The Digital Camera has a number of natural predators – things that in just a few seconds could snuff out it’s life and render you camera-less. Learn to identify your camera’s predators and take a few simple precautions and exercise a little care and you can keep your camera operating at it’s potential for years to come (well at least until it’s time for an upgrade). You really can never do enough digital camera maintenance.

Here are 7 natural predators of the digital camera and how to avoid them:

Photo by ccdoh1

1. Sunscreen and Insect Repellent

It is important to protect yourself from the elements of sun and insect bites when shooting outdoors, however some of the things that you’ll use to do it can cause your camera harm. Sunscreen is generally oily and insect repellent often contains chemicals that you wouldn’t want to get in touch with the more delicate parts of your camera.

The way to limit the impact that these things have on your camera is pretty obvious and largely involves keeping those parts of your body that come into contact with these things clean. Wash your hands in fresh water after applying sunscreen and repellent and you’ll go a long way to keeping your camera clean. If you do get your camera greasy make sure you clean it off as quickly as you can.

Lastly – don’t fall into the temptation of putting sunscreen and repellent into your camera bag. I know it’s tempting so that you don’t have to carry another bag – but it’s really not worth the risk as a leak could end your camera’s life. If you do travel with them together make sure you have a sealed bag for the liquids.

Photo by Burps Liberty

2. Sand

There is nothing that frightens me more than the thought of sand getting into my camera. Cameras have moving parts and to get something as gritty and abrasive as sand into them can quickly put your camera out of action or at least damage it so that you end up with scratches through it.

Ultimately the only protection against sand is not taking your camera to sandy places. Of course this is not particularly feasible and you’ll need to do what you can to keep sand and your camera separate.

Sealable bags are great to travel with, cleaning brushes to get those stray grains off your camera can be useful and cleaning clothes are helpful.

Always be particularly aware of your surrounds and things like wind or people kicking balls or throwing Frisbees when you’re changing lenses, memory cards and batteries as these are high risk moments that sand just loves to swoop in. Also – learn to think ahead about what lens you might need so that you can change it inside in a more stable environment before hitting the beach.

Mamiya, famous for their venerable range of medium format cameras, has announced the release of two new lines of medium format DSLRs.   With megapixel counts between 22MP and 56MP, the four new cameras are at the leading edge in the medium format arena.

While hard and fast stats have not been released, and while the press release last week is heavy on information about new lenses, it is exciting to see Maymiya bringing more options to the medium format market.

While the initial prices for even the DM22 and DM28 lower range cameras will likely be in the multiple thousand dollar range, Mamiya still describes them as, “priced at extremely attractive points.”

Which brings me to a question for our readers; For camera body alone, when does a medium format camera like those from …

Sony has had a bad year in its LCD TV and games business but seems to have a winner in its DSLR cameras. Supporting this success, the company has fed the market with a stream of models to satisfy a variety of budgets and requirements.

Now three models: Sony Alpha 230, 330 and 380. The 230 is claimed to be “world’s lightest dSLR camera with a built-in image stabilisation system” in the body. Only the 330 and 380 have Sony’s unique Quick AF Live View feature.

The i-gotU GT-120 is the smallest, simplest GPS data logger I’ve ever used.  About the size of a 9V battery, the unit has only one button and two lights.  That’s it.  In this review I intend to relate my experience using this device over the course of three months of travel which included a 2500 mile road trip across the USA, 1200km of road tripping in North New South Wales, Australia and finally a week spent driving around the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada.  I feel I’ve given this unit a thorough testing and here’s what I’ve found.

First, the stats. 

• i-gotU GT-120 GPS Data Logger
• SiRF StarIII 65nm chipset
• 16MB of flash memory, recording up to 65,000 points
• 2 LEDs and 1 button
• Nifty rubberized cover, has loop for strap on the back
• Hole for lanyard attachement
• USB 1.1.  Comes with cable as it uses a proprietary plug
• Comes with @trip PC software (update: please note that it’s not available for Mac)
• Retail price – $70US

Here’s a quick video tutorial exploring the topic of focal length of lenses for portrait photography.

Portrait Photography Tips

I think it’s important to emphasise (as they do at the end of the video) that there are times when it’s good to shoot with a wide angle lens – but there are also some real benefits of longer focal lengths.

The lens being used in the video is a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS – one of my own favourite lenses also not only because of the focal length but how fast it is.