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The decidedly ” not-so friendly skies”

16 April 2017 by Harold Glit

By now, most people living in America have seen the video of the forceful removal of doctor dao from United airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville,KY last Sunday. As someone who has extensively traveled by commercial flights over three continents over the last decade, i have long been of the opinion that for the last 10 years or so, flying on most large airlines in America or in Europe offers more and more similarities to “cattle transportation”.
Overbooking incidents are frequent in the USA but this specific incident will , I think set a precedent because it has FOUR characteristics probably never combined before in a single occurrence : [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rants & raves, Travel

Traveler ‘s alert on car rental

5 September 2016 by Harold Glit

For domestic and overseas travel alike, some of your journeys are likely to include renting a vehicle at some point. Nowadays , the choice is plentiful. You can book through your travel agent, directly from the car rental company(online or not) or through third-party sellers on the internet. This last method is becoming popular because it seems to offer some savings over the other methods. But one has to be careful for the kind of companies you are dealing with.
I am now able to advise you against one of these companies : Arguscarhire.com ( also doing business as car trawler.com). First a foreword: when I rent a car, I use all these THREE methods for car rentals depending on several factors ( Is there a rental company that I trust in the car pick-up area, have I dealt with this location before, do I need a specific vehicle,..)
Over the last 2 years, I had rented vehicles from this company several times before I found the issue. On first sight, the choice seems to make sense : the site is easy to navigate, allows you to pick the rental car company  (a MUST, in my opinion, when renting a vehicle), the pricing is competitive and clear BUT there is a catch, and a big one in my opinion !
Very often, when you rent car online, you have TWO different prices for one given rental  depending if you want a cancellable and refundable contract or not. It is the same as when booking hotels room online on many sites. As for me I generally prefer to pay a slightly higher price for the added flexibility, especially if the car rental is taking place during the middle of the trip. No problem since arguscarhire has a option with a 24 hour prior notice policy, you think : well yes EXCEPT Argus carhire does not honor its policy and will try every dirty trick in the book to prevent you from cancelling your reservation.
In July I had made three reservations with Argus carhire one in the USA and two in France. As it happened I needed to cancel two of them and was dumbfounded about the response from the company. For the US reservation, I tried to cancel online 36hours before but when logged in  got a message saying that this could not be canceled online as it was supposed to be. The “contact” button was strangely unresponsive. The company is based in the UK so calling from somewhere with a 8 hour time difference is both an expensive and unpractical option. I tried and got nowhere.I finally was able to get an email address and the got an answer THREE days later saying that the car cannot be cancelled AFTER the pick-up deadline. In other words, they just sit on the email until AFTER the deadline to inform you that this too late to cancel. What they tried to do for the French reservation was even worse and the emails I got were almost insulting with their content.
BOTTOM LINE is if you are a smart traveler and do not want to get screwed by a company which is dedicated of giving you phony excuses when you try to change or cancel the reservation when you are within the time frame to do so, do NOT use this company. I know I won’t . Not worth the hassle.

Filed Under: Rants & raves, Travel

My Top 5 “best bang for your buck” micro 4/3 lenses

24 August 2016 by Harold Glit

When choosing a camera system, one must pay attention to the lens line-up. It is not wise to select a camera if most of the focal lengths you need are not in the line up. Without a doubt the micro 4/3 system has the largest lens line-up among any digital mirrorless system. It offers over 40 different AF lenses from Olympus and Panasonic with a few Sigma additions (I am not even counting the manual focus lenses available for the m4/3 mount for this ranking). Recently olympus added some highly professional lenses with the 4/40-150mm and the 4/300mm. Other highly regarded lenses from their build and performance include the Panasonic 1.2/42.5mm or the Olympus Zuiko 1.8/75mm.

However lots of m4/3 users  chose the system for its diminutive size and weight. The light traveler is also going to pay a close look at small lenses for the systems. Most of these very light lenses bring about a lighter build and smaller maximum apertures . But what you lose in DOF control and build does not necessarily means you have to compromise too much on performance. Early on Olympus and Panasonic proved that they could offer useful lenses being very small and light while providing very good to excellent performance and at a very reasonable cost. I voluntarily excluded ANY m4/3 lenses which retail at $400 or more. the Olympus 1.8/45mm and the Panasonic 1.7/20mm were among the first to establish this trend in the m4/3 system years ago but we got more little gems over the last few years.
I would like to add that I own ( and have tested) ALL the lenses included in this article.
The Sigma 2.8/60mm DN (here in black and here in silver) is both a useful focal length of 120mm (in 35mm equivalent) and a lens getting  great reviews. It is currently priced at $209 and $239 for the black and silver versions respectively and includes both a pouch and the hood which is really amazing at that price-point.Therefore probably deserves to be on this list but since I never tried it, I decided not to include it for the time being.
Now,without further ado, here is  MY TOP 5 selection for small and lightweight m4/3lenses which offer great value for the price : [Read more…]

Filed Under: Photo, Photo equipment review, Rants & raves, Travel gear

(continued) the worst of 2015… and what to expect in 2016

5 January 2016 by Harold Glit

Different photographers have different needs and/or budget limitations. For instance, as I travel extensively overseas by planes, weight and size is a major concern for me when selecting photo equipment. A pro photographer always traveling with assistants, or mostly by car may not have the same restriction. Many “photo experts” would argue that there is no “bad” camera  per se when one considers the image quality possible even on the cheapest models.
That being said, there are each year some new products which fail to impress either by their features, or by their questionable design and/or ergonomic choices , or simply  in terms of pricing compared to their competitors.
Hence here is my “worst” list for 2015. These are two recent camera models  that I would not recommend to anyone :

Canon G5X. This product was announced alongside a more entry-level model named G9X. Canon compact cameras have been very popular for the most part and it is likely that because of Canon name and distribution network this new G7x would sell in large numbers. This model  is supposed to be the “expert”model in the product line-up (retail price is at $750) but yet does not allow continuous shooting in RAW mode. You can only make ONE picture before the shutter stops to clear the buffer. Therefore you can forget taking pictures of your kid or pet running in the garden , or simply any kind of street event. I was able to take some pictures at the fair when the camera was introduced and there is definitely a price to pay for the relatively small size of the camera. I have normal average male hands and the camera did not feel that easy to hold and operate.Image quality is unchanged from the Gx7 model.

On a different size of the spectrum in terms of size,another oddball in my opinion is the new Leica SL. this big camera body sports a relatively average 24MP 35mm sensor and use the same mount as the Leica T. But since the Leica T has a smaller APS sensor, your choice is limited to ONE zoom lens for the time being if you want AF lenses which cover the full 35mm sensor. With an adapter you can use the M lenses which are great but only in manual focus. While the camera is weather-sealed and features a very high resolution EVF, I still cannot fathom what is the market for this camera outside the die-hard Leica geeks.

Think about it : The Leica SL costs $7,450 body only and more than $K12 with its 2.8/4 24-90mm zoom lens. If size is not an issue for you, you can  get a Nikon D750 with its 24-120 zoom lens and get better image quality in a more usable body and features a long list of AF lenses in the Nikon or Sigma catalog. the Leica SL is FIVE TIMES as expensive as the Nikon D750. So even for those who believe that the Leica signature is worth extra money , it is a reach.
If you have larger hands or need ultimate quality , you can get another big weather sealed body for $500 by buying the Pentax 645Z (here).The sensor size is more than 2.5X times the surface of the leica SL and has a modern 50MP sony sensor and therefore offers MUCH better image quality than the SL, has more AF lenses options, better controls and menu organization…
This blog is about traveling light so covering the Pentax 645Z would not make much sense but there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that this model is the absolute best model for your buck for photographers who need the ultimate image quality along with great camera controls for their work.
There is also something else to keep in mind for a photographer who is willing (and able) to spend that kind of money is the lack of choices in AF lenses for this new model. Leica has now FOUR different lens systems for its interchangeable cameras : M lenses, S lenses for its manual format camera, T lenses in APS sized sensors and SL lenses in 35mm. This is a recipe for disaster and one can be sure that at least ONE of this new mount is not going to see much activity. If you do not believe me, look at how many new APS lenses Sony has been introduced for its APSsensor cameras since it developed its A7 series with a 35mm sensor.

There are however, some interesting products on the horizon. And since 2016 is a Photokina year (the largest and best fair for photo equipment which is held every other year in Cologne -Germany) one can bet that 2016 will be a more prolific year than 2015 was in terms of innovative models. At the CES show that started today there are already some interesting announcements: Along with its new flagship 35mm DSLR the D5 Nikon has finally released its successors to the D300s with the Nikon D500.
Panasonic just introduced today its new TZ100 which will be in direct competition with the Canon G5x and the Sony Rx100’s. Panasonic should announce in the spring a GM1/GM5 successor; the GM line being the “mini” line in the m4/3 rd camera system.

Stay tuned

Filed Under: Photo, Rants & raves

A special day for amazon members

15 July 2015 by Harold Glit

Hello Everyone

I have not posted much lately as I am working and enjoying myself in my favorite state (Oregon) and I intend to explain why it is such a great taste in a future post this july.
Today, if you are an amazon prime member , this is a day with LOTS of special deals.
You can use this link here  to see the details. And for those of you who are interested in the new Ricoh GR II, some good news. Ricoh USA has decided to lower the launch price to $699 instead of $799. Unfortunately this decrease does not apply for European customers. For US orders, the GR II at its lower price can be ordered (here)

Hope you are all enjoying your summer and making  some beautiful images.

H

Filed Under: Rants & raves, Tips of the month

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