Innholdsfortegnelse for 22-Feb-2020 i Amateur Photographer

Water is a perennially popular subject for photography, and with good reason. Whether you are shooting a reflection in a puddle or the Pacific ocean, the endless variety of water and its unfathomable aesthetic possibilities are irresistible to creatives with cameras. We’re never usually short of water here in the UK, either, so this issue’s cover feature is bound to appeal. There is also a bumper crop of great hardware, including a full review of the Leica M10 Monochrom rangefinger – it offers ‘sensational’ image quality, says our usually hyperbole-allergic camera savant, Andy Westlake. And don’t miss our detailed first looks of the new Olympus flagship the OM-D E-M1 Mark III, and the Fujifilm X100V compact. Geoff Harris, Deputy Editor Contribute to Amateur Photographer If you’d like to see your…

CANON hasn't given up on DSLRs just yet, with the new EOS 850D being an advanced entry-level model that replaces both the EOS 800D and EOS 77D in its current range. Despite the name, it's an updated version of the latter, adding 4K video capability among a number of other improvements. It boasts a 24.1MP sensor, 45-point autofocus, 7fps continuous shooting, and a 220k-dot metering sensor that also enables eye detection when using the viewfinder. Like the EOS 77D it sports both a Quick Control dial on the back for adjusting exposure, and an AF-ON control for back-button focusing. It's due to arrive in April for £819.99 body-only. The firm has also unwrapped an ultra-compact zoom for its EOS R models, in the shape of the RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS…

OLYMPUS has also revealed a compact, lightweight premium standard zoom, in the shape of the M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-45mm F4 PRO. With a zoom range equivalent to 24-90mm on full-frame, its 12-element, 9-group optical design is said to be derived from the highly regarded 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro, with aspherical elements to minimise aberrations and Zuiko Extra-low Reflection Optical (ZERO) coating to suppress flare and ghosting. It's claimed to be the word's lightest constant-aperture zoom, at just 254g, and accepts 58mm filters. Measuring 63.4mm in diameter and 70mm in length, it looks like it could be an ideal companion to last year's compact E-M5 Mark III. Like the rest of Olympus's Pro range, the 12-45mm f/4 benefits from dust- and splash-proof construction, with sealing at nine points of the barrel. However…

WITH the X100V, Fujifilm has listened to what existing X100 users have had to say and responded by making a series of valuable improvements to key areas of its operation and design. If the examples we were shown of how the new lens resolves sharpness is anything to go by, we can expect it to produce better image quality in the corners – plus with the introduction of a weather-resistance kit, photographers will no longer be afraid of using it when weather conditions take a turn for the worse. Adding a tilt screen will be a huge benefit to street photographers who like to shoot inconspicuously from the hip, while other tweaks such as refining ISO control and giving it an even more premium finish are likely to charm existing…

#appicoftheweek Monty is in the lead by Robert Gould Canon EOS 7D Mark II, 160 mm, 1/1000sec at f/2.8, ISO 320 Bob Gould is a retired aircraft engineer, who lives in Caerphilly, South Wales. He spends his time between home and exploring the canal network on his narrowboat Gimme Shelter . This image is of his and his daughters' labradors taken on top of Caerphilly Mountain in South Wales. He uploaded it to Flickr using the hashtag #appicoftheweek. He explains, ‘My daughters held the dogs out of sight and released them on my signal. I was lying down, supporting the camera on my elbows. I used back button focusing to pre-focus on the horizon and shot as they came into sight.' See more at www.flickr.com/photos/bob_ gould. Chosen by Michael Topham,…

I just felt that I had to write and thank you for your acknowledgement of mental health issues in the 11 January issue. As a PTSD sufferer it rang a bell for me – I was diagnosed after my wife's sudden and unexpected death and after serving 30 years in a highly stressful role in the emergency services. And I can confirm that without my photography and camera club friends I would not be writing this letter. Having read the article and Paul Williams' first-class book, it is good to know that I am not alone, and I hope that other readers will be able to come to terms with what life throws at us and get out with their cameras, and help them on the road to recovery.…

Cone do attitude Pull out the winding key/knob until it stops. Undo the clip or clips holding the back of the camera. The cone may be attached to the front, it may pull out from the camera body itself, or it may come out sideways. Take out the empty spool Remove the empty spool from the cone. Take off the band holding your film's backing paper tight, and insert the loose end into the slot in the spool you have just removed. The backing paper protects the film, so keep it tightly wound. A bit on the side This done, place the spool you have just attached the backing paper to in the slot in the side of the cone where the winder key will sit. Always make sure the…

Meets Thursday evenings at 7.30pm from mid-September through to the end of April Membership Membership subscription for adults is £25 per annum, for young adults (16 and 17 yrs) £10 per annum, with £1 admission each club night. Under 16s is £2 per annum but must be accompanied by an adult. A reduction in the subscription is made if joining part way through the season. Visitors are always welcome, at £3 admission Contact secretary@leekpc.org or via the ‘contact us’ page of the website Website www.leekpc.org…

1 Shoot in raw To get the most out of your image and your print, shoot in raw. You can do so much more to your image at the editing stage if you switch to this file format. Despite raw files taking up more space on your hard drive and memory card compared to JPEGs it will open up more creative possibilities. 2 Know when to stop It's really easy to keep editing your image trying to make it perfect, however you don't want to go too far and take away that essence that made your image successful in the first place. There's a fine line between done and overdone so get feedback, keep comparing your edited image to the original so you can avoid this. 3 Proof colours In…

With its 40.9MP sensor, the M10 Monochrom should be able to record close to 5,200 lines per picture height. It comes extraordinarily close to achieving this, not just at ISO 160, but also much higher settings. With no colour demosaicing required to develop its raw files, the camera gives an extremely clean rendition of our test pattern at ISO 160, and it’s only at ISO 12,500 that noise clearly reduces resolution, to about 4,600l/ph. Even at ISO 50,000 we register 4,000l/ph, which is the highest theoretical resolution of the Typ 246. On the right we show details from our resolution chart test pattern (above). Multiply the number beneath the lines by 400 to give the resolution in lines per picture height.…

THERE'S really no denying that the Leica M10 Monochrom is an absolutely beautiful camera. Its build quality is stunning, and the pared-back, minimalist design allows you to immerse yourself completely in the process of taking pictures. Then when you come to look at your image files, it's immediately obvious that the new sensor is very special indeed. With staggering detail rendition, low noise and vast dynamic range, it's surely a significant enough advance to tempt existing Monochrom users to upgrade. I really don't believe that any other camera under £10,000 could make better images. So to address the question I posed at the start of this review – can a camera that costs over £7,000, but only shoots in black & white, really make any sense? Naturally, this is anything…

Pet Club by William Vanderson A SCHOOLBOY from Barnfield School, Edgware, Middlesex, shows off his pet mice to curious friends. According to 2017 research by the American National Academy of Sciences, humans as far back as 15,000 years ago may have domesticated mice. Domesticated or pet mice are sometimes known as ‘fancy mice', to differentiate them from their wild relations (which should never be kept as pets). Here in Britain, the National Mouse Club celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2020 and describes itself as the leading authority for all things mouse – its website lists more than 50 different breed standards for the fancy mouse, including Cinnamon, Marten Sable, Seal Point Siamese Satin and Agouti Tan. The Getty Images Hulton Archive is one of the world’s great cultural resources. Tracing…

CANON has confirmed that it's working on a pro-spec full-frame mirrorless camera. It says the EOS R5 will feature in-body image stabilisation that works in concert with optically-stabilised lenses, and feature dual card slots for backing up files in-camera. It will shoot at 12 frames per second with its mechanical shutter, or 20fps using its electronic shutter, and be capable of 8K video recording. The R5 name is no coincidence, with the camera looking very much like a parallel mirrorless model to the EOS 5D Mark IV. The firm has also announced plans for several upcoming RF optics. The RF 100-500mm F4.7-7.1L IS USM will be a long-range telezoom similar to the EF 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS II USM, but takes advantage of the fact that mirrorless cameras can autofocus with…

ACCORDING to Olympus, the OM-D E-M1 Mark III doesn't directly replace its predecessor, and the two will be sold side-by-side for the immediate future. However the Mark II will drop in recommended retail price by £200 to make space, to £1,300 body only compared to the current £1,500. If this is reflected in the street price, it could see the camera fall beneath the £1,000 mark. Meanwhile the 12-40mm F2.8 PRO lens kit drops in price to £2,000, compared to £2,200 previously, while the double zoom kit that adds the 40-150mm F2.8 PRO telezoom will be £3,000.…

EXHIBITION Stan Douglas: Doppelgänger Victoria Miro, London. Runs until 14 March. Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm. Entrance free PRIMARILY a video installation, this exhibition also includes selected works from Douglas's photographic series Scenes from the Blackout. Canadian artist Stan Douglas often explores what he describes as ‘speculative histories' – moments in time when events could have taken a very different turn. In this series, he imagines the effects of a total loss of power in present-day New York City and how people would behave in such an emergency. A panoramic view of an almost entirely blacked-out cityscape is set against scenes showing individual experiences of resourcefulness and various degrees of misbehaviour. Douglas has been creating film and photographs since the 1980s, as well as more recently working on theatre productions and other projects.…

Landscapes and water Guy Edwardes knows a thing or two when it comes to capturing images of landscapes and water Guy Edwardes Guy Edwardes has been a professional landscape, nature and wildlife photographer for 25 years and has a wealth of knowledge in many fields. Guy also runs photography workshops both in the UK and abroad. To find out more go to www.guyedwardes.com. Freeze wave action In stormy conditions it is often preferable to use a fast shutter speed to freeze the movement of waves as they explode on the shoreline. It's likely to be windy, so use a tripod if possible and image stabilisation if you have it. A shutter speed of 1/500sec is normally enough to freeze a wave, although slightly slower speeds can also be very effective.…

IT'S TOUGH trying to come up with an engaging AP cover every week and they can't all be great, but Lordy - this must be a contender for the worst cover ever. Some covers were fine in their day but just haven't aged well, but it's hard to believe that this one was ever less than awful. Editor Martin Hodder then added insult to injury by dedicating all of the colour pages in that issue to more examples from ‘German Masters', including some peppers with a safety pin stuck through them (why?), eggs spray-painted silver and more creepy dolls on ugly colorama backgrounds. What a waste of a Hasselblad. Further investigation provides an explanation. It was part of a content swap deal with a German magazine and fellow member of…

1 You can't hide when shooting film. Everything will appear on the contact sheet or Polaroid. 2 Film may be expensive but like any luxury, you have to make sacrifices. Consider your shots carefully before taking them, plan ahead but don't let it become disabling! If it does, just do it and embrace any mishaps. 3 Try different cameras, get to know them – don't discard them if the results weren't exactly what you were expecting. 4 Involve your subject in the process of shooting film, make it a shared experience. 5 Explore the printing side of film photography, get in the darkroom and let your imagination run riot. 6 Invest in good film stock, try to keep your choice consistent and revel in the glorious latitude that film provides.…

ALMOST all box cameras have a waist-level viewfinder – you peer into it from a long way above. Because of the slow shutter speed they are prone to movement blur, so must be held pressed tightly against your body. You will also need to work out your own workflow for winding on as there is no double exposure prevention – always wind on just before you take a photo or just after, but don't forget which you choose! Practise before you actually put a film in it until you can remember all the quirks. They often have a ‘flip-flop' shutter that presses down for one exposure and up for the next. Many have a tripod bush that fits a modern tripod, if you can't hold it still enough. Some have…

‘I recommend WhiteWall's ultraHD Photo Print Under Acrylic Glass. Compared to conventional photos, ultraHD Photo Prints offer significantly better resolution and have visibly sharper definition in the image's finer details. Adding our 15mm Basel floater frame in the natural oak colour gives the image a rustic yet classy look. If you want to put more focus on the satiny gloss of the feathers and on the image itself, go for WhiteWall's giclée print on Hahnemühle Fine Art Pearl paper. A brown Hamburg passe-partout frame suits the image too. I would order the picture in a size of at least 40 x 40cm.' Jan-Ole Schmidt, Product Manager, WhiteWall.com…

Our cameras and lenses are tested using the industry-standard Image Engineering IQ-Analyser software. Visit www.image-engineering.de for more details Looking at image files from Leica's 40.9MP monochrome sensor almost requires a suspension of disbelief. The camera can record a phenomenal amount of detail, with higher pixel-level definition and fewer artefacts than we've come to accept as normal from colour sensors. Images are exceptionally clean at ISO 160, and the pure luminance noise recorded at high ISOs is visually unobjectionable. This is a camera that gives fantastic images in bright conditions, while still giving perfectly usable results in vanishingly low light.…

At its lowest ISO 160 setting, the M10 Monochrom captures lots of detail with practically no visible noise. But it’s remarkable just how far you can raise the ISO without any significant loss of detail. Indeed it’s only at ISO 3200 that we start to see a little noise creeping in, when viewing at 100% onscreen. But even at ISO 12,500, the M Monochrom is still capable of describing the canvas weave convincingly. By ISO 50,000 noise is swamping fine detail, but the visual effect isn’t remotely objectionable, so I’d happily use this setting when necessary. Not surprisingly ISO 100,000 is probably a step too far, due to the appearance of horizontal banding.…

Data file iPhone 11 Pro ● From £1,049 ● apple.com THE LATEST Apple model, the iPhone 11 Pro, gets a triple-lens set-up and incorporates an ultra wideangle lens – something we've seen on a few different Huawei, Samsung and other brands' models for a few years. Still, this being Apple, although a little slow to join the party, it's now arrived with finesse. Both the iPhone 11 Pro and the larger iPhone 11 Pro Max share the same camera set-up. The triple-lens array adds an ultra-wideangle (13mm equivalent) to the existing dual-camera set-up from the iPhone XS, which offered a 26mm f/1.8 and a 52mm lens. A slight tweak here is that the longer lens is now f/2. Although Apple has kept the native camera app simple, there are some…

Writing this on New Year's Day 2020, I feel a mixture of relief and panic to have completed ten years of using a different film camera each week without fail. That's a total of 522 cameras, and amazingly no complete disasters, though some came pretty close. The relief is that I have decided to relax the pace, and use ‘new' cameras as and when I find them, rather than rigorously loading up a new one each Friday; the panic now is that, after a decade, I'm not sure how I'll cope without this weekly rhythm in my life. The very first camera I used in my 52 cameras in 52 weeks project, back in January 2010, was a Zenit E, a Soviet-era budget SLR with limited features and an unenviable…

THE E-M1 Mark III may appear to be evolution rather than revolution, but don't let the similarity of its spec sheet to its predecessor's fool you. I've been shooting with one for a couple of weeks before its official release, and it's an astonishingly fast and exceptionally refined camera. The addition of a joystick for focus-area selection elevates it to one of the very best handling cameras in its class. Full frame may be flavour of the month at the moment, but the Micro Four Thirds system offers very real advantages of its own, particularly in terms of size and weight, and especially if you regularly shoot with telephoto lenses. The E-M1 Mark III delivers this better then ever before; indeed it's arguably the camera that the E-M1X should have…

THE OTHER very exciting news to come from this year's X-Summit broadcast held at Fujifilm's House of Photography in London was confirmation that the Fujifilm X-T4 is on its way. Towards the end of the live broadcast, Fujifilm revealed the X-T4 will be officially announced on 26 February. Although no further information was revealed, the official announcement ties in with the annual CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show in Yokohama, Japan (27 February to 1 March) where we're expecting many of the major players in the photography market to release their latest products and innovations.AP will be attending CP+ to bring you all the news and information as and when we receive it, so watch this space.…

In this week's issue, I review Leica's latest M10 Monochrom, a rangefinder camera that shoots only in black & white. It's very special indeed, but then again it probably should be, given that it costs £7,250 without a lens. I paid considerably less than that for my car. While this is an extreme example, it does often feel as though cameras are getting increasingly unaffordable. For example, Sony's original Cyber-shot RX100 – the first camera to feature a 1-inch sensor, of the kind that's now ubiquitous across advanced compacts – seemed inconceivably expensive for its type when it was launched back in 2012 for £550. But by 2019, the seventh-generation version appeared for an eye-watering £1,100, fully double the price. We often get asked why we only review expensive cameras,…

1 Canon EOS 5D Mark IV I currently shoot with a Canon 5D Mark IV and my second body is a Canon 5D Mark III. My Wonder Woman strap is always a talking point! Average used price £1,150 2 Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L My ‘workhorse’ 24-70mm f/2.8, which is a superb and versatile lens. I use this all the time when in my studio. Average used price £799 3 Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L When shooting outside, I use this 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, as I love the separation. As a portrait photographer it’s important that the person is the main focus of the image. Average used price £499 4 Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 I also have a 50mm f/1.4 lens which I use for details work. 5 Pixapro Pika200 TTL I…

1 Basic raw adjustments I opened the image in Adobe Camera Raw and cropped to a square format with a 1:1 ratio. I also slightly boosted the contrast and tweaked the shadows and highlights to bring out detail in the bird. I also added a touch of Texture to bring out the texture in the feathers. 2 Isolated exposure As the wing on the right was slightly darker than the other I wanted to make them match in exposure values. To do this I went to the Adjustment brush in ACR and made an isolated exposure adjustment. I then opened my image into Photoshop. 3 Time for healing In the main editor I started by duplicating the background layer. That way I always have a copy of the original image.…

I didn’t become fully class conscious until I left my working-class home town of Weymouth in 1990 to study under the bright lights of Bournemouth, 30 miles east along the Dorset coast. There I met double-barrelled Digby and his chum Cholmondley. They opened my eyes to a world of privilege I was previously unaware of. I was captivated and compelled. My first photography projects were spent visiting the poshest public schools that would tolerate my attendance: Rugby, Uppingham, Repton and Malvern Girls’ College. When I was refused access, I went along anyway and hung around the common street corners. I snapped Eton College school boys in their pinstripe trousers and black tailcoats passing through a tumescent archway towards their 15th-century classrooms with 21st-century technology. I interrupted Harrow schoolboys wearing summer…