Innholdsfortegnelse for 19-Sep-2020 i Amateur Photographer

A new A-mount to E-mount adapter, the LA-EA5, has been introduced by Sony. It includes a built-in motor that enables autofocus with ‘screw drive’ A-mount lenses. It also works with SSM (Super Sonic wave Motor) and SAM (Smooth Autofocus Motor) lenses, with support for wide-area focal plane phase-detection AF when using the latest E-mount camera bodies. This includes subject-recognition features such as Real-time Eye AF for both humans and animals, and Real-time Tracking. It’s on sale now for £270 from the Sony website See bit.ly/newsonyadapter.…

A NEW version of Skylum’s Luminar editing program is available for Windows and MacOS, which is based on AI (artificial intelligence). Luminar AI incorporates the machine-learning tools from Luminar 4 while adding some new ones, which adds up to quite a different editing experience. Rather than seeing conventional tools and sliders for parameters like contrast or brightness when you first open the program, you are invited to try features like AtmosphereAI and SkyAI for landcapes, with siimilar tools for portraits and other genres. Luminar AI is available for pre-order (£79) with ‘early-bird’ discounts. Full details at skylum.com.…

Oli Kellett – Fellow Humans 10 September to 31 October 2020. Monday to Friday by appointment, Saturday 10am-2pm. HackelBury Fine Art, London W8 This exhibition focuses on the photographer’s ongoing series ‘Cross Road Blues’, made up of large-scale photographs taken at crossroads in cities across North and South America. Kellett generally walks the streets for days before setting up his large-format camera and waiting to capture moments. The way the buildings frame his images and his focus on the light creates a cinematic quality reminiscent of great American painters such as Edward Hopper. Although not taken during lockdown, the empty streets and melancholy figures feel like they speak to the experiences we’ve all been going through recently too. Note – in order to maintain social distancing, it’s recommended that you…

When was the club founded? It was formed in 1996 as a discussion forum open to anyone with an interest in monochrome photography. What does your club offer to new members? We offer a shared interest in photography, mutual improvement and socialising with like-minded photographers. Describe a typical club meeting On club nights members have the opportunity to show and talk about their own work in a totally non-competitive environment, giving and receiving advice about any of the many aspects of photography. Do members compete in regional or national competitions? We do not hold competitions but we do have›an annual exhibition in Leyland (in Lancashire) that is open to members wishing to exhibit their work. Do you invite guest speakers? Twice yearly, for the past 20 years, we have had…

Sony’s Alpha 7S line occupies a niche position within its full-frame mirrorless range. With a 12MP sensor capable of shooting at a staggering ISO 409,600, it was originally conceived as a low-light photography specialist. But the line really took off with the A7S II in 2015, which was capable of recording 4K video internally. It earned a loyal following among filmmakers for its compact size and excellent footage. After a five-year gap, the Alpha 7S III represents a massive update. It’s packed full of new features that make it by far the best Alpha 7 to date, in terms of user interface and handling. What’s interesting for photographers is that many of these will surely find their way into more mainstream models, with a successor to the popular A7 III…

REGULAR readers will be familiar with Café Art, a social enterprise initiative by and for people who have been affected by homelessness. As part of its activities, Café Art produces and sells a calendar, cards and prints based on images taken by photographers affected by homelessness. Owing to the pandemic, this year’s MyLondon Photo Project contest and exhibition had to be cancelled, but instead it will produce a calendar with the most popular photos and is lauching a crowdfunder. In London, participants had a week to take images of the capital. ‘St Paul’s Cathedral was the location for the distribution of 100 Fujifilm single-use cameras,’ explained Cafe Art. ‘We visited art groups run by homelessness charities and invited everyone to come along for training and the camera hand-out.’ The RPS…

There have been some truly incredible examples of ingenuity and improvisation demonstrated by photographers during lockdown. Although we’ve been indoors for much of this period, it’s certainly opened doors for photographers of all backgrounds. Whether you’re an experienced photographer, or have just taken it up as a hobby, with the world being ‘put on hold’ there have never been more opportunities for you to get creative. That said, with an increasing number of opportunities comes an increased risk of something going wrong. For instance, your equipment being stolen or sustaining damage. However, you can still hone your skills without worrying about these outcomes. Ripe Photography, a specialist photography insurance provider, looks at this unprecedented period and why insurance is essential to help you to adjust. What is the ‘new normal’?…

Time Lapse Users can capture time-lapses in 8K and 4K resolutions. The time between each frame can be specified, and it’s also possible to determine if exposure is locked at the start or re-metered for each shot. Focusing aids Focus peaking highlights the edges of in-focus objects with a colour of your choosing, while a Dual Pixel Focus Guide displays whether the subject is front/ back focused and turns green when pin-sharp. FTP Pros who want to deliver images to clients quickly and securely can do so. FTP settings can be configured in-camera or using EOS Utility software, and up to ten presets can be saved for instant recall. Dual Pixel Raw The appearance of lighting on the faces of people in portraits and the clarity of hazy backgrounds can…

The X-T2 was a game-changing camera when it arrived in 2016 and transformed photographers’ perception of speed associated with mirrorless cameras. Its classic styling, comfortable handgrip, central electronic viewfinder and gorgeous metal top-plate dials makes it as appealing to look at as it is to use. Behind its X-mount lies a 24.3MP X-Trans CMOS III sensor. Other features include a 2.36-million-dot EVF, continuous shooting at up to 8fps (can be increased to 14fps), responsive 325-point AF system, three-way tilting screen and 4K 30fps video recording. It’s supported by over 30 X-mount lenses in Fujifilm’s established lineup. What we said ● ‘Those who have waited for one of the best all-rounder substitutes for a cumbersome DSLR may find their perfect partner in the X-T2’ ● ‘Users will have no uncertainties of…

Viewfinder The stunning new 9.44m-dot electronic viewfinder boasts QXGA (2048 x 1536) resolution. With a huge 0.9x magnification, it leaves any DSLR in the shade. Side-hinged screen This is the first Alpha 7 to employ a fully articulated LCD, which is a very welcome advance for both stills and video work. Power The Z-type battery offers a 60% increase in capacity compared to the A7S II’s NP-FW50. The USB-C port can be used both for fast charging, and to power the camera during long recordings. CFexpress Type A The camera’s twin slots accept either UHS-II SD, or the new CFexpress Type A cards. Sony’s 80GB and 160GB Type A cards cost £210 and £400 respectively, while its MRW-G2 reader is £130. Video-centric Advanced video features include four-channel, 24-bit internal audio…

LAUNCHED c.1930 PRICE AT LAUNCH £15 15s (£15.75) GUIDE PRICE NOW £300-500 IF A CAMERA has two lenses, there’s a good chance that it’s either a stereo camera or a twin lens reflex (TLR). This one is neither. It’s true that its two lenses are arranged one above the other, the lower lens for shooting and the upper lens for viewing, just like a TLR. But it doesn’t have a mirror to reflect the view from the upper lens onto a screen on top of the body. Instead, the image is projected onto a ground-glass screen at the back, where it is viewed upside down, like an old-time plate camera. It’s a bit like having two cameras, one above the other. The panel that supports the two lenses unfolds from…

HIGHLY commended images from the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) competition have been released. There is a great variety of pictures, including perching primates, fast disappearing habitats and peeking possums. This year’s competition attracted almost 50,000 entries from professionals and amateurs across the world, and the overall winners, including the Grand Title winners, will be announced on 13 October. For the first time, the awards ceremony will be conducted virtually from the Natural History Museum’s famous Hintze Hall. Winning images are selected for their creativity, originality, and technical excellence by an international panel of industry experts. Among the Highly Commended images is Hannah Vijayan’s shot of a brown bear pulling a sockeye salmon from the shallows of a river in Alaska’s Katmai National Park (see her…

Until a couple of years ago, there were certain companies that dominated the mirrorless landscape. Sony had enjoyed almost a complete monopoly on the full-frame segment of the market; Fujifilm, Olympus, Panasonic and Canon were fighting it out among the smaller-sensor (APS-C or Four Thirds) format audience. A big turning point came in 2018, when not one, not two, but three new systems were unveiled within a few months of each other. After previously dipping its toes into mirrorless with the now-discontinued Nikon 1 system, Nikon was first with its new Z system, followed by the Canon EOS R a week or so later. The L-Mount Alliance was announced at the Photokina 2018 show a couple more weeks later. This used Leica’s existing L mount as the basis for a…

When Canon revealed it was entering the full-frame mirrorless market and announced a new system based around a new RF lens mount, many hoped the first camera in the EOS R series would be a mirrorless masterpiece. Rather than imitate Sony and Nikon’s approach of releasing a pair of premium models built around the same body with different sensors and specifications, Canon released one full-frame camera in the guise of the EOS R, but it wasn’t without its shortcomings. The EOS R was an entry-point into full-frame mirrorless rather than the miniaturised version of the company’s popular EOS 5D series many had dreamed of. Next came the entry-level EOS RP in early 2019. Canon’s approach of launching two models that didn’t provide what many serious enthusiasts and professionals were after…

Jenny Monk Having had cameras all my life, but never really knowing how to use them properly, I took a course and quickly became hooked on the hobby. The only thing that bothered me was the weight of my camera bag and how tired I felt at the end of a day’s shooting. I bought a Fujifilm X-E1 and a couple of lenses and suddenly photography became a pleasure again. I bought my X-T2 when it was introduced in 2017 having had the X-T1. I have always been impressed with the image quality of Fuji cameras and how the layout reminded me of the SLRs I owned years before. The build quality is superb, the image quality even better. I shoot predominantly in raw but when I do shoot in…

Lenses Interchangeable lenses come in a huge array of types for shooting different kinds of subjects IN GENERAL, the easiest way to expand the kinds of pictures you can take is by buying different types of lenses. For example, telephoto lenses let you zoom in on distant subjects, while macro lenses enable close-ups of small objects. Large-aperture lenses allow you to isolate subjects against blurred backgrounds, or shoot in low light without having to raise the ISO too high. Meanwhile, all-in-one superzooms cover a wide range of subjects, but usually with rather lower optical quality. Lens mounts On the whole, each manufacturer uses its own proprietary lens mount. Notable exceptions are Micro Four Thirds, shared by Olympus and Panasonic, and the full-frame L-mount that’s used by Leica, Panasonic and Sigma.…