New Leica Cabinet Installed In Murray Street - Revolutionary Unique Design

Which is a blatant lie. It's a Leica Boutique cabinet - it looks the same as the Leica Boutique cabinet in the Stirling Street store. Which looks the same as the Leica Boutique cabinets in Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, and probably every other major city in the world. Black MDF cabinet, red interior, red dot on top.

Leica are smart people - and I am not talking just about the cameras and lenses and binoculars...they are smart with their branding. They realised early on that they had a name that was worth putting on a banner and were careful to cut the banner the same size for everywhere and put it on the same pole. As a business strategy it is akin to a national government deciding on a flag and making sure that it is seen everywhere. It re-enforces loyalty, and in this case it re-enforces the sort of loyalty that the customers actually want to pay for.

Brilliant.

Of course, each manufacturer has a characteristic colour combination, and you'll see that used in advertising and signage. The more adventurous ones have a bright colour that attracts the eye so that people snap to their displays in the shops. These days, they can repeat the hue on their packaging so that every discarded box becomes a free billboard. If they are bold they can make a logo physically bigger on the packaging or...gasp...on the product itself.

It can backfire...think back to the Minolta logo when it got all arty in the 1990's and people were hard pressed to figure out what it actually was...and that also meant that they were confused as to who Minolta were*. You can surrender to the blandishments of the design department a little too early.

It can be too conservative - harking back to the design styles of the film eras can be dangerous too. There is a major maker that has several logos in operation right now dealing with different divisions of their overall company that could look at this aspect - some of the brand presentation looks decidedly 1970's. It might be argued that the division of business that they are dealing with also harks back to the 1970's so the buyers of the goods would not be influenced by a modern logo. Perhaps this is the case, but I am glad to see that they have adopted a far more stylish nameplate for their newer cameras and lenses.

But they did not choose a bright colour combination. It will remain to be seen if their presentation can grab the casual shopper's eye.

Well, back to the Leica Boutique. The Murray Street shop walls are now complete and the stock that you see in there will be designed to appeal to the high-end buyer. I noted that the titanium M kit was there this week. Pick one up on the way home from the office...And there are no end of lenses that will be making an appearance.

One particularly attractive bit was on the island display - and you need not spend the annual budget of Brazil to buy it. If you are a Leica shooter treat yourself to an oversize shutter release button in one of a number of styles. They screw into the shutter button as it currently exists and make for smooth and comfortable shooting. I use one on a camera when I am doing waist-level shots at car show. I press it with my thumb and the shots are rock-steady.

* To be fair, a lot of people couldn't stop themselves from calling it " Minololta ".

The Personal Pick - Part One - Someone Else's Purse

I spent a cheerful half hour in the Murray Street premises of Camera Electronic spending other people's money. Don't worry - no wallets were harmed in the process - no money changed hands. And I am pleased to be able to say that I did not annoy the staff with constant questions...I just looked for myself and made mental notes to find out the prices later.

Note as well that I do not need more equipment - I need to get out and learn to use the stuff I have right now. But that is not what the weblog column for a commercial firm should say, so I'll scrub it out before I post the thing...

First cab off the rank for desirable is the new Fujifilm GFX50S. It looks every bit as good as the Fujifilm bodies I already use as far as the external construction, and the handhold is perfect. Obviously this is not intended as a pocket travel camera for Japanese schoolgirls, and they have taken into account the larger hands that are likely to be grasping it. And at the cost that it is likely to be sold at, those hands want to have a firm grip on it. In any case, when the opportunity arises, I will beg the Rental Department at Stirling Street for a chance to heft it in the Little Studio and we can see what the results look like.

Note - while I cannot muster enough imagination to convince myself that I would make sensible use of such a large medium-format camera, the new Fujifilm X100F is another matter entirely. I see we have them in stock now, and as you will have gathered from a few weeks ago, the temptation to gain the higher performance of this vs my older X100 is growing stronger. There is only so much practical frugality I am able to sustain before I have a blowout...and I suspect that this is a characteristic of a lot of people. Folks, if you are going to blow a financial gasket, you could do far worse than invest in this new Fujifilm.

I also noted in passing that the new GFX50S is supported by three lenses - two primes and a zoom. They look to be designed for event and studio work, but I should imaging Fujifilm will be adding to them every half-year or so.

Also of note was the surprise that the deeper body of the medium-format camera does not seem intrusive into the face when using the eye-level finder. From net pictures I had feared this. More details when it gets into the studio...but you can certainly jump ahead of the game by going and judging for yourself. If you want to be in front of the competition now is the time to get in there.

PS: Being in front of the competition only works in certain jobs. Flying a Mitsubishi Zero in front of a Grumman Hellcat was never all that good an idea...

A Bunch Of The Boys Was Whoopin' It Up...*

And they were ably assisted by a bunch of the girls - last night was a special launch party for the Murray Street shop of Camera Electronic - and it featured a surprising number of the movers and shakers of Perth photographic retailing. Not that there was all much room to move or shake - people pretty well filled the floor. Still space for selfies.

This sort of party report could easily dissolve into nothing but a series of shots of old employees and leave the average retail reader absolutely cold...except for a couple of interesting facts:

1. The people there included the cream of the Western Australian wholesale agents and reps...which means that the new premises will be well supplied with the best of new equipment. I didn't hear much business being talked amongst them but they all made their number to the Admirals so you can be certain that the new shop will not languish.

2. The old employees were there wishing the new premises well. Because they recognised the immense effort that had been put into the venture and the high level of finish that it exhibits.

There were speeches - industry figures that have dealt with the company since the earliest days in Angove Street as well as the principle commander on the floor right now - Domenic Papalia. There were speeches by Saul and Howard, and to their credit they were good ones.

And  I took away a few realisations too...

You couldn't get that many people to meet, greet, schmooze, booze, and lose their inhibitions in any other retail photographic store in this town. Camera Electronic has a unique style and position as an icon in the industry. It's a real place full of real people. Noisy real people.

CE's also got some powerful friends - the AIPP for one - and the other professional bodies, as well as their trade contacts. They got those friends by being able to do what people needed - sales, repairs, advice, etc.

The humourous phrase that came out in one speech -  " Ron had everything " - might sound funny when you remember the past but it was a foundation for a mindset on the part of the photographic public that drew them back and back to the shop. The fact that the staff also knew a bit of everything was also valuable - someone could always be found in the place with a cogent answer to a problem.

In some cases the answer was " Here, use this. " and in others " We can get it/repair it/make it, etc. ".
When Ron served a customer it was likely to be " You need one of these and one of these and..." And in my case I usually did.

Last night was a night of good humour amongst the guests. People who visit Murray Street today ( after they put the showcases back in place and scrub the suspicious stains off the new vinyl floor...) can be equally happy - the place is up and running well.

 

* At the Malamute Saloon. From the Land Of the Mounties. See - there's one now...

Murray Street Colour

I plan to make it a habit to call in at our Murray Street Store - corner of Queen Street - at least once each week. I've learned not to warn the staff exactly when in case they turn off the lights and hide behind the sofa - my relatives do this a lot.

This week's visit revealed lots of new things; an old industrial turntable in the laneway out the back, the new coffee machine works a treat, and there is now some colour in the store. The new cabinets are  in and are attracting some pretty bright entries:

a. Leica. Well, Leica is pretty much chrome and black, as you might expect from their history. They do shoot off into bright binoculars occasionally but these are the exception.

But you can always count on Leica for red. The design team that evolved the store displays all over the world were brilliant in translating the red Leica dot that we had become used to seeing into a brand reminder. They adopted that same shade of red and repeated it in the cabinet shelves and linings to draw your eye to the display.

You just can not not see it. You might not be able to afford it...but you know it is there waiting in case your fortunes improve.

Note to the well-heeled: January is a good time to come in and get a couple of dozen cartons of Leica SL cameras for summer parties. Guests appreciate something to do between courses of luncheon and taking pictures is always popular.

b. Olympus. Okay, I defy you to be glum looking at these colourful Olympus binoculars. They are not the largest sizes that Olympus make - it is a firm that can supply quite a variety of optics in various grades - but these small binocs are perfect for pocket or purse.

The colour is the icing on the cake.

c. Fujifilm XP camera. The shape is dictated by the need to make this camera water and shock proof but the colour is just pure art.

Well, no...

On second thought it may also be function. This is an underwater camera and the effect of depth is to make objects look dark blue. The orange may be to counteract this tendency and to make it show up better under the sea. Fujifilm also make a yellow version - this would intensify the effect.

Whatever, it is a camera that can accompany you nearly everywhere and with that bright shell you will be able to find it in you pocket or purse...or glove compartment...easily.

In any case, come into the new store as soon as you can and look for more colour. It's a very nice place to be.

German Glass Trumpets

It is hard to pass a lens cabinet in a camera shop without taking a look inside.

Our readers and customers may have all the lenses they will ever need...and all the lenses they can afford...and all the lenses that will fit into the linen press at home...but they still look into that cabinet...

This cabinet is at our new Murray Street store. Clean blue and white minimalist style, and the Zeiss lenses you see here are perfectly in tune with that concept.

I judge them from the rear covers to be Canon-mount. They are, of course, available in Nikon-mount as well. Sticklers for complete detail will also point out there are other Zeiss lenses for Leica M, Sony A, Sony E, and Fujifilm X with different designs, but let's concentrate on the ones we see in the cabinet.

These are DSLR lenses that Zeiss list in their advertising as the world's best. Their competitors may point to other products and claim the same. Fans of various brands can get into optical pub brawls on this basis - it livens up many a camera club meeting. The one undeniable is the fact that the lenses will be better at what they do than the people using them...there is not likely to be any restriction upon art or achievement made by this equipment.

Manual focus? Yes. If you have never done it, these are a good lens to practice on. Your camera system probably has some form of optical assistant feature inside it to help you get the best out of the focus. The old days of the microprism or the split-image rangefinder are largely gone, but some cameras feature electronic versions of this that can help. I have always favoured a finely-divided plain screen myself, but then I distract easily looking into a viewfinder.

The inclusion of a real focus scale and a real depth of field scale on the barrel of the lens is a blessing. These are crude, accurate, and available for presetting a lens just before the big shot. I wish all lenses had them, but they have been left off any new AF jobs.

Weight? Yes. That's metal in those mounts and glass in those barrels. A lotta glass. 12 elements in the 55mm f:1.4 and 16 in the 28mm f:1.4. You are not going to be carrying these lenses as a casual afterthought wrapped up in an old footy sock just in case. They are far too big and far too good to be incidentals. When you attach them to your camera and do a shoot you are deliberately selecting one of the most precise optical instruments available to the general public.

Note that the trumpet shape of the lens barrels seen here is continued further with the flowing shapes of the lens hoods. They are quite elegant...and designed to be so.

Have I ever shot images with any of these lenses? No. My camera systems use the native lenses of the maker and I am happy with them. But had I a different body...a DSLR... I would seriously consider at least one of these optics. I remember the glorious results with the Zeiss glass in my old medium-format film days - it can only be better now.

Walking The Olympus Way With Camera Electronic

 

A Photowalk can be a peculiar ritual - somewhere between a civic parade and a band of footpads skulking through town. It is innocent enough, though, when it starts...

Actually it generally begins with a greeting by the industry representative - in this case Burke Flynn from Olympus Imaging - and a setting out of the rules; you are welcome to try the new cameras and please do not drop them in the mud. Do not run away with them as young, fit shop assistants will chase you like greyhounds. We have counted the lenses...

Friday's Olympus Photo Walk  from our new Murray Street Store was actually delightful, coinciding as it did with pleasant summer weather and the Friday night hawkers markets in the centre of Perth. If you can stand fire, smoke, and the smell of things frying you have a chance for some great pictures. As well, the falling light in Perth at this time of year can be surprisingly gentle and artistic - particularly if it is reflecting off signs and Christmas revelers.

It was not always thus. The city at the end of Friday in the 1960's was alternately grim and garish, though you were pretty safe wandering the streets at nearly any time of the night. I should not care to linger late in the area these days...but then I get nervous when they let the Bingo mob out of the local parish hall - full of tea, biscuits, and passion. You get hit with a Zimmer frame and it is all over...

Well, back to the centre of the city. Two examples of the new Olympus OM-D E-M1 MkII were to be had, but one of them was firmly in the grasp of Camera Electronic's Sam Perejuan. And I was able to observe one very smart design feature that Olympus have changed from the OM-D E-M1 original. Look at the picture of Sam's hand holding the camera.

Sam's hand is not a small one - call it an average man's span. He has a firm grip on the camera with forefinger on the shutter button and thumb ready to turn the back dial - but his hand is not having to fight its way over the camera support lug and strap holder. Olympus have moved it from the position  they...and most other people...formerly put it on the side of the camera. It is now up in the cradle of the web formed in finger and thumb. It is ever so much easier to handle the camera than before.

The picture of Sam shooting the camera with a rather large strap attached shows that the strap naturally lays out of the way now and does not bunch under the hand. Bravo! Stand there fighting with a strap for an hour and see how your concentration suffers.

Now as to topics for a walk - apart from the doughnut stalls and fist fights - people can find some artistic treasures:

Or architectural flights of fancy:

Or just quietly evocative lanes.

I just enjoyed speculating about the late-night goings-on...I believe they call for players some time after 9:00. Tennish, anyone...?*

 * Yes, that was intentional. The weblog pun filter is not turned on.

Video With A Bang

Casting about the other day for some sort of a handle to attach my mobile phone to for video work, I came across a couple of German accessories. Unfortunately they were not fitted with gimbals on the top for the camera , nor with a clamp, nor a 1/4" tripod screw. In fact, I don't think they were intended for modern video filming at all. They did have a pull-string at the bottom of the wooden bit so I pulled one but nothing happened. I threw it in the bin after a couple of seconds...

Note: The neighbours in this suburb are a nervous lot. Loud noises seem to make them very angry. I just found this out.

Well I should have gone down to the new Camera Electronic shop near the corner of Murray and Queen Street in the city. They've got a new cabinet with drone camera systems and accessories in it and one of the displays has a handle called an Osmo Mobile. THIS is what I needed.

DJI, the drone people, make it. It clamps your mobile phone and then lets it turn to follow you - automatically - as you move. It makes all the camera movements that you wish to do smooth and steady - like a professional mounting and crew would do.

It also has time-lapse capability as well as the facility to stream live video out to the world.

The business of moving with a video or motion picture camera has always been a two-edged sword - you get more drama by following or coming into the action, but you pay the price of jerky and disruptive movements with the camera - and these come out on-screen as jumps and bounces that spoil the effect. We can all remember the home movies of the 50's when the camera operator got excited and jumped up and down.

The Osmo Mobile smooths these out - you can walk through a sequence and it looks as though you have been moving the camera on a smooth track. You have become a dolly system that can go anywhere!

But here's another feature of this device - if it can steady out moving pictures, it can also steady out still ones. You can take still images with the mobile phone and hand-hold them for up to 1 second exposures. The results are streak-free.

More - Take panorama photos with automatic internal blending of up to 9 images.

Even more! Prop it onto a tripod and let the tracking facility help you make start trails.

Note: Some mobile phones may be unsuitable for these functions. Make this simple test; if you pick up your phone and girl's voice says " Hello, Central. Number Pleee-uz " you probably won't be able to use the Osmo Mobile.

Everyone else come into the new Murray Street shop and have a look at the gear.

2/324 Murray St, Perth. Click here for details on extended December trading hours.

Up And Down The Aisles - Camera Electronic's New Shop In the City

Before we dissolve into a festival of pack shots I thought it would be best to give you an overall look at the new premises that Camera Elelctronic will be using to supply Perth City people with the best in photo gear.

You can find the place near the corner of Murray and Queen Street in Perth - just past the Bohemian and the Moon And Sixpence pubs along the railway side of the street. Head on up toward the fun end of town.

Well the shop colour is the elegant black,white, and grey that you saw when we changed appearance in Stirling Street. The signage is the same as Stirling Street, so if you found us there, you can find us here. And we're here a lot of the time.

Looking into the shop, you'll see that it has two main aisles:

And there are side cabinets full of equipment - all organised into separate brand names and types.

You can shoot professionally, artistically, or comfortably with the cameras and lenses that we sell.

Here's the look from the working end of the shop. This is the position the staff occupy as you come in the door waving your credit card...Do not be concerned - they have been trained to sell you things and take your money. All is well...

And remember that these are professionals. They have years of experience in photography. They can carefully analyse your needs and recommend the best choice of equipment and the best procedures for its use. They can help you without getting bogged down in technicalities.

And sometimes on a good day they can answer the telephone successfully. It's for you...

Camera Electronic now open at 2/324 Murray St, Perth.

View the opening hours here

The Impulse Buy Vs The Considered Negotiation

Here is a little trade secret; sometimes supermarkets put things in their shops in such a way as to obstruct the aisle and slow the customer down. If the barrier is a hanging rack or a cardboard bin the idea is that the shopper will pause long enough to get hungry for whatever they are selling - if there is a big " Bargain " sign in red it frequently triggers off chemicals in the brain that make the person drop it into their shopping trolley.

This is also the logic behind the Leica Boutique. You may have just popped into the shop for a couple of packets of Toshiba AA batteries for your speed light (still the best electricity for your money...) but as you stand there waiting you see the red shelves of the Leica Boutique. If the shop designer has done their job, you to drift over a bit closer...closer... and all of a sudden you are going home with an "M" camera and a Summilux lens. What you are going to say when you get home is your affair - the shop designer has succeeded.

I have observed Leica Boutiques in a number of cities; Singapore, Tokyo, Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth and they have all been impeccably presented - I think this is a business stipulation from the Leica people. They are also very clever in making them so similar - you get a genuine feeling of comfort when you see the classic presentation. You feel confident that the shop can cater to your needs. And you do not have to question the validity of the brand.

You might wonder what made you buy a packet of chocolate-coated spaghetti from Coles, but you never, ever, have to regret Leica.

PS: there is a fine line in the design of commercial sales obstructions. Too little and they sweep right on by - too much and they fall over it and break a leg. The science is evolving.

Camera Electronic's Leica Boutiques are in both stores - 230 Stirling St, Perth and 2/324 Murray St, Perth or you can see the range online at www.leicaboutique-ce.com.au/ 

Well Strap Me Vitals! We're Lucky Now.

 

You miss a lot if you don't look close enough to the products in the Camera Electronic shop. The new premises near the corner of Murray and Queen Street was where I saw the Lucky camera straps seen in these pictures. I am guessing they are also at the 230 Stirling Street address as well...but in the new shop they stood out under the bright lighting...

Well there are enough colours and sizes - textures and materials, widths and lengths - to satisfy any camera's need. I can see wides, narrows, and wrist straps there in many browns and blacks. I'd be willing to bet they made other colours as well.

 

They're a composite style - leather shoulder or neck pad and tough woven section that runs down to the camera rings. Properly sewn at the junction too, in military or saddle-making style. Tough as old boots.

They seem to be packaged distinctively - there's not many products that you can buy today that are wrapped in twine in tissue in a fitted box. Quite an old-world experience.

 

But take note - it's not the old Asian or European world we're dealing with here. These are made in Melbourne. You're supporting Australian industry while you're supporting your Japanese camera...

They are extremely well-made  - make sure you see them when you visit the new shop. Remember that Christmas present season is just about to start - get in early.

The new Camera Electronic store is now open at 2/324 Murray St, Perth
For opening hours click here