Jazz Hands At the Camera Shop

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...

The trouble with the average warm pair of gloves is that they make the hands inside them feel good, but are only a little less clumsy as they hold the camera. They can be bulky, slippery, and awkward. Enter the Aquatech company with their pair of Sensory Gloves.

They are as warm and toasty as you could want - and I assure you I tried them on in the studio and they were delightful - but they are also safe for camera use. The inside of the palms and fingers are lined with non-slip dots.

In addition, the ends of the forefinger and thumb are fitted with flaps and small holes to allow you to poke your finger through them and activate touch screens or delicate controls. Once done, you can slip the end of the fingers back into the warm.

Luxury? Try half way up Bluff Knoll in a blizzard or out on an Antarctic expedition and see how little luxury costs...

When You Get That Sinking Feeling.. Leica X-U

Make sure your battery is charged and you have a fresh card in your Leica X-U camera. Down to 15 metres you will be the king of your environment for an hour.

Or you may elect to document harvest time in the wheatbelt from the top of a header in a dust storm. You'll still get great pictures and the camera will be in better shape than you are at the end of the day.

The lens stays on - you don't change it. It's 23mm so the APS-C  CMOS sensor sees a moderate wide angle view. f: 1.7 - f:16 aperture and infinity to 20cm close focus. Just look for a sight and shoot it.

If the lighting on the scene is too dim to be captured  - even by the 12500 ISO setting - there is a dedicated flash at the front edge of he lens that is never blocked off from the subject. (Bravo Leica. This is something camera designers needed to do for years and you have had the courage.)

Note: for the underwater work, there is a apparently a separate portion on the control pad at the back that adapts the white balance and distortion correction to the blue-green light and the diffraction of the water. Too much science for me but it means you will not be attempting it on the computer later.

DNG and jpeg so whatever computer and image editing program you use will not be fighting back later.

And Woo Hoo, a fitted sealed TPE armour coat for the camera that protects it in the situations where you fail to protect yourself. As well, the door to the inside is double locked and rubber sealed as well. Even the darn strap attachments on the ends are sunk in like deck tiedown points so they will not dig into you.

Given the fact that this camera also records full 1080 HD video I think it is a perfectly viable alternative to the little action cam for tough filming. Certainly you'll get better resolution in a hand-held camera.

See the Camera Electronic Leica online store here