Griptac, where to buy? (updated again)

I have been researching for years to find the best material for improving the grip on a surface, for example a tablet, a tool, or a camera. The best I found so far is this.
But maybe it can get even better, I have heard of a material called Griptac (maybe). It is a flat material with a rubbery tacky surface, which you glue on the camera instead of the original leather.
It is supposedly amazingly good at making a grippy surface on cameras and whatnot, though the name seems to be used primarily on hockey sticks (that may in fact not be the same material used on them). In fact, the durn sticks are all I find when I search, even on eBay, trying to find a seller of Griptac. Does anybody know where I can get it?
[Note, early research point to cameraleather.com. I have written to them, but it's a bit unclear if they are still in business. There is also speculation that the word "Griptac" was made up, which would explain why it's so hard to find.]

Update: I've just gotten a mail back from CameraLeather.com, it seems they are in business. (And are rebuilding the site.) And do sell the stuff. So I consider this case solved. Thanks guys!
Update: CameraLeather will not reveal the source for the material, but from various clues I get the impression that it's basically just  strongly textured rubber, and should be available from, well I don't know, but some industrial sources. 

It is supposedly available in black or medium grey, the latter I find surprisingly attractive on the different cameras I've seen it on.

Photo: Christopher Liando

Photo: Louis Meluso

Front cameras will get better

Here's a prediction: with selfie-sticks now taking over the world, the iPhone 6s surely coming in fall will have the front camera upgraded to 5-8MP (it is a measly 1.2MP now! That's what a cheap digital camera had around 1998. Apple still calls it a "Facetime camera", it was not meant for real photography, but for video chat).

With the front camera now being used sometimes even more than the back camera, it's stupid to have it be dramatically lower quality. (No criticism of the phone makers, I don't think anybody foresaw this explosion of selfies, and their improvement by the simple selfie stick (you don't get the close-up distortion of faces, and you get much more background, making the images potentially interesting to more than just the participants).)

Photo: Martin Parr

Update:
Anon said...
In the old days you just asked someone else to take your picture.

Blogger Eolake Stobblehouse said...
... And hoped you could run faster than they!
(Ah well, probably not too many cameras were stolen that way, percentagewise.)

Once, dining with my sisters, my younger sister asked a waitress to take our pictures. She politely did. When she had taken two pictures, my sister who was never shy about giving orders, said to her: "Now you stand over there and take another one."
In my embarrassment, I said to the waitress: "Don't worry, we won't charge you for the photographic training."

South African canopy walkway

What an exceptional idea. And how pretty.

Roost Laptop Stand | Free yourself from laptop neck pain

Do you get stiff neck or back trouble from tilting your head to look down at your laptop?
The Roost Stand is by far the best solution I've seen to this problem. And it's a beautiful piece of engineering.
You can get one here.
(I'm sorry to sound like an ad, but I just love this gadget. And it's unique, so I want it to stay around. I have tried debilitating neck pain from wrong computer use!)

Though it takes two seconds to mount a laptop, it does not fall off. 

Three different heights. Use external keyboard. 

... Though I currently rarely use a laptop, I am getting a Roost Stand now, to make sure I have one when I have the need. - Eolake

Full Frame vs Micro 4/3 Revisited with Pro Olympus Lens

Full Frame vs Micro 4/3 Revisited with Pro Olympus Lens, article/image comparison.

You have hear me, and maybe others, sing the praises of Olympus' compact PRO zomm lenses. I am sure that many have thought: "Well, I'm sure they are very niiiiice, for the format. But it's only half the frame [and weight] linearly of Full Frame cameras. Surely to get real professional image quality, you need a 'real' professional camera and lens, like Nikon or Canon full-frame..."

This would be natural. In film days, image quality was directly tied to the size of the negative, because a film was a film, and you could not get them sharper than they could make films. But now it's years since the resolution of a milimeter of film was surpassed by a milimeter of digital sensor, so cameras and lenses can be made much smaller/lighter without downsides, excepting low-light performance (and if you need very shallow depth of field).

Well, the test linked to above was made with a current Canon full-frame camera and a Canon professional "L" type lens. And lo: not only did the Olympus lens compare well to it, it beat it handily.

So, if you need to make hand-held photos at night (I'm being literal), go for full frame. If that's not a pressing issue, pick a good camera in a size which is comfortable for you.

Farthest flight by hoverboard

[Thanks to Tommy]

I founds ol' camera

I finally felt nostalgic enough to re-purchase my very first serious camera, the Konica TC.

It feels delightful. It was a period of great spiritual/mental growth in my life.

It's also just a charming camera which "feels good" in the hand, like some things do.

It's shockingly simple, particularly compared to the million-feature cameras of today.

It also has a fully non-electronic shutter, it can shoot without a battery. It came in 1976 or so, just before the electronic camera revolution of the insanely successful Canon AE-1, the first camera with a chip. After that, it was a sign of professional ambitions if a camera had *any* non-electronic shutter speeds and did not become a door stop if you removed the battery.

The TC though was part of the trend towards compact cameras. It was not at all easy to do, it takes very skillful engineering. I think it took like six years before anybody (Pentax) replicated the ultimate small size of the Olympus OM-1 from the early seventies. The TC was not that small but was noticably smaller than previous generations.

(Yes, it really is me, and my Konica, not (yet) a viral Net object. I added the catz meme just to class up the joint.)

Voice box testing

A tribute to Miyazaki

Celles et Ceux des Cimes et Cieux from Gwenn GERMAIN 

A tribute to Miyazaki (Totoro, Kiki, Ponyo). Made and animated by one person!

Olympus M.Zuiko 7-14mm F2.8 PRO Lens Review

Robin Wong is more fun to read than dry lens tests (or camera tests). These days he works for Olympus, but it does not sound like he is writing more positively than he did when he was just a fan.
Olympus has released a super-wide edition of their PRO line, making it complete, and Robin reviews it.  The PRO line is dust and splash-proof, of the highest mechanical excellence, and optically so excellent that just ten years ago people would not have believe that zoom lenses could ever get so good. Hell, they are so good that even prime lenses would have to be Leica or Zeiss to be that good (and these zooms are a dang sight cheaper than those, even though of course they are double what a normal lens costs).

These kind of lenses (also existing in the Canon and Nikon world, but much heavier) are very popular with pros, because just one covers a lot of your shooting in top quality, and with two, say the wide-to-normal and the normal-to-longish-tele, you cover pretty much everything which does not come under specialist territory (like wildlife or architecture photography).

Robin is also fun because he very often manages, just in walking around testing a lens, to capture many really lovely photos from his native Malaysia.

[Click for big pic]

Can you believe this nice bokeh on a super-wide? That's because, as I forgot to even mention, the PRO line is also faster than normal zooms, being F:2.8 across the zoom line. This is a big part of their size and price. 

rare footage of 1950s housewife in LSD experiment

Patrick Bruel - J'te le dit quand même

This is interesting. When a song gets popular enough, you don't have to sing it yourself anymore...
It's really sweet.




Of course, with a partner like this, you may like to. Durn, she lovely.