Technical Writer Wanted For The Glue Company

No special skills needed - it's a cut and paste job...

If you have a Facebook feed or other social media connection you'll have had any number of people passing on information from others by simple means - they have pressed a hashtag key or a forward button and flooded the computers of their friends with another political meme or picture of a cat riding a motor mower.

It is the civilian version of what used to be the rip-and-read radio news service that interposed itself between you and a teletype machine. It kept you up-to date, but generally the date was July 8, 1959. Still, it was better than waiting for the newspaper to be thrown into the rhododendrons at 5:00AM next morning, particularly if the news was not what the editor or the owners of the paper wanted you to read...'cause then you didn't read it and never even found out that you didn't read it until much later.

Nowadays we instantly read, hear, see, and possibly taste darn near everything over the computer and a juicy news story will be available over dozens of feeds...but if you look carefully, the dozens of feeds are all saying the same thing. Because most of the writers of the various posts are sitting down by the teletype machine with a pair of scissors and a pot of glue.

It's the same for the technical photographic writing. You may see a dozen reviews of a new camera or lens but eleven of those will say the same thing because they have been derived from a press release or product sheet. It is only No.12 that has anything new because in many cases only No.12 has actually had the camera in hand and pressed the shutter button. Don't be too cynical about the other 11 - there may not have been enough of the new cameras in the country when the call for a tech report came out and the writers have just had to wing it.

You can have confidence to a certain extent in the eleven other reports. If they have not been typo'ed too badly you will get the basic information you need. But if you want to really find out the valuable bits, look for that twelfth piece. It is only the people who have handled the equipment* that will be able to let you have a human view of it.

And then come down to the shop and pick it up and form your own assessment. Judge as carefully as you might, and remember that you are as free to have a good opinion about new equipment as to have  a bad one.

*Sometimes with sticky fingers.

Images: farming on a small scale at Cannington Showgrounds.

Weegee Woulda Been Proud Of Joby

Arthur Felig was not a man to use compact cameras for delicate pieces of ethereal art. His batting record with still life bowls of fruit was woeful. I do not think he ever used a graduated neutral density filter at the seaside in his life.

Yet...he was the greatest blood and guts press freelancer...in the toughest areas of New York in the 1940's...and he used press cameras to do it. One shot, two shots, and then run for it. Run for the car to develop the film pack in the boot and then run for the picture desk of the newspaper.

Arthur...also known as Weegee...had no time for weak equipment, and if you are in the same frame of mind, Joby have just what you want - the Joby Pro Series Hand Grip With Ultra Plate 208.

Heckuva thing to sell - a complex metal casting to bolt onto the bottom of your camera and a rubberised grip to hold it with. I mean, cameras have grips already, don't they? Yeah, but not if you're Weegee class - big handed with tough assignments.

If you need to sling a flash from the left hand side of a camera instead of right in the middle, this is the deal. You screw on a Manfrotto double-thread adapter, a cold shoe, Joby's own locking arm, or any other connector to the top of that grip and the thing is going to stay there without coming off in ANYTHING.

 

You can pop the baseplate onto an Arca-Swiss mount all along the length. You can run a wrist strap or one of your camera stop ends onto the right lower edge of the camera as well as the upper right edge and sling the camera vertically like the old Leica M5. Metz provided this option for years with the metal bracket of the 45-series and it was a blessing. It would be even more so now when we want to keep that damned strap out of our eyes as we raise the camera for a shot.

If you've a mind to, you can attach the grip below the camera for a handle. Raise the thing above the crowd surrounding the murder victim, fire the flash, and run for it*. Weegee would have.

And if worst comes to worst,  that handle and the metal casting make a good mace. A lot easier to hang onto than the grip of your average DSLR.

* Popping a red-hot Press 25 at your pursuers while you leg it...

Part Five - A Messenger From Mr. Gladstone, Your Majesty.

As a new chum in Australia in the 1960's, I might have been forgiven for a little confusion as I watched the railway workers clocking on and off at the East Perth sheds as their shifts changed...all those big burly engine drivers and firemen and wipers - all carrying little leather doctor's bags? Could they all be part time physicians?

Well, the Gladstone bags I was looking at were carrying their lunches to the job and spare coal back home...and similar containers were going to work all over Australia at the time. It was the most elegant set of lunch pails I have ever seen.

The Gladstone - a bag that opens at the top and then is suspended by two sling handles or a central articulated handle - is also a standard for overnight bags and now for camera systems. It is the bag of choice for the discrete and discerning photographer who also wants to take sandwiches. In the case of the Barber Shop Medium Borsa bag, those are likely to be expensive sangers, as this is a pricey little Gladstone.

Okay, that thought out of the way, this is a beauty. It is blue canvas with dark brown leather trim, stitched in Italy  ( Ah, there's the price...) and lined perfectly. There's a protective top flap but a full-length leather-edged zip for access as well.

Look inside for an iPad pocket, a removable and reconfigurable camera holder, and a captive leather leash. I am again lost as to the exact purpose of the leash.

There's an extremely well-finished shoulder strap with leather shoulder pad.

I'd use it as a camera case here in Perth to impress the ladies and the clients and a one-night overnighter on the airplane to the eastern states to impress the airline staff. Don't try to impress the Camera Electronic salespeople because they are cynics down to about five inches under the skin.

One final thought - if you are the train driver for Le Train Bleu or The Orient Express this might make a nice lunchbox...

Jazz Hands At the Camera Shop

It is going to be winter here in Australia in a few months and all of the citizens who have forgotten what it is like to be cold and miserable are going to be reminded. The most poignant ones will be the photographers who will go out on landscape shooting expeditions, get up pre-dawn to freezing conditions on top of the local mountain range, and then try to actually poke away at the controls of their digital cameras.

The cruel amongst us will laugh as their frozen little fingers try to hit the tiny buttons and fail, and their looks of anguish will be treasured. Or they could buy a pair of warm gloves just to spite us...

The trouble with the average warm pair of gloves is that they make the hands inside them feel good, but are only a little less clumsy as they hold the camera. They can be bulky, slippery, and awkward. Enter the Aquatech company with their pair of Sensory Gloves.

They are as warm and toasty as you could want - and I assure you I tried them on in the studio and they were delightful - but they are also safe for camera use. The inside of the palms and fingers are lined with non-slip dots.

In addition, the ends of the forefinger and thumb are fitted with flaps and small holes to allow you to poke your finger through them and activate touch screens or delicate controls. Once done, you can slip the end of the fingers back into the warm.

Luxury? Try half way up Bluff Knoll in a blizzard or out on an Antarctic expedition and see how little luxury costs...

The Pukka Pack For Particular Persons

Choosing a back pack for exploring the less developed corners of the empire is a delicate task. One must accurately assess the opportunities that will be presented as well as the risks that will be run. This is why our featured article - the Think Tank Trifecta 8 -  will be on the short-list of many adventurers.

The basic idea of the Trifecta 8 is to take enough equipment onto the wild to enable you to capture images of the savages whilst not weighing you down in case you need to make a run for it. Modern thinking has provided us with mirror-less cameras and lenses of reduced size and weight and this is all to the good. Now we have a way to carry them about the person.

Just as Kipling’s cavalryman spent the winter preparing his spring campaign - paring an ounce of weight where he could to extend the range of his mount - so we can reduce the amount of gear we carry. But it still needs to be accessible at short notice when we come across a herd of wildebeest or porcupines.

The Trifecta 8 accomplishes this by maximising the main openings in the case - two lateral flaps and one ventral opening. The two former features allow the user to access either side of a central divider whilst the pack is worn on the back. If it is taken off, the ventral opening gapes wide to allow access to the entire equipment compartment.

Security amongst troublesome natives can be increased by cable-tying the zips of the side panels tighter and only using the ventral access panel.

Note that there is also a dorsal panel at the top of the pack that opens to allow storage of watercress sandwiches and bottles of cold tea.

So the next time you are headed out past the perimeter of the camp - or the range of the Gardner guns - remember to pack your mirror-less camera and lenses in this splendid case. It is professionally - made and will give years of sterling service.

Pip Pip!

Think Tank Sling Slang

Whenever I write an article that says the day of the giant camera outfit  - and equally giant camera bag - is dead, someone writes in to complain and tell me that they have 5 DSLR bodies, 16 lenses, 8 flashes, and a lucky key ring…and they want them all to go into a bag that will fit into the overhead locker on the next Virgin flight.

 I welcome feedback like this from my readers, and advise them to change airlines. The RAAF runs C-130 Hercules flights to lots of places and they should be able to get that camera bag in the back door of the aircraft on a pallet. They may elect to unload it with a low-altitude pass and a parachute, but that is the chance you have to take. They have better snacks than a lot of commercial flights*.

Having prepared you, let me introduce a better idea - the Think Tank Turnstyle 5 sling bag. Never mind the pun in the name - I’ve done worse here and you’ve read it. The interesting thing about this sling bag is that it really does turn into two other things.

To start off: the basic bag has a narrow teardrop she designed to sling over the back from the left shoulder - it is narrow enough to sit between the shoulder blades and not get in the way. It is smooth and slick so you can move in a crowd without buffeting them.

There are three basic openings - a document flap on the front, an equipment bay in the middle, and a padded iPad slot in the back - this one takes the mini iPads.

The zips are professional-quality, as is the rest of the construction.  There is an overall rainproof cover that you can pluck out of an end pocket to completely protect the contents.

The equipment bay is ideally suited to a mirror-less camera and lenses or perhaps a small mirror-less flash.

Now, as for the two other ways of utilising this…imagine that you are going to be somewhere that requires you to protect the contents of the bag - perhaps moving up a rock face or through a dangerous railway station. You just reverse the sling so that it depends from your right shoulder with the case in front. You can still reach inside to extract cameras or lenses but no-one else can dip into it.

If you want to free your shoulders from any burden, there is an ancillary waist belt attachment in the same pouch that contains the rainproof cover. Instant bum or belly bag.

This one you can realistically sling into the overhead locker of the local Boeing without a second thought. The seasoned traveller will bless the combination for convenience and protection, and the raw tourist will eventually find out that the old hand was right. They'll just need a few trips struggling through airports hauling a wheelie case to discover the truth…

* Plus the in-flight entertainment sometimes includes getting operate the door gun…coming into Adelaide.

The Messenger Bag - Part Two - Parisian Style

Well I promised you the up-market Peak Design messenger bag and here it is: the Everyday Messenger 13. There is enough style in this one to satisfy any boutique bag buyer.

The choice of fabric from which it is constructed might be thought modest enough - a medium-brown denim - but then you need to look into some of the more up-market clothing shops to see what they do with ( and charge for ) denim. This is not a pair of jeans.

The basic messenger form with top flap is simple enough to think of but there are a number of design quirks in it. With the top flap down and locked, you still get a weatherproof zipper on top to allow access to the gear compartment. These used to be referred to as "stealth" opening by some makers, but anything that has a big zipper is not all that stealthy.

The sides of the case are open to small compartments - one of which has a Peak Design strap peeking from it. I've no idea what they expect you to suspend from it, but perhaps it is keys.

The top flap has an inside pocket that contains a Peak Design rubber ring that turns out to be a leg band for small tripods  when you carry them horizontally.

The flap itself has a very ingenious attachment - the ladder segments on the side of the bag are made of metal and there is a powerful magnet and hook arrangement that locks them positively in a number of positions. You can gain quick access to the bag by lifting the metal handle with no fumbling for buckles or pop studs.

The interior space is massive, and they have made it decorative as well. The two movable partitions create what is essentially two quick-access buckets as soon as the top comes up - like holders for dragoon pistols on a European cavalry saddle.

The strap is very smooth woven nylon and the attachment points again feature a swivel but no resorting to plastic parts. There is a waist cinch hidden in a back compartment plus a re-enforced base to allow you to set it down without damaging the denim.

The whole thing costs $ 100 more than the Everyday Sling  - not a great deal more to go up Collins Street to the fancy shops...just don't ask the price of the shoes in the window...

Don't Shoot The Messenger - Part One - Dockyard End

I do love a daily advertising column - where else would I ever get to use a heading like that in legitimate literature? It goes with the " Hack Writer " sign that I keep on my desk.

 

Well, on to the hack - this week we are going to look at the messenger bag. It is either the humblest of camera containers...or the most prestigious - depending upon whether you are making it for the Dockyard end or the Paris end of Collins Street. I use Victorian imagery there because if I named Perth suburbs my readers would be up themselves and down on me. You can do your own geography - but be aware that there are different markets.

The  - ahem - less exotic user can be accommodated with the Peak Design Everyday Sling. It is a little grey workhorse of a bag with good protection for the smaller camera outfit.

Oh, you could slot a DSLR and a couple of lenses in there too. A mirror-less system camera could run three lenses easily and you might be able to leave a battery grip attached. The top pocket is lined and has card and battery holders built into the walls. There's a full-sized tablet compartment with a lock tab as well - this could easily be the foundation of a travelling blogoffice.

The external pocket is configured so that it is expandable - and the expansion is controlled by nylon webbing a metal buckles. You can stack heavy gear into it without fear. That is if you're silly enough to put heavy gear on your shoulder and trudge around with it all day...

The suspension of the strap - nylon webbing - is attached with a metal swivel - indeed all the fittings are anodised metal so you can bang through the tourist places with this one for literally years without having it disintegrate. Laugh not, I have had a bag made by one of the other major makers decide to plotz in the middle of an English railway station and it was not a fun experience.

Peak Design are a coming firm. Their straps and suspension systems are quirky but well thought-out and these new bag designs show that they wish to be considered a premium maker.

Tomorrow we see their Paris end...

Sony Week - Part Four - The Local Tourist

It is no fun being a local tourist - particularly if you have lived in the place for 53 years. The exciting mustn't-miss glamour spots of the 1960's have not worn well. Some of them peaked when the America's Cup races were held and some of them have yet to do so...So finding iconic world-beating landscape award-winners on a cloudy Tuesday at 2:30 is somewhat problematical - particularly if you want to get off Leach Highway before the rest of the world gets on it at 3:30...

In most Australian cities you can at least find a dramatic view around the war memorials - they are grassed and lit and maintained. Thus I used the naval memorials up on the hill as my base to view. If the council had not been cutting the grass and if the wind had not been blowing a gale it might have been idyllic.

As it was, it provided a good workout for the 28mm f:2 full frame lens and the 18mm f:1.8 APS-C lens. In this case, as with the studio shots from yesterday, I eschewed using RAW for either camera  -it was easier to set a fair comparison in train by putting them both to JPEG. I also used a programmed or auto setting for both and selected 650 ISO. AF was in operation for both, and as there was a good amount of light under the clouds, the speed of focusing was no problem for either camera.

Against the light shots are tough - the camera sees what we refuse to see and renders it as flat or overblown in highlights. It's no good hoping for good light if the geography of the place puts you looking into it anyway, but you can tantalise yourself by moving round the other way when the sun breaks through the clouds - as seen in the torpedo shot.

Technical note: This is an ex-US Navy torpedo that was not fired at Japanese ships and did not explode. As opposed to the ones that were fired at Japanese ships and did not explode. I recommend RUN SILENT RUN DEEP as a reference for this question.

But back to the cameras. They both shot fast and accurately. They both turned in files that benefited from the "automatic haze removal " feature of the Photoshop Elements 14 program. But look at the difference between the full frame and the APS-C in the image of the HMAS ADELAIDE ( L01) tied up at Victoria Quay. Here's the force of the newer sensor, greater resolution, and larger surface area of the sensor all combined. Plus a bit of the in-body 5-axis stabilisation throwing in goodness.

As loyal as I am to the APS-C system for my studio shots - and for good reason - I must say that if I was taking landscape shots that I wanted to blow up to large images, I would have to acknowledge the superior result of the full frame. I daresay there is more that could be wrung out of an RAF RAW file but then there is more that could be extracted from a Sony RAW file as well.

There may well be similar improvements in portraiture or large group images - I must see if I can get another chance at the larger sensor in the studio with a human subject.

And as a final note - Street photography has been touted as a fine division of the art. It may well be, but there are streets and there are streets. I drove a number of the crowded ones around Fremantle and concluded that in the rich ones the locals didn't want me to stop - and in the poor ones I looked at the locals and had no desire to stop. I think I will do my touring up to Coles and leave it at that.

Sony Week - Part Three - The Model A Test

I regret that title. I suddenly realised that Sony - as well as Henry Ford  - used to make A model cameras too. Hopefully readers will be able to separate them in their minds*. The Sony products do not have wire-spoke wheels or rumble seats. A pity in some respects...

Well, the contest between a full-frame camera and an APS-C camera in the studio will always range around two things; the out of focus appearance behind the plane of sharpness, and how wide that plane can be spread in the picture.

You can quantify it easily - just go to the DOFmaster website and specify the focal length you will be using. The figures on the calculator are minutely accurate, and infinitely depressing if you are trying to get a deep depth of field. Nothing you can do at close range will increase it markedly. But you grasp for every millimetre you can get.

An APS-C camera with a 35mm lens will have the same angular field of view as a full-frame camera sporting a 50mm lens - the pictures will have the same look and perspective. But the 35mm will have more depth of field for every equivalent f stop.

If this is important to you - it can be a big factor in what you choose.

On the other hand, if you need a shallower depth of field for portraiture or atmospheric images, the 50mm on the full-frame camera is the way to go. You will also benefit from more resolution and the ability to blow the image up to a bigger print. You'll pay for it in more memory being used and a consequent longer time for processing, but the details will be there.

In my case, I rarely blow my work up enough to justify the increased quality, and I DO need every millimetre of DOF I can get.

Some words of practical praise for the Sony FE 50mm f:2.8 macro lens:

a. It is superbly sharp.

b. It has a very positive focus feel to it. No lag, no slip.

c. It goes a true 1:1 macro.

d. It has a focus-hold button - that little round one in the middle of the control panel - that freezes the action of the AF so that you can shift the lens slightly away from the original position. This allows you to follow a slightly moving subject without having the lens hunt back and forth and become uncontrollable.

This isn't all that useful for toy cars but it saves many a " Yike Yike " moment for the bee photographers...

* Mind you - the cameras only come in black...like Model T's...Hmmmm...