Recent content by Stratagem

Good: Buying a Leica 35mm. Bad: Fumbling and dropping it off a boat. Double Bad: Not insuring it.

This whole business can get very messy indeed if you're unlucky enough to come across pictures that are in any way suspect. I used to work as a business advisor with a company that had contracts with job centres to help unemployed people start and run their own business, naturally we came...

I currently use a Velbon 450R with a digiscoping setup, my equipment weight is not high, about 2.5Kg, but I find it pretty steady even using at a comparative focal length of 10,000mm, so no complaints for the price.

Brilliant, this would make a great wall chart for camera shops.

You can get "ready to use" NiMH batteries now, which are ready for use straight out of the pack and when you charge them they will hold it for up to a year. Handy to have lying around if you need to use the flash in a hurry periodically.

Exactly, and it's a doddle if wear glasses as you get a 10 inch viewfinder.

Thanks, the Minolta shoots RAW of course, so generally there would be little point in changing for something similar, the lens can be randomly soft, but once you find out where the limitations are it's easy to work around. I have SLR's, I just don't like DSLR viewfinders so I'm patiently waiting...

Brilliant, apart from the price of course, I guess that gives me 3 choices. Keep the A2 for this work Buy the 1D MkIII Wait till Cannon move this function down their range a tad I'm tempted, but I can wait a while and see what happens.

I have been waiting for some time for a DSLR with live view that can be completely controlled via a connected PC. I use a Minolta A2 in this mode and can, from a PC screen set all parameters, focus including manual, and take the shot. I sometimes do wildlfe this way, just leave the camera on...

I've used an Epson 1290S for years now with no problems, I always use Epson inks, the alternative inks, although cheaper, just don't cut it as far as I'm concerned.

Yes, don't get me wrong, it's a powerful process using RAW, just perservere with photoshop, a bit at a time, I must have been using it about 8 years now and still keep discovering better ways of doing things. I find it's useful just to google for tips when I need to do something new.

I don't mean to discredit any of these skills, but to me RAW is rather like taking the shot backwards, in other words RAW stores all of the information the camera sees, and then you can set up the camera perfectly for the shot at your leasure afterwards. Combine that with super fast and...

I have been into photography for about 40 years and I would say it's true, current digital photography is comparitively easy and gets easier the more you spend. Yes, you still need an eye and some expertise, but the camera and lens does so much more, and so much faster than it used to...

I use a spotting scope with long eye relief with no problems at all using varifocals, however I have yet to find a DSLR with long eye relief so use a combination of 35mm and digital prosumer with EVF.

Just as a point of interest, not in the field of photography but I have sometimes issued slightly vitriolic responses in order to gauge a response. A polite and still keen reply defined the person I needed to keep a cool head and react appropriately in difficult situations.