Innehållsförteckning för V75 Issue 4 från Pro Photo

Tasmanian photographer Matt Palmer is the 2019 Australian Professional Photographer Of The Year, following the running of the annual Australian Professional Photography Awards (APPAs). Matt – who is based in Geilston Bay near Hobart – is a passionate environmentalist and he won with a powerful portfolio of four landscape images which depict the impact of climate change on the environment. Organised by the Australian Institute Of Professional Photography (AIPP), the APPAs are the most prestigious – and rigorous – competition for professional photographers, with submitted portfolios judged by panels of Australia’s leading photographers in each of the categories. This year’s competition attracted a total of 1647 entries and, based on point scores, 668 were awarded silvers, 268 were awarded silver distinctions, 107 were awarded a gold and 14 were awarded…

“The whole notion is that we should succeed with our photography! You don’t succeed unless you have buggered up something in the first place.” What do professional photographers get up to when they’re not behind the camera? We take a look at the personal side of a photographer’s life as expressed through some of things they value most. In this issue, Tim Hixson – widely known for his creative photography with cheap plastic cameras – talks about his passions, influences, and a life-changing illness. “I’ve been swimming all my life. I grew up on the coast at Collaroy in northern Sydney and then moved to West Pymble where I damaged my leg playing rugby – and the doctor advised me to swim. So I began training and had some success…

Back in 1934, photography as a popular past-time was still in its infancy. There was virtually no Japanese camera industry, 35mm was a relatively new format for stills, and the compact single-lens-reflex design was just starting to appear, but wouldn’t become widely available until after the Second World War. More generally, much of Europe was in the grip of political or economic upheavals, while over here the ‘White Australia’ immigration policy was still in place. In that same year Clement Robertson Kennedy, the descendant of Scottish immigrants from the early 1870s, established a small company in Melbourne to import and distribute optical products and firearms, initially mostly from Germany. Eighty-five years later C.R. Kennedy & Company is Australia’s biggest – and most successful – independent distributor of photography equipment, and…

Panasonic Reveals Full Lumix S1H Details Panasonic’s third Lumix S series mirrorless camera body – which was first revealed back in May this year – is primarily targeted at cinematographers and has just gone on sale in Australia. It’s packed with high-end video features, optimising its dedicated full-35mm format sensor. The Lumix DC-S1H is the world’s first full-35mm format mirrorless camera capable of recording 6K/24p video in the 3:2 aspect ratio. It’s also the first to record 5.9K/30p video in the 16:9 aspect ratio, plus 10-bit 4K in both the UHD and DCI resolutions at either 60 fps or 50 fps. The higher resolutions are achieved by using the full width of an all-new CMOS sensor with an effective resolution of 24.2 megapixels (so not the same devices as is…

Back in 2014, Profoto created headlines when it launched the world’s first flash monobloc with TTL automatic exposure control. The battery-powered B1 brought a new level of convenience to using pro-level flash equipment on location, and Profoto has since launched a range of innovative lighting products with an emphasis on portability and flexibility. Now it’s gone even further and designed a professional-level lighting system for smartphones. Profoto’s C1 system represents the first studio lights for smartphones. There are two lighting units – the C1 and the C1 Plus – and they work in conjunction with Profoto’s new Camera Smart app. Operable as either a flash or a continuous light source, each C1 unit is exceptionally compact and round in shape in order to create beautiful, natural-looking light quality with a…

Phase One’s new XT field camera is designed for its 100 or 150 mega-pixels IQ4 series capture backs, creating the ultimate camera for high-end landscape and location photography. The XT camera system allows for exceptional portability and flexibility, enabling both hand-held or tripod-based photography. The precision-engineered and hand-crafted Phase One XT body is a work of art in itself and incorporates a rotatable tripod mount and an integrated handgrip fashioned from ebony. The shifts can be up to 12 millimetres laterally or vertically for perspective control or the creation of ultra-high resolution stitched panoramas. The shift settings are recorded in the file’s EXIF data. The tripod bracket uses an Arca-Swiss type mounting plate, and the rotation function allows for quick switching between landscape and portrait. The camera body is designed…

“I’m not there to take lots of photos, I’m there to take one,”the enigmatic Mark Onorati tells me from his car while driving in outer Sydney, and he’s right. Some of his pitch-perfect images have been gestating for years, others executed with surgeons’ precision. A lot of his inspiration and ideas come from the back of a truck, literally. “Sitting in traffic is my inspiration. There’s no view except this boxy back-end view of a truck, so my mind starts to tick over about a particular angle or a particular different type of photo.” Some locations he was chasing for many years. “The gods have to be favourable to me. Particularly the light, tide and sand, and then a wave that’s visually stimulating and a rider that can perform what…

Sigma Art Lenses In Sony FE Mount SO FAR, 11 of Sigma’s much-awarded and much-acclaimed Art series lenses are now available in the full-frame version of Sony E-mount. Sigma’s Art line lenses boast a very high level of quality and performance – both physically and optically – which has seen them compared favourably with products from both Leica and Zeiss. The 11 Art line primes in the FE mount cover 14mm to 135mm. Importantly, Sigma has obtained a licensing agreement with Sony which means the E-mount Art lenses are fully compatible with all the A7 and A9 series full-frame mirrorless cameras, including the ‘Fast Hybrid AF’ continuous autofocusing mode, the in-body image stabilisation, and in-camera lens corrections – for peripheral illumination (vignetting), chromatic aberrations and distortion. Available at selected camera…

Zeiss’s Batis lenses make optimal use of camera sensors, capturing every last detail with impressive contrast and high resolution. As well as offering fast and reliable autofocusing via linear motors, the Batis lenses also support manual focusing, allowing users to choose the best option for each individual situation. The sleek and modern external styling with smooth surfaces emphasises the superior quality of this lens family and gives each model an unmistakable look and feel. More practically, the barrels are sealed against the intrusion of dust or moisture. A unique feature is an OLED-type display which provides a digital read-out of the focusing distance. Easy to read even in low light, these displays show the exact distance between the camera and the focal plane as well as the depth-of-field. The Batis…

Type: Professional digital medium format mirror-less camera with Fujifilm G bayonet lens mount. Focusing: TTL automatic using hybrid phase-difference and contrast detection measurements. 117 or 425 measuring points (13x9 or 25x17 patterns). Single-point, zone (7x7, 5x5 or 3x3 point clusters selected from 117 points) and wide/ tracking modes. Six focus point sizes. Five tracking scenarios plus a Custom setting (to adjust Tracking Sensitivity, Speed Tracking Sensitivity, Zone Area Switching). Face/eye detection with left/right priority. Manual switching between one-shot and continuous AF modes. AF+MF mode. Low-light assist via built-in illuminator. Manual focus assist via distance scale, magnified image (up to 16.7x), focus peaking display (white, red or blue; low or high level), ‘Digital Split Image’ (B&W or colour) or ‘Digital Microprism’. Metering: 256-point multi-zone, centre-weighted average, full average, spot (2.0% of…