Oz

[TonyL]

Hi
I am from Little Grove (near Albany) on the Southwest coast of Western Australia. Little Grove is a village on the Torndirrup Peninsular, most of which is National Park. On one side is the Southern Ocean, on the other side Princess Royal Harbour and the Indian Ocean is not far away. So this is a great area for photographing wild life fauna and flora, much of which is unique to the area.
My cameras are Dynax 500si, Dynax 700si, Dynax 7D and the latest and best, a Sony Alpha 350. The latest lens is a Sal 18-250, which has an astonishingly good zoom range making it a great travel lens.
TonyL

[David Kilpatrick]

Hi! Have you got yourself a long cable or wirless release for the A350? It's possible to set the live view to be active for 30 minutes without shutting down. You can site the camera to capture wildlife, using a tripod or clamp, and view the screen with binoculars (or just by eye) from a distance and see when subject/s enter the field of view, then fire. The A350/300 have some potential for uses like this which no-one has yet thought of, because it was never possible before.

David

[TonyL]

Thanks David for the suggestion. I have just bought a remote wireless shutter release thanks to Javelin who directed me to a Hong Kong dealer. Your "Photoworld" is a most enjoyable, high quality publication and you clearly keep a very much hands on approach to this forum. Will you be reviewing the Sony 500mm AF mirror ?

As a long time Minolta user, I was skeptical about Sony taking over, but they are doing a good job, with quality cameras and lenses at good prices.
Best wishes
TonyL

[David Kilpatrick]

I have a Minolta 500mm AF mirror. Believe it or not, my Sony 70-300mm SSM review is the first published in Britain - Sony's own PR dept have had no loan samples of this lens. By pre-ordering one and buying it, I was able to report on it. Borrowing review kit from Sony is not easy (they use a third-party PR service plus another third-party logistics handler) so I tend to buy anything I am interested in. I will feel obliged to own the Alpha 900 - I could hardly run this site or the magazine without owning and using it - and that will be a major investment. It could even be enough to tip me back into seeking commercial assignments.

David

[Javelin]

That would make a great story right there. A commercial assignment with a "modern" full frame live view camera... losts of little side stories. Modern camera 25 year old lens here and there being renewed by SSS .. holy. you could sell it to Sony. The PR company sounds like it could be a huge pain to deal with, especially if they don't get it. what other clients do they have?

[David Kilpatrick]

Not sure, but they are well enough known. Sony is very much a corporate hirer. The best PRs in the photo industry are solo operators - like me as a publisher - and can make their own decisions, they are totally trusted by the companies who hire them. I work a lot with individuals like that. Sony does not deal with individuals generally, and they like any contractor to have a team, a heirarchy, offices vaguely similar to theirs, and to be used to the sort of meetings they have. The PR firm is Kazoo and it's one of London's better outfits of the corporate/agency type. Sony also has an entire in-house marketing dept. But they don't function on a personal level very efficiently because no executive is really able to act; weekly management meetings are needed to approve every action, every word. The result is an odd combination of slow reaction and rock-solid campaign planning.

David

[Javelin]

Thats intersting but typical of Japanese comanies. actually for american companies too for that matter. they are comfortable with like structured companies and don't understand the lone cowboy type with talent and a vision. is Kazoo handling world marketing or europe of just the UK ? what I imagine in the inhouse team supplies the vision then a number of comanies in difernt market interpret that vision and implement their ideas.

[David Kilpatrick]

Just UK marketing. Sony's in-house team handles European overall launches and PR. They are able to issue loan stock, which is how I managed to leave the London launch of the Alpha 700 with one in my hands, working.

David