Innehållsförteckning för Issue 2 från Digital Camera User

Nikon have created a camera system that ushers in a new era of photographic possibilities. Mirrorless cameras have been with us for some time, but now Nikon have changed the game with their two Z series cameras. Both the Z7 and the Z6 use the new Z Mount full-frame lens mount; this new design is actually the widest mount on any camera. At 55mm, it is 17% larger than a standard F Mount, which allows for more light capture and places the lens closer to the sensor, allowing smaller, lighter cameras and lens design. The build and ergonomics of the two cameras have been carefully crafted to be lighter than standard DSLR bodies and allow intuitive control. Combined with an articulating touchscreen, navigating and adjusting settings has never been easier.…

If you are one of those photographers who loves to print and frame their work, rather than keep the shots buried deep within one of your hard drives, never to see the light of day, then it’s worth considering the PIXMA PRO-100S for top quality prints. With a maximum of 4800 pixels, this thermal inkjet from Canon uses an 8-ink colour system including three monochrome inks for deep, saturated colours with a quoted 30 year permanence. This printer is fast too, it can a print an A3+ photo, with a border, in about 90 seconds. The PIXMA PRO-100S is wireless and printing can be done from either your desktop computer or mobile devices using the Canon PRINT app. If you are a Photoshop and Lightroom user, you can take a…

If you are a pro shooter or even just an enthusiast who is keen to maximise the speed of their image capture between camera and card, then you can’t go wrong with a SanDisk memory card. They have become one of the leading brand names when it comes to digital storage. Their product is reliable and backed up with a lifetime limited warranty. Their Extreme Pro range of SD cards are also fast. When we say fast, it means that the card can can have data written to its solid state memory very quickly. Fast, in this case means at around 95MB per second. You might wonder why the speed is so important and what scenario you would find yourself shooting in to be worrying whether your card is fast…

Once you get beyond the basics of photography and you find yourself wanting to add a little creativity and take more control of how the light affects your shots, then that is when you need to take a look at additional lighting in the form of flashes. Your first experience of flash might be the tiny pop up flash you find on the top of a lot of compact cameras and a number of DSLR models. They are useful to light a subject when all else fails, but to be honest, if you want your shots to appear more than just selfies, then you need to look further afield. We are referring to the dedicated flashguns that can be mounted in your camera’s hot shoe, or for even greater flexibility,…

Nearly all digital cameras, from top-of-the-range DSLRs to the humblest budget point-and-shoot compacts, have multiple light metering options. Knowing how and when to use these different metering modes can make a dramatic difference to the quality of your photography; unfortunately most people don’t understand what the different modes are for, how they work, or how to use them. Know your modes Depending on your camera, you’ll find metering options either in the menu or with their own separate control. In cameras with a fully-automatic setting, this will usually disable the metering options; automatically selecting multi-zone metering as the best option for day-to-day scenes and snapshots. The most common light metering modes are found on nearly all digital cameras. They are spot metering, centre-weighted metering and matrix metering. The symbols used…

Shooting modes should not be confused with Scene modes that alter your camera’s settings for specific lighting and scene conditions. Shooting modes are the main core of camera operation and can often be a source of confusion for new photographers, or those moving up from a simple compact camera or even camera phone. The main shooting modes on any DLSR are Auto, Programmed AE, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority and Manual Exposure. There is also the Auto (flash off) feature and Bulb mode for exposures longer than 30 seconds. Different models of DSLR have other modes available and they vary by manufacturers as well; but the main modes, often abbreviated to PASM, are the key ones that are worth getting to know in a little more detail. It is very useful…

A long with unwanted camera shake, one easy way to ruin a shot is to incorrectly focus on your subject. This can be down to the camera’s autofocus system being confused by other obscuring objects in the scene and attempting to lock on to that instead of your subject; or just good old human error in the way you might have set up your autofocus options. We can speak from embarrassing experience where a number of portrait shots at an event were taken when the lens’ autofocus button was knocked onto manual and we didn’t pay enough attention to the fact that the focus confirmation light wasn’t coming on. Luckily we noticed during a quick review of the shots taken, and could remedy the problem, but could you imaging getting…

1 Color Grading Color Grading is one of the adjustment tools found in the Develop Module. It is a graphical user interface replacement of the Split Toning panel. It works in the same way by letting you adjust the hue and saturation in the highlights or shadows of your image, but the methods by which you interact with it have been updated. Rather than using a series of sliders for highlights and shadows, you now click and drag your cursor over a series of colour wheels. Now you are able to alter not only highlights and shadows, but also the mid-tones too. You just choose the corresponding colour wheel and drag your cursor over it. As you do, the colour selected will be injected into the image, creating a colour…

Black and white Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer known for his black and white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating “pure” photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph. When it comes to shooting in black and white he is famously quoted as saying: “I can get a far greater sense of ‘colour’ through a well-planned and executed black and white image than I have ever achieved with color photography.” Long exposure sunrise With the aid of a 10-stop neutral density filter, you can slow down your shutter speeds to soften moving elements in your shots such as water and clouds. On a crisp morning, down at the seafront, screwing a…

The new Z Mount NIKKOR Z lenses are no less impressive than the Z series mirrorless cameras for which they are designed. Their optical performance takes photography to the next level and they boast amazing specifications of their own. They are comprehensively sealed to prevent the ingress of dust and moisture, but are still lightweight and well balanced. At the moment, there are 4 lenses available with more to be rolled out over the next two years. They cover useful focal ranges such as the 14-30mm f/4 wide-angle and 24-70mm f/4. If you need fast primes, then 35mm and 50mm f/1.8 lenses give you the ability to shoot in darker scenarios and gather more light. Soon to be added to the list is the 58mm S Noct; this is the…

Countless landscape photographers use filters to coax as much image detail and tonal range out of their shots as possible. The simple use of a graduated filter that darkens a bright sky but leaves the darker foreground unaltered is a popular example of a filter in use. That’s fine for most lenses you can buy but there are issues if you want to shoot with a lens that has a shorter focal length than usual. A good 16-35mm focal length zoom lens is perfect for most applications but if you want to use focal length lenses around the 14mm, 12mm and 11mm range, there are going to be some physical drawbacks to those lens designs. The problem is that ultra wide lenses may have a domed front element with a…

When you use flash lighting, especially if using it to directly light your subject, you will be aware of how harsh the shadows it casts can be. You can’t always be near a large picture window on an overcast day, where the softness of the light coming through that window makes it difficult to take a bad photo. You have to work with what you have, so that means you need to go back to your flash. However, there are some techniques that allow you to modify and shape light to suit your needs. This is where light modifiers come in. A lighting modifier is just what the name suggests. It is an object, surface, or material that alters the way the light travels from its source to the subject.…

Nearly all modern compact cameras have zoom lenses, and most users of digital SLRs or CSCs will also have at least a couple of zooms in their kit. Focal length is one of your primary tools for adjusting composition. Selecting the right focal length for the scene allows the photographer to control perspective, angle of view and magnification, and can radically alter the mood and style of the photo. Some focal lengths are more suited to particular types of photo, and the properties of wide-angle and telephoto lenses can be used to produce particular effects. Understanding how focal length works and how it affects your photos is a vital photographic skill. Lenses and Focal Length There are basically two types of lens: those with fixed focal lengths, also known as…

Zone 0 Pure black, no details or texture visible. Zone 1 Black tone but no texture. This is normally as black as you want to get in a picture. Zone 2 First hint of texture and detail, very deep shadow. Zone 3 Dark materials, details visible. Zone 4 Dark foliage. Dark stone. Landscape shadow. Shadow on portraits in sunlight. Zone 5 Clear north sky. Dark skin. Grey stone. Weathered wood. 18% mid grey. Zone 6 Average Caucasian skin value. Light stone. Shadows in sunlit snow. Zone 7 Very light skin. Light grey objects. Snow with side lighting. Zone 8 White with texture. Snow in shade. Highlights on Caucasian skin. Zone 9 Glaring white surfaces. Snow in flat sunlight. White without texture. Zone 10 Light sources, reflections of sunlight on metal.…

“Simply put, an infinity curve is a surface that has no corners that show up when photographed.” With the pro photographer’s studio space packed with equipment worth many tens of thousands it must seem like us mere mortals could never enjoy a studio of our own. The thing is, even the greatest professionalhad to start somewhere. In this guide, we can show you that even your own dining table can become a studio, albeit in a much more modest way. However, all the principles involved in a large studio shoot are just as valid for a humble tabletop setup too. All you need for this setup is your camera and tripod, a prop to photograph, two cheap desktop lamps and some white paper, oh, and your table of course. Getting…

The more you grow in experience as a photographer, the more demanding lighting conditions you may possibly encounter in your search for more interesting and varied images. You may also demand more in-camera control of how light is falling on your sensor, to give you more balanced exposures at the point of capture and minimise the amount of shots lost to incorrect exposure thus reducing the amount of post-processing you have to do with your images once you are back at your computer. This is where filters come into play. They vary in size and type but all have one function, to modify the light levels falling on your sensor. This can be as simple as affecting exposure of the entire image, or a part of it. It could also…

After you’ve spent several minutes just pronouncing the Gitzo’s model number, you can settle down and marvel at this flagship tripods specifications, and its price. This is not a tripod for the hobbyist photographer, unless you have a large disposable income that you would like disposed of very rapidly. At this price point, you are paying for a lot of engineering that makes the Gitzo one of the highest quality and stable tripods out there. Add to that the brand-name kudos and you have a Rolls Royce among tripods (at Rolls Royce prices of course). At this price you would expect some great features. First the Gitzo weights just 1.4kg thanks to its carbon fibre construction. Fully extended, it reaches a height of 148.5cm and can support a maximum payload…

“Let’s take a look at some of the different types of filter and how they can help to improve your photos.” TOP TIP! If you are buying a filter system that uses a filter holder, always remember to get the correct system for your widest lens. A very wide lens may be able to see the edges of your filter holder if it is too small for your current setup. Filters have been an essential part of photography since its very beginnings. Used creatively they can improve a hard-to-capture scene, add an extra artistic element to an image or just provide a bit of fun. Modern digital photo editing has provided an, almost too easy, method to add filter effects to an image after it has been captured; some…

There are a couple of autofocus systems in use today that intelligently adjust the camera lens in order to obtain and hold focus on your subject. Compact system cameras use something called contrast-detection AF, which samples the image from the sensor and detects sharp high contrast edges in the details of the scene. Phase detection is a more complex system but is usually much faster, more accurate and works better in low light. However both systems require some detail in the scene to ’lock on’ to. Try and point your camera at a plain wall or a sheet of white paper and see if it will focus on it. Even if you own a top-of-the-range DSLR it won’t be able to focus on a featureless surface. Modern DSLRs have several…

Most modern cameras have a selection of scene modes, usually chosen by a dial on the top or back of the camera via a menu. Easy-to-use, mainly automatic cameras in the range will only have a few scene modes, whilst the more sophisticated cameras such as the DSLR may have as many as a dozen, including manual exposure options and user-programmable special settings. What are scene modes? Scene modes are provided on the majority of cameras to aid new photographers. They are a number of presets that set the camera up automatically to shoot in a variety of lighting conditions. You simply need to match the settings to the scene you are about to shoot and then you can take the photo safe in the knowledge that it should come…

When buying new lenses, it is important to know what different ones are used for and which are right for you. The focal length of a lens is actually measured from the point of converging inside the lens to the sensor, not from the front of the lens. Ultra wide-angle Usually in the 14-24mm range, these lenses are considered specialty devices and do command some very high prices. Ultra wide lenses are often used in landscape, architectural and event photography to get the maximum amount of scene into a single photo, or when space is restricted. Wide-angle With focal lengths starting at 24-35mm, these lenses are widely included as kit lenses starting at 24mm with a zoom range up to about 105mm. They are often used by photojournalists or people…