I always get excited to see new products on our shopping pages. As a member of ULYSSES, I’m happy with the sense on fulfillment:) On the other hand, I get nervous if these are the things our customers were waiting for? do they like the products?? Such being the case, I often go check “My Favorites with ULYSSES”.
You can see the image posts from our customers there. The images show their beloved cameras with all kinds of ULYSSES products. They always energize me a lot!
We recently started a photo-sharing page for customers oversea as well. We believe the image posts are the great sample cases for various angle shots and colours, so please send us your photos after purchase and let’s share the images with old and new ULYSSES fans.
Francisco Scaramanga – Body Suit for SONY RX1R/RX1/RX1R
Now the clay dried, I began to shave and shape the clay into the more exact figure of the grip.I shave, grasp, shave, and then again grasp and again shave… I repeated the work. After about an hour, I could see the rough model and put it on the RX1.
This is still a rough model, and I think it needs to be compact in shape a little more.
As I told you last time, I made the finger groove only for the middle finger, leaving the dent the middle finger made and scraping the rest of the dent off.
When you see it from the side angle, the bottom part of the grip is wider than that of upper part. I didn’t aim to shape this way but it became naturally; after I repeated shaving and grasping, I just got the grip like this. This shape reminds me of a grip of single-lens reflex camera, which made me think that this is right and the shape has significant meaning. I kept scraping the clay while indulging in deep emotion.
I have to be very attentive when scraping around the gently curved fragile groove. It easily gets over done so I had to add some more clay on it. Finally I finished with fine sandpaper.
To tell you the truth I’m up to something. I’m hoping to make this grip made of natural wood.
I believe the grip now became quite simple looked from its side. However, it is different from common grips on the market; it covers almost all part of side of the camera, which enables your entire palm to stick to a grip tightly and increases the hold dramatically.
This is the front from the right angle. You can tell it has rather deep finger groove. And also the upper part of the groove for your middle finger is shallow while the lower part for your ring and little finger is rather deep. You must be wondering how this works…
Well, as you can see from the picture, you can twist your middle finger around the grip and you can use your ring and little finger to grasp the grip tight since the grip has height and depth to do it.
When you hold the camera without a grip, you just have to grasp it like the way you squeeze it with friction force and you need grip power, and maybe to avoid dropping the camera, you have to put your ring and little finger under the camera. But it’s quite unreliable to hold the camera as expensive as 400,000 yen, over $3,200. (Of course, actually you support the camera with your left hand, too.)
Well, now the shape has decided but I think the true making of the ideal grip starts from here.
I have no idea if we can really curve a grip out of natural wood with such complicated shape and if we can make the base mold of aluminum (without becoming expensive) to begin with.
There were a few posts about a new camera case development before, and finally, we introduced that case on our English web shopping page. The name is 【CUBISMO】. It debuted as a brother-like product of popular camera case 【CUSCINO】. Its smooth touch of leather and soft cushiness are outstanding and it is certainly the leather goods for grownups.
It was a long way to convert from my hand made samples to specification for producing, but the craftsmen who work for us made so much effort to meet our many and very precise requests!
To begin with, I show you a front view of 【CUBISMO】.
In the same way as 【CUSCINO】, this new soft case is made of very soft Italian vegetan leather, and has 4 colour variations.
The face with the sharp diagonal lines is looking very original, isn’t it?
Some may already noticed, 【CUBISMO】 means “Cubism” in Italian. This geometric patterned face is the reason why we named the case after a well-known art movement.
Of course, it was not designed only for “style”. This part can neatly cover up lens of camera. It fits well with wide FUJIFILM X100T and chunky Panasonic LX100 too!
I have been working on the plan, which popped up suddenly, to make an ideal grip for RX1R2. This is the second progress report. Last time I wrote and showed the picture that I put some clay on the RX1 and squeezed the clay, not thinking too much, just hold the grip freely as I feel the best angle to press the shutter.
The next step is to scrape extra clay from this dumpling like lump of clay, but how I decide “excess” part is rather difficult.
Generally, the biggest fault of the grip with finger groove is that it is nothing but hindrance when it doesn’t fit to your hand. So, I decided to think what is the “perfect grip”, which fits everybody regardless of the person’s hand size or how to hold the grip.
Individual difference on how to grip is actually related to the length of the index finger. As the position of the shutter button is fixed, the person with short fingers has to fit the hand tight with the grip to reach the button; you come to hold the grip from oblique angle inevitably, so that your index finger reaches the button with the shortest distance.
On the other hand, for the person with bigger palm and longer fingers, their fingers are in excess on the small grip; so when they want to fit their hand with side the grip and hold it tight with their fingers, they naturally shift their hand backwards of the camera.
When you hold the heavy single-lens reflex camera, you can obviously tell that the important finger to grip the camera is only one: “the middle finger”. As you can see from this picture, the camera won’t fall when the middle finger catches tightly even if a thumb and the index finger are off. To tell you how the other side of the camera is…
The base of the thumb joint bites into the camera’s corner; the camera is supported mainly with two points of joint of the middle finger and a thumb, and a remaining fingers play supplementary role.
After these things considered, I came to the conclusion: “the most important thing is that the middle finger functions as a fulcrum accurately irrespective of the size of the hand.”: “Whoever holds the grip, the middle finger passed through almost the same place.” So I decided to leave the dent the middle finger made and scrape the clay off the dent the ring and the little finger made.
Now here I have to wait to leave and dry the clay for about two days.
It has been a while since the RX1RII was announced to release overseas and I can’t stop wondering when it is going to be on the market.
Well, the best selling body suit in Ulysses is for the RX1. (And it is still constantly selling.) To think that it has been three years since its release, you can call it unusually long seller.
When we ask our users the reason, they say it’s the grip; with the body suit, it is very easy to hold the camera. Since the grip part of the RX1 is rather flat, and the space between the grip and the lens is narrow, they feel it is a little hard to hold tight.
Now today’s main subject is from here. I have been thinking some “ways to hold the RX1 better except for the body suit” for a long time. It is so called the external grip.
Of course I know there are a bunch of metallic grips launched from third parties and I’ll tell you that, I’ve bought all kinds of them available on the net whether it’s made in Japan or in overseas. However I haven’t met the right one for me; I always find something wrong with it. I’m sure it means it is so difficult to make the “the grip which fits everyone without a sense of incongruity”. Now, we, Ulysses, would like to challenge the task all the more for its difficulties.
First, I started to come up with a concept of it.
Able to obtain the natural comfortable grip no matter how big or how small your hand is and how you hold it.
Suitable (of course not too eccentric) design to match the RX1.
The grip with high quality material.
The grip that makes you feel happy to hold it and makes you feel like taking more and more snaps.
Something like this? Well, I’m afraid I raised the height of the hurdle so high by myself, didn’t I?
Next I thought how I can figure the shape of the grip close to the ideal one. Fortunately, the size of the hands of our staff members is all different; there are people from 150cm high to over 180 cm in Ulysses. So we could try and inspect the grip quite widely.
Then I tried making a basic design using clay. I started the work after I covered the camera with a masking tape, since I can’t put the clay on my precious RX1 directly.
Next, I heaped clay on the grip part; I heaped clay rather much at the beginning, since I will shave later anyway.
Then I held the grip and squeezed the clay. Hey guys don’t tell me my hand is hairy!!
Then I got something I have no idea what it is. On the clay, I can see palm print clearly as well as fingerprint. If this is found on the murder scene, it is too easy to specify the criminal and it’s gonna be no dramas. Oh, well…
If I make the grip without thinking based upon this clay, it’s going be one fit only for one person. So this is just a model. Well, you’ll see how it is going to be. I’ll get back to you soon.
Hi there, it’s Sato. I have been working on a side pocket design which can take a water bottle, but it seems to be impossible to complete because of many restrictions, the bag size and material etc.. After trying a variety of shapes and constructions, we decided to shift this idea to optional bottle holder that is separated from bag. I show you a rough sample of this holder. The tube shaped holder is closed by a pair of fat Velcro in front at the moment, but the design of this sample needs some changes to be refined. I will sew more samples to make it better!
Meanwhile, something unexpected happened. A bottle of water for sample making was missing…Ah, my boss Enzo drunk it impulsively. (Just as I though…) Yes boss, I know air is very dry and it would happen to anyone here;-)
The design meeting went on for a while without bottle. Then suddenly, we heard the loud patter of footsteps, and he rushed to a convenience store to get new bottled water. Wow, so nimble! He must have felt some kind of urge for creation.
A few minutes later,
“I went up to 10th floor by momentum.” Boss said panting heavily.
Well, our office is on 7th floor… Anyway, at Ulysses, we are all working with passion for creation!
I often hear that the rules to limit batteries to bring in the aircraft are becoming severe recently.
I noticed that people understand about this matter differently; some say, “You can’t bring any batteries into the cabin.” others say “No, no. You can’t just check in the batteries but you can take them on board.” So I tried researching about this matter.
What I found out first was that sometimes even the same battery should be dealt with differently depending on whether it carrying in or checking. And also it is dealt differently by whether it is “in the device” (doesn’t matter it can be taken out of it or not) or it is “spare”.
【The batteries allowed as carry-on luggage are…】
Rechargeable batteries used in consumer electronics, such as laptops, cell phones, digital cameras and video cameras, and other personal electronic devices—Also OK as checked luggage.
Spare batteries for the electronic devices above. (No number limitations)— But not allowed in checked baggage.
The rechargeable batteries that contain no more than 8 grams of equivalent lithium content or 100 watt-hours (wh) of power per battery set in the professional movie cam or the equipment for medical treatment. —Also OK as checked luggage.
【with some limits】
Passengers can bring up to two spare batteries larger lithium ion batteries for the professional movie cam or the equipment for medical treatment. —But not allowed in checked baggage.
While smaller lithium ion batteries are allowed on aircraft, larger ones containing more than 25 grams Equivalent Lithium Content (ELC), such as batteries for electric motor bicycle, are not as neither checked or carry-on luggage. It means you can’t transport them by air.
Well, as a general passenger you can just keep 1and 2 in mind.
Simply put. You can bring as many as smaller batteries used in personal electronic devices such as cameras and cell phones as far as you take them into the cabin.
Great relief. (But honestly, I don’t understand why the batteries in the device are allowed as checked luggage while not allowed when they are not in the device.)
The batteries for the laptops seem very big but they hardly contain more than 8 grams of equivalent lithium content or 100 watt-hours (wh) of power per battery, so can surely take them into the cabin.
By the way, in the guidelines of Cathay Pacific Airways about batteries, it says…
Terminals of all spare lithium batteries placed in carry-on baggage must be protected from short circuit by:
Enclosing them in their original retail packaging, or
Taping over the terminals, or
Placing each battery in a separate plastic bag (or protective pouch)
Well these rules are the consequences of repeated warnings and requests from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from several years past. Other airlines might strengthen the regulations in the future.
So I’m considering of Ulysses making protection pouch to bring spare batteries for a camera on the plane, so that we can be helpful to the traveling photographers.
I have no idea if it is true or not, though. If it’s true it’s gonna be the biggest news for me for a whole year. I strongly hope it will come true!!!
However it is, I hope it be a camera which has a film winding lever to charge the shutter because I think Cosina is the only company that can make a highly reliable mechanical system and maintain the product.
To tell you the truth, I was seriously thinking to ask the company president directly to make one, thinking it was worth a try anyway. However now I’ve heard that they have already had a project going on within the company, I will just wait to see how it will turn out.
I‘ve been hesitating over a thing. Which wood of 【Display Cleaner 】 I should by?
Did I brow my own horn?? You might hear the loud sound・・・ but believe me, I didn’t mention that for PR. This display cleaner was designed by a product design team TENT. All wooden materials except walnut are exclusive for ULYSSES customers, so we sell only limited numbers of products for each edition.
Karin wood and Rosewood which I am interested in are more pricy than the others since manufacturing costs are pretty high. Walnut display cleaner is being sold for \3,000 and rosewood is \5,500 ex. tax. It seems expensive, but I am sure the both cleaners are worth the price. The textures of both woods are brilliant and I can feel the heaviness of the solid wood. I like it! I noticed a customer who purchased Karin today and I cried out inside “Nice choice!!”
(right: Karin, left: Rosewood)
As you may noticed, Rosewood is used for ULYSSES’s other product 【minimo】 and it is very popular. This cleaner has wide area to show the charm of wood grain, so it’s a kind of better for wood lover. I want to buy one for myself because I know it is a good buy and durable item, but still cannot decide between Karin and Rosewood… From the point of its price, they don’t sell like minimo, so we won’t order them repeatedly. I will try not to miss a chance to buy and check the number of stock frequently as a stock controller of ULYSSES. Please keep in mind, this didn’t mean for PR 😉
SONY has just unveiled the RX1R2 to renew its ultra-premium full-frame compact the Cyber-shot RX1R after three years since its release in November, 2012. And is it only me that the name RX1R2 strikes the name of the character in the world hot movie STAR WARS?
I think I don’t need to tell you about its specific details after all I believe you have heard them in many sites. However if I name some of the big changes from the last model are:
4-megapixel resolution Exmor R CMOS full-frame (35mm) sensor — the first for the industry
You can choose optical low-pass filter among Off/Standard/High settings to achieve image character you’re aiming for.
faster transmission speed and outputs data approximately 3.5 times faster, ensuring high-speed performance
Installed electronic viewfinder that pops and down, and do away with a built-in stroboscope (the RX1R didn’t have an EVF).
Tiltable LCD screen, instead of rigid screen
Both Wi-Fi / NFC for fast, simple sharing are available
The pop-up EVF was installed in RX100M3, but the viewfinder with RX1R2 has 4 glass elements; including two aspheric, with 0.74x magnification, crisp ability to focus, and minimal distortion. （RX100IV → ×0.59 magnification）
When you attach an optional eyecup, though you can’t put the EVF down in the camera, it seems good to shoot through a finder like SLR.
However, I regret a little that RX1R2 will be 2.4mm thicker than RX1R for it has a tiltable LCD screen and the back of the body no longer looks simple and solid. I just wanted the RX1 series simple and steady; if you want the camera with everything, that’s for α7Ⅱ.
Although, when looked from the front, the size of the height and width of the camera will not change, for EVF has to install in the camera, the lens barrel has to move to the side of the grip, which makes the grip part is narrow, making a little bit hard to hold the camera.
Well, so far we haven’t decided anything yet what to do though, we would like to consider item to make the best use of this “ultimate full-frame snapshot camera”.
I shave, grasp, shave, and then again grasp and again shave… I repeated the work. After about an hour, I could see the rough model and put it on the RX1.
