Camera July/August 2018

THE PHOTOGRAPH REPRODUCED HERE was taken nearly 89 years ago. The subject is my mother-in-law – then aged one – who will turn 90 at the end of this year. The image (as a scanned file) is one of a number being incorporated into a quilt which will be presented to her first great-grandchild and so will span four generations. Apart from the ageless nature of this picture – it could have been taken yesterday – and how the little print itself has survived all these decades in exceptionally good condition, there’s all the interest that it’s now creating among my wife’s family and friends. Where was it taken? Is it an inlet, lake or a pond? And why is she seemingly on her own, although of course, there must…

ANNOUNCED A FEW months ago, Tamron’s first accessory lens for Sony’s FE mount is now available in Australia. The 28-75mm f2.8 RXD zoom is a Di III series lens (Tamron’s designation for lenses for full-35mm mirrorless cameras) and 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 Tamron lens supports Sony’s ‘DMF’ (Direct Manual Focus) function which provides a full-time manual override of the autofocusing. It also supports Sony’s in-camera corrections for vignetting, chromatic aberrations and distortion. The minimum focusing distance is 19 centimetres at 28mm and 39 centimetres at 75mm which gives a maximum reproduction ratio…

How readily would you change camera brands? We’ve discussed brand loyalties here before, but camera makers seem to gather ‘rusted on’ devotees more than just about any other category of consumer product, even cars. So what does it take to make a loyal user finally jump ship? A lot, it would seem. I suspect there’s a fair amount of angst among the owners of Australian-made Fords and Holdens now that their next purchase will have to be an import. If you were buying Falcons or Commodores because you really liked the fact that they were locally built – and so had a unique element of ‘Australianness’ – you’d now be tempted to apply some other criteria to the selection of your next vehicle… well, every model on our market is…

FUJIFILM has released an extensive firmware upgrade for its X-T2 ‘APS-C’ mirrorless camera. Firmware Version 4.0 adds no fewer than nine new features or improvements, including F.Log internal recording for video, Full HD recording at 120 fps (for slow-mo effects), increased low-light sensitivity, upgraded continuous AF operation, focus bracketing (for up to 999 frames with an adjustable shift), flicker detection and compatibility with the new Fujinon MK series of X mount cinematography lenses. For more information visit www.fujifilm.com.au We’ve always maintained that SONY has its eye on the number one spot in the interchangeable lens camera (ILC) business and this has been confirmed at a recent presentation by the company in Tokyo. Interestingly, Sony says it aims to get there by the end of 2020, which really isn’t all that…

RICOH HAS BEEN busy with Pentax products of late so we haven’t seen much under its own brand, but the good news for Australian fans is that the GRII high-end digital compact is back. Australian distributor C.R. Kennedy & Co. has secured some stock of the popular compact, but we suggest that, if you really want one, you don’t wait too long. The GRII is the last model in a long and illustrious line of Ricoh high-end compact cameras, both 35mm and digital, and it’s currently available at $779. It has a slimline magnesium alloy bodyshell that’s built around a 16.9 megapixels ‘APS-C’ format CMOS sensor which is mated with an all-glass 18.3mm f2.8 prime lens (equivalent to 28mm). The sensitivity range is equivalent to ISO 100 to 3200 with…

HASSELBLAD HAS introduced its widest-angle prime lens ever, a 21mm f4.0 XCD mount model for its mirrorless digital medium format camera system. The new ultra-wide lens is equivalent to a 17mm in the 35mm format and gives a diagonal angle-of-view of 105 degrees. It’s the first of six new XCD lenses planned for 2018 which will bring Hasselblad’s mirrorless medium format lens system up to ten models. The optical design comprises 13 elements in nine groups, two of which are aspherical types to correct for distortion. The new XCD 21mm has an aperture range of f4.0 to f32 and a minimum focusing distance of 32 centimetres which gives a maximum magnification ratio of 1:10. The focusing group is internal. As with all XCD mount lenses, it has an electronically-controlled leaf…