Cocktail Hour Vs Happy Hour In The Camera Store

We are not going to suggest that the clients of Camera Electronic should come in to buy stuff in a sozzled condition - far from it. It has been done, mind, but it was not a pretty sight to see. And it is hard enough getting the sales staff down off the top of the cabinets with a hockey stick at the best of times.

But there is something to be said for the concept of the cocktail hour consultation. Pull up a shaker and I'll explain.

Cocktails are made from a mixture of things - liquors, essences, fruits, mixers, etc. They can be very complex or very simple - provided the ingredients are good, they nearly always succeed. Okay, the pickled herring martini was a general failure but we still sold some in Holland...The point is to get good stuff to start with and mix it judiciously.

And in the camera trade? Well, give some serious thought to mating camera bodies to lenses and flashes. Your tastes and needs may be entirely different than those of your neighbour, and just as you might like a martini and someone else might do better with a Manhattan, so your optic mix muight be different. Here's your ingredients:

Canon bodies
Nikon bodies.
Sony bodies.
Olympus bodies.
Panasonic bodies.
Sigma lenses.
Tokina lenses.
Samyang lenses.
Zeiss lenses.
Nissin flashes.
Metz flashes.

And note - I didn't even mention the fact that the body makers have a full line each of their own lenses that fit their bodies...

Also note that I didn't raise the question of Leica cameras and lenses, or ditto for Fujifilm.

Or the adapter drawer full of possibilities.

Ask your bartender...err...sales assistant for a taste recommendation and try out  a number of combinations. You need not be frightened to mix and match - there are any number of combinations that work well.

Oh, Happy Hour? When the drinks are half-price? Well think of the cash-back offer periods that the manufacturers institute as the closest thing to this. Wait if you wish, and you can score some good savings. Or sip your way with a new lens or two while you are waiting. We are prepared to put coasters down under the telephotos for you...

German Glass Trumpets

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shooting At Our Troops On Sunday Afternoon

Shooting at our troops on Sunday afternoon is a tricky business. I should not recommend it very often, as Australian troops in war zones shoot back, and with professional skill...

When they are ceremonial guards at Government House Open Day they are likely only to be engaged by photographers and sight-seeing tourists. They rarely fire back and when they do it is generally just words. The odd prod with a bayonet, mind, but then you get that on the Armadale train line all the time.

The pictures you see today point out wisdom and folly. And they make commercial suggestion for photographers who might also be looking around at the sights of the city. Let's start the advertising by analysing:

1. The heading image shows three chaps engaging the young guard as a photographic model in different artistic ways. One has decided that a close head shot will be the best image - another thinks a head and shoulders to show more of the uniform. He's using the portrait orientation to do it. The third shooter is waiting until the model turns his head to him as he has a wide-angle Zeiss Biogon lens on his camera.

2. The photographers have asked the soldier to pose in the sun but with his face turned away from it. This will let him open his eyes despite the light. Of course, as a British soldier, he has a tropical service helmet to protect his brain pan from excess heat. Only one of the photographers has been as wise as he, and worn a good hat.

3. The second image shows what choices the three photographers have made in their outfit for the day:

      a. Canon man with a midrange zoom. Filter on lens but no lenshood. Danger of flare.
 Good camera strap and gadget bag, but a heavy thing to carry on a sunny day. March light and you march further - the camera and lens is all you need.

      b. Leica man. That's an M2 with a Zeiss Biogon wideangle lens on it. No idea what film is in it, but let's hope for colour neg as it has the widest dynamic range. And he's not metering. Mind you, on a Perth Spring day we're at the Sunny 16 point anyway and if he's been working with the camera and film combo long enough, he should be fine. That camera will last until he's old and grey so if he keeps it he should get value out of it.

      c. Micro 4/3 man with the Olympus. He's carrying the littlest sensor of the three but probably the most processor power. And a darling of a pro-class Olympus zoom lens - the 2.8 version. He should have extremely sharp files to process when he gets home. He's wisely put a lens hood on the Zuiko and a hat on himself so there is little harm that the sun can do.

4. All of the people in the pictures are wearing shoes. Sensible shoes. Shoes that can go for a long distance. Shoes that will be comfortable at the end of the day. Unlike this columnist who chose authentic period footwear for a Victorian gentleman and suffered accordingly. I think that a great many of the facial expressions seen in Victorian portraits owe less to stern morals than to tight shoes.

Finally, the commercial moral of the piece - all the shooters made sensible choices.

All will get images to take back home. All were shooting with REAL cameras held steadily to their eyes - not mobile phones waved at arm's length. The pictures will be sharp.

All the pictures will exhibit good dynamic range and low noise.

All the pictures will be on real computers...eventually...and not left to languish on a Nokia until it is lost...or a Samsung until it ignites. The happy day will be remembered and not forgotten.

Neither will the feet...

The model: DBJ of WAGWLHA

The Newspaper Advertisement Vs The Web Advertisement

Every couple of weeks I am tasked with writing an advertisement for our local daily newspaper - it goes into a section entitled " Market Place".

The criteria for the products featured are price, providence, and practicality. It can be quite a complex choice:

 a. No good trying to sell a multi-thousand dollar item in a small column - the people who are going to enter into a large camera system or select a premium-quality lens are going to do it with a great deal of care and research. Trying to sell a Leica in a one column ad would be like trying to sell a Ferrari sports car in the back of a comic book.

The item selected needs to be affordable by a large number of people. People who read newspapers...and to put it bluntly, these days that means older people. Like me.

b. We have to be able to provide the goods we advertise - particularly if they are in that very affordable range that might just spark off a rush. We HOPE for a rush! As the copywriter I need to check whether we are likely to be able to satisfy the customers without making them wait for orders.

Western Australians do realise that we are living on the edge of the world... just before it all turns into misty waterfalls and dragons. So we do need to wait a little longer for goods to arrive. But we don't want to wait too long.

c. Practical items sell well in this lower price bracket. It sounds paradoxical, but the people who are likely to spend $50 to $100 on something want it to be able to do something useful... not just look good or be trendy. There are enough other shops selling collectable and impulse goods to soak up the throw-away money, but Camera Electronic has to be able to put something on the counter that DOES something.

By and large we have succeeded with the newspaper sales. The Steadepod has gone like a bomb for years. Cullmann tripods, heads, and accessories do exactly what people need. Hoodman gear works reliably and they have a lifetime warranty for stuff anyway - so does Promaster, for that matter. When we offer these brands people buy, and presumably get value out of the goods. I know I do.

But what about the internet advertisements?

Well our online shop is always a sort of an advertisement in itself - any catalogue is. People pore over the pages as much to dream about what they want as to compare pricing. Sometimes I think the internet site has a mind of its own, just as I am sometimes in despair at the social media machinery that seems to mutate weekly, but eventually nearly everything gets settled out.

Direct marketing offers are the province of the higher management of the firm - I don't think 'em up because I am not a party to the financial decisions of the place. Readers of this column may well be on the mailing list for them and if so I urge you to have a close read when they pop up in your feed. There are times when there are some very good bargains indeed - particularly if wholesale firms are adding cash-back offers to the deal.

You're also well-advised to get in on the special deals that accompany camera and lens launches - the beer and cheese roll nights that introduce new gear to the Perth scene. Frequently the prices are usefully lowered for one night. And you get the beer and cheese roll.

Advertisement is the soul of commerce - here at Camera Electronic we like to make sure that it is a reasonably clean soul at that. Please keep reading.

Footnote: The predictive text and autocorrect have been turned off here at the copy desk. If you find any typographical errors they are original and authentic, and should be prized as such.

Photokina 2016

Here it comes, folks. The biennial German trade fair, Photo Kina, for all things photographic. Clatter down off the fire-step into the dugout and hunker down...expect gas...

If you are an fan of the forums and the rumour sites you will know exactly what the new gear coming out will be - and I'll bet you have debated it at length at your camera club... championing the brand name or system that you own over all others whilst covertly calculating how much you'd get as a trade in if you swapped to something else. The answer to that is simple; not enough. But that won't stop you...

If you have wangled a leave pass and a European plane ticket and a fold-up cot in the corridor of some German hotel, you can be off this coming week to the show with the gleeful anticipation of a dose of jet lag, beer lag, and sore feet at the end of it all.

The smug superiority that you used to be able to exhibit when you came back is a little dimmed these days as most of the big exhibitors hold press conferences that go world-wide in a flash. You won't be able to bring back secret world-shattering news as it will have preceded you by days - but you can bring back brochures, pamphlets, trade samples, souvenir pins, throwaways, and as many images as you can cram onto the cards in your cameras. Also gastro and scammed credit cards, so beware.

Cameras? You're going to take three - one for just happy snaps, one for serious work, and one for insurance in case the others fail. This will involve taking three chargers and leads and an enormously complex plastic plug that almost fits into continental light sockets. You will lose two of the chargers and one of the cords, but that damned converter plug will remain with you for the next 15 years...

One thing to consider: for years you have puzzled at the instruction manuals that are packed with the cameras and at the way they use English. You have wondered whether the people who write them can actually speak English at all. Well, you're about to find out. If you have some spare time and can find a person who speaks Greek, you might take them along to the trade stand of a Chinese manufacturer who is trying to sell at a German trade show and get them to ask a technical question in their native language. It's mean fun, but it's still fun.

Note: All of the above is powered by a strong sense of jealousy on the part of this hack writer. Perhaps in two years time...

Our directors are on the ground at Photo Kina this week so see all the news on the Camera Electronic Facebook page as it rolls in!

The Rolls Royce Of Adapters

Or the Fujifilm of motor cars...

In the spirit of the elk*, I knocked a Fujifilm M-adapter and a Zeiss 50mm f:2 M-mount lens off the shop shelves with a stick and clapped them onto my Fujifilm X-E2 with the turbo-boost vitamin -enriched firmware update. I was going to see how much different it made the adapter experience compared to the Ray-Qual and Tokina combination that I am most familiar with.

The first impression was quality improvement in both the lens and the adapter - hardly surprising as both of them are quality Japanese products. Not to knock the efforts of other sections of the Asian world, but there is no denying the superb machining on the Fujifilm or Zeiss mount. They clip together with no hint of distress.

No hint of a hitch, either, in the operation of the focusing ring and the aperture ring of the Zeiss lens. I am not surprised with this - when I operated Zeiss lenses on their own cameras or on Hasselblad 6 x 6 in the past there was never an operability issue - the operator might foul it all up, but the lens came through.

I have written before about the slowing down of the photo process when you use adapters and other-maker's lenses on your camera - how you are forced to give up auto-focus and are always opening and closing an aperture to view or expose an image. In some cases, like that of the Ray Qual/Tokina combination - it is really only suited to studio closeups and careful work. Even then the mind wanders, you forget to stop down or to open up and the image suffers...

Well, it ain't the same with the Zeiss on the M-adapter. Sure, there is no more AF. I accept that. I can turn the focus selector on the Fujifilm X-E2 to M and leave it there. In dong so I have opened access to the focus-peaking mechanism that Fujifilm provide. It is turned on with a push of the thumb control wheel and instantly zooms up the portion of the image that is covered by the AF box. Disregard the fact that there is no AF in this configuration - you still get to see exactly what is in focus in that box. I've set it so I get a bright red rime around the exact plane of focus.

It is a matter of a moment to thumb up this image, turn the focal ring until it pops, and then thumb back to the main view. Almost as fast as the Leica M2 camera...

Do I need to focus at full aperture and then stop down? Probably do if it is a close-up shot. I can whack it open and then count clicks down to the selected shooting aperture.

Do I need to do this in the field with a subject at is further away than about 2 metres? Nope. the Fujifilm X-E2 can boost the viewfinder image bright enough to let me focus and frame right down to about f:11 anyway so if I am going to get enough depth of field anyway I can just leave it at this stop and do nothing but focus and fire. Now that's about as close to the old Leica M2 experience I used to have as I can get.

Mind you, I do miss twisting my fingers into a knot at the end of 36 shots and then having to juggle the base plate as I load the next 36...

The results? Zeissuperb. Plus it has a silver ring at the front that makes it look cool.

* That was meant to read "week" but the autocorrect mechanism took over. I quite like the elk, eh?

See the Zeiss webstore here: http://www.cameraelectronic.com.au/zeiss 

New White Boxes Full Of Good Things

I have been away on holidays looking at big white boxes - see the heading image.

Whilst I was away the shop fitting gnomes have been to visit Camera Electronic and have installed two new showcases. Actually it might be one new showcase with two display areas but let's not quibble - the thing looks good.

One side seems to feature Sony camera bodies and lenses - the mirror-less, compact , and bridge types stood out on their orange plinths - while the other portion has a number of Zeiss lenses on blue stands. They all look well, and this is a great encouragement in retail presentation. There's a bit of theatre needed for anything and these cases make a good stage.

I hope there is storage space under those trays - that is another retail story that we have to cope with. All cameras and lenses come in boxes and once you get the item out to be seen you have created double the space requirements for storage. It's not like the computer desktop where you click up an image or click it away into virtual storage space - real items need real centimetres of shelf space somewhere and some way to find them later.

A small aside - good lenses like these Zeiss examples need good lens caps, and good lens hoods. Of course, you get them from Zeiss. Other manufacturers take care of their own ranges, and you would be well advised to make sure that the proper one is on the front of your lens. But...some makers are better than others when it comes to making this easy.

You see, some put the exact specification number  of the lens hood on the box the lens comes packed in, and then also put the exact matching lens information on the box in which the lens hood is packed. Even if the day is foggy, the sales assistant can quickly get the right one. Other major makers do not do this, and the staff are thrown back on the resource of the internet to find out what fits what. Oddly enough, dear old irksome Ken Rockwell's blog is the fastest reference for many of these match-ups.

Well, he had to be good for something.

Day 5 - New Glass For Less Grass - Sigma and Zeiss cashbacks

Well, that's an interesting combination - Sigma and Zeiss.

Both top quality lens manufacturers that deal in different operational concepts - one looking to make a number of value-packed zoom lenses and one seeking the prime market. The good thing for users of Nikon and Canon camera bodies is that many of their products can be found with mounts for these brands.

But consider - you might find Sigma or Zeiss lenses on a lot of camera bodies. We can think of Zeiss lenses on Fujifilm X-series, Sigma on Olympus and Panasonic, Zeiss on Leica M bodies, and a number of Zeiss's devices associated with Sony.

Come to think of it there are adapters that allow these products onto a lot of micro 4/3 or other mirror-less bodies. A bit of a juggle sometimes but surprisingly do-able nonetheless if one is prepared to focus and set apertures manually. A lot of studio closeups for this column are taken with an adapted lens that started on a DSLR and now fronts a mirror-less camera. It's not speed-demon work but yields a fine focus.

Anyway, there is to be a $200 cashback for these items today - Tues the 15th of December. $ 200 is large coarse money for many citizens and not to be disparaged by any means.

By the way, when you stop by the Sigma cabinet at the front of the shop take some time to inspect the aluminium lens barrel from a Sigma lens that is displayed there for effect. It is comforting to see the level of precision that is buried under the black paint.

The Boxer Rebellion - Or 55 Days And No Peeking

Well, you wanted to know what the manufacturers were doing with the packaging...well so do we...

It's not that bad. Nearly all the products that hit the shop are well-boxed. With the exception of some of the cruder cast-iron and bamboo studio lights and computer-controlled milling machines, nearly everything has been put into attractive boxes. The manufacturers all realise that the visual appeal of the box is part of their sales pitch,

Thus we have seen the use of recognisable colouring for Nikon, Canon, Sony, and Olympus. Gold-and-black, red-and-white, orange, and blue-and-white. You can see 'em on the warehouse shelf and know what you are seeing. You still need to read the endplate carefully to see what is in the box , but several of the makers have added a photo or graphic of the contest to aid you. And they are honest enough not to put parsley and garnishes on the lenses - there is no "serving suggestion" note under the image.

Fujifilm uses black boxes but thankfully marks each one with big grey letters and numbers to identify the contents. Sigma and Zeiss use white boxes and have to be more specific with the end plates to let us know what's inside. All good as long as the lettering is big enough. To their credit, the new Sigma boxes are easier to read than the old ones.

Olympus stepped sideways a little with the packaging of some of their mirror-less OM-D system cameras and lenses - they opted for black as well. We have to be careful shelving that they do not get confused with other black boxes. Elegant enough, but you need good lighting to see what you've got.

Big stuff - printers and monitors and backdrop rolls are always in brown cardboard cartons. Kudos to the design teams who clearly label the things on more than one face - stacking boxes sometimes means that you need to see what is in without having to remove and revolve - any time you do this there is muscle and trouble involved.

One final note for the box designers: We applaud you putting the clear markings on the outside of boxes - telling us what is inside and listing the contents is a very good idea - some clients are desperate to have a box that has never been opened and sealing it with vital information inside is fatal.

Put the serial number on the outside.

Tell us the filter size for the lens, the proper lens hood for the lens -if you do not provide one inside the box, and the proper battery for the camera in case the client wants to purchase a spare one.

Now, in the next packaging column, we look inside - to see who are good people and who are bad people. And you will be surprised...

Uncle Dick

What's In A Name? Here's Your Guide To The New Zeiss Lens Names For Sony Cameras

This column has remarked in the past upon the way that manufacturers name things - and decried the tendency to give similar pieces of equipment long model number and letter combinations that are easily confused. You have no idea what a mess a phone conversation can be when someone messes up the the model number - and frequently it is me that messes it up...

All praise to the Zeiss people for the naming of the lenses that they make. We don't mean the technical numbers that describe them - the f:stops and focal lengths and such; these are pretty standard with most optic makers. Even if some other people fudge them and put on strange markings, you can generally get the truth eventually.

No, we mean the names that actually separate the lenses in our mind - and Zeiss have always been good with this. They used the names Planar, Sonnar, Distagon, Flektagon, etc,  and we knew pretty well what we were looking at as far as where the lens fit into the optical spectrum. The name also told us something of the design of the lens and the number of glass elements that were inside.

Well, here's some new names that apply to lenses that Zeiss makes for people who are going to use the Sony cameras:

1. Zeiss/ Sony Vario Tessar 24-70mm f;4

2. Zeiss Touit lenses for APS-C sized sensors

    a. Touit 12mm f:2.8
    b. Touit 32mm f:1.8
    c. Touit 50mm f:2.8

These lenses autofocus and also focus manually by wire.

3. Zeiss Loxia

    a. Loxia 35mm Biogon f:2
    b. Loxia 50mm Planar f:2

These lenses focus manually.

4. Zeiss Batis lenses for full-frame sensors.

    a. Batis 25mm f:2
    b. Batis 85mm f:1.8

These lenses autofocus and also manually by wire.

A good site to visit for a complete listing of these options - and a consideration of the implications of the various apertures and and focusing methods - is found here:

http://blog.planet5d.com/2015/05/going-batty-over-zeiss-batis-full-frame-lenses-for-
sony-e-mount

Don't I Know You From Somewhere?

That prism shape...that focal length...those proportions...

Didn't we meet in 1962 at the Dusseldorf trade fair? Or was it on the trip up the Zermatt? Or on holiday at Torquay in '63? You were wearing a heavy brown leather case with a chrome ring on the front?

Are you Zeiss Ikon Contaflex? No? Ah, my mistake. You look so similar...ah, I remember the excellent black and white pictures from the Contaflex...

What's that you say? You can take black and white pictures? With yellow, red, or green filter? Ah, but the Contaflex could take colour slide pictures as well.

Classic Chrome? Show me. Why, that looks like Ko....Ah...I see. Yes. Say no more...

Ah, but can you shoot 36 pictures without reloading? I expect 36 good postcard shots if I go on holiday. Look on the screen? Medium size - normal quality -  3:2 ratio. 9733 shots.
Umm....

And you shoot motion pictures with sound? And you have a waist-level finder as well? Ah, but you must have a pretty slow and basic shutter, then...1 second to 1/4000 second, eh? Ah...

Please tell me your name. Fujifilm X-T10 with Fujinon XF 27mm f:2.8 lens? Pleased to meet you. Very pleased!

Do you have a heavy brown leather case? Could you get one? For me?

Zeiss Up The Front - Sony In The Rear

Gotta Sony camera with an E mount? Wanta new 25mm f:2 lens?

Come in and have a look at the new Zeiss Batis lens that has just hit the Sony shelf. Like much of the boutique Zeiss glass, it is in a plain barrel - this is a style reaction to some of the multi-banded offerings from other manufacturers. The peculiar little flair seen at the front flange of some of these is designed to integrate with the lens hoods to provide a smooth contour. That, and it recalls the bow structure of the IJNS KIRISHIMA. At least they didn't put a chrysanthemum on the lens...

Well, it also has another new feature - what starts out as a transparent panel with a black backing on the top of the lens lights up and turns into an LCD screen the gives the focusing information. Very next century.

Quality? Zeiss Distagon quality. Ask Hasselblad and Contarex users what this does.

Weight? Moderate. Not feather, but not anvil.

Mk.IV On The Floor - Sony's Time Warping Camera

Dr. Who is not the only one who can alter time - you can too if you get the new Sony RX100 Mk.IV camera. Specifically, you can slow it down.

Boy, can you slow it down.

The form of the little camera will be familiar to anyone who has had their Mk. I, II, or III models. Zeiss zoom lens, 180º flipping LCD screen, pop-up electronic view finder. Solid build.

New is the 4K capability and the 1/32,000 second shutter and the HFR. That acronym means that it has a High Frame Rate...up to 250 frames per second that you then run back as a video. The universe slows down to the extent that it looks like Winnepeg on a wet Sunday...

It is a camera that demands experimentation. Come in and test it out. Show us the results.

By Golly This Lens Isn't Sharp...

Said no-one about a Zeiss lens - ever...

While the politics and the business structure of the Zeiss optical and camera firm might have been convoluted in the Cold War - East and West Germany both claimed to have the fragments of the true optical kreuz... We charitably assume that they have now either kissed and made up or at least buried the jurisdictional bodies and tamped down the mounds. As it seems to be now, they are going full steam both in Germany and Japan and supplying superb optics for a number of cameras.

Some of them are blockbusters. Ah, I think I could have phrased that better...Some of them are large lenses that may be considered the epitome of technology for their focal length. We're thinking of the Otus range here. Lenses for the seriously rich who wish to carry heavy weights. The reward is perfect images.

Some are discrete little things - designed to go onto Leica M mounts. Of course the Leica people frown on this but many photographers feel that they are able able to bear the contumely anyway - and they can do so in a wide variety of focal lengths. Of course it gets worse - the Fujifilm X camera users can buy an M mount adapter from Fujifilm and then go off on a Zeiss binge themselves. The fact that the Zeiss also make silver-finish lenses is wonderful - if one had a silver L____a or a silver F______m one could look as flash as anything.

And if you use the f:1.4 version and turn the ISO up to 3200 you don't even need to flash.

The Industrial Spy On Holiday

Okay, that's a bit dramatic. I'm not an industrial spy as such. I'm a guy who works in a camera shop who goes to other people's camera shops when I am on holiday in Melbourne. Not so much evil as sad...

I do it for several reasons; to see what their trade is like, to see if they have access to equipment that we don't, and to wait inside out of the rain until the pub opens. Occasionally I purchase some token to see if their POS system throws out sparks and vile language like ours does. In case you are wondering, in some cases, yes it does.

It is not always the camera shops - I do haunt book stores and hobby shops and keep an eye on the mechanics of trade there as well. I noted last week that one hobby store is just converting over to the POS computer program we left two years ago. Prior to that they apparently used and abacus and a bag of beans to do the accounting. I should be nervous about the abacus but I envy them that sack of beans.

Some of our competitors have the same windows we had a decade ago - and the sort of window that you see in shops on the Ginza; crowded, dark, and confused. Even the premium brands are accorded little respect in this sort of setting. I am happy to say that the corporate designers who helped us to a better display have done us a service.

Mind you, some of the competitors devote too much or too little space to things that we know do or don't move. This is as much a legacy of what their premises once were as anything - They are probably always scheming to streamline things, much as we are - but there is only so much re-arranging you can do. As an aid to moving stock I have always advocated setting up a Roman catapult in the back car park and lobbing cameras and lenses at passers-by but I find the management here to be strangely conservative...

I note that most of the camera shops have gone out of books - either realising that art and photography bookselling is a difficult enough task when you are a specialist store or finding that the information goes out of date too fast. Knowledge and talent doesn't age but printed camera books can only pursue the internet forums at a run.

Fortunately the pressure of innovation has not extended to Young and Jacksons. Same old place, same old product, same old picture.

Uncle Dick

One Of These Lenses Is Not Like The Others

One of these lenses is not the same...with apologies to Big Bird...

Okay, see if you can figure it out. You'll need to be in a darkened theatre to discover the difference - come and buy all these three lenses from us and explore the mystery. I'll give you some clues.

1. It ain't the aperture. They are all about f:1.4 or f:1.5 so they work good in the dark.

2. It ain't the lens mount - these cameras can all be put to work on a Fujifilm X-E2 camera  - the Fuji mounts straight off and the Leica or Zeiss lenses can go on the the Fujifilm adapter.

3. It ain't the autofocus. The lenses can all be manually focussed with the Fujifilm X-E2 and the focus peaking and enlarged central image you get by pressing the control wheel make the things go into focus very precisely.

4. It ain't the lens performance. They ALL perform brilliantly. I can't see as good as they can.

5. It ain't the chrome on the Zeiss - you can get this same lens in black.

6. It ain't the focal length. They are all normal lenses as far as the APS-C sensor goes.

Okay? Give up?

It's the little raised blue plastic dot on the Zeiss and the little red plastic dot on the Leica. There is no raised dot on the Fujifilm - just a painted red stripe. It helps you orientate the lens for mounting...but not in a darkened theatre when you can't see it.
You fumble, turn to whatever light you can find, and finally pull out a pocket torch to see what you are doing.

Okay - time to rethink, Fujifilm. Put a raised dot or some other tactile aid for lens changing in the dark. When my lenses pass through their warranty period and can be legitimately attacked with a fire axe, I shall ask Ernest to attach some form of dot for me - so I am not fumbling in the dark.

I do that enough when it comes to politics and finances...

The New Zeiss Portrait Lens

A few months ago the Zeiss lens division released the first of the OTUS lenses for DSLR cameras. It was the 55mm f:1.4, and probably the best 55mm lens for Canon or Nikon that you could buy. The Canon and Nikon reps may wish to strip off and wrestle the Zeiss rep in a mud bath to dispute this, but I shall remain aloof.

Well, they have done it again. We have just received the first example of the 85mm f:1.4 OTUS portrait lens. It is, surprisingly, a little shorter than the 55mm but a little broader. The focusing ring moves with equal smoothness, and the finish is superb.

We look forward to hearing of client's experiences with it - the ones who purchased the 55mm speak very highly of it.

Note: the 85mm focal length would be useful if you were photographing mud wrestling - you could stay back from the splashing.

Aww, Come On....

Bag and a bar. Six bucks.

Money goes to the school - digital bag goes into your camera outfit - chocolate goes to your hips.

How good is that?

PS: The strawberry and mint ones come in a two-pack, so you can share. As if you would...

A Very Large Hen's Tooth

Saul has asked me to let you know that we have a very rare piece of glass in the shop right now. It is the Zeiss Otus 55mm f:1.4 lens in a Nikon ZF2 mount.

It is not hard to find it, as it is possibly the largest 55mm lens in the place. Possibly? It IS the largest 55 in the shop. That's a 5¢ piece in the photo for comparison.

Smooth as silk in the focusing. Totally precise in the aperture ring. Superb definition and colour fidelity on a Nikon camera body. Probably the ultimate in this lens focal length anywhere and Saul says they are super rare around the world.

We must be doing something right because this is the second one of these that I have seen - one of our professional customers has one in operation right now.

Yes, you can buy it, and no, you can't have it for a song. Not unless you are Dame Nellie Melba and have the entire chorus of La Scala behind you doing " Aida "...

Otus

I have been puzzling about the new Zeiss lens that has just arrived in the shop - it is the 55mm f:1.4 Otus lens. It is a magnificent thing and the write-ups from the world's photographic press seem to say that t is the uncompromising best for this focal length and the Full-frame cameras it will serve. The example I photographed for the blog is the ZF 2 mount for Nikon.

It is a big lens - no doubt about that. See the coin placed for scale beside it - that is a 5¢ piece. The weight is commensurate with he size. The focus ring movement is perfect - smooth and evenly damped. The engraved markings are a little bit startling as the bulk of the operational ones are in bright yellow. It is, of course, T* coated.

We have not had a chance to shoot with it, but will try to do so at the earliest opportunity to check out performance.

But back to the puzzle - why on earth would the Zeiss people name a large standard lens after HMS OTUS - an "O" class submarine? is it a leftover from the U-boat days? Is there a naval enthusiast in the marketing department? If we buy more of them will we have a wolf pack?