Edmonton Photographic Historical Society

     The OPTEX T-12 tripod probably gets its name from its folded length. It is 12 inches (30.5 cm) from tips of the feet to the folded down head. Standing as shown it is still 12 inches from table top to tip of attachment screw. It weighs 594 g (21 oz).      Fully erect—including that column—the T-12 stands 23.5 inches (very close to 60 cm) tall. You get 3.75 inches (10 cm) of that height from the center column.      Yet there is a lot to admire in the design and execution of this Taiwan product.        Referring to the first image again, the leg locks are on the side of the leg. They lock up with the bottom leg section lock nestling into the top. They are out of the way and not likely to be snagged.      There is very little metal too. Other than the handle shaft, the leg sections, the spider arms, and the occasional nut, rivet or pin you have a lot of plastic.   But to its credit, it seems like good...

       The Pentax ZOOM 70-S replaced the Pentax Zoom 70 (1986). The Zoom 70 was the first autofocus camera with a built-in flash and a zoom. It was the first in the “Zoom” series. This Zoom 70-S (1998) came along 12-years later.      The bulk of the controls are clustered above and below the LCD display. The red button is the shutter release. Below the slider starts at “0” off and goes through “I” on and a green macro setting. On the back edge of the top there is a rocker switch for the zoom.      On the front of the camera there are two additional switches. The top is for the self-timer. Just above the switch is a red strip that flashes as the self-timer counts down. The bottom switch increases the exposure 1.5 EV to counter back lighting that would make the subject too dark.      A different kind of diagonal slider switches the flash from Auto in red to flash always on to flash always off. You don’t have any choice in Ma...

     This PatchMaster 3 in 1 camera trigger has three functions.        It can be a— Lightning Trigger Laser Trigger Time Lapse Trigger We will explain these functions later in the story. The front controls are simple. There is a button marked “function” that cycles the three types of trigger. The bars light up individually with a bright LED.      The only other adjustment is a knob that sets the sensitivity of the trigger. The ten bar indicator to the right of the knob has different displays depending on the function. The display can indicate the lightning sensitivity, the laser delay (the delay before the camera will fire if the laser beam is broken by an object) and finally the time lapse interval. All this is very clearly laid out in the instructions we will include with this story.           At the back of the unit there is a plastic accessory shoe that allows you to mount the trigger on any camera with...

I was thrilled to be offered this Sekonic Auto Leader III Lightmeter . There were no guarantees it was working, but the price was right (it was thrown in with a deal already agreed upon). The owner thought it would make a pretty swell Star trek communicator—you’ll see why soon—but I was curious if a selenium meter from a noted Japanese meter manufacturer would still work after all this time.      It came in a very nice leather case. We will return to the case at the end…      Once the case is opened the face of the meter was pretty typical of selenium meters. Starting at the top (far right) there is a meter cell cover marked with a red dot. The opposite end of the cover from the dot there is a push release that allows the cell cover to pop open.      Jumping to the hub of the dials   you can see three coloured pictographs (red, blue and black). The red one shows the meter cover in place opposite the red dot. This is the starting point to...