I see that HSBC Halifax Group cards are now working with ApplePay. We are now less then a day away from the release of OS 9 so the banks have taken a year before the majority of UK customers can use Apple Pay and we still have some of the big players like Barclays holding out.
Ilford get bought out
There are not many film manufacturers left. Ilford in the UK, Kodak in the USA and Fuji of Japan are basically all that’s left for traditional silver photography.
Not sure if I should worry or not but Harman the parent company for Iford has been bought.
14th September 2015
HARMAN technology, manufacturers of the famous ILFORD Photo range of Monochrome Photographic products, have been purchased by Pemberstone Ventures Ltd for an undisclosed amount.
Pemberstone, a UK based investment company have been tracking the performance of HARMAN for some time.Mark Anslow, CEO of Pemberstone Ventures comments:“We are very excited by the potential of the Analogue Photography movement and believe that HARMAN is uniquely placed to drive the resurgent Film market into the future”.
Peter Elton, Managing Director of HARMAN concurs.“Film has become an interesting medium for young photographers to work with again.We are seeing this very clearly. Our new owners will assist us to connect more effectively to this younger generation in the future, and we will prioritise this as our main goal over the next five years.”
“We remain totally committed to Analogue Photography, and indeed to all forms of Imaging.Our Product Range is uniquely stable and of the highest quality, and we can assure all of our customers that we will continue to support them in our customary way for the foreseeable future”
Apple News
So we got the expected updates for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, i’ll not be upgrading as my 6 Plus is fine.
The iPad Pro looks interesting, it will be dependent on what Adobe do on whether I finally upgrade my old iPad2.
A flurry of posts after nothing for a while
If you only check my blog every couple of weeks then you will not have noticed but if your one of my more regular readers who checks every few days then you will have noticed theres been a bit of a gap with no posts and now a huge flurry of catchup posts.
Well basically, after getting back from Orkney I started to feel a little under the weather, then after the weekend it hit me like a tonne of bricks, and I have spend fours days in bed with a blanket over my head not wanted to have anything to do with the world.
The fever, chills, constant headaches have now passed to the point where I can face a computer screen for at least a few minutes in every hour so I have been posting a few updates.
Shooting details
Even when on holiday to beautiful places like Orkney, I still look out for details and more unusual shots. The above shot of the cobbled slip way needed more dramatic light and then should have made a dramatic Black & White, unfortunately this day in Kirkwall it was bight sunshine.
Looking out for objects to photography, with it being a harbour then this lifebuoy just had to be photographed.
The last shot is the one that I think actually works from this set. After parking up near the harbour and walking into town this old petrol pump took my eye as we walked up an old street towards the centre of Kirkwall.
Crazy but cool camera accessories.
There are a lot of crazy camera accessories you can buy, some are just crazy others are way cool.
I’ll let you be the judge of this one but I think its very cool on the right camera. These are wooden camera grips from JB Camera Designs. On small mirrorless cameras I think they can look very good.
Well its Home coming Thursday
Well thats it.The holiday is over and we are back home and back to the routine of work. While I took my wildlife kit I did not manage to get any great shots this time unlike my week on the Shetlands in 2013 but it was a great holiday nevertheless with some fantastic live archaeology being done in front of our very eyes and new discoveries being made.
Leica’s CCD M series Sensor update
A while ago, Leica published some details about potential issues with the CCD sensors in their M series cameras. https://brown-family.org.uk/m9-ir-cover-glass-corrosion/
Until now if you had the issue Leica would replace the sensor with one from stock that potentially could have the same issue.
Well good news from Leica, they have announced they have developed a new generation CCD sensor for the M series and from now its these that will be fitted to Leica CCD rangefinders.
We are very pleased to inform you that we have successfully completed development on our new generation of CCD sensors and conducted subsequent quality assurance testing under practical conditions. As a result, Leica Camera AG can now begin replacing the sensors in the M9, M9-P and M-E models that were affected by corrosion with sensors from the new generation.
Sensor replacement for M Monochrom models will also begin shortly. We will inform you of the precise date of this as soon as possible.
On this note, we would like to remind our customers that we can only offer replacements for CCD sensors for cameras affected by this particular problem; prophylactic replacement is not possible.
We thank you for your patience and for your loyalty to the Leica brand.
Read more on LeicaRumors.com: http://leicarumors.com/2015/09/01/update-on-the-leica-ccd-sensor-issue-for-the-leica-m9m9-pm-em-monochrom-cameras-2.aspx/#ixzz3kxP5faRu
Photo of the Month – August
Leica M8.2
Leica Elmar-M 24mm f/3.8 ASPH
24mm, 1/2000 Sec at f/4, ISO160
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom CC2015.1 V6
On a MacPro, OS-X 10.10.5
Holiday Highlights – Ness of Brodgar
If your into archaeology, wildlife or even scuba diving, the Islands of Orkney are one of the best places in the world to visit.
For this this visit we concentrated on the archaeology and while we visited and entered the tombs of Maeshowe which was as spectacular as we remembered once I had managed to climb inside, and also the site of Skara Brae were the stone age (neolithic) homes are remarkably preserved.
But for us the highlight of the trip was the Ness of Brodgar, this site was discovered just after our last visit ten years ago when the local land owner went to plough this field for the first time. Immediately he hit stone and after the geo-physics had been done it was revealed that the whole site was covered with the remains of stone buildings.
For the last then years for the the eight weeks of summer they did at this site and discover more, its one of the great finds of prehistory in the world, a temple complex over five thousand years old.