More Fun Than A MiG

More fun and a lot easier to park.

Lomo have just sent us some of their new Lomography instant cameras. They run under the term LOMO'INSTANT - with one of those floating apostrophes that so maddens teachers of English. In this case the makers should be forgiven because the product is actually quite nice.

It is an instant film camera that takes the Fujifilm INSTAX cartridge and spits out paper prints that develop in 90 seconds outside the camera. You'll need Fujifilm INSTAX film for it as the kit has no film pack in there - you'll also need to get some AAA batteries if you plan on shooting directly on Christmas morning.

The black example you see in the pictue is the camera on its own - it has a wide-angle lens built in - the equivalent of a 27mm focal length. There seem to be two focusing ranges for it - 1 metre to infinity and a closeup position of 40 to 90 cm. This is selected by a lever on the right hand side of the lens standard.

The shutter has a tie-in with an light meter inside the camera but you can command it to do multiple exposures if needed. You can also do unlimited long exposures - we used to call it Bulb but that was a long time ago when there were bulbs. For all we know there might be bulbs right now in Krasnogorsk...

Anyway, it is an ambitious little 27mm - f:1.8. To aid that ambition there is an on-board electronic flash tube and I note that the makers have pressed into the body of the camera the following little note:

flash on - always good, day & night

The comma is impressed there as well...There is a separate on position for the flash that treats of night and long exposures.

For those who wish to push out the Volga boat a bit, there is a kit with three additional lenses; a 170º fisheye attachment, a portrait attachment that brings the focal length to 35mm equivalent, and a close-up lens that will let you down to 10-15 cm from the subject. They are simple lenses and it's not rocket science but they probably have other people to do that...

For extra fun there are coloured gel filters, shooting technique cards, and the instruction manual. It really would make a cheerful present under the Christmas tree and anyone who receives one will be sure to drive the rest of the family nuts at Christmas lunch - leaving the dedicated Camera Electronic photographic shopper in peace to enjoy the turkey and brandy pudding.

You gotta think ahead.

Now's The Time For Christmas Cheer...

The start of November is finally here.
Take some advice from the blogging hack
And get some Olympus money back.

Thank you, thank you, here all week...*

What's more important is that Olympus actually HAS got a Christmas gift promotion going from now until Christmas Eve. You have 48 days to get yourself some Ho Ho Ho dough. Read on:

Purchase selected OlympusOM-D cameras or lenses and receivea Chritsmas gift from Olympus posted directly from the North Pole. The eligible product purchases are:

OM-D E-M1
OM-D E-M5 Mk II
7-14mm f:2.8 PRO lens
8mm f:2.8 PRO lens
40-150mm f:2.8 PRO lens
40-150 f:2.8 PRO lens with 1.4 teleconverter

The Christmas gift won't be a surprise - it'll be $ 200 cashback. Your valid purchase dates started on the 1st of November and continue to 124th of December 2015.

You get your claim in through their webpage:

www.Olympus.com.au/promotions

And yes, they do say you prepaid EFTPOS will be express posted from the North Pole. I couldn't think these things up, folks. If you get a polar bear or two bemused Inuit in a kayak at the front door use the new Olympus gear to take a picture...

* here the rest of the week: www.hrhoa.wordpress.com

Fujifilm Go Instantly Wide... The Crowd Goes Wild!

Well, if you're going to toot a trumpet or beat a drum you might as well do it loud!

Fujifilm have a fascinating range of Instax cameras that use the instant-film technology to deliver finished analog prints in your hand in 90 seconds. There are several modls ranging from tiny to medium sized...and now there is a wide version. We just took delivery of some of them.

It's known as the Fujifilm Instax Wide 300 and has its own film pack. The pictre in your hand is 11cm x 8.5 cm and 10cm x 6cm of that is picture area - hence the wide designation.

There's automatic flash, rangefinder focusing, a usefully large hand grip, and auto exposure on the camera. The close-up range of the camera gets down to 40-50cm. And thank goodness they have put a standard tripod socket in the bottom so you can use it for big groups.

Highly recommended.

Double Your Days With Our Rental Department

The Rajah Of The Rental Department has sent through a decree:

" Rentals customers can hire any rental gear from the 24th of December through to the 2nd of January  - that is a total of 8 days - and pay for only 4 days rental..."

This is a terrific offer and not to be missed.

Please also note that it is a very good idea to get your photographic equipment cleaned before the holidays begin. You'll receive 10% off all Sensor Cleans or Full Cleans until the 24th of December.

Please note all gear booked in for cleaning needs to come to us by 5:30 PM on the 23rd of December at the latest to get back in time for Christmas - we close at 3:00 on the 24th of December.

Weighs Nothing - Does Something - Lightweight Accessories For Christmas

I'm always banging on about the GoPro action cameras and their propensity to fill the ER at the local hospital with incautious users...but I really do admire their construction and the light weight that they impose on the photographer.

It's a lot of fun to carry heavy gear a long way in the heat and flies, said no photographer ever. That we still do is a testimony to our desire for megapixels and megapain. At least the people who ride bicycles off bridges have a legitimate excuse to break the habit, along with their clavicle.

This tripod from GoPole is light, tiny, and ready-fitted for the GoPro camera. If you are not going to wear the thing when you plunge off the cliff into the pit of dinosaurs, this is a good way to steady the camera to capture the scene. The cameras go for a long time once you press the start button so there is plenty of time to get into the scene.

The Joby Three-Way Strap is for wrist, neck, and shoulder and is instantly adjustable for different lengths. This is perfect for mirror-less system cameras.

The Cullmann Cross CX420 is the smallest Arca-Swiss - sized quick release plate and holder that you will ever see. Compacts and mirror-less cameras can now share the same tripod mount as your DSLR but not have a big block of iron hanging on the bottom.

Christmas is coming a stockings need to be stuffed with something besides dirty feet. Just sayin'

Save the Christmas Lunch Party With Fujifilm

I don't want to depress you, but Christmas lunch is coming. You will be required to bring a plate - with food in it.

 Apart from the beer fridge, and possibly the pudding, there will be few other saving graces. Time will slow to a stop about 3:00 in the afternoon and only the start of a roaring sibling's fight will enliven the day.

It needn't be this way. This year arm yourself with a Fujifilm Instax Share printer and some packets of film and step into the breach. Become the family hero. Get invited back next year. Here's how you do it:

The Fujifilm Instax Share is a magic little printer that will take the images that people put on their smart phones and print them out onto Fujifilm Instax instant film - it scoots out of the printer and develops in your hand in 90 seconds. The novelty of it and the fact that everyone will have been drinking will ensure that a number of memorable selfies will occur. With the Fujifilm Instax they can be printed in hard copy - far safer than firing them onto Facebook.

We've got plenty of them so take the opportunity to buy yourself a present.

Working Retail - Working Retailers

I went to the shops this weekend. Not this one, mind - other shops. Garden City and Perth CBD. Holiday purchases needed during the next three weeks.

Well, that WAS interesting. Book shop, luggage shop, ABC shop, Games World, David Jones, Myers, Miss Mauds, and Sushi Sushi. An eclectic mixture, but my friends and family are a mixed lot so I match the present to the person.

What I learned:

1. No-one in the line ahead of me in Myers, David Jones, ABC shop, Games World, Miss Maud's, or Sushi Sushi asked " What's your best price...? ". I looked to see if they were dead, but they were all alive. Apparently it is considered correct to pay the price on the sticker. My head swam when I realised this, but I am coming to terms with it.

2. Newton was right. Greater mass creates greater gravity and leads to attraction of bodies. As people acquire ever larger 4WD and SUV cars they drive ever closer to your rear bumper. The purchase of these large vehicles must demand a great deal of their patience and good manners because by the time they are in the Garden City car park they have none of it left. I think there should be pumps at petrol stations that put perfume and tranquillising mist into the cabins of these cars along with the petrol and diesel. Or we should be allowed .44 revolvers.

3. Sometimes shop electric lighting systems break down and leave the staff in the gloom. This is inconvenient to the shoppers but it does allow the management to hire uglier workers. There is hope for me yet...

4. Apparently you can sell expensive coffee machines but you cannot stock the actual coffee for it. That has to come from the maker of the coffee machine. In the post. I am trying to relate this to our shop and the closest I can come to it is if we sell you a Nikon D930s ( the new Nikon D930s, not the old D930...) we then send you to the memory card shop and they post you out the card...and you can get the card in 25 different flavours, all with Italian names. Ciao!

5. Christmas wrapping paper comes in two sizes; too small or too large. Cost/weight ratio for it makes it slightly more expensive than plutonium.

6. If you have a cat, do not leave an empty paper bag on the floor then later drop something on what you naturally believe to be an empty paper bag. No good will come of it.

7. Label the presents as you wrap them. Never mind the twee little tags and the ribbons. Sticky labels and a ball point will do it, and you won't have to unwrap them to see who gets them. Wrapping presents with Kevlar tape is just mean. Mean fun, mind, but mean. But fun.

8. You cannot wrap some things. And I don't mean that damn cat. I mean there are some things that are either so distinctive in shape or so awkward that they cannot be enclosed. For these there is the green garbage bag with a nice ribbon.

9. Sushi Sushi does not have a rent-before-you-buy policy.

10. If you get your holiday shopping done early you can sit in the lounger out the back with a book and a drink and watch other people do theirs. It gets funnier and funnier the closer you get to Christmas but be careful about laughing out loud.

Here We Go To The Holidays - New Hours

Holidays are approaching with the inexorability of a loaded coal train. To accommodate the need to buy stuff we are going to put on extra hours on Saturdays:

This Saturday the 6th - 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM

The following two Saturdays - the 13th and 29th - we open at 9:00 AM and close at 2:00PM.

Help us celebrate these times by coming in and leaving money with us. We promise to be grateful.

Uncle Dick

Calling All Girls - Fuji Instax In Stocks

Stop wincing. It's actually a charming little camera. If you've got daughters or grand-daughters they would love one. And Christmas is only 6 months away. And it's only 99 bucks!

The Fujifilm Instax cameras produce a credit-card size instant picture in 90 seconds. Just like the old Pola...d cameras. But with nicer colours. And a lot more automation than we had in the 60's and 70's.

This version is in pastels - pink, yellow, blue, white...and black as well if your daughter is a Goth. They run on Instax 10-pack films and a couple of AA batteries. They are slickly designed and work well.

Surprisingly they have an adjustable aperture for different light conditions, and have also included a high-key option for the arty types. There's an in-built flash for indoors shots and an AF system.

If you're into higher-tech instant there is also a big black and silver version but these are the ones that will come out at parties and school. Buy some extra film too, and make yourself popular.

Moving Right Along - With The Panasonic Lumix

This advertisement is the right price - we have just made sure of that!

The Panasonic Lumix GX-7 is a beauty of a mirror-less camera - it is one of the best handed cameras in this sensor size - the controls fall to your fingers without strain and the multi-angle viewfinder and LCD screen mean that you can operate it in any position - close to the ground for macro flowers or high above your head for event shots.

The files it produces are clean and clear - it handles low light very well.

It takes all the micro 4/3 lenses from Panasonic and other manufacturers. And here is where this deal gets sweeter. We have the perfect family party and tourist lens for it  -the Panasonic 20mm f:1.7 lens.

Today and tomorrow we have four of these camera body/lens combinations available - silver body and silver lens - with all the accessories for a snip price of:

                                        $ 1189.00

The lens alone sells for $ 450 so it looks as though this is the bargain of the day. We're trading until 5:30 today and until 3:00 tomorrow. Ring us up with the credit card and secure one.

A Christmas Carol And We all Go To The Dickens...

Whet the knife and boil the oil
Someone here has screwed up royal.
Grab a throat and twist it tight
The advertisement is not right.

If you read the newspaper today you may be astonished to see that 24-70 mm lenses from Canon and Sigma are at an all-time low price. An eye-poppingly low price. An unsustainable send-us-to-the poorhouse price. It is not just a clever marketing ploy by devious minds. It is a monumental proof-reading mistake by tired minds. The first casualty of Christmas 2013.

This is in the true Australian tradition of something coming seriously adrift around the 25th - you'll remember the ILLAWARA and the Tasmanian bridge and Darwin and the cyclone and all the bushfires. Well, this is the Camera Electronic Christmas disaster.

Don't contribute money to the Red Cross for us - no-one is homeless yet. We are about to have a couple of days of irate phone calls but we are trained in how to handle these; we burst into tears and howl like husky dogs. It seems to work.

The REAL PRICE of the lenses:

1. Sigma 24-70 lens    RRP $ 1049    Christmas Special $ 744

2. Canon 24-70 lens   RRP $ 1699     Christmas Special $ 1222

Apart from the advertisement passing 4 proof readers...(!)...we do apologise for the inconvenience to our customers. It is just a mistake, not a deliberate piece of meanness.

We reserve that for our relatives at the end of Christmas Day...Ho Ho Ho.

Kindly Old Uncle Dick

Hark The Herald Tribune Cries " Come In Here And Buy, Buy, Buy "

With apologies to Tom Lehrer…but it is the last Saturday before Christmas and it is traditional that you come in to the shop and buy something. We would prefer that you ask for photographic equipment but if you insist on hammers or plates of liver, we will do what we can to oblige…

It is also traditional in Western Australia to panic when it comes to the holidays. People look forward to one day of the year when the shops are shut and calculate that they will not be able to get bread or milk and rush out and empty the shelves and service station tanks…and in this spirit we would like to remind you that we will be shut from 3:00PM on the 24th until after New years. So rush in here and empty the shelves - you never can tell when you will wake up in the middle of the night and need a telephoto lens. Play it safe - buy several.


Merry Christmas from Uncle Dick

Santa Was Never Like This - Until He Started Drinking Floor Polish

Every now and then you get out past where the buses run, as Kinky Friedman says...and Camera Electronic is no excepton. We hire a lot of people and occasionally we get more than we bargain for. We hired a sales floor manager thinking that all we would get was a guy who could talk cameras...and ended up getting a world champion.

And not just any old world champion. Never mind your bicycle racers or boxers or cricket teams. We got the World Champion Santa. We really did.

David Downey is his name and it apparently took him three years to work his way up to the Arctic circle and put on the red coat and the hat with the bobble for Australia. But he blasted all the other Santas off the ice and took the championship.

You can see him in action on the ABC television station on Monday the 23rd at 10:30 AM in a program called " World Champion Santa". It is kid-safe to watch...as opposed to " Bad Santa" with Billy Bob Thornton, which is not.

Remember that you must all behave yourselves when you come into the shop - Santa knows when you have been naughty and when you have been nice and these days he works in close collaboration with the USAF out of Omaha. There is a vast difference between a reindeer and an armed drone.

Yule Be Sorry To Miss Out

Christmas time has come, By Golly
Scourge the kids with boughs of holly.
Pie the mince and tree the balls,
Here comes Microsoft scamming calls.

Nose to tail along the Freeway
South or North it matters not
Honk your horn and raise your finger
It's still and dead and bright and hot.

Xmas lunch with all the rellies
Hoping for prawns? You joke my dear -
The kids have eaten all the good bits
Content yourself with bread and beer.

Back again at end of even,
Bloated, sleepy, red, and sore.
New Year's Eve looms like perdition -
Then we do it one time more.

You can fight against Christmas ennui by buying yourself a gift - you'll see a CE special advertisement somewhere on your computer soon. Don't stint yourself - the prices have come down and you can treat yourself to something to make up for the ties, potholders, and shapeless sweaters that will be under the tree.

None of this will make up for the trip on the freeway to see your relatives but at least you'll be able to take good pictures over the summer holiday. If you get a camera like the Fuji X-series you can take wonderful selfies on New Years Eve before the fights break out.

Dinner Of the Camera Party

With profound apologies to M. Renoir...

What do camera people do when they are not standing behind the counter at Camera Electronic? They dine at the Duckstein Brewery in the Swan Valley, of course. This is the holiday season and with Christmas coming up we all repaired to the Duck to recruit the tissues and revive the mind.

Aside from testing the malted waters...and I can particularly recommend the Dunkel...and the sauerkraut, we indulged in that most sporting of pastimes: shooting people. I hasten to add, for the benefit of whatever spy agency monitors this blog ( Hey! to Langley...)that we used Fuji cameras and flashes for the task.

I used the X-10 and Dom used the X-Pro 1 with the EF-X20 flash. His pictures came out better than mine but that is because he did not get served his Dunkel as quickly as I. I'm satisfied, though, as I have good souvenirs of the night, quite apart from the deadly hangover and the lump behind the ear where the barmaid hit me with the litre stein.

The trick was - Dom was using the flash and I was relying upon an extreme ISO and a steady hand. I did mention the Dunkel, didn't I? The flash and the circuitry in the Fuji were able to sort out a perfect front exposure while leaving some of the back light to imprint behind thee main subject. Make no mistake - that is the real secret of party and event photography.

Never mind light from three separate directions and diffusers and assistants and artspeak - you need a clean clear front flash or at least a clean bounced flash with a little front card light to get the best out of faces. If you can get some background light and colour, so much the better. You are looking for good grip-and-grin with couples and foursomes - after that you can plan out epic shots with your three assistants and a Klieg light.

Fuji does this - I can get good selfies if I pop up the flash at 200 ISO and set the thing on P. Dom can get great G&G with the EF-X20. If you are using one of the X100 or X100s it is even better - the whole thing is self-contained and you can instruct the camera to fire whenever it thinks it knows what you want to do better than you do.

The perfect Dunkel camera...

Stuff Your Stocking - With Op/Tec

And you can stuff your bag as well - and your suitcase. That's the kind of blog this is. Fearless.

It used to be a worry around Christmas time that you would wake up on Christmas morning to find a shapeless black mass in your stocking at the end of the bed. Either a lump of coal or Whoopi Goldberg...Well, you can rest easy this Christmas - Op/Tec have a wonderful alternative.

If you are going to be flying overseas you can sometimes be tempted to put your camera gear into your suitcase - to save room in the overhead locker for your bottles of duty-free gin or volumes of Proust. I've tried it with the camera wrapped up in layers of underwear and socks and gaffer tape. Do-able, but messy and woe betide you if someone official opens the case a looks at that sort of parcel. They'll come and get you and I can hear the snap of the latex gloves now...

Far better to invest in an Op/Tec neoprene camera case. These fit snugly over a wide variety of cameras, from small amateur compact to big professional bodies and zoom lenses - even some with battery grips attached. You can pack the camera in it inside the case and even if the whole lot goes to Rio while you go to Riga, at least it will arrive intact.

You can also beat the crowds when you have to carry the gear slung around your neck. If you do so with a bare lens there is always a sticky finger in the crowd that will get to your front element. If you have a lens cap on it will fall off. ( Humboldt proved this in the 19th century...) If you have a lens hood on as well as a lens cap you might as well buy postcards as it will be too much trouble to dig through it all to get the lens open.

 The answer is the Op/Tec Hood Hat. They are a deep neoprene cover that snaps over the lens hood and grips while protecting from impact - and snaps off just as fast for the shot. They come in various sizes and there are really humungous ones for the wide-angle lenses with the big petal hoods.

If you want to completely encase the lens while you are carrying it, you can also get deeper lens bags from the same firm. One colour - black.

Thinking Inside The Box - With Zero Image

One might be forgiven for thinking that if a product is named Zero Image that it would not be much use in photography. Nothing could be further from the truth - Zero Image makes some of the funnest gear in the shop.

Look at the heading photograph. What looks like a small wooden jewel casket with brass fittings is actually a fully-functional camera. It is running in parallel with another famous product on the market at present in that it too does not need to be focussed. It is in focus all the time.

The wooden box is a pinhole camera made by Zero Image. It operates on 120 roll film, colour or black and white, and the sun. Or the moon, if you are very patient.

The camera has a perfectly good shutter, and a very precise laser-cut aperture, a smooth winding mechanism, a simple film indexing system, and no lens at all.

The focussing is done by the tiny aperture - it is effectively f:235! That means an enormous depth of field, gently soft edges to some bright areas, and a very long exposure time. The camera is fitted with a sturdy brass tripod screw on the bottom and you will need to use it for nearly every shot you take.

The exposure in bright West Australian sun for a 400 ISO film would be somewhere between 30 and 45 seconds. I've done this for years on all sorts of stock and if you can keep the subject and the camera still you can get some very interesting photos. Those people dedicated to long exposures blurring the sea or waterfalls might care to load a 50 ISO film into it and blaze away. Actually it is more of a very slow warmth in those cases...

The camera has provision in the back to work the 120 film as 6 x 6, 6 x 7, or 6 x 9 format. The indexing of the film is the good old sliding shutter over a red window at the back. Crude and sophisticated all in one.

Please note the elegant revolving dial calculator at the back that allows you to imagine up an exposure in the field. This is one camera that rewards careful mathematics.

Please note that the Zero Image people have also sent us a 35mm version of this camera.

It has a provision for a cable release attachment and a wonderfully steam-punk levelling bubble on the top. All you need are motorcycle goggles and a top hat to complete the look.