University of Bristol Photographic Society

Posted on February 5, 2010, 3:44 am by Niall Oswald.
Hi all,

A few announcements about kit and bookings:

1. Two new lenses available to book online! Nikon 35mm f/1.8 and Canon 50mm f/1.8

2. Canon 430EX flash repaired and available to book online!

3. Room Bookings

4. Kit and Workshop bookings - a bit long but please read.

==================================
1. New Kit!

Over the last few weeks we've had a spate of buying new kit. We've already announced the Nikon D70 SLR, and we now have 2 brand new prime lenses! The first is the Canon 50mm f/1.8, which is an ideal length for portraits and event photography. It can be used with our Canon film and digital SLRs.

The second is the excellent Nikon 35mm f/1.8 AF-S, great as a 'standard' lens on crop-cameras and again, for event photography. Because of the large apertures both these lenses are great for low light photography and giving a very shallow depth of field. The Nikon 35mm is compatible with all Nikon digital (but not film) SLRs including our D40 and D70.

2. 430EX repaired!

We've also finally got our Canon 430EX flash back from repair. It's working perfectly and great for Canon users to have a go at flash photography, and discover the advantage of an external flash over the popup flash on your camera.

All items are now available for booking in the usual way on the website. Just login and follow the link to Book Equipment on the left.

3. Room, Kit and Workshop Bookings

Its been brought to our attention that the room booking section of the website isn't working properly. We're working to fix this, but in the meantime could anyone wanting to use either the Darkrooms or the Penthouse Editing Suite please drop us an email letting us know when they want to use them. This will help us avoid clashes, ensure that Darkrooms are kept in stock with chemicals and paper, and generally keep an eye on their usage.

Possibly even more importantly, we need to keep a record to prove how much the rooms are used. The Union is poised to hand over a considerable amount of space to the University, and we need to show our facilities are used sufficiently to merit their continued availability!

Also, if you notice anything else not working on the website, do let us know at web@ubuphotosoc.com so we can fix the problem as quickly as possible.

4. Kit and Workshop Bookings

A very quick comment to the few people that haven't shown up to arranged kit collections or workshops. If you're not able to make something please let us know as far in advance as possible! Kit and spaces in workshops are always hugely in demand and if you don't let us know we can't make them available to others, not to mention the waste of the relevant committee member's time. It's not a problem if you can't make something (and a huge thank you to those of you that have let us know in the past) but you do need to let us know or we will start to restrict offenders access to events, workshops and kit.

Also, when booking out kit, we ask that you only book two consecutive slots at a time (i.e. one week). If you book more than this at once, we will ask you to cancel your bookings. If no-one else has booked the item out for the following slot by the day before you're due to return it, email me and we can normally extend your booking for another 3/4 days.

Finally, when borrowing lenses, can everyone please try to keep their fingers away from the front glass elements. I've had to clean some very mucky lenses recently when kit has been returned! (On the other hand, please don't try to clean them yourself unless you know what you're doing!)

Thanks,

Niall
Equipment Manager