Murray Street Colour

I plan to make it a habit to call in at our Murray Street Store - corner of Queen Street - at least once each week. I've learned not to warn the staff exactly when in case they turn off the lights and hide behind the sofa - my relatives do this a lot.

This week's visit revealed lots of new things; an old industrial turntable in the laneway out the back, the new coffee machine works a treat, and there is now some colour in the store. The new cabinets are  in and are attracting some pretty bright entries:

a. Leica. Well, Leica is pretty much chrome and black, as you might expect from their history. They do shoot off into bright binoculars occasionally but these are the exception.

But you can always count on Leica for red. The design team that evolved the store displays all over the world were brilliant in translating the red Leica dot that we had become used to seeing into a brand reminder. They adopted that same shade of red and repeated it in the cabinet shelves and linings to draw your eye to the display.

You just can not not see it. You might not be able to afford it...but you know it is there waiting in case your fortunes improve.

Note to the well-heeled: January is a good time to come in and get a couple of dozen cartons of Leica SL cameras for summer parties. Guests appreciate something to do between courses of luncheon and taking pictures is always popular.

b. Olympus. Okay, I defy you to be glum looking at these colourful Olympus binoculars. They are not the largest sizes that Olympus make - it is a firm that can supply quite a variety of optics in various grades - but these small binocs are perfect for pocket or purse.

The colour is the icing on the cake.

c. Fujifilm XP camera. The shape is dictated by the need to make this camera water and shock proof but the colour is just pure art.

Well, no...

On second thought it may also be function. This is an underwater camera and the effect of depth is to make objects look dark blue. The orange may be to counteract this tendency and to make it show up better under the sea. Fujifilm also make a yellow version - this would intensify the effect.

Whatever, it is a camera that can accompany you nearly everywhere and with that bright shell you will be able to find it in you pocket or purse...or glove compartment...easily.

In any case, come into the new store as soon as you can and look for more colour. It's a very nice place to be.

The Urge To Share Just Got A Little Stronger - Nikon KeyMission 170

Weblog columnists are a bit of a menace - I know - I write three of these things every day and I would shy away from myself at cocktail parties. I'd be afraid that I would either start riding a hobby horse to dominate conversation or that I would be secretly watching me to see if I could get some copy for the column...

It's not bad character - it's the desire to share that does it. And this desire to share is the basis of the action-camera photographer's work. They want you to see what they are doing. And to be fair, sometimes it is worth looking at.

If you are an action person you now have the new option of the Nikon system action cameras. Today's blog is for the Nikon Key Mission 170. Make what you will of the name, the actual camera is a remarkable thing. And that said at a point where we have seen action cameras for years by other makers.

The Key Mission 170 is basically box-shaped, but does not need an additional bulky housing to waterproof it down to 10 metres. It is good to go out of the box. The makers do provide an protection lens for underwater hazards, though, so they may know more about the dangers you are going to get into than you do...

The camera is remarkably easy to use in the field. Two buttons on top - one for stills and one for video. three buttons at the back to navigate the menu system. And a separate hand controller to let you separate yourself from the device if you are at another point of the surfboard, yacht, or sailplane.

The necessary waterproof door with big yellow seal has twin locks clearly defined by orange warning panels - you should not be able to mistake what is happening and open the back at the wrong time.

There is a dedicated ball head mount and a snap-off release that glues to flat surfaces. I should not wonder if there were not other mounts in the offing - these sort of cameras generate ideas.

There is an integral LCD screen on the back you can see your results while you are still out there and make sure that you are bringing back the footage you need.

You'll be able to do real-time seamless sharing of your experiences too, with the Nikon SnapBridge 360/170 app that will be available for iOS and Android. The camera does a variety of video types, including 4K.

Note that the case construction of these little cameras is superb, as is the quality of the optics.

Now there are more new Nikon action devices in our stores. We'll be featuring the next one soon. In the meantime come on down and see what they look like - summer is coming fast and the water calls...

Nikon KeyMission 170 is at both Camera Electronic stores. 230 Stirling St and 2/324 Murray St, Perth. See our extended December trading hours here

See the Nikon KeyMission 170 on our online store 

At The Risk Of Seeming Paranoid...

Have you ever seen the look on your face when you need to appear in a family photo and don't have a tripod to prop up your camera? What do you do? You pick the least important of the rellies to take a picture of the group. You set it carefully for them and caution them not to change anything...

But you are acutely aware all the time that they have the thing in hand of just how many function buttons, adjustment wheels, and optional switches exist on your camera. Let's face it - you bought it for YOURSELF and you enjoy changing settings.

There is also the added factor that no matter who you select to take the picture, they go from being a normal human to a space monster with slime-coated fingers on the end of tentacles that go everywhere...and clumsy? Oh goodness - your $3000 DSLR with the lens that is so expensive that you burned the receipt before the wife saw it is a safe in the hands of The Mangler as if it was a ball of wadded up tissue.

This is why your eyes in the picture have that Mr. Bean look.

Well do yourself a favour and get a Nikon Coolpix AW 130. It's not just an underwater camera - you could use this on the Simpson Desert. It is a shock-proof camera - Nikon state that it will survive falls up to 2.1 metres.

The lens is protected by a frontispiece of armoured glass - pressure resistant to 30 metres. The battery/card/USB socket door is sealed with a rubber plate and a two-part rotary lock - it can't pop open suddenly in the hands of The Mangler.

It has 16 megapixels built in, a world map to identify where you have taken your pictures, and there is WiFi connection to iOS or Android OS to let you shoot with it, see images, and transfer them to your smart device.

It has an easy-to-use shutter button and the kind of ergonomics that even a squid can master. And the squid can take video with it. It could very well be the camera for the holiday season as well as for the holiday - you cannot improve your relatives at the party but you can take precautions against them. And the relief on the eyestrain is tremendous...

Note the little brush in the picture of he camera with the battery/card/USB hatch open. That's to make sure you are never going to trap sand grains in the seal and compromise the integrity of the water seal.

Space Invader

Bom. Bom. Bom. Bom. Bom...

Well it's not that bad. I came upon this Pelican case in the shop today. It is the 1690 case and it is the biggest thing you have ever seen that was never a Queensland road minister. It is so big that there are expensive Parisian apartments in a good arrondissement that have less interior space. It is so big that you need council permission to keep it on the front lawn.

In short, it holds a lot of gear.

The actual interior capacity is quoted as .191 cu metre or 6.73 cu ft. It has enough capacity to take far too much gear. If you are addicted to loading everything you own into one box, this is the box.

It has all the usual Pelican waterproof construction - O rings and latches and well-spaced hinges. The length of the box is such that Pelican have included a supplementary tongue and socket to prevent the case wall and channel from moving sideways.

The carriage side is also extremely strong - note the cast polypropylene feet to keep the retractable handle mechanism out of the dirt. Also please note that the end handles are made with recognition that this will be a four-handed lift once full.

You may be forgiven for thinking that it looks a little like the black monolith in " 2001 - A Space Odyssey "...

And finally the interior contents. That is a great deal of Pick and Pack cubed foam - configuring this one will take a couple of days of planning before you start digging out the space for your gear. It pays to make paper templates and to think in 3D like a Tetris game before you start. You can get replacement panels for the three foam levels but if you plan ahead you will be happier.

Pelicans can withstand the toughest treatment while protecting the equipment entrusted to them. What is really needed with this one is a Model A luggage rack to strap it to - ask the staff to order one for you. The 1929 sedan model is very popular in Chicago. Doesn't show bullet holes...

www.cameraelectronic.com.au 

Wrestling With An Octopus

I was put in mind of this analogy when photographing today's product for the column. It also had certain features of trying to hang out wet washing upside down or put a toddler back into a play suit. There were more things to do than could be done and new surfaces kept emerging. I think it was invented by M.C. Escher...

It's the Aquatech All-Weather kits for cameras and lenses - the professional version of the simple plastic bags that people use in winter. The AquaTech ids far and away more successful and versatile, however, and is really the only answer for extra-long and extra-expensive lenses.

The cover goes down your right arm, over the camera and lens, and draw-strings closed at the front. The basic kit gives you perfect cover for a DSLR or mirror-less camera with a standard zoom lens and then there is also a longer supplementary cover for medium telephotos. A separate kit goes for this longer lens cover straight away but I daresay there are extra lens covers that you can add at any time.

The construction is thick nylon cloth with water-protected zippers and a hood over the back part of the camera that goes close to your face. An additional sealed eyepiece means even if water leaks down you it cannot get into the camera.

In short, there are enough seals and snugs at all points of exposure to ensure that you can get your picture without damage. of course, a UV filter at the front of the lens is necessary but you know that already. You can go out into " What the heck am I doing this for? " weather with thousands of dollars worth of camera and lens and come back with thousands of dollars worth of camera and lens...
The difficulty I had was trying to make it look like a sensible package on the table - in the end I just gave up, shot it from several angles, and will leave it to your imagination.

In-store right now, or go to the on-line shop and order it. Aquatech make all sorts of protective gear for photo work but they cannot tell you what you are doing this for...

The Tough Camera

Sorry about the header photo slipping into the body of the column. Typing this on an iPad, folks, and it doesn't behave like the iMac...

The Olympus people will be happy with me for putting the word 'tough' in the title of this blog post because one of the ranges of camera that they make also bears that name. And as they have just introduced a new model of that range - the TG 870 - they get a double boost for the device.

But remember that 'tough' is also an adjective as well as a nominative and it can be applied to many things. People, cameras, and in the case of some cheap hotels...the steak dinners. Chew on that, but ask for the Diane sauce first...

The Olympus people have armoured their Tough cameras with metal bodies, waterproof seals, and complex locking mechanisms for the various access doors. As they have included a fashionable 180º flipping LCD screen on the camera for the underwater selfie, some of the ruggedness is reduced when the screen is swivelled off the body - but then that same caveat applies to every other maker who has a moving screen. If you is clumsy you can tear off anything, as I can atttest by personal experience.

Olympus have gone several steps further in their armouring - you can add a silicon jacket to the camera to cushion shocks and preserve the swish aesthetics of the stylish body. You can encase it in a further dive housing and go further down in the ocean - down deep enough so that you have to know precisely what you are doing and do it well if you are to hope to come up again...

But here I leave them and dodge off to another brand - the Fujifilm system I use myself. They have underwater cameras too, though I have not used them - I am thinking of land-based shooting. Here I have also seen the need for toughness and have taken the step of encasing my X-Pro1, X-E2, and X-100 in cast aluminium cages.

The cages have an augmented handgrip on the right side, Arca-Swiss sized rails on the bottom and the left hand side, and lots of 1/4" attachment holes on the bottom. They block the camera body from physical harm on 4 of the 6 faces and I reckon a little inspired shop work could extend that to all sides. They are not a regular item in shops - you seek them on eBay but they are cheap for what they do and of very good quality. Of course the toughness is only one aspect of it - the augmented grip and the Arca mounting into a standard tripod is equally as useful.

I can thoroughly recommend the concept for users of other systems and as the Chinese

makers do nearly everything on CAM machines nearly everything fits.

One idea that we saw years ago does not seem to have been as good - the rubber armour for the DSLR. I suspect the propensity of these sort of sheathes to retain dust and moisture spelled more danger to the cameras than they prevented.

Available for Pre-Order online 

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.

RemoVu Or Remove You? You Decide.

GoPro Hero 3+ and Hero 4 cameras live and work in many elements - air, water, and on earth certainly, and possibly even in fire for a very short period of time. In a lot of cases the cameras operate in ways that would get their owners very hurt if they were to do the same thing - like hitting things at high speed or being precipitated into very deep water for a long time. Thus is born a dichotomy between what the keen photographer would like to see and what they would like to suffer.

The makers of the Removu have an answer to this  - they have made an accessory that lets you see what the camera is doing and command its functions but isolate you from the developing disaster.

It works by using one of the GoPro components - the LCD Touch Bac Pac - and encloses it in a durable and wearable casing. Then it pumps a signal to and from the Bac Pac via WiFi, letting you monitor and control from the wrist mounting. You can be surfing, skiing, paragliding, or some other non-insurable activity in perfect safety* while your camera is not.

Beware that while your GoPro camera may be waterproof to a deeper depth, this item only advertises itself as being able to withstand one metre of water.

No bad thing if you are using the camera on a car, a bike, or a safe location and want to monitor the view as it works.

* Perfect safety? You're a GoPro user. You'd be dangerous at a smorgasbord... Just accept that this will reduce the injuries a little.

Note that this column was due to post on Christmas afternoon, but I was at a smorgasbord...

Leica SL Launch Event Perth

Yep. I seen it all right.

Right out there in front of a crowd of people. Just as plain as day.

Leica's National Sales Manager with a brand new Leica SL camera and 24-90mm lens and a glass of tap water. National Marketing Manager Rachelle held a dish pan underneath it. He shot a few shots off with the camera then proceeded to pour the entire glass of water over the body into the dishpan.

Then he shot a few more shots off. And wiped the thing dry with a tea towel. And carried on lecturing about it as if nothing had happened. He had the crowd's attention, I can tell you...

That's him right there - looking at the diagram of the extensive sealing on the new camera. More news about the new Leica tomorrow when the rest of the pictures have been developed.

Stan Davies Is All Wet

Let me rephrase that.

Stan Davies frequently takes photographs whilst waterborne - he uses one of the most intriguing of the Nikon cameras to do this. During the course of these adventures he may become immersed. When he visits the shop he is dry - and dressed. All is well.

Now, Mr. Davies will be visiting the shop to tell people about the Nikon 1 AW-1 camera system and the explain about his upcoming workshop.

He'll be conducting the event over two days in the Margaret River region near the start of December. As it is to be on a weekend there will be an opportunity for a lot of people to travel to it. And it is to be somewhat unusual:

Attendees will be supplied a Nikon 1 AW-1 waterpoof camera for their use during the event.

It will be in and around water so attendees will need to bring their bathers - and i would suggest thongs as well.

Attendees will need to bring their own SD card and a small tripod  - and to arrange their own overnight accommodation in the area.

They'll meet at Russell Ord's studio on Saturday the 5th of December at 2:00 ( plenty of time to drive down from Perth on Saturday morning ) for a presentation by Stan on the Nikon1 AW-1 system. Then of for a sunset shoot with the information fresh in mind.

Next morning there's to be a practical class to put more of the watery knowledge to use and a hot wash-up conference after that - and still plenty of time to motor back to perth before he end of the day.

For $ 199 it's going to be a good photographic experience.

Anyway, come talk to Stan in the shop on Saturday the 31st of October and hear what he has to say about the camera and about the workshop.

When I Were Young We Were Too Poor To ...

When  I was young we were too poor to own a digital camera. The late 1940's were a hard time in the Rocky mountains and all we had to record life was stretched deer hides and ochre dug from the creek bank. In retrospect it was not too bad, because you could get packs of really good A3+ deer hide cheaply...

Okay, that was a lie. We had a Kodak camera. As it happened my parents owned an 8mm Kodak magazine cine camera and a projector and Kodak Canada would process 50 ft reels of Kodachrome movies and post them back to you within a fortnight. The results are still with me and the colour has not faded. When I care to project it my mother and father are alive again and I am 1 year old in the bath.

Valuable? To you, no. To me, priceless. To my daughter a link to the past. Much hilarity over the bathtub film...

When next you're doing your sums for yourself and wonder whether you ought to spend a few more dollars on a digital camera or an extra memory card...remember that someone will want to see what you look like one day. It might be a long - term investment, but it does pay off handsomely.

PS: We have good waterproof Nikon  and Olympus cameras in case the bath splashes.

PPS: We were too poor to own memes too...

Show And Tell - What I Did On Your Holidays

I came along with you on your holidays. It was quite an experience. Being packed into a small bag together with a passport, spare credit card, and a half-chewed roll of mints. Then pushed through an X-ray machine. Then jammed into the overhead locker under a 1.5 litre bottle of gin.

The holiday itself was nice - out in the hot sun all day, covered in suntan oil, sand, bits of seashell, and what appeared to be some sort of chili gravy. The dip in the sea was refreshing, as was the dip in the wash basin afterward, and the toilet as well. ( Perhaps don't let your toddler play with me next time...)

The drop down the rock cave was a bit of a shock. I expect it was the suntan oil that was on your fingers or the neck oil that you bought at the beach bar...whatever, at least no harm was done. I bear my scars with dignity - hope your knee recovers. Pity about losing your wallet, but at least no-one will be able to access your cards now - that cave is 1000 metres deep.

Funny how holidays are so intense while we are doing them but how quickly we forget. At least you do. I don't. I am going to tell my friend Mac as soon as we get home and show all the images that you took. Including THAT one. Talk about raw...but it was a holiday and far away and what the heck. The rest will make a nice album for the coffee table and Facebook.

As for me, I look forward to the next adventure. I don't suppose you would consider a trip to Antarctica? I'm up for it. I can work down below zero. And it will make a nice change from selfies in bikini bottoms...

Pile O Pelicans

It has been some time since we saw a pile 'o pelicans here - about 5 years ago we had the great Ziggurat Of Storm cases and we used to sacrifice slow-paying customers on top of them until the council stepped in and complained. Now we just sell the waterproof cases to photographers.

They go mostly to people who take their delicate equipment into horrible conditions. Whale watching, fishing boats, oil rigs, snow fields, Queensland...wherever water, snow, oil vapours, sand, or dust would attack the cameras or lenses. The Pelicans are absolutely waterproof and solid enough to withstand being hold baggage on anything short of a B-24.

I use one to stand on to get above crowds at dance shows. I weigh 70Kg and haven't shot through the top of it yet.

You can get them in al sorts of sizes and with either foam or divider interiors. They have snap latches and provision to put padlocks on them.

Have a look at the heading picture and see if there is one that would suit you. Pelican-Storm have a good website that will quote interior dimensions as well.

Hard Cases

We have a small pile of ex-rental hard cases near the front counter. You might need new foam inside but they're only $ 25 each. Makes a good big school lunch box...