Action Stations - General Quarters - Part Two

This is getting quite exciting - you can tell who's going to be the first in the movie queue for the new Tom Hanks movie starring him as a destroyer captain. I hope I don't get thrown out of the cinema again.

Well, to business. More action camera mounts to be considered. In this case we move to more of the non-action mountings:

A. The tiny tripod mount by GoPole (in store). This is one of the ancillary accessory manufacturers who has cottoned on to the standardisation of the action camera mounts. if course there are mounts from the makers of the cameras, but it never hurts to browse around the shelves for the other stuff.
This mount is quite light and doubles as a small hand-hold for the cameras as well as the tripod.

B. GoPole SceneLapse 360 Degree Time Lapse Device - The Rotating Mount. Now we're getting somewhere in the gadget stakes. This is a mount designed to be paired with one of the specialised functions of an action camera - the ability to shoot interval shots over  along period of time.

We've all seen the videos that are constructed of individual shots that might have been separated by a second or longer - up to half a minute- that seem to compress time and to speed up the world. You can see traffic whiz past, the clouds scud over the sky, and the stars turn in the night. They are fascinating. If you use the extra-long recording  ime you can make a video of a teenager getting off the couch on school holidays and see actual movement...

Well, this mount is a clockwork turntable that allows you to see the world as a panorama taken with the interval timer - it has various divisions  marked round the barrel and will spin 360º in one hour.

I can see an opportunity for surveillance work with this.

C. Three Way Grip - Arm -Tripod (in store). This mount is a bit of everything as the diagram on the packaging shows. There seems to be eight different configurations that allow you to either set the camera onto a surface, hold it out at different angles, or let it swing around unexpectedly and smack you in the eye.

As it is made by the original manufacturer, it will perform these operations with precision. You have been warned...

See the full GoPole range on the Camera Electronic webstore

Longing For A Sigma Long Lens...

I rarely need to use a really long lens. Studio work for the most part is short/standard work with a few turns of the zoom lens for head and shoulders portraits. But I am sorely tempted when I see the new lens lines from Sigma.

Of course right now their lenses only fit my camera via a third-party adapter, but the world turns and I cannot say when the licensing and legal side of it will change - and I'll see a Sigma lens for my camera mount. Until then I can use an adapter to do my test shooting. I miss out on AF and automated aperture, but I can still take good shots.

The camera in the Little Studio today was the Sigma 150mm - 600mm f: 5-6.3 DG Sports lens. It's been with us for a few months but is a thoroughly modern design. Starting from the outside in, here's what you get from Sigma:

Sturdy box full of sturdy packaging.

Sigma's rectangular padded lens case.

With attached shoulder strap. You'll need it.

A padded wrap-around lens hood cover.

A lens hood that rides backwards on the barrel.

150mm closed.

600mm open.

Lock mechanism for the zoom. locks at 150mm, 250mm, 400,mm, and 600mm to prevent lens creep. One less worry for the action shooter.

Extensive multi-setting optical stabilisation mechanism inside. All customisable.

A set of big lug attachment loops at the sides of the lens. Needed - the lens is heavy and you should not rely solely on the strap lugs of your camera.

A big foot with three tripod attachment points. I would definitely use two of them at a time.

The proof of the pudding was in the shooting. Handicapped as I was by the lack of AF on my Fujifilm X-Pro1, I could still use the RayQual adapter to actuate the aperture and do my focusing in manual.

The sample pics were done at 3200 ISO to give a high shutter speed. Don't growl at the grain. It is art, and the Singapore jet was climbing at a pretty rapid rate a long way away from the studio's back yard. The subject proved hard to track but the camera responded well whenever it was on target.

 This is definitely a cannon of emplacement - it is the sort of lens that needs to be on a tripod with some sort of a Wimberly gimbal to allow it to track moving objects. Surf shooters, racetrack shooters, sports shooters will all welcome it. Wild animal shooters as well, if they are prepared to lug it into the bush.

It was superbly finished and performed well. I wish there had been more airplanes closer in to try it on.

Shop the lens online or in-store - 230 Stirling St, Perth.

The Quick Look Through the Long Lens...Fujifilm 100-400mm

Well, as promised yesterday, I laid hands on one of the new Fujinon 100-400mm f:4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR lenses. It is slightly longer than its name and has a very sturdy foot attached to the bottom. As you can tell from the appellation it has an optical stabilising circuit, weather resistant seals, and the premium nano lens coatings. It is moderately heavy, extremely well-built, and the fastest thing to focus you have ever seen through.

I took my Fujifilm X-E2 with the new 4.0 firmware loaded into it so that it was a fair comparison to the 35mm f:2 lens on the Fujifilm X-T10. I could not detect any difference in speed for the auto focus, and that was with the 100-400 set to the full range of focus movement. You can actually command it to a restricted AF to speed things further.

The images of the BHP and Rio Tinto buildings ( Is there some form of commercial rivalry going on here? Is this a sign...? ) taken in the very late afternoon have a different light from those with the 35 in the morning - and more atmospheric haze built up to try to see through. Nevertheless, even taking into account the slight reduction in contrast due to atmospherics, the resultant resolution is superb.

It is also quick, as I mentioned. That WSWW Beemer beetling down the street was not pausing for anything...but the lens focused fast enough to stop the grillwork perfectly. This is a lens that would be ideally suited to motor racing and would not have to be pre-focused on any particular part of the track to be able to capture fast action.

Apparently it is compatible with the Fujifilm company's 1.4 tele-extender as well, boosting it up to a maximum focal length of over 800 mm in the old film reckoning. That makes it a serious wildlife lens.

This is an optic that should be seen through and by all Fujifilm X-series users - it opens up a world of longer capture.

Big Eye Olympus and Tough New Olympus

Two new Olympus bits, as you'll see from some of our other electronic posts: A telephoto lens and a new underwater camera.

Here's the editorial take on them as gleaned from the press announcements:

a. The 300mm f4 ED IS PRO lens looks to be the flagship long optic of the Micro 4/3 system and logically will be so for a long time. Olympus themselves realise that this is a sports and wildlife lens a and have conducted their own surveys to find out the most popular subject. it turns out to be birds - the feathered variety.

At 600mm equivalent it's about all you could hope to hold - and even here you'll have to use all the magic bean power that Olympus put in their image stabilising system. They state it as 6-stops of stabilisation when used on an OM-D E-M1 or OM-D E-M5 Mkii body. The makers provide a tripod foot and also a sleek ring to replace it if you are going to hand hold the lens. Frankly, unless you are shaking it like a set of maracas the six stops should be more than enough steadiness for most people.

It's going to be pretty good lightweight solution for the bird botherers as compared to the larger DSLR systems.

b. Olympus have also continued their remarkable series of Tough underwater and rugged-duty cameras with the Tough TG 870. This has the sealed capabilities of it's older siblings but adds increased GPS , a 180º tilting selfie screen and a great many electronic additions. The ones I noted particularly set it up as a slightly bigger rival for the ubiquitous action camera. There is also a additive-shot mode called Live Composite Mode that means you can add the bright bits of night-time multiple exposures to get exciting shots. It is something that this camera shares with some of the bigger and fancier Olympus system cameras.

I was particularly taken with the press announcement from Olympus that mentioned the 300mm lens as also perfect for theatre shooting. A lot of people forget that when you are doing this class of work you are frequently bundled down the back of the venue or over to one side as you cannot be in the best viewing position for fear of blocking the paying customer's view. Long tele work in dim light needs some serious glass and also a serious high-ISO response from the camera body. This is the sort of shooting where the tripod and a good mount are a blessing.

Singing In The Rain - With The New Fujifilm Lens

Today's big announcement of the Fujifilm X-T10 camera is wonderful. And closely following on is the release of the Fujinon XF90mm f:2 R LM WR lens.

Mouthful, isn't it - all those letters. They're easy to sort out, though:

Fujinon - top quality all the way.

XF - this is a lens that will fit the Fujifilm X-mount - the X-Pro1, X-E1 and X-E2 - the X-T1 and now the new X-T10 all share this mount. It is a remarkably unfussy coupling - no wierd levers and fingers of metal that need to be wound round each other - Fujifilm benefitted by looking at other mounts while designing theirs and avoided the troubles.

90mm - this translates in old film-speak to 137mm - it was a classic medium telephoto focal length that separated you from shy subjects and rendered the perspective pleasing. No big noses on the portraits.

f:2 - WooHoo. Fast! This is a lens that you can use in low light like churches, sports halls, and theatres. The combination of this wide aperture and the 90mm focal length means a restricted depth of field in portraiture and a pleasingly softened foreground and background.

Note that it'll also go as close as 60 cm so you can use that focal length to shoot close-ups of flowers and insects.

LM - Linear motor. Faster focusing - higher torque in the internals and a quicker and more precise response.

WR - here's the rain thing. Not that we advocate getting caught out in it like yesterday...but the WR means that the lens is water resistant. If you're doing sports in winter, it's a thing.

Fujifilm's range of lenses just keeps getting wider...and longer...and better. We'll be sure to let you see a picture of it as soon as we get one in the store - as well as some photos taken with it.

Good Laud - We List the Canon AIPP Annual Awards

The annual event that Canon and the AIPP conduct to examine and display the work of Australian photographers has just been concluded. There are a number of divisions in which they consider photography can be divided and there are awards for the leading Australian practitioners - and one for an international person. It's a big ist, but the people who make it are the best for this year - take it as a good hint to look up their work and see why they have received the plaudits of their peers.

If you're in the market to hire anyone for photography...well this is also a pretty good shopping list of people - but remember that you're looking at the Paris end of Collins Street...

So, to the list. Please note that the Canon company's name is linked to the AIPP in each case.

1. Canon/AIPP Australian Photographer of the year - James Simmons
2. Canon/AIPP Creative Photographer of the year - Kirsten Graham
3. Canon/AIPP Wedding Photographer of the year - James Simmons
4. Canon/AIPP Family Photographer of the year - Kelly Brown
5. Canon/AIPP Portrait Photographer of the year - Peter Rossi
6. Canon/AIPP Illustrative Photographer of the year - Keren Dobia
7. Canon/AIPP Birth Photographer of the year - Victoria Berekmeri
8. Canon/AIPP Documentary Photographer of the year - Anthony McKee
9. Canon/AIPP Science, Environment, Nature Photographer of the year - Joshua Holko
10. Canon/AIPP Landscape Photographer of the year - Ricardo Da Cunha
11. Canon/AIPP Travel Photographer of the year - Nick Rains
12. Canon/AIPP Sports Photographer of the year - Matt Palmer
13. Canon/AIPP Commercial Photographer of the year - Aran Anderson
14. Canon/AIPP Fashion Photographer of the year - Peter Coulson
15. Canon/AIPP Advertising Photographer of the year - Matthew Everingham
16. Canon/AIPP International Photographer of the year - Luke Edmonson
17. Canon/AIPP Photography Book of the year - Peter Eastway
18. Canon/AIPP Album Photographer of the year - Nadine Saacks
19. Canon/AIPP Australian Tertiary Institute of the year - Photography Studies College
20. Canon/AIPP Emerging photographer of he year - Adam Williams
21. Canon/AIPP Student Photographer of the year - Jacqui Hogan
22. Canon/AIPP Highest Scoring Print - Kelly Gerdes

Thats a powerful lot of awardin'...

I noted the category of Birth Photographer and wish to accord Victoria an especial degree of respect. Never mind all the other camera businesses - she is the one in this list that is concerned with the essential part of life - and it is a tough time for everyone in the place. If she can cope with new babies, new mothers, new fathers, and old theatre sisters and get the top spot for Australia she is the star at the top of the tree as far as I am concerned. Yay!

And congratulations and an increase of business to all the other winners.

Camera Electronic On The Battlefield Of the Future

Here at Camera Electronic we are proud to be able to say that we are at the cutting edge. We bleed frequently.

A new product in-store will make this all happen faster. We have taken delivery of the Phantom - a four-rotor drone system capable of lifting a small digital camera. It has space on-board for a GoPro camera and is controlled by a digital radio-control set.

The average photographer may not have experience flying a spy drone but the makers of the Phantom are confident that the skill can be picked up easily. Those readers who have built radio/controlled aircraft, helicopters, or boats may be a bit skeptical about this, but they are not selling the Phantom. In any event the Phantom is equipped with  GPS system that will sense when it flies too far out of the range of the transmitter - if this happens it takes control and returns the aircraft to the launching point.

There are 4 powerful motors lifting the Phantom and the propellor rotors are readily replaceable when you crash. If you are concerned about slicing through a sunday school picnic on the local oval with 4 razor sharp whirling knives there is a set of optional prop-guards. Spare batteries are quite inexpensive.

The light weight of the GoPro cameras is perfect for this sort of platform. You can record amazing detail with these on the ground or water so the results from the air should be great.

Please note we are not authorised to sell HVAR, Hellfire, or other air-to-ground missiles. You will have to be content with using the Phantom for surveillance over obstacles.

Underslung

" Ye canna beat the laws of physics, Cap'n. Ye canna mount a long telephoto lens on the average ball head or three-way head and move it about wi' ease. It'll fa over ever time. On yer heid. "

You can, however, mount the lens with the pivot point at or over the center-line of the lens and then lay it with ease - provided you have divided the weight fore and aft of the pivot. This is the principle of the wimberley-styled head.

One of the neatest we have seen recently in the shop is the Induro. Standard 3/8" hole on the bottom and 1/4" thread on the top but an infinity of up/down and fore/aft adjustment to balance the lens. Firm secure lock in final position if that is what you need - easy movement if you are following a target.

Perfect answer for wildlife, birds, and sports.

Go Away - Some Other Time

Some people go other places to take photographs. I go other times. Here is a chance for you to do it too.

The Balingup Medieval Festival is being held in Balingup  - in the state's southwest - on August 24th and 25th. It is a Saturday and Sunday event that attracts stallholders, players, fighters, dancers, faeries, and the local population. I was talking a few years ago to Cletus about this, and he said it was the high point of their Balingup year - I believe him.

The food is pretty good - there is a local winery that makes fruit wines from their own trees. The cherry wine is lovely, the peach wine is memorable, and the orange liquid will strip the chrome trim off an Oldsmobile bumper. There are a number of local producers of cheese, jams, and the sorts of unidentifiable sweets that are generally sold at CWA fetes. The German sausage stand is worth the price of admission - by the way they DO charge for admission....this is the high point of the year, remember...

But there is plenty more to eat - the coffee stalls, the French patisserie people, the churro and Mexican food. The stuffed potato man is the friend of mankind, particularly on cold mornings.

What about the entertainment? Apart from the stalls selling new-age trinkets and plastic swords, there are soap sellers, scent sellers, wine cellars, and Peter Sellars. No, apparently I am wrong there...

The Grey Company - those are Greyco people you see in the pictures - have real heavy metal fighting shows twice a day and the the other  costume societies are there to hit each other with plastic batons too. If you want to take pictures of the SCA or the DarkSun groups any small compact will do as it is not generally necessary to focus very quickly - they don't move much. If you want to get real medieval fighting photos try to get to the front of the crowd for the Grey Company shows

A DSLR or one of the new Fuji or Olympus mirrorless cameras is the go - they focus quickly and you can get a fast lens that let you have a shallow depth of field if you want to isolate faces. I would suggest 400-800 ISO even in daylight to boost the shutter speed - you will be amazed at the speed with which the swords and spears fly in a fight. I would also suggest a fill flash when the sun is out - the meters on the cameras see the highlights off the armour and shut down a little. Fire a flash into the shadows.

The best capture of the fight is the first clash - just before the combatants close completely in - and the finish when the final death blows are delivered. Expect dirt and sawdust to fly in all directions particularly in a melée and don't be surprised if you get pelted.

An 18-200 lens on an APSC camera is perfect and a 24-70 on a full-framer should get you what you want. The shows last about half an hour so put a good card in there to capture the action.

Please DO listen to the announcer, Paul. He will tell you to stay away from the protective ropes because the Grey Company swords and spears and billhooks and halberds are real steel. If you are too close and one hits you,  expect to get value from your health insurance contributions and a valuable life experience that you can ponder over for many years...

There is a daily parade of all the festival royalty and a speech by the King of Balingup. Don't miss that speech. It is the high point of the Balingup year...

We Are Delighted To Announce - The New Nikon Lens

If you have enthusiasm for any of the following:

Air Shows
Surfing
Football
Tennis
Hoss racing
Wildlife
Birds
Safaris
Motor Racing
Surveillance Work

...you may be very interested in a carton of lenses that have just arrived in our shop. They are the new Nikon 80-400 VR lenses - the AF-S G lenses - that I reported in a previous blog. Here. Now. For sale.

I had the privilege of using one of the demo models of this a month or so back and was vastly impressed by the handling and speed of the lens - it is everything that we expect from the modern electronic Nikon lens. It should find its way to hundreds of camera bags and as fast as possible - this is the Nikon lens that answers the question Canon raised with their 100-400 lens in the past. It will remain to be seen whether this poses a new question.

I daresay a number of prospective buyers will now start the long process of reading every internet rumour and review for this lens - I expect them to arrive with Officeworks looseleaf binders full of printout from their investigations...( Complete with impossible prices from faraway places with strange-sounding names. Calling, calling, to meeeee...)

Sorry about that. Little burp of cynicism. Better now.

Never mind the reviews. Bring your body down here - together with your camera body - and clap our demo lens on it and take some pictures outside in Stirling Street. We have arranged for the BHP company to erect a test target on St. Georges Terrace for your convenience. You will be impressed by the new Nikon lens.

Uncle Dick

A New Canon Lens With A New Feature - In-Built

The Canon rumours have finally ground through the Canon mincer and we are to see the actual new product. Quite when remains problematical, but we will be told. Betting is end of May but remember what happens to people who depend on betting...

The lens is the new Canon EF 200- 400mm f:4L IS USM Extender 1.4x. It will replace the current 100-400 zoom lens. There are cosmetic differences to be seen in the illustration of the new lens - a deeper tripod foot for one and a circular zoom motion. There is a bulge on the left hand side of the lens just in front of the mount. Therein lies the real secret of the lens.

The bulge conceals an in-built 1.4x tele-extender element. If needed, it can be rotated into the light path, extending the focal length range to 280 to 560mm. It does cost one stop of light but remember that the subsequent downshift of the shutter speed can be adequately compensated for with the new IS mechanism in the lesn. You won't notice any inconvenience and you'll have a lot longer reach for animal shots.

They have reduced the weight of the lens through use of magnesium castings.

The convenience of this innovation will be at once evident to those people who have been faced in the past with demounting the old 100-400 and trying to prevent ingress of dust and moisture - not the thing does not have to be broken in the field and most of this dust will never get a chance to get in there.

This will be the lens for Africa and Alaska. And if they can get enough lions and rhinoceroses to emigrate to Anchorage, you can do it all in one trip...

Micro Sports Bag For Maximum Comfort - Lowepro Sport

Sold a bag the other day to an active photographer. She bought it with the need for a very light but sturdy container for hiking - something that would hold a DSLR and a couple of lenses but not weigh her down in itself. She chose one of the Lowepro Sport types and went away very happy.

Got me to thinking if there was one from their range that had a similar configuration but was aimed more at the photographer that would be carrying a micro 4/3 or other mirrorless camera system. It turns out that the Flipside Sport 10L is the one.

Flipside defines it as a bag that has the main compartment zip opening toward the body and Sport is the name that Lowepro use for their light nylon-covered packs. I suspect the 10L means that it holds 10 litres of gear. This could be scientifically measured at the pub but I am confined to the editorial desk. Suffice it to say there is a good space in there for a mirrorless and as many lenses as you like, as well as a flash.

The side flaps are a general purpose pocket on the right - including a space for a hydration bladder and delivery tube - and a tripod pouch on the left side.. The usual weatherproof cover is tucked into the bottom of the case. The internal camera tray comes out and has its own integral rain cover.

The shoulder and lumbar areas are open-cell foam covered in nylon mesh - they evidently expect you to get sweaty and they are giving some relief to the areas that bear the weight.

Note on the shoulder straps that there are two "D" rings to which you can attach camera straps.

Final fillip is the pair of multipurpose hook and cord straps on the outer back that can be used to secure loose articles of clothing.

These seem to be available in a bright orange or a blue-grey. A very good prospect for the active lightweight traveller.

Sticking To Your Post - With Manfrotto And Cullmann

Saturday night last was a  revelation for me. I attended a hafla - a dance show for Middle Eastern dance - at a local school auditorium. The evening was four hours of wonderful dancing to terrible music by talented dancers in colourful costumes. I hasten to add that the experience is not new - I do a half dozen of these a year. What was new was the equipment I took along.

Camera the same, flash the same, flash bracket the same...even the same old sandwich and bottle of beer in the camera case. The new bit was the monopod.

Four hours of holding a heavy DSLR rig is no fun, particularly if you are in a kneeling rifleman's position. Eventually your arms start to ache. This time I supported the weight of the camera and flash assembly on a Manfrotto carbon-fibre monopod and only had to concern myself with the zooming and firing. I was able to sit on a chair for some of the time as well, and my toes thanked me for it.

The one worrisome point was the fact that I had the camera in landscape position for most of the evening - fine for the wide shots when the whole troupe comes out, but it meant some cropping for portrait orientation on individual dancers. Fortunately my Nikon camera at 400ISO will support this sort of trimming and the resultant images should be all that the dancers could desire.

Oh, the blessed relief to be able to let the Earth support the weight and just move the camera around.

It struck me that the video people would also appreciate this facility with the dedicated Manfrotto monopod you see in the heading photograph. The thing stands fully a man's height and is in itself heavy enough to take even large video rigs. The fluid head means smooth pan and tilt and the monopod is equipped with a very wide-pread foot for use in boggy ground. There is a self-centering mechanism in that foot that basically allows the monopod to stand upright of its own accord, as long as there is no camera on top.

I know that sounds silly, but it allows you an extra degree of flexibility when you are mounting our dismounting the rig if no-one is there to stabilise it for you. You can't expect it to balance the full rig without you holding on.

I know monopods are not new to Perth photographers, and they are in the basic pack of many sports shooters. But there may be far more uses for the theatre and wedding people - particularly if they want to make use of lower light and a slower shutter speed. I know I was able to drop my basic speed to 1/15 second for the dancers - the flash froze them, the background burned in, and there are the occasional little speed lines where a fringe of beads moved. Magic.