Win stuff… enter our monthly competition!

Hi, thanks for dropping by! Before you read on, why not take a moment to enter our monthly competition where you can win a great prize… Every month we give away a B+W Lens cleaning kit ( Opticlean & cloth)!

All you have to do is click on the link below and sign up for our newsletter to go in our monthly draw. The rules are:

• Open only to Australian residents.
• You can only enter once.
• Entries end 12pm last day of the month, winner is notified by email.

To enter click here

New goodies! The Sun Sniper camera strap…

Introducing the SUN SNIPER CAMERA sling! A new way of carrying your DSLR!

The camera strap has evolved….

A simple idea based on the 1885 US calvary strap!

The SUN-SNIPER-STRAP, made by SUN-SNIPER GmbH, is the new generation of quick, pliant and ultra convenient camera straps for professional photographers.

Removable ballistic nylon pad.

It features a SHOCK ABSORBER that absorbs jolts in the strap and makes carrying the camera even more comfortable. This feature spares the photographer’s back and reduces the load on the suspension point of the camera, the tripod socket. This positive effect is particularly noticeable with long lenses.

Built in shock absorber and removable pad.

The SHOCK ABSORBER is integrated in the strap and makes carrying the camera even more comfortable. The camera hangs over your backside and can be hoisted quickly, safely and ready to shoot.

Custom made webbing like a rail track

It allows the photographer to intuitively find the camera and the shutter button without losing sight of the subject. They can effortlessly move the camera to their face and capture images that would previously have been lost.

New way vs old way!

With the innovative RAIL-WAY strap, the carabiner glides along the strap to your eye as if it were on tracks, without great frictional resistance. The strap is worn diagonally over your chest and shoulder, so it is never in the way-not even when you turn the camera for portrait-style shots. You can carry your telephoto lens through crowds and narrow alleys without bumping into anything.

Special swivel system secures to tripod mount.

The SUN-SNIPER-STRAP is fastened to the tripod socket of the camera body or lens for added security. The SUN SNIPER STRAP Has been awarded most innovative new product in Germany and has had a host of rave reviews. We have been secretly testing some before going public… we love them. Try one for 14 days and if you are not impressed send it back for a full refund.

PRE ORDER NOW! DELIVERY ETA 14 DAYS

Available only direct online from Mainline Photo.

$99.00 plus postage.

PLUS A PRE ORDER BONUS!

All pre orders placed before the 18th of Febuary will get a MIKROS TRIPLE PACK OF LENS CLOTHS FREE! A saving of $19.95 as our way of saying thanks.

Back at work….

Well, I am back from holidays. Andrea and John did a great job keeping Mainline Photo running smoothly, while Monica and I trundled around Northern Vietnam and then Cambodia. We had a fantastic time and our month long trip went with out a hitch, which I must admit amazed me as we arrived in Hanoi with no real plans apart from that of buying a scooter to cruise around the country on. Which in the end wasn’t going to happen for several reasons. So from our hotel we patched together a rough plan booked a few hotels and flights and we were off!

Red Dao Mama.  85 yrs old and she could run up the mountains!

First stop was Sapa in the north west mountains of Vietnam. An overnight train trip and then a 2.5 hour minibus brought us to our final destination the TOPAS ECOLODGE right in the heart of a National Park situated on the spur of a mountain. At first we thought oh no, what have we done this place is out in the boonies!  ahh, but then it dawned on us that the lodge is right amongst all the ethnic hill tribe groups… Which made Monica who is studying Anthropology very… very excited.

Topas Ecolodge, Sapa Vietnam

We stayed four days at the lodge, which actually consists of 25 solar powered bungalows set facing into the valley below. We were blown by away it’s remote location and the  layout gives the impression that you are at the end of the earth. Plus there is no TV or phones and definitely no Wi fi which really helps make it seem even further away from everything. But wait it gets much better…

All the bungalows are made from local materials.

Oh, and did I mention the View!

Topas is situated in a National park and you are surrounded by Hill tribe villages. No need to go on tours here folks, to meet the locals you just need to step out your door. The lodge is right in the heart of Red Dao territory and the Red Ladies (as the lodge managers refer to them) are waiting en masse to greet every guest at the entrance to the lodge grounds. Calls of  “buy from me!” are the first thing the new guest hears upon arrival, before they have even had a chance to check in. The ladies pounce and will have the hapless visitor surrounded in moments all of them offering their wares for purchase at once.

Red Dao ladies waiting to Greet you outside the lodge grounds.

It’s is utter chaos… they might not have the best business plan but they have their marketing down pat. If you refuse to buy anything they say ” Buy tomorrow” … ahh you think yes that’s a way out. No No no… they will tie a friendship band around your wrist and as soon as you walk out again the seller will run up and point to your wrist and go “You buy from me now you promised”.

They loved Monica!

The trick here is to not run away from them but to go with the flow and integrate with them as they will happily guide you to the surrounding villages and show you the local sights as long as you give them the opportunity to sell you some of their goods. They do not ask nor seek payment for guiding you. This is strictly a business transaction involving the sale of goods. They are poor and the handmade items they sell are cheap so you are doing good.

Lunch break.

Just remember to bargain hard and have a lot of laughs and fun with them. You will be richly rewarded with a once in a lifetime cultural experience. They speak simple English and love to learn more and have a knowledge of the land and village ways of life that only a local can. Quite simply the three days we spent with the Red Dao ladies wandering through the mountains was the highlight of our trip made even more fantastic by our stay at the ecolodge.

PS: They love having there photo taken especially if you show them their image on the screen after you have taken the shot.

Summer Break

First I would like to thank all our customers for their support over the past year. Second I would like to wish you all the best over the festive season. The last couple of months have been busy, very busy and we have you, our customers, to thank for that. As usual we are closed over the period 24th of Dec until the 18th of Jan. Our office and showroom are closed but you can still order online and we will be shipping from a fulfillment centre during this time.

See you all when we are back at work!

The travelling Bessa III returns from Queensland.

Well the travelling Bessa III has been slowly winding it’s way around the country it seems most folks who use it don’t want to give it back!

Recent participant Geoff Hopkinson sent us the following report.

The travelling Bessa II finished her holiday in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago and then winged her way northwards for some more Queensland lifestyle time.
Bessy stayed with me for two weeks. She got along fine with the German residents here and in turn they liked her name. We went for long walks in the sunshine together before retiring poolside for margaritas. Bessy is still a little new to this Aussie lifestyle and so only had a bubbycino with sprinkles and extra froth. Perhaps she was still full from her long lunches of Astia, Portra, and Neopan.

I thought that I would type a few user impressions for those interested.

Fit, finish and handling:
Smooth matt black, dare I say the equal of the black chrome on my Leica M. Controls are smooth and have just the right feel for me. Absolutely nothing to complain about. Grey/black rubber like grip is functional and, well, grippy. With the lens and bellows extended I found the right side actually slightly cramped to hold. A good indication of how compact the package is though. Focus by tab and very familiar to a Leica M user. In fact, your left index finger reaches it comfortably while you are holding the camera left side. The finder is huge, bright and undistorted. Again the rangefinder might be straight from Solms. 6×6 and 6×7 frames easily visible in both portrait and landscape hold for me, as is the shutter speed display. Aperture priority or manual, what more do you want?

Home sweet home!

Results:
The nice folks at Horsham Colour processed my Colour neg for me and a roll of Neopan. Thank you Michael. I got back a pile of very generous sized proofs (8×10 paper!) as well as a CD of scans and my negs of course. Worth letting your processor know if you send a mixed set of 6×6 and 6×7 as I did.

The Bessa III is great for portraits

The detail is crisp and the image are smooth, exactly as you would expect from a high quality fixed lens on medium format film. Seems to me that this would be an awfully attractive minimalist landscape kit. I largely used it like an M7. An M on steroids!
It is possible to provoke flare if you try hard. I suspect that the accessory lens shade would make that a complete non-issue for any reasonable situation.

Some typical Queensland conditions

Out of interest I shot a roll of Neopan in an old 6×9 Voigtlander folder as well. That one went back into the bottom drawer. This camera I would happily take anywhere and be confident of the quality of the results. Now if I could only figure out where the SDHC card goes, I’m good to go.

Thank You Scott . I want one!

Happy Halloween!

Mainline customer Rene Vogelzang’s image of these witches houses in Sydney say’s it all!

When he is not out and about taking great photographs of haunted houses Rene also works with the National Parks discovery tours. These folks run guided outdoor trips with a photographic basis in some of our best National parks, take a look at some of the interesting workshops they run at Discovery Photographers.

Voigtlander SL II lenses now available in Canon EOS mount.

We have just had news that the factory will be producing this range of prime SLR lenses in the long awaited EOS mount. All three current models the 20mm 3.5 , 40mm 2.0 and 58mm 1.4 have proved extremely popular but up until now Canon EOS owners have been left out. Not anymore! first deliveries are due in early November. We are taking pre orders now. Shoot me an email here if you want to go on the list to get one from the first delivery.

Voigtlander SLR lenses now available in Canon EOS mount.

B+W 77mm 110 filters back in stock! + Why you need a 10 stop ND.

We have a limited number of these very popular 10 stop ND filters back in stock. The factory in Germany has had its production schedules left in tatters trying to produce stock of this very special filter to keep up with demand. All because folks posted about them on the net and then everyone wanted one! Wondering why? Take a look at the images below yep that’s why…

“Cliffs of Netanya” by Rosie Galitz ( using a B+W ND 110)

This 10 stop ND filter is allows photographers to shoot at slow shutter speeds needed to give that fairy floss look to water such as in the images here. It also gives you the ability to control apertures much more effectively in very strong light environments such as deserts or beaches thus depth of field. B+W 110 filters are made in limited numbers by Schneider in Germany they are simply the best strong ND filters you can buy. Unlike other brands they do not give a strong colour shift, they just add a pleasant warm tone to your image! Fast becoming one of the must have filters in the modern photographers kit. Also available in most other sizes.

“The swimming hole” Kevin Kroeker ( using a B+W ND 110)

Here are a few tips to help you get the best from a 10 stop Neutral Density filter. For long exposures you will need to use a tripod.  Next is to  set your camera in manual mode for everything inc… metering and focusing. Which now means you also have to compensate for the 10 stops manually in either aperture or time. To get the nice flow effects in water you need to have a least a several second exposure, though this will depend on how fast the water is moving so a few test shots might be needed.  Here is a very cool travel photo trick for busy streets or plazas packed with tourists, set you camera up on a tripod and shoot as long exposure as you can… you will have deserted streets in your image, yep that’s right you had the Pyramids all to yourself…. Last piece of advice shoot raw/dng if you have it on your camera so you can fine tune exposure and white balance if need be.

Image overload? Have we become victims of information overload…

When was the last time you really took a good look at the files on the computer? How many files named DSC98760.jpeg do you have? How many passwords and user names do you need to remember? Is your desktop cluttered with files and icons? The list goes on… The Digital age allows us to do thing’s we never could have imagined a few years ago.

But…

We are suffering from an information overload… so rather than saving all this stuff on ever bigger hard drives, should we be getting back to basics and using that delete button more often? The answer is a very big yes!

Photography is fast becoming a big part of the information overload… maybe it’s time for some image discardia. I know I need to do it.

Are your folders like this full of unnamed and unsorted images? If so time to start organising.

More and more folks are taking zillions of images and our hard drives are filling up.  So then time to change and get a plan to keep the best of your photography on the computer and discard the rest.  Plus a promise to print the images you really like and put them on display. Maybe us camera clickers need to click the shutter less often and click the delete button more often. As Ansel Adams used to put it “concentrate more on the seeing” that is what photography is all about.

The world’s best lens cloths are back in stock. The Mikros ultra micro fibre cloth!

Looking for the best lens cloth for your valuable optics? Search no more…

Mainlinephoto have just imported another batch of these amazing cloths. We continually get asked for more of these so we listened to you all and now once again they are available for purchase in our webstore.

The Mikros cloth is made of scientifically designed tri-woven microfibres, less than 1/1000 the thickness of hair. It absorbs dirt and oily film without chemicals and it’s the softest and most absorbent microfibre cloth on the market. 100% lint-free and non-abrasive.

Washing renews the cloth to it’s original condition.

A decent size of 18 x 19 cm. Oh and did I mention that these cloths are thick and soft not like some others out there.

Limited time offer get 3 cloths for the special price of $19.95 including delivery.

New Lower Voigtlander pricing… Whoo hoo…

At Mainline we like to pass on the savings to you whenever possible so due to the current excellent currency situation we have lowered the prices on almost all Voigtlander items.  So if you are thinking of buying something now is the time. Check them out here.

Also Thumbs up products have been lowered and many other items.

Leica pulls a rabbit out of their hat. Will the M9 become the digital equal of the M6.

Well then…. Leica get’s it right with the M9… kind of reminds me of the M5 and then Leica got it right with the highly successful M6 which sold virtually unchanged for 24 years! Now that’s what I call a product life cycle.

This camera will be a winner on all front’s for them. Full size sensor blah blah etc etc…… you know all the details. If not they are here.

At the retail price of just over the $8.5 grand AUD it is even better value than I expected. Hopefully within the next weeks I will get my hands on one to play with… as usual the folks are posting their first impressions all over the net and they seem to be extremely positive. No we have the digital equal of the M6 and I hope that this will see Leica stay with us until well into the future.  Way to go Mr Leica!

New Voigtlander lenses from Cosina. 50th anniversary editions

Cosina is set to release 2 new lenses (well more of a re release of a couple of oldies) to celebrate their 50th year of business. These special editions are to be produced in a special Nickel plated finish and boxed with a matching M adapter with the same finish. Both of these lenses are going to be limited to a run of 600 units. If you missed out on one of the worlds sharpest lenses the little 3.5 50mm Heliar then now is the time to get one! Price for both models is $795 . Supply will be limited so email us now if you wish to pre order one.  Update limited stocks now available.

50mm Heliar f2.0 screw mount

50mm Heliar f 3.5 screw mount

Could it be that the Leica M9 release is about to become a reality?

NOW 100% confirmed the event is for the S2 and M9 release!!!!

Doing the rounds of Leica dealers and the like here in OZ is a flyer inviting those valued folks to a secret and special PREMIERE EVENT! Maybe Leica has employed the security team from Apple and actually managed to keep the M9 completely under wraps until this event takes place? I mean no images nothing… nada really has come out of Germany just smug comments like ” it will come”.

The image below is a copy of the flyer sent out today by Ryan Williams of Adeal the Leica agents here. I called him to check if it was the real m coy and he confirmed this but nothing else.

Not invited…Well… we could always gate crash?

Sure it could be the S2 release though everyone knows about that. Hmmm S2 or M9… heads or tails. Well only a few more sleeps will tell as the same event is on the 10th of September in the US. Maybe we should scrap the Mainline footy pools this week and start giving odds on what will Leica be showing!

It seems that a worldwide announcement from Leica will happen on the 09-09-09! Strange stuff as Apple are going to announce something on that date too…

Looks like with the G11 Canon has got it right! New G11 due in September.

Finally… after straying from the path over to the darkside with the G series 7,9 and 10 models… (which were all great cameras in their own right but each of them missed hitting the bullseye) but it now looks like Canon have listened and learn’t from the past and the new G11 is set to put them back on track. Looks and sounds great the highlights are:

28mm – 140mm 2.8 lens

Sensor has been downsized to 10 megapixels ( should mean less noise)

The 2.8 inch LCD has got it’s mojo back, once again it rotates …Yeah!!

Big Buck Bunny… yep even some animals just get pushed too far…

In this day an age of wonderful animated movies… there comes a time when someone must take a stand and make something a little more realistic… Big Buck Bunny takes revenge Predator style on his fellow forest bully’s! While only 10 min’s long it is well worth watching which you can do on You Tube, Vimeo or you can the download various formats even in HD if you have a HD screen or TV with a Dvix compatible player . All of this and more is available here at Big Buck Bunny

Amazing … all done on open source software.

Ok you thought you were a photo geek with a Mac Pro…. he he check this out!

Well some might think they are cool as they have a Mac Pro/Air or something Mac, others like me think hey I have 2 monitors and a custom overclocked gaming PC… sorry I think this dude tops all of us! I mean 9 monitors…now wouldn’t that setup burn your retinas or what?

Go check his photos out on flickr…  just click the image above.

At least I have the same keyboard as Steve so I feel vindicated a little I guess. Seriously what is more amazing is that he downsized from 28 monitors!!!! Those retinas must have been the reason.

So the Olympus Pen EP-1 has some competition from Panasonic. Pre release leak confirms GF1

Well well… I knew that the little Digtial Pen EP1 would spark at least a few clones. Having had one on loan for a couple of weeks now I straight away saw the potential this type of camera has. I also thought that other smart manufacturers must be ready to jump on the bandwagon… These Micro 4/3 cameras are a blessing for those who want a rangefinder style camera and the ability to use Leica and Voigtlander M mount lenses without buying an M8.

Now it looks like Panasonic are set to release their version of the Pen  called the GF1! We can see right away it looks to have a pop up flash, something I must admit I have missed on the EP1 also a different dial layout and a very big plus it comes in black.

Ferret fun day this weekend… and we love those!

My best buddy Fuzzy has passed away all too soon… she was more human than ferret, but was never the same after she lost her pal Winnie to cancer. We are now left with Theodore and the Bebon ( spanish for big baby). So as always we will be going to the Ferret fun day this weekend. Not that Theodore is allowed to attend he fights with everyone! I cannot believe that he is nearly 10 years old Blind, has prostrate problems, a dicky heart and his back legs are going yet he still wants to battle on when he smells another Ferret! Now who said Ferrets are fun?

Then again maybe Theo is a little spoilt !!!!

Then again maybe they all are !!!! Bebon sleeping.

Well this weekend we will just take the Bebon…. Theodore can have the house to himself. Ferret fun days are run by the NSWFS in Sydney every second month.

Leica M9 rumors… we have it on very good authority that…

It seems that the M9 is due to become a reality sooner than we think! As an interesting thing happened today… we had a visit from the manager of one of Australia’s biggest Leica dealers who stated the following! ( disclaimer we are not a Leica reseller):

That Leica distributors worldwide are accepting orders for the M9!

He claimed that the camera was due to be released this December.

Plus adding fuel to the fire is the latest version of Capture One Pro 4.82 contains a generic profile for the Leica M9!

But wait there is more… a leading French photographic magazine has stated that the M9 is coming as soon as September!

Possible concept M9 from a fan on Leica Rumors

All I can say is that this person has not been wrong before… and I would not be posting this here if I did not trust Mr ——-’s information.

Still Moments… an exhibition of fine art landscape photographs by Warren Hinder.

Warren Hinder is a published and collected photographer who lives in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. He is also a Mainline Customer and film user. Starting on the 8th of August through to the 30th of August he has a gallery showing of his best works at the Nolan on Lovel gallery in Katoomba his home town. Warren’s work focuses on the quiet side of nature his work is both technically excellent and beautiful at the same time. It is this type of photography at it’s best… it makes you stop look and relax. If you are looking for an excuse to get to the mountains this winter now you have it… plus do not forget to take the drive further west to Mt Victoria and have a browse in the best boy’s shop since camera store’s were invented at Trains, Planes and Automobiles.

“Cow Bay” copyright Warren Hinder