Wallpaper Wednesday
I love this shot from the plane to North Carolina. Does it inspire you to travel as well? Either way, have a great Wednesday!
Wallpaper Wednesday
I’ve been shooting like a mad woman, which is of course making me happy. But it also makes my blog empty. So my sincere apologies for that. Traditionally this is when I can’t post anything, but today, I woke up early so I could post this weeks wallpaper Wednesday before running out the door to my next shoot. This is a shot of where I wish I were instead of a in a warehouse somewhere shooting shoes (actually, I really like shoe photography, so it’s not 100% true, I should say “this is where I wish I were going to be after I finished shooting shoes). I photographed this down in Islamorada also a couple of weeks ago. Have a great week!
Can’t a camera company get a break?
From PDN: Nikon, Canon, and Sony Imaging Factories in Thailand Remain Shut Down From Massive Flooding
The photo industry just can’t catch a break this year. Seven months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami which killed over 10,000 people in Japan and brought camera production to a standstill in some regions, imaging factories in Thailand remain shut down from massive recent flooding across the country.
The Thai flooding, which began in late July from monsoon rains, has affected two thirds of the country and is now bearing down on Bangkok. Over 300 people have died from the flooding.
Camera factories for Nikon and Sony and an inkjet printer factory for Canon in Thailand were still closed as of today. No restart date has been set for any of the flooded factories.
“We are continuing to investigate details of the damage, but are unable at this time to predict how soon operation will be resumed,” Nikon responded to PDN in an email. Nikon said its factory, which is located in Rojana Industrial Park in Central Thailand, produces “a variety of entry-level and mid-level D-SLRs, as well as a number of Nikkor interchangeable lenses.”
Because most DSLRs — both consumer and professional — use many of the same internal parts, it’s conceivable that the Thai flooding could stall Nikon camera launches in the near future, such as the rumored upcoming introduction of a new pro DSLR.
Meanwhile, a Sony factory in Thailand, which is said to produce the new Sony A77 and A65 DSLRs, is also still crippled by the flooding, causing product delays because of transportation problems.
“Operations of our factory in Thailand have been temporarily suspended due to flooding, which will delay overall product supply,” Sony said in an email. “There is only minor damage to the facility, however transportation in /out of the factory is facing constraints. The factory restart date has not yet been determined, as the matter is still under investigation. “
Canon also confirmed with PDN today that its Canon Hi-Tech Thailand Ltd. inkjet factory remains closed and that “no additional plan has been determined.” By Dan Havlik
Photography equipment unavailable?
Have you looked into purchasing new photography equipment lately? Your finally ready to buy that Canon 5D mark II? Or perhaps a new lens? Having a little trouble?
Last week I picked up the 100mm Macro 2.8L from B&H, and as with most of my lens and camera purchases I suffered a huge internal debate as to if I really needed to buy this. As I’ve posted before I often rent my equipment from BorrowLenses.com but I’ve already rented this lens before and how many times can I justify renting it before it’s worth buying? So I did it, picked it up. No regrets. Done. If I had heard any of the things last week that have come to light this week I wouldn’t have hesitated as much to buy the lens!
Perhaps it’s because of this recent Canon Lens purchase that my awareness is heightened, or perhaps it’s just because this is a new week, but this week has been the week of where the @#%^! is the photography equipment! Guess I got lucky because I know where all my photo equipment is. But having two of my friend (Matt & Nami) in the market for new cameras I’ve noticed they are having a problem. Come to think of it, everyone is having a problem or will be soon (myself included). And this problem is not getting better or going away, it’s getting worse!
Wednesday night I went to a great talk by Seth Resnick, a Canon Explorer of Light (living the dream Seth…. living the dream.) sponsored by ASMP. He mentions this gear shortage.
Look familiar?
It will only be getting more and more common. Resnick said that after the Earthquake-tsunami-meltdown tragedy Japan’s camera power players Canon and Nikon are both barely running. One of the hardest obstacles for the companies to deal with is frequent power outages at the factories. If you haven’t guessed, this means little to no new production. Resnick was told “if it’s not at B&H, it’s not going to be anywhere” and that delays “could be as long as a year” in getting everything back on track. I would guess that pertains to after the current supplies run out. But it is as bad as it sounds. Already your seeing the only big player selling the 5D Mark 2 is Andorama, and it’s about $200 more than it would be sold for at B&H, if they had it in stock.
Want to play a disturbing game? Go to B&H’s website, search for Canon L series lenses. Looks fine and dandy for the first page, but about 2/3 down the second page the unavailable items start, then continue through the end of the 3rd page. That means about half the L series lens inventory is already gone from B&H till Canon works out the kinks and gets product again. Scary, I know.
PDN has some great reading on it and recommends a VERY useful site is www.nowinstock.net where you can see who still has inventory.
Guess if anyone is sitting on used equipment, the time to sell it for the max amount is just about here. Or if any of my readers are on the fence about purchasing new photography equipment just the rumor of this being true should move you to get it while you can. Good luck everyone. Now all we can do is wait and perhaps be a little more careful with our equipment.