Here is how Bell & Howell was advertising its slide projectors in 1959.

And if you think that this was pretty innocuous, think about the lives of women in many countries were photography and their images may not even be their priority.

photo credit: EvelynGiggles

• …if the price difference with New is really large enough (don’t forget that in most countries and in Europe importing photo gear from outside requires to pay VAT and a few % of custom duties): Buy New if the difference is small, you’ll also get a manufacturer warranty.
• …if the selling web site is reliable (
  

  is rather good but is not the only one – your recommendations down below? What do you think about KEH or Adorama Used?)

• …if the seller is reliable. Most of the second-hand web sites have a rating system to know if their sellers have previously satisfied their customers. A good rating and/or many satisfied customers is a god safety net for you. Beware of accounts hacked by a third party: An account which did not move for a long time and starts selling expensive photo gear out of nowhere.
• …if the seller offers a free return condition if you are not 100% satisfied.
• …if the camera, the lens is in good shape (precise photos are critical and must describe the real object, not Nikon, Canon or Pentax official photos).
• …if the object is not naturally subject to time degradation. For example, photo film has a “use before” date. But this is also true of some cameras whose leather-like covering will unglue itself in time, and some Canon zooms are known for a really high failure rate of the IS system, etc.

With these tips, you are now ready for second-hand gear and for purchasing expensive gear at a very low price.

Source for this little game: PetaPixel. The surprising photographs are by Duncan Meeder – Foto Henny Hoogeveen (all rights reserved).

photo © 2011 jennifer chong | more info (via: Wylio)

This is visibly a consequence that could be foretold from the destruction generated by the earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. To give some perspective on this status in another industrial domain, Toyota announced that they were just restarting most of their plants in Japan but… that full production would not be reached before November or December. The issues with sub-contractors and suppliers will keep them waiting. The photography industry sees the same kind of problems.

So, a few new products will have to suffer a little from this:

• The launch of the new Sony NEX C3 (recently visible) could wait until June.
• The NEX-7 is still on schedule for July.
• The Sony Alpha 35 (next Alpha SLR camera, at entry level) will certainly have to wait until July.
• Le Sony Alpha 77 (future high-end SLR camera in the Alpha range of APS-C sensors) despite having been in the waiting list for a very long time will not be delayed (July anyway!) but will not be available before September; And don’t expect more than a few parts: Full production is targeting October (or even early November).
• No lens should be announced before August, maybe expect a 16-50mm to be presented with the A77 but probably not more available than th camera body.

While I’m at it, I have been confirmed that the launch of the Sony Portable PlayStation (game console) is still on the horizon but it could be not available before the Christmas holidays. Jack Tretton, president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, has publicly admitted that in order to alleviate such issues they are ready to prioritize world markets. Some region(s) may see the product while others will be waiting (Apple is known for using such tactics on the iPhone). I would bet a large sum of money that Sony is going to play the same card with photo cameras (and I would also be ready to say that some eBay users are already prepared to play with exchange rates to buy cameras on continents where they do not live).

Not taking photos is refusing to simply press the shutter button because we have seen something. Making a photo is a matter of attitude, being constructive in front of all pictures. We must choose our framing, choose our exposure, choose our depth of field, choose exact moment. This way, I will build my own photo rather than taking what appeared there. And, any photograph can have such an aim for quality.

There is no photograph to be taken, there are only photographs to be built. Thanks to Ansel Adams.

Ansel Adams - Yosemite Park

Animal Locomotion, by Eadweard Muybridge

This was really a photography marvel in a time when video was not an integrated feature of photo cameras.

Cassandra C. Jones did a relatively similar job from horse images collected on the Internet (probably with Google as her accomplice).

This is at GAP, it’s everywhere in the wolrd on the Internet, but also in all the GAP shops, in London, in New York or in Paris.