Tune-Up Time With Manfrotto

How many of us get a tool kit with our new digital cameras these days? In the old film days it was common for the box containing the SLR or rangefinder camera to have a complete tool pouch including a stilson wrench, set of spanners, lens brace, film jack, and a bottle of optical antiseptic. In the case of some Kodak cameras you got a 8-round clip of .30-06 ball ammunition and a toothbrush.

I think we are being done - nowadays you're lucky to get a battery charger and a squidgy little lens cloth with some. Even the instruction manuals are on a CD...or are a web address.

Well, all that having been said, it is refreshing to see that Manfrotto, the famous Italian tripod and lighting accessory manufacturer, has realised that users of their equipment still like to be able to maintain the goods. Their recent carbon-fibre monopod model is a...well... a model of a good product. It works and will keep on working.

The monopod idea is brilliant for anyone who is toting heavy cameras or lenses and needs some relief from the weight. I spend 4 hours shooting dancers on WA Day with a long zoom and a heavy little camera. The Manfrotto monopod I use - an early cousin of this one - takes all the weight out of my arms and puts it down, while not occupying a big triangular patch of floor. Makes the difference between an easy job and a arm breaker.

Well, like some older Manfrotto CF tripods, this one has three lever claps to adjust the sections. Far faster than screwing the sections together like some cheaper monopods. As they are acting on springs, there will come a time when they grow weaker, and need to be adjusted. This is where Manfrotto have been smart - they moulded a plastic box spanner onto a grip and clipped it to the shaft of the monopod.

If the weather changes or the equipment ages, you just tighten up as you go.

Brilliant. Combine it with the Manfrotto 234 or 234RC tilt top and you've got the smartest quick support in town.

Three Days Warning - Pentax K1

There is an End-Of-Financial-Year sale email going out right now from Camera Electronic - you may be on the list that receives it. Normally I do not interfere with that section of the business or comment on the offers, but today another staff member pointed out that there is an exceptional good deal in there. So I grabbed an example of the camera, photographed it, and am adding the blog imprimature to it.

This blog post is chiefly aimed at someone who up until now has been shooting crop-frame cameras, but has not advanced to the full-frame models yet. If you are the possessor of purely-crop frame lenses you can read on - if you have a mixed bag of crop and full frame lenses you must proceed with caution.

Here's what I mean - if you have some crop or full frame lenses for the Canon or Nikon system, you will probably think of investigating the full-frame cameras from those makers. By all means - and you may find one of them in the same EOFY ad. Pass further down the car...

If you have ONLY crop-frame lenses and are contemplating the switch to full-frame...well you might as well consider shifting to a different camera system, as you'll be buying new full-frame lenses anyway. And you can do yourself some good by shifting to the Pentax K-1.

The specs are all in their own websites, or you can dial back to earlier issues of this blog that were posted just after the K-1 launch. Massive mega-pixelage, massively capable AF, weather sealing, high ISO...all the newer attributes of top of the line cameras. Plus the ability to achieve pixel shift recording in studio situations to add even more resolution to still life shots. The convenience of one of the best LCD touch screens in the business and all the electronic connectivity bells and whistles that people expect these days.

Days is the operative term - you've got 3 more days to secure an in-store or on-line bargain of the age with the offer on this camera. $2699 for a camera that rivals medium format performance.

You'll need a full-frame lens for it. I've included one in the illustration as a suggestion, and you can choose others if you wish. It is superb, but obviously you'll have to pay for it as a separate thing.

Personally, I would be utterly tempted if I wanted to make large landscapes, or if my studio work involved large prints. This blog just needs little images, but if you are more ambitious or better connected with commercial clients, but if you are more ambitious, or artistic, or better connected to commercial clients, you want the K-1.

The Influencers

Watch as Elliot Mess and his elite force of "Influencers" clean up crime and corruption on the streets of jazz-age Chicago...*

A recent posting in DP Review seems to suggest that the role of the "Influencer" in social media marketing is going to decline. Apparently it is going to get more difficult to rock up to a major manufacturer and shout out "Stand and deliver!".

I'm not surprised - with the various natural disasters and manufacturing mishaps that the photo trade is susceptible to, it is getting hard to get them to deliver anyway. That may seem cynical, but that's one of the good things about cynicism - it never disappoints.

I was drawn to the article because I currently occupy the position of "Influencer" for the shop. In winter months it becomes " Influenzer" and the sales of Codral and tissues climbs but that is another story. When I go viral, I go viral big time.

But I'm afraid I am a little sceptical about the status of "Influencer" if there is little evidence apart from barking coughs that I really do make people do things. The readers of this weblog column use computers, phones, and tablets, and are smart enough to operate them far more efficiently than I. That means they are smart enough to make up their own minds about what photo gear to use and what programs to follow. They also know what they like, and can generally achieve it without me telling them what to do.

I have my own likes and dislikes. I have used this column to bruit the things I prefer but it is not because someone has left me a Gladstone bag of money - it is because I genuinely like using certain items and programs. As for the dislikes, well, I am sensible enough to write without making too many enemies. Besides, there is always the chance that the manufacturer of the Dudoflex D will have a better idea next time and the new camera will be wonderful.

There is also the distinct possibility that I can be wrong about things.

My hands are not pretty enough to allow me to act as a product poser for goods and the pictures that appear in this column are taken by me anyway. You try to make your hands look good if you are trying to hold the camera in one of them and the product in the other. It rarely works.

So  -  the end result is that this column is reasonably impartial in its reportage. Only reasonably - I have my limits. If the Sun Star Model Car company of China wants me to plug their products and are prepared to send me a sea container of the 1:18 stuff, I am prepared to abandon all pretence to morality.

Uncle Dick

* Frank Nitti was just misunderstood...

" How Many Batteries Do I Need? "

How many pockets have you got?

The question of batteries rarely concerned us in the old film days - at least for the little people. The mechanical shutter and the finger-powered film advance worked pretty well all the time and no electricity was needed. Adding a selenium light meter to the mixture still avoided a battery, but as soon as the CdS and later cells were incorporated and we got electronic shutters and motor drives we started to have to be cagey about on-board electricity.

We started to have to look for 22.5 volt batteries for flash guns...similar ones for Polaroid cameras...D cells for Graflex flash guns...and then a whole raft of cells for the early strobe systems. Victor Hasselblad introduced us to a small blue-coated stack of nickel cadmium cells for one of his cameras and they were NEVER happy batteries.

Well, things are now digital, and batteries are a fact of life. We get lithium-ion cells with every camera we buy and if we are wise we grab an extra one from the accessories rack to go with the new kit. Of course they are re-chargeable items - that is part of the appeal of digital photography - but the amount of juice that any given camera takes is variable factor and sometimes you need more than one battery to have reasonable working time.

A case in point is my own dear little Fujifilm X-10. It works well, but the small battery fitting in it poops out at about 200 shots. If I am going for a full day's shooting at the car show I need to take 3 batteries. If I were a car show shooter with a big Nikon D3, D4, or D5 DSLR I could expect about 2000 shots on one battery and would not need a spare for the day*.

Here is where the user of the big pro DSLR has it over the user of the mirror-less camera in most instances - the battery on the bottom grip of this kind is larger and goes longer - or it repeats the battery in the camera and thus doubles the life. But the whole assembly is heavier, so there we go again with the pros and cons.

That's the new Pentax K-1 in the pictures with the accessory battery grip on the bottom. Well-proportioned for a larger hand and all the controls you could decently want scattered on the top and back. A rumour on another site says a new grip for another camera may well have two batteries plus the one in the camera - 3 altogether - makes lots of electricity but adds extra weight. We'll wait and see if the rumour site is right.

* but I'd take a spare for the day because I am the nervous type.

Letting Him Loose

C.R. Kennedy recently equipped Bob Lichfield with a new Pentax K-1 camera and several lenses so that he could make a professional's assessment of it. He was itching to buy one so the choice of tester could not have been better.

He took the camera out to Whiteman Park to capture the low morning light and the kangaroos. The results, as shown at the Camera Electronic launch night on last Thursday week, were nothing short of spectacular. Extremely sharp and well-coloured with minimal noise. Heck, I couldn't see any noise at all. not surprising with a full-frame sensor like that and a new processing engine.*

But he pointed out that there is a great deal more inside that camera than he was able to elicit in the weekend he had it. He did nature shots, landscapes, architecture, stitched panoramas, and one astro shot with it but had to confess that the only way to succeed with that was to read the manual and pester the State manager of C.R. Kennedy.

Did pretty good for a weekend - but then he has the advantage of a long career in professional photography and the Pentax system. Also did pretty good to admit to needing the instructions - so many times we think that we know all about our gear and blunder on for years missing out on the best performance. I will candidly confess that I used my Fujifilm cameras for a couple of years before buying a Rico Pfirstinger book with clear advice on how to boost performance...but if I had read the included manual with all my Fujifilm cameras I could have been there in the first day! Dumb me.

I would love to be a tester for cameras. I mean an official one with a badge and a whistle and a dinner pail. I have hinted as much to lots of firms but you'd be surprised how fast manufacturer's representatives and wholesale agents can move when they are nervous - haven't caught one yet. I still have my application in to Rheinmetall Borsig to test FLAK guns so there is still hope.

* I'm still waiting for some camera maker to bring out a new digital with a 1950 Ford flathead V8 in it. Buy it in  minute...

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.

Tilting The Screen

Older members of the readership will remember the 1980 movie " Flash Gordon " with the fight between Flash and the hawk men on a tilting tabletop. It was a pivotal point in my life...pun intended... as it was the first concrete illustration of the university education system I had ever seen. I still have Flash backs...

Well, university aside, the tilting tabletop is the best way to understand the new LCD screen mechanism on the Pentax K-1.

We've seen LCD screens in various forms since the inception of digital photography and they have gotten bigger, brighter, more detailed, and more useful all along. A few years ago they started to move - makers attached them to panels that swung out to the side of the camera. Then the panels were made to swivel at the same time and eventually they got to the point where they could go from being turned into the body of the camera to pointing straight forward.

Not content with this, other makers made the screens tilt - up, down, and eventually right forward again. It was all very good, but it really was only a help when the care was held in the landscape orientation - if you went to portrait position you still had to peer sideways and wonder.

An aside. Old Hasselblad and Rollei photographers like me can peer sideways like owls. We had to do it with the waist level finders on the old film cameras and we've developed the knack. Still makes us look silly, though.

Okay. Pentax have taken a leaf from the makers of some monitor screens and attached the LCD assembly to the back of the new K-1 camera with four struts. This means it can go in far more positions for viewing without being stuck out of the side of the camera on a flimsy plastic swivel. You can sight through it in portrait mode without twisting your neck off. No small advantage in candid photography and an absolute godsend in tripod work in a studio. Note: once it goes to the end of he swivel arms it tilts up even further.

I get the feeling that Pentax designers are human beings who take their own pictures in real life with their own design of cameras. And they pay attention to how their own hands work and how they feel. Let us all applaud them with our hands.

Then let us dive this hands into our pockets and fish up a wallet. This camera is in the shop right now - come play with it or order it on-line.

Round The Dial Roulette On The New Pentax K-1

The last few years have seen camera makers send their designers on divergent paths when it comes to the interface between the customer and the device.

In some cases nearly all the operating controls have been hidden inside the menu button, in others they have been spread out on a touch screen, and in a third instance have been relegated to levers. But nothing beats a good old fashioned dial - particularly if it is well-marked and a decent size. If it has firm click stops and a sturdy grip you can confidently fly the machine in all weathers.

Well, digital Pentax cameras have always been pretty good in this respect - their external knobs meet all the right criteria. The latest full-frame digital camera is the Pentax K-1 and here are a few of the control areas that illustrate how clearly Pentax see with the eyes of their buyers.

a. The main mode dial. Standard PASM and then Pentax's specialty - the variable ISO settings; Tav and Sv. Note as well the full Auto ( though why on a professional camera like this one...)*.  But look at the wealth of options there are with 5 custom channels. For some photographers these would be all they ever changed for their different interests. Also note the lock button.

b. The fun specialty dial. Oh dear goodness what you could do with this one...

 HDR explains itself, but you would still be well advised to look in the manual to see what they think you are going to do before you do it. Some love the look and some hate it, but it is actually useful for some technical illustration.

BKT is bracket. Again good for tricky light conditions.

CH and Cl are your continuous shot speeds

 ISO is amazing as the camera goes up past the 200,000 mark. Bob Litchfield said he was notorious for always shooting at 100 ISO but would feel confident running to 800 with the Pentax K-1. Betcha it would go very well a long way higher - check out DP review's test shots.

+ and - are for when you can't decide...no, these are the exposure compensation factors you can dial in.

The white dot is right there and until I get a camera to play with it will stay right there.

WiFi is self explanatory. Or should that be selfie-explanatory...?

Crop controls the use of DX lenses on the FX camera - you can put 'em on but the camera only uses part of the sensor to record. It will automatically indicate what is live in the viewfinder.

Grid lets on a series of guide lines to scold you when you get your horizons crooked and your verticals divergent.

SR Shake Reduction. And in this camera there is a lot of that - 5 axes arecovered, including roll.

c. The Usual Suspects. This is the main under-thumb back panel with discrete button wheel and a joystick button above it. More and more cameras are giving the shooter this sort of tiny thumb navigator rather than compelling them to move AF points with the main wheel. They can shift while the camera is at their eye.

Pentax have recognised  that with a camera of this size the grip of the user is going to have to be firm...which in its turn means that the tactile control available to thumb and forefinger to operate fore and aft wheels is necessarily a little rougher. Try it yourself gripping the mouse of your computer - as you tighten up you have less fine motor control. This in turn means that the control wheels must be larger and well-ribbed to engage with the fingers. Thankfully, they are, and adjustment when the camera is to the eye is easy.

Any way you look at it, the new Pentax K-1 is a DSLR for grown-ups.

Pentax K-1 In The Deep Dark Woods...

Night time. Deep in the dark woods. Dank, dripping foliage. No moon. No stars. No lights from a lonely farmhouse. No car lights. No camping torch. A black stygian abyss, devoid of comfort. And what is the Pentax K-1 photographer doing?

Changing lenses. Easily.

Thank you Mr. Ricoh or Mr. Pentax for finally doing what needed to be done a long time ago - putting working lights on a camera. This is a blessing for all the people who have been out in the wet bush darkness or down the back of a theatre trying to change lenses or find the controls on a camera by the light reflected off a black cat.

The Pentax K-1 assist lights let you find the cable release socket, the lens release button - and the dot on the mount to align things to, and the memory card slot. You can feel the switch to turn the camera on and then the menu can light up and you are away.

It sounds corny and simplistic and crude, but it really is important in dark situations to be able to do the basic things that make a DSLR system work. And you can't change lenses while holding a torch with one hand, and two lenses and the body with the other - not and keep the inside of the blessed thing clean.

As Bob Lichfield pointed out at his talk on Thursday, the Pentax K-1 also has a feature called Astral Tracker. In combination with the GPS system built into the camera it allows the machine to recognise stars and where it is when it sees them and then use that information to allow the pixel shift mechanism to cope with the movement of this stats when the camera is set firmly on a tripod. It sounded both complex and simple as he described waving the camera around out in the dark but the result certainly showed resolution and artistry.

The other blessing for the nocturnal is the increased sensitivity of the sensor/ processing engine combination for this new camera. The computer engine is the new Prime IV and it will coax a sensitivity of 204,800 ISO out of the camera. For all practical purposes this means you can take a picture anywhere in the man-made dark and most places in Natural dark. It would make the glow-worm caves in new Zealand into a disco palace.

Focusing at this low light levels has also been taken care of as the camera will go to -3 EV with effective auto focus.

Final note: When you get to the other end of the illumination scale and you're out in the icky sunshine and you can't see the screen for light, there is a quick solution, Pentax have put a dedicated switch on the outside of the body to let you adjust the LCD screen brightness. Good thinking - if it was just a menu item you couldn't see the menu to adjust the screen because of the light.

Waiter, Bring Me A Pentax K-1...

And a side order of D-FA lenses too, please...

The New Pentax K1 was here for us to see at last night's Pentax Launch at the shop. As you can see from the pictures, interest in it was widespread.

Well, that has always been the case - as far back as the days of the dear old Asahi Pentax SV and Sla, Pentax fans have been loyal and since the cameras were always good value for money, there have been a lot of fans. When the Spotmatic hit the market like a bombshell in the 60's people discovered that there could be style and grace in a camera design as well as technical ability. Such would appear to be the case right now.

The K1 is the first of the Pentax full-frame DSLR cameras - that's 24mm x 36mm on the sensor - and they have aimed it carefully at people who want to work to the maximum sharpness with their photography. Here's how:

a. The sensor itself is larger than hitherto. Twice the area.

b. The sensor has no anti-alias filter to smudge the resolution. For those who worry about the appearance of moiré patterns in this case, Pentax have incorporated a small pixel-shake mechanism as an optional setting that can eliminate this.

c. For the people who are prepared to use the Pentax K-1 on a tripod and trigger it with a cable release or the self timer, there is the facility to take 4 pictures of the same scene while the sensor shifts ever so slightly. These four pictures are then combined in-camera to yield far higher resolution - up to 36.4 effective megapixels.

d. For the people who are taking pictures where they cannot use a tripod, there is a 5-axis anti-shake mechanism to damp down the effect of movement. Up to 5 shutter speed levels can be improved. Even the difficult movement of roll can be compensated for.

e. The smudginess that comes from diffraction on lenses when they are stopped down past about f:10 is a problem for tabletop and landscape shooters - Pentax has incorporated diffraction correction algorithms for a number of their lenses. Sharp edges, finer detail.

f. Ditto for the image distortions that are inevitable with some designs of lens - again some Pentax lenses can have this ironed out automatically in the camera's electronics. Result? Straight lines where straight lines are needed.

Now it may be some time before this columnist can get his mitts on one of the cameras and a suitable Pentax D-FA lens to do some field or studio testing, but he will do so AS SOON AS HE IS PERMITTED* and will publish the results. If sharpness is your game, keep reading.

* In the meantime talk to Bob Lichfield who has the ear of the Pentax people. He has it in a small box in his desk.

The Big Unwrapping - New Pentax Full-Frame Lens

You've all probably seen one of those YouTube videos that show an enthusiast opening something. And I don't mean an Egyptologist chiseling open a pyramid - I'm talking about  a camera fan unboxing his latest purchase...live, online, with the Ride Of The Valkyries playing in the background and the sound of helicopters. I love the smell of bubble wrap in the morning...

Well, I tried my hand at it in the Little Studio. The new HD Pentax-D FA 24-70mm f:2.8 ED SDM WR lenses have arrived on the goods -inwards desk at Camera Electronic and I snaffled one for illustration. It was strangely exciting - particularly seeing as how I don't own a Pentax camera.

Oh this one is Pentax alright - the mount is absolutely classic AF Pentax. And the style of the barrel and the knurling are also Pentax. The entire shape is a refinement of what the company has been doing for decades - and is a clear advance in organised design.

It's heavy, but not as heavy as some of its competitors. It is designed for the new full frame Pentax body when it arrives but can be used cheerfully on the current small-frame Pentaxes. You'll note it carries extensive multi coating and the orange band on the mount is a weather seal.

F 2.8 in a 24-70 lens is no surprise for photographers who use other brands of camera. It is one of the classic go-to choices for both small and full frame and can be used in low light situations. The increasing advance of ISO speeds in modern cameras together with the improvements in AF systems mean that this now extends into really low light work. The fact that it is not a bigger front element must be a comfort for the available light workers who don't want to haul an arm-breaker of a lens.

The barrel seems very well built - and as you can see it does not extend too far with the zoom. There's a barrel lock in case you are worried about it creeping out but it wouldn't creep far anyway.

I expect the Pentaxians...or is that Ricohvians these days...will be queuing up for this one soon when the big body arrives. It might be worth while putting your name down for one or starting a lay-by in anticipation. Also available through the on-line store.

Note: You do get to find some odd things if you look carefully at the packaging these days. We appear to have a love letter from Ricoh...or they might be stalking us.

The HD Pentax-D FA 24-70mm f:2.8 ED SDM is available for order in store and on our website.

Unashamedly Grabbing At The Big Screen For the New Pentax

Locked away as I am in my medieval tower, with nothing to do but weave tapestries and comb my long golden locks, I am somewhat at a loss as to how I am to get information and images to tell you about the new Pentax full-frame camera - the K1. Fortunately I have the internet and no sense of shame and have recently discovered how the screen-grab mechanism works. I am confident that the medieval tower will defeat any copyright lawyers that come after me and as the whole idea is to sell more pentax K-1 cameras, I don't suppose the wholesalers will mind.

Well, it was a long time coming, but is apparently reality rather than promise - a full 24 x 36 mm frame Pentax DSLR camera. It has the general shape of the smaller Pentax cameras and the same lens mount, so users of the current lenses  - and legacy lenses as well - can experiment and see if they have the pleasant surprise of a lens that covers the whole sensor area. Apparently some of the Limited Edition Pentax lenses do.

It runs a 36.4 megapixel CMOS sensor and no AA filter for maximum sharpness. ISO up to 204800. There's a 5-axis shake reduction system and 36 AF points.

I'm particularly taken by two ergonomic features; the swinging and skewing LCD screen at the back with stabiliser rods, and the Operation Assist Lights that let you see where the latches and controls are in the dark so you can change lenses in a theatre at night. Very good idea!

Dual card slots, WiFi, GPS, 1080 video,and the ability to automatically sense if you are using crop-frame lenses and to narrow the usable area of the sensor accordingly.

Note that the press release mentions 12 new full-frame lenses but the only details are a 15-30 f:2.8 and a 28-105 f:3.5-5.6.

The shape in the press pictures is pure Pentax and as this has always been pretty good to hold in the past, there is no reason to think it different for the larger sensor.

We await developments gleefully.

Time Travelling With Camera Electronic

The same incautious staff member who speculated about Johnny Cash and the ducks also raised a thought about time travel. He was specifically thinking of time lapse movies, which are becoming increasingly popular these days, but there is no reason stop temporal speculation there - our shop can speed time up, slow time down, repeat it, or excise it. We can go forward, backward, and possibly up, down, and sideways.

In fact, if the general premise of Dr. Who's Tardis is that of an unimposing structure crammed with more space and more equipment inside, I think that could be said to exactly describe 230 Stirling Street.

I shall gloss over who the Weeping Angels, Daleks, and other entertaining staff members and concentrate on the time itself.

Speeding it up: This is the province of the time lapse. The camera sits there and shoots a series of pictures at designated intervals - generally over a pretty long period of time. If something that the cameras has been watching over this time has experienced a set of gradual changes, projecting the subsequent series of pictures back like a video will show that action unfolding in fast action. We've all seen the Disney pics of flowers unfolding or deserts blooming. The technique can be applied to looking at starry skies, scudding clouds, or rush hour crowds.

It works in nearly every case - the only known failure of this sort of filming was the series of pictures they took at 100-year intervals of Keith Richards. When they projected them later they could see mountain ranges heaving up and down in geological eras and continents alternately appearing and disappearing under sheets of ice but Mr. Richards' face never changed...

Slowing it down: Well, if you take a picture at 16 frames per second and project it at 16 frames per second it looks like normal speed. If you take it at 60 frames per second and project it at 16 frames per second everything looks like it has slowed down. This is used to study golf swings, nuclear explosions, and some scientific phenomena  - indeed, a short sequence taken with a Hulcher camera on 16mm film in the 1950's shows Zsa Zsa Gabor while she was married. It is held in the Library of Congress under argon gas.

Modern video cameras and a lot of the zippier mirror-less models can do this to perfection. Action cams are the champs in this at present and as they are likely to be put in harm's way their footage is always entertaining.

Repeating Time. Take a picture that was shot on Kodachrome A movie film in 8mm in 1948. Project it in 2016. Same colours, same scene, same people. And 33 years after your father died he is alive again for 3 1/2 minutes. Beat that Hollywood.

Cutting out time. Get a picture of yourself that was taken 40 years ago. See what clothes you were wearing in the picture. Go to your clothes closet and take those clothes out and put 'em on - or go to the Good Sammy's and get another set. Take a selfie. Put them side by side and the bit in the middle between the two images is what 40 years looks like. Thin, isn't it?

Extra Special Bonus Blog For Today

This is a blog post to tell you what someone told me...apparently they were told by someone else. It is a variant on the game of Chinese Whispers, except that this is called Parent Company In Japan Whispers.

Apparently Ricoh have released teaser images and specifications for their forthcoming introduction of a full-frame DSLR camera. The blat has come through very reliable commercial channels and is appealing sensible - see what i mean.

The business of having APS-C sensors or other small-frame sensors in cameras has always lead to a game of mental mathematics and advertising skittles when it came to describing what you wanted and what you got. You applied multiplication factors and then tried to figure out what you were seeing and whether it was going to be in focus or not. The lucky ones were the people who had never had a camera and did not have any preconceptions. The rest of us thought with our fingers and added up.

The advent of the full-frame sensor might have straightened out a number of minds but it left the sticky problem of small-frame lenses sometimes being applied to full-frame bodies.

Nikon said OK, and it worked to a certain extent when a Nikon body recognised what was happening ( sometimes before the shooter did ) and just used the center bits of the sensor to record the pictures. But it could sometimes confuse the user.

Canon said NO. Their small-frame lenses are physically prohibited from going onto the full-frame bodies. Buy the full-frame lens or do your pictures with a pencil and a yellow pad.

Ricoh...and for that you read Pentax...have said OK in a great way. They have decided that their new full-frame camera will accept the K-mount lenses that they have always had. Obviously they will also introduce some full-frame lenses going forward and they will probably be crackers, but for now you can clap on older K mounts from 35mm days and the ones that have served up until now with the APS-C cameras.

The plan is to have the camera automatically sense what you are doing and let you shoot the small-frame lens but only record the bit that is APS-C size. The rumour article argues that this means the whole sensor will have pretty good resolution to allow the cropped-down usage to still produce good results. it sounds like a very sensible approach to the matter - particularly if "automatic " really is so.

Rest assured, when we get to see more of the device we will show you. If you'd like to peep yourself, the web address is:

https://fstoppers.com/gear/pentax-updates-teaser-its-upcoming-full-frame-dslr-107050

A Rare Edition Visits Australia

We are accustomed to seeing items offered from major manufacturers with the " Limited Edition" label, but we rarely get them quite as limited or quite as attractive as this one. It is a Limited Edition Ricoh GR camera outfit.

How limited? Only five thousand made and sent out worldwide. How many to Australia? Twelve. How many on offer from Camera Electronic here in Perth? Three.

It is a kit of the Ricoh GR digital camera and the accessories to make it work with elegance:

1. Dedicated lens barrel protector and lens hood GH-3 in black crackle finish.
2. Soft leather case GC - 5 in exclusive colour.
3. Soft leather strap GS - 3 in matching colour.
4. Ricoh GR camera in blue mist hammertone finish with marble finish grip panel.
5. All the cables, battery and charger you need to operate it on a PC.

 
The finish is reminiscent of fine jewellery - a sort of blue-green hammertone surface treatment that matches well with the grey marbled hand grip. Buttons are in silver - a most attractive combination.

The hood seems to loom out in the photo - I assure you that this is the effect of me using a short focal length setting to take the picture - it is actually well-balanced. The effect of using it will be to make sure that no glare washes out your pictures. It also provides a haven of protection for the lens of the camera when it is in the open position.

The cameras are stylish - no doubt about that - and rare. Only three available from us here in Perth out of the twelve sent to Australia. The price reflects the rarity:

Complete Limited Edition GR Kit............$ 1199

If you would like to get one of the regular black Ricoh GR cakmeras to go along with your new Limited Edition, we can sell you one at $649 - that's a bargain as the RRP of the regular black Ricoh GR is $ 849.

One thing is certain - all your photographic friends will envy you the camera performance and all your fashionable friends will envy you the styling!

A Camera For Plain Pictures And Plain Dealing

Welcome, Friend. How may I help thee?

You wish to take photographs of thy family, or thy farm animals? Of the Meeting House on Sunday? And you wish to do it decently, soberly, and in plain clothes? Of course.

Here is the camera for thee. The Ricoh GR. It has one lens only and that lens sees the world at the equivalent of a 28mm focal length. Thee can take pictures inside thy house by lantern as well - it has an aperture of 2.8.

So that there is no chance of dishonesty, the camera is fitted with an electronic level - your pictures will be level. They can also be made square if that is thy wish.

You may elect to shoot them in a number of jpeg sizes. Modesty being a virtue, many of the elect will elect to switch it to small and turn off the colour setting. If you wish to make a large picture, remember that the RAW setting and the 16 Megapixel APS-C sensor will permit good results up to A3+.

If you wish to make motion pictures to show the action of your favourite buggy horse, there is a full HD 1920 x 1080 video. You will need a fast SD XC I card to do this.

The appearance of the camera is modest and sober - no flashy chrome or colours to dominate others.

If you wish to examine the world in detail, it will focus as close as 10 centimetres.

We have a number of them for sale and we will deal plainly and fairly with thee - as will the Ricoh Corporation, who warrant the camera for a year.

Plain Jane

The Ricoh GRD series of digital compact cameras have always been a little understated in appearance. They are magnificently capable machines - as evinced by their selection for some of the roughest walk-around work out in the bush. They take a beautiful pictures. They are one of the best handfuls for larger fingers. But they are plain.

The surface coating is rough, and has been designed to be so. It wears well and grips like anythng. he lens is micro-sharp. It focusses to crazy close. There is an effects button on the LHS that calls in all sorts of sepia, miniature, toned effects.

It is the sort of camera that you can just pack and use all the time.

In store now.

The model? Plain Jane.

Think Pink - Zeiss Lenses For Nearly Everybody

Whenever you see a collector for the Pink Ribbon Appeal, put a gold coin in the tin. Breast Cancer research and it is a good, good cause.

Now - on to cameras. Gotta Leica, Zeiss-Ikon, Ricoh GXR, Fuji XE-1 or X-Pro1, or an Olympus mirrorless camera? Good for you. Notice how it looks sort of unfinished if you leave the lens off the front? We can help here.

Look carefully at three gorgeous silver lenses - all Zeiss ZM mounts. 21mm, 35mm, and 50mm. One, or all, of those are the lenses that you always wanted for your rangefinder or mirrorless camera.

Fast - we've got f:2 on the 35 and the 50 and f:2.8 on the 21.

Precise. All metal mounts, smooth focussing, positive stops. Focus lever integrated on each barrel.

Modular. Bayonet hens hood mount. 43ø and 46ø filter sizes - no weird sizing.

Fabulous glass - Biogon and Planar formulation - classic designs. T* coating.

Stylish. Silver. Also available in black.

Cost effective. It would be mean to point this out but it is true. Cheaper than the alternative - you decide if you would like to save.

Unusual. If you insist upon being a camera geek, these will stand you in good stead at the next geekmeet. No-one else will have them and everyone else will want them. You can gloat in all directions.

Bring your camera and take some test shots. Bring some money and take one home. Bring someone else's money and take them ALL home...