The Round Of The Staff: Ricky

I pester the CE staff members each week - for the look of the thing I pretend it is to gain useful information to pass on to the customers via this weblog column - in reality I just like to pester and they are convenient...

First nervous cab off the rank was Ricky, our formerwarehouse and stores manager. If new things came in they generally hit either his desk or that of Jennifer in the receiving and dispatch area. Today did not turn up much past the Op/Tech Small Rain Sleeve.

The larger versions of these have been a staple product for years - they slip over DSLR cameras with longer lenses and protect them from showers of rain. Like this smaller version they have a draw string closure at the front that you can snug around the lens hood and a flexible hole at the back that you can fit around the eye-level viewer of your camera, if it has one.

If you are just using the LCD screen at the back of the camera then the plastic of these sleeves is clear enough to give you a fair sight through it anyway. And there is an extended sleeve that goes downwards from this so that the hand holding the camera stays dry as well.

The smaller size is aimed at the mirror-less and compact camera users.

The price is pretty compact too - you get two of 'em in the pack for $ 9.95. That's good cheap insurance against water damage to your camera in a sudden summer storm. You can see thm in-store or order via our on-line shop.

What's In A Name - The Strap Game Gets Stranger

On my second pester stop one dayI talked with Daniel - the man who wrestles with corporate and institutional sales and who is adding things to the on-line ordering system. I cannot pretend to understand most of the mechanisms that he employs for this but he did reveal a few new lines of products that will be available soon.

The straps caught my eye. Now I have posted before on the Frontier and Colonial Photographic Establishment weblog column about searching for a perfect camera strap. I had nearly sawed my neck off with a series of regular straps from different camera makers and realised that I needed to replace either them or the neck.

I've been somewhat successful in comfort terms but have still to achieve coolness and style. Currently the Little Studio cameras depend from four different types:

1. An Op/Tech 3/8" Classic for the X-Pro1 and lens. Comfy.
2. A Crumpler mini cotton strap for the X-E2...a bit of a worry as it is narrow...
3. A Crumpler wide strap for the X-T10. Comfy and sturdy but a little garish. They only had pink ones left...
4. A fluoro green Joby wrist strap for the X-100. You could make a fighting flail out of this one...

They manage but look pretty naff. I'm still looking for Mr Goodstrap.

Two more candidate companies that may supply an answer are just coming on stream with CE. If you wish to get an idea of what they make, and what they right about what they make please google up these two:

Tie Her Up Straps   Camera Bondage

Deadcameras Straps

No. I'm not kidding. I can invent a lot of stuff but I can't invent those names. I googled them and had a read. The straps look nice anyway, and they might be just the thing to make the cameras look cool.

Doing The Stock Order - Strap Me Up

We're doing the order today for Op/Tec, which makes me happy. The firm makes straps, pouches, containers, and all sorts of little storage ideas for cameras and lenses. They are prolific and imaginative, and the products are excellent.

I can say that because several of my cameras hang off or nestle in their products, and I will probably equip all my stuff with Op/Tec eventually. I am starting to value lightness in carriage more as I get older and Op/Tec lets me protect the gear but pare down the weight.

I can particularly recommend several things:

1. Straps with loop connectors.

 Most of the cameras that we carried in the 60's and 70's had D or triangle rings hanging from metal posts at the sides of the bodies - many of today's cameras follow suit. These in turn captured heavy leather or nylon straps with belt loos and buckles to allow for adjustment. In some cases we had the equivalent of a rifle sling on either end of the camera...which regularly scratched either the camera body or our hands and faces as we used the camera. The cameras brassed and we bled.

Op/Tec make some of their straps and connectors with loop ends - see the image - and these can suspend heavy bodies while getting out of the way of our hands and faces during fast shooting. They are ever so much more comfortable than the bulky rigs.

2. Hood Hats.

Neoprene cups that pop over your lens or lens hood. I keep them on Nikon 35mm and 50mm lenses because they have round lens hoods. They protect the lens as it scootches around inside the camera bag - they also protect it as I stroll around in a crowd. Much better than a lens cap.

The order goes off this week and we'll keep you in touch with when the goods arrive.

Pssst - We Got The Stuff...

Psssst. Hey. Hey, you...c'mere. We got ya stuff...we got ya stuff right here...

You wanted binocular straps? We got'em. Light weight. Let the binoculars slide up to your eyes and down to rest. Op/Tech - ask for 'em.

Sick of hanging the camera around your neck? Try one of the straps that go on the right side of he camera and curve round the back of your hand. The camera can dangle there safely and you can shoot freely. Lots of manufacturers for this and they are all different styles -there's even one made of rubber for those times when you need rubber...

Want to light a macro subject without frizzling it up? Two clock batteries and a Macro light from Promaster are all you need. Ask me later about how good this is for the headlights of model car shots...Also good for nasal or ear surgery, I shouldn't wonder...

Uncle Dick

Stuff Your Stocking - With Op/Tec

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wet Enough For You?

The small hiatus in the blogstream this last weekend was caused by the whether - whether or not I could find the dongle - and by the weather. In the first case, no, and in the second case, a great deal of yes.

Went to Busselton. Saw the Busselton Camera Club at their weekend conference. It rained. It hailed. It blew. No volcanic eruption, but that was probably because the volcano got wet. I was largely indifferent to the downpour as I was inside and the camera club members were out walking through the bush and along the seashore, but fortunately I included a product in the trade table that sold very well.

The Op/Tec Rainsleeve protectors come two to a packet and feature a clear flexible PVC bag with a drawstring at the front to snuggle up to the rim of your lens and a small hole in the back to allow the eyepiece of your DSLR to poke out. Your hand fits in the bottom of the tube to let you control the camera. The rest of you may be soaked but your camera and right hand will be dry!

There are other rain protectors on the market made by other firms but this is one of those quick-use emergency products that is a real life saver for outdoors photographers. Keep one in your camera bag to stave off disaster.

Of course none of the above applies to the lady who exhibited her photos taken at the Busselton jetty. She can get as wet as she likes and so can her camera because she has them in underwater housings...that cost as much as the camera. But her colour photographs of nudibranchs were stunning.

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

It has finally arrived - rain. Time to consider what to do with your photography for the next three months:

1.   Stay inside and drink.
2.   Go outside and take pictures.
3.   Bring your waterlogged equipment in to the repair department and hope it can be rescued.

Assuming that you won't be permitted to do the first, and you would like to avoid the third, give a thought to some of the products that we stock designed to cope with wet weather.

If you are going to be outdoors in intermittent showers or mist, good camera and lens protection can be had with flexible hoods and pouches made by Op/Tech, Aquatech,Think Tank,or Kata. They range in price, durability, and complexity from simple plastic bag sleeves to fitted raincoats that cover arms, flashes, and long tele lenses. The really cheap ones are really cheap and are a good insurance policy for landscape shooters. The expensive ones are intended for working sports pros or wildlife photographers who might be standing in a drizzle for hours. Of course those of us who have elected to stay inside and drink may burst into laughter at this point, but let's move on.

If it is going to be splashy as well as drizzly, consider one of the Dicapac DSLR or compact housings for your camera. You won't be able to use a long tele, but you can go to a moderate zoom and the thing will happily exclude water to 5 metres. That's money well spent with an expensive camera.

If you don't want to haul out a big DSLR but still want to stand in the rain, Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Panasonic, Olympus, and Fuji all make dedicated little waterproof compact cameras that can dive right in to depths of 3 to 10 metres. Some are even shockproof so when you slip over during the football riot no harm will be done. They give compact results, but these can be very good.

Finally, if you must, you can get specially-made cases for even the largest or oddest DSLR and film cameras. These are the pro jobs that are made of fibreglass, perspex, aluminium, and crystallized money. Expect to be quoted a price that would feed a third world village for a month.

Now, I have to go. There is a Mr. Toddy waiting for me ....inside.