Innholdsfortegnelse for 02-Mar-2019 i Amateur Photographer

Britain is a nation of gardens. Not just private gardens but also the hundreds of parks, landscaped gardens and stately homes that dot the country. They offer a year-round, ever-changing variety of photo opportunities, from close-ups of plants and flowers to sweeping vistas of Capability Brown’s finest works. But getting great shots is surprisingly difficult. This week we present some tips from the winners of this year’s International Garden Photographer of the Year contest. Something else that Britain isn’t short of is coastline, and we talk to Jack Lowe about his work photographing the heroic lifeboat crews who save countless lives at sea every year. We also explore Canon’s new Fv exposure mode and find out whether Sigma’s new 40mm is as good as they say it is. Enjoy. JOIN…

OLYMPUS'S latest superzoom lens has the longest zoom range of any mirrorless glass so far. The M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 for Micro Four Thirds cameras has a focal length equivalent to 24-400mm, with a variable f/3.5-6.3 maximum aperture. The minimum focusing distance is 10cm. Other features include ZERO (Zuiko Extra-low Reflection Optical) coating to reduce ghosting and flare reduction, short shooting time lag and an MSC (Movie and Still Compatible) mechanism for fast and quiet autofocus during video recording. The new M.Zuiko 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 goes on sale in late March for £799.99. Register the lens via the MyOlympus platform at the website www.my.olympus.eu and you can get a free six-month warranty extension.…

‘AP INVESTIGATES sexism in the shops' proclaimed the coverline for a major feature in this issue, but it's not clear if the somewhat revealing cover model is illustrating this worthy piece, or another hard-hitting article on the photographic history of underwear (insert ‘it was pants' gag here). We fear the latter, as although the magazine was getting a bit more ‘woke' by 1996, it still had some way to go. Investigation was definitely in the air though, as the hard-pressed team dragged itself away from Wonderbras to check out the cost of APS processing (a much-hyped but short-lived bit of photographic technology, this time lasting for about five years). Our favourite feature inside the magazine is The Gum Bichromate Printing Guide. It's a lot of words and effort to create…

DURING a brief hands-on session we tried out Face Detection and Eye AF, which seemed less jittery and had no issue with recognising small faces at a distance. The touchscreen also responded to soft finger movements, and the introduction of the joystick transforms general operation and the positioning of the AF point around the frame. Other tweaks to the design such as the raised thumb rest with easy access to the Quick menu button are well received too. If your budget can't stretch to the fabulous X-T3 and you want a lot of what it offers in a smaller, lighter body, the X-T30 should tick a lot of the right boxes for £500 less. Its form factor and the way it's supported by the best APS-C-specific lens range currently on…

Out for the count In the article Second-hand Best Buys in AP 5 January, the ‘Buying Second-hand' panel on the last page said that on any used camera you should check the shutter count. But it did not say how to do this. I have two Sony cameras: an Alpha 700 and an Alpha 58, which I would like to check. I would appreciate if you could tell me how to do it. I am sure other readers would like help with this, and I wonder if an article will be forthcoming. Derick Bright The method is different for every brand because shutter count is stored in a proprietary bit of the EXIF data. But with your cameras there is a free software tool that will give you this information.…

Minzayar shot this project on a Canon EOS 6D using a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens. Minzayar chose to use his 6D because it has a silent shooting mode which made him more unobtrusive. The subjects were lit entirely by the light of the screen, so a high ISO of between 3200 and 5000 was required, along with a wide aperture of between f/1.4 and f/2.8. ‘It was tricky because there was so little light. The subjects were constantly moving and with such a shallow depth of field I had a lot of out-of-focus pictures.'…

On a 35mm full-frame camera, a 43mm lens provides an angle of view of 55°, which turns out to be very similar to the human eye's angle of close attention. As such, this optic offers a closer representation of what the human eye sees than Sigma's 35mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/1.4 Art lenses. In short, the performance is sublime. Chromatic aberrations and curvilinear distortion are virtually non-existent and the level of sharpness and beautiful bokeh it creates at wide apertures will blow you away. This does come at a high price though, especially when the 35mm F1.4 DG HSM Art and 50mm F1.4 DG HSM Art can be bought new for just £119 more. Overall, it's a welcomed addition in Sigma's line-up, albeit a heavy and expensive one. It won't…

New or second-hand Q I have been dabbling in photography for a while and have a basic bridge camera that has served me well over the years. My personal circumstances have just changed and I find myself with more time to learn about photography. I would like to buy a new kit to learn with and then maybe upgrade as my skills develop. I may even start to become interested in a specific type of photography. My question is, do I buy new or used? Stewart Campbell A The first thing to research is the resale value of the camera and gear you are considering. If the camera/lenses have great resale value and you manage to purchase them with a cashback offer perhaps, then that’s a good deal. However, if…

AF Nikon AF lenses driven from camera AF-S Nikon lenses with Silent Wave Motor AF-P Nikon lenses with stepper motors AL Pentax lenses with aspheric elements APD Fujifilm lenses with apodisation elements APO Sigma Apochromatic lenses ASPH Aspherical elements AT-X Tokina’s Advanced Technology Extra Pro AW Pentax all-weather lenses CS Samyang lenses for APS-C cropped sensors D Nikon lenses that communicate distance info DA Pentax lenses optimised for APS-C-sized sensors DC Nikon defocus-control portrait lenses DC Sigma’s lenses for APS-C digital DG Sigma’s designation for full-frame lenses Di Tamron lenses for full-frame sensors Di-II Tamron lenses designed for APS-C DSLRs Di-III Tamron lenses for mirrorless cameras DN Sigma’s lenses for mirrorless cameras DO Canon diffractive optical element lenses DT Sony lenses for APS-C-sized sensors DX Nikon’s lenses for DX-format digital…

This calming scene was uploaded to our Twitter page using the hashtag #appicoftheweek. It was taken by Joyce Hunnam. She tells us, ‘I live on the East Lothian coastline and am out almost every day with my camera. At low tide the Bridge to Nowhere spans the Biel Water, which runs through Belhaven Bay within the John Muir Country Park, and into the North Sea. At high tide the bridge looks odd stranded in the middle of the sea but it is perfect for long exposures, particularly at sunset. I used a Lee Seven5 0.6 ND Soft Grad filter and Lee Seven5 6-stop ND filter.'…

NIKON has announced the Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S, a constant-aperture zoom for its Z series of full-frame mirrorless cameras. The lens is faster than the previous retractable 24-70mm f/4 lens which came out alongside the Z 6 and Z 7, and should have a stronger appeal to professionals and advanced enthusiasts. The Z 24–70mm f/2.8 S is also fully weather-sealed. Key features include a minimum focusing distance of 0.38m, 17 lens elements in 15 groups with anti-reflective Arneo and Nano Crystal coatings. This is the first lens to use the new multi-layer Arneo coating: Nikon claims it compensates for light entering the lens from vertical angles, with this expanded field enabling the lens to capture exceptional contrast and sharpness even when the light source is visible inside the frame.…

As a fully paid-up member of the Grumpy Old Man's Club, I often find myself shaking my head and tutting at the social media-fuelled antics of people, particularly Instagram use. I have no interest in seeing the carefully curated lives of slebs, so I don't follow any. And while I'm as guilty as the next person of sharing a photo of the great view I've just seen, at least I try to leaven the mix with Instagram posts that document the more ordinary sights of my life (the joys of the morning commute, long queue for a cuppa... that sort of thing). The narrative of ridiculous, stupid and occasionally even suicidal things that people will get up to just to get that Instagram snap, with its in-built neediness for the…

With The Photography Show well advertised and a 25% discount being offered on tickets, I thought I should attend this year. That is, until I started looking into the cost of travel from Sussex, accommodation and tickets for the shows that interest me. My first task was to search for reasonably priced accommodation. One of the magazines supplied a useful little booklet about the show, which included a website offering hotel discounts – eventexpress.co.uk. But I struggled to see what they considered a discounted advantage when the cheapest started at £109 per night. So I searched B&Bs and found a couple in my price range (I am retired) of around £55 per night, not too far from the event. Once I filled in the check-in and check-out dates, the price…

When did you first become interested in photography? When I was 12, I started using a camera to record the world around me. Photographing country walks, plants, insects and everything else in between. I have always preferred creative subjects, and picking up a camera seemed to resonate with me. I think the instant feedback on seeing the image on the back of the camera appealed to me. What was your first camera and what do you use now? My first camera was a Pentax *ist DL, bought from a local second-hand camera store. I currently use a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with a 24-70mm lens. This is my main set-up when I pull the camera out of my bag, as this focal range is extremely versatile and I’m able…

THE EASIEST way to apply a Content-Aware Fill, is via the Fill dialog. Make a selection, choose Edit>Fill and apply using the Content-Aware Fill mode. A basic Content-Aware Fill such as this can't be modified in any way, but may well produce an acceptable ‘instant' result. In this example I used the Lasso tool to create a selection that defined the outline of the staples that were keeping the giant pot together. With a regular Content-Aware Fill feature you have no control over how the fill is applied. After applying the Content-Aware Fill and hiding the original selection, you can see that the Content-Aware Fill did a good job. However, the edges around the original selection border could be further improved by working with the Spot Healing Brush tool to…

Michael Topham ‘The Canon EOS 5D has served me extremely well over the years and is a camera I still take pride in owning today. When I purchased it in 2006, I loved the idea of being able to shoot full frame without the weight and added bulk that came with using Canon's pro-spec DSLRs. I knew I just had to have one. It has received a battering over the years and has the scars to prove it, but it has never failed on me during a shoot in my ownership. There was a time when some of the Compact Flash card pins got damaged, but this was a result of using a faulty CF card and was quickly put right by Canon's Elstree service centre. Despite the well-known issue…

Each week we choose our favourite picture on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Twitter or the reader gallery using #appicoftheweek. PermaJet proudly supports the online picture of the week winner, who will receive a top-quality print of their image on the finest PermaJet paper*. It is important to bring images to life outside the digital sphere, so we encourage everyone to get printing today! Visit www.permajet.com to learn more. *PLEASE ALLOW UP TO 28 DAYS FOR DELIVERY Send us your pictures 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…

PANASONIC has added to its TZ (Travel Zoom) series with the Lumix TZ95 compact camera. Key features include a Leica DC Vario-Elmar 30x optical zoom lens (equivalent to 720mm), and 1/2.3-inch, 20.3MP CMOS sensor. There is also optical image stabilisation and a Zoom Compose Assist function, which according to Panasonic, helps keep track of your subjects by quickly zooming out – handy when they move out of the frame, for example. To keep up with fast-moving subjects, the TZ95 has a burst rate of 10 frames per second in single AF mode, and tracks the subject at a rate of 5fps with continuous autofocus. As well as the usual auto everything modes for beginners and 22 digital filters, there is full raw shooting and manual controls for more advanced users.…

THE IMPROVEMENTS that have been made to the AF algorithm on the X-T30 will also be available to users of the Fujifilm X-T3 by downloading and installing firmware Ver.3.0.0. As well as improving the speed and smoothness of face detection, obstacles that might come between you and your subject are alleged to be ignored slightly better. The other improvements the new firmware brings is its ability to detect and track smaller faces in the frame and offer non-stop phase-detection AF for a more immediate autofocus response between long distances when using long telephoto lenses. As well as the improvements to the AF algorithm, the new firmware brings the X-T30's faster touch screen response to the X-T3. To download the new firmware head to Fujifilm's support website - www.fujifilm.eu/uk/support.…

This year we celebrate the half-centenary of one of the most iconic moments in modern history: the Apollo 11 lunar landing of July 1969. While at the time, the story was primarily told by the grainy, black & white TV images beamed live from the lunar module's Tranquillity Base, it's the stunning colour photographs captured by the astronauts themselves that ultimately provide the best record of this extraordinary feat of technology and exploration. A few weeks ago I reviewed Brian May's excellent Mission Moon 3-D (AP 26 January), which presents many of these iconic images in a strikingly new way. This book Hasselblad and The Moon Landing takes a rather different approach, recounting how NASA first adopted the sturdy medium-format workhorse on the Mercury-Atlas 8 mission of 1962, then over…

A pause for thought James Abbott shares his experience of using the Nikon Z 7 after a Sony A7R III The art of composites Set your imagination free! James Paterson shows how to combine images Skylum Luminar 3 Does Lightroom have a challenger? Rod Lawton investigates On sale Tuesday 5 March CONTENT FOR NEXT WEEK’S ISSUE MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE…

Content-Aware Fill The following steps show how I was able to quickly and simply remove the distracting poster that was hanging outside this museum in Venice. By using the new Content-Aware Fill mode in Photoshop I was able to remove the poster completely and fill from the surrounding areas for a clean end result. Make a selection Select the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and create a simple selection of the poster. Go to Edit > Content-Aware Fill. Here, you can see the selected area in the document window surrounded by a green overlay that represents the area the Content-Aware Fill was sampling from to fill in the selection. Fill Preview panel This screen shot shows the Content-Aware Fill panel controls alongside the Content-Aware Fill Preview panel. The initial fill using…

Resolution Our Image Engineering MTF tests were carried out with the lens mounted to Canon’s 50-million-pixel DSLR, the EOS 5DS R. The spike to the solid red line tells us sharper results can be achieved in the centre by stopping down, but this shouldn’t put off people making the most of being able to shoot at such a fast maximum aperture. Corner sharpness peaks at f/5.6, beyond which point diffraction gradually takes the edge off sharpness. Shading Shading is noticeable in images taken at f/1.4, measuring approximately 1.5EV darker at the edge of the frame than the centre. Stop the lens down to f/2 and this fall-off is reduced to around 0.7EV, which was still visible in our real-world test shots. At f/2.8 vignetting can only be traced at the…

1 Selecting Fv mode There are a couple of ways to select Fv mode on the EOS R. Press the mode button and scroll through the various exposure mode options using the rear dial and you'll find Fv mode positioned between Scene Intelligent Auto and Program AE modes. Alternatively, tap the mode button and select Fv mode using the EOS R's 3in vari-angle touchscreen. 2 Underlined means auto In its default state, Fv mode is a full-auto exposure mode and operates similarly to Program AE (P) mode. Glance at the shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings and you'll notice they're all underlined, which tells you that all exposure variables are being automatically controlled by the camera. When they're not underlined you're in control. 3 Toggle between variables The rear dial…

• £19.99 • www.tenba.com Security cord With sturdy metal clips at each end, this attaches to a small D-ring on the pouch. ID holder A transparent sleeve on the back provides space for a business card, although it’s a tight squeeze and may require trimming. Card compatibility While it’s designed to take SD cards, or Micro SD cards with adapters, the Reload SD9 will also comfortably hold XQD cards. Velcro loop This can be used to attach the card wallet to your belt, a bag or a camera strap. SOMETIMES, it can feel as though any photographic accessory that's both useful and well-made is also prohibitively expensive. But there are also some handy items that won't break the bank, such as this Tenba Reload SD9. In essence, it's a small…

René Burri was born in Zurich in 1933; joined Magnum in 1955; and became a full member in 1959. He is perhaps best known for iconic portraits such as the one of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara (above), but there was vastly more to his work than this. In particular, his all-but-anonymous street scenes, sometimes semi-abstract, are utterly timeless. From 1949 to 1953 he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich, now the Zurich University of the Arts, thereby demonstrating that a solid, traditional art education need not be an impediment to creativity or originality, no matter what disgruntled and unsuccessful arts graduates would have you believe. Perhaps even more surprisingly, he also worked after he had graduated as a cameraman for Walt Disney. Then came Magnum. His introduction seems to have been via…