Innholdsfortegnelse for 21-Mar-2020 i Amateur Photographer

This issue is all about saving money, and the benefits of buying ‘pre-loved’ gear. The UK’s second-hand camera trade is apparently worth around £60 million a year and growing fast. As technology matures and image quality now improves only incrementally between generations, the benefits of buying older used models become greater. This week we look at the best used offerings for those looking at full frame. We also thought it would be fun to give four accomplished photographers, in different genres, an older second-hand model to see what they could do with it. Their results will hopefully silence those who think that photographers who succeed in photo competitions, or professionally, do so due to their expensive kit, rather than their skill and talent. Contribute to Amateur Photographer If you’d like…

I'm sometimes frustrated by the quality of photography programmes on the telly, but the other day I was stunned by a show that I think is near perfect. As it's somewhat remote from mainstream primetime, buried in a Netflix series on graphic design called Abstract: the Art of Design, I think it would be remiss of me not to draw it to your attention. The subject of the 46-minute documentary, directed by Richard Press, is celebrated Greek-British portrait photographer Platon Antoniou, who normally goes by the single name Platon. He's created some of the most iconic images of this generation's global figures. A theme running through the programme is a portrait session with former US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Platon's New York studios. The photographer is astonishingly articulate…

Email ap@ti-media.com and include your full postal address. Write to Inbox, Amateur Photographer, TI Media Limited, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hants GU14 7BF Who’s the ‘sparkling character’? I believe that the gentleman in the straw hat pictured on the front cover of the February 1959 issue of Amateur Photographer (Back in the day, 8 February) is Walt Disney, creator of the legendary cartoon character Mickey Mouse. Douglas Thomson That's a great suggestion Douglas, but having studied a few pictures of Walt we don't think it is him. You did, however inspire us to try to find his real identity and our resident super-sleuth Amanda has, I believe, solved the mystery. He appears to be the actor Alan Dudley, who starred in a string of West End…

MEIKE'S 50mm f/1.7 is a curious beast whose imaging characteristics take some time to unravel. Its compact size, all-metal barrel and simple operation all appeal, but with its peculiar combination of aberrations, optically it doesn't behave quite as we'd expect from a 50mm prime. As a result, Sony shooters desiring biting cross-frame sharpness would get superior results from the FE 50mm F1.8, while Canon EOS R and Nikon Z-series owners would be better off using the firms' respective 50mm f/1.8 SLR lenses via mount converters. If, on the other hand, you're primarily interested in getting a fast prime to shoot at large apertures for selective-focus work, this lens will reward you with some lovely-looking images, thanks to those beautifully defocused backgrounds. So if you can live with its handling quirks…

Point-to-point judges by J Wilds Judges at the Household Brigade's first point-to-point fixture since before the Second World War watch the event through binoculars at Thame in Oxfordshire. For those of you not in the know, point-to-point is a form of amateur horse racing over fences held at a variety of racecourses throughout the UK. All meetings are run by volunteers, with the judges responsible for placing the first four horses past the winning post and giving the distances between the placed horses. The Getty Images Hulton Archive is one of the world’s great cultural resources. Tracing its origins to the founding of the London Stereoscopic Company in 1854, today it houses over 80 million images spanning the birth of photography to the digital age. Explore it at www.gettyimages.com.…

FEWER than five days before The Photography Show was supposed to start at the Bimingham NEC, organisers Future plc announced that it would be postponed owing to the dramatic increase in coronavirus cases in Europe. It will now take place on 19-22 September 2020. ‘We understand how important the show is both from an industry and community point of view,' said Future's Head of Events, Jonny Sullens. ‘Postponing until September, when we hope the threat of Covid-19 will have significantly reduced, will allow us to deliver the show everyone deserves. We are now working through the ramifications of this challenging situation.' Tickets can be transferred to the new show date or a refund will be given, Future confirmed. For further ticketing information and updates, visit the event website at www.…

#appicoftheweek At Manchester Art Gallery by Daniel Carson Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 50mm, 1/3200sec at f/1.8, ISO 250 ‘This image was taken inside Manchester Art Gallery and was in fact only my second portrait shoot. In the beginning, I found it nerve-wracking and having people in front of the camera and posing the models was very difficult. I find having a conversation with the model before I start shooting helps make them feel relaxed and more confident.' Daniel uploaded his image to Instagram using the hashtag #appicoftheweek. See more @danielcarsonphotography. Chosen by Nigel Atherton, Editor as our #appicoftheweek Win!  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…

I've been a subscriber for many years and look forward to each issue. I enjoy reading all the articles, but often one stands out as something special and among those When Harry Met... is always among the best. When Harry Met the Spice Girls (AP 15 February) was extra special. A bit of history, a good description of the girls themselves that showed their characters, an insight into the working life of the photographer, lessons in how to set up a shoot and get the best out of the subjects. And at the end a great description of how all the elements of composition and lighting came together to make a really special image. It's an article I'm sure no one could fail to enjoy and learn something from.…

Sony has two versions of its Imaging Edge software, Desktop and Mobile. We’re going to focus on the Desktop version here, which can be downloaded from imagingedge.sony.net/ en-gb/ie-desktop.html. Imaging Edge Desktop has three elements, Remote, Viewer and Edit. The Remote feature lets you control your camera from your computer using a wired or Wi-Fi connection, Viewer allows you to browse, compare, rate and select images and, as you have probably worked out, the Edit area gives access to all of the image-editing tools. BROWSE, RATE AND SELECT Imaging Edge uses your PC's folder structure to navigate images so there's no need to import images. After starting Image Edge Desktop you just need to click on the ‘Start' button next to ‘Viewer' to open the browser. Then use the column on…

Canon EOS 5D Mark III ● £799 good condition, 38k shutter count (MPB.com) AT A GLANCE Sensor 22.3MP full-frame CMOS Sensitivity 100-25,600 (ISO 50-102,800 extended) Continuous shooting 6fps Video 1080p Full HD at 60fps Rear display 3.2in/1.040m-dots Viewfinder Pentaprism, 100% coverage at 0.71x At the time of its release in 2012 a brand new 5D Mark III body would've set you back around £2,250. However, it's now possible to find second-hand bodies in good condition with under 70k shutter actuations for around £799. Built around a 22.2MP full-frame CMOS sensor and Canon's DIGIC 5+ image processor, the 5D Mark III is a highly versatile DSLR that provides an advanced feature set and plenty of customisation options. While Canon's groundbreaking Dual Pixel AF technology wasn't introduced to the 5D range until…

Canon EOS RP ● £944 like new condition, shutter count unavailable (MPB.com) AT A GLANCE Sensor 26.2MP CMOS Sensitivity ISO 100-40,000 (ISO 50-102,400 extended) Continuous shooting 5fps Video 4K at 25fps Rear display Vari-angle 3in/1.04m-dot LCD touchscreen Viewfinder 2.36m-dot EVF The Canon RP is an entry-level full-frame mirrorless camera designed to appeal to those looking to go full-frame on a budget. Released only last year with a body-only price of £1,400, used RP bodies can now be picked up for well under £1,000, mostly in ‘like new' condition. For the money, you're getting a super compact full-frame camera that's actually lighter than Canon's 800D APS-C DSLR. While controls and features have been stripped back in order to increase the RP's appeal to novice users, the camera does come with Canon's…

Resolution Our Image Engineering MTF50 tests, conducted on the 24MP Alpha 7 III, reveal the lens’s unusual sharpness profile. The very low numbers at large apertures reflect low contrast due to spherical aberration, but central sharpness picks up rapidly at smaller apertures, and is excellent by f/5.6. But you need to stop all the way down to f/11 for the corners to catch up, at least with a flat subject. Shading As is typical for fast primes we see fairly strong vignetting wide open, with more than a stop lower illumination in the corners of the frame compared to the centre. But it goes away rapidly on stopping down: at f/2.8 we see just a little darkening in the corners, and by f/4, the effect has gone altogether. Curvilinear distortion…

Formatt Hitech Firecrest ND starter kit ● £250 ● www.formatt-hitech.com IF YOU'RE interested in putting together a square filter set-up, but are put off by the cost, then the Formatt Hitech Firecrest 85mm system is well worth considering. It works with lenses as wide as 17mm equivalent, and with filter threads up to 77mm. The kit comes with three high-quality glass filters to get you started – a circular polariser, 6-stop neutral density and 3-stop soft grad – along with step-up rings for lenses with 58mm, 67mm and 72mm threads. Crucially you can save hundreds of pounds compared to alternative options, with the cost advantage amplifying as you build up your filter collection. Andy Westlake, originally reviewed 26 October 2019 Metz mecablitz M360 ● £115 ● www.intro2020.co.uk IF YOU need…

Something strange has just happened. Canon and Nikon have just announced the new versions of their flagship DSLRs. These are the models designed for, and targeted at, professional sports and action photojournalists – the cameras you will see ringing the arenas of the summer Olympics. For the first time in the history of these cameras, both manufacturers have declined to increase the pixel count compared to the previous version. There could be many reasons for this, but I believe that in the end it is down to the intersection between the economics of the modern camera industry and those of sensor production. It's well known that the market for specialised cameras is decreasing, as mobile phones become the preferred photo-taking machine for the masses. For this reason the compact camera…

Only a very small part of photography is actually about cameras, lenses, apertures and shutter speeds. It’s a terrible shame as those things are relatively easy to master and life as a photographer would be very much simpler if technicalities were all we had to learn. I spent a long time learning about them, and don’t regret a minute spent in that pursuit, but I have to admit that in my early days I assumed that extensive technical knowledge would lead automatically to photographic greatness. With (lots of) time, of course, I came to appreciate that creating great pictures is more about the person you are, your understanding of the situation in front of you, having something interesting to say and a good deal of quick thinking. As a slow…

WITH the CP+ camera show cancelled owing to coronavirus fears, Tokina has gone ahead and announced its lens roadmap for the rest of 2020. For Canon EF and Nikon F-mount (APS-C), Tokina highlights an 11–20mm F2.8 CF lens, expected in the summer. This is in addition to the previously announced 11-16mm F2.8 CF and 100mm F2.8 CF Macro lenses. Meanwhile, three new APS-C lenses are mentioned for Sony E-mount and Fujifilm X-mount, a 23mm F1.4, a 33mm F1.4 and a 56mm F1.4. The E-mount lenses are scheduled for the summer and the X-mount ones for the autumn. Tokina also has two new lenses in the pipeline for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras, again scheduled for the autumn; a 35mm F1.8 FE and the 50mm F1.8 FE. These sit alongside the 85mm…

WELCOME to the ‘Spring and Empire Number' 1934, a bumper-sized issue in which the colonies get to enjoy the limelight. First, the results of the annual AP Overseas and Colonial Competition. The award for best collective entry went to the Johannesburg Photographic Society. Runners-up included the Camera Pictorialists of Bombay, Poona Camera Art Circle and Dunedin Photographic Society of New Zealand. One of the Silver Plaque winners, JN Unwalla of Bombay, was given the coveted weekly How I make my Exhibition Pictures spot, which included a fine portrait of a lady called Roda (below). Also in this issue, an evocative illustrated feature on the challenges of photography in the heat of colonial India: Photography Out East – Ice, Mosquitoes and Snakes, for Successful Development by WC Fox. ‘Developing was done…

Canon EOS 5D ● £254 good condition, shutter count unavailable (MPB.com) AT A GLANCE Sensor 12.8MP CMOS full-frame Sensitivity ISO 100-1600 (ISO 50-3200 extended) Continuous shooting 3fps (17 frame raw buffer depth) Video Not available Rear display 2.5in, 230k-dot fixed LCD screen Viewfinder Pentaprism, 96% coverage at 0.71x Released in 2005, Canon's original 5D is credited with being the first affordable full-frame DSLR to hit the market. While a brand new 5D body cost around £2,500 at the time of its launch, these days it's possible to source a secondhand example in good condition for around £250. Given its age it should come as no great surprise to find that many of the 5D's core specs – such as its nine-point AF module and 2.5in/233k-dot LCD display – look fairly…

● £71 ● www.transcontinenta.co.uk/cullmann THERE'S no getting away from the fact that the best tripods are expensive, with high-quality carbon-fibre models costing hundreds of pounds. But this week is all about saving money, so we're taking a look at something much more affordable. The Cullmann Rondo 460M RB8.5 kit certainly ticks a lot of the right boxes: it's a good size, converts to a monopod, and comes with a fully featured ball head, yet only costs about £70. On paper, it's a bargain. Let's explore what you get for your money. The tripod features four-section aluminium legs with clip-type locks to adjust their length, and which can be independently set to a choice of three angles using large metallic-blue levers. One leg is distinguished by having a foam-rubber grip, and…