Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i Digital Camera Magazine

STEP 1 ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc278 Enter the URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc278 into the destination bar of your internet browser – we’re using Google Chrome, but other browsers work in a similar way. Please do not enter it in any search field or search bar. This will take you to a page on our website. STEP 2 JUST CLICK THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK Click on the link labelled ‘Download the files for Digital Camera 278’ and your download will start, delivered from our own server. Please override any browser warnings about downloading from a non-secure source – our server is safe! STEP 3 ACCESS YOUR FILES Open the .zip In your Downloads folder, or wherever you chose to download your files to, double-click the dcm278-files.zip file icon. Then when it expands, double-click Digital…

Double-exposure portraits have been around for ages. Film photographers had to trick their cameras into shooting two exposures on the same piece of film and then had to wait until the film had been developed to see whether it had worked. These days, the effect is much easier to achieve and only requires some knowledge of Photoshop, in particular Layers, Adjustment Layers and Layer Masks. For our starting image, our model was shot against a black background; however, it looked more effective against a white background so we’ve shown you a quick way in Photoshop to get around this. The technique we used created a dark rim around our model, replicating a solarised darkroom effect, which is an old developing technique (see the work of Dada photographers such as Man…

Stock photo sites such as Stock.adobe.com or shutterstock.com are excellent sources of visual resources, for example, when you need an image to illustrate a poster or a flyer. You can also use stock photos as components for your creative projects, such as replacing a dull sky in your landscape shot with a more interesting one from a stock site. However, stock images can be expensive, so we’ve teamed up with software company Franzis to give you 500 bonus stock images that you can use wherever you want, for as long as you want – without worrying about licensing issues. This walkthrough is designed to help you get creative with a couple of images from this free ‘500 Stockfotos’ collection by using Photoshop CC’s Replace Sky command and its Neural Filter…

With modern full-frame cameras often costing upwards of several thousand pounds and many top-flight optics costing the same again, photography can often feel like a pursuit for the well-off. However, in this budget photography special feature, we’ll show you that this need not be the case. While many expensive pieces of camera equipment will undoubtedly be worth the asking price for working professionals, where any edge over the competition is vital, this is not something the everyday amateur or enthusiast photographer should feel restricted by. Casual shooters might be surprised by how capable even entry-level modern digital cameras are, an important benefit given the current cost-of-living pressures. Over the next few pages, we have assembled 10 photo projects that can be tackled using an entry-level DSLR or mirrorless camera with…

Specialist optics designed for specific tasks, such as macro photography, can command a high price. Sony’s FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS lens costs £849, for example, while Canon’s RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM costs an eye-watering £1,379. While they are undoubtedly brilliant lenses, it isn’t essential to spend such a large amount to capture amazing close-up photos. In this project, I’ll introduce you to reversing rings – inexpensive adapters that fit any lens with a front filter thread. Old prime lenses, such as a 50mm, will also work well and, once attached to your camera body in reverse, will allow you to focus much closer, making macro photography much more accessible. Here’s how to use a reversing ring… USE A REVERSING RING OLD PRIME LENS 1 Older lenses…

This head-turning effect may look like it was created entirely in post-production, but it’s less complicated than that. To achieve it, you’ll need to get hold of a glass prism, which can easily be found in all shapes and sizes and to suit all budgets on sites like eBay and Amazon. A 4-inch glass prism can be sourced from eBay for less than £10/$10 and is a great way to get started. If you like the prism technique, you may want to upgrade to a Fractal Filters Classic 3-pack, which is more versatile but comes with a premium at $119. Bear in mind that the prism needs to be long enough to cover the whole front element of your lens (for most 35mm, 50mm and 85mm prime lenses, the 4-inch…

If the weather takes a turn for the worse, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered! Try one of these still-life setups that can easily be shot indoors on a rainy afternoon with basic camera kit and a few household items… 8 MAKE A SPLASH A dramatic high-speed coffee splash shot is easy to achieve at home, though it is inevitably messy so it could be worth attempting this in your garage or the garden. To get started, place a cup of coffee on a table and add some set dressing by adorning the scene with some hessian cloth and a few coffee beans or cinnamon sticks. If you have a vinyl background, you could also set one of these up to change how the background looks. Mount your camera…

This month: Zoom lenses We kick off a lenses two-parter with a close look at the mighty zoom Your camera is basically a light-tight box – an expensive box packed with tech but no more than a fancy paperweight until fitted with a lens. This could be anything from a tiny hole punched into a piece of silver foil to a lens designed for the purpose of delivering sharp images onto the sensor. The most widely used lens type is the zoom and they dominate the market for a simple reason. In a single lens, there’s a broad range of focal lengths at your disposal to portray the subject as you see fit without having to move. Fixed focal length lenses, known as primes, remain popular and we’ll explore these…

DEFEATING FLARE Every brand uses advanced lens coatings to defeat flare but when shooting obliquely towards the sun there’s a risk of flare. So there are two things you can try. If the lens is fitted with a protection filter, take it off. The second technique is to use your hand to shade the lens. Start by holding your hand a few inches from the lens front and in view, then move it out of frame while checking there’s no flare. LENS DIFFRACTION Diffraction is caused by light scattering off the edges of the lens’s diaphragm blades and it is most evident at the lens’s minimum apertures. You can test your own lenses by shooting a detailed scene at the two smallest f/stops and then at f/5.6 or f/8 and…

Ongoing conflicts around the world have made the publication of Nikita Teryoshin’s book very timely. Nothing Personal: The Back Office of War takes us behind the curtain of the global arms industry. The Berlin-based photographer was inspired to compile this book following a visit to a hunting fair and seeing the extent to which the attendees were attracted to guns. Teryoshin’s curiosity took him across the world, including a visit to Peru, where he photographed two men entering the Israel-based Elbit Systems stand at the SITDEF trade fair in Lima. “The stand design was very bold and direct,” Teryoshin recalls. “When I realised that this was the entrance to the back office, I stayed here for a while trying to get a photo. “My first shot was a reaction to…

If you’re anything like me, you’ll enjoy the shooting process much more than editing, while also relishing the sense of achievement when an image you’re proud of has been fully processed. While some photographers spend hours working on a single image, this is rarely necessary and as little as five to 10 minutes can be plenty of time to take a landscape image from a raw file to fully processed and ready to print or share online. Admittedly, every image is different, so the time required to process each one varies. But with speed and efficiency in mind, we’re going to cover four techniques that are designed to be quick and easy to apply while also adding creative effects that appear to have required much more time spent on creating…

What is aperture? The term aperture refers to the variable ‘hole’ inside the lens. This can be ‘opened up’ to let more light through or ‘closed down’ to do the opposite and restrict the amount of light. Why would I ‘open up’ the aperture? When you make the aperture bigger, the increase in the amount of light means you require less time to record a good exposure. This means you can use a faster shutter speed, which would be needed for avoiding blur caused by camera shake or for ‘freezing’ fast-moving action. When would I ‘close down’? Making the aperture smaller results in needing a slower shutter speed to make a good exposure, as you need more time when the light passing through the lens is reduced. Slow shutter speeds…

The organisers of The Photography & Video Show have shared more details about talks and masterclasses at the event. Taking place from 16-19 March, more than 250 of the biggest international photography brands will descend on Halls 2-3 of the NEC Birmingham. Six stages will host a range of speakers – excluding Masterclass events, these can be enjoyed for no additional cost. Highlights include portrait and street photographer Sean Tucker (see page 118), pet photographer Jess McGovern, action and adventure photographer Sam Davis and many more. Many photographers who have appeared in Digital Camera are also speaking, including Jo Bradford, Kevin Mullins, Denise Maxwell, Ben Moore and Thomas Heaton. www.photographyshow.com; from £14.95 (single-day standard entry). Students, professional photographers, filmmakers and content creators can apply for free admission. Go to www.digitalcameraworld.com…

Remembering Tigers will be the ninth title in the charity book series started by wildlife photographer Margot Raggett MBE in 2016. She was prompted to take action after seeing a poached elephant in Kenya and started asking fellow wildlife photographers if they would contribute to a fundraising book. Remembering Elephants and its successors – Remembering Rhinos, Remembering Great Apes, Remembering Lions, Remembering Cheetahs, Remembering African Wild Dogs, Remembering Bears and Remembering Leopards – have between them raised more than £1.1 million/$1.4 million for 70 conservation projects across 31 countries. For 2024, Raggett has announced that the next book in the series will be Remembering Tigers. The book will be published on 7 October and will feature stunning images donated by many of the world’s leading wildlife photographers, including Art Wolfe,…

7artisans.co.uk The 7Artisans 9mm F5.6 is a full-frame compatible lens that comes in Canon RF, Leica L, Nikon Z and Sony E mount options. For a rectilinear lens, it has an astonishingly wide field of view – pretty much as wide as it gets without going curvilinear or ‘fisheye’. Speaking of which, 7Artisans also offers a capable 10mm F2.8 Fisheye and some other desirable lenses, including the super-fast 50mm F1.05. Like those two, the 9mm F5.6 is a fully manual lens with no built-in electronics, but that isn’t a drawback, as we’ll see later. Key features There are 132º degrees of key feature packed into this diminutive lens. Put your eye to the camera’s viewfinder and it gives an instant wow factor – in fact, several people we tried this…

Lens release To remove the lens, press the button and twist the lens anti-clockwise. Use the protective body cap, so you don’t leave the sensor exposed to dust. Shutter release To shoot, press the shutter release button. To focus and meter the scene, half press the shutter release. Lens A DSLR is far more versatile than a camera with a fixed lens because you can change lenses and alter the angle of view. Sensor This is where your images are recorded before being processed and stored on your memory card. Mode dial The mode dial is where you access the camera’s shooting modes. For first-time users, the fully Auto mode selects all the camera settings for you. Hotshoe To attach a flashgun, slot it into place and tighten the catch…

Entry-level DSLRs have around seven to nine AF points, whereas a high-end mirrorless, such as the Canon EOS R3, has 4,779. Cameras that offer a densely populated array of AF points across the viewfinder make it easier to focus on subjects that aren’t in the centre of the picture. A large number of AF points also makes for smoother focus tracking, as the camera can ‘hand off’ autofocus from one point to the next and more accurately follow a subject moving across the picture. AF point array AF points are clustered towards the centre of a DSLR viewfinder. An AF point array typically contains standard AF sensors that measure sharpness in one plane and ‘crosstype’ AF sensors that are more precise. How they work The AF sensor detects a line…

Sean Tucker Photographer and author Speaking at The Photography & Video Show in March, Tucker tells us more about his photographic career and why there’s always a meaning in the making. Page 8 Will Cheung Photographer and writer A fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and the former editor of many photography titles, Cheung is the man behind Camera Clinic, which continues on page 70 Claire Gillo Photographer and writer Digital Camera’s former technique editor now specialises in creative and fine-art photography – you can find her latest photo project contributions from page 20 Andy Rouse Wildlife photographer Remembering Tigers will be the next book in the Remembering Wildlife series – and one of the leading tiger photographers has supplied images for it. Page 102 Jon Devo Photographer & writer…

Photographers often talk about trying to achieve a ‘balanced’ composition. However, the word ‘balance’ can be misleading in this context, as that may suggest symmetry and visual balance are not necessarily the same thing. In general, it is better to think in terms of achieving ‘harmony’ in your photographs. Placing the subject Although a landscape photograph may not have a single, obvious subject in the same way as a portrait – the view itself may be the subject – most successful landscapes contain a strong point of interest or focal point. For example, this could be a tree, a dominant hill or a building, such as a church. Placing the subject centrally in the picture frame usually results in a static rather than a dynamic composition, as the eye tends…

With a young family, it can be difficult to find the time to get out and enjoy some shutter therapy. For me, this has usually involved being away for up to a whole day, spending a few hours underwater in a cold Scottish loch taking photos of crabs. As you might imagine, this isn’t really an option at the moment, so lately, I have tried incorporating my photography into family days out, turning my hand to shooting street scenes. When we head out on our adventures, the last thing I want to do is carry bulky camera gear around, so more often than not, I find myself leaving it behind. Discovering Micro Four Thirds cameras has been a revelation. The overall size of the system meant I was able to…

In the previous issue (277, February), I suggested some ways in which promising photos can be turned into much better ones during the editing process. This may sound like an obvious point to make, but not everyone enjoys spending time sitting at a computer tweaking their images. My preferred genre is flower and plant macro photography and I use entry-level camera equipment and accessories. Affinity Photo and Photoshop Elements are easy to learn and are powerful enough for my needs – I have discovered several techniques that have transformed the look of my photos, just by exploring the tools and filters offered in the software. The image on the right was produced using the creative filters in Adobe Photoshop Elements 23. The technique can be used on any photograph but…

CradleFit compartment protects a 15in laptop and 10in tablet Tricot lined FormShell pocket offers impact & scratch protection Padded, breathable air-mesh back panel for longwearing comfort All Weather AW Cover protects gear from rain, snow, dust and sand Sturdy YKK zips provide smooth operation and durability FIVE GREAT FEATURES OF YOUR CAMERA BAG Great reasons to subscribe to Digital Camera magazine today ●Never miss an issue Enjoy 13 issues worth of Digital Camera for just £55.99 – that’s just £4.31 an issue – delivered direct to your door ●FREE Lowepro Ridgeline Pro BP 300 AW Daypack (RRP £89.95) ●The latest tips and insights A Digital Camera subscription will inspire you to take truly phenomenal photos every month and help you get the best results from your kit Get a Digital…

A kit lens is an optic that comes bundled with cameras that have interchangeable lenses, such as a DSLR or mirrorless. A typical kit lens is an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, which most brands offer for camera bodies with a cropped APS-C sensor. The focal length of kit lenses will change depending on the sensor size, such as Panasonic’s 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens for Micro Four Thirds bodies. The purpose of a kit lens is to provide versatility with a zoom range covering wide-angle to short telephoto. While a kit lens is a jack-of-all-trades, it is a master of just one – sharp shots, as the aperture rating of a kit lens is quite restrictive when it comes to depth of field. This makes kit lenses ideal for landscapes and street scenes,…

CHOP IT DOWN TO SIZE 1 An old unused tripod was gathering dust, so we decided to give it a second lease of life as a miniature tripod. The first step was to mark out around 10cm (4 inches) for the top leg sections and cut them down to size with a hacksaw. SHORTEN THE CENTRE COLUMN 2 Next, we need to modify the centre column of the tripod so that it doesn’t get in the way when we are shooting close to the ground. If your tripod has a longer centre column, then simply cut it down to size with the hacksaw. PUT IT ALL TOGETHER 3 Now bond everything together. We used superglue as the join wouldn’t be load-bearing and it is ideal for adhering the metal pipes.…

Whether you’re taking pictures of wildlife, motorsports or even landscapes, shooting with a long telephoto lens means camera shake is prone to creeping in. A 50mm focal length on a full-frame camera is roughly the same angle of view as the human eye, so any focal length higher than this is more zoomed in and considered to be ‘telephoto’. A 70mm focal length is called a short telephoto, while a 300mm is a long telephoto. The more you zoom in, the more apparent shake and blur will become in your photographs, so image stabilisation can be handy. If you can, it’s worth stabilising your camera with a tripod, monopod or even a beanbag if you’re shooting from a wildlife hide. Most modern cameras and lenses have some form of stabiliser,…

GET THE COMPOSITION RIGHT A zoom lens lets you fine-tune compositions in-camera and saves you from wasting pixels. This is also good practice, too, rather than just snapping away and hoping to resolve any composition issues later in post-processing. Adjusting focal length is one thing but it should be done in conjunction with physically moving when needed to get the best photo. A really useful tool available in many cameras is an aspect ratio feature, so if you want to shoot square, in a 5:4 ratio to simulate large format or a panorama, you get a mask or cropping guidelines in the viewfinder or monitor to assist your composition. Using the aspect ratio tool affects jpegs only as raw files usually take up the whole sensor, depending on the camera,…

Some lens brands quote a minimum or closest focus distance while others quote a minimum object distance (MOD). The former is how close the lens focuses measured from the focal plane, ie. the sensor, which is indicated by a small circle with a line through it. The MOD is the distance from the subject to the front element. The Canon RF 100mm macro lens (pictured right) has a minimum focus of 26cm, but you can see how close the lens front is from the subject with the lens focused at that distance. The MOD is about 10cm and the lens is so close that there’s the risk of it (or you) casting a shadow across the subject, especially with the hood attached.…

Look at a lens’s name and you’ll see the focal length expressed in millimetres and its maximum aperture as an f/number. If there’s one f/number (f/2, f/2.8 or f/4) that means the zoom has a constant maximum aperture throughout its range, such as the Nikkor 24-120mm f/4. Where there are two f/numbers it means the zoom has a variable maximum aperture. On the Nikkor 100-400mm shown here it is f/4.5 at the 100mm end and incrementally slows down to f/5.6 at 400mm. The f/number is determined by dividing the focal length by the diameter of the aperture. Basically, fast apertures need a wider front element to gather in more light, which means more cost and bulk. The flipside of this means that variable aperture lenses are smaller and lighter. Most…

Point Color is a new feature in Lightroom and Camera Raw that allows for fine adjustments to colours. It works by allowing you to zero in on a specific colour range. As such, it’s a bit like the Hue, Saturation and Luminosity controls in the Colour Mixer panel. But while these older tools only allow for adjustments to eight predefined colour ranges, with the new Point Color tool, you can be much more specific in defining your own range of colours to be adjusted. When you want to adjust something like the delicate range of reds and oranges in a sunset, the tool can work wonders. Once you’ve targeted the range of colours you want to tweak, you can make changes to the Hue, Saturation and Luminosity of the range.…

www.leica-camera.com All of Leica’s cameras are iconic in their own right, but it’s the M series that perhaps has the most fervent following. Since last year’s reveal of the latest generation of the M-series with the M11, we have been waiting for Leica to unveil its usual collection of variations on that core camera. So far we have seen the black-and-white-sensor M11 Monochrom and now this generation’s M11-P variant. The Leica M10-P was unique for its focus on a redeveloped silent shutter for quieter street photography or photojournalism, where discretion is paramount. The M11-P is also aimed at these audiences, but a quieter shutter is not the focus of the M11-P. Instead, the camera has a trick to combat the rise in photos being misappropriated by AI. The Content Credentials…

www.tamron.eu The Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 is the second ‘Generation 2’ lens in Tamron’s alternative trinity for Sony E-mount cameras. It follows in the footsteps of the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD G2 standard zoom and the Tamron 17-28mm F2.8 Di III RXD wide-angle zoom, the latter still in its original version. All three of the original lenses impressed us and we weren’t the only ones. Nikon was so taken with them that they eventually morphed into Nikkor lenses for its Z-system cameras. So let’s see what the 70-180mm G2 has to add to the equation. Key features There was nothing much wrong with the feature set of the original Tamron 70-180mm. Our only criticism was that, as with the Nikkor Z 70-180mm f/2.8 version…

When you push the ISO higher on a camera, colours become muddier, and dynamic range (the amount of detail captured from shadows to highlights) drops off. But the most obvious side effect is an increase in the ‘noise’ – this is the digital equivalent of film grain but even less palatable, with the image covered in ugly coloured speckles. ISOs in the region of 100 to 400 produce cleaner, richer and more detailed images; however, they require more light to make an exposure. This can be achieved by shooting with either a larger aperture or a slower shutter speed – or both. You can take a picture at low ISOs without making these adjustments, but it will take longer to make the exposure and that could result in a blurred…

Before starting to record video, the fundamental decision to make is which movie-recording size to use. This is largely determined by three functions: the image size or resolution, the frame rate (how many images are recorded each second) and the level of compression. The choice of resolution is key, as this determines how much detail can be recorded, with 4K being offered by the majority of current cameras. There are, in fact, two 4K standards: TV-friendly 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) and a wider, more cinematic 4K ‘DCI’ (4,096 x 2,160). If you have space available on your memory card or external recorder, it pays to shoot at the highest resolution your camera allows, as you can always reduce this later. That said, shooting at a lower resolution usually…

9 PHOTO TIPS CARDS TO TAKE ON LOCATION! Our latest selection of tips cards gives wallet-sized advice on how to take better photos this month YOUR 15 ACTIONS & PRESETS Our latest selection of software extras will give your captures a professional look in a matter of seconds Excire Foto Lite software This leading digital asset management software uses artificial intelligence to analyse and keyword photos – see page 82. 500 Franzis stock images Get creative with these free stock images from Franzis, which you can edit to match your artistic vision, or combine with your own shots. Two photography ebooks Get this 164-page digital photography annual and a 250-plus page camera Buyer’s Guide – see the Gifts folder in your download.…

It’s February and love is in the air. For many people that means a quick trip to the petrol station to buy some flowers and chocolates, but if you’re looking for something with a more personal touch, why not take some unique photographs for your loved one that could be printed as a personal card or as an art print? Going to an extra little effort will create a unique Valentine’s gift for your loved one! Here are three potential projects you could try, each of which will produce a special one-off image for your significant other. From light painting outdoors for a vibrant Valentine’s Day photo to two projects that can be done in the comfort of your own home, go the extra mile this year. PROJECT 1: CAPTURE…

Whether you’re jetting off on a skiing holiday or staying at home to watch football or rugby, winter is a great time to shoot some sports and action photography. Here’s a quick guide to getting started in some of the most commonly viewed sports, showing you how to set the correct shutter speeds, depending on the subject, and capture sharp shots of the action that’s playing out in front of you. 1 Choose the right lens You don’t need a long lens for all sports – but with many, the longer the lens, the more impressive your action shots will be. It all depends on how close you can get to the action without standing on the field of play or endangering yourself. The lenses listed in the table below…

The latest theme of our monthly Photo Challenge is ‘Shapes’ – whether they’re ones found in the natural world or everyday life, or something set up by the photographer, we’re looking forward to seeing how you meet this open-ended, and potentially very creative, brief! Enter via email or Facebook Email your entry to digitalcamera@futurenet.com with ‘Shapes challenge’ as the subject, including a brief description of the image. Or look for the ‘Shapes challenge’ post at www.facebook.com/digitalcameraworld and upload your entry into the feed. Enter by 29 February 2024 (only one image per reader, please). The winner will be announced in issue 280, on sale 28 March. (Please note that this competition is only open to readers based in the UK.) Email your entry to: digitalcamera@futurenet.com or enter at: www.facebook.com/digitalcameraworld ABOUT…

You don’t need to travel to exotic places to bag incredible wildlife photos; you can take top wildlife portraits in your back garden or if you don’t have access to one, a nature reserve. To take winning portraits of garden birds, you need to think carefully about where it is best to place bird feeders and take into consideration the background and lighting that these places get throughout the day before setting them up or moving them to a better position. You will also need to feed your birds on a regular basis to encourage wildlife into your garden. Set up some mossy logs near the feeders so that the birds have a photogenic place to perch. As it can look a little scrappy, you don’t want to take shots…

1 ‘Chrome Hill (Dragons Back)’ by Lee Howdle This image was taken on a hillside near Chrome Hill in the UK’s Peak District. “There are lots of things I love about this scene,” says Lee. “First of all, I like the winding wall that snakes down the hill leading to the snowy Chrome Hill, which towers over the landscape. The drifts were impressive, especially the shapes in the untouched snow. To top it off, the tones in the sky complement the beautiful wintry scene.” Settings: 1/30 sec, f/11, ISO 400 Instagram: @leehowdle Digital Camera says: Lee has captured a fantastic view of Chrome Hill. It works brilliantly as the eye is drawn diagonally from the bottom right along the wall to the setting sun in the distance. From the detail…

FOCUS LIMITER Autofocus takes a fraction of a second but the decisive moment can still be missed if the lens is hunting through its entire range trying to find focus. This can be an issue with telephotos and macros so it’s on these lens types where you’ll find the focus limiter. Just select the distance range where you expect the subject to be; leave it set to ‘full’ if you’re not sure. A few cameras have a customisable AF limiter feature built-in, which is more versatile. ZOOM LOCK Many zooms increase in physical length as the lens is zoomed towards its telephoto end. That can be annoying when you’re not shooting and are walking around with the camera hanging off your shoulder. This is where a zoom lock comes in…

Lens design is a complex business, requiring specialist optical glass, advanced coatings and uniquely shaped lens elements. A lens’s construction is quoted in elements and groups: the number of pieces of glass and how they are grouped together. Many advanced lenses feature aspheric elements where the front surface doesn’t form part of a sphere and these help eliminate distortion in wide-angles and control spherical aberration. To control chromatic aberration, where light of different wavelengths focuses at different points, low dispersion or extra-low dispersion glass is used. All this advanced optical tech comes at a cost, so expect a hefty price tag. The Nikkor 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens (right) is a modern lens with a wide zoom range and this is reflected in its complex design. You see lenses described…

A slicker lens change reduces the risk of dust on the sensor. To speed things up, one tip is to remove the back cap of the new lens so you’re ready to swap over. Tuck the lens under your arm, put it in a pocket or rest it on your bag ready, then push the camera’s lens release button and twist the mounted lens so it’s unlocked but secure and ready to unmount. When you’re ready, remove the old lens and quickly fit the new one. This method can minimise the time the sensor is exposed. Finally, remember to turn off the camera before swapping lenses. SEND US YOUR PHOTOS! Now you know how to use your zoom lens like a pro, show us what you’ve learned and you could…

If your New Year’s resolution was to sort out and manage the ever-growing collection of photos captured on your digital camera, then be sure to download this month’s bonus Excire Foto Light software and let its AI-assisted tools do the hard work for you. Excire Foto Light is a digital asset management (DAM) app that uses artificial intelligence to analyse imported photos and then automatically assign keywords to them. You can then search for specific keywords to find your files much faster than by scrolling through thumbnails. This powerful software also enables you to manually sort your shots by popping them into collections or assigning ratings and colour labels to them. Ratings and labels can then be filtered to help you in the culling process so your best shots are…

If there’s one thing that can really make a difference to your photo, it’s increasing the contrast. What’s contrast, I hear you say? In a nutshell, adding contrast deepens the darker areas of the photo and brightens the lighter areas. Reducing the contrast does the opposite and makes everything look greyer. There’s another word you can use for low contrast – flat. And who wants their images to look flat? Contrast has an added side benefit. Unless a tool specifically includes a way to prevent it, adding contrast will also add saturation as a bonus effect. As well as getting a richer tone, you also get better colour – a true win-win situation. Lightroom has several tools that add contrast in different ways and you’ll see these in action as…

The best way to mono Q I’ve always loved black-and-white images but am unsure of the right way to convert my pics to mono, as there seem to be lots of different ways of doing this. What’s the expert view on the best method? James Robinson, Wivenhoe A There are many ways of making a colour-to-mono conversion, and although there isn’t really a ‘right’ way, the method I prefer is to convert directly from a raw file in software, such as Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw. By doing it this way, you’ll have all the extra quality and data present in the raw file at your disposal. To do it, with the file on screen in Adobe Camera Raw, open the Optics panel and tick the two boxes to reduce…

Featuring not one but two lenses, for recording during the day and night separately, the SJ20 action camera can capture 4K, 2.5K and 1080p resolution MP4 video and up to 20MP jpeg stills. The SJ20’s ultra wide-angle 154° field of view is roughly equivalent to a focal length of 8mm and it offers an 8x digital zoom. A built-in six-axis gyroscope delivers smooth footage capture whatever the use, claims SJCam, and an LCD touchscreen on both sides enables easy monitoring while filming. Offering a separate lens for day and night capture is a first for an action camera and the SJ20 is also the first action cam to feature an f/1.3 aperture for filming or shooting at night (the other lens has an f/2 aperture). Other noteworthy features include a…

Capture the Extreme and win a Leica camera Outdoor and adventure photographers… clothing brand Shackleton wants to see your best shots of extreme landscapes and weather conditions. Prizes, including a Leica V-Lux 5 compact (worth £1,770) and Shackleton clothing, are up for grabs. www.bit.ly/dcm278 extreme; £/$ free New Optics Modules added by DxO Support for 559 new camera and lens combinations has been added to DxO editing software. Joining the roster are the Lumix G9 II and DJI Mini 4 Pro drone, plus new lenses from Canon, Nikon, Tokina and Viltrox. www.dxo.com Keep a LevelHed with 3 Legged Thing A slightly larger version of 3LT’s Levelling Base, LevelHed will make levelling up your tripod easier and less hassle. Ideal for those who shoot photo panoramas or film video, LevelHed has…

In 2024, smartphones seem to be truly living up to the ‘smart’ aspect of their names. Back in 2021, when the Google Pixel 6 was released, we saw the beginnings of explicit AI integration with features such as Google’s Magic Eraser. And, at last year’s Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm Snapdragon treated me to an exclusive preview of Stable Diffusion’s generative AI tools working on a mobile device for the first time. If you’re familiar with generative AI tools such as SD, you’ll be aware of how mind-blowing it is that the computing power required to run complex generative AI tasks was possible on a smartphone a year ago. Oppo’s latest flagship device, the Find X7 Ultra, is pushing things forward with the world’s first Quad Main Camera system, comprising four…

www.dji.com The Mini 4 Pro appears to be a refinement rather than an out-and-out replacement of DJI’s already popular Mini 3 Pro model. When launching that generation of drones, the world’s most successful drone manufacturer made clear that it considered it possible to offer three distinct tiers in the ultralight (below 250g) category. The generational number hasn’t advanced at the same time but it isn’t a surprise that it’s the Pro that changes first. So how can what is – or, at least, should be – DJI’s best option under 250g keep itself ahead of the pack? The drone powerhouse has decided that it’s the software and AI, rather than the camera sensor, that are worthy of attention. That’s certainly something that chimes with not just the wider drone industry,…

DSLR & MIRRORLESS CAMERAS PLUS: Our best-buy accessories DSLRs Seen something that doesn’t look right? Email us at digitalcamera@futurenet.com with ‘Camera Guide’ in the subject line Sensor sizes at a glance Three formats dominate DSLR and mirrorless cameras… Full-frame (36 x 24mm) These imaging sensors have similar proportions to a frame of 35mm film. APS-C (≈ 25.1 x 16.7mm) Based on the Advanced Photo System film format from the 1990s. Micro Four Thirds (17.3 x 13mm) The 4:3 aspect ratio allows smaller and lighter lenses to be used. Wise buys Landscape lenses Good, better and best… three optics for shooting scenics Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG HSM Price: £1,269/$1,299 Verdict: Well-made and optically excellent, this lens for Canon and Nikon DSLRs is a real bargain. Sharpness is Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L…

While the majority of interchangeable lenses are designed to fill the proportions of a full-frame sensor, plenty of digital cameras use sensors that are smaller than full-frame (see page 107). As they are exposed to a smaller part of the picture projected by a lens, smaller sensors produce a magnification effect, with the ‘cropped’ image looking as though it has been taken with a longer lens. The focal length of the lens hasn’t increased – a 50mm lens is a 50mm lens, regardless of the camera it’s attached to – but the ‘crop factor’ of the sensor makes it appear that it has. Other differences that the sensor size makes include the larger pixels gathering light more efficiently so you’ll get cleaner, better-quality images at high ISO settings. Plus, it’s…