Indholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2017 i Camera

ELEVENYEARS AGO – almost to the day as I write this – a group of camera journalists were gathered in the sunny forecourt of a Tokyo office block, enjoying coffee and pastries. The offices belonged to Sony Corporation and we’d all just attended a technical briefing on the brand new Alpha D-SLR system, launched the day before. As I chatted to a senior Sony executive, I happened to glance across the small valley beside the office block to where the skyline was dominated by another high-rise emblazoned with the red Canon logo. The exec followed my gaze and smiled. “That,” he said quietly, “is where we’re going to be eventually”. He didn’t mean the location, of course, but Canon’s number one position in interchangeable lens cameras, then dominated by D-SLRs.…

CELEBRATING ACHIEVING SECOND place in interchangeable lens camera sales in the USA, Sony intends to keep up the momentum with the much-anticipated launch of its first A9 series full-35mm format mirrorless body. Similar in styling to the A7 models, the A9 is specifically targeted at the top-of-the-line ‘sports’ D-SLRs, so the emphasis is on speed which is delivered via a new ‘stacked’ back-illuminated CMOS sensor, powerful ‘Bionz X’ processor, a significantly bigger buffer memory and 693-point phase-detection autofocusing. The sensor’s stacked design enables a quicker read-out which Sony claims is 20 times faster than that of the A7 II’s imager. As a result the A9 can shoot at up to 20 fps at its full effective resolution of 24.2 megapixels and with continuous AF/ AE adjustment. More importantly, there’s no…

Current to 16 July: Exhibition. Ross Coulter: Audience. A photographic series documenting audience members pictured in more than 70 Melbourne galleries and museums from 2013 to 2016. Part of the NGV Festival Of Photography. At NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3000. Gallery hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm daily. Admission is free. For more information telephone (03) 8620 2222 or visit www.ngv.vic.gov.au Current to 23 July: Exhibition. 2017 World Press Photo Awards. Winners and selected finalists from the world’s most important competition for press and documentary photography. At the Brisbane Powerhouse, 119 Lamington Street, New Farm, Queensland 4005. Exhibition hours are 9.00am to 9.00pm Tuesday to Sunday, 9.00am to 5.00pm on Monday. Admission is free. For more information call (07) 3358 8600 or visit www.brisbanepowerhouse.org Current to 30…

The Picture As Cuba starts to welcome more tourists from overseas, Havana’s magnificently restored Old Town Centre is a very popular place. Enterprising locals – including this trio – are making the most of increased visitor numbers, providing lots of opportunities to capture the local colour. This image is for a future article on the courtesies of photographing people when you’re travelling in foreign countries. The Photographer Camera editor Paul Burrows was in Havana to participate in the judging of the 2017 TIPA Awards and stayed on afterwards to make the most of a city which is destined to change, but right now is a photographer’s paradise. The Equipment Panasonic Lumix GX8 mirrorless camera fitted with an Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f2.8 PRO zoom lens, hand-held. The Technique It’s…

OVER 227,000 ENTRIES from 183 countries were submitted to the 2017 Awards, making it the world’s largest photography competition by quite a significant margin. Frederik Buyckx’s photographs were selected from the winners of the Awards’ ten Professional categories. Chair of Judges Zelda Cheatle explains the choice. “I have chosen a series of landscapes so that we may return to the essence of looking at photography. Landscape is often overlooked, but it is central to our existence. These are beautiful pictures made by a serious photographer, and they are to be enjoyed. I hope this award will inspire many more photographers to take pictures that do not simply encompass the terrible aspects of life in these troubled times, but also capture some of the joys and loveliness in each and every…

DIGITAL SLR CAMERAS BUYER’S CHECK LIST JULY/AUGUST 2017 THIS CHECKLIST is designed to allow direct comparisons between different camera models, here listed in price order within each brand. The published prices are mostly supplied by the distributors as recommended retail prices (RRPs). However, some distributors are no longer supplying RRPs to the media so it has become necessary to determine an ‘estimated street price’ derived from the range of prices for a model published by retailers. Where this has been necessary, the letter ‘E’ appears at the start of the entry. A dot appearing in a column indicates that the feature is available on the camera model listed. Where a specification or product detail hasn’t yet been published or confirmed, the letters TBA (to be announced) or TBC (to be…

YOU HAVE UNTIL 2 August to get your entry into the 2017 SkyPixel Video Contest. Skypixel is billed as “the world’s most popular aerial photography community” and the competition is run in co-operation with DJI. All drone users are invited to submit their video vision of the world in any of three categories – Nature, City or Sport. The contest is open to participants from around the world, whether you are a new drone user, a professional videographer, or someone who just wants to showcase their creativity from above. “Since its inception in 2014, SkyPixel has become the largest community for aerial enthusiasts and photographers from around the world. We now have over four million users worldwide using this platform as a way to share their perspective of the world…

AT A ROUGH count, Sony is launching one new FE mount lens per month at the moment which is another indication of just how serious it is about getting to the top of the ILC market. Joining the 100-400mm telezoom announced along with the A9, are two wide-angle zooms – the FE 16-35mm f2.8 GM and the FE 12-24mm f4.0 G. Like the 100-400mm, the 16-35mm is a high-performance ‘G Master’ model which are designed to compete with the likes of Canon’s L Series models. Both the new wide-angle zooms feature fully weather-proofed external constructions and Sony’s ‘Direct Drive Super Sonic Wave’ (DDSSM) autofocusing motors which have been specially designed to meet the demands of internal focusing using large-diameter elements. The 16-35mm’s 16-elements optical construction includes two ‘XA’ types –…

IT’S CALLED THE Spark and it’s the smallest drone yet from DJI which describes it as its “most personal product yet”. This is because one of the Spark’s party tricks is to automatically line itself up and take selfies… a bit more classy than a telescopic stick, eh? There are already small drones available, but these are mostly toys, while the Spark incorporates all the smart technologies DJI uses in its bigger models, and incorporates a gimbalmounted camera with a 1/2.3-inch CMOS image sensor. Full HD video is recorded at 30 fps and stills at 12 megapixels resolution. A really clever feature is the Spark’s ‘Gesture Mode’ which enables it to be flown by hand signals. It takes off from the palm of your hand and then fly either left…

What makes a cult camera? It’s highly likely designers and product planners don’t really know – otherwise they would make one every time, wouldn’t they? But sometimes the stars align and everything just comes together so sweetly. Canon did it with the original EOS 5D which really came into its own with the Mark II, the added video recording capabilities establishing it as the go-to D-SLR for movie makers. It’s a reputation that’s been sustained despite the appearance of many competitors. Canon admits that the 5D II’s success in the video market took it largely by surprise. Panasonic hit the jackpot with the Lumix GH3, consolidated it mightily with the GH4 and is now raising the bar again with the GH5. If you’re using a hybrid-type camera for video-making, it’s…

It’s probably merely coincidence, but every time the annual judging of the TIPA Awards comes around, there always seems to be a really appropriate Fujifilm camera on test. Back in 2012 when the destination was Cape Town in South Africa, it was the X-S1… the perfect superzoom camera for going on safari (and it’s a pity Fujifilm hasn’t continued to develop this model). In 2013, the location was Hong Kong where the X20 high-end compact was the best thing for shooting in crowded streets. In 2014 we headed for Canada with the X-T1 which – as the first weather-proofed X Mount camera – acquitted itself admirably when photographing the Northern Lights just outside Yellowknife when the temperature was a challenging -30 degrees Celsius. The X-T1 just kept on working. In…

Prime telephoto lenses are wonderful things, but they’re also highly specialised, unless you’re shooting sports or wildlife all the time. It’s a lot of expensive lens to have sitting around idle in between the few times you want to venture to 300mm, 400mm or even 600mm. So a 150-600mm telezoom looks like a much better alternative, not just in terms of practicality, but also affordability. Of course, there are always compromises, and let’s deal with the two main ones right at the start. A supertelephoto zoom like this is always going to be comparatively slow compared to a prime lens, especially when the focal range is also long. But it’s those large-diameter elements that make an f2.8-speed 300mm or 400mm so expensive… and so big. And the question has to…

EVERY SO OFTEN here at Camera we like to check the pulse of so-called ‘analog’ to check that the patient is still alive and breathing. The last time we did this, it was starting to look like a move to intensive care might be necessary, but things have improved quite dramatically in the first half of 2017 to the extent that the vital signs are starting to look quite encouraging. The big shot in the arm, of course, has been the announcement from Kodak Alaris that Ektachrome 100 colour transparency film will return towards the end of this year. Kodak may be a shadow of its former self, but it’s still a pretty big operation (now split into UK and US arms) and it wouldn’t be reviving the iconic E6…

THE LOCALLY-RUN 2017 Sony Alpha Awards received over 1500 entries from both professional and amateur photographers in Australia and New Zealand. The grand prize winner is John Ford, from Rotorua in New Zealand, who receives $3000 of Sony Alpha camera equipment and the opportunity to embark on a ‘once in a lifetime’ overseas photography workshop with Sony Global Digital Imaging Ambassador Craig Parry. Craig comments, “The Sony Alpha Awards is a fantastic event to celebrate photographers and their amazing artwork. This year we saw such a high calibre of entries, which made it extremely hard to pick our finalists and winners. In particular, we really enjoyed seeing the entries for our new ‘Youth’ category – it is great to see such passion and enthusiasm for photography at such a young…

PIONEER OF TTL flash control in pro-level lighting equipment, Profoto has returned to the product which started it all – the B1 battery-powered Monobloc – and extensively updated it to create the B1X. The new version has a more powerful LED modelling lamp – now equivalent to a 130 watts halogen source – and higher capacity battery which delivers 50 percent more energy and an extended HSS flash power range.The new lithium-ion battery pack remains the same size and weight as before, but can now deliver up to 325 full-power flashes (and obviously a lot more at lower outputs). The B1X retains a maximum flash power output of 500 joules with an adjustable range over nine stops, adjustable in 1/10-stop increments. This nine-stop range is now maintained when also shooting…

Determining exposure settings – apertures, shutter speeds and sensitivity – is not solely dictated by how much light is available, but also by the type of subject that you are photographing and what visual effects that you want to create in your picture. Modern cameras are able to control exposure automatically based on the amount of available light, but these settings are entirely dictated by technical requirements with no scope for any creative considerations. In other words, leaving the camera in auto won’t give you the amount of control you want, particularly in terms reproducing movement – blurring or freezing – or obtaining the necessary depth-of-field. Consequently, you may wish to switch to either semi-auto exposure control or fully manual operation. Here’s how the exposure control modes work. PROGRAM (P)…

WINNER Talk about relaxing! James Hardwick has encapsulated serenity with this beautifully composed study taken in Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park. The near-perfect reflections and the dead branch create a very nicely balanced picture. James used a Sony A7 with a Sony 35mm f2.8 wide-angle lens. ENTRY GUIDELINES FOR DIGITAL IMAGES You can enter the Fujifilm Showcase by sending your images files on disc or USB drive. Alternatively files can be sent directly via email to cameracomp@avhub.com.au. The requirements for submitting digital files are as follows: • 300 dpi resolution, and at a file size which enables a reproduction of up to 20x15 cm. Please avoid submitting overly large file sizes, especially when emailing the images. Up to 4.0 MB in file size is more than sufficient. • Digital…