A few hints and tips mixed with some random thoughts. Sometimes I just need to vent!
The demise of the local camera storeOnce upon a time, really not that long ago, you could walk into your local camera store and buy a filter, a remote release or some film for your camera. Does this sound strange to you? Maybe not yet, but it soon will.Internet stores are rapidly becoming the main source of camera equipment. While I prefer to use a local camera store where I can talk to knowledgeable people and handle whatever I am about to purchase, I make an increasing percentage of my purchases online. I have found that a purchase from an American vendor usually arrives within a week, often as soon as three days after I place the order. When I want to buy something in Stockholm, where I live, more often than not what I want to buy is not in stock, and the store has to order it from the Swedish distributor. It takes anything from two to seven weeks to send things (claimed by the distributor to be in stock) from one specific major distributor in Gothenburg to the stores in Stockholm. In spite of the added freight cost, customs fee, handling fee, and tax, it is faster and usually less expensive to buy from the US. No wonder local stores suffer! All they can do is trying to compete with the electronics warehouses, selling compact cameras. What can be done to stop this? Should we care? If the local camera stores want to survive, I think they will have to offer faster delivery. Either by increasing stock or by using alternative sourcing. Limited stock and slow delivery will drive customers to the Internet. In a way this trend is fairly obvious already. Your local camera store will most likely have a good stock of fast-moving inventory, anything else is available on special order only. To reverse this process we all need to frequent our local dealers, providing them with the revenue they need to make more merchandise available. Are we prepared to do this? Probably not. Perhaps the dealers who also rent out equipment have a fighting chance to stay in business. Most of the rest will probably soon be gone, replaced by a very limited selection at the supermarkets. The digital revolution"Digital is the future.""Digital photograhy has revolutionized my picture-taking." "Digital photography is so easy." "Digital photographs are so much better than that old stuff." Well, we have all heard how fantastic digital photography is. But is it true? Personally I think there are a lot of "questionable truths" out there. The pros and cons will vary according to your situation, your photographic style, your clients et c. Personally I think I will postpone my judgement. In a few years, say around 2010, I think I will be better prepared to decide. And it will not be until perhaps a decade later, when we can use hindsight, I think we will know for sure whether digital photography is friend or foe. My personal philosophy is that I will use digital capture almost exclusively within a couple of years. I will still use film occasionally, but mainly just for fun and for nostalgic reasons. The advantages and disadvantages of digital photography are well known, and I will not go into these here. I will just say that to me, the relative ease with which I can handle my images is the major reason I have gone the digital route. Plastic camerasThe use of brass and other time-tested materials is rapidly waning. In its place plastics are employed. Does this mean that cheap, rickety equipment will be the norm? Well... yes, no and maybe. Budget lenses will mostly feel cheap. Their optical performance may be perfectly OK though. Professional-grade equipment utilize higher quality plastics and are no less solidly built than their predecessors. So let's dispell all preconceptions and misunderstandings about modern materials. If we embrace the new technology - even if it means some mental adjustment on our part - we will find that today's materials are not only adequate, but perfectly fine.I still get a kick out of handling an old-time all-mechanical metal-only camera though... The need for powerBattery power is one of the main concerns of modern day, not least for photographers. Batteries are needed for more or less all photographic equipment. Especially flashes and digital cameras drain batteries at an alarming rate.I have a love/hate relationship with batteries. I love the little marvels when they work and I hate them when they fail. Six months prior to writing this I was photographing a winter festival. It was dark, the venue lit by only a couple of street lights, cold and crowded, so I was forced to use a camera-mounted flash. Actually this was not too bad since it helped isolating the subjects from their surroundings. Wanting to save a few bucks as well as trying to be environmentally friendly I used NiMH batteries. The flash manufacturer promises 60 - 160 flashes from a set of NiMH batteries. Although it was cold (appr. 0 C) I was surprised when my flash bailed on me after only 40 flashes, none of them on full power. Especially since my batteries claimed a higher capacity than those referred to by the flash manufacturer. (I had never before used these batteries to their limit, always recharging them before use, knowing they quickly lose their charge when left in the drawer.) Back home, the following day I recharged and tested the batteries and found that they gave 60 flashes at various power settings at room temperature. Forgive me for not being impressed... Changing batteries quickly requires a little more precision and dexterity than i can muster in cold, dark situations. Thus I will probably not use NiMH cells again. Maybe I got a bit paranoid from the above experience, but I have since noticed a similar performance deficit in other manufaturers' NiMH batteries. Apparently NiMH battery technology has still - well over a decade since its introduction - not matured. It seems to me then that it never will. I might be better off reverting to NiCd cells. This kind has served me well for many years and they keep getting better, but they are getting expensive since there is now a substantial environmental tax on them. Self-discharge is also a major drawback. Li-Ion batteries seem to work well in most situations and they do not lose much capacity over time. Unfortunately they require precision charging and are not readily available in "standard" sizes. So, for now I will rely on alkalines in my flashes. And, when circumstances allow, a lead/acid gel battery pack (to be replaced by Li-Ion battery packs when they become available in standardized sizes at an affordable price). SimplicityWhen most of us started out, we carried a camera with a lens attached and a spare roll of film in a shirt pocket. Perhaps we carried another lens as well. As we accumulated more gear we bought a camera bag. As there was room to spare in the bag, we stuffed it with more equipment. When the bag was full, we got a bigger bag...Have you tried going out with just a camera and one, only one - preferably prime - lens lately? If you haven't, try it! It will kick your creativity in gear. It frees you up to pursue an unencumbered, active photography style. Or turn off the autofocus function for a day. This will force you to think about focus and depth-of-field, benefitting you for years to come. Do you run your camera in "idiot mode", fixed on the green symbol? Turn to manual (M) or aperture priority (A). You will now have to think a bit about exposure and your choice of shutter speed and aperture. It is a lesson you better learn, do this properly and it will improve your photographs beyond your wildest dreams. If you always use the histogram function to check your exposures, turn it off and think about how it should look based on your metering of the scene. Then turn the histogram back on and see if your prediction was correct. If not, try to figure out what caused the histogram to look like it did. Try the "sunny 16 rule". Take a look around you and estimate the amount of light. Then set your camera (in manual mode) to the exposure you estimated. Now lift the camera to your eye and note what settings its meter suggests and how close your estimation was. Make an exposure at your estimated settings and another at what your camera suggests and study the results. Do this several times and you will improve your feeling for exposures. Creative blockOut of ideas? Is there simply nothing to photograph?Pick three random words from your dictionary (close your eyes when picking). Now decide on one of these words and use that as the theme for your next photographic session. Photographic milestones
Hall of shameOn a few occasions I have had the misfortune of being scammed by people or companies. Usually I give everyone a second chance as more often than not any problems are due to an honest mistake, but when I am subjected to an obvious fraud I tend to refrain from any future business.
The good guysThere are a few suppliers who stand above the rest. They have allways treated me well, and in the very few cases where something has not worked out they have gone to considerable lengths to set things right.As I have mentioned a few unfortunate encounters in the previous paragraph I think it is only fair to mention a few of these too.
If you are looking for older, used, equipment, try these places:
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