COVID-19 Lockdown and Future of Landscapegear

There are enough emotional words being written about the situation, so we will just stick to the important information. As a non-essential business, we will be closed for the 21 days of the lockdown. Once things return to normal we will be back to business as usual.

To all our customers who are full time photographers;

This will be a testing time, but if anyone out there is a bit like me, then 3 weeks locked up behind the computer is a bit of a silver lining. There are so many things that we always tend to procrastinate on that can now get some attention. Organise your archive, clean up hard drive space, freshen up your website and social media, plan new projects…the list goes on. Make sure that you hit the ground running when the lockdown is over.

To all our customers who do photography as a hobby;

This is a golden opportunity to brush up on your editing skills, delete excess RAW files or finally build a website for your photos. For those who want to learn new editing skills, I always insist that you don’t have to pay for tutorials. There are so many free articles and videos on virtually everything. If you want to learn basics, go to Youtube and search the subject you want to learn. If you want to finally tackle luminosity selections, look no further than www.goodlight.us.

USD at R18 – The Future of LandscapeGear

When I started this business in 2014, a US Dollar cost about R10. I’ve seen a nice Gitzo tripod go from R8000 to R15000 over that period of time. There is obviously some inflation involved there, but in essence, most of our products have nearly doubled in price. It would be foolish to think that South Africans have bottomless pockets and that this can go on indefinitely. I know that at some stage, people will start looking for more affordable hobbies.

As things currently stand, with a US Dollar priced at nearly R18, we have to increase our prices by about 20% just to stay alive. Luckily, we carry a very deep stock pool, so we can hold out a few months without increasing prices. The silver lining to this situation is that for once the Rand’s weakening was not caused by anything we (RSA) did – you can call it the Corona Rand and once the pandemic is over, logic dictates that it should return to normal and we sincerely hope it does. If it does not, then 2020 might be our final year.

Leofoto & NiSi Promotions

In order to make it through this dire situation, we will be offering a 20% discount on all NiSi orders placed and paid during the lockdown. Those with income security can make use of the opportunity while also helping us to pay our overheads in these trying times. Once the lockdown is over, we will resume our usual standard of service and shipping to get orders out as fast as possible.

Our Leofoto stock is en-route and will probably spend the next 3 weeks at a Cargo hub somewhere, but once the lockdown is over, it should be here within a few days. As such, we will be making the stock available on our inventory over the next few days, so people can purchase any items they may want. We managed to pay for this first large order just before the Rand collapsed. If it does not recover, we will have to increase prices by 20%, so make use of the opportunity.

Free L-Bracket with any Leofoto orders over R5000

An L-bracket is such an essential tool for landscape and architecture photography, but many people reel at the price. We are thus very excited that we can price all Leofoto L-Brackets at R1299 – a disruptive drop from the usual R3000 price tag of Kirk L-Brackets. To get Leofoto rolling, we will be giving a free L-Bracket with all Leofoto orders over R5000. Once your order is placed, we will contact you to enquire which model you want. Below is a list of our incoming inventory – anything else will go on backorder for our next shipment and it will be first come, first serve on the incoming inventory.

Nikon D750, Nikon D810, Nikon D500, Nikon Z7, Canon 7D2, Canon 5D3, Canon 5D4, Canon EOS R, Canon EOS RP, Sony A6500, Sony A9, Sony A7r4, Fuji XH1, Fuji XT3, Fuji GFX50S, Fuji GFX50R

Looking back to 2014, it is fantastic to see how far we’ve come from stocking a few filter sets and 3 tripods to carrying nearly 1000 products across a vast range. We would like to thank each and every one of our customers from the past few years for their loyal support.

Good luck with the lockdown – we will be doing our best to share inspiring content and make sure that everyone is excited to get back into our country’s beautiful nature once things return to normal.

Hougaard Malan