In a couple of minutes, I observed that I was able to recognize nearly everything and that, actually, I asnwered positively to 13 of the 16 questions.

And for you, how many? Are you a dinosaur like me?

Here is how Bell & Howell was advertising its slide projectors in 1959.

And if you think that this was pretty innocuous, think about the lives of women in many countries were photography and their images may not even be their priority.

photo credit: EvelynGiggles

• …if the price difference with New is really large enough (don’t forget that in most countries and in Europe importing photo gear from outside requires to pay VAT and a few % of custom duties): Buy New if the difference is small, you’ll also get a manufacturer warranty.
• …if the selling web site is reliable ( is rather good but is not the only one – your recommendations down below? What do you think about KEH or Adorama Used?)
• …if the seller is reliable. Most of the second-hand web sites have a rating system to know if their sellers have previously satisfied their customers. A good rating and/or many satisfied customers is a god safety net for you. Beware of accounts hacked by a third party: An account which did not move for a long time and starts selling expensive photo gear out of nowhere.
• …if the seller offers a free return condition if you are not 100% satisfied.
• …if the camera, the lens is in good shape (precise photos are critical and must describe the real object, not Nikon, Canon or Pentax official photos).
• …if the object is not naturally subject to time degradation. For example, photo film has a “use before” date. But this is also true of some cameras whose leather-like covering will unglue itself in time, and some Canon zooms are known for a really high failure rate of the IS system, etc.

With these tips, you are now ready for second-hand gear and for purchasing expensive gear at a very low price.

Source for this little game: PetaPixel. The surprising photographs are by Duncan Meeder – Foto Henny Hoogeveen (all rights reserved).

photo © 2011 jennifer chong | more info (via: Wylio)

This is visibly a consequence that could be foretold from the destruction generated by the earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. To give some perspective on this status in another industrial domain, Toyota announced that they were just restarting most of their plants in Japan but… that full production would not be reached before November or December. The issues with sub-contractors and suppliers will keep them waiting. The photography industry sees the same kind of problems.

So, a few new products will have to suffer a little from this:

• The launch of the new Sony NEX C3 (recently visible) could wait until June.
• The NEX-7 is still on schedule for July.
• The Sony Alpha 35 (next Alpha SLR camera, at entry level) will certainly have to wait until July.
• Le Sony Alpha 77 (future high-end SLR camera in the Alpha range of APS-C sensors) despite having been in the waiting list for a very long time will not be delayed (July anyway!) but will not be available before September; And don’t expect more than a few parts: Full production is targeting October (or even early November).
• No lens should be announced before August, maybe expect a 16-50mm to be presented with the A77 but probably not more available than th camera body.

While I’m at it, I have been confirmed that the launch of the Sony Portable PlayStation (game console) is still on the horizon but it could be not available before the Christmas holidays. Jack Tretton, president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, has publicly admitted that in order to alleviate such issues they are ready to prioritize world markets. Some region(s) may see the product while others will be waiting (Apple is known for using such tactics on the iPhone). I would bet a large sum of money that Sony is going to play the same card with photo cameras (and I would also be ready to say that some eBay users are already prepared to play with exchange rates to buy cameras on continents where they do not live).

Not taking photos is refusing to simply press the shutter button because we have seen something. Making a photo is a matter of attitude, being constructive in front of all pictures. We must choose our framing, choose our exposure, choose our depth of field, choose exact moment. This way, I will build my own photo rather than taking what appeared there. And, any photograph can have such an aim for quality.

There is no photograph to be taken, there are only photographs to be built. Thanks to Ansel Adams.

This was really a photography marvel in a time when video was not an integrated feature of photo cameras.

Cassandra C. Jones did a relatively similar job from horse images collected on the Internet (probably with Google as her accomplice).

This is at GAP, it’s everywhere in the wolrd on the Internet, but also in all the GAP shops, in London, in New York or in Paris.

Price is currently near US$34000.

photo credit: davidgsteadman

When buying a photo camera, we often research in order to decide if this is the best camera, if its features will be goo enough, but will it be robust enough? Will it be useful or necessary to purchase a warranty contract extension? Will it fail very soon?

When somebody asks me these questions (and it happens quite often since I consider myself some kind of photography expert), I am usually without good answers; Nobody really speaks about this dirty little secret: Reliability of photo cameras is a taboo issue. In most cases, talking only happens for very extreme situations (I will not mention any pro camera events in the past few years). But on a daily basis, will my camera follow me everywhere? will it survive the bad treatment I will apply? Or will it fail at the sight of the first cloud (of dust or rain)? Preferably just a couple of days after the end of the warranty period?

photo credit: Orin Zebest

So, I decided to collect more than the usual information to try and answer these questions with more than: Entry-level cameras are too cheap to be robust, are less protected than pro cameras; And, mechanics fail more than electronics.

And, I found a few interesting articles with adequate documentation. Of course, they are the rightful product of the business of some shops repairing or renting equipment and accepting to share their data with us.

And I found interesting data. For example, there is nearly no information on photo cameras, or camera bodies. But SquareTrade published rather detailed report about the repairs they did in the recent years (though mostly on point-n-shoot cameras) with some frightfully clear conclusions, like:

• More than 10% of the cameras failed before 2 years
• The statistical projection tells that there are/will-be more than 15% failure within 3 years
• Accidents are a major cause for failure: 40% of cameras were broken in such a way; We are rougher than our cameras!
• The more expensive, the more robust
• For SLR cameras, Canon and Nikon go hand-in-hand

And to think that the failure rate of major brands is around 4% within two years for a camera whose price is nearing 1000€…

But, look at the graph below:

I would like to believe that you can extend these figures out of point-n-shoots and into the SLR market, but my own professional experience with quality and reliability management (in the automotive world, if you want to know) tells me that we should not even try.

On the opposite, I found additional data about interchangeable lenses to plug into our SLR cameras. Two studies from LensPlay and LensRentals bring some more light to the issue.

From LensPlay, hundreds of lenses and users have been analyzed: among the voluntary answers provided for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Minolta/Sony, Tamron, Tokina and Sigma, only Minolta/Sony produced less than 200 answers (a pretty nice representation of the market).

LensRental gives us a finer status because they go down to a model-by-model level. So, it’s no longer necessary to compare brands, but you can get a good idea of which glass piece is more fragile or more sturdy than others, forgetting about the good (or bad) fames.

We also appreciate a lot some of the additional comments like:

• The super tele prime lenses (300mm f/2.8, 400mm f/2.8, 500mm f/4, 600mm f/4) from either Canon or Nikon are among the more reliable lenses (their simplicity is probably a good reason for such a score).
• The Sigma 120-400mm & 150-500mm had a 45% repair rate (as long as they were included in the LensRentals catalog of products).
• The Canon 50mm f/1.2 and Sigma 100-300mm are well under 10% (which is considered a good level in LensRentals)

Of course, these raw figures must be taken with a grain of salt: Rentals are often more mis-handled than bought parts, but the relative results are quite certainly representative of the underlying reality. And for example, the Canon 100-400mm seems to have an unfair bad fame about the reliability of its stabilization mechanism.

All in all, many reasons to treat your photo hardware with some care…

Sources:

• PetaPixel
• LensPlay
• LensRentals

Recommended visit if you have a couple of minutes to spend.

Source: NY Times.

You are the judge…

And you can buy the poster at Etsy.

Let’s admit it, there is always some more expensive hardware that we could buy. Usually, this is a pro SLR camera, a major prime lens or exceptional pro zoom.

Now, in these times of budgeting for students, it is quite important to try and get the best out of a limited amount of money. Michael essentially offers a small set of very sound advice, that I summarize here with my own grain of salt:

• Buy second-hand (everything is much cheaper than top-of-line gadget-freak-oriented new equipment, even if specifications are evolving – but more slowly than a few years ago).
• Invest in lenses more than in camera gear (lenses will have a much longer life span and re-sell much better than camera bodies).
• Be ready to sell back some of the equipment you have.
• Buy your lenses in package deals (they much more interesting than individual lenses) even if you have to sell some. Sell individual pieces, never a package/set.

One of the good things about buying lenses in second-hand markets/fairs/auctions is that when you sell them back (when you reached the purchase power to grab even better equipment), the old gear can be sold without loosing too much (if you kept it in the same good condition as at purchase time).

This is the bag used to store 16mm and 70mm film magazines for Jim Irwin and Dave Scott, astronauts in the Apollo 15 Lunar Module. Landed on the moon on July 30, 1971 the bag was used for two 7-hour EVAs (extra-vehicular activities) and the dust is actual lunar dust.

It goes to auction at Bonham’s in New York City. Price estimate: $40,000 – $50,000.