Innehållsförteckning för V72 Issue 6 från Pro Photo

Back in the dark ages when I used to write the editorial for our summer issue, I’d often implore working photographers to take a break during the Christmas holidays… by taking more pictures. But for themselves this time rather than for clients. Many pros were happy to put the cameras away on Christmas Eve and not go near them again for several weeks or, if they’d had a particularly good year, maybe for a whole month. It was just too much like hard work to lug them out purely for pleasure… and then there was the rigmarole of processing and all that film stuff. If you can remember those days, you’ll also know that the digital era has made it a lot easier to take pictures whenever the urge occurs.…

The big question being asked at Photokina 2016 was why, with so many exciting new cameras currently being announced, are sales still in decline? One answer is definitely the iPhone with Apple very heavily promoting its capabilities – particularly with the last couple of versions – as a camera. The convenience of carrying only one device is undeniable, but immediacy and the sharing options are undoubtedly also attractions. Yet Apple isn’t just promoting its smartphones for snaps… the ad campaigns suggest serious photography and that’s the problems for the camera makers. It’s interesting to note that the categories doing big business at the moment – namely actioncams and camera drones – have a real element of excitement and it’s not just about shooting video (because they shoot stills as well),…

“Bob’s success, in a way, has been because he always knew where not to be, as much as where to be.” – Glenn A. Baker Bob King is a rock music photographer. A 300+ pages book of his life’s work has just been published simultaneously in the UK, USA, Germany, New Zealand and Australia. But what most people don’t know is that Bob had a secret life… the life of a travel photographer, partnering the prolific writer and music historian, Glenn A. Baker. In Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, team Baker-&-King pull up opposite an ornate building and before their guide can get the words “stop” or “don’t” out, Bob has taken ten images of the building Unfortunately for him, it’s the HQ for the paramilitary. The front gate swings…

THE D500 RECORDS 4K VIDEO IN THE UHD resolution of 3840x2260 pixels at 30, 25 or 24 fps. However, it doesn’t use the full sensor area and instead crops to 16.2x9.1 mm which avoids the artefact issues associated with down-scaling, but means there’s a further increase in the effective lens focal length, taking it up to 2.25x (i.e. 1.5x + 0.75x)… great if you’re shooting sports or wildlife, less great for landscapes or interiors. For the Full HD and HD resolutions the crop is 23.5x13.3 mm which, of course, is pretty close to the full ‘APS-C’ frame size. Video is recorded in the MOV format using MPEG-4 AVC/H .264 compression. Full HD footage can be recorded at 24, 25, 30, 50 or 60 fps (obviously the D500 is multi-region) and…

SINCE THE INTRODUCTION of the H1D back in 2004, Hasselblad’s digital medium format SLR platform has established a loyal following among professional photographers. The subsequent evolutions have added a range of enhancements and improvements, but the sixth-generation H6D represents a major upgrade designed to deliver even greater conveniences and performance. Importantly, externally the H6D retains the system’s iconic design elements and Swedish handmade quality, but on the inside the new digital capture backs have a completely redesigned electronic platform which is faster and allows for new features such as dual memory card slots, a high frame rate live view feed, video recording and JPEG processing. Continuous shooting is now possible at up to 2.3 frames per second (H6D-50c model) with longer burst lengths. The dual card slots are for CFast…

ZEISS MILVUS THE FAMILY OF Milvus lenses from Zeiss is available in the ZE mount for Canon full-35mm format D-SLRs and ZF.2 mount for Nikon models, and initially comprises six models with the promise of more to come over the next couple of years. The current line-up of Milvus models comprises 15mm f2.8, 18mm f2.8, 21mm f2.8 and 35mm f2.0 wide-angle primes; a 50mm f1.4 standard, an 85mm f1.4 short telephoto and a 135mm f2.0 telephoto plus two macro models – a 50mm f2.0 and a 100mm f2.0. All are manual focus designs with contemporary external styling and all-metal barrels which are sealed against the intrusion of dust or moisture. All the Milvus models also all feature Zeiss’s T* anti-reflective coating, uniform colour characteristics across all focal lengths, nine-bladed diaphragms…

Olympus’s activities at Photokina 2016 were headed by the much-awaited revealing of its new OM-D mirrorless flagship, the E-M1 Mark II, since officially announced in Australia with availability from December. The Mark II model retains a compact weatherproofed magnesium alloy bodyshell, but just about everything on the inside has been upgraded. The headline spec is continuous shooting at a rapid-fire 18 fps with AF/AE adjustment and when using the camera’s silent sensor-based shutter. If you’re happy with the focusing being locked to the first frame, you can shoot at up to 60 fps. Even with the camera’s ‘traditional’ focal plane shutter, the maximum continuous shooting speed is still a snappy 15 fps. The 20.4 megapixels (effective) ‘Live MOS’ sensor incorporates 121 phase-detection focusing points – all cross-type arrays – which…

As the era of digital imaging progresses, we are moving ever more quickly away from spinning optical discs – CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays. Today we move images and video clips around via Ethernet and WiFi, no discs required, but steady increases in resolution – and hence file sizes – put ever greater demands on data storage solutions. not only do photographers and video-makers today demand ever larger amounts of digital storage, they need to be able to quickly and easily search for files and be assured on their long-term archival stability and safety. For photographers today, data storage is now as important as cameras and lenses. STORAGE OPTIONS Whether your main storage is within a desktop or all-in-one PC, attached directly as an external hard drive, or accessed via your…

BACK IN 2014, Profoto created headlines when it launched the world’s first flash monobloc with TTL automatic exposure control. The battery-powered B1 has brought a new level of convenience to using pro-level flash equipment on location, and Profoto has since followed it up with the B2 which is designed to provide even greater lighting versatility through its innovative twin-head configuration. Along the way too, Profoto has developed an extensive system of OCF – Off Camera Flash – light-shaping accessories to further enhance the creative possibilities when shooting on location, no matter how remote. Profoto’s objective with its OCF system products is to provide the highly-flexible power range of professional-level flash equipment with the operational convenience and reliability of a speedlight. TTL exposure control is available with selected Canon and Nikon…

1 SIGMA ART 24mm f1.4 DG HSM AS PART OF ITS Global Vision product development program, Sigma classifies its lenses according to the main area of application, and these categories are Art, Sports and Contemporary. The Art series lenses are designed and built with optimum quality and performance as the primary objectives yet somehow Sigma manages to factor in a degree of affordability without any compromises. Make no mistake, the Art primes are a match for anything from the prestigious German marques in terms of both their optical performance and the mechanical fit and finish. The 24mm f1.4 joins the 35mm and 50mm Art primes in the winner’s circle and – along with the 24-35mm f2.0 zoom – Sigma has collected just about every major product design award there is.…

Why would Leica want to have an instant print camera? Probably for the same reason that Fujifilm’s Instax business is now contributing valuable dollars to the company’s coffers. There’s the novelty factor, of course, but it’s largely the ‘Polaroid principle’ that appeals… these cameras consume a high-value product, namely instant print film. A good portion of Fujifilm’s Instax business is generated by children – and girls in particular – which is ‘renewable’, but more importantly, cementing the idea that photography is about cameras and prints (rather than smartphones). No doubt Leica sees value here in creating a new market of consumers interested in using its higher-priced products in the future. The Sofort is obviously based on an Instax platform, but has been designed by Leica with more of a retro-look…

With the assembled press largely expecting Sony to announce an A9 flagship full-35mm mirrorless camera, the company surprised everybody by upgrading its A99 flagship fixed-mirror D-SLR. The A99 II may have a fixed reflex mirror, but it’s still a D-SLR and the belief was that Sony was done with this category of camera as its mirrorless A7 Series continues to do great business. Appropriately though, it’s the tenth anniversary of Sony’s debut in the D-SLR business, after acquiring the Konica Minolta program and launching the debut A100 in 2006. The A9 may well be yet another victim of the long delays caused by earthquake damage to Sony’s sensor facility earlier in the year, but the A99 II gives the D-SLR camp a shot in the arm. It’s actually a very…

Today a Web presence is an integral part of magazine and newspaper publishing so you’ll find ProPhoto – or, at least, some of it – at www.avhub.com.au Here you can also visit the other titles in the stable of Nextmedia AudioVisual Group magazines, including sister publication Camera. Have a look at these because you might find another magazine that you’d like to buy from your newsagent or subscribe to. If you’re interested in hi-fi, video, home theatre, guitar gear, car audio, check out Sound & Image, Australian Hi-Fi, Australian Guitar or Australian InCar (just follow the links from the AVHub home page). The Website carries the latest news plus selected articles from both the current and past issues of ProPhoto, including a selection of test reports. Of course, there’s a…

Current to 15 January 2017: Exhibition. Planting Dreams: Grand Garden Designs. A selection of the most magnificent contemporary gardens in NSW captured by Australia’s leading garden photographers, including Jason Busch, Sue Stubbs, Murray Fredericks and Nicholas Watt. At the State Library of NSW, Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000. Exhibition hours are 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Wednesday and Friday, 9.00am to 8.00pm on Thursday and 10.00am to 5.00pm on weekends. Call (02) 9273 1414 or visit www.sl.nsw.gov.au for more information. Current to 5 February 2017: Exhibition. Through A Different Lens – Cazneaux By The Water. Over 50 original prints by Harold Cazneaux (1878-1953) on the theme of water, including Sydney harbours scenes from the early 1900s and coastal landscapes taken in South Australia during the 1930s. At the Australian National…

EVEN NIKON WOULD AGREE THAT ITS D5 flagship D-SLR isn’t for everyone. It’s built to take a fair amount of punishment and many of its key specifications – particularly its continuous shooting speed – are aimed at photographers who really need them which means largely specialist applications such as fast-action sports, news gathering and wildlife. It’s big and it’s expensive, yet there are lots of elements of the D5 that most photographers would want. So what if you could have a smaller, lighter and cheaper Nikon D5? You can. It’s called the D500. This camera hasn’t had an easy start to life. It was announced along with the D5 so ended up very much in its big brother’s shadow. Then its launch was delayed due to issues with sensor supply,…

BACK IN 1948 Victor Hasselblad revolutionised medium format photography with his innovative modular camera design. It combined unmatched portability with high image quality and, after it evolved into the legendary 500 Series, was extensively used by professional photographers for over 50 years. Hasselblad’s original concept was adopted by many other camera makers and remains at the heart of many digital medium format systems. Now Hasselblad is leading another revolution in medium format photography with the world’s first mirrorless digital medium format camera. Like Victor Hasselblad’s original design, the X1D-50c redefines compactness and performance, making digital medium format capture more accessible to many more photographers and extending its applications into new and exciting areas. Designed entirely in Sweden and exuding Scandinavian style, the X1D-50c combines all the conveniences and benefits of…

Two thousand and seventeen looks very much set to be the year of digital medium format photography. Let’s not forget that this is the category of camera where digital capture first got started – originally with scanning-type backs – and so it’s pretty much stuck with tradition in terms of product design. The camera platforms have mostly had their heritage in the rollfilm era, sticking largely with Victor Hasselblad’s original concept for a modular SLR design. The original reasoning for this was to ensure a smoother – and less financially challenging – changeover for working photographers who had already invested in extensive systems of lenses and accessories. The early generations of digital capture backs were frighteningly expensive, especially those with the first area-array type ‘medium format’ sensors. Over time, of…