Innholdsfortegnelse for 23-Feb-2019 i Amateur Photographer

One of the biggest joys of being a photographer is taking your camera with you when you travel. I don’t know about you, but photography gives me the motivation to get up early, when the most popular tourist spots tend to be more tolerable, and push myself to visit interesting places. You also get to connect with the locals with your camera. So, in this issue, we celebrate the winners of Travel Photographer of the Year, which has grown into the world’s biggest and best travel photo contest. There are plenty of tips from the winners, and as you’ll see, it’s not necessary to go to some exotic destination – great pictures can often be found (relatively) close to home if you approach travel photography with the right attitude. As…

FROM our short hands-on time with the EOS RP, it looks as though Canon has come up with a clearer, more coherent vision for full-frame mirrorless compared to the EOS R. It's still open to some of the same criticisms, with no in-body stabilisation and just a single card slot, but these feel more forgivable given the £1,000 lower price. The EOS RP will be available from 27 February – look out for our upcoming full review, just as soon as we can get our hands on a production sample.…

BOOK Endangered By Tim Flach, Abrams, £50, 336 pages, hardback, ISBN 978-1419726514 Tim Flach's previous weighty tomes on dogs, horses and wildlife have been met with wide critical acclaim and have produced some iconic images. The subject of his new, large-format book Endangered is self-explanatory. In collaboration with conservationists, Flach spent months travelling the world photographing snow leopards, polar bears, pandas and many other beautiful and rare animals. Often, Flach's subjects, the creatures our species is consigning to oblivion, are staring through the lens into our eyes, as if asking ‘why?' and we are forced to confront the uncomfortable truth of the answer. A book filled with studio-lit head shots may lose its power to move us after a while, but Flach mixes things up with location portraits, profile shots…

Lens chart Last week I purchased a used Canon EF 28-80mm f/2.8-4 L lens from Ffordes. As usual the first thing I did was check it for sharpness at various zoom settings and apertures. I usually do this by pinning a newspaper sheet on the wall and setting the camera on a tripod and checking that it's square on and level to the sheet. Then with the mirror lock on and remote release, I take a number of centre and edge shots and check them on a PC monitor. It's not very scientific, but what do you compare the results to and how do you know what you should expect from a certain lens? I normally use a lens I know is good for reference such as a 50mm lens,…

Wideangle lens In some areas, eiders have become accustomed to being fed by people, and as a result have become extremely confiding, sometimes to the point of running towards people as soon as they see them! This gives you the chance to photograph them in their coastal environment, creating images that are a bit different and will stand out more. Binoculars If I’m photographing wildlife, I never leave home without my binoculars. They are much lighter and clearer to look through than a camera, so they make finding the wildlife so much easier. They’re also great for when you want to put the camera down and just watch.…

ONE OF the D750's features I use regularly is its wireless connectivity. I know that some manufacturers make the process of connecting a camera to a smartphone and transmitting images unnecessarily complicated, while others make it refreshingly easy. The fact that I call upon it so often is testament to how usable it is here. Nikon's more recent cameras work with the SnapBridge system, something I've never found to be very reliable, but the D750 works in conjunction with the far more stable Wireless Mobile Utility app. To connect, enable Wi-Fi on the camera and select the network that the camera publishes, although you can also use WPS for greater security. Wireless Mobile Utility allows for remote control over shooting and image transmission to the smart device, although the former…

Resolution Our Image Engineering MTF tests, conducted on the 24MP Sony Alpha 7 III, confirm the lens to be an impressive performer. In the centre of the frame it’s already extremely sharp at f/2, peaking around f/2.8 to f/4 before diffraction gradually takes the edge off sharpness. The corners aren’t as sharp wide open but improve on stopping down, with the best results overall between f/4 and f/11. Shading Shading is quite pronounced at f/2, measuring approximately 1.5 stops in the corners of the frame. Stop the lens down to f/2.8 and this fall-off is reduced to around 0.8 stops, which could still be visible in images with even tonality. From f/4 onwards, though, the effect is negligible. Curvilinear distortion Distortion is ludicrously low – indeed our measurements place it…

In the eight years that I've been writing this column, I've talked about a number of Soviet-era Russian cameras; indeed my first ever column was about the Zenit E, an angular and chunky SLR that many keen amateurs used as an entry drug to more expensive and more reliable models. The Soviet Union actively marketed technical and optical products in the UK, as they provided the communist state with a much-needed source of hard currency. Such was the volume of Soviet imports, that you're never far away from a Russian camera. The Zenits in particular still turn up regularly in charity shops, and you're almost bound to find one in any of the larger ‘antique' centres. Chinese cameras, on the other hand, are much more of a rarity. Just as…

Why do we keep anything? Sometimes, obviously, because it’s useful: a washing machine, say. When it wears out, we throw it away (or nowadays, recycle most of it) and get another. But how is a photograph ‘useful’? There can be countless reasons. Information. Entertainment. Propaganda. Memento. Art, insofar as this is separable from these four. What survives, though, is aleatory. When my father-in-law died, we threw out all but a few of his hundreds of pictures, as not being even mementos. We kept the good ones, but who knows what will happen to them? Or to our own? Even museums flood, burn down or are bombed, though this is from one of my perennially favourite (and more secure) sources, the US Library of Congress. It belongs to a group of…

IN ANOTHER reminder that age is just a number in photography, Nancy Shephard (87) and Esmee Lloyd (15) both recently received their Licentiate distinctions from the RPS. A former teacher and great grandmother, Nancy took up photography in her 50s, and quickly made her mark at her local camera club. ‘I walked into this room on my own and there were about 30 men – no women,' she told the RPS Journal. ‘The head honcho said “we used to have a woman here who did these lovely little tabletop things,” which was like a red rag to a bull to me, but they turned out to be a lovely club.' Esmee, meanwhile, collaborates with her elder brother, Remy, who received his LRPS on the same day. Their father is also…

To keep in the loop and have a good understanding of what's going on in the world of photography, my daily routine typically starts with making a cup of coffee and reading the top stories on my favourite photography blogs and websites. The other day I stumbled upon an interesting story about Canon reportedly pausing EF DSLR lens announcements in 2019 so it can concentrate on expanding its line-up of RF mirrorless lenses for its EOS R system. While DSLR users might not be too happy to hear that no new EF lenses are forecast for 2019, Canon isn't left with much choice on where to direct its lens design and manufacturing resources. After all, it's playing catch up in a market where Sony already has an extensive range of…

I am writing for guidance from you and your team and readers or contributors for any advice on the makes of cameras that can be operated by a left-handed person. About 13 years ago, my brother suffered a major stroke that left him with a partial right-sided hemiplegia that severely impacted his gait and function. Fortunately since then, and with the help of some innovative technology pioneered at Salisbury Hospital, he has learned to walk again and has taught himself to dress, sketch, design and operate equipment with his left hand instead. When he recently visited me in Ireland, and knowing of my passion for photography, he asked if there was a camera designed to be operated with the left hand, and ideally light enough to be held single-handed. It…

Meets Every Monday, except Bank Holidays, at 7.30pm. Membership Full member plus partner £25/year, then £3 each meeting inc refreshments. Senior plus partner £15/year, then £3 per meeting inc refreshments. Visitors or guests are always welcome, £4 per visit inc refreshments. Contact secretary@wakefieldcameraclub.org.uk Website www.wakefieldcameraclub.org.uk What are the club's goals for the future? In 2018 we were successful in gaining a £5,000 lottery grant. The bid targeted older (but not exclusively) people to learn and develop digital imaging skills. Using the funding to purchase new laptops and colour-calibration equipment along with the latest Lightroom and Photoshop packages, has enabled the club to offer monthly training sessions. The aim is for participants to produce high-quality printed images; framed and displayed as part of our annual exhibition. In this way,…

Carbon legs Gitzo carbon eXact tubes and an aluminium head help keep the weight under 300g. Rubber feet These offer a good amount of grip on smooth and uneven surfaces and prevent it sliding. Colour combinations The Mini Traveler is available in Gitzo’s noir décor finish. An all black finish is also available. Closed length It has a closed length of just 22cm, meaning you’ll easily find a space for it in your bag. • £189 • www.manfrotto.co.uk A MINI tripod is a handy accessory to own if you regularly take images at tabletop level and you'd like some additional support without the hassle of having to set up and work around a full-sized tripod. They're also useful for anyone who wants to travel light, plus they can be used…

If you’d like to see your work published in Amateur Photographer, here’s how to send us your images: Email Email a selection of low-res images (up to 5MB of attachments in total) to appicturedesk@ti-media.com. CD/DVD Send us a disc of high-resolution JPEG, TIFF or PSD images (at least 2480 pixels along its longest length), with a contact sheet, to the address on page 14. Via our online communities Post your pictures into our Flickr group, Facebook page, Twitter feed, or the gallery on our website. See details above.…

Sigma 40mm f/1.4 Art We test Sigma’s latest fast prime lens – the 40mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Courage and conviction Jack Lowe on photographing every British lifeboat station in an ambrotype Get Fv mode savvy Michael Topham explains how Canon’s Fv exposure mode works on the EOS R CONTENT FOR NEXT WEEK’S ISSUE MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE…

THIS week we rock and roll the clock back to 19 February 1958. Nostalgics will love the reassuring – and beautifully framed – image of the bobby checking out the Household Cavalry, and the ad for ‘faster films' fits in with it nicely. The fact is, however, that life was still pretty tough for a lot of people in the late '50s, and this is captured by Thurston Hopkins's powerful reportage project on the slums of Liverpool. Hopkins worked at the Picture Post in its heyday and was also a sometime tutor of AP's studio manager, Andrew Sydenham – so this project is really powerful. The sleeping child using newspaper as bedding says it all, as does the poverty and hardship etched onto the faces of the local women. It…

Quite simply, the Zeiss Batis 40mm f/2 CF is a wonderful standard lens for Sony full-frame mirrorless users. The image quality it delivers is about as close to perfect as you could hope, with superb detail and minimal aberrations. Its close-up shooting ability is handy too, although it's not a substitute for a true macro lens. Build quality is superb; autofocus is quick, silent and accurate; and the OLED display is a bonus for manual-focus shooting. So there's a whole lot to like, and barely anything to complain about. Of course, it's impossible to ignore the fact that £1,149 is an awful lot of money for an f/2 standard prime lens. But I guess that's just the price you have to pay for this level of optical quality. The unfamiliar…

One of the benefits of the Gitzo Mini Traveler Tripod is that the supplied head can be removed and interchanged with alternative heads such as the Gitzo Traveler ball head GH1382TQD (£249). This is currently the smallest and lightest offering in Gitzo’s series and unlike the basic ball head supplied with the Mini Traveler, features a quick release, Arca-style (Gitzo D) baseplate. Its slim profile is complementary to the Mini Traveler and it has a maximum payload of 11kg. All the tools and instructions required to remove and interchange the ball head are included with the Mini Traveler.…