"Grey Market", Should You Avoid It?

Another question I get frequently from photographers that are new or photography students is “should I buy “grey market” camera gear and what exactly is it other than cheaper?”

First, let me start by saying ALL the major camera manufacturers are foreign to the USA and have USA counterparts that import and sell their products in the US. Nikon and Canon both have their US offices located on Long Island, NY and most of the rest of them are located in New York City as well.

These US offices are the ONLY source for importing the camera bodies, lenses, etc from the factories in Japan, Germany and elsewhere and selling in the US market with USA warranties.

Image of legit Nikon D7000 USA model box from Ken Rockwell

The reason many people are attracted to “grey market” items is the savings in pricing vs buying in the US. Most of the time, the “grey market” items are made in the same factory as the USA items to the same specs and using the same parts and quality control, but in this day and age there is a LOT of counterfeiting going on out of China, so you have to be very careful.

When you by a “grey market” item, you cannot go to Nikon or Canon US and get service or warranty repair. Even if the item is made in their factory, since it was not imported by the US division and they did not get their mark-up, they are not obligated to honor any warranty and they won’t.

Right now their is a large legal battle between Canon and “Grey Market” sellers on eBay. Canon USA is suing them for hurting their business, which is odd as the “Grey Market” sellers have been doing it for decades and Canon didn’t seem to care until just recently.

Some of the large, reputable dealers even sell “grey market” lenses at least, B&H is one of them and they even have a “grey market” section on their site that explains this. Now in the case of a large company like B&H, they offer a comparable warranty on their “grey market” items and service and warranty them through their massive store in NYC.

Many people have differing opinions on “grey market”, my opinion is do your homework and then decide for yourself. I have bought some “grey market” lenses as the savings were huge compared to buying the USA model and the dealer I bought from is very reputable and warranties the items themselves, but not all of them do and many use slick talk and ads to con you out of your money so you do have to be careful. I would NOT buy a camera body “grey market” as it’s the most important piece of my photography set up. I buy genuine USA models only from an authorized Canon dealer so I know when it needs service I can send it to Canon US.

I’ve mentioned in earlier blog posts several ways to save on lenses, like buying them from pawn shops, CraigsList, eBay or from a members of local camera clubs. Most new photographers, and especially photography students don’t have Trust Fund money, so find those deals where you can. I’ve even made a fair share of extra money buying old FD lenses for almost nothing from local pawn shops as they had been sitting on them for 10-12 years and them sell them on eBay for a massive profit and then use that money to buy the new lens or body I wanted.

Is “grey market” for you? Only you can decide that, but be careful and do your homework. Remember the old adage, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”.

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ImagingUSA 2016

This week I wanted to write briefly about last weekend’s Imaging USA 2016 event put on by PPA here in downtown Atlanta.

Welcome banner at ImagingUSA 2016

Imaging as some of you may or may not know is a huge annual photography convention put on that draws huge crowds and the largest companies in the world of photography and photo equipment.

Companies such as Canon, PhaseOne, Millers, Denny’s were there as well as Tamron, Sigma and many others. Speakers included Julianne Kost from Adobe, Lindsay Adler, Sue Bryce, Landon Day, and Ty Fischer just to name a few.

Sigma Photo Art Lens banner

 There were tons of new photography tech items there such as an item called the Ice Light, which can be used for portraits and is nice and portable and can actually be held by the model wherever the photographer needs lighting. Another company, GroWing had a newer invention called the Lens Flipper, that allows you to attach two of your lenses to either side of this device and quickly switch lenses in the field while shooting.

Just a small sample of the crowd waiting to get into the expo opening day.

The expo had tons of things to see and do and plenty of give-a-ways going on every day as well. I was lucky enough to win a few 8 x 10 metal print from AdroamaPix as well as a free phonebook from another print vendor.

I didn’t not get to take in any of the speakers or spend as much time as I would have liked because of the car accident I was in back in October and still having a lot of back and neck pain, but I had volunteered to help out and didn’t want to leave them in a lurch so to speak.

Imaging USA is certainly something I highly recommend everyone take in at least once. If you are a photography student, you can sign up as a student volunteer and get to attend the entire event for free with a full access pass and attend all the lectures you want during your downtime. Volunteers are generally only scheduled to work 2-5 hours a day so you can take in a LOT.

Next year’s Imaging USA will be in San Antonio, TX January 8-10th, 2017.

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A New Year, New Opportunities

With the start on Friday of the 2016 calendar year we are faced with new opportunities as photographers. This is a good time to reflect on the past year and what worked, what didn’t and what you can do to change things up in the New Year.

Maybe you have an idea for a new personal project, or want to have your first exhibit of your work in a local gallery. Now is the time to be making those plans and working on making them reality.

As photographers, we must alway be learning new things, trying new things and challenging ourselves to be better, more creative and more business minded if we want to do this as our chosen career. Don’t let yourself get caught up in the hype of new camera gear coming out in 2016 with new bells and whistles, remember my earlier blog post about it not being about the camera.

Build on the the skills you know, become a master at what you do, but also learn new things. Don’t let yourself become stuck in a rut only doing one or two things when it comes to photography. You need to learn to be versatile and ready to tackle anything new head on.

One of the things I want you to avoid in 2016 is changing gear unless it’s absolutely necessary to your business. I have read article after article on pros who have started out on Canon or Nikon and sold all they had and switched to the other, or to Fuji, or Sony, only to eventually switch back. It’s a total waste of money to do silly things like this, so unless you have tons of cash to burn, don’t do it.

Generally, you are better off once you choose the system you are going to work with, to master it and stick with it. If you invest tens of thousands of dollars in bodies and lenses and then decide to switch systems, you have to sell all your gear at a loss because it’s used and buy all new again. Stick with what you have and learn to make it work for what you need.

You did’t originally choose the platform with the best high ISO, low light capabilities, then get better glass, like F/2.8 or wider lenses to compensate for that. Better glass is always a sound investment as you can use it over and over again for years on body after body.
For me personally, since I was side-lined by a bad car accident in October, I am dedicating my time and energy into drone photography for now. With my back messed up, I cannot walk a lot or stand for hours shooting right now, so I am learning and studying drones as a platform. I have already been working with three different systems to learn and train on and will be buying my first DJI Phantom 3 this coming week, so look for more articles and posts on my work with this new aerial platform in the coming weeks and months.

I can work with the drone platform, especially the Phantom 3 platform as it has the most intelligent systems of any drone on the market for photography. It can be set to basically fly itself so I can concentrate on operating the camera to capture great stills and stunning videos. All while sitting fairly comfortably in a chair, allowing my back to heal from my surgeries.

So, for 2016, I want you to get out there and take the bull by the horns and move yourself forward as a professional photographer and business owner. Expand your horizons, learn new skills, make your clients happy and LOVE what you do!

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Drones or Aerial Photography Platforms

This week I want to talk about one of the latest styles in photography, drones or aerial photography platforms. As I am sure most of you are aware, drones have become more and more popular not only as a “toy” like the AirHogs for kids but also the professional drones like the DJI series, which are made for professional photography and cinematography.

This year for Christmas, if you went into ANY of the local stores here in the ATL area that carried RC items, all of them were sold out of drones about a week before Christmas. You’ll also know from my post last week that the FAA just started requiring drone owners to register themselves with the FFA and received a unique FAA ID in order to fly them legally even for hobby.

As someone who loves to photograph landscapes and my Forgotten Pieces of Georgia series, I am embracing the unique perspective you can obtain with a drone. I recently bought a fairly large unit called the Syma X8C, which is the same size and shape as the more popular DJI Phantom series, but at a fraction of the cost. I bought one of these models as most do as a starter drone to learn on and get used to the controls and flying in general. Now I AM planning to move up to the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced, which runs around $1,000 the first part of 2016. My little Syma came with a fairly low quality 2MP camera that can shoot videos and stills and do so from the radio transmitter, but you can modify the unit to carry the GoPro Hero 3+ and other such action cameras and I will be doing that mod to mine as soon as the parts arrive.

Now, what makes the DJI Phantom 3 such an expensive platform? Well the folks at DJI have purposely built the Phantom line with photographer’s in mind. It is capable of take off and landing on it’s own. You can upload GPS WayPoints to the drone to make it follow a specific route and shoot video or stills. It is basically a “smart drone” which means the machine itself can do ALL of the flying, while you the operator concentrate on just shooting with the onboard camera. The Phantoms can come equipped with a 12-16MP high resolution camera that can shoot anywhere from 2.7K to 4K HD video.

The Phantom units and some of the cheaper ones like mine also have FPV (First Person Viewing), which means it can beam what the camera sees live back to ground and onto your iPhone or Android device so you can use them as a remote Electronic Viewfinder and frame your shots properly. DJI’s drones are becoming especially popular with studios as a typical camera boom truck that a studio will rent for shooting a movie, runs around $60,000 a day to rent. Now this cost can be greatly reduced as the studio can buy even the most expensive Inspire 1 professional cinematography drone from DJI at $5,000 a piece and get the same shots they would get with that boom truck for way less money. They can buy 5 or 6 of these drones and use them over and over for movie after movie.

So, how good are the DJI Phantom photography platforms? Well look at the images here or videos online and jude for yourself. Here is a beautiful video from Kauai, HA and he shot all of it on the Phantom 3 Professional at 4K HD video.





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Drones and FAA Registration

So this weekend I wanted to write about something a little different, drones. Drone have become more and more popular especially in photography because they offer a unique new perspective, allowing photographers to photograph from up high or in areas hard to reach by foot.

One of the most popular drones for photography these days are the DJI Phantom series and with good reason. The company that makes this particular drone has done everything in their power to make their drone the most intelligent model on the market. With smart take off and landing capabilities, “follow me” the ability to upload pre-determined way-points for the drone to follow, they have made flying this model kind of “idiot-proof”, so that you can concentrate on taking amazing photos or videos and not worry about keeping the drone in the sky and stable.

Now, of course with drones and their ability to go and photograph basically anywhere, they have caused some controversy, especially when it comes to people’s personal privacy and where drones should and should not be allowed to go and photograph or shoot video. So, now the FAA has stepped in and set up rules and guidelines for the use of drones, also known as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for short. For now, the FAA has set up registration for drones that are being used for hobby only via their website. For those that use them for business, you need to obtain a special exemption as they will not have the complete rules, regulations and registration system in place for business use until mid-2016.

Now as far as registration is concerned, it is officially open as of Monday December 21st, 2015 and is fairly basic. All you have to supply to the FAA is your name, address and email address. No information on the make or model of your drone or drones. When you register, you will receive a unique FAA ID number that you must put on ALL of your drones so that they can be identified. They will also email you a certificate that you MUST carry on you at all times when operating your drones, either a printed copy in your wallet, or the ability to pull up the digital copy on your smart phone or tablet is fine as well. The registration is only $5 for three years and if you register by January 20th, 2016, the $5 fee is refunded.

Under the new UAS laws and regulations, you cannot legally fly your drone without having it registered first, to do so you face up to nearly $300,000 in fines and 3 years in prison. Your drone only has to be registered if it falls between the weights of .55 pounds to 55 pounds. You can read more information on the rules and register your drone here,
FAA UAS Registration Page there is also a PDF document with some of the most common models of drones listed and whether or not they meet the registration guidelines.

So, now that you know more about drones and the new FFA registration and rules, get out there and makes some awesome aerial photos and videos and be sure to post them on PSPN!

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Portrait Lenses

Since as a photographer portraits will probably be your bread and butter, this is a question that is asked a lot by photography students, “What lens or lenses are best for portraits?”

As a general rule, we recall people’s feature best from what’s called the 15 feet rule. In the case of facial recognition, when we see a familiar face, our brain is triggered to reconstruct an image of that face and those features as they appear from 15 feet away according to researchers, so,in order to achieve realistic proportions, we need to shoot from around 15 feet from the subject.

Outdoor portrait shot from around 6 feet with my EF 85mm F/1.8

So, what is the optimum portrait lens? Well it depends on how much of a person you are shooting and show much you want showing. If you want the whole person standing, then you would use a 50-70mm lens, if they sit down then a 50-105mm would work great. If you want a tight head and shoulders shot, then you’d want at least a 200-300mm lens since you want to still be around 15 feet away. Ever see a professional model shoot on location? The photographer is usually using a fat lens on a monopod like a 300mm F/2.8 or even a 400mm F/2.8.

Now I am not advocating that the 15 feet rule is set in stone, different photographers will shoot from different distances to get the look they want. I will sometime used a 50mm and get closer to the subject, with the 50mm, the distance is around 5 feet with a full frame body like I use and I also love, as many photographers do, to shoot portraits with my 85mm portrait lens and when using that lens I can stand at around 9 feet from the subject and fill the frame nicely.

Environmental portrait of WWII actor shot from around 15 feet with 70-200mm lens at 200mm

Many photographers these days will just use their 70-200mm F/2.8 for all their portrait work, which is why this particular lens is the most popular and the lens that sells the most by any builder. One thing you do want to remember when shooting portraits is to be mindful of the distance you shoot from as when you get closer you can make the subject’s nose bigger and their ears smaller. Shoot from too far away and you make their face flat.

Also remember your depth of field as generally the idea is portraits is to make the background disappear, you want the background to be blurry and out of focus as your subject is the important part of the image in an portrait.



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Christmas Sales for Shutterbugs

Since we are rapidly approaching the Holidays I thought this would be a good week to post an article on some good gift ideas you can share with your family if you are a shutter bug or gifts you can buy your shutter bug.

Canon released the 7D Mark II not long ago, which has been a very successful follow up to their popular 7D and now the 7D Mark II is $1,049 down from it’s original price of $1,400, but you have to buy it with a PIXMA PRO Printer. If you want to catch this deal, run on over to B&H to get one, according to our friends at SLRLounge.

One again Amazon is blowing people’s minds by dropping the price of the original Sony A7 Full-Frame Mirrorless to under $1000 for the holiday season. You can run over now and get it, body only for $998 here.

Another great deal on the B&H site is Sony SD 32GB Memory cards at 94MB/s for $12.99. That is an insanely low price for such a fast memory card and if you remember my post from last week about memory cards, this is one of the ones you want.

For some holiday gifts for under $50, you cannot go wrong with the following winners for shutter bugs.

Joby Gorillapod tripod now just $39.99 on B&H, I personally have one of these and they are fantastic. You can literally wrap the legs around tress branches, fence posts, etc and mount your camera on it for unique perspectives.

Fotodiox Canon 24-105mm F/4 L IS USM Thermos Cup - $14.95

Pelican 0915 Memory card case - $17.99 This model is for SD, Mini SD and Micro SD cards and is made of Tough Polycarbonate Resin and water resistant. They also offer a model for CF cards (Model # 0945) if you have those as well like I do for $17.48

Last but not least in my opinion is the RAVPower 15 Watt Solar Charger with Dual USB ports that is foldable with iSmart Technology. This is one heck of an awesome way to charge your iPhone, iPad, or camera batteries out in the field. I am getting one this year after listening to my friend SnapChick rave about hers on her YouTube Channel. Currently on sale for $49.35 on Amazon.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and are lucky enough to be on the receiving end of one of these awesome gifts.


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