Space Invader

Bom. Bom. Bom. Bom. Bom...

Well it's not that bad. I came upon this Pelican case in the shop today. It is the 1690 case and it is the biggest thing you have ever seen that was never a Queensland road minister. It is so big that there are expensive Parisian apartments in a good arrondissement that have less interior space. It is so big that you need council permission to keep it on the front lawn.

In short, it holds a lot of gear.

The actual interior capacity is quoted as .191 cu metre or 6.73 cu ft. It has enough capacity to take far too much gear. If you are addicted to loading everything you own into one box, this is the box.

It has all the usual Pelican waterproof construction - O rings and latches and well-spaced hinges. The length of the box is such that Pelican have included a supplementary tongue and socket to prevent the case wall and channel from moving sideways.

The carriage side is also extremely strong - note the cast polypropylene feet to keep the retractable handle mechanism out of the dirt. Also please note that the end handles are made with recognition that this will be a four-handed lift once full.

You may be forgiven for thinking that it looks a little like the black monolith in " 2001 - A Space Odyssey "...

And finally the interior contents. That is a great deal of Pick and Pack cubed foam - configuring this one will take a couple of days of planning before you start digging out the space for your gear. It pays to make paper templates and to think in 3D like a Tetris game before you start. You can get replacement panels for the three foam levels but if you plan ahead you will be happier.

Pelicans can withstand the toughest treatment while protecting the equipment entrusted to them. What is really needed with this one is a Model A luggage rack to strap it to - ask the staff to order one for you. The 1929 sedan model is very popular in Chicago. Doesn't show bullet holes...

www.cameraelectronic.com.au 

The Falls Creek Lunch Box - Or How To Go In The Snow

The daughter has just been to visit Falls Creek in Victoria and was lucky enough to hit the best snowfall day of the year - 30cm of powder. The pictures she brought back of the holiday taken with my old Fujifilm X-10 set to automatic are wonderful - she put the SD card into the slot on the television last night to give us a slide show and I am torn between pride and jealousy - they are that good.

Note: The dear old X-10 was superseded by the X-20 and latterly has been replaced by the X-30. This Fujifilm compact zoom line just gets better and better. Travellers take note...

But back to the snow. She missed out on a few of the activities they did because she was afraid to take the camera out into the falling snow - I have since told her she was silly as the devices do pretty well, but she was careful with it. In retrospect I think I should have grabbed one of the small Pelican cases and let her dump the thing into that - then she could have ventured out into the cold dauntless.

This is the one I'd have picked - the Pelican 1050. It's only $ 35 and has the famous water-tight edge seal that Pelican is famous for. Plus a pressure relief valve that means it does not get stuck closed if you go up and down the mountains.

The interior is a padded solid rubber well - not a foam block. This means that you don't have foam crumbles flailing around and getting into the camera. There is plenty of room in there for the Fujifilm X-30  - as a matter of fact it is big enough to take the Fujifilm X-100T  or either the Fujiflm X-E2 with a 27mm lens or the new Fujifilm X-T10 with a similar optic. Now THAT'S going to be good tourist photos!

Note the carabinier strap and side slots for other strapping.

Security Checks For Photographers

Having just been through Perth International on a flight to Singapore recently - and having been compelled to visit every stall in the fair as far as security checks went - I am conscious now of  safety and security of photo gear while in transit.

It is no longer sufficient to just wrap Neville the live python around  your camera bag and tell everyone to stand back. You need to lock it. To that end the Pelican people have incorporated a set of metal re-inforcements for their waterproof cases and you can order brass combination locks that have a long steel loop to slide into the holes.

The zippers on Lowepro bags are closed with runners that have matching metal loops - butt them together and put a little padlock in there. Or a nut and bolt, if you want to be cheap.

Finally, you might as well I.D. your bag with something that they can't tear off - the Think Tank ID tag has a metal cable attachment and metal tag. Engrave it yourself badly or get someone else to do it neatly  and it will save you arguing with someone at the luggage carousel.

Nothing will save you, however from the moment when the load finally exceeds the limits of the bag and it bursts like a bombshell. Even Neville has his limits.

Pile O Pelicans

It has been some time since we saw a pile 'o pelicans here - about 5 years ago we had the great Ziggurat Of Storm cases and we used to sacrifice slow-paying customers on top of them until the council stepped in and complained. Now we just sell the waterproof cases to photographers.

They go mostly to people who take their delicate equipment into horrible conditions. Whale watching, fishing boats, oil rigs, snow fields, Queensland...wherever water, snow, oil vapours, sand, or dust would attack the cameras or lenses. The Pelicans are absolutely waterproof and solid enough to withstand being hold baggage on anything short of a B-24.

I use one to stand on to get above crowds at dance shows. I weigh 70Kg and haven't shot through the top of it yet.

You can get them in al sorts of sizes and with either foam or divider interiors. They have snap latches and provision to put padlocks on them.

Have a look at the heading picture and see if there is one that would suit you. Pelican-Storm have a good website that will quote interior dimensions as well.

Hard Cases

We have a small pile of ex-rental hard cases near the front counter. You might need new foam inside but they're only $ 25 each. Makes a good big school lunch box...

Slither Along To Cannington

If you want to see some venomous reptiles with aggressive attitudes but are tired of watching the current affairs segments on the television news...may I suggest that you visit the Cannington Exhibition Center on Albany Highway this Sunday. They are running a fabulous reptile exhibition all day.

Of course it is not all snakes - there will be lizards and frogs and newspaper journalists and everything. With a bit of luck you might find something cute and cuddly.

It won't be me, I hasten to add. I'm to give a little talk on photographing reptiles. Which will be an exercise in pure imagination ...errr...I mean careful scientific conjecture. I don't photograph reptiles. They don't photograph me. The closest we come is a brief nod across the room at a cocktail party.

I'm going to recommend two approaches - the careful/scientific and the joyous/artistic. In the one case I will be showing a Nikon DSLR equipped with a long macro lens and a flash on the end of a coiled cord. I will also advocate the use of a standardised colour card and image-correcting software so that the budding Darwin will be able to present the images with some accuracy.

The artistic will be with the new Nikon P7700 Coolpix, and an armful of construction paper. The former will render most close-up scenes beautifully and the latter will spice up the backdrops. The animals that need to be photographed from a distance - venomous ones - can also be captured pretty well with the camera and as it features the standard TTL hot shoe assembly the coiled cord and the SB 700 can also be brought into play.

Okay, folks, I'm not telling you anything you don't know, and I suspect I won't be telling the herpetologists anything THEY don't know, but at least I can help them to organise their outfits.

I wonder if they will applaud me or just hissssssss?

PS: The top image is Chelsea Bunz as a salamander...

Call To The Colours - with Pelican and TLT

I once complained about the dull nature of photographic products intended for professional use - black everything and trying to be desperately discreet. Even put up a cartoon about it - scroll through our Facebook page and you'll find it.

Well, the bright yellow Kata stand that went up today seems to have attracted more colourful birds. Look at the anodized colours on the Three Legged Thing tripod - there is no structural advantage to the blue head with the bronze quick-release plate but it certainly looks cool. And how clever of TLT to incorporate their initials in the actual rubber pad of the plate.

Have a look as well at the rainbow of colours on the Pelican cases. I can understand the basic black and the bright yellow and orange - these would be perfect for high-visibility workplaces or dim studios. Also for Antarctic explorers to keep their sandwiches inside out on the ice.

I can see the khaki model being some form of camouflage in a desert.

But I'm stumped as to the silver colour. Air Force? Stage crew for Liberace? Any thoughts, readers?

The blue one is sheer exuberance. I like it and I think it would make a fabulous lunch box.

More to the point is this picture - it is a good old Pelican square box - a 1300 case. there are three levels of foam in it, two of which are pick-and-pluck so that you can accommodate different sets of gear. Have a look inside there - that's a big old Canon camera with a zoom lens. Once it is snuggled in there and the silicon rubber-sealed lid locked down you can bid defiance to rain, rivers, dirt, and baggage handlers. You can chuck it into the back of a ute and bump it out onto the roadway without any danger.
Pick the right size and you can put it aboard the people section of an airplane...but realistically you can also consign it to the cargo hold and they can stack artillery shells on it.

If you have not treated your gear to a Pelican case you are not getting the best out of your travels. I use a big roll-around one to store and entire studio set in and when I need to stand out from the crowd I crawl up on top of it and do just that. It is that tough. Note; I weigh 68 Kg but I have ambitions to weigh 69Kg after Christmas dinner.

Security For The Media - Today's Case

The recording media that we use for our photographs have changed quite a bit recently. Silver-plated copper and glass plates coated with liquid gun-cotton seem to have given way to small plastic biscuits with electronics inside. In between these were the rolls of plastic film and in between the rolls of plastic film was dust, fungus and insects...


That's actually something that happens with everything - the silvered plates got scratched, the glass plates got broken, and the plastic memory biscuits get left in shirt pockets and go through the washing machine. Or they get lost down the back of the couch, or the front of the dog. In short, anything we use to record the scene is subject to attack by the elements and we need to do something to protect it.

Leaving apart the glass plates and the film negatives - I recommend IKEA Kassette boxes for the former and negative sleeves for the latter - we come to the plastic biscuits known as memory cards. Lots of manufacturers make memory card wallets - Think Tank and Lowepro come immediately to mind, and these are a good way to make a collection of cards big enough that you cannot leave it in the shirt pocket or ignore it in your trousers. You are in control of where the cards go.

If you are in danger of getting doused yourself or are going into dusty or muddy conditions, consider a Pelican or GePe memory card case. These are hard plastic with waterproof seals around the edges and hold anything from 2 to 4 cards. Generally the manufacturers arrange the inside so that these can be either CF or SD size.

Consider any of these to be physical protection from the environment but remember that you can also be protecting your work from Man. It is not unknown for memory cards to be filched, as it was not unknown for film to be filched. I do not know about  12" x 16" glass plates - seems hard to sneak out of a party or wedding reception with one of these under the arm...

Remove the temptation if you are working or travelling. Spread your shoot over several cards and house those cards in something that sits close to you at all times. You might lose equipment, but you do not lose images or the job.

Joe And The Volcano

Those of you who remember this movie with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan will recognize the new Pelican product in the shop. Think of the luggage.


I have not yet tried to float the new Pelican 350 case in the Swan River but I am sure that it would do just fine. It's the biggest Pelican I've ever seen, and someone somewhere needs it.

The inside dimensions on this are massive - 50.8 cm x 50.8 cm x 47 cm. I am not sure what that equates to in litres but there is room in there for even the largest of large format camera systems - or video rigs, pro outfits, complete lens collections, two slabs of beer, or lots of lighting gear. Of course it features the watertight Pelican rubber seal and multiple locking points to keep it secure, and there are security lock points as well.

If this is loaded, don't expect to tote it yourself - like a full Esky, you need a mate to help you lift it onto the ute. It is tough enough that you can stand on it to get a view over the crowd, and I shouldn't be surprised if you could not prop up a corner of the ute as well. The bottom panel is well re-enforced.

In short, folks, this is just one big black tough cube. If you need to carry something big in perfect safety, here is your answer.