luminescence

Thanks one and all for your feedback, I will follow up on some of your tips. I think I resigned myself in the first ten minutes that I would never see all the gear again. To answer one question, yes I think there are highly organised gangs in France that know how to target people. I may have even been followed as a lone driver when driving my motorhome from Italy to Portugal through southern France. I stopped for the night at a truck stop and was robbed while I was fast asleep in the middle of the night. I kid you not, they broke into the camper through the passenger door by forcing the lock and must have had a torch. I am usually a fairly light sleeper, I did not hear a thing probably because I was exhausted from driving the day before. They got credit cards, passport and cash as well. One would not think to take precautions when "safely" locked in the van but people are becoming more devious and desperate these days, so all travelers have to be prepared "as if". I usually hide my camera bag under a storage seat but left it in my wardrobe that night. I left my wallet and passport in my shorts on the seat, they should have been taken out and hidden away. Even experienced travelers like myself for the past 20 years can get caught out by letting your guard down for a moment. Now I strap up my front doors with rubber straps, so even if they forced the locks, it would be impossible to open the doors. If I had woken up and disturbed them, who knows what might have happened if they were armed so I figure I got off lightly.

Thanks one and all for your feedback, I will follow up on some of your tips. I think I resigned myself in the first ten minutes that I would never see all the gear again. To answer one question, yes I think there are highly organised gangs in France that know how to target people. I may have even been followed as a lone driver when driving my motorhome from Italy to Portugal through southern France. I stopped for the night at a truck stop and was robbed while I was fast asleep in the middle of the night. I kid you not, they broke into the camper through the passenger door by forcing the lock and must have had a torch. I am usually a fairly light sleeper, I did not hear a thing probably because I was exhausted from driving the day before. They got credit cards, passport and cash as well. One would not think to take precautions when "safely" locked in the van but people are becoming more devious and desperate these days, so all travelers have to be prepared "as if". I usually hide my camera bag under a storage seat but left it in my wardrobe that night. I left my wallet and passport in my shorts on the seat, they should have been taken out and hidden away. Even experienced travelers like myself for the past 20 years can get caught out by letting your guard down for a moment. Now I strap up my front doors with rubber straps, so even if they forced the locks, it would be impossible to open the doors. If I had woken up and disturbed them, who knows what might have happened if they were armed so I figure I got off lightly.

Thanks one and all for your feedback, I will follow up on some of your tips. I think I resigned myself in the first ten minutes that I would never see all the gear again. To answer one question, yes I think there are highly organised gangs in France that know how to target people. I may have even been followed as a lone driver when driving my motorhome from Italy to Portugal through southern France. I stopped for the night at a truck stop and was robbed while I was fast asleep in the middle of the night. I kid you not, they broke into the camper through the passenger door by forcing the lock and must have had a torch. I am usually a fairly light sleeper, I did not hear a thing probably because I was exhausted from driving the day before. They got credit cards, passport and cash as well. One would not think to take precautions when "safely" locked in the van but people are becoming more devious and desperate these days, so all travelers have to be prepared "as if". I usually hide my camera bag under a storage seat but left it in my wardrobe that night. I left my wallet and passport in my shorts on the seat, they should have been taken out and hidden away. Even experienced travelers like myself for the past 20 years can get caught out by letting your guard down for a moment. Now I strap up my front doors with rubber straps, so even if they forced the locks, it would be impossible to open the doors. If I had woken up and disturbed them, who knows what might have happened if they were armed so I figure I got off lightly.

Thanks one and all for your feedback, I will follow up on some of your tips. I think I resigned myself in the first ten minutes that I would never see all the gear again. To answer one question, yes I think there are highly organised gangs in France that know how to target people. I may have even been followed as a lone driver when driving my motorhome from Italy to Portugal through southern France. I stopped for the night at a truck stop and was robbed while I was fast asleep in the middle of the night. I kid you not, they broke into the camper through the passenger door by forcing the lock and must have had a torch. I am usually a fairly light sleeper, I did not hear a thing probably because I was exhausted from driving the day before. They got credit cards, passport and cash as well. One would not think to take precautions when "safely" locked in the van but people are becoming more devious and desperate these days, so all travelers have to be prepared "as if". I usually hide my camera bag under a storage seat but left it in my wardrobe that night. I left my wallet and passport in my shorts on the seat, they should have been taken out and hidden away. Even experienced travelers like myself for the past 20 years can get caught out by letting your guard down for a moment. Now I strap up my front doors with rubber straps, so even if they forced the locks, it would be impossible to open the doors. If I had woken up and disturbed them, who knows what might have happened if they were armed so I figure I got off lightly.

Sorry for you. Perhaps you could say a little more about the circumstances? I had all my gear stolen on a train before Christmas and know of at least one other photographer who had the same problem recently. Station / train theft here (in France), I discovered afterwards, is a big and organised thing. Camera cases and Manfrotto tripod bags are  clear signals to thieves. It got me thinking very seriously about how much kit it was reasonable to carry vs the revenue generated working with it. Decent camera insurance in France is virtually impossible to find.

Despite being relatively new, I saw some news a while back that they actually had already helped someone recover stolen gear.

This site might help for tagging your gear. https://www.lenstag.com
Also maybe the authorities can track the use of your credit card with the person who stole everything else?
 
 

That really sucks and it must feel awful! ...I will say this after having lived in France for some time. If I were you, I'd check leboncoin.fr. It's the go-to site in France for buying and selling stuff. I'm sure there's all kinds of stolen stuff on it. You might find your gear and be able to alert the authorities. The other option is to just chalk this one up as "lost forever" ... and this will be an opportunity to get some new gear!

Sorry to hear about your loss. I hope you have reported everything to the police and the embassy. I doubt whether anything can be recovered. 

~ http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Genuine-Panasonic-VYK6B43-Eye-Cup-For-Lumix-DMC-GH3-GH4-Camera-/222001230060 VYK6B43

The invaders have now been turfed out.
 
Please delete any PMs you got from spammers.
 
Sorry this happened, I wasn't expecting it. Basically a bot used the "sign in with Facebook / Twitter" to gain access to the forums and slam it with spam. These features have now been turned off for new users. If you want to register as a new user you have to set up an EOSHD account.
 
Cheers

Great news! Kowa re-entering the cinema business :)
 
http://www.43rumors.com/new-kowa-micro-four-thirds-cine-lenses-announced/
 
8.5mm T/3.0
12mm T/1.9
16mm T/1.6
25mm T/1.9
50mm T/2.1

Thought some of you might like to know that Samy's is selling GH3 bodies for $698. I could not believe my luck as I had one in my Amazon shopping cart for a couple of weeks. Then yesterday I saw that the price had gone down from $998 to about $800. So I opened another window to do a separate search for the GH3, it showed that it was even cheaper and that the source was Samy's.

Is  there something that I am missing here, is it too good to be true, or is Samy's just overstocked?

moon 7 is probably the best hack I've used. I've had no worries matching it with gh3 footage, I think the picture style you choose would have more effect than what hack you choosem in terms of matching.
 
One thing to keep in mind if you are travelling. The GH3 is much more rugged. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZpj0vLtkAI
 
Panasonic Lumix GH3 with 45 - 200mm
 
Frame 300% Fast and 40% Slow, edited by Sony Vega 11
 
The wind at the airport is too strong and my camera is shake a bit.
 

 

 

Very interesting article, however from my current viewpoint in Thailand, it seems that these big manufacturers might be making up their shortfalls in Asia. The amount of Chinese tourists sporting semi pro and pro Canons and Nikons is mind-boggling. Three or four thousand dollar cameras dangling around their necks. The new money in China must regard these big ass cameras as some sort of status symbol. The local cafes see them all sporting iphones and tablets , but unlike other areas in the world, you see them actually using the big cameras. Maybe its a passing fad,  maybe not - maybe a whole stream of photographic creativity will emerge from Asia in the next ten years. I also noticed at a local shopping centre  that Nikon was doing a big promotion for advanced DSLR's to a packed audience of local Thais and Chinese.