Planning Ahead For Your New Camera Outfit - A Checklist

Those of you who followed the news from Photokina in 2016 - sent back in part by the management team of Camera Electronic and in part by the press departments of major manufacturers - will have been attracted to the new cameras and lenses shown. Lots of you will have zeroed in on new offerings and are starting to make vague plans to get something fresh...

Well, before the new cameras came onto the sales floor - in some cases this can be months - you could do some good for yourself by making a detailed plan of what to get...in what order. We've prepared a checklist for you. Please feel free to copy it and print it out.

TEN-POINT CHECKLIST FOR NEW PHOTO EQUIPMENT

1. Sell your old camera at the markets, pawnshop, or Gumtree. Hide the cash from the rest of the family. Do this first so that you cannot renege on the idea later. You can occupy your spare time by cleaning out the hard drive and finally editing those 5000 files of the dog chasing a tennis ball.

2. Decide which lenses you wish to keep. This list should also include the lenses that you bought at the camera market, the lenses that have been sitting in the shed for two decades, the lenses that fit the camera system you had two camera systems ago, the lens that your mate gave you, and the lens that you haven't actually told the wife about yet. If none of these match the new camera system you are lusting after...err.. considering...then you are morally justified in selling the lot. Morals play a lot in lens sales.

3. Lift up the bottom of the camera bag or Pelican case and see if anything has slipped down there. It is the photographic equivalent of taking the sofa cushions off and looking for small change but it can yield some surprising finds. Expect old filters and lint.

4. Analyse your photo patterns scientifically. If you have been taking pictures of orchids for 30 years, you probably will not need to invest in a 500mm f:1.8 lens. You can apply the money you save to the purchase of a 78-Kilo tripod and a focus stacking program.

5. Measure the boot of the car. Is it big enough to accommodate the new camera system? Is it big enough to fit all the boxes in if you have to store them in there to prevent the wife from finding them? If she does find them, is it big enough to accommodate you?

6. Check the specifications of your computer system. Does it have enough central memory to run the files from the new camera? If it does, will it overheat? If it overheats, can you make cheese toasties on the outer casing? Note: with some examples of computer from a very well-known manufacture, you can. Kraft Cheddar slices are particularly good for this.

7. While you are puzzling at the figures on the computer, look up the version of RAW converter that the new camera will require - and then look at what your current editing program will do. Of course it will not be adequate, but I just put this in to make you feel sad and alone. A new editing program will bring you joy again, until the next time you change systems...

8. No need the throw out all your old memory cards - they can be used to prop up small flower pots to promote drainage. The new ones that you will need to buy will be faster and have more capacity. You can always ask whether the new camera comes with a free card in the box, if you are not worried by indelicate language.

9. Will you want black or silver? Or silver with tan facings? Or an overall wrap of the national flag?
Or all four? If you sold the car you could buy all four. You can sell cars on Gumtree...

10. Do you need the new camera to be water-proof, water-resistant, or highly-absorbent? Decide now before you go down to the beach.

Okay Guys...Or Second-Guessing The Market

I'm not in the loop of CE management as far as what gets purchased. And I'm not in the loop of CE management about what gets sold, either. Frankly I'm grateful that they still let me in the front door and I get the occasional cup of coffee...

Which means I was delighted to see the presence of an official CE coffee machine at the new Murray/Queen St. shop. Note the We Love Photography mugs.

In my first visit to the new shop I noted carefully the choices that had been made regarding some lines of equipment. Of course you will always get the big players - the Nikon, Leica, Sony, Fujifilm, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, etc - but it is the choices of what to stock for the other bits that is interesting. I looked at what was there and tried to see into the minds of the management - why was something chosen for the shelf?

a. Tripods. You'll see from the quick shot that we have essentially three shelves of tripods and monopods. I see Gitzo, Manfrotto, and one Velbon. The Gitzos are the high-priced ones, the Manfrotto more economical and the Velbon the low end. They are ALL not big tripods - in fact three of them would qualify as traveller tripoids. There is a sprinkling of video gear there, including one video moonopod. Here's how I read it:

The shop caters to pros as well as amateurs - and some of the pros need big things like that video monopod. They can get that at Stirling Street but they might need it at a time when Stirling St. is closed - hence it is wise to keep one unit in the city. The Gitzo gear is expensive traveller or high-end customer...and some of these may work all hours on St. Georges Tce. and can't get out to Stirling St.

Manfrotto tripods are a standard of the industry as far as design so nearly everyone else from tourists to city workers can be accommodated with one model or the other. Manfrotto are a no-question sale.

And the little plastic one at the bottom? Well, you never can tell when a traveller's luggage will disappear and if their tripod goes with it they need a fast, cheap replacement here in Perth.  That could well be the emergency pack for photographers right there.

b. Bags. I see the in two divisions - style and utility. The various hanging leather and canvas ones in the first photograph are intended to look good as well as protect the cameras - in some circumstances the appearance of the camera case is more important that the gear it contains - people have been judged on externals more than you'd think.

The Lowepro bags in the second shot are the workhorses of transport - people can load a whole holiday's worth of equipment in them and haul it through the world with some hope of geting it home in one piece. I know - I've got a ratty old Lowepro Nova1 that did just that and it was precisely the right blue nylon choice for the job. It looked like exactly what it was but it rounded the world twice.

c. The Hahnel rack. When you want to control flashes or cameras remotely and you need to do it with radio signals rather than light pulses, Hahnel should be one of the first brands you look at. The designs are sturdy, use standard AA batteries, and do not depend on you having WiFi, apps, passwords, or strange computer commands. They are a simple as they can be and they work every time. Good choice for the trigger market.

Okay, so far I think the management has thought it all out well. You may agree, but then you may have also different needs. I didn't get to see all of the shelves - perhaps you should pop in there one day this coming week and see for yourself. I'm going back when they have a bag of coffee beans.

The new Murray St store is now open at 2/324 Murray St, Perth.
The Stirling St store remains open at 230 Stirling St, Perth.
For opening hours, see here

Seriously Tripod

Seriously tripod. Seriously light. Seriously Gitzo.*

The travel tripod is a major division of the photo accessory world - thank goodness. People have recognised that they need the sort of support that a tripod brings to their architecture, travel, and landscape shots. Even with the mind-boggling stabilisation systems on board modern cameras (Ask the Fujifilm, Nikon, and Olympus reps about this next time they have a demonstration day in the shop, but be prepared for a full lecture...).

People still need the tripod for the 1/2 second to 1/2 hour exposure. And if they are going overseas they need to take something light to do it with.

The Gitzo tripod you see in these pictures is probably the best light tripod in the world. It has positive twist locks on the carbon fibre legs. Also reversible legs, an extendable centre column, and two position stops on the legs. The head is probably the slickest casting you have ever seen and the ball that revolves in it is freely adjustable for friction - but when it is released from constraint it is the smoothest turning one I have ever felt.

There is a wealth of good thinking as well. The triangular shape of the quick release platform is not just an attempt at art deco Gallic style - it is shaped that way to allow the legs to fold in tight when it is closed into travel configuration. Some other tripods from some other manufacturers fail in this area - I know because I own one - and the legs tend to jam out when you try to put it into a bag.

The finish and fit on the head is also of such a high standard as to suggest art as well as utility. Go for utility by all means but please your eye at the same time...

* The bottom line is that it is expensive. If you are pinching pennies pass further down the car. This tripod is intended for the people who need or want the best and can afford it. They pay now and never have to buy it again.

Note: I used a Gitzo Studex IV tripod to take the pictures of the Gitzo travel tripod. I'll never buy another because I simply can neither fault it nor wear it out. At my age, it has prettier legs than I do.

See the full Gitzo range on the Camera Electronic website here.

The Little Man With The Little Trade Table

If you have ever gone to a photographic trade show, collector's market, or enthusiast's conference you know roughly what the exhibition hall will look like.

There'll be a number of stands set out by major manufacturers, a couple of tables from a local authority or professional body loosely allied to the theme of the day, and one or two little card tables set up with sad-looking people behind them. They'll generally be in the least favourable position in the layout - near the toilets or down behind the service corridor. Do yourself a favour - seek them out.

We're not saying that the major players don't have good stands - after all, they've got the money and prestige and corporate power to get the best place in the show. And they'll be the ones with the big new products that everyone has been seeing hints of for the last two months on the internet forums. Go to them and heft the new cameras and lenses and have a good time. Enjoy their latest slogans...: "Dare To Imagine The Innovation Of Inspiration To Succeed/Exceed/Recede In You!" "Be What The Paradigm has Adventured!" "Now The World Will Revolving Around Of You!".

Hard to know how to respond to some of this...I suppose you could always shout out "Banzai" and throw yourself on the barbed wire, but that's a big ask for most Australians at a camera show...

But you will do more for your photographic development looking at the offerings of the little card-table people. They might be as humble as someone selling greeting cards, or as complex as someone with a scheme for reprocessing JPEG images into vegetable oil. All sorts of little gadgets are on offer, and some of them are actually useful.

You must not expect perfection - little craft makers rarely achieve industrial precision - and there may be an air of cottage industry about the presentation. Packaging might be scrappy, and instructions and diagrams crude - but then if you have ever read the instructions packed with a Metz Mecablitz product you will know that goodness need not be written up all that well. Look at the equipment first-off.

The German trade show Photokina in Köln has many such tables. People have made their way to Germany from all over the world to try to light the sales fire. If you want manual controls for an electronic computer or strange printing materials or little plastic accessories for anything, you need to haunt the card tables. The demonstrators will be there until the last of their samples, brochures and patience runs out...then they will clap the legs to on the table and beat it for the door. Look well, for you may never see them again.

Beware of entering into lifetime schemes of commitment at these fairs. Sometimes the commercial lifetimes they refer to are based roughly on those of Mayflies. Software is sometimes abandoned at the church door with a pathetic note asking the finder to nurture the infant program. Reseller's programs are also shaky ground...particularly if they ask you to recruit other re-sellers...or call for start-up funds.

Still, there are lots of good things on offer. If nothing else, collect all the brochures you can. They won't be worth anything in 2 years, but you can always paper the walls of the camera room with them.

Photokina 2016

Here it comes, folks. The biennial German trade fair, Photo Kina, for all things photographic. Clatter down off the fire-step into the dugout and hunker down...expect gas...

If you are an fan of the forums and the rumour sites you will know exactly what the new gear coming out will be - and I'll bet you have debated it at length at your camera club... championing the brand name or system that you own over all others whilst covertly calculating how much you'd get as a trade in if you swapped to something else. The answer to that is simple; not enough. But that won't stop you...

If you have wangled a leave pass and a European plane ticket and a fold-up cot in the corridor of some German hotel, you can be off this coming week to the show with the gleeful anticipation of a dose of jet lag, beer lag, and sore feet at the end of it all.

The smug superiority that you used to be able to exhibit when you came back is a little dimmed these days as most of the big exhibitors hold press conferences that go world-wide in a flash. You won't be able to bring back secret world-shattering news as it will have preceded you by days - but you can bring back brochures, pamphlets, trade samples, souvenir pins, throwaways, and as many images as you can cram onto the cards in your cameras. Also gastro and scammed credit cards, so beware.

Cameras? You're going to take three - one for just happy snaps, one for serious work, and one for insurance in case the others fail. This will involve taking three chargers and leads and an enormously complex plastic plug that almost fits into continental light sockets. You will lose two of the chargers and one of the cords, but that damned converter plug will remain with you for the next 15 years...

One thing to consider: for years you have puzzled at the instruction manuals that are packed with the cameras and at the way they use English. You have wondered whether the people who write them can actually speak English at all. Well, you're about to find out. If you have some spare time and can find a person who speaks Greek, you might take them along to the trade stand of a Chinese manufacturer who is trying to sell at a German trade show and get them to ask a technical question in their native language. It's mean fun, but it's still fun.

Note: All of the above is powered by a strong sense of jealousy on the part of this hack writer. Perhaps in two years time...

Our directors are on the ground at Photo Kina this week so see all the news on the Camera Electronic Facebook page as it rolls in!

The $49 Photographic Insurance Policy

It costs $49 and it has three legs and you need one in your car right now. And you can't get it at Marlowes.

This is not a column about studio shooting with tripods. The one you see in the pictures would be awful in a studio. If that is what you are looking for, go look through the Cullmann, Gitzo, and Manfrotto tripod range and look for the big, heavy ones - the heavier the better.

This is about a small, boxed $ 49 aluminium tripod that is light enough and cheap enough to live in the box in the boot of your car. Cause one day you gonna get caught...

You'll be out with your camera doing some completely different thing and the light will start to fade. Dusk will roll in and as you come around a bend on the street or road you'll see the most glorious sunset, beach scene, cityscape, or set of clouds over a darkening mountain that life will ever present to you. There will be a parking spot right in front of the best vantage point. No-one will be crowding in front of you. Even the ice-cream wrappers and Red Bull cans will all be cleaned away into the bin.

The scene will be perfect.

And you will need to shoot it at a very small aperture with a low ISO and a long shutter speed. Longer even than the marvellous anti-shake system you paid for in the new camera will accommodate. You will need a tripod and you will need it fast.

Open the boot, take out the $49 Vectra Delux and take the best 30-second photograph of your life....

Okay, that's the end of the drama. The Vectra is one of those tripods that has plastic fittings for the head and legs, though the basic struts are aluminium. You don't want to put a heavy DSLR on there, but you can put a medium one or one of the mirror-less cameras on it. You can put a small video camera on it and use the head to pan and tilt, if you need to. There is even the convenience of a quick-release plate - again in plastic. If you do not put too much weight on it, you'll be fine.

And the important thing is you'll actually have the right tool for the job instead of trying to prop your camera on the bonnet of the car with two jumpers and a Red Bull can out of the rubbish bin.  Make like the Boy Scouts - Be prepared.

* Note. It also doubles as a really light stand for of camera flash if you use the little accessory foot that you get with speed lights.

The Decline Of The Self Portrait Number Two

Remember the problem of the selfie shooter we mentioned in a previous post? The ten seconds to eternity that the self-timing circuit takes before it fires the camera - when you try to look like Roger Moore when he was 007 and end up looking like Roger Moore now...*

Well the problem compounds when you consider the support you need for a good self portrait - and we don't just mean the family not laughing at you - we mean the mechanical support for the camera.

The artist who painted themselves saw themselves in a mirror, and either had to make the difficult mental switch from left to right that a mirror image depiction involves - or arrange two mirrors to bounce the image back and then run with that. The camera shooter might also pose themselves in front of a mirror but unless they capture the image by shooting in that mirror, they get to see the real them when the file is displayed on a screen. If that sounds confusing go into the bathroom and try it yourself.

The artist set up a mirror that reflected themselves in whatever light they chose and then had to set their canvas in a light that would reflect wherever they chose to show on it. Not as simple a deal as you might think. But they had the advantage that we mentioned before of being able to edit the backdrop as they painted. The average selfie shooter who shoots a mirror shot in the toilets at a nightclub gets what they deserve. A more careful worker might take a bigger file into a computer and then Photoshop the backdrop, but that is a complex task.

Back to the support - most selfies are taken from unflattering angles - or at least angles that are bound to distort the faces and bodies they depict. Up looking down and down looking up with wide-angle lenses plays hell with verticals and makes pinheads or monsters of the subject. If the poser would consider themselves in the light of an architectural shot and attend to the verticals they would be so much happier. This doesn't mean a bellows camera or a tilt/shift lens...though Camera Electronic would be delighted to sell these items to everyone - but it does mean some form of tripod.

Doesn't have to be a big tripod, and for a lot of cameras it does not even have to be a sturdy tripod, but it does have to get the center of the lens looking at the center of the main subject with the camera back vertical. You can do it with a Gitzo 6" naval gun mounting, or Manfrotto 190, or little Cullmann 622 - or even with a Cullmann Copter tabletop tripod if you have a handy tabletop.

Do that, get your mouth and eyebrows under control, stand fairly upright and try not to show the wrinkles at the knees of your trousers ( or the wrinkles at the knees of your legs...) and do it all in ten seconds and you too can be an artist. Or at least an objet d'art...

* Don't google it. It'll just ruin your memories...

Day 4 - The Attack Of The Tripods

Looming through the predawn mist they come. Lurching from side to side on their stiff legs. Uttering their weird cry... " Where's The Voltaren? "...It's the Landscape Photographers From Outer Space...

Well, you had to be there... In any case, if you plan to go out lurching before sunrise or after sunset we recommend that you come in today and take advantage of us. Or at least take advantage of the 30% off offer on tripods.

That means you can get a top-quality Manfrotto, Cullman, 3 Legged Thing, or Gitzo tripod and save enough money for bandages and liniment.

Okay, all joking aside, you are going to need a tripod at some stage of your photo career, and in some cases more than one - big one for the studio, small one for the airplane trip. We've got 'em all - and you need not spend a fortune on them either - that 30% discount is a handy force-doubler for your budget.

Another good thing to consider is the fact that tripods can be modified easily for special purposes or frequent work by the addition of different ball heads, tilting mechanisms, panoramic tables, and video racks. You need not stay with the manufacturer's basic idea - you can customise it to suit your vision perfectly.

A case in point is me - I need a big hefty 'pod in the studio that does not move even a pixel between studio shots - so that they can be effectively layered together later. I also need the precision up and down of a geared central column. Gitzo Studex 5, thank you very much. It does not move out of the studio and very little inside it, either.

For the interstate trips I need something to balance a mirror-less Fujifilm camera that is small enough to go inside a Crumpler bag. The Cullmann Concept One 622 is fine, and as I want to do panos occasionally I have installed a Concept One swivel table on top of the ball head. Total custom job done with one Allen key.

What do you do? What do you need? Race on down to Camera Electronic and play with the tripods - we won't think you odd. It's the only way to learn. and you can learn at 30% off today.

Clip Leg Or Twist Leg Or Thumbscrew? A Tripod Debate

No matter where you stand on this question, there is one thing certain - you will be firmly on three legs...

Tripod design varies in many respects when it comes to the yoke at the top and the centre column, and the doodads that make up the head, but the actual locking of the legs falls into  three general categories:

1. Twist lock - where there is a collar around each segment that tightens around the leg as you twist it.

2. Clip lock - where some form of lever flips over and either grips or cams the leg tight.

3. Thumbscrew lock - a t-shaped or round knob tightens a clamp on the leg of the tripod.

The designers scatter these different types throughout their ranges as material and/or general fashion dictates. There is also the business of price - some things are cheaper to manufacture than others and when you are pushing out a tripod for $ 50 you need to watch every penny.

Gitzo have always been the top of the tree when it comes to tripods and I cannot remember seeing anything but twist locks on their legs - this is because they are round-profile legs. The Studex 4 and 5 series have a memorable winged screw for the largest segment.

Manfrotto now favour clip locks but for some time used thumbscrews. Their strong point has been the provision of spare parts - sometimes the ham-fisted manage to break the clips.

Promaster? A mixture as they source from different factories and designers.

Three Legged Thing? Twist. Matches their minds.

Cullmann? Again a mixture, though I must say that the twist lock on my Concept One travel tripod is all I could want - it opens and closes easily and holds a mirror-less camera safely.

Is any of this applicable to what you do? If you are always running and gunning you might need the speed of the clip lock - Manfrotto video tripods are the greatest exponent of this. If you need studio steady you can use the twist lock. Still-life products do not run away.

Mind you, sometimes still-life photographers do, but that is another subject...

Cataloging The Catalogues - The Paper Salespersons

Anyone over the age of 50 remembers paper - that stuff they made out of scrunched-up trees that came in big flat sheets. Sometimes you even see it in the digital era - they spray ink over it to make pictures that look a lot like the computer screen...

Well in the 1950's they even used it for making up illustrated lists of products for sale. These were called catalogues and were frequently given out to prospective clients to aid them in selecting products - or so it was said. In reality the catalogues were sent out as silent agents - paper assassins programmed to attack the nerve centres of the victims and render them helpless. They did this by several means:

1. They were illustrated well. In a era that had rather poor reproduction standards in the newspapers ( I'll explain what newspapers were in a future post.) the catalogue provided first-class images. Their black and white pictures were frequently taken with 4 x 5 or 8 x 10 cameras and were professionally lit and posed. The block making and printing was superb. Colour was even more spectacular, though it might not pass muster today as far as actual fidelity - it depended upon strong contrasts and startling inks. Just the fact of colour in a printed image was a seller.

Note: Australia missed out in this to some extent as overseas catalogues were sometimes rendered in monochrome when they came here. The same applied to comic books - a travesty of the artist's work. Gordon and Gotch have a lot to answer for.

The pictures were taken by professional photographers - frequently in proper studios. You got to see expert illustrations. You got to see exploded diagram photos.

2. They were accessible. Catalogues were a respectable form of publication - sanctioned by retailers and wholesalers alike - and you could safely give them to children. The underwear section of the Sears and Roebuck catalogue bordered on the risqué only if you exercised an unhealthy imagination. Page 82 was really good...

3. They were always there and always on. Paper catalogues never needed to have their batteries charged and no-one needed to remember a password to read them. You could take them into the can and study the goods without fear of dropping $ 1000 worth of electronics down the pan.

4. They were focussed. If the manufacturer wanted you see their range of products, you saw just that - no side-ads scrolling down as you read - no temptation to poke off into another page. They showed - you looked.

Today there are a number of manufacturers in our trade who follow the paper catalogue route as well as using the internet websites. They either put out a comprehensive publication like the Gitzo tripod people or a series of separate pamphlets like the Nikon people. Both approaches score attention from buyers and a credible response.

Their message drives deeper than the pure-computer approach - and I think they score more sales from it. Let us hope that other manufacturers adopt this idea - catalogues are a good idea.

The Strap-On Follies Or How I'm Learning The Hard Way

Sitting there looking at the Fuji cameras I own started me thinking. I have encased two of the bodies in purpose-built cages to allow for easy attachment to my Cullmann  or Gitzo tripod  and to allow me to attach a Fujifilm EF 42 flash easily on the side. The cages are well made with Arca Swiss rails on two sides.

They're great - they provide a better grasp of the camera body and metal protection against bumps and knocks. Even if you don't attach them to a tripod, they can act as platforms in either landscape or portrait orientation to steady the camera. And they are not  too heavy.

But....

They jigger up the attachment point where the camera strap clips onto the sides of the cameras. I can get away with the stiff proprietary strap on the X-100 or a thin little Crumpler Hitch on the X-E2 body, but neither feel comfortable...and in the case of the Crumpler, a big lens seems to add an unsafe weight. I determined to get another to provide a better carriage.

Mistake N0.1 yesterday - I got a big strap from Crumpler with the sort of metal ring and leather flap that we see on A&A and other premium straps. No good. The leather flap and the metal cage are fighting for space - every time you put the camera to your eye you have to fight your way in there . Even your shutter button finger is pushed out of the way.

Mistake No.2 today - tried several of the hand-hold wrist straps attached to one ring. Alleviated the eye/strap contest but introduced the wrist/cramp/problem. Plus this ties the camera to the drinking hand...

Mistake N0.3 tonight - I am going to go out into the shed and dig out the old leatherworking tools and see what is in the scrap bin. If I made a perfectly good holsters for Colt .44 Army revolvers*, I can make a strap for a Fuji X-E2.

Yee hah.

* And I did.

Getta Good - Getta Gitzo

The Gitzo is the best. No arguments. It is also the most expensive. No arguments. It sells for mining money...or legal money, if you are employed by a mining firm. Normal mortals can't afford them...

Unless those normal mortals need the absolute precision of the heavy studio Systematic 3, 4 or 5, or the featherweight of the Traveller series. Then they find the money somehow. I know, I own a Studex  Series 5 in the studio and it can not be faulted. It can't actually be moved unless you eat spinach.

Now you too can approach the sacred mountain ( of tripods ) by taking advantage of the EOFY sale of the Gitzo GK1380VQR set.

It is the last one we have, or are ever likely to get. It is retro repro, styled from the 70's. It has a jet-set 70's leather travellers bag. It has a ball head and quick release and absolute precision. It is going out UNDER cost - to make room for new stock.

Bring in your $ 350 and grab it and run. It is your best chance ever for a classic, unless you can find a gold...or iron...mine.

L'Arc de Tripod

" You weesh to buy ze bes' tripod in ze shop, Monsieur? I weell show eet to you, but you mus' unner stan' eet is not for jus'anyone. Ah, non. Thees tripod ees only for the mos' sophisticated and important people. No peasant need apply..."

The Gitzo company has always made the best heavy supports in the industry. I know Linhof used to bang on about theirs but Gitzo managed to get the stability with more style. And Gitzo have adapted to new materials and a new age and have poineered new concepts. None of which has anything to do with the tripod in the pictures.

This is a step back in time as the company has copied one of their classics of the 1960's and produced a repro travel tripod that recalls the film era. It has metal legs. It has metal castings. It has rubber feet. The ball head has a particularly smooth action and the classic Gitzo quick release plate. Note the metal parts are finished with the traditional hammertone finish. The whole is professional in the extreme.

But not heavy. This is a surprise to me as I have a Studex 5 from this same firm and it is so massive as to generate its own gravity. It does not move from the studio as I do not wish to ruin my back. The Gitzo here in the shop is light enough to take on any airplane and as you'll see it comes in the most elegant travel case that you have ever seen. Fitted leather with a padded shoulder strap.

Note, sophisticates - this is a rare tripod. Your friends will not have one, nor are they likely to be able to find one. You will be the envy of their eye, as well as achieving steady pictures.

The Low Priced Spread - Surprisingly Nutritious

Every so often something pops up here in the shop that surprises me. That's why we keep a big can of Mortein handy...boom boom...

No, really - we get products that do not attract the attention they deserve. One of which is this unassuming little travel tripod from Weifeng  - the WF 6615. The numbering tells me that it s probably made by the same people who make Fancier and we have had some good tripods from them in the past.

The older ones were extremely good value for money, but heavy. This latest offering goes the other way - it is a travel tripod that tries to give the most stability for smallest size and weight. I think it succeeds admirably.

Cynics and smart-alecs will look at a lot of products and mumble the names of their competitors and try to suggest that they are a knock-off. Perhaps, but when you consider the price, they are not rip-offs. This little tripod walks out of the door ( on three legs...) for a measly $ 149.

The quick release plate on the top is Arca-size so you can interchange it onto a lot of other gear . Gone, I fervently pray, are the days of Optex and Vanguard and Uncle Fred's Tripod and Bait Shoppe brand tripods that had their own mutually incompatible plates. We regularly see sad hopefuls trolling the streets for old unmatchable plates and it means trouble. Weifeng at least decided to copy the one of the main players.

There is a securing post on the underside of the quick release holder as well as a green bubble level that are a touch that might well be copied by other manufacturers - they are actually useful. The whole thing even comes in a bag for that price.

Jason says Weifeng is a first name, so maybe that's who makes them...Uncle Weifeng.

Sticking To Your Post - With Manfrotto And Cullmann

Saturday night last was a  revelation for me. I attended a hafla - a dance show for Middle Eastern dance - at a local school auditorium. The evening was four hours of wonderful dancing to terrible music by talented dancers in colourful costumes. I hasten to add that the experience is not new - I do a half dozen of these a year. What was new was the equipment I took along.

Camera the same, flash the same, flash bracket the same...even the same old sandwich and bottle of beer in the camera case. The new bit was the monopod.

Four hours of holding a heavy DSLR rig is no fun, particularly if you are in a kneeling rifleman's position. Eventually your arms start to ache. This time I supported the weight of the camera and flash assembly on a Manfrotto carbon-fibre monopod and only had to concern myself with the zooming and firing. I was able to sit on a chair for some of the time as well, and my toes thanked me for it.

The one worrisome point was the fact that I had the camera in landscape position for most of the evening - fine for the wide shots when the whole troupe comes out, but it meant some cropping for portrait orientation on individual dancers. Fortunately my Nikon camera at 400ISO will support this sort of trimming and the resultant images should be all that the dancers could desire.

Oh, the blessed relief to be able to let the Earth support the weight and just move the camera around.

It struck me that the video people would also appreciate this facility with the dedicated Manfrotto monopod you see in the heading photograph. The thing stands fully a man's height and is in itself heavy enough to take even large video rigs. The fluid head means smooth pan and tilt and the monopod is equipped with a very wide-pread foot for use in boggy ground. There is a self-centering mechanism in that foot that basically allows the monopod to stand upright of its own accord, as long as there is no camera on top.

I know that sounds silly, but it allows you an extra degree of flexibility when you are mounting our dismounting the rig if no-one is there to stabilise it for you. You can't expect it to balance the full rig without you holding on.

I know monopods are not new to Perth photographers, and they are in the basic pack of many sports shooters. But there may be far more uses for the theatre and wedding people - particularly if they want to make use of lower light and a slower shutter speed. I know I was able to drop my basic speed to 1/15 second for the dancers - the flash froze them, the background burned in, and there are the occasional little speed lines where a fringe of beads moved. Magic.

Maybelline Or Why You Can't Be True

Professor Charles Berry in the 1950's experimented with a method of increasing engine power for domestic vehicles. He showed that extra engine cooling on the V-8 Ford flathead engine could be provided by the intake of atmospheric water vapour during rain storms and that this extra power improved overall acceleration. In some cases it was sufficient to allow a standard Ford to overtake a much heavier vehicle at 104 miles per hour, even if the pursuit was up a grade. Please see the attached photograph of the experiment.

This sort of illustration in the studio is made possible by several things; the small-sensor digital DSLR, the close-focussing lens, and the digital editing program.

The APSC -sized sensor - in this case within a Nikon D300 - combined with a short focal length lens allows the camera to see the scene with the same angle of view as would be experienced with a dear old 35mm camera in the 1950's or 60's. In those days most people had a camera with a lens of around the 50mm mark, give or take a few millimetres. The car pictures you see now were taken with standard lenses.

The 35mm also gives a better depth of field in a studio setup than would a longer focal length - you need all the depth of field that you can get with close-up subjects and in this case the real bonus is that the 35mm lens is a Tokina with a macro focusing capability. Note you can also get a similar deal with a 40mm Micro Nikkor lens.

The editing program is the simple, but simply marvellous Adobe Photoshop Elements. This is sometimes thought of as a second cousin to the Main Adobe products, but it isn't. You can do a great deal with it - I use the old PSE 6 and now PSE 10 is even better.

What happens is:

1. You set up the scene and the overall lighting. I use Elinchrom studio flash as it is consistent in colour temperature and intensity between flashes.

2. Focus on the close car - find a point 1/3 down the body of the car and use this as an exact plane of focus. Use enough light so that you can use at least f: 16. If you can do it, use f: 22 or 25. Never mind what is happening in the background. Shoot with your camera locked steady - I recommend either getting a Gitzo tripod or welding your camera to a steel beam. Bedrock is also nice.

3. Remove the nearest car and without disturbing the tripod, refocus the camera on the far scenery. Shoot again.

4. Pop the files into your computer and open them up - at first with PSE they will pop up as an ACR window. When they do, adjust the first one until it looks almost perfect and then re-set your camera raw setting for this. This will make sure that the second file you open has the same rendition as the first.

5. With the close car picture open, select around the car and whatever part of the road is in the same plane of focus - take your time and blow it way up on your screen before you steer your mouse or pen around - get that edge on the car nice and sharp. Duplicate whatever you have selected and turn off the background layer underneath.

6. With the background picture open, Magic Select the fake paper sky and delete it out. Again turn off the background and then go out and find yourself a nice image of a real sky to slot into the space below this. Real sky is that stuff outside your computer room and fortunately you do not need to pay modelling fees to take pictures of it. Yet.

 7. Turn the blur tool on, go to 60%, dial down a small fuzzy brush, and go over each edge of the foliage that rims the sky.

8. Open the car layer and drag it up to set over the scenery. If you are using PSE 6 like me you'll have to anchor this layer to one corner and drag it down to 250.2% to match up the backdrop, but if you are using the PSE 10 it'll just snap into registration instantly. What you'll see is the original scene but with a fabulous depth of field that extends from the closest part of the closest car to the far horizon - a DOF that you could never get by one-step optical means.

8. Do that thing with the 60% blur around the edges of the car. This makes each layer blend into the one below it.

9. Darken, colour change, sharpen to taste. Fiddle with the shadows if you must, add captions, borders, frames, and anything else that your aesthetic suggests. Remember that after 38 layers it becomes anaesthetic and you fall unconscious to the floor.

A final note to tie this all together - we sell Nikon camera, Elinchrom flashes,Tokina lenses, and Adobe Photoshop Elements 10. I can point you to the sellers of model cars. Professor Berry's lectures are available on CD. For everything else, come in and ask me.

Gitzo GM3860C Basalt Monopod Special