Reviews
Review: Lowepro Classified Sling 180 AW
Well a couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to get my hands on the fairly recent release of a lowepro Classified Sling 180AW rucksack. I say lucky because I actually won a competition to get hold of it. I was in the market for a new bag so it’s been a most fortunate turn of events. I’ve had it for a few weeks now though so thought I’d share my thoughts on it.
This is pretty much my first Lowepro bag. Well that’s not true It’s my first lowepro bag big enough to put a DSLR in. I have a small pouch designed for a compact which I sometimes just use to carry a film camera or a flash. I’d also like to make it clear I am in no way affiliated to loweproUK who I won the bag from. This review is my honest opinion.
First impressions were very good. The build quality is top notch, rugged fabric on the outside and soft finishes with plenty of padding on the inside to protect your gear. Each buckle and strap is well made and stitched and the zips have nice leather pull tags on them.
Sizing the bag up for the first time I really didn’t think it was much bigger than my current crumpler rucksack but I was wrong. It really is quite the tardis. On the outside it looks reasonably small and it holds quite a slim profile which is nice as I don’t find it’s bashing on walls and people when I’m walking through the sometimes busy streets of Weymouth. On the inside though it holds an almost ridiculous amount of kit! The main compartment happily holds my D80 and 3 lenses (1 attached to body) and my sb600. That doesn’t sound like much but I still have room for approx another 2-3 lenses! which is fairly impressive for a small bag which is the right size for carry-on luggage.
Above the main compartment is a long pocket which runs the length of the lid. This quite happily stores a bunch of gels, two sets of AA batteries and a spare camera battery. It also has several specific slots for memory cards which are really handy and so easily accessible. There is also another pocket at the top of the bag which happily fits a mobile phone, wallet, notepad, pens, business cards etc. The front of the bag has a netbook pocket. It’s certainly big enough for that but I currently don’t have one to fill it. Instead I use it for a compact film camera, six rolls of film, a magazine, 500gb hard drive, leads, ipod, keys, filters, snoots and anything else I happen to find lying about. Yes it really is quite a big pocket!! and YES I really am impressed by this bag….but whats more impressive than both the size and build of this bag though is the design. › Continue reading
CameraFile: Fuji Instax 100/200
Fuji Instax 100
Camera Model: Instax 100 / 200
Manufacturer: Fujifilm
Format: Instax Wide instant film
Type: Instant film camera
Price: £20 or less on eBay, or £49 for a brand new 200 via Amazon marketplace
Reasons to Buy: You want an instant camera but don’t want to buy a secondhand Polaroid due to the inflated market for integral Polaroid film. At present Fuji Instax Wide film is still available for around £5 to £8 for a 10 exposure cartridge. The camera requires no fancy bespoke batteries – simply runs on 4 x AAs.
There are two different focus ranges which you can switch between – the first gives you the range 90cm to 3m, and the second from 3m to infinity. As with Polaroid cameras, you can also just to lighten or darken the exposure (but only by a single step each way).
Processing: It’s an instant camera!! All of the processing takes place whilst you wait patiently on your bum for a few minutes for the photo to develop. › Continue reading
CameraFile: Lomo Smena 8M
Lomo Smena 8M
Camera Model: Smena 8M
Manufacturer: Lomo
Format: 35mm film.
Type: Manual Compact
Price: £15 or less on ebay or £75 for a refurbished one from lomography.com
Reasons to Buy: A fairly sharp lens (40mm f/4) with good contrast and saturation at a great low price. The joy of this little compact is that although it is manual it is still extremely simple to use, all of the dials used to set up the camera are labelled with both useful numbers and symbols. So even a numpty like me with a good grasp of the weather at the time and the distance between the camera and subject can take a good shot. There also a few other bonuses of having manual control such as being able to not wind on the film and take multiple exposures and also set the shutter to bulb mode (B) and keep the shutter button depressed to take long exposures. It’s pretty versatile and good fun! The Smena was my first Lomo camera and still one of my favourites which I think is often overlooked.
Processing: Like a few of the other film cameras recently featured here the Smena 8M shoots standard 35mm film, so can be processed absolutely anywhere. Most developers will be willing to cross-process as well, although some of the high street stores/supermarkets might require a bit of talking around – as it is true that if you process lots of E6 film in C41 chemicals it will affect the chemicals and make them less effective when processing C41 film. However it’s perfectly safe (apparently) to cross process one E6 film for every 10 or so C41 film. (Or you could always just start developing your own film!) › Continue reading
CameraFile: Olympus XA2
Olympus XA2 (in front with A11 flash, rear: XA1 and XA3)
Camera Model: XA2
Manufacturer: Olympus
Format: 35mm film
Type: Zone-Focus Compact
Price: second-hand (anything from £5 to £30)
Reasons to Buy: Much cheaper than the XA (also slightly smaller and lighter). Built-in self-timer and battery test function (such a simple idea, but so effective). Wonderfully sharp and vivid images – indeed the results from the XA2 are very similar to those from the Lomo LC-A, making the XA2 a great low budget alternative. Easy to find functioning second-hand models (the XA2 was produced from 1980 to 1986) – and loads of online community support waiting to answer questions and help troubleshoot any problems that may occur (which are rare). Great wide angle (35mm) lens. And that clamshell design is a classic look (and stops you having to worry about losing the lens cap!) All in all: robust, unobtrusive, cheap, great results – the perfect street camera!
Processing: The XA2 shoots standard 35mm film, so can be processed absolutely anywhere. Most developers will be willing to cross-process as well, although some of the high street stores/supermarkets might require a bit of talking around – as it is true that if you process lots of E6 film in C41 chemicals it will affect the chemicals and make them less effective when processing C41 film. However it’s perfectly safe (apparently) to cross process one E6 film for every 10 or so C41 film. Just tell them I said it was okay 
› Continue reading
Adventures in Pinhole Photography: No.1
I’ve wanted to have a go at pinhole photography for years now, but for one reason or another never got around to it. This year I’ve decided to take the bull by the horns and just damn well do it. But for my first adventure, rather than build my own camera from scratch, I decided to try out a self-assembly kit.
The one I plumped for is made by a company called Flights of Fancy, and I picked it up from RetroPhotographic for under £20. It contains everything (well, almost everything…) you need to both build the camera, and to take and develop photos with it – including clear and concise instructions! (the most important part)…
The Component Parts...
Step one, building the camera was a piece of cake. The grooved squares of wood all slot together to form a light tight box (which you can either glue or just hold together with the elastic bands provided). › Continue reading
CameraFile: LC-A+
Lomo LC-A+ (and cool Lomo packaging)
Camera Model: LC-A+
Manufacturer: LOMO
Format: 35mm film
Type: Zone-Focus Compact
Price: £240 (from the official Lomography shop) (or £268 for a Russian Lens version)
Reasons to Buy: The LC-A (or Lomo Kompakt Automat to give it the original full title) is the classic and ultimate Lomography camera. This unassuming Russian camera spawned and inspired the entire Lomographic cult in the early 1990s (when it was rediscovered by a bunch of Viennese students in a second-hand camera store in Prague) – and even supplied it the name. Refurbished LC-A cameras are still available for around £90 to £150 (check on eBay), but the brand new LC-A+ is a perfect modern re-creation with one or two improvements.
Shots produced by the LC-A possess the trademark vignetting – with awesome clarity in the centre of shot (thanks to the legendary Minitar 1″ lens), trailing off to differing degrees of blurredness at the edges. In sunlight with a low ISO film the colours captured are bright and striking, and even more so when shooting on E6 (slide) film cross-processed as C41. › Continue reading
CameraFile: SuperSampler (AS3.0)
SuperSampler (in blue rubber finish, phwoar...)
Camera Model: SuperSampler (AS3.0)
Manufacturer: lomography.com
Format: 35mm film
Type: Multi-Lens Compact (No Focus)
Price: £47.85 (from official Lomography Shop) / £25 (from Amazon marketplace seller)
Reasons to Buy: A truly unique multi-lens camera, with four panoramic 20mm plastic lenses arranged in a row which (when the shutter is pressed) fire in sequence capturing four concurrent images on a single 35mm frame over a period of 2 seconds (one every 0.5 seconds), or 0.2 seconds (one every 0.05 seconds, in high speed mode). The results are instantly recognisable and incredibly cool.
It doesn’t use batteries, just pull the ripcord before each shot and let the wonders of clockwork (or whatever secret black art it is that provides the SuperSampling power) do its magic!
There are a minimum number of controls on the camera. Aside from the ripcord and the shutter release, there’s a switch to change between high speed and normal mode, another small switch to open the back panel in order to load/remove film. A film rewind button (which needs to be depressed while manually rewinding the film)… and that’s about it. There isn’t even a viewfinder to worry about (well, strictly speaking a small rubber rectangle is provided which slots onto the side of the camera and is supposed to be used as a ‘viewfinder’ – but I recommend you just leave this in the box. This is a fun camera which you should just randomly point at things, without worrying about composition!). › Continue reading
Lowepro Lycra Photo Gloves
Lowepro Lycra Photo Gloves
Over the years, what photographic accessory has been your best buy? What could you really not do without now that you have it? Now that we’re into the depths of an Arctic winter, mine is a pair of gloves. But not just any gloves: the Lowepro Lycra Photo Gloves. Designed specifically to stop photographers freezing off their little digits in the cold north wind. Not only do these beauties keep my hands warm (as gloves are supposed to do) but the little rubberised spots (or control dots as Lowepro call them) on the ‘downside’ ensure a firm equipment grip is maintained at all times, and because they’re not particularly thick they don’t get in the way when you’re rotating dials, pushing buttons or manually focusing on frosty blades of grass.
As gloves go, these aren’t the cheapest (around £12 to £20). But they’re the only thing fit for purpose that I’ve been able to find. Oh, and they’re also great for opening troublesome jars (thanks to Rebecca for pointing that out!).
Okay, so they might not be the most exciting photographic accessory – but they mean I can spend much more time out in the cold shooting lovely winter scenes before I have to run back to the car and sit on my hands. Unfortunately, there’s no matching Lowepro Photo Balaclava yet though… Next time: my choice of thermal photo underwear (only joking, you can look after your nether regions yourselves).
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