Some Do And Some Don't

Some will and some won't. Some did and some didn't.

And you know, they all should have...

Here's a selection of photographers at the York Medieval Fayre. Some were dressed in period clothes and some were dressed in clothes that had no punctuation marks at all. It did not matter - what was interesting was the selection of cameras that they had chosen to use. The photos by no means show all the people on the ground with a camera, but they do form an interesting list.

If I counted myself, stalking them, I came up with:
1 Fujifilm
3 Nikons
2 Canons
3 Olympuses
1 Leica

and...

any number of cell phones.

The percentages there do not concern me, though I must say that I was pleased to see the number of real cameras vs the number of telephones. What did attract my attention were the number of enthusiasts and professionals who were sensible and used lens hoods. There was enough sun to need them, and the results that people achieved would have been dependant in some instances on the simple little ring of metal or plastic.

At one time a lens hood was a fixed thing - or at least was screwed into the front of the lens with a fine little filter thred and people either left it on or left it off...but rarely paused in action to laboriously match the screw thread entry and gently screw it on. The hoods were cumbersome and, like as not, would be rolling around in the camera bag when needed instead of on the lens.

This changed when most of the camera makers machined bayonet fittings on the front rings of their lenses and provided lens hoods that could be reversed back onto the barrel of the lens when being transported. A quarter twist and a bump lock then mounted the hood. The action was easy - getting people to follow it was hard.

If they could see the difference it would make in combatting glaring sun, it would have been different - but people failed to look at the digital screen results carefully enough. It pointed out two things: either they needed to have a lenshood permanently mounted or they needed a Hoodman Hood Loupe to be able to make any real judgement of what they had just taken.

Those who saw me with the little Fujifilm X-T10 and the equally tiny 27mm f:2.8 lens may think that I am being a hypocrite - there was no lens hood on it. I am still looking for one that fits that 39mm filter thread - rest assured that if I can find one of the old folding rubber ones, it will stay on there permanently. As it is, I made do by adopting the old expedient of turning my back to the sun and shielding the little lens with my body. Not perfect, but the best at the time.

The Newspaper Advertisement Vs The Web Advertisement

Every couple of weeks I am tasked with writing an advertisement for our local daily newspaper - it goes into a section entitled " Market Place".

The criteria for the products featured are price, providence, and practicality. It can be quite a complex choice:

 a. No good trying to sell a multi-thousand dollar item in a small column - the people who are going to enter into a large camera system or select a premium-quality lens are going to do it with a great deal of care and research. Trying to sell a Leica in a one column ad would be like trying to sell a Ferrari sports car in the back of a comic book.

The item selected needs to be affordable by a large number of people. People who read newspapers...and to put it bluntly, these days that means older people. Like me.

b. We have to be able to provide the goods we advertise - particularly if they are in that very affordable range that might just spark off a rush. We HOPE for a rush! As the copywriter I need to check whether we are likely to be able to satisfy the customers without making them wait for orders.

Western Australians do realise that we are living on the edge of the world... just before it all turns into misty waterfalls and dragons. So we do need to wait a little longer for goods to arrive. But we don't want to wait too long.

c. Practical items sell well in this lower price bracket. It sounds paradoxical, but the people who are likely to spend $50 to $100 on something want it to be able to do something useful... not just look good or be trendy. There are enough other shops selling collectable and impulse goods to soak up the throw-away money, but Camera Electronic has to be able to put something on the counter that DOES something.

By and large we have succeeded with the newspaper sales. The Steadepod has gone like a bomb for years. Cullmann tripods, heads, and accessories do exactly what people need. Hoodman gear works reliably and they have a lifetime warranty for stuff anyway - so does Promaster, for that matter. When we offer these brands people buy, and presumably get value out of the goods. I know I do.

But what about the internet advertisements?

Well our online shop is always a sort of an advertisement in itself - any catalogue is. People pore over the pages as much to dream about what they want as to compare pricing. Sometimes I think the internet site has a mind of its own, just as I am sometimes in despair at the social media machinery that seems to mutate weekly, but eventually nearly everything gets settled out.

Direct marketing offers are the province of the higher management of the firm - I don't think 'em up because I am not a party to the financial decisions of the place. Readers of this column may well be on the mailing list for them and if so I urge you to have a close read when they pop up in your feed. There are times when there are some very good bargains indeed - particularly if wholesale firms are adding cash-back offers to the deal.

You're also well-advised to get in on the special deals that accompany camera and lens launches - the beer and cheese roll nights that introduce new gear to the Perth scene. Frequently the prices are usefully lowered for one night. And you get the beer and cheese roll.

Advertisement is the soul of commerce - here at Camera Electronic we like to make sure that it is a reasonably clean soul at that. Please keep reading.

Footnote: The predictive text and autocorrect have been turned off here at the copy desk. If you find any typographical errors they are original and authentic, and should be prized as such.

Don't Get the Stink Eye - Get a Hoodman Hood Eye

Sorry, headline opportunities like that come up rarely and we are all human...

For years we've been selling Hoodman accessory products for cameras - viewing loupes, LCD shades, computer screen shields, etc. They make a fantastic video rig that lets you put a loupe on the back of your DSLR or mirror-less camera with an ease, precision, and low price that is really not matched by anyone else in the video game.

And they make the HoodEYE range. these are eyecups that attach to the viewfinders of modern cameras to exclude external light and let the photographer see the screen clearly as they shoot. This is particularly important for us, here, now, for two reasons:

1. We live in a state that has some pretty fierce sunshine and we get it fresh off the truck since we have clear atmosphere.

2. The camera screens that we see in the viewfinder have ever more information on them that we want to know as the shoot - it's gone way past the old micro prism circle and a red needle moving up and down. The modern finder may have up to 12 settings displayed at any one time and we need to see them clearly.

Enter the HoodEye. They slide and clip onto the rails beside the viewfinder aperture and lock into place. The extended cup goes around your eye socket and stops side light from striking in. Your eye relaxes and gets to concentrate on the scene the finder.

Note: Hoodman also make some models of HoodEYE to suit us spectacle-wearers. Bigger port, bigger rubber.

This model is new- they now make them to suit the Sony mirror-less camera  - all the A7 series of eyepieces - and Ricky, our resident Sony expert - thinks they may also be applicable to some of he smaller DSLR series that Sony make as well. The cup allows the eye-recognition switch of the Sony to function as per normal. Of course you can also switch the rubber cup from right to left if that is your preferred shooting eye.

Small investment - big return. Available on-line or in or store right now.

Aviator Goggles For The Drone Flyer

Don't expect fashion in this column - you won't be wearing a leather coat and a RayBan's for drone flying. You'll be lucky to score a giggle hat and a worried expression - and no-one will be shouting " Chocks Away ", " Tally Ho ", and " Wizard Prang " when you stack your expensive machinery into the side of a bus.

If you're flying it with straight visual control you are in much the same position as any of the R/C airplane types - peering into the sky trying to see what altitude, attitude, and wind reaction is going on at any particular time. Good luck with that...I have memories of crashing balsa wood all over the place in my youth. Model airplanes move in three dimensions up and down, side by side, and fore and aft. Their pilots also move in these ways but they add the additional dimensions of fear, expense, and regret.

But back to the drones. Some of the civilian ones may be fitted with cameras rather than 20mm cannon and these cameras can send images back to the operator - this allows them to see what the drone sees - effectively putting the pilot in the driver's seat of a plane that has no seats. The images that come back to the ground can be received by smart phones and pads with appropriate apps.

Well and good, but anyone who has ever tried to see the screen of a flat smart phone or pad in glaring sun knows that it can be nearly impossible to pick up details. And if you are busy operating the radio control set with both hands you have no way to shade the screen. Until now.

  
Hoodman have brought out a set of hoods and accessories that will blank off extraneous light from iPhone 6. iPone6+, iPad Mini, and iPad Air devices. The hoods attach by various elastic straps and velcro pads to firmly grip the screens - no falling off in the heat of the moment if your flying style involves a lot of body English.

You're not restricted to just one style, either- if the shorter hood is not doing the job for you there are extension packs that velcro on with padded edges so that you can push your face right down in there and no extra light gets in.

If you need to poke away at the phone or pad screen there are cut-aways and elasticised panels that let your fingers into the dark. You may look like a bit of a robot attached to your control panel and screen but at least you will have the best view of what the drone is seeing and that has to give you better control.

You can buy the individual parts to fit iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ as well as the iPad Mini and iPad Air or you can elect to get them as paired kits. The all go under the moniker of Hoodman Drone Aviator and they are all very well made.

They are in stock right now at Camera Electronic or you can order them through the on-line shop. good insurance for that vital flight.

The Two Card Shuffle

Or " How I Learned To Save My Hide ".

Many modern cameras come with two memory card slots incorporated in the body. This is no mean feat in some cases - if you are going to use the larger CF-style card it has a certain bulk and the volume of the rack into which it slides uses up a fair bit of the inside of the camera. Were you to design a camera with two CF card slots it would need be a larger body...and by and large the ones that do, are. These can be viewed as professional devices and professionals carry heavier weights.

Then there are cameras that have a hybrid style - they have a CF slot for that size and an SD slot for the smaller -sized SD, SDHC, and SDXC cards. In some cases I think that the designers might have started with one of the larger bodies and just used what was a CF bay plugged up for SD. No real overall reduction in body size.

Finally, we have the cameras what have two SD slots - and here the rack structure can be smaller and they can fit in with smaller body sizes. This can be a real selling point if people are trying to reduce bulk and weight in what they carry or if they have smaller hands. I often think a number of cameras have succeeded or failed on their body feel without the prospective buyers really being able to say why they liked them or disliked them.

But two cards - what do you do with two cards? You confuse yourself, if you're not careful, but you save yourself grief if you are clever. Two cards can:

a. Record the exact same thing in exactly the same way. Two RAW images or two JPEG images at the same time.  If you do not trust that one card will do it, or know that you wish to put one card away physically for safe storage while the other one is re-used. Or if you know that one would be confiscated by the border police...

b. Record the image in RAW on one and JPEG on the other. This is the case where some cameras have the second slot for a much more faster card. It means that your camera might be able to cram things into the two slots - SD for JPEG and XQD or some other fast card for the RAW - and get an overall faster firing rate than trying to put both file types into one card. If you need speed you do strange things.

c. Record video on one and reserve the other for stills.

d. Record in sequence. All the previous options have been predicated upon parallel recording - if you elect to make it serial, you can carry twice the memory capacity in your camera. This is a matter for philosophical debate if you are trying to cram an entire trip onto only the memory cards in one camera, but becomes a matter of technical necessity if you have a camera that is going to be posted up somewhere to record time lapse work for a long time and need a lot of memory.

It will pay any photographer who gets a new camera with dual slots to sit down and read the factory manual about the numbering and distribution of the files. Indeed, if there is an aftermarket book - like the Rocky Nook series by Rico Pfirstinger who deals with Fujifilm cameras - that can also be a wise purchase. There are lots of options in what you do to the files that can make a difference to how easy they are to work with in the future.

I recently opted to do the wrong thing, after years of doing the right thing, and ended up shooting a fresh job with image numbers that duplicated earlier numbers - I must have poked the wrong setting while camera fiddling. It means that unless I renumber the new job I encounter occasions when the computer can't decide which of the two identical numbers I want and stops until I decide.

Note: the new Pentax K-1 has dual slots for SD-size cards as does the Fujifilm X-Pro2 and the designers have in both cases been wise enough to put the compartment for these around on the right side of the camera. In practical terms this means that if the cameras are locked onto tripods and need a card change, you can do it without unbolting the whole darn thing. This is no small advantage  - I wish I had it.

One Of These Things Is Not Like Others

Oddly enough, all of these things do the same job - when inserted into the appropriate cameras they all take 250 images.

In the case of the Canon 250 shot magazine the camera you will need is a one of the F1 film cameras with a 250-shot reporter back. None for sale new, of course, and very few made when they were new in 1971, but you can always haunt ebay or Boris...You'll need a 100' roll of film to charge it, another 250 shot cartridge to receive the film, and a darkroom to get the stuff spooled up. It might be a good idea to go speak to the pro lab to see if their processing machine will cope with the length of the film you use. All up, figure about $1800 minimum for your 250 shots. Plus negative sleeves...

The 35mm cassettes will go in any 35mm camera so you might luck out there. Pick up an old compact for $ 80 and add the film...$ 90...and the processing...$ 125...well you'll be a lot better off for your  250 negatives. You'll only spend $ 295 for negatives.

Of course if you elect to get a new small compact camera and the 8 GB card you can also set 250 shots for about $ 209...but you can keep on snapping after that - the card will hold a lot more shots. They'll be in colour, but most computers will let you see them in black and white and you can even invert the image files if you are a freak for negatives.

I haven't costed out two and a half tablets of artist-quality drawing paper and a handful of pencils but I'll bet it is about the same price...if you draw in negative you'll need more pencils.

Note: the 250 shot magazine is a second hand item, but the Hoodman memory cards and the Kodak T-Max film are both new and readily available in-store or on our online shop.

Waiting For The Buffer To Empty

Here are ten useful things a photographer can do to fill in time while waiting for the files to crowd off the buffer of the camera onto the card:

1. Calculate how much money was saved by purchasing a 15 MB per second card over a 95 MB per second card. And how that money has been put to wonderful use saving the planet...

2. Time a boiled egg from the flashes of the little light as the files are transferred. Rather have soft-boiled eggs? Buy a faster card.

3. Hold the camera with the right side down and gently shake it. That lets the pixels run into the card faster.*

4. Watch the rest of the football game as it goes on. Wow! Did you see that winning goal? Just as well...your camera didn't.

5. Look all Ansel Adamsy and face ruggedly into the driving sleet. Okay, you're inside at a christening, but you can still be rugged....

6. Sing a Wiggles song to the timing of that damned little flashing light. A happy Wiggles song. Sing it through gritted teeth.

7. Watch the guys with with the 1DX Mk II's and the D5's as they flash through the high speed zillion frames per second exposures. Pray that one of their cameras catches fire from the friction of the air.

8. Practise saying " I like to contemplate the steady rhythm of Nature by slowing down my camera's metabolism. " Try not to giggle or wince as you do.

9. Shield the LCD screen from observation so that people can't see the little hour-glass turning over. pretend that you are editing the images for ultimate quality. Occasionally shout out  " 5 Stars! ".

10. Make a list of things you would like to do to the designer of the camera.

Let us lift your morale, if not your morals. Buy a new card - a fast card. They cost a bit more but they give the modern camera a chance to process the raw files fast enough to let you do a sensible series of shots. Camera Electronic has Hoodman, Lexar, San Disk, and other fine memory cards - some of them are blazingly fast. You can get 'em on-line as well - they ship through the post easily if you cut air holes in the crate.

* I read it on a Facebook side advertisement so it MUST be true...

For more information on the best card for your camera please come visit our sales staff for a speed test!

Down The Home Straight - Day 12 - And It's Filters And Cards

Okay. You've borne with us for the last 12 trading days as we've sung the syren song of photographic retailing. You've steeled yourself not to buy any more camera systems. You've steeled yourself not to buy any more lenses. You've even carbon fibre'd yourself not buy a new tripod...even though your old one has only two legs...

What can we say? If you are determined to be unhappy there is only so much we can legally do to cheer you up. But we'll have one final try.

Today. Camera Electronics. Filters and memory cards.

Buy one, get another of the same value  - or less value if that is your wish - for free. That's it.

You get to choose from San Disk, Hoodman, Hoya, Kenko, and B+W products. All top quality goods. All applicable over most brands of camera and lens.

And all useful in the extreme for digital shooters. Don't look on it as indulgence - look upon it as opportunity.

Heck, the writer of this blog is going down to the shop and snag a coupla memory cards. I've got a trip coming up and I don't want the hassle of downloading stuff onto a tablet - I'm just going to fill cards and be done with it. They are THAT cheap!

Another Good Hoodman Idea

Hoodman do have some dandies - good ideas I mean. Their initial design of the Hoodloupe 3.0 was the definitive answer to seeing an LCD screen image in the bright Australian sun. We sold squillions of them and people hung them round their necks while outdoors shooting.

Then Hoodman invented a number of ways of attaching these loupes to the back of digital cameras - rubber loops, plastic scaffolding, and eventually dedicated metal frameworks. These latter solutions were made possible by the fact that new Loupes - the Hoodloupe 3.2 - have a 1/4" screw socket underneath them just like a camera and the whole thing can be screwed together tight.

However - there are still people who prefer to keep the Loupe separate from the camera - and Hoodman have now released an accessory to let these users do so without a lanyard dangling from the neck. It is called the Hoodman Link. It's the second cousin of the humble retractable key holder that some peole keep on their belts.

There's a three foot length of Kevlar cord in the Link and a quick release attachment on the outer end near the Loupe. It's spring loaded and has a catch to let it stay out without tension - press the central button and the whole thing reels in again.

Look, folks, let's face it. As we get to be older photographers we tend to accumulate lots of things dangling around our necks. Guilt, eyeglasses on chains, rings on chains, medals on chains, padlocks on chains ( special club ), and no end of ID badges, fake bullets, and other jewellery. Anything that gets one dangler off is a darned good idea.

The Cross-Eyed Shuffle And The Body Slide

No, it is not the horrors of the dance floor. You can do what you wish at the disco without my let or hindrance.

I refers to weekend experiments with stereo shots using the Fujifilm X-E2 camera. They are on-going , so you'll need to follow them on the wordpress site:

frontierandcolonial.wordpress.com

The preliminary trial involved seeing whether a Cullmann Concept One tripod quick release plate - the medium ones - could be used as a stereo slide. It did work when sliding in a Cullmann Concept One head but not quite enough for normal interpupilary distance of 66 mm. You could get a bare 50mm for the medium plate. This, of course, was more than enough for macro stereo.

The answer will be the 200mm Cullman Concept One OCX388 plate - this will leave more than enough slide for regular work and can be extended for hyper stereo trials.

You need still subjects for two-shot stereo - the garden plants were cooperative. It was easy to shoot left then right with a slide between them and the exposures on the Fujifilm X-E2 are the same every time.

Opening the files in Adobe Photoshop Elements is easy, but it took an hour of experimentation to find out the optimum size for the images themselves when they were butted against themselves and presented on a computer screen. The heading image shows a sort ofd fake stereo card effect but when opened in PE, I can do a free-view and get a clear stereo window in the middle.

It is tiring to do free-viewing for a long time so the next experiments will be on how to adapt modern commercially-made items like the Hoodman Hoodloupe 3.2 to viewing a computer or iPad screen. Even the big mobile phones may be a vehicle for displaying the stereo shots if this idea works.

One thing missing - I wish I had access to Edmund Scientific Supplies - they were the treasure trove for experimenters in my youth. I coveted a set of vernier rockets from them but could never afford them...

New Hoodman In The Hood - Readers Have Arrived

You'll remember that we have been selling the excellent Hoodman Steel USB 3.0 UDMA card readers for years. They are fitted to take CF and SD-sized cards and have a secure wired link onto the computer. Fast and tough.

A new model has just come into the shop - the same idea but a slightly different shape - higher and blockier. There is a new socket on the back for the included cable and the thing is very professional.

If you are in the habit of exploding your card readers...come get a new Hoodman and try your luck.

" 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.

Dirty Lenses - Dirty Pictures

Way back when there was Elvis and dinosaurs we learned not to put our fingers on the front of the camera lenses. If they were our camera lenses we got fuzzy, low contrast pictures with smeared details. If they were someone else's camera lenses we got socked in the ear. Either way, the front surface of the lens was sacred territory.

Not to dust. Not to mud. Not to dog noses. The schmutz still accumulated even if we did not add to it.

We learned to fasten a UV filter to the front of the lens to move this contamination one surface further. A cheaper surface, so that if we scratched it, we could replace it ourselves. But it still got dirty.

We bought special lens cleaner from Kodak until we discovered how to make our own. This commendable independence on our part is probably what killed off the company...that and their digital camera designs. I feel kind of bad about this.

To avoid this again, I now buy my lens cleaner from Giotto. They make it in small spray bottles that are packaged with a brush, a polishing cloth, and some ear-cleaning sticks. I'm pretty sure it contains some detergent, some alcohol, and some distilled water and I'l bet I could make my own, but I don't want to torpedo Giotto or the wholesalers.

Out in the field where one encounters dog noses I carry the Lens CLeanse one-time pre-pack cleaners. They are powerful, but gentle and can cope with most grease or dirt contamination very well. You can get them in packets of 12 if you own a pack of beagles.

The Folding Viewfinder Hood - A Tale Of Digital Wonder - Hoodman Loupes

Those of you who have used, or do use, a 500-series Hasselblad, or a Rolleiflex, or a dear old Bronica S2* will be perfectly familiar with the folding viewfinder hood. You have been unfolding it regularly for years to let you see the viewfinder screen while out in the sunlight. It keeps the glare off the screen as you peer downwards.

You are people of surprising facility - your minds have long since mastered the art of seeing things reversed in the horizontal mode and then tracking your subject. You can probably write your name backward in a mirror at parties. But you are in dead trouble when you try to see the screen of your new digital camera in that same sunlight.

The screen whites out - and the manufacturers have not thought to include the dear old waist-level folding hood to help. Too old-school? Grrrrrrr...

Ingenious users will rig up cardboard and gaffer tape hoods and then Blu-Tac them to the LCD screen. Gadget geeks will search the internet for strange little plastic folding hoods that were current about 8 years ago - they were made for smaller screens so it will be anyone's guess how to stick it on.

We've found the Hoodman 3.0 and 3.2 Loupe products and their associated accessory holders to be the best compromise right now. Each case is an individual experiment, so anyone contemplating it would do well to bring the camera in and fiddle. Blu-Tac is not unknown...

We can arrange the sunlight.

* Bronica S2 users are recognisable by their massive forearms and deafness - caused by holding the things and firing the shutter in confined spaces.

Learning The Hard Way - With Hoodman Hoodskins

Being old enough to know better doesn't help. Being rich, or pretty, or powerful doesn't help. Being witty doesn't even help...when physics, geometry, and circumstance combine, you are going to go for a tumble.

This was the case recently for one of our staff members who qualifies on all the above criteria. He was on holiday near Bluff Knoll and had taken his Leica camera for landscape shots. Pausing to admire the scenery, he set the camera down on the solid rock behind him.

Bad move - the camera was obviously a renegade as it made an immediate bolt for freedom - starting to slip away down a crevasse between two rocks. The unnamed staff member reached around in a flash and just caught it as it went - getting it just by the metal lens hood.

After he had calmed down, wiped off the cold sweat, stopped screaming, and could see again, he inspected the runaway. The pictures show where the rock face had scraped away at it - you can see the big old scratches down the LCD screen and two small chunks off the  metal surround. What Fate did not know on the day was that the camera screen was protected with a Hoodman Hoodskin screen protector.

These things are held in place by the static attraction - they come in a packet of two for under $ 16 and you cut them to fit whatever screen you have.

The happy ending to this story is: when the Hoodskin was peeled off the Leica LCD screen was completely undamaged. That is disaster averted for $ 8. If they had Hoodskins on the HINDENBURG history would have been different.

A Lot Faster Than I Can Write - The Question Of Me Vs The Card

Things these days get faster and faster ( except the lines at Coles and Woolies out near my house...) and the cards we sell for memory are no exception.

Currently in stock I see speeds from 25 MB/second up to 280MB/second - of course there are different capacities in the cards and not all types of card are in all speeds, but there is a fair spread of specification - one would think enough to suit all needs.

I have been advised by one of the company writers for the camera system I use to get the fastest possible card - his reasoning is that it allows me to access all the arcane features of the camera. I expect he is right, but up until now the thing has not been an issue.

Studio shooting is slow. An hour to set a scene is lightning work. Some set-ups are the entire morning and a complete day is not unknown. It was a day that had coffee, pastries, cocktails, and language - but was ultimately successful. In the end the speed of the card was irrelevant. Actually the cocktail was faster.

The computer is the next choke-point for information. Mine is an older iMac and I suspect that it, and the reader in use, restrict the flow to about 35 MB/second anyway. If the card in use is able to discharge at a considerably faster speed, I don't know it. Downloading for he number of images I take is not an onerous process anyway.

But.

You might have considerably different needs. You might shoot at high speed and have to send your data down into your devices and out to the world in split seconds. You might shoot 500 images of one subject before you get it right and are unable to bring yourself to discard 499 of them before you store it away...I've seen people like that on those intervention television shows...They are the ones with rooms full of hard drives and laundry baskets full of single socks...

So don't do as I do; use old, cheap cards and only shoot 50 shots per day...come in and buy some of the super-speed types with far greater capacity. They are good value and reliable. And if you upgrade your computer you will be able to go faster anyway.

A Good Idea For Eyes With Hoodman

This is better than a poke with an eye with a burnt stick. 23.8 % better.

You don't want to know how we measured that percentage...it was a painful process, I can tell you...

Nevertheless, these spectacle frames by Hoodman are the business for a number of eyeglass-users:

1. Photographers who use a bare eye in their viewfinder but do not wish to be continually removing their glasses as they shoot. they just rotate the lens upward out of the way while photographing and down afterwards.

2. Ditto those people who shoot rifles. The fore sight on a rifle can be a long way from the back sight and you can find that you need correction for the different accommodation powers of different eyes. Sometimes it seems almost impossible to see everything clearly and sometimes the view changes from month to month. These spectacle frames may help you to go from sight A to sight B very easily, but if you get older expect  something to be fuzzy somewhere...

3. if you are a model-maker who finds that you can do finer detail painting with your bare eye, but need to see the rest of the workbench with glasses, get a pair of these frames and repair to your optician. Your scale models will thank you.

4. Ditto the sewing lady and the stamp collector. The frames are very well finished and the crucial hinge is strong and precise. Select lighter plastic lenses from your optician if you want the most comfort.

Vast Amount Of Memory At A Half-Vast Price

Today we are featuring the spirit of Christmas cheer and offering a buy one-get one free offer for all sorts of memory cards. All the manufacturers too - SanDisk, Promaster, Hoodman, Lexar.

Buy one card, get the same one as as second card free. Couldn't be simpler than that.

Mind you, somebody will try to complicate it but we'll deal with it in the spirit of Christmas cheer. We have a big bunch of holly on the end of a stick.

Ho ho ho...

Wrong Way Corrigan? With SanDisk, Hoodman, and Promaster

A client rang with a problem concerning her memory card. The camera she was using had suddenly given her the message " Card Locked For Writing ". The camera had been reliable before, so she suspected the SD card.

So did I. I asked her to take it out and to check the little sliding switch on the side. I did the same, with a SanDisk card in front of me. When she tried the switch on hers - a no-name card purchased overseas - it proved to be locked when the San Disk was open, and vice versa - the switch was in reverse.

Eventually she got going again, took a picture while we were on the phone, and we parted happy. But I am puzzled. I checked all the other cards here in the shop - Hoodman, Promaster, and SanDisk - they all lock in the same way. I should have expected it to be a standard of the industry.

But are there different switches on other cards? Answers from our readers, please - the Facebook connection is the easiest way to do that.

I Lost My Heart...

In San Francisco. Tony Bennett found it, but won't send it back. Bummer, dude...

I also lost my charger, download cable, and flash stand for my Canon 430 EX II, 600 RT. Nikon Sb700, and 910 flashes. That's a lotta losing, but I am careless when I go out to do strobist shooting.

Fortunately Promaster have come to the rescue - they have just sent us a supply of the multi-mount flash stands. These have thee shoe positions with locking holes for the standard flash hot-shoe and a 1/4" threaded hole in the underside for the light stand or tripod. it is a proper brass threaded socket too - good and tough.

Now the loss of the charger is also solvable with a Hahnel universal charger and the cable can be safely dispensed with now that I have a Hoodman RAW STEEL USB 3.0 card reader.

But it still leaves the problem of Tony Bennett...