Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2018 i Smart Photography

It is very rare to see a camera covered both in the Editorial and on the magazine cover, but we are forced to make an exception. For decades, the name Nikon has been synonymous with the best in photography. Nikon’s F mount has remained unchanged for nearly 60 years. After all the speculation, Nikon has finally announced the Z6 and Z7 full-frame mirrorless cameras along with a brand new Z mount. At 55 mm, the Z mount diameter is larger than any other full-frame mirrorless mount. Existing F mount users can adapt their lenses to the Z mount via an adapter. A 3.7-million dot viewfinder, 5-axis image stabilisation and professional quality weather proofing complete the juicy specifications. So, is this the end of the D-SLR or the beginning of the…

Varun Sathe is an automobile photographer. He was inspired into this genre of photography because of his unending love for machines, not just for bikes and cars. Arun graduated with a diploma from the Bharti Vidyapeeth School of Photography in Pune. He also assisted professional photographer Avinash Gowarikar where he learnt the ethics of the trade. Later on he started his own company – The Photo Company. Please tell us about yourself and how did you get in to automobile photography. I think in photography or in any art form you need to follow your passion. I loved to have posters of exotic bikes in my room. I decided to start working on machines or as I call them “my passion”. This was an important decision for me. My goal…

Smart Photography has been continually receiving requests to start a basic course for beginners. With this in mind, we have asked a very knowledgeable photographer from Chennai to take over writing these articles. We have also requested him to be as jargon-free as it is possible, so that newcomers to photography feel comfortable to pursue the hobby. The author, 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…

Last year’s Mi A1 may not have been a runaway success as Xiaomi would have liked but nonetheless, the Mi A1 was a good phone. They have now followed up with the aptly named Mi A2. Design and Build Quality The Mi A2 is a good-looking smartphone with its metal unibody shell and a huge display. The smooth back along with a 7.3 mm slim body make the phone difficult to hold. The large dual camera sensor also protrudes at the back. One workaround to both these issues is to use the case provided in the sales package. When it comes to port placements, the fingerprint sensor is placed at the back, USB-C at the bottom and infrared blaster at the top. Interestingly, 3.5 mm headphone jack did not make…

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 favorites. 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…

Huawei Sells 10 Million P20 and P20 Pro Units Huawei Consumer Business Group has announced that it has sold 10 million units of Huawei P20 Pro and Huawei P20 in the first five months. Huawei’s latest flagship devices sold very well in key markets such as China and Western Europe, where they are performing significantly better than their predecessors. “We are humbled by the reception of our latest flagships among global consumers. By going above the 10-million mark, we have again set ourselves a high bar to clear, but we will treat it as a symbol of encouragement that will fuel us as we continue doing what we do best—putting cutting-edge innovations into the hands of consumers around the world,” said Kevin Ho, President of Handset Business, Huawei Consumer Business…

Debraj Debbarma from Tripura, is a doctor by profession and a passionate landscape photographer who also loves macro and astro photography. He is currently based in Shillong. Finding time to pursue his hobby was his greatest challenge but he reminded himself that ‘where there is a will, there is a way’! Says Debraj, “God has made everything perfect in His creation. Being so rich in flora and fauna, I was stunned by her beauty and feel extremely privileged to be able to capture the beauty, which is merely a glimpse of her”.…

300mm Prime or a Longer Zoom? I wish to buy a 300mm f/2.8 prime lens for wildlife photography but my friend recommends that I should get a 80-400mm or a 200-500mm lens since this range covers 300mm and offers more focal range. What do you suggest? A. T. Raval, Pune I take it that you are a Nikon user since the two zoom lenses that you have mentioned are made by Nikon. To make an informed choice, consider the following: Will you use the lens on a full-frame body or on an APS-C body? On an APS-C body, because of the ‘crop factor’, the 300mm lens will act like a 450mm lens (it will give you an angle-of-coverage that a full-frame body would give with a 450mm lens). Similarly,…

So, finally what do we conclude? As explained in detail, non-metered manual mode – where you set the exposure by guesswork will simply not work in most cases. Metered manual is way better and it is most useful when you use it in conjunction with spot metering especially when handling high-contrast scenes. It is however, slow and hence is not recommended when subject is moving or when light is changing. Under these circumstances you are better off using Aperture Priority. This is often the first choice of many pros but not the only one. Consider Shutter Priority too if maintaining a definite shutter speed is important (when shooting action for example), especially when light is changing. Give Program mode and its derivatives a pass. Remember two things always. All meters…

Xiaomi has had an interesting year so far. Not only was the company recently listed on the stock exchange in Hong Kong, its Indian subsidiary rose to the top in the world’s second largest smartphone market. However, most of the phones that Xiaomi sells falls under the sub-Rs. 20,000 range. Sure, there’s Mi Mix 2 at Rs. 29,999 but there’s still a gap they need to fill. Enter Poco. Poco is Xiaomi’s sub-brand that will design and engineer their devices independently but also take advantage of Xiaomi’s massive supply chain and its after-sales network. The first device under the new sub-brand is the F1 and we take a thorough look to see if it can live up to the hype. Design and Build Quality Xiaomi-branded phones, be it the Redmi…

Photographers probably carry the heaviest bags while travelling for business. Carrying your cameras and lenses securely while on a flight is troublesome, unless you can fit all your gear into your carry-on luggage. The Vanguard Alta Fly 55T is a compact carry-on four-wheel-trolley-backpack that aims to solve this problem. The bag is spacious enough to fit two D-SLRs with 4-5 lenses (up to 300 mm f/4), a flash unit and accessories. The bag also has dedicated compartments for a 14-inch laptop and a tablet. The tripod holder at the side allows you to carry a medium-sized tripod. A four-wheeled trolley and ‘fold out of the way’ backpack harness allow you to move the backpack easily through airports. The bag has a padded main compartment with dividers to protect your equipment.…

Write to us at: Smart Photography, Next Gen Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Mafatlal Chambers B, Ground Floor, N. M. Joshi Marg, Lower Parel (E), Mumbai - 400 013 E-mail: sp@nextgenpublishing.net SP reader Adi Jehangir wrote... Recently received the Sept ‘18 issue of Smart Photography. This is regarding the excellent article and photos by Ajay Sood on Prague, commencing on pg 64. However I noticed that there is a complete mismatch of the photos and the accompanying text description. This rather diminishes the impact of such a nice article. Thank you Adi for bringing this error to our notice. We apologise for this inadvertent, but rather careless lapse on our part. Henceforth, we will take extra care to ensure that such errors do not creep in. Rohinton Mehta Technical Editor Here are…

A Fine Arts graduate and Art Director by profession, Pulak Nath operates from Mumbai. He owns a company called Annu Creations. Photography, art and painting were his childhood passions and he finally settled into photography. He was inspired by his uncle who owned a studio and spent a lot of time in the darkroom during film photography days. Pulak is a travel and landscape photographer and likes to travel whenever he gets a break from his professional assignments. He has also been honoured with an AFIP (Artist of Federation of Indian Photography) and his works have won more than 100 national and international prizes from different photography competition around the world. Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Aperture: f/4 Shutter Speed: 1/25 sec ISO: 6400 Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark…

Shishir Dhulla is a travel and photography enthusiast who works in IT with a financial services firm in Mumbai. He was drawn towards photography after a casual wildlife trip to Ranthambhore in 2009. Over the few years, it became a serious hobby and like all novice photographers, he ended up buying a lot of camera gear for various types of photography. Eventually, he figured out that he liked photographing streets, people and food most of the time. Camera: iPhone 7 Plus Focal length: 4 mm Aperture: f/1.8 Shutter speed: 1/350 sec ISO: 20 Camera: iPhone 7 Plus Focal length: 4 mm Aperture: f/1.8 Shutter speed: 1/220 sec ISO: 20 Camera: iPhone 7 Plus Focal length: 4 mm Aperture: f/1.8 Shutter speed: 1/100 sec ISO: 32 Camera: iPhone 7 Plus Focal…

Dhritiman Lahiri is a professional photographer. He specialises in architectural, travel, landscape & wedding photography. His love for photography began when his father gifted him a Kodak KB10 film camera while in junior college, back in 1998. He has worked in the corporate sector for 18 years before making the critical decision of turning his hobby into his profession. He founded iClickWeddings which provides wedding photography services across India. His love for travelling made him start OneLifeFewClicks where he actively conducts workshops & photography tours for aspiring photographers. To view more of his work, visit his websites: www.iclickweddings.com and www.OneLifeFewClicks.com Landscapes are interesting. But did you know that you can easily turn your everyday landscapes into fairy-tale like images? The technique involves use of long exposures. Some common examples of subjects…

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Clock speed: Up to 2.8GHz GPU: Adreno 630, up to 710MHz Memory: 8GB+256GB / 6GB+128GB / 6GB+64GB Camera: Ultra light-sensitive AI camera Primary: 12MP rear camera, 1.4µm large pixel, f/1.9, dual pixel autofocus Secondary: 5MP rear camera, 1.12µm pixel, f/2.0 Front camera: 20MP Video: 4K video, 30 fps Face unlock: IR Face unlock Fingerprint unlock: Rear fingerprint sensor Display: 15.6 cm, 18.7:9 Full Screen Display Connectivity: 4G dual SIM 3.5mm audio port: Available Battery: 4000mAh Quick Charge 3.0: Yes USB: Type-C reversible connector port Dimensions: (Standard) 155.5 x 75.2 x 8.8 mm Weight: (Standard)182g…

Sekonic is a well-known brand in professional light meters. The Flashmate L-308 light meter is a very popular series from Sekonic and the L-308X-U offers enhanced functionality. This is a compact device for metering both ambient and flash lighting as well as working in video with dedicated Cine and HD Cine modes. A sliding lumisphere allows you to measure ambient light as well as reflected light via a lens with a 40° reception angle. The L-308X-U provides metering range from 0 to 19.9 EV at ISO 100, and can work with flash within a range of f/1.0 to f/90.9 at ISO 100. The new light meter also delivers an accuracy of <0.1 EV on repeat exposures. The Flashmate L-308X-U carries advanced features from Sekonic’s flagship product, the Speedmaster L-858D-U. This…