Sony Week - Part One - Lifting the Lid

Opening the box on a new camera is like lifting the lid on either a treasure chest or a can of worms. Don't let that image put you off - it depends if you are fishing for compliments or bass.

This week's exploration is of a Sony mirrorless camera and two lenses. These were chosen from the Camera Electronic stocks to find out what the brand is like to handle and to see whether there is a real usable difference between the full-frame system and an APS-C system. To this end, lenses that would give a similar field of view were selected:

Sony Alpha 7 II and Fujifilm X-Pro1

Sony 50mm and Fujifilm 35mm

Sony 28mm and Fujifilm 18mm

The true believers of each brand are free to jump up and down, wave spec sheets, and berate each other as much as they like - the committee of the camera club needs to fill a hole in the year's entertainment roster and a fist fight will do nicely. I am jut going to play cameras in the studio and out in the field.

First comment, though, is one that Mr. Sony, Mr. Panasonic, and Mr Fujifilm may well like to heed. It is a biased comment, and a finicky one, but here goes; knock it off with the in-camera battery charging, guys.

It might look like a good idea, but it turns around and bites the photographer in the end. If the only way that the shooter can get electricity into a battery is to relinquish the use of the camera for the charging period, there is gong to come a time when the best shot of their life is happening and the camera is connected to a wall socket or a computer...

Oh, I know you can buy accessory charger blocks, and I know you can buy extra batteries - and I strongly suggest that anyone who gets a camera with no charger goes out and does exactly that - but think about the people who have not got this same amoiunt of foresight. Give them a charger block that they can leave back at the hotel charging their extra battery when they take the camera out. You can bank on the fact that they will eventually forget to pack it when they check out and have to buy another one. You'll score extra profit eventually. But give them that charger block to start with.

Note also to ALL makers: Memory cards are cheap as chips these days ( ...see what I did there...? ) and if you are a multi-billion Yen camera maker you can probably get a discount down at the local Bic Camera store in Tokyo - so you can afford to include a little 8 GB or 16 GB card in the basic camera box. It will save the thoughtless buyer from opening the thing on the Boeing and having no way to take pictures. If you brand out the cards as well, you'll encourage them to always buy your version in the future.

Now a word of praise to Sony. Their packaging designers have finally come up with a sales box that is neither too complex to be understood nor too sealed to be opened for inspection. Plus the external graphics now include a clear flag that the product is suitable for both the E - mount and the full frame format. Complex codes and numbers never help - clear labelling is a winner.

Interesting to see how many instruction books they put into the packaging. I counted 6 in the 50mm lens coping with Chinese, Japanese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Greek, and what may possibly be Korean. Three of them seem to be addressed to the photographers and three to the photographers' lawyers. I suppose it is the way of the world...

That there is no leather case in there is a given these days. You have to step pretty far up in the market fto find someone who is prepared to include one - though there are plenty of bag manufacturers who have wonderful camera containers. You should pop this Sony into an Ona if you are stylish or a Think Tank if you are practical. I'm cheap - I used a hessian bag...

Note that as this camera is one of the wonderful WiFi ones, you may wish to consider a bag that has a compartment for your tablet or mobile phone - you are going to be using that WiFi facility to store and share on a regular basis.

What Do You Mean " I Shouldn't Buy Another Lens...? "

This column is nothing if not flexible. We can provide advice that bends in the middle and faces both ways at the same time...

A previous post reported a conversation with the new photographer centred around advice about buying a new Nikon AF-S DX 35mm f:1.8 G lens. That was good advice, and I stand by it firmly, and am now prepared to contradict myself. I've been watching politicians after elections and I can see how it is done.

The new photographer is using a Nikon D3300 which is a dandy camera - with a Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55 f:3.5-5.6 GII lens which is a dandy match. Her main focus will be family shots. I suspect she may get more benefit in this pursuit from another Nikon product - the SB 700 flash.

Her camera does have a pop-up flash in the prism housing, of course. It is linked to the TTL system and is capable of the measure and shoot trick that makes for perfect tiny illuminations and mild fill flash. It can do a portrait inside the house. But it is necessarily low power and equally necessarily draws electricity from the camera battery - restricting performance as it does.

The SB 700 stands outside the electricity supply of the D3300, drawing power from 4 AA batteries. I always recommend Toshiba, Panasonic, or Duracell batteries for this sort of application...and I have settled into using disposable lithium-ion AA cells for all my speedlight work. She'll have plenty of power, quick recycling times, and extra shots in the camera battery for the camera itself.

Okay, what should she do with the SB700 to start with? Fuel it up, slide it onto the hot shoe, lock it there, and turn the flash to TTL mode. Then go out and pursue the kids. The camera will operate as fast as its own AF system will permit and the flash will fire enough light to stop any actions it sees.

Note: I don't mean it will stop the kids from shaving the cat, but it will provide clear pictures of the operation for later evidence. It is hard to stymie the TTL system on a Nikon as it pre-flashes, measures, then exposes the scene. There is PLENTY of flash power for all ISO choices - I have used this same unit for big-church illumination at weddings on 800 ISO with no problem. It can cope with household spaces perfectly.

The thing is consistent. Make no mistake about the comfort that this can provide. People do not want to be sitting in front of a computer whacking the sliders to try to chase fugitive white balance. You tell a Nikon camera to shoot flash and it will agree with this SB700 for every single shot.

And the new photographer can hesitantly press in the rubber locks on the side of the flash head and gingerly tilt it up towards the ceiling and take a shot...And thenfind out more looking on the LCD screen that ever we can teach. Even better - she can pop on the diffuser that Nikon includes in the pack and see even more. I'm not going to take her through the complications of the Mag Mod Dome...I'll just leave that as my little professional advantage...

She may never get past the need for the TTL and move onto the GN settings, or the manual flash. She may never need a slave or master flash setup. But I think she will find the addition of such a sophisticated portable light to be a wonderful thing.

New Nikon - Handy New Bit

Just in on the shelves - the battery grip for the new Nikon D500 camera - the APS-C flagship DSLR for Nikon Australia. It is designated MB-D17.

Why buy?

1. You get to put another battery in the system - the camera shoots more shots and cycles faster with the extra power available.

2. You get a grip on the camera when it is being held in the portrait ( vertical ) mode that does not involve canting your right wrist up and over the body as you shoot. The benefit when you are doing this over a long session - for instance with dancers or portraits - is considerable. The joint strain after a couple of hours without this grip would erase all the fun of the photography.

3. You can control the position of the camera in the Portrait mode much better as this gives the same body feel as the normal side grip. Rubber pads and all.

4. There is a repeat of the major function buttons and wheels on the grip - you can operate as per normal without having two revert to the side controls. Just keep shooting.

5. You look like a cool pro while using it. I know this would never influence the sensible readers of this column, but I assure you it influenced me when I cared about what I looked like.  The downside was people would ask me for advice on their cameras and I had to invent things to say...

6. The grip has a little special cast compartment in the top surface that stores the rubber cover on the bottom of the D500 base. You can save it for later if you take the grip off.

7.  It's genuine Nikon, with the full Nikon Australia warranty.

Call in and try, or phone in and buy or come on line to our online store and....well...buy.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

Welcome to Ernest's World - the repair workshop at Camera Electronic. You will be amazed. You will be astounded. Try not to touch anything...

In particular, try not to touch the "Sony" charger that he has opened for repair on the workbench. We say "Sony" because that is what the white label on the top says, but there is no way in the world that this has ever been a Sony product.

Oh, it looks like it from the outside - there are the guide rails and the pins that accept a standard Sony lithium-ion battery, but when Ernest opened the casing the circuit board told a different story.

Look at the components - 1970's style resistors and capacitors. Look at the assembly of the parts on the board. They fit where they touch and they touch in very few places.

Look at the screw that holds the device together. If you think it looks like something that would normally secure an MDF cabinet, you could very well be right...

Ernest is not a man given to harsh judgements, but his verdict on this was "fire hazard".

Did this come from a reputable Sony dealer? I am betting it did not. It has the look and feel of eBay or a discount electrical shop. Someone was intrigued by the low price for it and either decided to sell it or buy it - when what they should have done is run out the door to avoid it.

Well, not for Camera Electronic. Our Sony IS Sony, and Sony are good. They stand by their equipment and by us...so if you are tempted to get that free shipping bargain from somewhere that need not be named, remember that you could well be getting the electrical surprise of your life.

" How Many Batteries Do I Need? "

How many pockets have you got?

The question of batteries rarely concerned us in the old film days - at least for the little people. The mechanical shutter and the finger-powered film advance worked pretty well all the time and no electricity was needed. Adding a selenium light meter to the mixture still avoided a battery, but as soon as the CdS and later cells were incorporated and we got electronic shutters and motor drives we started to have to be cagey about on-board electricity.

We started to have to look for 22.5 volt batteries for flash guns...similar ones for Polaroid cameras...D cells for Graflex flash guns...and then a whole raft of cells for the early strobe systems. Victor Hasselblad introduced us to a small blue-coated stack of nickel cadmium cells for one of his cameras and they were NEVER happy batteries.

Well, things are now digital, and batteries are a fact of life. We get lithium-ion cells with every camera we buy and if we are wise we grab an extra one from the accessories rack to go with the new kit. Of course they are re-chargeable items - that is part of the appeal of digital photography - but the amount of juice that any given camera takes is variable factor and sometimes you need more than one battery to have reasonable working time.

A case in point is my own dear little Fujifilm X-10. It works well, but the small battery fitting in it poops out at about 200 shots. If I am going for a full day's shooting at the car show I need to take 3 batteries. If I were a car show shooter with a big Nikon D3, D4, or D5 DSLR I could expect about 2000 shots on one battery and would not need a spare for the day*.

Here is where the user of the big pro DSLR has it over the user of the mirror-less camera in most instances - the battery on the bottom grip of this kind is larger and goes longer - or it repeats the battery in the camera and thus doubles the life. But the whole assembly is heavier, so there we go again with the pros and cons.

That's the new Pentax K-1 in the pictures with the accessory battery grip on the bottom. Well-proportioned for a larger hand and all the controls you could decently want scattered on the top and back. A rumour on another site says a new grip for another camera may well have two batteries plus the one in the camera - 3 altogether - makes lots of electricity but adds extra weight. We'll wait and see if the rumour site is right.

* but I'd take a spare for the day because I am the nervous type.

Orange Is the New Batt

Sorry for the pun. Not repentant - just sorry it wasn't a better pun...

Not sorry to bring you news of a new battery on the racks - the Hahnel Extreme Li- Ion battery - the HLX - EL 15.

Not surprisingly, it is intended as a replacement for the Nikon EL-EN 15 battery, which is common for a number of current Nikon products. It is rated at 1700 mAh and 7.0 volts.

The package information says that it is intended for use in extreme conditions*. It apparently has a high energy density ratio and is capable of over 500 charge and discharge cycles.

The details state that each battery is injected with silicone giving them a very tough shock absorbing construction.

I've found other Hahnel accessories to be of good quality and I use their Captur remote flash trigger frequently.

* Note you still cannot use your DSLR as a hammer for horseshoes, despite what you might read on the internet.

Final note for readers of this weblog column: have a look at the little blue and white  symbol on the heading image. It indicates that the product has passed the Uncle Dick test; it is in stock and I could find it on the shelf. Henceforth only goods that actually exist in Perth and can be poked and prodded will get this symbol. No air-ware, beta samples, mock-ups, or artist's conceptions. There is far too much of that on rumour sites. I ain't in the business of passing rumours - I show either marvellous or horrible realities.

Pre-Packed Picture Power In Little Parcels - Toshiba Batteries

So many things in our lives are taken for granted - clean water, electricity, and rhinestone poodle collars for instance - that we rarely look into where we are to get them from when we are not in our normal environment. The wise amongst us make provision for a steady supply - even when the shops are shut.

We'll leave you to seek your own sources of water and rhinestones but direct you to the thought that you really ought to get yourself some portable electricity that you can store safely in your camera bag.

You might argue that you only need AA batteries for flash guns and portable LED light blocks. Not so - more and more radio triggers are being designed to use standard AA's rather than button cells. There are still cameras that use AA cells for system power. And they can be called on the juice up any number of digital devices by means of simple converters and battery chargers - there are a number of these devices available right now.

At this juncture we can chime in with some advice from Ernest - there are some rechargeable AA's on the market that sound like a good idea for flash guns but don't prove to be. If you want to ask him for the details next time you see him by all means go ahead - he makes a good argument for decent alkaline AA's.

Well - here they are. We've been selling the Toshiba AA's in 40-battery boxes as well as 2-battery packs for as long as I can remember in CE. They are the go-to battery for sales demonstrations of speed lights and it is no wonder that when I started using the Nikon and the Fujifilm guns I should load up with them. My experience with them has been good - as opposed to the results from AA's purchased in supermarkets around the state.

Not all batteries are the same and not all are good - Ernest again and his dramatic demonstration of bending no-name batteries double with his fingers. Even some of the nationally-known brands from Coles, Woolies, and IGA can be sad little cells and poop out well before a reasonable number of shots.

Speaking of which, my experience with the Toshiba AA's in Nikon SB700 and Fujifilm EF-42 speed lights has been that they will put out about 220-240 flashes before becoming exhausted. This is good to know if you are going to budget for an event that requires a lot of flash and need to know when to change batteries so as not to be caught flash-less at the wrong time.

The other good thing about Toshiba is I have yet to see a Toshiba leak into a flash gun - even if it is unused for months.

Buy a box. You'll use them up eventually and the assurance that you always have power is invaluable.

My Charger /Camera/Battery/Life Is Broken. Can I Buy Another?

Yes, of course you can. We sell cameras, chargers, batteries and lives as a matter of course. Indeed some of the lives in stock are as coarse as you can get. But you may be giving way to panic too soon*.

Our technical staff tells us that they have noticed people bringing in compact cameras that have had no use or exercise for six months or more and that are dead as a doornail - prompting the sad tale at the front counter. Certainly no response from the camera and the charger does not put any electricity into the battery. The user assumes the worst.

But once the camera is taken under the wing of the repair staff they test voltages and circuits and then try the procedure of applying a higher than normal voltage to the battery. If you were to use the term " kickstart " it would be as useful as anything. It's only a very small jolt for a small period of time but it helps to reverse the degradation of the battery and lets the charger recognise it and refill it at a slow trickle. There is still a couple of hours of charging needed but in this case you have a live battery again instead of a relic.

Note - The tech did not tell me the voltage or amperage so I cannot tell you. It's not exactly welding voltage but I would suggest that the readers do not try this one at home at all. Leave it to the trained professionals. If any one is going to fly backwards across the workshop emitting sparks and the smell of cooked fingers...let it be them.

Talk to Thomas at Repairs and see if Camera Electronic can help.

* We can tell you when to panic...

The Electronic Block Head

 You're not going to get Leica SL all week - here's a column about something else entirely.

Today's cameras use a lot of batteries - particularly if the user:

1. Shoots lots of video.

2. Reviews every single image for five seconds.

3. Takes 5000 images when 5 would do.

Take the gentle scolding as you like, but if you are using a lot of Sony or Olympus battery power these days you are doing a lot of charging - and the little battery chargers that you get with the cameras can only deal with one circumstance at a time. Unless you are prepared to get up repeatedly and change batteries, all night, you need help. Here's Hahnel help.

The Pro Cube is a power block that can be configured to charge tow lithium ion batteries at one time. It is 12V DC in or connection to a USB portout. The blocks themselves are interchangeable to allow for the following batteries:

2 Sony NP FW 50
2 Olympus BNL-1
2 Olympus BLS-5
2 Sony NP BX-1
4 rechargeable AA
many mobile phones and smart tablet batteries inside their own casings - that's the USB connection

As you'll see from the open box, there is a pin connector that allows each module to get the proper voltage from the basic electronics inside. You access it with a small pin or paper clip and each rack clips in or out. The AA plate drops onto the top of the cube and sticks there with a couple of samarium magnets.

There's a small LCD screen with a diagram to let you monitor the charge state.

Well-built - metal casing and all, and comes with AC plug as well as a car cigar lighter connection.

Hats off to Hahnel for capitalising upon the need for battery charge - they save more people each year.

STOP SCREEN! The shop now has these Hahnel products that are suitable for Nikon batteries too! Different colour pack but same product. Ask the boys for a look at them.

Need A Spare Battery?

You sure do!

Even if your digital cameras usage is sporadic and just around home, there is nothing worse than being caught out with a depleted battery when the good shots just start coming. Birthday parties do not slow down for you.

Even worse - going away for a memorable vacation and running your battery down half-way through the first day. The rest of the tour bus passengers will not wait near a mains outlet while you try to recharge your one and only battery...

Also consider - if you are travelling there may be periods when even you cannot get to a mains outlet for electricity. The wilds of Africa and Canberra are notorious for this. If you have a spare battery you can coast past this electricity-free day and still get photos.

Better still - two spare batteries - extra capacity never goes amiss, and you can leave a depleted one on the charger in your hotel room while you shoot through the day.

They can be had from the original camera manufacturer or from after-market sources. Not a great expense set against the cost of travel and the safety of having a camera that works when you see that perfect shot.

The Little Snowflake - Or Batteries In The Snow

Dang me if I can figure people out. I came to Australia to escape cold weather and bears. People visit the shop every week seeking new cameras and lenses so that they can go find cold weather and bears. And they want to do it in Manitoba.

Manitoba. I ask you. The province that keeps Saskatchewhere? and Onterrible from crashing together, eh?

Ah well, no accounting for tastes. If you want polar bears you go to Churchill and freeze. And so do the batteries in your digital camera. You are out there on the snow pursuing the polar bears, or vice versa, and the batteries get cold and quit. Or at least severely drop their output.

Not surprising - the chemical reaction inside there that lets out the stored energy in the form of electricity ( or in the case of  Newfoundland batteries, in the form of steam, oily water, and cinders...) slows down and then nothing happens.

The energy is still in there, but it ain't coming out until that battery warms up. Hence the old practice we had in the film days of keeping a couple of sets of batteries in our pockets under our parkas when we ventured out into snow. Once the camera battery pack in use slowed down, we changed over to a warm one for awhile and then on through the next one. Returned the coldies to our pockets and then it would be ready to go again in a half hour, minus whatever we took out of it on the last cycle.

Try this yourself - you get your pictures, your pocket gets uncomfortably cold very half hour or so, and the polar bears are none the wiser. Fortunately they have taken mercury out of batteries these days so that when the bear digests you, the batteries will not harm them.

You'll be doing your part for the environment - inasfar as Manitoba has an environment, eh?

The Red Window And The Gas Gauge

We need a red window.

We used have them - on the back of old roll-film box cameras. The red celluloid window let you see - dimly - the numbers on the back of 620, 120, 0r other paper-backed films. You got words and dots warning you to beware of the start of he film, then numbers as the film wound past the square throat of the camera and then another set of dots to tell you it was done and to wind the trailing paper on before you removed the roll.

It was a wonderful way to concentrate the mind and sharpen the skill - having 10, 12. 0r 16 shots only on the roll meant you had to do it right each time - no flapping about with a dozen shots and pick the best out later. You couldn't shoot 12 similar shots to get one good one. If you were a kid you had one roll of film for the entire summer vacation and it had to record 3 months of your life.

We also need a gas gauge. Not a petrol warning light - not an LCD icon of a half of an AA battery - a gas gauge. When we had a dial with a needle that swung from full to half to empty we watched it closely - again the one tank of gas might have lasted the entire summer if we were prepared to take the trolley bus and walk as well. We need that gas gauge on the back of the digital camera to tell us what the battery is REALLY doing.

Some camera makers have done better than others. A big Nikon DLSR will have a battery measurement window accessible through the menu and will give an actual percentage of charge left on the battery. Presuming it to be accurate, it means that you can know whether you have enough juice for the shoot before you start.

Other makers give us little battery icons and they don't even agree amongst themselves what the divisions might mean. Good for the shop - we can sell more batteries to those who are nervous about it. But if they can include dog face recognition and miniature effect backlighting for fireworks in HDR macro at a touch of slightly dubious finger...surely they can give us an accurate and readable numeric battery display.

Uncle Dick

" Does It Come With Batteries?"

Today's post is occasioned by an enquiry that I had last Saturday from a customer. It pointed out that there may be some misconceptions regarding modern cameras and their sale - misconceptions that we may be able to clear up. Here goes.

1. Does it come with a battery?

If it is a modern digital camera, yes. All the manufacturers include a battery with it. Generally it is the rechargeable Li-ion type. If it is a camera that runs on 2 or 4 of the AA batteries they generally include a set of alkaline ones in the box.

If you are going to do anything with your camera past leaving it in a dresser drawer - ie actually go out and take pictures - you would be very wise to purchase a second rechargeable battery or a second set of AA's for it. They don't cost that much and if you are on a trip you can leave one battery to recharge while you go on with the other. Which leads is to the next question...

2. Does it come with a battery charger?

As they say on Radio Yerevan " Basically, yes..."

Most manufacturers do include an A/C charger block and connecting cords. You pull the battery out of the camera, pop it into the charger, and plug the charger into the wall.

Some clever clogs makers have decided to have the battery charge within the camera and include a cord from an A/C adapter to the side of the camera. NOT clever, clogs. It ties the camera to the A/C just when you might want to be out using it. Owners of these cameras need more batteries and sometimes need an additional off-camera charging block to free them for field use. It might be tempting to think that you are avoiding taking a charger on your trip, but that electricity has to get in there somehow...

Note: Many people lose the chargers from their cameras when they leave their hotels. Every hotel concierge has them in store. If you forget, ask to borrow one from the concierge.

3. Does it come with a case?

As they say on Radio Yerevan " Basically, no..."

The good old fitted never-ready case that we got free with the 35mm camera was made of leather by wizened old craftsmen. Whether it is the leather or the craftsmen that has disappeared, they are no more. The one exception to the rule in the last few years was the case with the LE edition of the Fujifilm X-100 camera. Wonderful and nostalgic, but mine sits in the box unused as I take the camera out and about.

You can get bags and in some cases, cases from independent manufacturers. We have a wall of them and there is a shape and size to suit all tastes and pockets. Knock yourself out.

4. Does it come with a strap?

Yes. The big cameras will have neck straps and the small ones will have wrist straps. If you get a crick in your neck from the maker's strap, you can always purchase a Black Rapid, Joby, Lowepro, or Op/Tec strap to spread the load.

When it comes to attaching the strap to the camera be prepared to expend language - or ask one of the staff members nicely and we will do it for you. We know language...

5. Do I need to buy batteries for my flash?

As they say on Radio Yerevan " basically, yes and no..."

Yes, if you want your new portable electronic speed light to flash. You will need to put 4 AA batteries into it. Fresh batteries. Two up, and two down.

We have the excellent Toshiba AA batteries for sale. Also the excellent Powerex rechargeable AA and chargers for sale.

No, if you are content to leave it in the box and not use it.

6. Do I need to buy a memory card?

See answer #5. None of the manufacturers put a memory card in the box as a matter of course, though they occasionally panic around the end of the Japanese financial year and have been known to throw a tiny one into a deal to boost sales. It is never big nor fast, and it is never enough.

Memory cards are not expensive in monetary terms and extremely cheap when set against the value of the time and effort taken to make images on them. DO NOT STINT YOURSELF by purchasing a no-brand card. You will regret it. Get a good one.

7. Does it come with a lens?

If the camera design does not have an interchangeable lens, yes. Yes it does. Turn it on and go for it.

If the design has an interchangeable mount, it comes with a lens if you buy a lens. Sometimes the lens and body are in one box as a kit, which is a good idea, and sometimes they are separate and you can choose what you like, which is a good idea. You'll know hat you need.

Please note that we have not got into the subject of wifi, Bluetooth, near-field connectivity, or Pilsner beer. These are delightful topics but beyond the scope of this simple posting.

Thank You Mr. Hahnel - Now I Can Shoot Like The Rest Of Them

Users of the Sony range of following Sony digital cameras can feel happy. They can now use one of the new Hahnel Captur range of remote flash triggers/camera triggers to get off-camera flash shots.

Note that this new range of accessory releases now uses AA batteries for power - useful if you are already carrying spares for your flash gun.

There are two specialised cables included to accommodate the Sony sockets.

Cameras catered for:

A300
A77II
A58
A7s
A7II
HX400
RX100II
RX100III

Note for mirror-less users...your kit bag is getting bigger, isn't it? All these new bits...and it won't stop...

Camera Electronic's Big Rack O' Volts - Promaster

If ever you needed a spare battery for your digital camera, now is the time to come in and get it. We have just put up a rack of Promaster rechargeable batteries that is about half the size of Tasmania.

There are modern batteries as well as slightly historic ones in the selection - and some from manufacturers that no longer make cameras. Altogether we have 95 pegs out with far more than 95 different types.

They are at an advantageous price and carry thee no-quibble Promaster warranty.

The really surprising thing is when you turn to the more ordinary battery rack on a side wall. There are the familiar D, C, AA, and AAA batteries that we all put into torches and kid's toys. There are the little flat 9 volt batteries that go into calculators. And the little silver cells that power cameras. All pretty standard sizes, and most camera manufacturers used to configure their products to take them readily.

So when did the camera designers thing it was a good idea to make the new gear with 95+ different types of battery?

Ah, well, philosophy aside, there are plenty of batteries for everybody now. Grab a spare before you go on your holiday or to the drag races. Or the drag show. Or Tasmania.

Analog Drag Racing For Digital Photographers - Buy More Batteries

Okay. If you can remember Californian Poppy and Chiko rolls - favourably - you can appreciate this.

The Cranksters are going to hold a swap meet and drag race meeting called Nostalgia Drags at the Kwinana Motorplex this coming Sunday - 19th of April.

Their swap meet section costs $ 5 and you can then get that off the price of admission to the main drag races. There will also apparently be dirt track racing as well. I'm not sure what stuff will be on offer at the swap meet but if you like to troll the Workshop Camera Club's Photographic Markets every so often, you'll probably find something of interest. I'm looking for a new big end.

The drags should be a fairly smokey affair so if you are into car action this would be a good opportunity to get a zoom on the camera, a fast card inside it, and a couple of spare batteries. ( of which we have a lot right now come in and buy rahrahrah...). Unlike European formula racing, with most drag races the cars do not come off sideways and squash the spectators. There is still the occasional explosion in the bell housing or fire under the bonnet but then you can get that in Coles car park round our house any weekend.

I plan to take the Fujifilm X-pro 1 and the 55-200 for the races, but a fixed 18mm for the parked cars. Also the Metz-0-blindness flash unit in case that will help. Walking around an event it is good to have what you need to cover the thing, but it is also good not to haul the entire studio stock of lenses while you are doing it.

PS: I am hoping for Texas BBQ buns and hot rod coffee food vans but  will settle for a bottle of water and a Chiko roll.

PPS: If your lenses do not have UV protection filters on them, do not go anywhere near a dirt track race...We sell Hoya HD filters for all sizes, so be warned.

Killing Yourself Softly With Digital Photography

We try to provide helpful advice on a number of photographic subjects here in this column - a service to the profession and the trade...and all the rest. One of areas that may have been neglected up to now is how to injure yourself with digital photography.

Now we're not talking about harming your reputation with bad technique, dodgy subject matter, or dubious business practices - feel free to make your own way to perdition just as you wish. Be assured, you will have company on the road...

No. it's more physical than moral harm that we are concerned with here. And the news is not good - digital photography work is nowhere near as easy a path to destruction as the one with the older chemical processes.

In the dear old days you could poison yourself real good, real quick - if you were using mercury fumes or cyanide washes or ether vapour in the same space as a candle flame you could expect a prompt cessation to further care. Later on the black and white chemistry got safer but the advent of colour work with the organic solvents and dire bleaches and carcinogens brought the statistics back up.

You could also do wonderful things in a very short period of time with some of the early  electrical connections, safelights, pools of water, and metal workbenches.

When all else failed, you could fall over in the dark and pull the enlarger down on yourself.

Now in the digital realm it gets harder...no more chemistry. The computers are all sealed and earthed and you rarely use them in the sink with an inch of water round the bottom. You could swallow a lithium ion battery and harm yourself but it takes some doing. Hitting yourself on the side of the head with a 120-400mm zoom lens is difficult to do more than once.

Sitting in front of a monitor for 15 hours straight might be bad for you, but then so many people are trained to do this by their years of television that they won't notice.

Possibly the best result will be if you set the digital camera on a tripod and put it onto interval shooting and then link it straight to your Facebook account. Eventually your friends will get so sick of seeing you on their feed that they will band together to come round your house and beat you up.

Brunton Bear the Brunt - Power In The Field

The devotees of action photography with the ever-popular GoPro Hero 3+ camera sometimes find that the best action occurs after the camera battery runs out of electricity - certainly the best language is heard...

To obviate this, Brunton have made a clip-on rechargeable lithium cell pack that they say will give 4 x longer operation with this model of GoProHero 3+ back and clip this one on. They emphasise that it is water-resistant only - do not submerge it.

It also seems to have a 3-way cable included that lets you access the power for a number of iDevices.

Real World Batteries - Toshiba And Fujifilm

I screwed up my courage last week and asked Ernest about batteries for flash guns. Then I took his advice...and bought a set of the Toshiba AA cells for a weekend shoot. $ 4.80.

The advice proved good. I used the 4 cells in a Fujifilm EF 42 flash with my Fujifilm X-Pro1 and an 18mm lens. I set the ISO to 320 and wandered around Big Al's Poker Run car show for 4 hours. The camera was set to do forced flash - it fired every time - frequently on +1 or +1.5 flash boost due to the nature of the harsh light contrast.

Over 280 shots on the day. I should have expected 120-140 from the set of batteries. But there is the 280 on the card and in my hard drive.

Whether this is due to the sterling nature of Japanese electricity or the Fujifilm flash is remarkably economical, I don't know - but this sort of performance means that I'll be using the combination in the future. I can't remember getting anywhere near this level of performance with alkaline Duracell or Eveready in the past.

The Little Half Battery - What Your Camera Is Really Telling You

We are all familiar with the dashboards of our motor cars and the usual layout of controls - so much so that we can generally get into a strange car and tell at a glance what speed we are doing, what the engine revs are, and how much petrol is in there. We'll get some indication of the engine temperature and at least a warning light for the presence - or absence of oil. Enthusiast cars can tell us the state of the electrical system, cooling system, and many other measurements.

Camera systems can be similarly complex but there are few agreed symbols to let you know what the engineers know. Apart from the on/off button and the little playback arrow, there can be a real designers and artists festival in the choice of the icons. One of the worst is the one that deals with the battery life.

It can be a little symbol of a battery, or a percentage of charge, or a complex diagram to track total battery life. It might be white to start with, then turn red at some stage of the game. It might flash, or not. Unfortunately there is no real agreement as to exactly what level of electricity is indicated when any of these things occur - apart from the sensible manufacturers who state a flat percentage.

Some cameras, Like my Fujifilm X-E2 will show the charge in three distinct stages -  Full at three bar, half? at two bar, and single bar means very few operations left before it goes flat. It's not really exact, but at least you can get over 50 shots at two bar stage - I did so yesterday.

Hard to tell the manufacturers what to do, but I would like to raise a tiny hand for standardisation in this measurement - if you can give us a percentage we can plan better what action to take - ignore, panic, or recharge.