Innehållsförteckning för January 2023 från Digital Camera Magazine

STEP 1 ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc263 Enter the URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc263 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 disc for Digital Camera 263’ 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 dc263-disc.zip file icon. Then when it expands, double-click Digital…

10 things to shoot, edit or create this month, from seascapes, captivating dog photos and misty scenics From a young age, we’re introduced to toys. As we get older, most of us ditch them for real ones so we can get to work, where our imagination can sometimes take a back seat. If you’re anything like me, though, you may still have a few old favourites tucked away in your loft, and a resurgence in creative home projects has seen people building dioramas to showcase their old (and new) figurines in various ways. A common goal seems to be creating realistic scenes, with people utilising air blowers to kick up dirt and dust, or sparklers to create explosions or fires. I am fortunate to have been able to borrow an…

I am a landscape, nature and travel photographer from north Wales. Having been surrounded by natural beauty when growing up, I’ve always enjoyed being out in the mountains or by a beach somewhere. While travelling in Tanzania about three years ago, I started to take photography far more seriously and since then I haven’t looked back. I now take great pride in my photography and love showcasing the landscapes our beautiful planet has to offer. I particularly enjoy shooting at sunset – the golden hour is something I always try to take into consideration when I’m planning a shot. This has been the biggest leap forward I’ve made within my landscape photography: kissing goodbye to harsh contrast within the shadows and saying hello to far more keepers in my photography…

1 Use Aperture Priority Also referred to as ‘Av’, this is a semiautomatic mode that allows you to set your aperture (here, f/2.8) – your camera will take care of the shutter speed and ISO. When shooting wildlife, Aperture Priority is an efficient way of shooting: animals can move between exposures and using this mode will keep you one step ahead. 2 Select High Speed burst Select the High Speed Continuous setting on your camera. Shooting a rapid burst of frames will make it easier to capture precise moments as your cunning subject moves around its environment. It’s important to show restraint when using burst mode, though, otherwise your camera’s buffer will fill and you’ll miss critical moments. 3 Keep the snow white When using semi-automatic modes such as Aperture…

Intense light, blistering heat and the exotic allure of the desert define this month’s image. I was lucky enough to find myself on another dream assignment speaking about photography on a ship sailing between Istanbul and Dubai. On this day, I found myself in the back of a 4x4 Toyota pickup charging through Wadi Rum, Jordan – a place so staggeringly beautiful and harsh that it’s where Lawrence of Arabia and parts of Star Wars were filmed. However, as exotic and glamorous as it sounds, it wasn’t without its frustrations. I was on a tour with fellow passengers from the ship and we were on a rigorous and meticulously timed schedule. It was not a specific photo tour, and while stops were made for picture taking, it was not designed…

Online book-printing services provide several routes to designing the layout of your book. The most straightforward option is to do it via the company’s website using the basic set of templates that are on offer. You may also be able to download the company’s desktop software, which gives you more design features, such as customisable templates and more font options for any text that you want to include. You may also be able to take advantage of a ‘PDF to book’, which allows you to create your own page layouts in dedicated desktop publishing software such as Affinity Publisher Version 2, which can then be exported as PDFs and uploaded to the book printing service. Check the specifications required, as you’ll need to set up the page accurately before you…

Colour space The colour space/profile is a way of describing a specific range of colours that can be reproduced. You’ll need to check the colour space requirements of the book service that you’re using before you save your images, although sRGB is a pretty safe bet. Cropping Avoid cropping pictures too tightly so that you have some wiggle room when it comes to the design of your book. This is especially true if you’re planning to use ‘full bleed’ images on the cover, where you may need to account for an overlap. Resolution An image that’s going to be printed needs to be output at a higher resolution than an image that will only be seen on a screen. Use a resolution of 300dpi for the best quality, and make…

This month… Tool School: Master white balance adjustments Use the tools in Camera Raw and Lightroom to add selective temperature shifts and fix colour casts Fundamentals: Boost your portraits with face feature detection Make your human subjects print-perfect with Lightroom Classic 12’s new features Get the Look: Get to know Blending Modes Photoshop layers allow you to create incredible special effects – we look at four ways of using them Software extras: Actions and a preset for Photoshop and Lightroom Classic 12 VIDEO TRAINING The issue 263 download includes video lessons that build on our tutorials, plus bonus videos with extra tips! www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc263 51 MINUTES OF VIDEO LIGHTROOM & ACR Use white balance to boost your photos LIGHTROOM How to work with face feature detection PHOTOSHOP Enhance your lighting with…

WATCH THE VIDEO! BONUS PORTRAIT POWER PRESET Turn to page 90 to find out more! FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc263 Lightroom Classic 12 has arrived, bringing with it boosted masking powers for portraits. Before this, you could use Select Subject masks, and then by using shortcut trickery you could intersect a Color Range mask to select skin tones. But of course, it was all about skin, when you might prefer that the face and body have different edits. But no more. Lightroom Classic 12 detects the face skin, body skin, eyebrows, eye whites (sclera), iris and pupil, lips, teeth and hair, and allows you to create masks for each, or a combination of them. These would usually take sophisticated techniques in Photoshop to accomplish, but now they’re available to every photographer…

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Part of a relaunch of the whole Affinity ecosystem, Affinity Photo 2 debuts a raft of exciting new features. These include Luminosity (to mask specific luminosity ranges), Live Mesh Warp (to distort an image to match the surface of a template like a book) and Hue Range (to create a mask based on specific colors in your image). Affinity Photo 2 boasts non-destructive RAW develop, which means that you can go back to change your RAW develop settings at any time, even after you’ve added extra layers or adjustments; Live and Compound masks, where different compound masks can be combined together non-destructively; and Import/Export of JPEG XL, the raster-graphics file format which is being increasingly used by web browsers. The Affinity 2 Suite (Photo, Designer, Publisher and Publisher for iPad)…

COOPH Rope Hand Straps let loose Made from high-quality climbing rope and real Italian leather, this new strap can be cinched tight to the wrist and is available in green, red or black colours. It will be ideal for compact mirrorless cameras. store.cooph.com; £40/$48 New space book is Out of this World Full of historically significant NASA photographs – many rarely seen before – this new 300-page coffee table book explores the history of NASA, from Apollo to the James Webb Telescope. www.accartbooks.com; £50/$65 320GB Lexar Pro Gold series CFexpress Type A This new card is on sale now and is bundled with a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Reader. With transfer speeds of up to 900MB/s (read) and 800MB/s (write), the new card will be ideal for high-quality images and…

Creating square-format instant prints 1.5 times the size of its Instax Mini siblings, the Square Link goes beyond just being a click-and-print device by adding exciting creative and collaborative features. AR (Augmented Reality) printing allows users to add special effects, images, animations, and doodles to their images, while the Square Link App and the Connect feature makes it easy to share images digitally with other connected devices. Other printing options on the Square Link, which is available in Ash White or Midnight Green, include Video Print, Frame Print and Collage Print. instax.com; £129.99/$139.95 Go to www.digitalcameraworld.com for the latest news, reviews In Focus & techniques…

How cameras ‘see’ has been one of the key battlegrounds between manufacturers since the invention of autofocus and metering systems in the mid-20th century. To this day, autofocus remains a defining point of difference between system cameras. For the past few years, Sony has led the pack in autofocus speed and accuracy. The best dedicated camera-focusing systems deploy advanced hybrid configuration, which involves focusing sites on the sensor which are sensitive to high-contrast lines, as well as being able to read and predict subject moment as it crosses the sensor. DJI has found an innovative way to harness the power of LiDAR, enabling cameras to see more accurately, gauging distance and movement using time-of-flight focusing. But an even more intriguing development is about to be unleashed in the mobile sector,…

shop.olympus.eu The OM System OM-5 may be the first ‘Olympus camera’ not to bear the iconic brand name, but the familiar logo is the only thing that’s missing here – this is a camera that lives up to the Olympus legacy and expands on it in a number of worthwhile ways. The OM-5 is the successor to the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III. It is the manufacturer’s ‘middle camera’, next to the flagship OM System OM-1 and the entry level Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV (which will be rechristened the OM-10 upon the next model). Where the OM-1 is the top tier system for professionals and experts, the OM-5 is built to deliver many of the flagship’s best features in a body that’s smaller, lighter and built for those who…

www.rotolight.com The Rotolight Aeos 2 Pro boasts a 25% boost to the brightness of earlier models, and as with the Neo 3 Pro, buyers of the Aeos 2 Pro get near universal compatibility with the most prominent flash triggers, as the unit features built-in receivers for Godox, Profoto, Elinchrom, Neewer and Pixapro. More than 100 presets are on board; other functionality shared with the Neo 3 Pro includes the True Aperture Dimming (FDIM) function. The Aeos 2 Pro’s colour touchscreen with smartphone-like sensitivity is a joy to use, especially when it comes to choosing gels. The physical difference of the Aeos 2 Pro to its forebears is the addition of anodised handles in the signature Rotolight red, adding a sleek professional touch to the unit. As seen in issue 262’s…

All Saints’ Church in Idmiston, Wiltshire, dates from the 12th century and is the location for today’s shoot with Kirk Purnell, a dance and movement photographer who started taking photos to give purpose to his daily walks during lockdown. “I was one of the many people who first picked up a camera right at the start of Covid-19, initially to take photos of local wildlife,” he says. “It soon turned into an obsession for me, though, and I was really keen to explore other genres, eventually leading me to dance.” Recently, Kirk has had a growing relationship with The Churches Conservation Trust, who look after many historic churches in the UK. As many of these buildings can be a little dark inside, Kirk likes to include strong natural light if…

1 “You need to be using fast shutter speeds – 1/320 sec at least–to catch those perfect moments. Always check the fingers and fabric for any blur.” 2 “Don’t be tempted to shoot rapid-fire all of the time. Sometimes, waiting for the perfect moment is a lot more satisfying and will leave you with fewer images to sort.” 3 “Frame wide and give yourself space to crop in. There’s nothing worse than realising that you’ve lost a foot in your favourite shot of the day.”…

I like to describe my style of photography as ‘magpie-meets-mad scientist’; I find shiny objects and through trial and error work out how to use them to create eye-catching in-camera effects. I spent a lot of time during lockdown playing with this kind of thing, getting the hang of how different shapes and colours reflect and refract light, and using them to take creative (yet slightly quirky) self-portraits. Since that time, I’ve worked with lots of other faces, most recently in a new studio space that I rent with some other photographers. We share the equipment, which has allowed me to experiment with different lighting setups. Here, I’m using a ring light and some LED panels, where I have more control over the power and colour. Today’s shiny objects are…

Early mornings have always been my favourite time of day. It’s so peaceful, and the solitude, soft light and unpredictabilily are a perfect recipe for some magical moments in nature. I live in in West Sussex and consider myself lucky to have the Adur river to the north east and the Arun to the north west. Both of these rivers meander through the valleys within the beautiful South Downs National Park. It takes me about 20 minutes to head to a hill overlooking one of the valleys, so over the years I have got to know them well. Revisiting the same places often has been a great way to learn about these landscapes in all the seasons, and to know every tree and detail in the valleys. I work mainly…

I was born in New Zealand and moved to England in my early childhood. My passion for photography originated from my work for the police as a forensic crime scene investigator. Photography was an integral part of this work and over the 30 years I was in the police, my love for photography grew ever stronger. I trained on medium-format film cameras, but moved over to digital as time passed and pet portrait photography became one of my main passions. The bond between humans and dogs is like no other. They are an integral part of our lives and feature in so many ways, whether as companions, pets or working dogs. Different breeds bring different challenges, especially when it comes to their behaviour. A key part of my relationship with…

1 ‘Grand Teton Overlooking Snake River’ by Tony Webb “Taken during the summer of 2021. I was lucky enough to catch a clean shot of the Grand Teton range in Wyoming, USA during a heavily smokey year.” Digital Camera says: A strong image, Tony. We’d love to see a little more contrast to bring out these beautiful textures in all three sections of the shot. 2 ‘Eagle Eye’ by Eric Gregory “A regal bald eagle taken on a bright October morning at the Hawk Conservancy Trust in Hampshire. The eagles develop their characteristic white head (and tail feathers) by around five years of age.” Digital Camera says: Another appearance in our gallery by Eric. An interesting shot: we’d love to see just a hint of the body below the white…

Back in the days of film, every exposure was precious. With a mere 36 frames at their disposal before changing rolls, not to mention film and processing costs, photographers would hit the shutter sparingly. But in these digital days, with cards comfortably swallowing gigabytes of images and with no additional outlay, it’s all too easy to come back from a shoot with thousands of images, which leads to hours at the computer sorting the wheat from the chaff in the culling process. AfterShoot automates this tedious task, trawling through all the images from a shoot to find the keepers for you, not only identifying shots that have missed focus or have blinking subjects and so on, but picking the best image from groups of similar shots and selecting the best…

Loupe View enables you to take a closer look at your images to check them for critical sharpness and ensure that the best image from a similar selection has been selected. Simply double-click on an image and it will appear in the main window with a magnified view. AfterShoot will identify and automatically zoom into any faces that appear in the frame, displaying them in a window at the top-right so you can ensure that everyone appearing in a group shot has the best facial expressions. Use the arrow keys to navigate between duplicate images, and press Space to zoom further into an image. Hold Alt/Option plus the arrow keys to switch between the different faces in the frame.…

WATCH THE VIDEO! FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc263 Blending Modes and Adjustment Layers may appear to be basic, but when you begin to combine the two, the creative possibilities become apparent. Photoshop is vast and feature-packed but many photographers find that they use only a handful of controls to apply adjustments. By working with Adjustment Layers and Blending Modes, we can achieve hundreds of different effects. The techniques we’ll cover will illustrate how Blending Modes and Adjustment Layers can be used in combination. We won’t cover everything because there’s simply too much. Instead, we’ll build your knowledge of a few options to pave the way to further experimentation. The techniques we’ll apply are all completely different, but the effects they create are useful and can be used time and time again.…

Life in the shadows Q I often underexpose my images by one or two stops to retain detail, then brighten in raw processing. Is there anything wrong with working this way? Gabriel Stevens A Deliberate underexposure is a method many people use, simply because it’s easier to rescue detail that’s dark but still available than it is to rescue overexposed data, which can be totally lost. There are some potential downsides to working this way – mainly the fact that dragging detail out of the shadows can sometimes cause image quality issues, and in particular added noise. I say ‘can’ because the amount of image degradation varies from sensor to sensor, and even the nature of the area you’re trying to lighten. In my experience, noise will show more easily…

Aiming to become a world beater in the ‘smaller fast camera’ class, the EOS R6 Mark II shoots twice as fast as the original EOS R6 (which is now discontinued in favour of the new model) and could well now be the best camera for sports and wildlife photography enthusiasts. The R6 Mark II’s headline specs lead on a new 24.2MP CMOS full-frame sensor (compared to the EOS R6’s 20.1MP) and it can shoot continuously at up to 40fps with the electronic shutter – making it Canon’s fastest EOS camera to date. The R6 Mark II also offers 20fps and 5fps options with the electronic shutter, or up to 12fps with the mechanical shutter, and it uses the same Digic X processor technology that’s at the heart of Canon’s top-end…

Pitched firmly at professional sports and wildlife photographers, the latest optic for Nikon Z mirrorless cameras features an optical path comprising 26 elements in 20 groups (with seven elements in four groups in the built-in teleconverter), which includes two fluorite lens elements, two ED glass elements, one super ED glass element and one SR lens element. A customisable control ring, a pair of lens-function buttons and a memory recall button on the barrel are all fully weather sealed to keep dust and moisture out. www.nikon.co.uk; £15,499/$15,499…

Editing improvements and faster image culling ring the changes in the latest update to this professional image capture, cataloguing and editing tool. The first of Capture One 23’s new features is Smart Adjustments, which is designed specifically for portrait, wedding and event photographers, where consistency in face and skin tones is crucial. Edit a single image to your taste using exposure and white balance adjustments, then set this image as a ‘Reference’ to be applied to multiple images. Also introduced is a new, faster culling system with a ‘Cull’ view, plus the ability to save layers with Styles – Capture One 23 uses adjustment layers and masks for local adjustments and these can be included in preset Styles saved for future use. The next new feature allows users to change…

A more affordable way to access the Hasselblad 4/3rds CMOS 20MP camera and 46-minute flight time of the DJI Mavic 3, this new Classic variant retains the chassis of the original drone. This means that the Classic takes the same batteries, has the same ADS-B receiver, and sports all-round collision sensing and APAS 5.0. What the Classic doesn’t have is the internal storage or ProRes codecs of the Mavic 3 Cine, but that remains a significant step up from the original Mavic 3 anyway – like that drone, users will be expected to provide fast MicroSD storage. The Mavic 3 Classic is available drone-only, for existing DJI owners, or in kits with a charger and choice of RC-N1 or DJI RC controllers. www.dji.com; £1,309/$1,469 (drone only)…

www.tamron.eu Mount the Tamron 17-70mm F/2.8 Di III-A VC RXD on an APS-C format Sony E-mount mirrorless body and it will function with an effective zoom range of 25.5-105mm. That’s very similar to using the highly popular Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS on a full-frame camera, but with the added bonus that the Tamron’s constant aperture rating is a full f-stop faster. Naturally, you get the same effective zoom range with the Fujifilm X-mount version of the lens. The zoom range and f/2.8 constant aperture are key features of this lens. Sigma used to make something similar for Canon and Nikon APS-C format DSLRs, in the shape of the 17-70mm F2.8-4 Macro OS HSM Contemporary, as well as a non-stabilised version for Sony A and Pentax K mount cameras.…

9 PHOTO TIPS CARDS TO TAKE ON LOCATION! Our latest selection of tips cards offers wallet-sized advice on popular genres including wildlife, action, landscapes, black and white and macro. Transform your images in a few clicks with a preset for Lightroom Classic 12 and four actions for Photoshop We’ve curated a great selection of software extras to complement this issue’s tutorials and give your shots a professional look. You can find them in this issue’s Gifts folder. FREE AfterShoot 3-month subscription AI-powered photo culling software to separate the gems from the duffers. Buyer’s Guide ebook Over 280 pages of camera and lens reviews, plus buying advice for accessories! See the Gifts folder in your download.…

An off-camera flash unit allows you to add more light to a scene and control subject illumination. They are useful in low-light conditions, but can also transform images in bright, sunny conditions by filling in shadows and helping to balance exposure throughout the scene. External flashes offer a lot of power at a very reasonable price, and unlike studio strobes, which come with a huge price tag and often restrictions (such as needing mains power), they’re pleasingly portable. With this extra bit of kit in your backpack, you can create natural-looking photos no matter the ambient light is doing – you can shoot in early mornings, at night, during the day, in shade, and much more. Because you have a powerful light source that you can control, you can make…

1 Find leading lines Here, I have concentrated on the curves of the river, bridge and trees leading you through the image; the swirling mist and early morning light on the river accentuate the shapes further. I watch carefully and wait until the mist has revealed enough of the elements to make the image work (wake-up call: 5:45am). 2 Look for layers I often exploit layers in the landscape to convey a sense of depth. Here, the shapes and folds of the mist accentuate the shape of the hill and I used the distant pylons to add scale and interest. I shot with an ND6 soft grad to hold back the sky and maintain the early morning softness in the shot (wake-up call: 5:45am). 3 Create contrast Trees in the…

1 Draw the viewer in This spaniel loved burying his head in the newly fallen leaves and his facial expression made an ideal composition, with the viewer drawn to the dog’s eyes. Sony A7 IV, 1/320 sec at f/4, ISO 800. 2 Backlight your subjects Working with backlighting can be a challenge, but the Evaluative metering mode will give a decent exposure across the image. Sony A1 and a 100-400mm lens; 1/1250 sec at f/6.3, ISO 400. 3 Try animal eye autofocus I had great fun photographing this little pug – he ran everywhere at top speed. Fortunately, my Sony A7 IV has animal eye AF, which I recommend using: 1/800 sec at f/2.8, ISO 400. 4 Use the rule of thirds This compositional aid is an effective way to…

ADULT GRAND TITLE WINNER Winner, Behaviour: Invertebrates ‘The Big Buzz’ Karine Aigner, USA Karine Aigner got close to the action as a group of bees competes to mate. Using a macro lens, he captured the flurry of activity as a buzzing ball of cactus bees spun over the hot sand. After a few minutes, the pair at its centre – a male clinging to the only female in the scrum – flew away to mate. The world’s bees are under threat from habitat loss, pesticides and climate change. With 70% of bee species nesting underground, it is increasingly important that areas of natural soil are left undisturbed. Location: South Texas, USA Technical details: Sony A7R III and Laowa 24mm f/14 2X Macro Probe lens; 1/1000 sec at ISO 6400, Profoto…

The first decisions you’ll need to make about your photobook are format related. Your choice from the three main options – square, landscape and portrait – will be largely dictated by the orientation of the pictures you’ll be using, as well as personal taste. Landscape-format images can be awkward to fit in a portrait-format book, for example. Landscape-format books are a little more forgiving, as in addition to landscape images, it’s possible to fit a few portrait photos across a page. Square-format books suit either type of image, as well as square crops. There are typically three main types of paper to choose from: matte, satin/semi-gloss and gloss. Matte has a subtle sheen level. It gives images a softer look that can suit fine-art and wedding books. Glossy paper is…

Placing images of subjects side by side that are superficially similar but conceptually different is a great way to stop people in their tracks. The focus can be as simple as a shared shape or texture – a close-up of the tree bark opposite a close-up of an elephant’s skin, for example – but you can, of course, go more than skin deep and pair images that are loaded with metaphor and meaning.…

Winner: Kate Parmaku Shoot an image that captures ‘Hidden Autumn’, we challenged our readers in issue 261. And well done to Kate, who wins a copy of Affinity Photo 2, worth £59/$69! “This was taken at a harvest mouse workshop with Dean Mason,” says Kate. “These are ideal if you don’t have the patience for wildlife photography but love wildlife.” Digital Camera says: The side-on view is unusual but original and gives the shot a thought-provoking narrative… is the mouse checking to see if the coast is clear, or is it looking at something else? A fantastic use of depth of field has really made the mouse stand out from its surroundings in the undergrowth. 2nd place: Dale Hodgetts We loved Dale’s ingenuity in transforming an otherwise mundane shot into…

Born in Silves, Portugal, and currently residing in Lisbon, André Boto has dedicated his career to conceptual and commercial photography projects. With a degree in Decorative Art, Boto is well decorated with awards, including the Overall Winner in the Creative Photo Awards 2022 (Italy), Grand Prize Winner at the International Environmental Photography Contest 2022 (USA) and Overall Winner of the FEP European Photographer of the Year. Boto says that lately, he has dedicated time to creating images with themes of real problems affecting our planet. “Pollution affects the entire planet and our everyday lives,” says Boto. “It is a difficult problem and its reduction would require a break in industry and production. The air is becoming less and less healthy and even unbreathable in parts of the world. “This image…

There’s more to white balance than getting the whites balanced; it’s about every colour in the image. There are two ways to do this: you can set the white balance in the camera, or shoot in raw and set it afterwards with the same results. The best practice is to set it in-camera, but sometimes this isn’t practical. By shooting in raw, you can leave your white balance to Auto WB, safe in the knowledge that you can tweak it afterwards if necessary. Photoshop’s Camera Raw and Lightroom offer near-identical white balance tools, either in the Basic panel in Camera Raw or the Develop module in Lightroom. The tools are very simple, but there are some essential tricks to learn that can help you get the most out of them.…

This month, we have curated a collection of actions and a preset to help transform your images. Actions and presets can make a big impact on your photos in a matter of seconds. Once they have been installed in Lightroom or Photoshop, they are on hand for whenever you need them. You can soon build up your own library of actions and presets by collecting the ones we are releasing with our tutorials. One of the main advantages of using these digital shortcuts is that they save time – rather than having to manually adjust a photo to give it a certain look, actions and presets will get you there in a few clicks. So use this issue’s collection to give your photos a little bit extra… How to use…

What is My Menu? Some camera models from various manufacturers offer a My Menu option, which is a way to create your own shortened and personalised menu tabs filled with all the functions you want to get at quickly. Why can’t I just scroll through the normal menu for what I want? You can, but digital cameras are sophisticated beasts, and the modern menu can take a while to scroll through a lot of functionality that you rarely, or never, use. By setting up an ordered My Menu system that works for you and your photography, you can save time when you want to make changes in a hurry. Which settings should I add to My Menu? That’s entirely your choice, but it makes sense to note down the things…

Elinchrom releases new battery powered light The Elinchrom Five is a 500W monolight capable of 450 full-power flashes on a single charge, or thousands of flashes on a lower-powered setting. Operation is via a simple menu system, or via a Skyport Plus trigger. www.elinchrom.com; £1,619/$1,849 DJI Osmo Mobile 6 smartphone gimbal The latest addition to the Osmo series offers faster launch times, improved ActiveTrack 5.0, and a new side wheel for a more professional feel. Like its forebears, it has an extension rod that serves as a selfie stick. www.dji.com; £145/$159 Sony 256GB Tough UHS-II V90 SD card Featuring up to 299 MB/s (write) and up to 300 MB/s (read) speeds, this newest addition to the Tough line-up will keep up with the needs of photographers, content creators and filmmakers.…

Funky and fashionable British tripod and accessory manufacturer 3 Legged Thing has released a custom-fit L-bracket for the Nikon Z 9. Named Zaara, 3LT has conceived the L-bracket to perfectly fit the contours of the Z 9, and its unique design ensures that it functions correctly as an L-bracket – enabling users to switch orientations and maintain the same focal plane. Zaara’s contours give users full access to the battery door on the side, and to lower ports on the side of the camera with the base closed. The upper headphone and mic ports can also be accessed by extending Zaara’s base. www.3leggedthing.com; £129.99/$149.99 Go to www.digitalcameraworld.com for the latest news, reviews In Focus & techniques…

With a 30mm focal length which equates to 46mm in full-frame terms, the XF30mm F2.8 R LM WR Macro offers an angle of view close to that of the human eye. As it has a very short minimum focus distance of just 10cm, this close-focus capability means that the XF30mm F2.8 R LM WR Macro can achieve a maximum magnification of 1:1 on the sensor, making it a true ‘macro’ lens. Optically it uses 11 elements in nine groups, including three aspherical and two ED elements for top-quality close-up performance. With an inner focus system, so the lens doesn’t change in length as you focus, autofocus is powered by a linear motor. www.fujifilm-x.com; £599/$599…

Sporting a light grey colourway, the “Ghost” is a departure from the black paint common to the standard body of the Leica Q2. To achieve this new colourway, the camera’s magnesium alloy body has been painted in a soft grey and then wrapped in smooth tonal grey leather, the latter of which has been specially coated to reliably protect the camera from the elements. 2,000 units of the Q2 “Ghost” will be available globally in Leica stores; a special “Ghost” Set including an aluminium thumb grip and a woven grey strap will be limited to 150 units. For anyone who needs a reminder of the Q2’s specification, it’s a 47.3MP full-frame mirrorless with a fixed Summilux 28mm f/1.7 ASPH lens. leica-camera.com; £5,180/$5,995 (Q2 “Ghost”)…

www.fujifilm-x.com Fujifilm used its third global X-Summit of 2022 to announce the Fujifilm X-T5 (and an XF30mm macro lens). A decent upgrade on one of Fujifilm’s best-loved camera series, the X-T5 features a back-illuminated 40.2MP X-Trans CMOS 5 HR sensor and high-speed X-Processor 5 – identical to those found in the flagship Fujifilm X-H2. Fujifilm has a challenge in creating a successor to the X-T4, released in 2020 to much acclaim. So does the X-T5 do enough to warrant an upgrade? Its compact body is smaller and lighter than its predecessor, and the resolution has bumped up considerably from 26.1MP to 40.2MP, making it one of the highest-resolution APS-C cameras on the market. Then there’s ISO125 as a standard sensitivity (compared to the X-T4’s 160), the staggeringly fast shutter speed…

www.rotolight.com The Rotolight Neo 3 Pro Edition is the latest iteration of the British brand’s continuous lighting panel, but it is far from iterative. While it isn’t a full-blown ‘version 3’ follow-up, it may as well be. If the Rotolight Neo 3 Pro had a tattoo on its chest, it would read: ‘Bigger, better, more.’ It takes everything that was great about the Neo 3 and makes it greater, from the power to the creative options. Given its pedigree, the Neo 3 Pro is one of the best LED light panels that money can buy – and here’s why any serious photographer or videographer needs to add one to their arsenal… Key features The Rotolight Neo 3 Pro boasts a 25% boost to the brightness of earlier models, giving its…