First Sony A7 to visit Mainline Photographics

Regular Mainline Photographics customer Edward was the first Sony A7 owner to visit our showroom with his brand new Sony A7R.

Edward’s Sony A7R fitted with a Voightlander 50mm F1.5 VM-mount lens + Voigtlander adapter

Edward tried a variety of M-mount lenses and is now mulling over his choice. We think that the Voigtlander 50mm f1.5 lens in black complements the camera very well. Note also the Gordy wrist strap.

First impressions? A camera which fits the hand naturally and comfortably, copes well with manual focus lenses and has resolution that seems to go on forever. The Voigtlander 50 F1.5 and 35 F1.2 aquitted themsleves very well even when shooting handheld. We expect that these cameras will be game changers.

Nikon F2 Feature

I think that the Nikon F2 was the best SLR camera until 1996 when Nikon produced the F5* The F2 is the successor to the Nikon F, their first SLR camera, released in 1970. The F2 featured many revisions of the inner and outer workings of their SLR template. The black one above is a Photomic F2 which means it came with a light meter built into the removable viewfinder. The Nikon F system was a modular design system catering to professional photographers. You can remove or swap out the back cover, viewfinder, eye piece, focussing screen and the lens of course. Each of the removable parts had a wide range of replacements which were designed for specific applications such as high volume film backs and photometric grid focus screens. Its really weird seeing your camera stripped down to just a mirror and a shutter.

ZKIN Bags Coming Soon

COMING SOON to http://www.mainlinephoto.com.au

Featured Veo bag.

Protect your precious gadgets in style with the new ZKIN bag range. Featured here is the Veo shoulder bag

Veo RRP AUD$295

Mainline Taronga Zoo Expedition 2013

Work experience student Mao was given the taxing task of photographing animals at the Taronga Zoo last Friday. With David Jenkins as her experienced guide, she set off on a photographic mission.

Here are some fantastic photographs that Mao brought back from the day.

Make sure to click on the images to see the full resolution

Profile: Kodak Retina IIc 020

The Kodak Retina IIc.

Produced between 1954 and 1957 (depending on who you ask…) the IIc listed for $135 which was a lot of money at the time.

But for your buck, the camera boasts a bunch of quite sophisticated features.

1:2.8/50 lens (seriously sharp Schneider optics)

1s – 1/500th shutter speed range

F 2.8 – F 22

Focus scale + rangefinder focusing

36 exposure counter

Manual advance and rewind, obviously.

The IIc even features a couple of clever fail safe stops e.g. the lens won’t fold back in unless you set it to infinity (a feature which the famous Bessa III lacks sorely. I’ve seen one too many IIIs with a ruined lens from it not being at infinity when stored back in the body of the camera).

All real metal and tough leatherette. The IIc on my desk has been churning out photos for almost 60 years and is showing no sign of breaking down. The leatherette is pretty much as it would have been on the day it left the factory, albeit a bit dustier. I’ll bet you can drop this from 3 meters onto concrete pavement and still have a working camera for your sunset photographs this afternoon.

Brilliant. They don’t make them like this anymore.

FLM Germany Ball Heads Available

We are excited to bring to you a new range of high quality ball heads for serious photography applications.

FLM GmbH, a family business, was founded in 1993 and is based in Emmendingen, Germany. FLM specialise in high quality CNC machined quick release plates, ball/level heads and photographic tripods.

We are now carrying a selection of their F/FT series of ball heads. The FT series features friction control, minimum friction lock adjustment, pan friction, pan click stops and tilt lock controls.

These ball heads are powerful tools for precise and careful work. Browse our FLM range here.

“Innovation is our driving force”

FLM

New Artisan & Artist Bags Available!

We received two big boxes this week from Japan.

A lovely small red camera bag suitable for Micro Four Thirds mount cameras. Buy here.

We are now stocking a few more exciting camera bags for all occasions, be it for a day trip around the CBD or a gear bag for your exotic holiday.

The RR-05C comes equipped with an easy slider strap (like the E25-R camera straps) to make adjusting the length of the strap easy and quick. Buy here.