Indholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2018 i Camera

WHAT IS THIS CURRENT OBSESSION with achieving perfection? Everywhere you look it’s all about the perfect dinner party or the perfect wedding or the perfect holiday. And the perfect photograph… which essentially means hours on the computer altering – or even erasing completely – reality. Of course, advertising photography has always been about presenting something that’s really too good to be true with the objective of selling us something that, one way or another, will help us achieve a better life. But now everybody is doing it, and it extends across all genres of photography, including the once-sacrosanct fields of photojournalism and documentary work. Just a little tidy-up here or a little dab with the cloning tool there, but not in the pursuit of more succinctly telling the story, rather…

Current to 24 June: Exhibition. Waves & Water – Australian Beach Photography. Images depicting Australian beach culture from the 1880s, including works by Harold Cazneaux Max Dupain, Ray Leighton, Jeff Carter, Roger Scott, Ian Lever, Narelle Autio, Anne Zahalka, and Michael Cook. At the Australian National Maritime Museum, 2 Murray Street, Darling Harbour, Sydney, NSW 2000. Entry is free. Museum hours are 9.30am to 5.00pm daily. For more information telephone (02) 9298 3777 or visit www.anmm.gov.au Current to 8 Oct: Exhibition. Wildlife Photographer OfThe Year. One hundred images from the finalists and winners in the 2017 edition of the world’s biggest wildlife photography competition. At the Australian National Maritime Museum, 2 Murray Street, Darling Harbour, Sydney, NSW 2000. Entry is $20 which includes admission to the museum’s permanent galleries. Museum…

FOLLOWING THE INTRODUCTION of its new SLR-style Lumix G flagship, Panasonic has launched its next RF-style Lumix GX flagship. Incidentally, Panasonic is celebrating ten years of its Lumix Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera system, the original G1 model being launched in 2008. The Lumix DC-GX9 – which is model number 28 since the G1 – keeps essentially the same rangefinder camera styling as its predecessor, but is marginally smaller and lighter. Curiously though, the magnesium alloy bodyshell is no longer weather sealed. The new model steps up to the same 21.77 million (total) pixels Live MOS sensor that’s used in the G9. The effective pixel count is 20.3 million and, as on the G9, the GX9’s sensor also goes without an optical low-pass filter to optimise the resolution and dynamic…

Type: Professional digital mirrorless camera with Fujifilm X bayonet lens mount. Focusing: TTL automatic hybrid system using both phase-difference detection and contrast-detection measurements. 325 measuring points (25x13 pattern) in total, 169 for phase-difference detection. Single-point, zone (7x7, 5x5 or 3x3 point clusters selected from 91 zones) and wide/tracking modes. Five ‘AF-C Custom’ settings for optimising tracking via Tracking Sensitivity, Speed Tracking Sensitivity and Zone Area Switching. Face/eye detection with left/right priority. Manual switching between one-shot and continuous AF modes. AF+MF mode. Low-light assist via illuminator. Manual focus assist via magnified image, ‘Digital Split Image’ display (colour or B&W) or focus peaking display (white, red or blue; low or high levels). Sensitivity range is EV -3.0 - 18 (ISO 100). Metering: 256-point multi-zone, centre-weighted average, full average, spot and TTL flash.…

The imaging sensor in any digital camera – SLR, mirrorless or compact – is a device which converts light into an electrical charge via tiny photo-electrical elements or diodes arranged on a silicon wafer – which are called pixels (short for ‘picture element’). The magnitude of the charge varies according to the intensity of the light falling on the pixel’s surface, and this analog output is then converted to digital data which can subsequently be processed by the camera or, later on, by a computer. To create a colour picture, the sensor employs an arrangement of red, green and blue filters with one filter positioned over each pixel. Most commonly, these are arranged in a 2x2 grid – called the Bayer Pattern – which includes two green filters to match…

Type: Professional interchangeable lens mirror-less digital camera with Sony E bayonet lens mount (FE mount). Focusing: Automatic via hybrid contrast-detection and phase-difference detection systems. 399 points with phase-difference detection, 425 points with contrast-detection. Focus points may be selected manually or automatically by the camera with Wide, Zone, Centre, Flexible Spot (small, medium or large) and Expanded Flexible Spot area modes. Lock-On AF available with all five area modes. Focus area registration and recall. Single-shot and continuous modes with auto or manual switching, ‘Direct Manual Focus’ override, auto tracking, face detection/recognition and eye detection. Adjustable tracking sensitivity (five levels from Locked On to Responsive). Sensitivity range is EV -3.0 to 20 (ISO 100/f2.0). Low-light AF assist provided by built-in LED illuminator. Manual focus assist via magnification (up to 6.2x) and focus…

The Contax and Praktica brands have a shared origin in Zeiss, which was established in 1846 by an optician, Carl Zeiss, in the German city of Jena. Initially, the company made microscopes, but branched into other areas, including lenses and then, logically, cameras. However, the camera business was subsequently sold to Ica in 1909 and Zeiss concentrated more on making lenses. Zeiss Ikon was established in 1926 from the merger of four German camera makers – Contessa-Nettel, Ernemann, Goerz and, ironically, Ica – and was largely funded by Zeiss which supplied the lenses. A manufacturing facility was established in the city of Dresden. In the pre-WWII years Zeiss Ikon produced a wide array of cameras in quite a number of formats, including box types, folders, flatbeds and stereo models.The Contax…

Had Konica continued on as a camera maker, it would been the oldest still in operation, having been founded back in 1873 – which means it would have been celebrating its 145th birthday this year. In comparison, Leica and Nikon (both now a little over 100) are mere youngsters. Konica’s founding also predates that of Kodak (1888), and the company’s very first camera – the Cherry – was introduced in 1902. The Konica brand – first used in 1947 on a 35mm rangefinder camera – was derived from the company name Konishiroku which, in turn, relates to the Tokyo suburb of Konishi-ya where it all began. By the start of the 1960s Konica was a camera-making powerhouse, pioneering auto exposure control in firstly 35mm rangefinder cameras (the Auto S, 1963)…

We’re giving you the chance to have a portfolio of your images published over a double-page spread in Australia’s leading photography magazine. That means there’s three more chances to see your best photos in print. At the end the competition, we’ll judge all six successful portfolios and crown somebody the Australian Teenage Photographer Of The Year for 2018. The overall winner will be presented with the Australian Teenage Photographer Of The Year trophy and a grand prize of camera equipment. We’ll also be showcasing your images on Camera magazine’s website at www.avhub.com.au HOW TO ENTER We want you to select your SIX best images. These can be thematic – perhaps from a project you’re working on – or showcase a mixture of subjects and techniques. These images should clearly demonstrate…

SOUTH KOREAN LENS maker Samyang has added a third lens to its XP line of high-performance primes for Canon EF mount full-35mm D-SLRs. The new XP 50mm f1.2 joins the existing XP 14mm f2.4 and XP 85mm f1.2. The XP lenses – the initials represent “eXcellence In Performance – are claimed to have sufficient resolution for sensors of 50 megapixels or higher, and for recording 8K video. The new 50mm f1.2 lens has an all-glass optical construction comprising 11 elements in eight groups of which two are special types – one aspherical to correct for distortion and one made from high refractive index glass to minimise chromatic aberrations. Samyang’s new ‘Ultra Multi Coating’ (UMC) is applied to minimise ghosting and flare. Like the other XP models, focusing is manual and…

Do you think Sony might just be a wee bit serious about dominating the interchangeable lens camera market? At the moment it’s definitely got Nikon in its cross-hairs and if the A9 wasn’t a convincing enough statement of intent along comes the third-generation A7R. Sony’s ultra-high resolution mirrorless cameras have been shadowing Nikon’s D800 and D810 D-SLRs, but then the D850 took things a whole lot further by combining a shade under 47 megapixels worth of resolution with a top shooting speed of 7.0 fps (9.0 fps with the optional battery grip). Take that! Anything you can do, we can do too… is Sony’s response, so the A7R II has 43.6 megapixels on tap and combines it with 10 fps from the base camera, no more to pay. What’s more…

While some Minolta DNA lives on in Sony’s Alpha line of digital cameras (particularly in the lenses), it’s still hard to believe that such an important brand in the history of photography still isn’t building D-SLRs – or, more likely, mirrorless cameras – in its own right. For a long time, Minolta was one of the ‘big five’ camera makers along with Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Pentax… all of which are still going strong. Just why the merged Konica Minolta operation decided to pull out of the imaging business in 2006 (the company is still very active in other areas) still isn’t clear, particularly as it looked to be competitive in both D-SLRs and digital compact cameras at the time. Of course, the compact camera market is no longer, thanks…

The Australian distributor of Peak Design products, Blonde Robot, very generously provides six of the new Capture v3 camera strap clip for use to give away in our January/February 2018 issue. The six winners were: G. West, South Australia; B. McLean, Victoria; P. Ross, ACT; D. Wilson, Tasmania; I. Hinrichsen, Queensland; and A. Pearce, Western Australia. We hope you’re all enjoying your prizes. For the record, the answers to the two questions we asked were: How much does the Peak Design Capture v3 clip weight in total? Answer: 84 grams. How much weight can the Peak Design Capture v3 clip handle? Answer: 90 kilograms. For more information visit www.blonde-robot.com.au…

WHILE MOST OF Tamron’s recently-launched new lenses have been for D-SLRs, the company has revealed it’s planning a 28-75mm f2.8 zoom for Sony’s FE mount, scheduled for mid-2018. The new Di III series lens (Tamron’s designation for lenses for full-35mm mirrorless cameras) employs a new autofocusing drive called ‘RXD’ which stands for Rapid eXtra-Silent Stepping Drive. Stepping motors are becoming more frequently used for autofocusing systems because they’re not only very quiet, but provide the smoothness which is especially important when shooting video. The lens supports Sony’s ‘DMF’ (Direct Manual Focus) function which provides a full-time manual override of the autofocusing. According to Tamron’s preliminary specs, the zoom has a minimum focusing distance of 19 centimetres at 28mm and 39 centimetres at 75mm. It measures 117.8 mm and weighs in…

Despite its long involvement with cinematography and broadcast TV, Fujifilm has been comparatively slow in giving its X mount mirrorless cameras anything better than average video-making capabilities. Perhaps the arrival of the new Fujinon MK series cine lenses in the X mount has been the catalyst for the upgrades embodied in the X-H1, but there’s still scope for more when compared to, for example, Panasonic’s less expensive GH5. The X-H1 is the first X mount camera to record 4K video in the DCI resolution of 4096x2160 pixels (which is favoured by many pro video-makers) as well as the UHD resolution of 3840x2160 pixels. However, DCI recording is at 24 fps only and UHD at either 25 or 24 fps (so no 50 fps speed). And we’re still in an 8-bit…

Format: Full-35mm digital sensors. The focal range is effectively 150-600mm on an ‘APS-C’ format sensor (with a 1.5x focal length magnification factor). Angle-of-View: 24.24 to 6.12 degrees (diagonal). Construction: 17 elements/11 groups. Minimum Focus: 150 cm (across the focal range). Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 1:3.6 (at 400mm). Aperture Range: f4.5-6.3 to f32-45. Overall Length: 196.5 mm. Maximum Diameter: 86.2 mm. Filter Diameter: 67 mm. Weight: 1115 grams. Lens Mount(s): Canon EF and Nikon F (G-type AF). Features: Magnesium alloy barrel tubes, weather-proofed barrel and mount, fluorine coating on front element’s exposed surface, built-in ‘Vibration Compensation’ optical stabilisation (dual modes), zoom lock, USD autofocusing drive, internal focusing group, focus limiter, electromagnetic diaphragm control, nine-blade diaphragm, three LD (low dispersion) glass elements, ‘eBAND’ anti-reflection multi-coating. Bayonet mount lens hood supplied. Price: $1299. Optional…

While the A9 records beautiful quality 4K video, it actually isn’t as videography-orientated as the A7R III which has a lot of the extra functions demanded by professional film-makers. For starters, there’s the option of recording 4K video full frame with no pixel-binning, but there’s also a ‘Super 35’ format which records at 5K resolution and then downsamples to 4K which further enhances the image quality. The ‘Super 35’ format introduces a focal length magnification factor of 1.5x (i.e. the same as ‘APS-C’), but the extra quality will make this a small price to pay for some users. Better still, switching between the formats is now quick and easy. The A7R III records 4K video in the Ultra HD resolution of 3840x2160 pixels (Ultra HD) and at 25 fps or…

Mount: Micro Four Thirds. Effective Focal Length: 34mm. Angle-of-View: 65 degrees (diagonal). Construction: 15 elements/11 groups. Minimum Focus: 20 cm. Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 1:3.3. Aperture Range: f1.2 – f16. Overall Length: 87.0 mm. Maximum Diameter: 68.2 mm. Filter Diameter: 62 mm. Weight: 390 grams. Features: Fully weather-protected construction (dust, moisture and subzero temperatures), three ‘ED’ (extra-low dispersion) elements, one ‘Super ED’ element, one ‘ED-DSA’ element (extra-low dispersion and ‘Dual Super Aspheric’), one ‘EDA’ element (extra-low dispersion and aspherical), one aspherical element, one ‘Super HR’ element (high refractive index), nine-bladed diaphragm, Olympus ‘Z Coating Nano’ multi-coating, MSC (Movie & Still Compatible) autofocusing mechanism, ‘L-Fn’ multi-function button, ‘Manual Focus Clutch’ mechanism for AF/ MF switching. Petal lens hood and lens carry pouch supplied. Price: $1799. Distributor: Olympus Australia, telephone 1300 659 678,…

It wasn’t just families which were torn apart by the post-WWII separation of Germany into east and west, but companies as well. Among these was Zeiss Ikon which had been established in the eastern German city of Dresden in 1926, created from the merging of four camera makers. After 1945 the eastern operation became VEB Zeiss Ikon and immediately faced challenges as its Dresden factory was dismantled and the production equipment sent to Russia as part of the Soviet war reparations. The same thing happened with a newer facility set in the town of Jena, with all this equipment being given to the Russian camera-maker Kiev. Despite all this, the company still managed to develop the ground-breaking Contax S which was announced in 1948 and was the world’s first 35mm…

If you started in photography after 2004, there’s a good chance that you don’t realise what a force Hanimex was both in Australia and internationally for over a half a century prior to this date. The company was established in Sydney in 1947 by Jack Hannes, who had arrived in Australia, aged 16, in 1939 after his family fled Nazi Germany. With degrees in both mechanics and electronic engineering and, later, economics, Jack was well positioned to make the most of post-WWII boom in photography. The name Hanimex was short for Hannes Import & Export and during the following decades the company would do plenty of both, at its height employing over 2000 people and selling photographic products in over 70 countries around the world. In 1957 Jack built a…