WelcomeToCatcliffeDemon

I’VE BEEN LOOKING into copyright of late. Not for any particular reason (although I do own a website that features over 2,500 images of freight wagons, so it’s a useful subject to know about!) but just because it’s something that crops up in lots of conversations, especially regarding the Internet and publishing, both topics that I tend to muse on quite a lot.

Anyway, I came across a couple of useful links that may be of interest. Firstly, there is the Creative Commons site, which has a answer for every copyright query that you may have, as well as an excellent selection of downloadable html code that you can apply to your own web pages. Then there is Lawrence Lessig’s presentation regarding the growth of copyright restrictions and the effect that this will have on creativity. Put aside half an hour to look at this now.

With bodies such as the RIAA even going after websites that reproduce guitar tabs (BBC link here), you do not have to be a rocket scientist to see that things have gotten out of hand. The music industry has just got greedier than was previously thought possible and it does ask the question of just what constitutes fair use any more but, anyway, that’s a subject for another post.

FORGIVE THE PLAY on words. I’ve been looking around at further lens alternatives to solve my current lack of wide angle/close focusing capability and I’ve found the situation to be less than satisfactory. It seems that if you are looking to buy a camera body then you have a wide range of choices that suit most users and most price points. Nikon, for example, can supply you four digital SLRs between £300 and £3,000, the D50, D80, D200 and D2Xs.

With lenses, however, it seems that your choice is limited to bargain basement equipment or top end gear, with no inbetween. Want to buy a Nikon 18-55/70mm lens that is cheaper than the f2.8 but better than the f3.5-4.5. Hard luck! You can have a 28-85mm/f2.8-4 IF but this lens is getting on a bit and its not known for being the sharpest tool in the box. Of course, things don’t necessarily work like that, and often newer f3.5+ lenses are better for overall optical quality than the older f2.8 versions, which just adds to the confusion.

One issue at play here is that speed is king in the inclement British weather and while most snappers can quite easily stop down to f8 or more to get that sharp image free of vignetting, railway photographers do not have that luxury. Shooting a moving train at f8 or more is almost impossible at 100ASA in the UK for much of the year! Am I asking too much for a fast 18-70mm (f2.8-4) for under £1,000?

Sigma AF 17-70mm f2.8-4.5 DC Macro

With this in mind, I’ve been looking at lenses from other manufacturers, such as Sigma (whose AF 17-70mm f2.8-4.5 DC Macro is pictured above) or Tamron. Both firms offer zooms in that crucial 17/18-70mm range that can offer a decent mid-range f2.8-4, which beats Nikon’s version - and at the same price.

Of course, like a lot in life, you do get what you pay for, and there are question marks over the quality of both the Sigma and Tamron lens. For under £300, you should not be expecting a lens that will feel as solid and reliable as Nikon products at twice the price.

Ultimately, I’ve decided to wait it out and see what the Nikon 18-200mm is like. I’ve waited over three months for the damn thing already and if it is half as good as the reviews suggest then hopefully I won’t regret the decision.

‘Airfix made me the man I am’

THE FIRST THING I thought on reading the above magazine entry on the BBC website, which covers the story that the world famous kit manufacturer Airfix has gone into administration, was that this surely wasn’t the first time! Well, I was right, the company briefly went bankrupt in the 1980s, a situation that was blamed on everything from the then new computer craze, to the rising price of oil, a key component in plastics manufacture. Today’s crisis will see similar fingers pointed.

Airfix’s range, which has encompassed around 850 kits since the 1940s, covering subjects as diverse as motorbikes, merchant ships, jet airliners, tanks and railway buildings, will live on. Old injection moulded plastic tooling never goes away. Hornby, the railways and slot-car conglomerate, for example, has already been linked with the range.

What’s more interesting about the story is the outpouring of angst from middle-aged columnists, who are clearly finding the situation a little too much to handle. And, I guess that this is something that will affect this demographic more than others. You won’t see many women or young men crying over their beer tonight at the prospect of a life without Airfix.

In a way I sympathise. It could just be that I am one of that last generation of men who all built plastic kits. I’m know that, for instance, my brother, who is just a few years younger than me, or his friends, never bothered. While the hobby didn’t stop dead after me and my peers moved on, the widespread take-up of kit building by the majority of boys certainly did.

What Hornby might make of the range, who knows. It could be it ships all the tooling to China to be assembled, painted and shipped back. This is no joke, several former kits from US railroad manufacturers are now only available in this way!

So, a sad indictment of a lack of attention span society that mocks those that who attempt to actually make things with their hands or just another sob story of a manufacturer that failed to keep up with the times?