLR range. It is one step up from the hatchback and a little smaller than the full frame V-8 models. It is fully equipped with all the features and accessories that make for modern cameraing...
No special skills needed - it's a cut and paste job...
As a new chum in Australia in the 1960's, I might have been forgiven for a little confusion as I watched the railway workers clocking on and off at the East Perth sheds as their shifts changed...
It is going to be winter here in Australia in a few months and all of the citizens who have forgotten what it is like to be cold and miserable are going to be reminded. The most poignant ones will be the photographers who will go out on landscape shooting expeditions, get up pre-dawn to freezing conditions on top of the local mountain range, and then try to actually poke away at the controls of their digital cameras. The cruel amongst us will laugh as their frozen little fingers try to hit the tiny buttons and fail, and their looks of anguish will be treasured. Or they could buy a pair of warm gloves just to spite us...
Well I promised you the up-market Peak Design messenger bag and here it is: the Everyday Messenger 13. There is enough style in this one to satisfy any boutique bag buyer.The choice of fabric from which it is constructed might be thought modest enough - a medium-brown denim - but then you need to look into some of the more up-market clothing shops to see what they do with ( and charge for ) denim. This is not a pair of jeans.The basic messenger form with top flap is simple enough to think of but there are a number of design quirks in it. With the top flap down and locked, you still get a weatherproof zipper on top to allow access to the gear compartment. These used to be referred to as "stealth" opening by some makers, but anything that has a big zipper is not all that stealthy.The sides of the case are open to small compartments - one of which has a Peak Design strap peeking from it. I've no idea what they expect you to suspend...
I do love a daily advertising column - where else would I ever get to use a heading like that in legitimate literature? It goes with the " Hack Writer " sign that I keep on my desk. Well, on to the hack - this week we are going to look at the messenger bag. It is either the humblest of camera containers...
a. Give their credit card details to an unknown person on the other side of the world for a small camera accessory that they could just as easily buy in Perth?b. Air-freight a small camera accessory half-way around the world to Perth?c. Think that they support the conservation of the ecology of the planet while compelling someone to fly a jet aircraft halfway around the world to deliver a small camera accessory?d. Need a small camera accessory - since the cameras we use have every conceivable function built-in?e. Stock a small camera accessory that yields about $ 2.00 profit if it sells immediately and $ 20.00 loss if it sits on the shelf for six months?f. Take pictures that are never again looked at - sitting as they do on hard drives or in computer bodies - with expensive small accessories that have come half-way around the world?g. Enter pictures taken with small accessories into photo contests that are destined to be seen only by other people who are willing their competitors not to win?h. Put up photo contests that...