Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2022 i Smart Photography

As we enter 2022, looking back at 2021 reveals a year beset with anxiety and uncertainties. The saving grace was that 2021 was marginally better than 2020, which was a complete washout. The factors that distinguished 2021 were: a) The world slowly getting back to normal. b) Juicy launches at the upper end of the market by the top companies. c) A wide variety of lenses being launched with an increasing number coming from China. d) The camera majors recovering from the slump in 2020. e) Chinese companies capturing an increasing share of the camera phone market. Hopefully, 2022 will see a return to better days for all of us and the Omicron variant will only be a mild variant of the original virus. Here’s wishing all a healthy, happy…

Samyang has announced four new XEEN lenses, including three Meister Cinema lenses (35 mm t/1.3, 50 mm t/1.3, 85 mm t/1.3) and a single 2x anamorphic lens (50 mm t/2.3). The three XEEN Meister cine-prime lenses are designed for cameras featuring up to 8K resolution and come with Samyang’s proprietary X-coating technology. The lenses offer the same t/1.3 apertures with a 13-blade aperture diaphragm across the entire range. Each lens has a 300 degree angle of rotation for the geared focus ring, 92 degree angle of rotation for the aperture ring, a 114 mm front filter thread and measures 127 mm in diameter. According to XEEN, the lenses are available for Canon EF, PL and Sony E-mount cameras. The PL mount version supports i Technology protocol, which enables cameras to…

Fujifilm has announced that the company has achieved a place on the “CDP Water Security A-List”. Fujifilm is one of the few companies out of nearly 12,000 that were scored. CDP’s annual environmental disclosure and scoring process is reportedly known for its corporate environmental transparency. In 2021, investors with over USD 110 trillion in assets requested companies to disclose data on environmental impacts, risks and opportunities through CDP’s platform. Fujifilm reports that since its establishment, it has actively worked on conserving water resources in an environmentally considerate way. The Sustainable Value Plan 2030 is the company’s CSR plan setting out goals to be achieved by fiscal year ending March 2031 (FY2030), including numerical targets for water resource management such as “reducing water usage of the entire Fujifilm Group by 30%…

Rishabh is a travel and lifestyle photographer based in Jodhpur. Having spent the initial years of his life there, it was after he acquired his MBA that he discovered his passion for travel and photography. He began as an accomplice and after a year, ventured out on his own. In no time, he went around documenting travel, culture, and lifestyle in various parts of Asia and eventually moved back to Jodhpur. What sparked your interest in photography? Tell us your story. After graduation, I went on to pursue a 9 to 5 desk job in a private firm. My only motivation was to fund my knack for travel. Amidst travelling cheap without tickets, skipping meals and living on the bare minimum, I found solace in clicking pictures, initially on my…

iPhone 13 Mini From ₹69,900 (128 GB) Inside the Box ✓ iPhone 13 Mini with iOS 15 ✓ USB-C to Lightning Cable ✓ Documentation Last month, we reviewed the largest and the most expensive iPhone in the market. Here we are, looking at the smallest and the least expensive of the 2021 iPhone models. The iPhone 13 Mini is the smaller version of the iPhone 13 with a lower capacity battery. Otherwise, both the models are identical in features and specifications. Design & Build Quality The iPhone 13 Mini is one of the smallest and lightest smartphones currently available, being 141 g in weight and measuring 64.2 x 131.5 x 7.65 mm. The iPhone 13 is heavier and bulkier at 174 g and 71.5 x 146.7 x 7.65 mm. The…

WE ARE GLUED TO THE GLOBAL IMAGING INDUSTRY Our team is updated with all the benchmarks and road blocks that the field of photography and imaging across the globe experiences. This helps us record the changes in the global perspective, thus making us the first to predict which products will be a rage in the Indian markets. WE’RE IMPARTIAL Loyalty towards our readers is a given, and their best interests are always on our mind. Every verdict is honest and not influenced by advertisers or personal favourites. So when we say a product is a ‘BEST BUY’, then, it is just that! OUR TESTS ARE CONDUCTED BY EXPERTS All equipment go through a series of tests at the hands of our experts. Our reviewers are experts in the field of…

Venus Optics has announced the release of Laowa 85 mm f/5.6 2x Ultra Macro APO, a compact and affordable mirrorless full-frame macro lens. The macro lens weighs approximately 259 g (Sony E) and measures Φ53 mm × 81 mm in size. A 46 mm filter thread is also provided for circular screw-in filters. This lens can focus from infinity to 2x magnification along with a minimum focussing distance of 16.3 cm. The optical design consists of 13 elements in 9 groups with 3 extra-low dispersion elements which eliminates the colour fringing at both in-focus and out-of-focus areas. The lens barrel does not extend in internal focussing design when changing focus. It reportedly avoids collision of the lens and the objects and helps in reducing the chance of dust getting into…

Nikon has announced the release of the Digital Sight 10 Microscope Camera, which enables acquisition of both colour and monochrome images with a resolution of 6K pixels across a large field of view using a single camera. To meet the need for acquiring large volumes of data and observe fine structures, Nikon has developed the Digital Sight 10 Microscope Camera that can acquire high-resolution images of 6K pixels (6000 x 3984 pixels) with a large field of view of 25 mm, which is optimised for microscope imaging by adopting CMOS image sensors in the Nikon FX format. According to Nikon, this will contribute to improved throughput by shortening the screening time for drug discovery research and reducing the number of images and the image generation time required for image tiling…

Nikon has announced that it has been selected for the highest rank “A List” by the CDP’s climate change questionnaire for the third consecutive year, from FY2019, recognising its efforts against climate change and its disclosure. In February 2021, Nikon revised its greenhouse gas reduction target of their emissions from 26% to 71.4% in FY2030, as compared to FY2013. This new target was certified in April 2021 by the SBT (Science Based Targets) initiative as conforming to the criteria for helping to keep the average global rise in temperature within 1.5ºC. Nikon has reportedly been working on implementing various measures to achieve it, as well as disclosing information in accordance with the TCFD (the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) recommendations. Nikon says that it will continue to be united…

Chandan is a Structural Design engineer by profession and a photographer by passion, who is based in Delhi. He says, “I consider photography as an amalgamation of science and art. It is like time travel and the camera is the time machine, you don’t need to have a flashy high end camera, even a smartphone would do, you just need to have an eye to observe and the heart to understand the subject and layers associated with it. The idea of sinking in the moment and creating something ‘lasting’ for people to remember, challenges me to take the camera and shoot something new every weekend. To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I’ve found that it has little to do…

@spmagazineofficial The Instagram Photo Feature is for all you photographers and photography enthusiasts on Instagram who caught our eye! Follow @spmagazineofficialon Instagram and tag us in your posts to get a chance to be featured in Smart Photography. Gursimran is a Data Analyst by profession and a photographer by passion. He says, “Photography is an art that keeps your soul alive. I travel during the holidays and long weekends to keep my passion alive and create art whenever possible. I have been shooting with an iPhone since the last 3 years and have developed an interest in phone photography. Recently, my photographs were tweeted by Apple’s CEO Tim Cook to showcase India’s brightest festival - Diwali. My work has been featured across various publications such as CNN, National Geographic India,…

Ashok Kandimalla has been in the photographic field for over three decades and has extensive experience in both film and digital photography. Being an electronics engineer by profession and a photographer, he possesses a unique and deep insight into the technical aspects of digital photography and equipment. He has published more than a 100 articles on photography and some of his writings have also been published in the well-known international magazine Popular Photography. An avid collector of photographic books and vintage cameras, Ashok has a keen interest in the history of photography and a passion for sharing his knowledge on photography through teaching and writing. He is the only Indian photographer to be featured on the Nikon Centenary website. He is presently working as a Management and Engineering consutant. He…

Write to us at: Smart Photography, Next Gen Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 608, Trade World, 6th floor, C wing, Kamala Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel (W), Mumbai - 400 013 E-mail: sp@nextgenpublishing.net Good work Dear Editor, I really enjoyed reading the latest issue of your magazine. The images were as usual amazing and the learning section was very interesting too. Good work as always. Best wishes. Regards, Shiwli Singh Happy new year Dear SP, First of all, wishing everyone at SP a very happy new year. May this new year be filled with lots of adventure, novelty and prosperity. I hope to continue reading great content and being entertained and aptly informed by you. All the best. Regards, Isabel Summers Great concept Dear SP, I really enjoyed reading your…

Cosina has announced that it will be releasing the Nokton 50 mm f/1 VM mount lens in January 2022. The lens’ optical construction includes the use of 9 elements in 7 groups, including a ground aspherical surface and another aspherical element. It has a 12-blade aperture diaphragm, a minimum focussing distance of 90 cm and comes with a 62 mm front filter thread. The manual focus mechanism features an all-metal helicoid design that is reportedly made from “high-quality grease that produces appropriate torque, focussing with a smooth operation.” The lens also sports a rangefinder interlocking mechanism when paired with a Leica M-mount rangefinder, but can also be used as an adapted lens on mirrorless camera systems. It comes with an included reversible lens hood and the lens measures 73.6 mm…

Tokina has released an updated version of its 400 mm f/8 mirror lens, adding a T-mount system that reportedly, improves performance and allows the lens to be used with eight different camera mounts. The Tokina 400 mm f/8 N II S mirror lens succeeds the 400 mm f/8 N S mirror lens that was released in July, 2020. The lens’ optical construction consists of six elements in two groups and has a minimum focussing distance of 115 cm, a 67 mm front filter thread and measures between 82 mm –112 mm, depending on the SLR or mirrorless mount versions. This fully manual lens comes with an integrated T-mount that uses the standard 42 x 0.75 mm thread by using various adapters. The lens is compatible with Canon EF, Canon M,…

Fujifilm has begun operations at its new cell culture media manufacturing facility located in Tilburg, Netherlands to meet an increasing global demand for biopharmaceuticals. Funded through investment in an existing Fujifilm European facility, the new facility manufactures products of Fujifilm Irvine Scientific. The facility provides life science manufacturing and joins locations in the U.S. and Japan to enable increased production capacity of cell culture media products, acting as a hub for both European and global markets. The strategic investment is expected to enhance the Company’s support to customers with their drug discovery and pharmaceutical manufacturing operations. Additionally, the facility’s location in central Europe positions it as a source of local supply for increased efficiency and cost-savings in shipping, as well as securing the supply chain. The new cell culture media…

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (“Sony”) reports that it has succeeded in developing a stacked CMOS image sensor technology with 2-Layer Transistor Pixel. Whereas conventional CMOS image sensors’ photodiodes and pixel transistors occupy the same substrate, Sony’s new technology separates photodiodes and pixel transistors on different substrate layers. According to Sony, this new architecture approximately doubles the saturation signal level relative to conventional image sensors, widens dynamic range and reduces noise, thereby substantially improving imaging properties. The new technology’s pixel structure will enable pixels to maintain or improve their existing properties at not only the current but also smaller pixel sizes. Sony announced this ‘breakthrough’ at the IEEE International Electron Devices meeting that started on Saturday, December 11, 2021. Using its proprietary stacking technology, Sony has packaged the photodiodes and pixel…

Royal Photographic Society (RPS) UK, in its latest communiqué, announced the Fellow of Royal Photographic Society (FRPS) to an Indian photographer, Tamma Srinivasa Reddy. Srinivasa Reddy is only the 18th Indian to receive the honour after the Royal Photographic Society was formally established and founded in London in the year 1853. Reddy’s photo panel comprising 21 photos on the Covid-19 pandemic situation in India (with particular focus on Andhra Pradesh) was considered by the Jury as the “most comprehensive”. The photo panel has covered three states of India, viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Reddy (a former contributor at SP) had elaborately covered ground realities in India via his photographs when the country was battling the Covid-19 problem. He has captured the efforts of the Indian government as well…

Biman was born and brought up in Kolkata and is currently located in Bangalore, where he works as a Technical Architect in an MNC. He says, “I developed a keen interest in photography in my early 20’s and started with a simple point-and-shoot camera. Once I understood the basic rules of composition and the limitations faced by my gear, along with various updated techniques, I decided to upgrade to a D-SLR. I am an “explorist” and a trekker who loves to venture to new places and capture the raw beauty of nature. Hence, my passion developed in Travel and Landscape photography. In my leisure time, I indulge in learning new techniques of photography through blogs and tutorials. I am best known for portraying the different flavours in photography, of any…

As the world is getting more and more connected, the urge to share your photographs instantly is also increasing. The ease with which you can do this is the reason why photography with a smartphone has become immensely popular. With the apps described, you can do the same almost as effortlessly but with your ILC and in the process get all the advantages of the latter. Thus, you get the best of both worlds. Apart from sharing, you also get several useful features like geotagging, remote photography, easy updating of firmware, etc.…

Lens mount: E-mount Effective pixels: Approx. 24.2 million Image sensor: APS-C type (23.5 x 15.6 mm), Exmor CMOS sensor Fine formats: JPEG, Raw JPEG quality: Extra fine, Fine, Standard Max. image size: 6000 x 4000 pixels Picture effects: 13 types: Toy Camera, Pop Colour, Posterisation, Retro Photo, Soft High-key, Partial Colour (R/G/B/Y), High Contrast Monochrome, Rich-tone Monochrome, Soft Focus, HDR Painting, Miniature, Watercolour, Illustration Creative styles: Standard, Vivid, Portrait, Landscape, Sunset, Black & White, Sepia Picture profiles: Black level, Gamma (Movie, Still, Cine1-4, ITU709, ITU709 [800%], S-Log2, S-Log3, HLG, HLG1-3), Black Gamma, Knee, Colour Mode, Saturation, Colour Phase, Colour Depth, Detail, Copy, Reset Video formats: XAVC S (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264) Best video quality: 3840 x 2160 30p, 24p, 25p Recording media: Memory Stick PRO Duo/PROHG Duo, SD/SDHC/SDXC memory card (UHS-I compliant)…

Type: Z mount Format : FX/35 mm Focal length: 100-400 mm Max Aperture: f/4.5-5.6 Min Aperture: f/32-40 Lens construction: 25 elements in 20 groups (includes 6 x ED elements, 2 x Super ED, elements with Nano Crystal and ARNEO coats, fluorine-coated front element) Angle of view: FX: 24° 20’ – 6° 10’; DX: 16° - 4° Focussing system: Integral focussing MFD: At 100 mm: 0.75 m (2.46 ft.); at 135 mm: 0.78 m (2.56 ft.) At 200 mm: 0.8 m (2.63 ft.); at 300 mm: 0.87 m (2.86 ft.) At 400 mm: 0.98 m (3.22 ft.) Max reproduction ratio: 0.38x (1:2.6) VR, Type: Yes. Lens shift using voice coil motors (VCMs) Diaphragm blades: 9 (rounded) Focus limit switch: 3 m – infinity; 0.75 m-infinity Filter size: 77 mm Dimensions: Approx.…

Operating System: iOS 15 SIM: Dual SIM (nano-SIM and eSIM), Dual eSIM support Internal storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB Display: 5.4-inch Super Retina XDR OLED Screen resolution: 2340 x 1080 at 476 ppi Features: HDR display, True Tone, Wide colour (P3), Haptic Touch Chip: A15 Bionic with 6-core CPU (2 performance and 4 efficiency cores), 4-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine Camera: Dual 12MP camera system: Wide and Ultra-Wide cameras Features: Portrait mode, Portrait lighting, Sensor-shift IS (Wide), True Tone flash, Night mode with Deep Fusion, Smart HDR, Photographic styles Still image formats: HEIF and JPEG Video recording: 4K at 24fps, 25fps, 30fps or 60fps Video formats: HEVC, H.264 Front camera: 12MP TrueDepth camera Power source: Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery (Approx. 2406 mAh) Charging: MagSafe wireless charging up to 15W, Qi wireless…

Godox WL4B Waterproof LED Light ₹5990 Ease of portability is seldom overlooked when designing modern camera systems and it is no different with camera accessories and lighting systems. But it does not get smaller and lighter than the new Godox WL4B which is the premium lighting brand’s latest addition to their vast range of portable LED lights. The 4-watt WL4B, which is less than 5 cm in height, is a handy accessory for today’s creators, including those relying solely on smartphones, and can easily slip into your pocket. The light is no heavier than a smartphone and can provide a maximum brightness of 1900 LUX. The WL4B can be a great sidekick to all kinds of cameras, from smartphone cameras, newer mirrorless systems, to drones, by aiding photographers to focus…

1 The Super Ikontas range of rangefinder cameras were made by: a) Leica b) Zeiss c) Rollei d) Pentacon 2 The most expensive commercially available Canon D-SLR lens is the: a) EF 14 mm f/2.8L II USM b) TS-E 17 mm f/4 L c) EF 28-300 mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM d) TS-E 135 mm f/4 L Macro 3 Name the largest independent manufacturer of D-SLR lenses. a) Sigma b) Tamron c) Tokina d) Samyang 4 The L mount for mirrorless cameras was founded by three manufacturers. Leica and Panasonic were two of them. Who was the third? a) Tamron b) Olympus c) Fujifilm d) Sigma 5 The first SLR camera to use a computer chip was launched in 1976. This camera was the: a) Canon AE-1 b) Minolta XD-7 c)…