Scarabaeus Camera Holster

Holster - noun, a sheathlike carrying case for a firearm, attached to a belt, shoulder sling, or saddle.

For a long time I realised carrying a camera round your neck for a long time can result in a bad sore neck, you secretly wish that some genius will come out with a holster that you can clip your camera on your belt; allowing you to "draw" your camera instantly like a pistol, shoot, and slide back into the hostel when you are done ;) Not that there is a lack of holster candidates, Google "camera holsters" and you can find plenty!

But... they are mostly made for BIG and heavy DSLRs which, as you know; I have NO INTEREST in anymore.

Where is my dream holster for my compact or mirrorless M43 cameras? None! Until now!!
SCARABAEUS was discovered by me on Friday and I placed an order immediately, this is what arrived at my office today (Wednesday)!

World Press Photo Wellington Exhibition

The winning photos of the 2013 World Press Photo are in town. Again I am invited to the official opening...

The opening is at the spanking new Telecom Central Building in Wellington.

New LUMIX GX7 Trumped PEN E-P5!

After all the photos and specifications leaked last week, Panasonic launch their new Lumix DMC-GX7 mirrorless camera today!

The handsome looking camera caused quite a stir and I noticed fan boys are already pre-ordering the new M43 wonder!

Placing the GX7 side by side with it's main competitor, the PEN E-P5; most photographers said the Lumix is better looking and more refined than the E-P5. Is it any wonder that E-P5 orders are being cancelled and changed to GX7!

My Ideal Travel Camera

In our younger days, we were all guilty of NOT travelling light. In my younger days, travel usually meant work; as a photographer for a newspaper. I recall fondly the time I was with a fashion team to India, shooting for a Singapore paper; travelling with me were the following photo gear...

2 units Canon EOS1 camera bodies, only one with a drive to save weight.
1 unit Leica M6 camera body with winder.
1 unit Canon 580 Speedlight.

Canon 14/2.8 L
Canon 17-35 2.8L
Canon 28-80 2.8L
Canon 85/1.2 L
Canon 200/1.8L
Canon 1.4 extender
Canon 2x extender

Leica Elmarit-M 21/2.8
Leica Summicron-M 50/2
Leica Summicron-M 90/2
Leica Summilux-M 35/1.4
Leica Elmarit-M 28/2.8

Chargers, batteries; 60 rolls of Kodak Ektapress colour negative film. A Monopod. And a Tenba Pro Pak camera bag.

I was amazed how I managed to lug all those gears around! But then I was much younger...

3 Nights In Melbourne

 I have a soft spot for Melbourne, may be it is because the best part of my 6 years were spent in this city as a student, or is it because Melbourne has been ranked No.1 as the world’s “Most Liveable City” for the second year in a row by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability survey?

That's yours truly on the left, at the Melbourne Essendon Airport; 1967.

46 years after that picture was taken, me and Le General heads for the city I love :)

We landed at Melbourne Airport, Thursday; at 8.30 am.

We got a mild shock when we join the Q at the immigration check out, a couple of planes from China must have arrived at the same time; we were swamped by hundreds (look more like thousands) of Chinese tourists!

Took us 90 minutes to pass through the check point!

We made our way to the Sky Bus stand, we bought a return ticket; A$28.00 each. Don't even consider taking a cab, unless you just won Lotto ;)

The BIG, fast; Sky Bus took us to the Southern Cross Station where we changed to a smaller hotel transfer bus. It is very efficient, and in 40 minutes we were outside our hotel.

PICCURE the Final Release

If you have been reading my post on 4th May on Piccure, you will know what it is and what it can do.

In short, it is an easy-to-use plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, piccure will allow you to restore your degraded photos produced by involuntary camera movements.

And from my test, it did the deblurring very well!

Last week, Piccure was released into the wild and you are able to purchase this plug-in here.

Piccure come in for Win7 and OSX, you can either purchase the Photoshop or the Photoshop Element version.

In New Zealand, the Photoshop plugin cost $127.98 NZD and $63.34 if you are using PS Element.

Panasonic & Fujifilm Developed World’s First Organic Sensor!

June 11, 2013; REMEMBER this day because FUJIFILM Corporation and Panasonic Corporation jointly announced that they are jointly developing an organic CMOS image sensor technology using organic photoelectric conversion layer!

Big deal?

You bet!!

This will be one of the biggest breakthroughs in digital camera sensor technology in recent years!

How does a dynamic range of 15 stops and a 88db signal-to-noise ratio grab you?

This is their full press release...

FUJIFILM Corporation (President: Shigehiro Nakajima) and Panasonic Corporation (President: Kazuhiro Tsuga) have developed organic CMOS image sensor technology that uses an organic photoelectric conversion layer with a photoelectric conversion property at the light receiving section of an image sensor to achieve performance beyond that of conventional image sensors.

Applying this technology to the image sensors of digital cameras and other imaging devices expands its dynamic range and enhances sensitivity further to prevent highlight clipping in bright scenes and capture a dark subject with vivid colors and rich textures.