Lite Panels has released another great light called the MircoPro. The Micro was a big hit when it came out last year and I have no doubt about this one. It has twice the output power of the original Micro. Pretty cool. For shooting in low light with HD camcorders or a constant light on an SLR hotshoe instead of a flash unit, this should fit the bill.
It’s that time of year again! Today is the big start to the week of the Spring Expo here at Roberts Imaging, culminating in the big Manufacture Representative demo on Friday, April 24 and Saturday April 25.
Got an old camera you want to sell? Bring it in on Friday and we will buy it from you. This is at our downtown store only. We will have folks on hand in the store to buy your gear.
We have several deals going on this week from all the brands, but there are a few standouts. How about a Nikon Coolpix camera S520 for only $89.97? It wasn’t too long ago it was selling for $200. Hurry. We have a limited stock of them. A Sony A350 SLR with two Sony lenses and the vertical grip for the camera, all for $799.99!! And many, many more deals!
There was a misprint in the Indianapolis Star ad that I should mention too. It shows a Canon G10 for $129.97. Obviously, to those that know the camera, that was a big mistake. It should read $449.97. Sorry about the mistake. Sometimes that happens.
I was playing with it just the other day. I was impressed by how far it it goes with just a few turns. Lightweight, compact and might in reach the new Lumix 45-200 F4.0-5.6 Micro 4/3rds zoom lens from Panasonic is a beauty. With its 90-400, 35mm standard equivalent focal length it really gets out there. When coupled with the Lumix G1 Panasonic Digital camera system the speed of focus is amazing, and since stabilization is built into the Panasonic digital SLR camera system, there is no extra charge for clear clean shake reduced images. This lens is a must have foe your Panasonic DMC-G1 and DMC-GH1 camera platforms, where else are you going to get a 400mm equivalent lens with stabilization and F5.6 gathering?
Remember that the micro 4/3rds system works with the recently announced Olympus micro 4/3rds camera and offers an adapter for the regular 4/3rds cameras so you can use this lens on the entire Olympus Digital Camera platform too. Also remember that Roberts has the best prices on digital camera SD cards in Indianapolis, so stock up on Sandisk or Kingston SDHC cards while you are here.
Chimpopotamus: someone who chimps a lot to verify composition, focus, and histograms.
Chumpopotamus: someone who misses many good shots because they’re too busy chimping
Peepachu: a person more obsessed with the pixel-level noise and sharpness than the actual photograph’s merit. Any similarities in name to an annoying 90′s fad cartoon character are not lost on us.
Click to See 1:1 Crop
So, this weekend my old college pal Cory had a party to celebrate finishing his masters’ thesis (good job, pal), and a handful of us were up there that evening chumming around on his porch. I grabbed this shot of our dear Mr. Henry, sporting possibly the most excellent facial expression ever (for the record, he was using Live View to try and focus my old OM 50mm f1.8 more accurately in the dusk light). As I was looking over the shot (ISO 800, 1/40 second, mixed dusk and tungsten porch light), I was remembering one of the most arrogant sentiments of all time I read on a forum one time:
“My vision of the world does not have noise in it.”
Man, talk about a poor attitude to take. Would it be better if cameras took silky smooth pictures at ISO 6400? You bet! But, in the meanwhile, we see the world differently than cameras do (our eyes work much more akin to video cameras than still cameras, constantly reading light instead of having to rebuild it in shots). And, until technology catches up with us, isn’t it worth a little noise to catch moments like this one? As a matter of fact, show of hands, who noticed the noise before they noticed Mr. Henry’s expression? Who noticed the noise before I pointed it out? (Go ahead you peepachus, click it to see a 1:1 crop, I’m not ashamed. I’d print this shot any day and not even think twice about it.)
Worry about noise when you can. But, if you start sacrificing the shots that matter because “your vision of the world doesn’t have noise,” well, it might be time to readdress that vision of yours.
So, as I’m slugging away at this Promaster stuff, something came to mind that I realized I should make sure you, our dear readers, are all aware of.
So, I’m putting up a slew of third-party camera batteries. Now, I’m going to stay very consciously neutral on the stance of replacement batteries versus OEM. Obviously both sides will pitch that theirs is the way to go, and it’s a mess I’m willing to let them do the work for. But, here’s what you need to know from a consumer’s point-of-view, because I know in this economy the difference in battery prices can override other considerations:
If you use a third-party battery in a camera that’s still under warranty, there’s an almost complete chance across the board that you just voided that warranty. And that’s the truth, and it’s something you should keep in your mind when you’re eyeing these Promaster replacement batteries I’m putting up.
If your camera is out of warranty, well, that’s a different ballpark. As far as third-party batteries go, we carry Synergy, Delkin, and now Promaster. We also carry full stocks on OEM batteries from the right manufacturers (except that pesky battery for the 5D Mk II which is currently about as rare as corporate punk rock bands I don’t want to punch).
When the lighting gets tough, I start getting headaches. I’m talking, of course, about balancing ambient light and one or more speedlights with modifiers. Sure, speedlights conveniently give me their GN, but, to be fair, that’s the second most headache-inducing measurement in photography (outdone only by watt seconds, which doesn’t actually describe performance but consumption, ouch). If I had the time to do some division and cross-reference some formulas and had a cloth tape measure at all times I could probably mostly figure out what I need to set my trusty old SB-25 on from 15 feet away to expose the side of my model 1 stop brighter than the ambient 8 in the morning Indiana sun.
But that sucks.
So, I’m giving up, giving in, and picking up one of the digital camera accessories I’ve more or less blown off until now: the light meter. Light meters have long been a staple of professional studio lighting, and the typical “good” ones can measure both the ambient light and the light coming just from strobes. So, instead of trying a lot of iffy theoretical maths and ::shudder:: calculus, I can just pop my flashes. POP! And the light meter tells me the aperture I would need to properly expose them. POP! F11. Sweet. Easy.
Want your own life-simplifying light meter? Check’em out here, or stop in and ask our used department about them (for you budget-conscious students)
In its way, my post about the recent Olympus lecture is part of a series of posts I’ll be doing to run us up to the Expo, focusing on little bits of history and development for some of the big names that’ll be approximately ten feet below my current position in a couple weeks.
The Original Nikon F
Next up is the stalwart Nikon. This year marks the 50th anniversary of their legendary F mount. First introduced for the Nikon F SLR (funny how that works out). Apparently the F mount isn’t just one of the longest lived mounts, it’s also got the honor of having had the first perspective control lens for a 35mm camera (and that introduced in 1961, only two years after the introduction of the F system.)
Today, of course, the F mount remains one of the two biggest mounts on the market (competing with next post’s topic, the EOS mount from Canon). And, the most recent wave of lenses for the F mount have certainly been incredibly well-planned and solid efforts (the new pro zooms and perspective controls certainly spring readly to mind.)
So, stop by in a couple weeks, play with 50 years of mount heritage. Our Nikon rep will love seeing you.
The Poweshot SX200IS cameras front and back
You used to be able to guess how long it would go by looking at it’s resting size. That was then. These days even the smaller ones reach out farther than you might think. For example lets look at the new Canon Powershot SX200IS camera. Shorter than an iPhone and about three times as thick, (I used to use “the pack of cigarettes” reference as a comparison gauge for things like this, but…) it is a small package. That is until you turn it on, turn it on and zoom the lens and it just goes and goes. Zooming 12x from its 28mm wide starting point all the way out to 336 mm equivalent maximum it has power in a small package! There’s also 12.1 megapixels, optical stabilizer, 3inch LCD screen even HD movie capture, it has all the stuff you would expect in this generation of Canon Powershot cameras, but the zoom in that package. Not what you expected, Wow.
Just like it says, 12x Zoom. Cool huh?
So, Indianapolis. You do know that Roberts is the best for photo lighting equipment Indianapolis, yes? What with our Canon flashes and Nikon flashes and flashes by people who aren’t either of those?
And, now we’re also a distributor for that infamous accessory, the Ray Flash. Yes, the Ray Flash, which adapts to your flash and goes over your lens and converts for boring old DSLR into a new and exciting ring flash SLR, fully capable of doing fashion shoots with doughnut-shaped catchlights, just like [insert name of some young dude making a name with edgy, ringlight fashion work here].
Most of them are order-as-we go, so even if it says “Out of Stock” you just tell us that shall not stand and we’ll get you one in. Booyah.
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