Innehållsförteckning för V74 issue 1 från Pro Photo

The imminent deaths of major media platforms always make for good headlines. Video was going to spell the end of radio and cinema. In fact, cinema has been pronounced dead many more times than Lazarus… despatched by not just by video, but television and now movie streaming. Cinema itself surely meant the last curtain for theatre and opera. Likewise the printed book, most recently supposedly killed off by the electronic version – surely the most over-hyped media ‘revolution’ of this century (so far, that is). E-books peaked at around 20 percent of the market – certainly enough to cause some disruption – but have had nowhere near the impact on ‘traditional’ publishing that was originally predicted. And, of course, nobody is reading magazines any more. Oh, sorry… you’re here now,…

Best known for its line-up of manual focus lenses (for both photography and cinematography), South Korean lens maker Samyang has introduced its first autofocus model for the Canon EF mount. All the company’s previous AF primes have been for the Sony FE mount. The new AF 14mm f2.8 EF is a compact lens and weighs in at 485 grams. It has a weather-sealed external construction with an integrated petal-type lens hood, while the optical construction comprises 15 elements in ten groups. Seven of these elements are special types – namely two aspherical types, four with high refractive characteristics and one made from extra-low dispersion optical glass. Collectively, these special elements correct for distortion and various aberrations, including chromatic and spherical. On a full-35mm format sensor, the 14mm focal length delivers…

While most of Sony’s recent activities in mirrorless cameras have centred around its full-35mm format FE mount system, the ‘APS-C’ format E mount line-up remains alive and well with the addition of a new 18-135mm zoom (equivalent to 27-202.5mm) along with a silver version of the A6300 camera body. It’s an indication of just how much effort Sony is putting into its mirrorless camera program that this latest zoom is the 46th E mount lens. The new Sony E 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 OSS – which has a 7.5x zooming range – is only 88 millimetres in length and 325 grams in weight. It incorporates Sony’s ‘Optical Steady Shot’ (OSS) image stabilisation and has a minimum focusing distance of 45 centimetres. The optical construction comprises 16 elements in 12 groups which includes…

There’s nothing like a dip into the archives to reveal just how much things have changed in the imaging industry, especially over the last couple of decades. In the late 1970s colour film had finally been accepted and the makers of 35mm SLR cameras were trying to break into the commercial photography market. Here’s a selection of what was on the pages of this magazine 40 years ago when it was called Professional Photography In Australia. This is a snapshot of the January/ February 1978 issue. COVER PHOTOGRAPHS / Peter Houghton, Melbourne TEST REPORTS / Leica R3 35mm SLR / Komura Telemores teleconverters PEOPLE AND PLACES / Ian McKenzie (Melbourne), new federal president of the IAP (now AIPP) / Photography at GMH (timely, given the recent…

While the Lumix G9 is touted as more of a photographer’s camera, it’s certainly not lacking in the video department and is better featured here than most D-SLRs and many of its mirrorless rivals. While it’s nowhere near as capable as the GH5 or GH5S, it still has pretty well everything the more serious video-maker is likely to want, starting with 4K recording. Like the GH5, the G9 uses the entire area of the M43 sensor when recording 4K video and then downsamples the footage in-camera so there’s no focal length magnification factor. Using the MP4 format, 4K video is recorded in the UHD resolution of 3840x2160 pixels with the choice of 50 or 25 fps speeds (PAL) and the cinematic 24 fps. Internally, it records 8-bit 4:2:0 colour with…

Leica has launched a new series of high-performance prime lenses for its SL full-35mm mirrorless system, with the first two available now and another two schedule for launch in the latter half of 2018. The new lenses available now are an APO-Summicron-SL 75mm f2.0 ASPH and an APO-Summicron-SL 90mm f2.0 ASPH. Both have an all-glass optical construction which employs 11 elements (in nine groups), including one aspherical type to correct for distortion. All elements feature anomalous partial dispersion characteristics to minimise chromatic aberrations and optimise centre-to-corner sharpness. Both lenses employ an AF drive using ‘Dual Synchro Drive’ (DSD) stepping motors which enable the entire focusing range to be traversed in 250 milliseconds. The 75mm lens has a minimum focusing distance of 50 centimetres while the 90mm’s is 60 centimetres. In…

I’ve known about Stuart Spence for decades, but only finally met him recently to do this interview. But here’s the tricky part – there are three parts to him and they all cling to each other. Images, writing and performance. “It was a mixture from the beginning,” Stuart says. “I had performance in my soul. They tried to get me to do drama at school, but we all thought it was uncool so peer pressure pushed me out of that. Writing was always bubbling away with imagery. I should have gone into film-making.” Stuart Spence grew up in the Sutherland Shire (better known simply as ‘The Shire’) south of Sydney during the 1960s. He believes a strong sense of symmetry is inherent in his DNA and emerged in late high…

Type: Professional/enthusiast level digital camera with Micro Four Thirds bayonet lens mount. Focusing: Automatic 225-point wide-area system using contrast-detection via imaging sensor. Single focus point – with variable area size – can be moved around the image frame, and clusters of focus points, from nine (3x3) to 169 (13x13) set manually in a variety of shapes (Custom Multi). Manual and automatic switching between one-shot and continuous AF modes, the latter with auto tracking. Face detection and recognition. Sensitivity range is EV -4.0 - 18 (ISO 100). AF assist provided by built-in illuminator. Manual focus assistance via magnification (either full image or picture-in-picture) and focus peaking displays (Blue, Yellow, Green, Pink or White; High or Low intensity). Metering: 1728-point multi-zone, centre-weighted average, spot and TTL flash. Metering range is EV 0…

Format: Full-35mm (Nikon FX) and ‘APS-C’ (Nikon DX) sensor D-SLRs, 35mm film SLRs. Angle-of-View: 180.00 degrees vertical and horizontal to 175.00 degrees diagonal, full-35mm sensor size. 180.00 degrees to 110.00 degrees diagonal, ‘DX’ format when the effective focal range 12-22.5mm. Construction: 15 elements/ 13 groups. Minimum Focus: 16 cm. Aperture Range: f3.5-4.5 – f22-29. Overall Length: 83.0 mm. Maximum Diameter: 77.5 mm. Filter Diameter: Screwthread filters cannot be fitted. Filter slot provided at the rear of the lens for cut filters. Weight: 485 grams. Lens Mount(s): Nikon F (E-type AF). Features: Magnesium alloy barrel tubes with weather seals, three ED (extra-low dispersion glass) elements, two aspherical elements, ‘Nano Crystal Coat’ anti-reflection multi-coating, ‘Super Integrated Coat’ multi-coating, fluorine anti-grime coating on the exposed element surfaces, internal focusing, ‘Silent Wave Motor’ (SWM)…

The rumour mill continues to crank up with regards to a full-35mm mirrorless camera from Nikon – we’re clearly all willing it to happen – with the latest details to emerge concerning the lens mount. According to Nikon Rumours, this will be called the Z Mount and have a very short flange back distance of just 16 mm and a diameter of 49 mm. If so, this will allow for considerable adaptability with ‘legacy’ lenses. No suggestions of a possible launch date yet… we’re now thinking Photokina 2018 in mid-September as a distinct possibility.…