Sirui For The Serious - Part One

Sirui? Are you serious? Sure we are.

The larger of the Sirui tripods that appeared in the Little Studio turns out to be a compact design - the company recognizes that people are travelling more these days and need to travel lighter. We also know that they may be travelling with the DSLR rather than the mirror-less systems - hence the need to hold heavier loads.

The Sirui T 2204X and the Sirui K30 X are partners - albeit partners that you have to purchase separately and mate together. They are designed for supporting the larger system cameras while still retaining lightness and compact size themselves. These are components for people who are going to stand at the airline counter and look over the excess-baggage price list with nervousness.

The tripod starts out as a carbon fibre design with screw-lock legs. The yoke is a lightweight forged casting - more weight saved. It folds back 180º into itself for space saving. it packs into a nylon case with the K-30 X head still attached.

You might just get away with it in the cabin locker or at least not get charged extra in the hold. Give it a try and remember to be pleasant - you never know your luck.

The whole rig only weighs 1.9 Kg all up and can support up to 30 Kg. You want to ponder going out in the morning with 30 Kg of photo equipment stacked around you - mainly ponder what you'll feel like as you come back at night. Perhaps best to take only three giant telephoto lenses out at a time, eh?

Whatever the state of your joints and back at 6:00 PM at least you will know that the Sirui T 2204X / K30X combo is not responsible for the pains. Hope the pictures come out okay.

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.

Going Like A Train - With Fuji

All Aboard this Sunday - the 2nd of December - at Shoot Photography -  for the Fuji Train. This is sort of like a sushi train but we don't put the little piles of fish roe and bright green jelly stuff on your camera - we train you how to use it.

Dr Michael Coyne will be the presenter for what is officially called the Fuji X Series Workshop 2012. He is a photojournalist and Fuji X Series Ambassador and will be showing how to use this form of camera for on-street shooting and photojournalistic essays. He'll be doing it hands-on too, and the participants will be out on the Oxford Street strip practising what he preaches.

You won't be doing it on an empty stomach - lunch is included in the $ 195  price - and you won't be left to puzzle your way through - Michael will be there to assist and to critique the results later. There will be pro reps from Fuji, staff from Camera Electronic, and lots of Fuji equipment to experiment on.

Ring to 9228 8232 or email Dana at dana@shootworkshops.com.au to make a booking. If you like, call Saul on 0417-220-876 or book online with the Shoot website.

 As a fully-paid-up-with-my-own-money Fuji user - X-10 camera - I am delighted with this idea. The camera is exactly what I want for travel and I will be inundating you with holidays snaps if they give me a holiday...The other cameras in the series are even nicer, if bigger. Well, suit yourself, but you can't go wrong with Fuji.

I'm afraid you won't see me on the day as it is my 40th wedding anniversary and I wish to take a pretty girl out to lunch and the movies. You can see from the following picture that I am going to look my best...