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Product Reviews
30
Dec 10
Review your net and phone bills!
I just spent 3 hours saving over $1800 a year…every year! When was the last time you reviewed your plans with your telcos?
Called Optus and Engin to review my plans. The only thing I had to trade in was to sign a 24 months with Optus on broadband/landline bundle and 12 months on business mobile. Engin had no contract. No other fees, penalties, or phone number changing!
My one mistake was to ask for Optus mobile’s new plan to start immediately as opposed to from old plan’s billing cycle end. This caused an extra expense of $169, something to do with dodgy pro-rata calculations which I was able to get $30 back for complaining.
OLD PLANS
internet $70/mth for 60GB
Broadband phone avg $100/mth
Landline avg $50/mth
business mobile avg $100/mth
total is $320/mth
NEW PLANS
internet $15.95/mth for 120GB (bundled with home phone ($40) plus extra $30 call credit)
Broadband phone capped to $40 unlimited mobile, national and local
Mobile $79 for unlimited SMS, and calls to local, national and mobile
total is $164/mth
4
Nov 10
AIPP Deal with Flight Centre
The AIPP has a deal with Flight Centre to provide 5% discount for international flights and a whooping 20% off insurance. Wow! …not exactly
After the honour of being selected by a good friend of mine to do his wedding in a castle in the UK I happily went about trusting Flight Centre to give me a fantastic deal.
It took me a while to grasp that something fishy was going on here, and that’s even before I started shopping around.
To make a very long story short (took me nearly a week to realise I was being screwed) it’s plainly dishonest to tell someone that you are giving a discount when the price is inflated in the first place! This is what Flight Centre did.
THE ISSUES I EXPERIENCES
Everytime I needed to communicate was told that there’s a 24 hour waiting period for an answer.
Got the invoice/itinerary only to find that this was addressed to some other guy in Queensland, I hope Flight Centre does not share my name and address to a stranger!
My instructions were simple: cheapest flight, not Air Asia. I like Malaysian, Singapore, BA, Qantas, whatever, just not the super discounted airlines because I actually don’t want the remotest chance that my flight might be delayed for the sake of saving a few hundred dollars!
The quote I got with the 5% discount was over $2450, I made a random call to Aus World Travel and got instantly a quote for $2090 via Singapore Airlines.
Flight Centre are smart cookies, they even have a promise to get the cheapest flight or “You fly free!” I am sure I can get them to match the offer but what’s the point. Loyalty is earned and I like to reward honest business with my business. It’s a shame the AIPP, of which I am a paying member can’t make a deal with a more honest broker.
****Update**** Just got an email from another AIPP member with a similar story about Professional Gear Insurance. Same story.
4
Nov 10
Cleaning Camera bodies and Lens
I thought I took care of my professional gear, but when I picked up my gear from Camera Electronics today and was told about how much sand and dirt my lens, bodies and bag had accumulated I was totally shocked!
Here are a few things I have learnt today.
(1) always use both lens caps when finished with a lens.
(2) Take time to wipe down, blow off or clean sand particles after a beach shoot from the caps and lens.
(3) Clean the inside of your camera bag occasionally.
(4) Realise that Perth is one of the dustiest places in the world!
(5) Cleaning the body sensor is only half the problem if the lens are not spotless anyway. dust from lens is literally sucked away into the sensor as soon as a lens change is done.
(6) Don’t attempt to clean body sensors yourself if you haven’t been properly trained to do so. This will invariably cause more problems or even damage sensor.
It’s good to have the backing of such a superb Pro dealer like Camera Electronics. They not only have the expertise in sales and service but have a clear people investment in technical support as well.
4
Nov 10
Pin hole Experiment – Revisited
Want to try something retro? Got an SLR with a few spare body caps? Caps available from eBay for couple of dollars ea.
TECHNIQUE
(1) Drill the smallest of holes on a body cap (ABSOLUTELY REMOVE THIS FIRST FROM THE CAMERA BODY!)
(3) Then apply black tape over the hole and with a tiniest of sewing pins pierce a hole in the tape so that the hole is, of course, no bigger than a pin hole.
(4) Then shoot and share.
Only tried it once for a couple of hours around historic Fremantle, WA and one of my favourite hotels, The Espanade Hotel.
btw, people seeing you take shots will think you are crazy, shooting without a lens! I certainly had fun telling people that I was testing out a new experiment spy camera attached with an invisible lens…loved their expression when I actually showed them some photos on the LDC screen!
24
Oct 10
Fighting Soil Salination
I am really excited about this! Hense the post about a totally non-wedding related subject.
Was in Bunnings the other day and bumped into a past groomsman of Kate and Tim’s Wedding, Matt. Matt’s a rep for Bioasis, an Australian company making a huge global impact on the environment and argicultural industries.
Bioasis have recently come up with a revolutionary product they are calling Bactivate, put simply it’s a soil restorer rich in bacteria and helps break down chemicals, minerals and organic matter into natural fertiliser. (I hope my simplification is accurate.)
Matt even told me about the successful trials in converting salt affected land back into fertile soil. Now that’s why I am blogging about this. This is huge! I remember a school field trip, early 1990s to a farming community in the Southwest and being told about the devastation that salt contamination has on the land.
There really isn’t enough public information about this. A quick Google, however, revealed a video presentation and a bit of background about one of the salt cleanup trials.
Matt at Tim Smith's Wedding
If you run a farm within 200km from Perth please visit my article about “A Portrait Session on your Farm”
Sample Farm Sessions
21
Oct 10
Wedding Cakes by Fiorentina Patisserie
Need an extra special kind of cake? For weddings and other occasions, consider Fiorentina Patisserie.
See today’s Wedding Cake images, (All photos by Lighthouse by Cyrus) or visit their website.
29
Sep 10
CPS is Evolving
CPS stands for Canon Professional Service.
This specialist department is available only to professional photographers that carry Canon’s most elite range of gear, The L-series or professional series. “L” stands for Luxury are the brand of Pro lens that each cost around $1000 to +$3000. The pro bodies, Canon’s EOS one series, includes the EOS one Mark III D and Ds, and now the Mark IV.
The top level of CPS Gold Membership, costs around $100 a year and now includes 5 free sensor cleans a year, free product evaluation and 30% off the cost of repair labour.
THUMBS DOWN ON “MYCANON”
Unfortunately the new CPS has it’s drawbacks!
The move away from it’s own dedicated website into “MyCanon” has resulted in unnecessary clutter, poor website design and a total watering down in the services provided to the working professional. Sure the free 1800 support number is still operational, but when it comes to resources and information the new MyCanon is really a marketing blog for everyday consumers of Canon.
Even the Pro Photography section is just a bunch a glorified ads and marketing spin. Gone are the resource pages that pros could find actually interesting. The supposed “Pro” accessories page is once again a copy of any and every Canon branded product on the market, pro grade or not!
Enter a postcode to find your dealer and you get dealers from more than 2000KM away! What’s the point.
THE GOOD NEWS
I’m told that the pro dealers like PRA and Camera Electronics are partnering up with CPS to provide real support and service. This means that if I want to evaluate a specialist piece of equipment like a new lens or camera body there might finally be one available for me. For more than 2 years I’ve made around 3 or 4 attempts and all but one time never had an evaluation lens or body sent to me due to equipment shortages. CPS, in the past, had mainly looked after newspaper, government and large sports photography agencies.
So the good news might be that Canon Pro Dealers will act as CPS drop off and pickup points, evaluation centres and be, in general, a familiar place to get the support pros need.
21
Sep 10
NEC MultiSync PA 241W – Review
I don’t do detailed product reviews – no time.
But I’m happy to briefly share my opinion and thoughts after buying the NEC PA241W yesterday.
The time had come to get a new monitor for my edit workflow. My clients deserve it, and frankly a 3rd monitor would speed things up a bit. I am getting busier and busier every year and here comes October and November the busiest months of the wedding season.
For high-end professional image editing there are only two options to choose from: Eizo’s ColorEdge, the industry standard or NEC’s professional series.
I consulted the best in the industry when it came to IT for photographers, Camera Electronics, Team Digital and PRA Imaging. Team Digital and CE push Eizo and PRA’s got the NEC range.
Eizo ColorEdge may be the industry leader but for the size I need $5000+ pricetag can’t be justified, imho. Eizo’s 2nd best range is the SX-series in the FlexScan range.
Pricing is identical between the NEC PA-series and Eizo’s SX-series, so it was a tough choice. Paul from PRA finally convinced me with a lot of technical gibber-gabber in the end and I happily purchased the NEC PA241W along with NEC’s own calibration software called SpectraView II.
THEN THE ISSUES HAPPENED
On initial installation the screen was blindingly bright, but no matter, SpectraView would fix that. Installation revealed that the model PA241W did not supoprt SpectraView. What!
So I spent all night googling updates, info and patches but no luck. By 3am I was starting to regret my purchase, especially after discovering the monitor I just paid over $2000 for was actually selling at B&H Photo in New York for less than US$850! More than double the aussie price! Double What!
I was less than delighted so, the next morning, embarked on a mission. I call NEC to find out what the Australian RRP was and why SpectraView did not work.
Long story short.
NEC’s led me on a wild goose chase and no one could help me! handballed to a record six different call centres:
131 632
1300 366 144
1800 171 294 also 1300 780 103 (same people/different number)
1800 176 505
And then finally the right contact, a direct number to NEC’s Calibration Expert in Sydney, Daniel Hancox. If anyone is interested in contacting the NEC Calibration Experts visit this site. Hopefully the promised revamp will be done soon.
After downloading the patch, all good from then on. Alternative Patch Download.
QUICK REVIEW
btw, the NEC PA241W is a solid 10/10, B&H reviews all 5/5 to date
NECs general service handling is hopeless at 3/10
NECs Daniel Hancox help and assistance is an excellent 10/10
Paul, from PRA Imaging, advice and help is a wonderful 9/10
…and finally the price…
why would anyone in their right mind buy from an Australian supplier when the American and possibly Asian suppliers can sell these for less than half the price? Good question.
I am sure NEC and other international companies like this will suffer in the long run.
But the simple fact is it all comes down to volume. NEC Japan supply huge American distributors with a thousand times more units than Australian distributors.
The good thing is that buying local does have critical benefits however. Apart from supporting a local business, a local economy and local families is that as a consumer you’re also getting the service, advice and warranty. But it still sucks a bit!
BOTTOM LINE
As a critical business acquisition the NEC PA241W is still worth buying local and with the $2000+ Pricetag.