" Whaddaya got that's new or unusual or cheap or expensive that I can write about? " That's my standard question for Camera Electronic staff in the three shops when I arrive with my portable product set and Fujifilm camera bag. I want new and lots of it...
All the time, getting better...
Sounds like a 1930's race car, doesn't it? Nearly as good - this is a Panasonic full-frame race car of a camera - slotting into their lineup as a more compact version of their big S1. Hard sometimes to equate the outside sizes of some photo equipment with the contents - we've seen very large bodies and lenses feeding into quite small sensors and vice versa - this camera is tending toward the latter design. It still doesn't make the sensor larger than the actual camera body, but I'll bet there is someone in a design bureau that is doodling with that. Remember that designers have given us the Goggomobile Dart before and they can do it again. Okay - 24mm x 36mm sensor - 24megapixel. Compact body. L mount. Very fast autofocus, extensively concentrating on head, face, and eye detection. Full video suite - dual card slot. Extended number of shots per charge. A real all-rounder that can do professional-quality video work as well as stills. I found it in the cabinet paired with a Sigma 45mm f:2.8 lens of remarkably compact...
If you were able to buy a 2017 motor car from a dealer right now - a car that had been introduced that year but was sitting - unused- on the dealer's floor today - would you do it? WHAT IF IT WAS A GREAT CAR? That's not as foolish a question as I could ask ( Stick with me - I've got sillier ones. ), but it does come to mind looking at today's featured camera. Like it or not, a new model of the Panasonic Lumix GH5 - a Mark II - is shortly due. It's been announced by CE management complete with the opportunity to pre-order. Which leaves the GH5 in an invidious position; who is it going to appeal to? The same people to whom it appealed these last five years. All-round photographers. I'm the last person to be writing for them - I'm not well-rounded. I slump to one side and veer off whenever they loosen the shackles. But I recognise that there are people who wish to be equally proficient with video work as with still shots,...
I'm not laughing at your plight in not being able to fly away for an overseas holiday. I'm stuck here as well. We'll all get to go as soon as things get better...
How many fingers and toes do you have? Which ones are your favourites? Or are you one of these people who just uses whatever is there on the end of a limb at the time? It's sort of like that in the camera business as well. I was brought to this conclusion when I asked a CE staff member what was new in the joint - He found a few things but said that there were a lot of people who overlooked what was good in the things that were there already. When I asked for more details he pointed to a very neatly set-out Panasonic cabinet. A lot of superb cameras and lenses, but in some ways it reminded me of the '57 Chevy advertisements. GM made a lot of Chevies and we bought one. it was a big, robust black car and served better than many others of the same year. Yet Chevy had so many options and different models that you could be forgiven for giving up on them - from over-choice. Here's two charts from the net: If...
" And we bet 59% of geniuses will get it wrong." I hate those Facebook memes, don't you? The ones that put out mathematical puzzles that are either impossible or improbable. I always suspect that if I click on them I'll get a blackmail demand from a hacker. They'll threaten to tell everyone that I'm stupid. I've got the laugh on them because I've been advertising it for years. But here's the deal: 14mm focal length on the Panasonic Lumix cameras with the Micro 4/3 sensor is a decent little wide-angle - wide enough for interiors and parties but not down into the looming distortion pits. The mathematics of it equates to 28mm in the old 35mm film days. The lens is very small, very light, very precisely made. It weighs 55 grams. However, we are not in the old 35mm film days - we are in the new " full-frame " digital sensor days. It just so happens that the full-frame is full to the extent that it's the same size as the old 35mm film frame. At a considerably higher cost, I...
We're lucky at Camera Electronic - we still have ties to the chemical side of photography. Unlike so many stores that have embraced digiatalisation, we find that it pays to remember the older analog processes. There are a steady stream of clients who also remember this and pursue their art in that way. Thank goodness they are also supported here in Perth by good professional laboratories like Fitzgerald Photo Imaging. The delights of a good film camera are not debarred from us. And sometimes we discover some interesting things on the shelves: A. The Ilford company...
Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we plant roses in garden beds and enthuse over them? The plants are 98% stabbing pains for every 2% bright colour or sweet odour. And their demonic spikes do nothing to deter their natural enemies - the aphids. Aphids climb over the spikes with impunity. The rest of us lose jumpers and forearms to them. Here's the only thing in the front yard that was not clawing at me. Ah, well, at least the things provided a little colour for the Panasonic GX-9K camera and Lumix G 30mm f 1:2.8 ASPH Mega O.I.S lens. This is serious micro 4/3 stuff with a dedicated close-up lens - expect perfection. And perfection that is easy to use in a walk-around package. Of course, if you are a dedicated photo enthusiast, easy to use, convenient, and simple are terms that mean nothing to you. The real zealot will carry lead-acid batteries, GPS unit, softboxes, and studio strobe kits up the side of a mountain to capture a toadstool. You may complain bitterly if your designer coffee...
And I don't mean the Fujifilm raw file, either. Though it is actually a very nice format to work in now that Lightroom CC and Photoshop 2018 support it. I admit to being slightly confused in some post processing...