Innholdsfortegnelse for 31-Oct-2020 i Amateur Photographer

It may be Halloween but there are no tricks, only treats, in store in this week’s Landscape Special. Three photographers were bribed with sweets to share their tips for great autumn shots, and we’ve got the winning images from this year’s Landscape Photographer of the Year competition, which are always guaranteed to inspire. I had the privilege, once again, of being a judge. The city dwellers among you haven’t been forgotten, with a beautiful portfolio of pictures of London as you’ve never seen it before – after dark, during lockdown. For the documentary fans we revisit a seminal 1980s project on the Great North Road and tell the story behind some astonishing images of the Australian bush fires. Finally our gear section features four very different but equally excellent products:…

BRITISH social and documentary photographer Chris Killip has died at the age of 74. Killip achieved a solid reputation as a photographer of working-class life. He first worked as a trainee hotel manager on the Isle of Man where he was born, and decided to try to turn his photography hobby into a career in 1964. After moving to London, he assisted for advertising photographers until 1969. Seeing an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York prompted him to return to the Isle of Man to do a well-received photographic study of the place. Killip moved to Newcastle as the Northern Arts Photography Fellow in 1975 and produced some of his finest images in the North East, particularly of struggling communities during the changes of the…

Jan more than doubled his £9,600 book funding target. Although he doesn’t claim to be a Kickstarter expert – this was his first attempt at using the crowdfunding platform – here he offers some tips for others wanting to fund photobooks, based on his experience: Make sure you have produced a good set of images on a project that other people will find interesting – it must be a solid piece of work. Do your research on what makes an effective campaign and prepare thoroughly. Build your page, share the link with others, get feedback and refine it before you launch. Make a video to market your idea. Mine was just a selection of still images with a voice-over and a free soundtrack. It all took a couple of days,…

The saying ‘good things come to those who wait’ is appropriate in the case of the Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S. It has been a long time coming for Nikon Z-series users, who until recently have had little option but to pair one of Nikon’s F-mount 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses to their camera via an FTZ mount adapter if they’ve wanted to use a fast telephoto zoom, adding unwanted additional weight and bulk. Though there will be some who’ll be a little disheartened that it’s no lighter or smaller than existing F-mount examples, it handles well with Nikon’s full-frame mirrorless cameras and grants advantages of its own. You get 5-axis image stabilisation with 5.5 stops of correction compared to the 3-axis,4-stop correction you get using the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8E FL…

Wilkinson Cameras has updated its processes for selling used gear. These now include up to 25 checks on every piece of pre-owned kit prior to listing, a 14-day no-quibble returns policy, 12 months warranty on all kit, and finance available on any item, or order value totalling over £200. Furthermore, you can register your interest in a specific item in order to be notified when a used example comes in, and all pre-owned kit will be shipped in recycled cardboard boxes. Full details at www.wilkinson.co.uk/preowned.…

30 October 1940 BRITAIN was struggling through a different kind of lockdown 80 years ago this week, with German bombs rather than a virus keeping everyone indoors at night. On the cover of AP’s ‘Special Indoor Number’ Ilford plugged the low-light capabilities of its Selo H.P2 film, and its Selo Lighting Set (essentially a flat-pack lamp and reflector dish). ‘Home photography now has a greater attraction than ever before,’ said Editor, FJ Mortimer, in his leader. ‘In the pages of this issue many suggestions will be found that may inspire the reader to fresh efforts in the production of this kind of pictorial work.’ These included a feature on action portraits in the home to send as Christmas cards. ‘Ordinary daylight, facing a window, provides almost ideal soft general lighting,’…

I don’t want a Fujony I read Rick Corbishley’s letter (AP 12 September) ‘I want a Fujony’ with both interest and dismay. True, the camera market has shrunk as mobile phones improve, largely through compact cameras disappearing and a further reduction in units sold as people have now moved to digital, and the rapid improvement in technology means that people no longer feel they need to upgrade every year or two. The market will however settle down to stable volumes, and volumes sufficient to sustain a real choice, certainly in the mid to higher price bracket. My dismay relates to the comparison with the car market, and the claim that there is an ‘exciting range’ within the VW group when in practice the choices are nothing more than skin deep,…

NISI HAS created a nifty filter system for Fujifilm’s popular and much-loved X100 series of compact cameras. By keeping the filter holder really small, it doesn’t obstruct the optical viewfinder (OVF) as much as larger filter holders do. It’s a great solution if you’d like a super compact filter system when travelling or if you want to be able to pull out a small set of filters from your pocket. Though the number of filters for the system at the time of writing is limited to four, we’re told more are in development and should be released later this year. Advanced photographers who want to adjust their polariser independently to other filters won’t find it perfect, but as filter systems go for Fujifilm X100-series users who want to get more…

Samsung is one of the three main players in the smartphone market, alongside Apple and Huawei. But with the latter’s access to Google’s Android operating system and Play Store stymied by US sanctions, it now looks like the brand of choice for Android users in search of a high-end smartphone. Its latest model, the Note20 Ultra, offers a similar feature set to its recent S20 Ultra, but in a design that’s tilted more towards being a working tool. Notably it comes with a clip-in ‘S Pen’ stylus that allows you to write notes on the screen, and can also be used as a remote shutter release. Features Like most flagship phones, the Note20 Ultra is a sizeable device, at 164.8 x 77.2 x 8.1mm and 208g in weight. This provides…

They say that beauty is only skin deep, and that certainly applies to this camera. Olympus is best known for making small high-quality cameras for the keen amateur, but it also made forays into the designer market. In 1991 came the mysteriously named ‘O product’, an angular, brushed metal device with various circular openings, some functional, some decorative. This was followed by the Ecru, an ivory coloured, chrome-trimmed camera with a definite Art Deco feel to it. Finally in 1995 came the LT-1. Despite their very different outward appearances, all three were based on the same camera, the compact µ[mju:]. This is not to be confused with the much sought after, and pricier mju(II), which is smaller, and has rather better specifications. I shouldn’t be too hard on the LT-1…

The Eye Catcher by Peter Murrell Nikon D700, 50mm f/1.8, 1/100sec at f/1.8, ISO 1250 ‘Gone are the days of being intimidated to ask a complete stranger for a photo,’ says Peter, who specialises in street photography and portraiture, mostly in black & white. ‘I saw this lady on the escalator at London’s King’s Cross. I approached her and said, “I need to take your photo! Please?” She obliged, but there was also a hint of shyness and embarrassment.’ It isn’t often you see people beaming so happily on the Underground so no wonder Peter wanted to record it for posterity, and the lady’s quirky dress sense has only made the picture more interesting. Her sense of being flattered but also mildly embarrassed makes this lovely black & white street…

FUJIFILM has revealed full details of the weather-sealed version of its mid-range wideangle zoom, the XF 10-24mm F4 R OIS WR. The new lens inherits its optical design and many of its specifications from the existing 10-24mm F4 that appeared back in 2013, but it gains a decent range of improvements. Most obviously, the WR suffix indicates that it’s dust- and moisture-resistant, and will continue to operate in temperatures as low as -10°C. This should be extremely welcome to landscape photographers who don’t want to lug around the larger and pricier 8-16mm f/2.8. In addition, the aperture ring gains a marked f-stop scale, along with an auto position that has a push-button lock, replacing the switch on the older lens. The optical stabilisation promises 3.5 stops effectiveness, equating to an…

Liam Pearson Liam is self-taught and loves wandering around London and the English countryside with his camera. Having created his social media sites 18 months ago to showcase his photography, he is rapidly gaining recognition. www.lundonlens. co.uk or on Instagram @lundonlens. I BOUGHT my first DSLR back in 2015 and took photography up as a hobby. I’d spend hours on YouTube getting to know my camera and soon became hooked. I then started shooting for London Fashion Week, capturing street style fashion portraits, and it wasn’t long before my work was published in magazines and online. Another passion of mine growing up was history and geography and I soon began to incorporate this into my photography. Being that autumn is my favourite season, I love to capture historical buildings and…

When the national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic was announced by Boris Johnson on 23 March, photographer Jan Enkelmann was out cycling in central London. ‘I was working from home and just needed to get out for some exercise,’ he says. ‘On that night I was just randomly cycling somewhere in Westminster and my wife sent me a message saying, “Come back, you shouldn’t be out there.” ‘In London it’s always busy, wherever you go and at whatever time, but on that evening the streets were already deserted. It was an amazing sight. I found it fascinating.’ For Jan, this was the beginning of a successful photo project in which he explored the empty streets of the capital during this unique period. He has successfully funded a book, Pause.…

As well as producing compact filter kits for Fujifilm’s X100 series, NiSi also makes filter kits for Ricoh’s GR1/2/3 compact cameras as well as Sony’s RX100 VI and RX100 VII 1-inch sensor compacts. The NiSi filter system for Ricoh GR1/2/3 is specially designed for the Ricoh GR compact cameras. Both the starter (£42) and professional (£53) kits are compatible with the GR, GR II and GR III, whereas the master kit (£85), which includes a lens adapter, two 3-stop ND grads (medium and soft), two ND filters (3-stop and 6-stop), polariser and pouch is specifically for Ricoh GR III users. Meanwhile NiSi’s compact filter system for Sony RX100 VI and RX100 VII compact cameras is available in starter (£42) and professional (£53) kits only.…

● £229 ● www.vanguardworld.co.uk Bubble level The tripod features a built-in bubble level at the top of one leg, which can also be removed to convert it into a monopod. Leg warmer Provides secure grip and prevents having to carry the tripod by a cold tripod leg. Leg angles Pressing the circular silver buttons lets you easily adjust the angle of the legs to three different positions. Plate The 263AB ball head is supplied with Vanguard’s QS-60 v2 Arca-Swiss style plate. ONE OF the product announcements at this year’s virtual Photography Show was Vanguard’s VEO 3+ collection. This new range of tripods consists of four models (two aluminium and two carbon fibre), with the choice of either a VEO BH-160 ball head, or a VEO 2 PH-38 3-way pan head.…

Olympus Tough TG-6 ● £370 ● www.olympus.co.uk Olympus’s Tough compacts have habitually won our underwater camera group tests, and this latest model is still the best of its type. It’s waterproof to 15m, shockproof against a 2.4m drop, crushproof and freezeproof. The 25-100mm equivalent lens is paired with a 12MP sensor, and viewing is via a 3in LCD. This is also one of the few rugged cameras that can record raw files. Panasonic LX100 II ● £729 ● www.panasonic.com/uk A high-end compact for creative photography, the LX100 II is based around a 24-75mm equivalent f/1.7-2.8 lens and a 17MP Four Thirds sensor that features a true multi aspect-ratio design. It also boasts a full range of traditional analogue control dials, and the corner-mounted viewfinder is complemented by touchscreen LCD. Reviewed…

Liberated from the shackles of large format photography and bounding from peak to peak in the Peaks with a 35mm camera in hand – that was the first vision I had of the photographer Paul Hill. I didn’t actually witness this for myself, of course, it was the impression I had in my mind’s eye. This was back in the late ’80s when I was studying photography and the school of thought, so I thought, with landscape photography was that it was rooted in the traditions of the grandmasters, such as Ansel Adams. While they were undoubtedly geniuses in their own right, Adams et al were also encumbered by the tyranny of tripods, the slow controls of large format cameras and the complicated calculations of the zone system and so…