Lots of tips and know how, disablity and the snapper

24 April 2012

Our current issue of Digital Camera arrived yesterday.  I like the mag and Jan was so impressed with it that she arranged a subscription for it.  When I read these mags I want to rush out and try all the skills they cover.  I’m the same with Amateur Photographer too.  Then I hit the big brick wall!  Which one shall I try?  There are so many of them that at times I can get a tad lost in it all. 

I’m thinking of going out for a few hours soon, just a ride down through the park and around to Sainsburys for some salad bits for dinner tonight.  The weather isn’t all that good though with fairly low cloud cover with a brief murky look at blue sky.  That means changing all the settings on me Alpha 350 if I do go.  I stayed in all day yesterday because the weather forecast was for rain all day – yet we didn’t get any until later afternoon and even then it was raining for long.  I could do with going anyway cos AP is out today.  Speaking of which …  

One of the items I like in the photo-mags is the one where a staffer meets up with a reader and helps them improve the snapping.  It’s called The Photo Fixer in DC.  I’ve always fancied going on one of those but because of my limited mobility and having to use a scooter to get around, so I haven’t actually applied yet.  But I will do so soon I’m sure.

The issue of disability is a huge one even just for day to day life.  Add in hobbies like photography and birding (both of which I love), then it becomes even more difficult.  In most places councils have seen the problem and have provided dropped kerbs.  That’s fine in towns and cities here in the UK, but abroad things are not so good.  But actually, they are not all that good in some areas of the UK either.  Morecombe being one in particular we were not impressed with.  Zoos are good as long as they not built on hills as is Belfast Zoo and Dudley Zoo.  Town parks are usually good too.  But get out in the countryside and we have major problems in most areas.  All the best photo sites are in areas where it is extremely difficult if not impossible for disabled snapper to get to.  The Lake District, Peak District, the Scottish Highlands, Dartmoor and so on are on the whole no go areas for us scooter users.  But even locally there are problems.

Brandon Marsh is the HQ for Warwickshire Wildlife Trust.  There is a safe and accessible pathway around part of the site but to my mind the best areas for birds and photos are not accessible at all to scooter or wheelchairs.  And so it goes on.

Another item in the photo mags I like is the readers’ letters.  In the new DC the start letter is about buying a camera at a lower price from aboard than you can get it here in the UK.  The writer paid £850(ish) for his new Canon and now found out that seeing it was bought from abroad Canon are unlikely to honour the warranty for it … opps … not such a good but then.  A second letter fits me to tee!  One of the joys of reading these mags is the first rate photos in them.  Many a time I have looked at some of the images and thought, “That’s it – I give up!”  I just can’t see myself getting any shots like them.  Ian Hamilton was feeling the same until he bought DC and used the enclosed DVD with it.  Now he has subscribed to it as well.     

A new camera?

21 April 2012

I think that I have mentioned that I really do fancy one of the new Sony Alpha 77 cameras - and I still do.  But I've been getting a bit jaded right now and I'm not sure that if I could afford a new 77, that it would make all that difference to my images anyway.  Here's one I got while away for a few days earlier this week ...

It's not all that good is it?  I'm not sure that I would have got any better with a 77.   

Now both Nikon and Canon have released new models costs mega-bucks.  But does the average snapper really need cameras like these two, or in fact a 77 either?  I bought an AP yesterday and guess what?  Ogden Chesnutt asks the same or similar questions but his view point is that the very best camera in the world is the one you have with you at the time.  That is why we should all carry a camera at all times.  But most of do don't we?

Most mobile phones these days have a camera within them.  My Blackberry does but I'm not all that impressed with the images it produces.  One of the letter writers in AP says that he loved his Nikon FM3A and what he would really like is for Nikon to take that camera and update it and make it a digital camera without any of the fancy trimmings that seem to go with the new DSLRs that being are thrust onto the cash paying public.  I agree with him but in my view it would the Minolta XD7 that would be updated. 

Think about it, do we really need ISO setting up to inter-seller figures?  Do we really the ability to use burst rates of 10, 11 or 12 frames per second?  Do we really need lenses like Sigma's 200-500mm tele-zoom at £12,999?  I remember seeing one ad for a Canon 1200mm lens going for £72,000!  Come on!  As a mate says, "There's a difference between farting and ripping your arse!" 

Look, one of the reason's I went for Alpha 350 in the first place was its weight.  I bought a copy of What Digital Camera and I used the tables in the rear of the mag to work out which was the lightest to carry around.  Next came price and  lastly came the range of kit that could be bought with it.  The overall winner for weight was the Olympus E510 but it was much more expensive and there were fewer lenses to go with it within the range I thought I would need.  The Alpha 350 came out on top in the price and kit range. 

Now look at the new kids on the block.  That new Canon weighs in at 950grams without batteries and cards.  The new Nikon weighs in a 1 kilo, and without a lens too.  I would argue that the famous 'man in street' doesn't need all that weight; doesn't need such high burst rates or high ISO speeds; doesn't need 200-500mm lenses - let alone a 12,000mm lens.  Even now I don't use my Alpha 350 to its maximum abilities, not because I can't do so but because I haven't come across the need to in what I shoot. 

Here's the type of image I like to get ... 

Today is market day but the weather forecast isn't so good so I'm staying.  I don't do landscapes cos I can't actually 'see' them (if you know what I mean), I rarely try portraits apart from the sort seen above. 

So do I really need the new Alpha 77?  Nope, I don't ... but when I can afford, I will be getting one ;-)))