Innholdsfortegnelse for 17-Mar-2018 i Amateur Photographer

With the Oscars out of the way it’s time to reveal the Oscars of the UK photographic industry: the Amateur Photographer Awards. Our awards are taken seriously worldwide because they are among the most authoritative. Our lab tests use the UK’s most sophisticated testing equipment (we have the country’s only facility capable of testing lenses as long as 600mm) and AP’s technical team have an unequalled 30 years of experience. Turn to page 47 for the winners. This week we also launch Amateur Photographer of the Year 2018 (page 29), once again with the support of Sigma Imaging who have offered some amazing prizes. Last year’s contest saw 20,000 entries, and this year, after listening to reader feedback, we’ve tweaked the rules to make it even better. Good luck! JOIN…

Dual SD cards Like the A7R III, the camera features dual SD slots which can be recorded to either simultaneously or sequentially. Only one is UHS-II compatible. 5-axis in-body IS The updated stabilisation system provides up to 5 stops benefit and works in concert with optically stabilised lenses. Larger battery The NP-FZ100 battery is specified for an extremely impressive 710 shots per charge with the LCD, or 610 shots with the EVF. Touchscreen The tilting rear screen now gains touch sensitivity, although with somewhat limited functionality. Improved viewfinder The A7 III gains a larger 2.3m-dot viewfinder compared to the A7 II, with Zeiss T* coating applied to the optics. At a glance ■ £1,999 body only ■ 24.2MP BSI-CMOS full-frame sensor ■ ISO 100-204,800 (extended) ■ 10fps shooting ■ 4K…

‘AP is for everyone who loves photography, irrespective of how they earn a living’ In 1863, at the age of 48, Julia Margaret Cameron was given a camera as a gift from her daughter, and within little more than a decade she created hundreds of portraits of eminent figures in Victorian society including Charles Darwin and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Despite her impressive output and the high standard of her work, Cameron was classed as an amateur photographer. Five years after Cameron's death The Amateur Photographer magazine was launched: ‘A popular journal devoted to the interests of photography and kindred arts and sciences'. More than a century later AP is still going strong, but the definition of what it means to be an ‘amateur' is equally unclear. The line between ‘amateur'…

Now in its 27th year, the Amateur Photographer of the Year (APOY) competition is the oldest of its kind in the UK. For the second time running we have teamed up with Sigma and Photocrowd to bring you more than £10,000 of prizes and a simple portal that makes entering the competition very straightforward. APOY is open to amateur* photographers from around the world, with the overall winner receiving the coveted title ‘Amateur Photographer of the Year 2018', as well as Sigma equipment worth more than £2,000. The winner of each round (as voted for by the Amateur Photographer team) will win Sigma kit worth approximately £1,000, while the crowd vote winner of each round will win a digital subscription to the magazine, plus a Photocrowd subscription. It's important to…

Dominika Wenz Having modelled for many years and been immersed in the world of images, Dominika became intrigued by what separates the bad images from the good, and the good from the exceptional. After experiencing life in front of the lens, she was eager to change her perspective and move on to the other side. She set herself a challenge to see what images she could produce, and photography soon became a source of happiness and therapy against the crueller aspects of her life, including the recent premature loss of her parents. 1 Contrast This shot combines the sweeping shape of the walkway with the converging linear lines of the towers Nikon D3200, 18-55mm, 1/80sec at f/3.8, ISO 400 2 Tunnel vision Dominika has captured a seemingly never-ending recession of…

In the seemingly endless discussions concerning the merits of different sensor sizes, the issue of depth of field is a recurring topic. The position which is often put forward is that smaller sensors offer more depth of field, and more depth of field provides sharper images. Apart from the fact that simply stopping down allows a large-format camera to achieve deep depth of field, the problem with this argument is that deep depth of field inevitably comes at the cost of image sharpness. Irrespective of how deep or shallow the depth of field is, it is only at the plane of focus where the full sharpness that the lens can offer is achieved. Everywhere, apart from that plane, the image is to some extent unsharp. The familiar depth-of-field equations are…

PHOTOGRAPHY has the power to move us, to make us think differently about the world and perhaps even to change it. The Power of Photography Award recognises photographers who have produced outstanding bodies of work that are both phenomenal on a technical level and, most importantly, highlight issues affecting our world on a cultural, political or environmental level. Many past winners have a history of tackling difficult and sometimes harrowing subjects, but even by those standards some of the images created by this year's winner make for tough viewing. But we make no apologies for this. These pictures need to be seen. This year, our Power of Photography Award goes to Brent Stirton, primarily for his project ‘Rhino Horn: The Ongoing Atrocity' and the picture, ‘Memorial to a Species', which…

The Cheeso This award, which we have nicknamed the ‘Cheeso', is in the form of a crystal decanter inscribed with his name. THE CHRIS Cheesman Memorial Award was introduced last year in memory of our former News Editor and dear friend Chris Cheesman, who tragically passed away in 2016. This award goes to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the UK photo industry, and this year's winner was Jim Mackay. Jim started out in the photo trade in the 1970s and has spent a career spanning nearly 50 years as importer and distributor of some of the most popular brands in photography, including Tamron, Bronica, Jobo, LPL, Metz, Tamrac, Crumpler, Velbon, Lensbabies, Slik, Gorillapod and many others. To the best of our knowledge, Jim is the only…

MAJOR firmware updates for a range of Olympus cameras have been announced. The updates – version 2.0 for the E-M1 Mark II, version 4.0 for the E-M5 Mark II, and version 3.0 for the PEN F – are all available for free download via the Olympus Digital Camera Updater. The upgrades include new functionality, improved performance and a new Art filter. For the E-M1 Mark II you can expect improvements to Pro Capture mode, the addition of smaller AF target setting, in-camera support for new lenses, and a host of other enhancements. With the E-M5 Mark II, Focus Stacking functionality has been added, which can be used with a total of eight M.Zuiko lenses. The PEN F upgrade adds minor functionality improvements, including the ability to transfer and save Monochrome…

Sony has also revealed a new flagship flash in the form of the HVL-F60RM. With high-power output and a maximum guide number of 60 (ISO 100), the HVL-F60RM provides wide-range zoom coverage from 20mm to 200mm, with continuous shooting for up to as many as 220 flashes. Improvements over the existing HVL-F60M include superior heat-resistant materials and the use of new algorithms, which Sony claims will increase the heat resistance by four times. The recycle time between flashes is a hasty 1.7sec, but this can be improved to just 0.6sec with the new external battery adapter (FA-EBA1). As expected, flash synchronisation is maintained during continuous shooting to minimise flash misfires. The flashgun is equipped with Sony's Quick Shift Bounce function that allows users to quickly shift from horizontal to vertical…

James Paterson James is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and trainer. His work has appeared in countless magazines and books, and in 2014 he was appointed editor of Practical Photoshop magazine. His subjects range from portraits to landscapes, architecture and underwater scenes. For more details visit www.patersonphotos.com. 1 Don’t worry about clipping Clipped shadows or highlights mean that parts of an image will be totally white or black, and therefore completely lacking in detail. This is usually a bad thing, especially if the bright part of a sky is blown out. But photographers can be a little obsessive about detail. Differences in contrast play a very important part in composition. So if it suits the composition to have part of the frame totally white or black in order to complement…

THE FIRST round of APOY 2018 is Best of British. From castles and seaside piers to country fairs, Beefeaters and fish & chips, the culture, people and places of Britain offer you plenty of scope for varied and unique imagery. In this first round we are looking for images that communicate British-ness in all its forms. Whether you live in Britain, or are just visiting for a while, we look forward to seeing your shots of good old Blighty. If you're stuck for ideas, why not take a look at some travel guidebooks or spend a while browsing ‘Britain' in an online stock library? Remember that we want to see your own personal vision of Britain, so if you're shooting a well-known subject show us a fresh take on it.…

‘She’s exactly as you’d expect her to be: charming, funny, glamorous, and really good company’ I’ve photographed Joanna Lumley four times in the past 20 years or so. Each time, she’s exactly as you’d expect her to be: charming, funny, glamorous, and really good company. She always makes you feel as if she’s very interested in you. While she’s always very professional, she’s also someone who hasn’t lost her sense of fun. My first shoot with her took place in 1997. At the time, she was 51 years old and had already had a career in television and films that had lasted almost 30 years. During the previous four years she’d had enormous success with her role as Patsy in the comedy series Absolutely Fabulous. My job was to shoot…

Action or tough camera Q Having recently retired I am now planning a number of trips that will involve some passions of mine, including hill walking in all weathers and, in warmer parts of the world, snorkelling. I already have a Fujifilm X-E1, but when the weather is bad or I want to take photos and video under (sea) water, I will need an alternative camera. I see there are various ‘tough' category compact cameras like those covered in your August 2017 issue, including the Canon PowerShot D30, Fujifilm FinePix XP120, Nikon Coolpix AW130 (the camouflage finish looks great) and Olympus Tough TG-5. There are also the ‘action' cameras like GoPro, Campark, Xiaomi Yi, etc. Is there a considerable overlap between these two categories, or am I imagining things? Ken…

W HILE skill, vision, experience, timing and luck are all key ingredients for being a good photographer, the tools also play an important part – whether it’s in enabling us to get pictures we couldn’t otherwise have taken, or just in the sheer pleasure and feel-good factor of using them, which in turn inspires us to produce better work. As a weekly magazine AP tests more cameras, lenses and accessories than any other publisher, and our reviews are among the most rigorous. This breadth gives us a unique insight into the current state of photographic technology. While it’s probably true that there are no bad cameras any more and few bad lenses, some are clearly better than others for certain types of users and photographic applications. With so many outstanding…

This year sees the introduction of our new Rising Star award, to celebrate and acknowledge young and talented photographers establishing themselves in the industry. Becoming a professional photographer and having a successful career is growing more challenging in such a saturated market. It's a combination of determination, talent, individuality and hard work that eventually pays off, and these are the qualities our award winner has. Our inaugural Rising Star award goes to Amy Shore. Amy is an automotive photographer and one of few females working and succeeding in a very male-dominated sector. Her lifestyle approach brings her subjects to life, and her reportage and vintage style give her work a unique, vibrant and refreshing vibe. Amy's love of photographing people is clearly seen in her work as she often incorporates…

THE GOOD Service Awards were created to recognise and reward outstanding customer service in the UK photo retail sector. They are presented at the Amateur Photographer Awards, alongside the product awards, to those retailers who offer the highest quality of service, and are voted for by AP readers and retailers' customers. Retailers play a crucial role in maintaining and growing the hobby of photography by offering friendly advice and access to a range of products that customers otherwise wouldn't be able to see ‘in the flesh'. Increasingly, the bricks and mortar stores of the most successful retailers work in tandem with well-designed websites. This year’s winners To qualify for a Good Service Award, a retailer must have exceeded our minimum number of votes, which can be made online or by…

EACH year we give our innovation award to the product or development that we feel has most advanced photographic technology. As usual, we've seen some very impressive achievements. With its PowerShot G1 X Mark III, Canon managed to fit an APS-C sensor into a remarkably small zoom compact, while Huawei offered us a glimpse of the future by including a built-in artificial intelligence processor to improve the output of its flagship Mate 10 Pro smartphone's camera (co-developed with Leica, no less). However, when it comes to outright innovation, there's really no competition. By designing a mirrorless camera for high-speed sports and action shooting from the ground up, Sony served notice on the last clear technological advantage offered by DSLRs. Indeed with the Alpha 9, it has rewritten the rule book…

SAMSUNG has announced its two new flagship smartphones, the S9 and S9+. Marking the first time that variable mechanical apertures are made available on a smartphone, users of the new devices can choose between f/1.5 when shooting in low light or f/2.4 for brighter conditions. There's also a 12MP ‘Super Speed' sensor which features an integrated DRAM module for more processing power, designed to increase detail and reduce noise. Other notable camera features include super-slow-motion mode and a new augmented reality (AR) Emoji function. There's also optical image stabilisation and dual pixel AF. Subscribe to SAVE * 35% Visit amateurphotographersubs.co.uk/14AW (or see p28) * when you pay by UK Direct Debit…

WITH the 2018 AP Awards featured in this issue we thought we'd go back 20 years and see what won in 1998. In the grand scheme of things 20 years isn't that long, but in photography, 1998 was like being on another planet. Take for example our award for the best digital camera. Looking back from a year in which we have been spoiled with remarkable cameras like the Nikon D850, Sony A7R III and even the Canon G1X Mark III, it's difficult to comprehend our enthusiasm for the Kodak DC-210: a camera with ‘a mighty 1,011,520 pixel CCD sensor.' Yes, that's one megapixel. ‘The DC-210 is not just about pixel power,' our reviewer wrote. ‘It's about as complete a digital camera as you can find at this price point.'…

Another new product to arrive from Sony is the VMC-MM2 – a new cable specially designed for the Sony RX0. The idea behind the cable is that it's used to pair the RX0 with Sony A7-series or other Cyber-shot cameras for dual-camera shooting, giving photographers the opportunity to capture two different perspectives at the same time. The VMC-MM2 cable supports simultaneous photo/movie shooting with a single press of the main camera's release button, and has a coiled design with a right-angle connector to keep it clear of the EVF during shooting. The VMC-MM2 will be available in April and will cost £50.…

An ultra-telephoto lens with an optical stabilizer (OS) system, the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens combines top performance with a compact body. The OS allows photographers to take shots in unstable circumstances, while the narrow angle of view makes it possible to compress perspective while offering flexible handling of the background. The user can thereby make the subject appear to jump out of the frame, with the area in focus impressively sharp and clear. Despite their advantages ultra-telephoto lenses have traditionally had limitations. As the nickname ‘bazooka' implies, they have tended to be big, heavy and therefore burdensome to carry around. With the goal of creating an ultra-telephoto lens that is far more accessible, Sigma incorporated all its latest technologies into its 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM…

Do you have more than one lens? What about a tripod, carry case or any additional video or audio equipment? The value of all your kit soon mounts up – but would you be able to replace it if something happened? Cameras are designed to be taken out and about, whether to shoot your next landscape, capture wildlife or travel photos for your portfolio, or just to capture those precious family moments. Plus, if you’re passionate about photography, as well as investing your time, you’ve probably invested heavily financially too. That’s why we’ve teamed up with well-known insurance provider, Thistle Insurance Services Limited, to bring you the cover you may need. Amateur Photographer Insurance Services can provide protection against theft and accidental damage for your camera and accessories up to…

THE BEATLES landing in the USA, the assassination of Robert F Kennedy, the building (and eventual destruction) of the Berlin Wall, the Meredith march with Martin Luther King, and the Watergate scandal – all these major events were captured superbly by the lens of legendary portrait photographer and photojournalist Harry Benson CBE. Benson hails from Glasgow, Scotland, and began his career at the Hamilton Advertiser newspaper before moving to the Scottish Daily Sketch. By 1959 he was working for the Daily Express out of its London offices. He travelled to the USA with the Beatles in 1964 and never came back. He was contracted to Life magazine for 30 years, but shot for many more of the world's biggest magazines including Time, Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Paris Match, Forbes, People and…

GRAYS of Westminster is a name that will be familiar to many AP readers. A Nikon specialist in an exclusive and very historic part of central London, it was founded over 32 years ago by Gray Levett. His vision was to create a world-class camera store, offering a service second to none, and the store still follows this ethos. Grays of Westminster has won awards from Nikon, the wider photographic trade and magazines. For the past two years it has also won the prestigious Amateur Photographer Platinum Good Service Award as voted for by the public. A proud heritage When he was starting out, Gray Levett scraped together £100 and placed ‘tiny, inexpensive advertisements’ in the classified section of AP. Since the shop opened in 1985, it has gone from…

The US Library of Congress invites the question of whether it is possible to have too much of a good thing. One answer, obviously, is yes. But as an excess of pictures won’t give you anything like the same kind of hangover from an excess of vintage Champagne, another answer is no. I pretty much wallow in their galleries. Most of us have taken or tried to take similar pictures to this one, which could have been taken at absolutely any time since Kodachrome was introduced in 1936. Given it was the equivalent of ASA 10, though ASA hadn’t been invented yet, a tripod would have been (and almost certainly was) extremely useful: you really can count the bricks, at least where they haven’t been painted over too thickly. What…