Gear: July 2008 Archives

My dad managed to arrange tickets for what turned out to be a family affair at Telstra Dome on Saturday night to see St Kilda (my team) take on AFL premiership hopefuls Hawthorn. We weren't mingling with the common folk on this occasion as we had scored the ultimate prize of the corporate box (Dad works for Australia Post).

A brilliant spread was put on, the beer flowed and the Saints got up and beat Hawthorn! What more could you ask for. I didn't get to take my camera gear with me but did take along the little Canon IXUS 75 point and shoot and took a few quick shots of the ground once it had emptied. It's pretty impressive to see it empty as well as full.

Hope I can get back one day with the good gear and get a proper panorama.

More ramblings soon...

I was introduced to Nikkor's 85mm f1.8 lens through Shelton Muller at one of his most enjoyable workshops (SheltonShops as they shall be called from here on in). He lent me his well used one and I was an instant admirer. I had never had a prime of this focal length or one with such a small aperture. The low light possibilities suddenly opened up and whole raft of ideas came to mind - the first of which was "I have got to get me one of these!".

I managed to get one and did a few low light shots one night of it. But was struggling getting a chance to drag it out of the bag for a proper shoot.


Anyway, as I was cleaning up my gear and organising my camera bags I noticed the gorgeous afternoon light coming through our front window and thought this is a good time to get the 85mm out and give it a whirl. I managed to convince Kylie to pose for a few frames and came up with this:

You have to be dead on with the focusing (when using it at f1.8) and it is something I am going to have to work on with regards to portraits as the eyes are the most important and if you move off the focus spot the whole feeling of the image is gone. Not the greatest portrait of Kylie (hello stare-y eyes!) but the light was gorgeous and gave me a chance to get the camera out.

I tried to get my daughter Abby to pose for a couple after her mum had enough and walked away but she just wouldn't sit still so most missed the focus mark.

Will post some more when i've had a play with this lens some more.

Apple's new flagship product, the iPhone 3G, touched down in Australia (as well as the rest of the world) yesterday. Having hopped on the hype bandwagon myself I was still undecided as to whether I would join the other devotees and wait inline to see if I could score myself one.

Well i'm definitely a sucker for new toys and this has to be the biggest of the lot.

After weeks of hype and anticipation I joined the queues of loyal Apple fans (or those just wanting to cash in on the newest gadget on the block) at Melbourne's Chadstone Shopping centre where the Optus store was opening at 7am. I managed to get there at around 6am - not bad I thought, but was presented with a queue of about 30 already.

We all waited patiently and were treated to cupcakes and drinks by the friendly Optus staff.

There was one bloke who had lined up from about midnight to be the first to get his hands on the iPhone (he was still in the store when I left with my iPhone - not sure he was that organised with all his papers etc).

The staff helped us wait out the time we were there by bringing around actual iPhones for us to hold and play with - was nice to actually touch when considering the closest I had been to one was the ads and reports on the internet!

From a gadget point of view it is awesome! I've not put it down since I got it. I've explored nearly every feature and am still finding some new things which is good.

From a photography point of view, the camera is pretty weak (not something that was a concern to me) but is handy for those times you want to grab a quick snap of something. My previous phone (a Nokia N70) had the same sized 2mp sensor in it and for what it produced (for what I shot) it suited me fine. Here's an example straight out of the iPhone:

Not too bad. I just wonder how long before the next version of iPhone will be out to replace this one - hopefully not anytime soon!

More ramblings soon...

Berk