Innehållsförteckning för November 2020 från Digital Camera Magazine

We all have periods in our photographic journeys when things go a little flat, and some fresh inspiration is required. So if that’s how you’re feeling while reading this, head straight to p74, where Ben Brain offers the cure. For even more inspiration this month, try Photo Active (p16) and its 10 all-new projects, plus more in Stay at Home (p43). Wildlife lovers can catch the best entries from Wildlife Photographer of the Year in Hotshots (p88); and if Egyptian antiquities are one of your passions, discover how Sandro Vannini photographed some of the treasures of the Pharoahs, on p134. Also this month, don’t miss our verdict on the exciting new Panasonic Lumix S5 (p108) and our pick of the best budget full-frame cameras (p124). Enjoy the issue. niall.hampton@futurenet.com Follow…

It was inspiring to discover the photographer Thomas Allen’s work, where he cuts out then photographs the characters from the front of pulp fiction books. I have always had an interest in photography and love creating pop-up books, and this concept brings both of these together. My own inspiration comes from the illustrations on vintage fiction books, with their iconic-looking characters. There is something so appealing and individual about them. I enjoy the creativity of working out how to set and light them in a scene in a way that highlights their emotions, while also telling their story. www.clairemorris.photography Find out how Claire produced this shot Claire shot and edited Imagining Under Milk Wood as a private commission; turn over to see how she created this image 1 Getting started…

Ready to create new worlds beyond the confines of reality and let your imagination go wild? With these three quick and simple steps, you’ll learn how to transform any image into a miniature scene within the realm of a lightbulb – or any semitransparent object you like. To obtain the perfect image of your selected object – a lightbulb – use a lightbox as a backdrop to reduce the chances of shadow, otherwise the editing process can become fiddly. There is an element of patience in reaching the best results. Keeping your subject simple will help. 1 Eliminate To start this tutorial, open your chosen image of a lightbulb in Photoshop and duplicate the Background layer to avoid permanent mistakes. Select the Spot Removal Tool and trace over the filament…

I was born on the west coast of Scotland, surrounded by dramatic landscapes that fuelled my passion for photography and travel. Visiting countries like Iceland, Norway and Slovenia has led me to plan my biggest photographic adventure yet: the Himalayas. I have always wanted to capture Mount Everest with my own camera. After receiving a few honourable mentions in international photography competitions in 2014 and 2015, I decided to focus on photography full-time and now teach photography and image editing at Ayrshire College. I am also an ambassador for Skylum software. When it comes to dramatic scenery and changeable weather, Scotland is a photographer’s dream. You’ll find rugged mountains, abundant lochs and many white sandy beaches reminiscent of tropical locations – well, except for the water temperature. And with castles…

No matter what your preferred genre of photography is, shooting abstract images can be liberating and fun. It may even get you out of a creative drought once in a while. The best thing about shooting abstract is that nothing can go wrong! The final result, whether it was intentional or not, can be a masterpiece, or something to experiment more with the next time. In a sense, it’s like starting photography anew: there are no rules to the game any longer. Abstract photography can come in many forms. Maybe you have an old portrait that you can add effects to in editing; maybe you want to experiment with longer exposures than you are used to; or perhaps you have a new take on an old technique. Sometimes, taking an…

Online shopping and delivery has been a great help to so many of us over the last few months. I have been scouring the likes of Amazon and eBay for interesting ways to feed my photographic habit, while working within the limits of my home. From vintage slides to unusual and quirky products, it is amazing what you can find to give yourself ideas for a photography project. My living room receives a low evening sun, which shines into the space like a laser beam on a sunny day; so when I came across some prisms, I thought this would be an interesting product to try to capture on my mantelpiece. Product bought and placed, I waited and waited; and sure enough, during some of the warmest days on record,…

With over a decade as a writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter most. Photo shoots rarely go exactly to plan, especially if you’re working with children or animals. While photographing the dog here, my idea was to create a shot with water drops flying out from the dog’s head at all angles. But it proved tricky to get the dog to play ball, and even when I managed to get a usable shot, it didn’t have the scattering of water drops I wanted. However, I did have other frames where the dog wasn’t right, but the water drops were plentiful. This meant I could piece together the drops and the dog from different frames to craft the shot I wanted.…

Capturing the world through the mechanics, electronics and optics of a camera is a very different experience to looking at the world through your eyes. Learning to see how your camera ‘sees’, and mastering the ability to pre-visualise how your image will look when it’s taken in a certain way, will help you refine your photographic creativity and give you the tools to fully express yourself. The two images below are essentially the same scene taken at more or less the same time, but both are totally different in the feel they evoke. Both have been realised by using different combinations of settings and accessories. Neither image is any better or worse than the other: they’re just different. Having a sense of what you’re trying to communicate will determine how…

Try thinking of photography as a language: just as you use spelling and grammar, structure sentences, and express yourself through words, you can do the same with photos. In the same way the written word can take on many forms, such as journalism or poetry, the language of photography can also be used in a variety of ways. Perhaps you are drawn to be the visual equivalent of a poet or a journalist: what you choose to show in your images and the way in which you show it will act as a signal to the viewer and help tell your story. You’ll need to first understand the fundamentals of photography, but once you’ve got that nailed, adding a little depth and meaning to your work and expressing how you…

£5,990/$6,400 www.hasselblad.com The Hasselblad 907X 50C achieves two remarkable things. It’s an affordable entry point to Hasselblad’s modular medium-format system, and it also resurrects the classic Hasselblad 500 film camera range, at a price that makes bringing these cameras out of retirement a feasible proposition – especially as many are still working today. Hasselblad’s modular mediumformat cameras now come in two types. You have the big, bulky and expensive H6, the latest in the Hasselblad H series of digital SLRs. This is sold with a 100MP digital back, with a sensor roughly the size of old medium-format 645 (6 x 4.5cm) film, once you allow for a few millimetres’ rebate around the film area. This is so-called ‘full-frame’ digital mediumformat. The H6D-100C costs around $33,000, body only. Now we have…

£899/$949 www.sigma-imaging-uk.com Telephoto zooms with a range of around 80-400mm or 100-400mm tend to be quite large and heavy. Canon and Nikon’s current offerings for their DSLR cameras weigh in at 1,640g and 1,570g respectively, and they’re both pricey to boot. In 2017, Sigma launched its ‘light bazooka’ 100-400mm, which is only about two thirds of the weight and less than half the price. (We gave it a 4.5 rating in issue 230’s Group Test.) Sigma has now brought out a similar lens for mirrorless cameras, available in Sony E and Leica L mount options. Tipping the scales at 1,140g (Sony) or 1,135g (L-mount), it keeps the weight off but boasts a redesigned optical path and a new autofocus system. The stepping motor-based AF is fast and virtually silent, aided…

£1,129/$1,499 www.nikon.co.uk Coming up to its sixth birthday, the Nikon D750 is the most veteran camera in this full-frame quartet. It lacks the competing Canon 6D Mark II’s hybrid sensor-based autofocus system, but for regular viewfinderbased shooting it boasts an excellent 51-point autofocus module, including 15 cross-type points and 11 points that work at f/8. Further signs of its age are that there’s no touchscreen, although the rear LCD does have a tilt facility. Video capture is limited to 1080p, but typical of conventional DSLRs, autofocus for video and Live View stills is ponderous and prone to hunting. The newer D780 addresses all of these issues, featuring the same image sensor as the Z 6, adding 4K UHD shooting, and including a touchscreen. However, it costs almost twice as much…

£699/$899 www.canon.co.uk The Canon imagePrograf Pro-300 is a high-quality A3+ photo printer, designed to deliver fabulous-looking output on both glossy and matte media. It replaces the Pixma Pro-10S in Canon’s lineup – a photo printer we already rate as one of the best – and slots in below the A2 imagePrograf Pro-1000. The two main choices for inkjet printers at this price point are dye-based or pigment-based inks. Dye-based printers are typically faster and work better with glossy photo paper, because the ink molecules are small enough to get fully absorbed beneath the shiny outer surface of the paper. Pigment-based inks work better with matte and fine-art media, as the ink is more resistant to fading. Whichever ink option you choose, the sheer amount of fine detail in a printed…

Sandro Vannini Photographer Sandro has become famous for his stunning photos of Egypt’s recovered treasures. Find out how much work goes into every shot on page 134. Dave Kai Piper Photographer and filmmaker Dave shoots across a variety of genres, but on a visit to the Black Country, we find out how he photographs heritage buildings. See page 10. Margot Raggett Wildlife photographer Margot’s photographic career has seen her expand into a charity fighting to preserve rare species. Discover Remembering Wildlife on page 104. Jon Devo Photographer and writer Our new columnist has been a photographer for 18 years and is also a fan of technology. Discover his thoughts on the latest full-frame cameras, on page 106. Benedict Brain Photographer Ben restlessly explores the potential of his photos through a…

HOW TO GET YOUR DIGITAL GIFTS STEP 1 ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc235 Enter the URL above 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 (see the examples above). This will take you to a page on our website. STEP 2 START YOUR DOWNLOAD Just click the highlighted link Here you’ll find all the files, videos and resources to accompany this issue of Digital Camera. Scroll to just underneath the image and click on Download the disc for Digital Camera 235 and your download will start. STEP 3 ACCESS YOUR FILES Double-click the .zip file icon In your Downloads folder, or wherever you chose to download…

This is something I’ve wanted to try for a while. A few years ago, I was doing the lighting on a feature film where we used a smoke machine almost every day – and it was brilliant. Although it was only capable of chucking out standard white smoke, it elevated the look of the image to an incredible extent. When I came across these relatively new coloured canisters, I was eager to get some to try. The main issue with standard white smoke is that it is reflective and bounces the light around, sometimes leading to an overexposed image. Smoke is a bit of a wild beast and, depending on the weather on the day, can be almost uncontrollable. If you use white smoke and are working fast before the…

Polly Rusyn’s passion for photography went to a whole new level while she visited Papua New Guinea, on a recce for the adventure travel company she was working for at the time. In Madang she was fortunate enough to attend a traditional village sing-sing by the Bilbil people, where members of the tribe dress in traditional outfits to perform ancestral songs and dances. Polly asked if she could watch the villagers prepare for the event, and was then able to try her hand at documentary photography for the first time. The experience was transformative: one year later Polly left the travel industry and set about making a career as a photographer. Five years on, she shoots personal brand photography and teaches street photography both at home in London and in…

PART 7 OF 7 Photo website building 101 For the final part of this series, we’re going to walk you through the final stages of building a photography website from scratch using the Drupal content management system (CMS). Websites built using a CMS are more sophisticated than ones consisting of fixed or ‘static’ pages of text, and are essential for displaying images. As an open-source general-purpose CMS, Drupal boasts a large community of contributing developers, and is popular with governments, non-profit firms and educational institutions. Building a website in Drupal is more involved than doing it in other CMSs like WordPress, so it will appeal to computer-literate people who like the idea of going ‘behind the curtain’ of a website. The reward will be a bespoke and secure website built…

1 ‘Lady Beetle in Green’ by Andy Murdock “This shot wasn’t pre-planned, but rather the reaction to a moment. I took it handheld, shooting vertically down a sweetcorn plant, because the plant’s height meant that a tripod wasn’t going to work. I wanted just the ladybird as the point of focus so, shooting on my Sony A7R III with a 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master lens, I used an aperture of f/4.5. I did some basic editing in Lightroom, then cropped it in Photoshop and took it into Colour Efex Pro for the tonal contrast. The final elements would have been the Topaz products, which are truly excellent.” Digital Camera says: What a great shot – it takes you directly into the huge world of small insects. You don’t always need…

With over a decade as a writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter most. Affinity Photo offers a host of useful tools for portrait retouching. Its healing and clone tools are ideal for removing marks and imperfections, for example, while its tonal tools make it easy to boost tones and add impact to the eyes of a subject. Each of these adjustments can be made on separate layers, which gives you the option to tone things down afterwards if an enhancement looks overcooked or unnatural – a common pitfall with retouching. One of the best features is the dedicated Frequency Separation command, which effectively splits the image in two. A lower layer holds low-frequency detail, which includes tones and colours –…

It is undeniably a wonderful experience to be taking photos at a ‘perfect’ location, at the ‘perfect’ time, in ‘perfect’ conditions – but in reality, that doesn’t happen often. And if you just sit around waiting for it to happen, the chances are you won’t be taking many photos. One of the keys to growing as a photographer is to take lots of photographs. The more you are involved in the act of making images, the better you will be. The good news is that you can make images anywhere and everywhere, at any time. Whether you live in an urban metropolis, the wild countryside or in suburban sprawl, there are myriad photo opportunities. Sure, you might have to look a little harder – but the harder you look, the…

Working on a photo project that involves multiple images, taken around a central theme or idea, is a great way to approach your photography. Thinking in terms of individual images is fine, but can leave the viewer wanting more. As a creative process, working on a long- or short-form project takes you on a creative journey, and the images can evolve in exciting ways as you discover more about your subject. Think of it as the difference between a hit single and an enduring album. Individual images become part of the bigger story; some pictures play significant roles while others might be subordinate. It’s a great way to give your work clout. CASE STUDY OCEAN VIEW This simple ongoing project is about the ever-changing beauty of the ocean 1 Consistency…

Highly Commended, Under Water The Night Shift by Laurent Ballesta, France As darkness falls on the remote coral Fakarava Atoll in French Polynesia, the molluscs begin to move. These large topshells – reaching 15 centimetres across the base – spend the day hiding in crevices among corals, usually on the outer fringes of the reef, withstanding the strong currents and surf. At night, they emerge to graze on algal pavements and coral rubble. Their thick, cone-shaped shells, shown encrusted with algae, were so sought after – to make mother-of-pearl buttons, jewellery and other handicrafts – that the species was once the world’s most traded invertebrate. This led to its widespread decline, and it is now the focus of conservation efforts. Cruising behind these slow grazers is one of the reef’s…

New Sony compact The A7C packs a full-frame sensor into an APS-C sized body and targets prospective customers new to the Sony brand Sony’s new full-frame mirrorless camera follows on from the brand’s successful A7-series models, but with a radical design rethink. The Sony A7C can be thought of as a full-frame mirrorless camera housed in an APS-C body; the A7C is therefore nearer to the box-shaped look of the A6000-series models than to the familiar form factor of the A7 range. Sony hopes to attract a new audience of photographers, vloggers and content creators who want a fresher design and a camera that’s as adept at shooting video as it is stills photography. The A7C’s rectangular ‘rangefinder’ design loses the viewfinder housing on the top and instead positions the…

£799/$799 www.olympus.co.uk Olympus may have grabbed the headlines recently with its shock sale, but the launch of the OM-D E-M10 Mark IV shows that it’s very much business as usual for the imaging company. With some interesting improvements made on the Mark IV’s predecessor, this camera looks set to make Olympus enthusiasts very happy. We had great affection for the E-M10 Mark III: it’s a fantastic little camera, with plenty of useful features to crow about. Thanks to its compact body, five-axis image stabilisation and 4K video capability, it has sat squarely at the top of our best travel cameras guide for quite some time. However, the Mk III wasn’t without its foibles. Released at a time when 24MP APS-C sensors were standard, its 16MP sensor was a little disappointing.…

£2,899/$2,699 www.canon.co.uk The Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM is the first super-telephoto zoom lens for EOS R-series mirrorless cameras. This is a high-quality lens with an L-series build; it even has a heat shield coating for coping with shooting in challenging weather conditions, whether it’s hot or cold. The 100-500mm focal length offers lots of flexibility to adjust your composition if your action subject’s distance is moving closer or further away. You should also get great image quality thanks to UD and Super UD lens elements and ASC (Air Sphere Coating) coatings for strong contrast and sharpness, plus they help prevent flare and ghosting. It’s perhaps no coincidence and clever timing by Canon that the RF 100-500mm was released after the EOS R5 and EOS R6 cameras, as it’s…

£1,349/$1,599 www.canon.co.uk Still going strong after three years, the 6D Mark II is reasonably compact for a full-frame DSLR, and has great handling. With plentiful direct-access buttons and dials to enjoy, you can quickly get at all the important settings for creative shooting. For delving deeper into settings, Canon’s quick menu system is intuitive and works a treat with the rear touchscreen. The weather-sealed construction is robust, but fairly lightweight for a DSLR. Even so, the camera is significantly chunkier and heavier than Canon’s mirrorless EOS RP. One of the major upgrades over the original 6D is that the Mark II has a much-improved 45-point autofocus system. All of the points are crosstype, able to resolve detail in both horizontal and vertical planes, and 27 of them work at apertures…

£1,549/$1,799 www.nikon.co.uk The build quality and overall construction of the Z 6 is identical to that of Nikon’s flagship Z 7 mirrorless full-frame camera. The main difference is that the Z 6 has a 24.5MP image sensor, compared with the Z 7’s 45.7MP. That makes the Z 6 much less expensive, and there are other plus points as well. The smaller megapixel count enables the Z 6 to have a faster 12fps rather than 9fps maximum burst rate, and the raw buffer size is greatly increased to between 26 and 43 shots, depending on the compression settings you choose. On top of that, image quality remains noise-free, even at very high ISO settings, beating every other camera on test. Dynamic range is also excellent. Although the Z 6 is significantly…

23 photography cheat sheets for your phone or tablet Quick reference and camera skills at a glance in this set of pages for your iOS or Android device. 9 all-new tips cards They’re back! Physical cards you can keep in your kit bag, then refer to whenever you need settings info. Buyer’s Guide ebook 250 pages of the latest camera and lens reviews, plus buying advice for accessories! Check out the Gifts folder on the disc. 75 MINUTES OF VIDEO CAMERA SKILLS The art of seeing, with Ben Brain PHOTOSHOP Create light leak effects PHOTOSHOP Create a glitch effect PHOTOSHOP Combine a foreground and background PHOTOSHOP Recreate the infrared look BRIDGE Make a contact sheet CAMERA RAW/LIGHTROOM HDR panoramas PHOTOSHOP Make stunning composites Watch any video with the URL provided,…

Photographer Dave shoots a wide variety of photographic genres, as well as videography, and specialises in digital mixed-media solutions for start-ups and small businesses. Find out more at davekaipiper.com From little acorns do mighty oaks grow… here at Digital Camera, we always recommend having one or more photographic projects in progress at any one time. They’re a great way of honing your skills and developing a style, not to mention keeping motivated if your creative batteries have run low and need recharging. Photographer Dave Kai Piper has many well-strung bows in his quiver, as a look at his website will attest. And while you’re there, you can also see his photography that documents the ‘forgotten homes’ of Ireland. While travelling around the countryside on his motorbike or by car, Dave…

Turning your image into a silhouette can be a tricky and lengthy business, as many methods involve lots of fiddly and time-consuming steps. But with this simple and effective Lightroom tutorial, you can transform most subject matters into a beautiful silhouette that will make your photograph stand out. To achieve the best results from this technique, you will need to experiment using different types of imagery. Try photographs that have defined subject matter, clear skies or that have been taken underexposed. The more you practise editing, the more you will understand how the images will look before you take them. Colour scheme Choosing a colour scheme or going monochrome depends on your image and personal preference. I found that converting this image into black and white worked most effectively for…

Although I suffer from mental health issues, I always find that being out in nature helps me relax and find my true self. I specialise in landscape and portrait photography. What inspired me originally to get into landscape photography was travelling and seeing all the beautiful places throughout the world: I thought it would be good to capture them along the way. My favourite times of the day to photograph are dawn or dusk, but I do also love mist and foggy conditions, as I find that these bring real atmosphere and mood into my images. I have won various competitions and also runner-up in Landscape Image of the Year with The Guild of Photographers. I have also released a book with Amberley Publishing – Somerset in Photographs. www.rgw-photography.co.uk Instagram:…

Some degree of lockdown seems to have returned to our lives, and signs are it could be with us for a while yet. So it’s just as well that our section devoted to enjoying photography at home, an appealing blend of practical projects and creative inspiration, will help you keep calm and camera on. Read through the following section and try out one of its new projects today – and if you take a shot that you just have to share, send it to digitalcamera@futurenet.com with the subject line ‘Reader Images’, and you could be in our reader gallery! Capture colour using a prism This inexpensive item allows you to create distinctive images using the light beams entering your living room How to build a photo website with Drupal Concluding…

Photographic inspiration can come from anywhere and take many forms, but home entertainment isn’t always one of the first places you’d consider looking in. Yet there are more options here than one would first think. YouTube is a repository of some amazing content about photography, including TV series from the days when cameras sold by the truckload, and collecting a packet of freshly developed prints or processed slides was one of life’s fondest rituals. Our colleagues on the Digital Camera World website have helpfully compiled a round-up of the best programmes about photography you’ll find online. Their selection includes some gems from modern-day broadcast TV, in both documentary and reality formats, plus made-for-streaming short films. And then there’s World of Photography, the programme that was a staple of US TV…

With over a decade as a writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter most. Both Photoshop’s Camera Raw plugin and Lightroom have long offered separate features for processing HDR exposures and combining panorama frames, but recently a new feature has been introduced that combines the two tasks into one. Previously, you’d have to merge HDRs first then stitch them into a panorama afterwards, but this handy command does both at once. It produces a detail-rich raw panorama with a heavily expanded dynamic range, making it easier to tease detail out of the tonal extremes. In this straightforward tutorial, I’ll explain how it’s done. There are many situations in which making a HDR panorama might be a useful technique. More often than…

It might seem like a bit of a drag, but the act of writing about your photography is a great place to start your creative journey. In the first instance, it’s exceptionally useful to keep a notebook and make a note of functional information about your shots: camera settings, the location, weather conditions, the date, time of day and so on… But more importantly, make a note about what you saw and why you photographed it in the way you decided to. There’s no need to get too hung up on writing beautiful prose – although that’s always nice. If writing doesn’t come naturally to you, that’s OK – but try to write something. Not only will it help you articulate your thoughts and what you’re trying to communicate, it…

The best way to build up your creative toolbox is to experiment with new techniques, ideas and approaches. No doubt you’ll fall in love with some techniques and fail to see what all the fuss about is with others. Either way, experimenting is a vital part of the creative process. Whether you’re messing around with pinhole cameras, 3D imaging or enjoying the delights of multiple exposures, your experiments will all serve to help you better understand the art, craft and science of photography. It’s also good to get into the habit of asking yourself, “What would it look like if I did this?” Chances are there’ll be a lot of failures, but occasionally you’ll discover something awesome that works brilliantly and gives you something to build on. Once you’ve mastered…

The Remembering Wildlife book series is now in its fifth year. Was there a particular event that moved you to start the project? I started the series after seeing a poached elephant in northern Kenya. It was such a shock, such a horrific sight. I’d never really understood the extent of poaching in Africa before then. I was moved deeply and decided to take some action; I could not let the moment pass. So I had the idea of maybe an exhibition or a book, a collaboration with lots of photographers if they’d agree to take part. So Remembering Elephants began, even though at the time I thought it was a one-off. Prior to Remembering Wildlife, what was your background? I worked in PR in the City of London for…

£1,799/$1,999 (body only) www.panasonic.co.uk The Lumix S5 joins three existing Lumix S models, and the Panasonic Lumix move to full-frame has been largely positive. The Lumix S-line of cameras and lenses are capable of capturing sumptuously attractive photos and videos. But two criticisms in particular – autofocus and size – have been tough for Panasonic to shake. The Lumix S5 aims to tackle both of those points and it smashes at least one of them: size. Panasonic has packed some of the best tech inside the significantly larger Lumix S1 and Lumix S1H into a camera body smaller than the Micro Four Thirds champion, the Lumix GH5. It’s nothing short of witchcraft. Larger full-frame sensors are the professional photographer’s standard, but they’re less common in the video world. The benefit…

£2,399/$2,599 www.nikon.co.uk Versatility is the watchword of the 70-200mm lens: it’s great for everything from action sports and wildlife photography to weddings, events and more besides. Nikon has made some superb examples of the breed over the years – but the latest S-line lens for Z-mount mirrorless cameras is the best yet. There’s certainly no shortage of high-tech glass packed into the Z 70-200mm. 21 elements are arranged in 18 groups and include two aspherical elements, no fewer than six ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements, a fluorite element and an SR (Short-wavelength Refractive) element. High-speed autofocus is a basic requirement nowadays but this lens pulls out all the stops, featuring two separate, synchronised drive units, both based on stepping motors. As well as ensuring spectacular speed and highly consistent accuracy, the…

£67/$89 www.rotolight.com Lighting manufacturer Rotolight recently diversified its product range to appeal to camera phone-centric content creators. Whether you are a vlogger, filmmaker or photographer, chances are you struggled to get decent light levels when you broadcast yourself on YouTube or joined video conferences with friends and family. Even if you were able to repurpose some of your core camera kit, perhaps it all felt a tad over-elaborate, like using the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut. That has all changed now, with the very reasonably priced Ultimate Vlogging Kit. You get an LED light and all the accessories you need to illuminate your video selfies; it’s battery-powered and like your camera phone, simplicity itself to use. What’s more, you’ll get some change from £100 or $100. The kit is…

£1,299/$999 www.canon.co.uk In designing the EOS RP, Canon cut the camera to the bone. In many ways, it’s like a 6D Mark II, but without a reflex mirror and with the addition of an electronic viewfinder. But it also does away with the 6D Mark II’s secondary info screen on the top panel, and has few directaccess buttons for adjusting shooting parameters. On the plus side, the EOS RP is amazingly slim and light. Although controls are sparse, there are still front and rear command dials, a scattering of buttons, and a conventional shooting mode dial – the number of custom settings on which is bumped up to three, compared with just two on the 6D Mark II. Both cameras have the same image sensor, but the RP has a…

The choice between full-frame cameras and those using other formats isn’t entirely clear-cut, but many photographers consider full-frame to be the superior format, thanks to generally superior dynamic range and low-light performance, plus a pleasing depth-of-field benefit for portrait and still-life photography. We’ve looked at two models each from Canon and Nikon, but there are other very credible and affordable full-frame options from other camera brands; see right for two further possibilities. Their similarly sized image sensors mean that there isn’t much in it when it comes to our labs tests, but our favourite from this test quartet is the Nikon Z 6. With wellconsidered controls and a compact size, it’s a pleasure to use; and technical credentials such as in-body image stabilisation and fast shutter speeds yield terrific images.…