Innholdsfortegnelse for 27/02/2021 i Amateur Photographer

The AP Awards has been the most prestigious event in the UK photo industry for over 40 years, with attendees often flying in from Europe and even Japan – such is the esteem in which these awards are held. It will come as no surprise for you to learn that we couldn’t hold an event this year, but this doesn’t mean that we haven’t still chosen our pick of the finest products launched in 2020, and this week you can find out what they are. All of the shortlisted cameras, lenses and accessories are exceptional – there are few bad ones any more – but our winners are the cream of the crop. Of course we don’t just give awards for products, we also celebrate the UK’s best photo retailers…

8 March 1967 ‘I LONG ago realised that you can’t please everyone all the time with Cameravaria, so I have never even tried,’ wrote Victor Blackman in this edition of his weekly column, which is still fondly remembered by AP readers. He was responding to a complaint from a reader about his mugshot, which showed him with a cigarette. ‘He thinks I should consider all the non-smokers who read AP. Following that line of reasoning I should also consider the smokers and have a picture on each side of the page, one with and one without a cigarette. Nuts!’ A Mr Campling of Bromley had also complained, about a previous column filled with pictures of a scantily clad Raquel Welch. ‘Mr Campling, I like pretty girls in bikinis, and so…

At a glance £909-£1,009 body only (used condition) • 20.9-million-pixel DX sensor• ISO 50-1,640,000 (extended)• 10fps continuous shooting• Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth• 860g (including battery and card) RELEASED in early 2016, the D500 was the successor to the D300/D300S and succeeded the D7200 as Nikon’s flagship DX format DSLR. Built around a weather-sealed body, it features the same 20.9MP APS-C sensor as the D7500, but has a more advanced 153-point AF system with 99 cross-type points. It can shoot up to 200 raw files at 10fps, offers 4K video at frame rates up to 30p and has a tilting 3.2in, 2,359k-dot touchscreen. Furthermore, it offers twin card slots (one XQD, one SD UHS-II) and has an impressive 1,240-shot battery life. What we said Build and handling are exemplary, aided by…

About Sirsendu Sirsendu is Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Vivekananda College, Thakurpukur in Kolkata. How did you get into photography? I started photography seriously in 2009 when I got a Nikon D80 from my elder brother. After three years of using the camera, I shifted to using a Nikon D610, which was gifted to me by my mother. Favourite subjects I find motivation all around me – in everything from art and nature to the work of fellow photographers. I read photography magazines and many books, go to various exhibitions, and when I discover something, I keep note, not to duplicate, but to take it as a motivation. What do you love about photography? Photography is the medium that I use to synthesise my relationship with myself, time, and my…

It feels like the memory of another life, thinking back to the day I visited David Hurn at his home in Tintern. It was only late January 2020, but something as ordinary as meeting somebody in their home now seems beyond comprehension, as does the idea of wandering around an exhibition. This interview was originally supposed to be tied to the show scheduled to take place at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff in May 2020 – but for obvious reasons, it never happened. Our conversation was also shortly before David made his last public appearance at a lecture at Cardiff University’s Journalism School. The postponed exhibition is set to run from July 2021, hopefully. We can say however with absolute certainty that there are very few photographers as worthy…

ANNOUNCING last year’s Good Service Award winners last February we said that 2019 had been the toughest year on record for retailers. A certain virus must have been sniggering in the wings at that, knowing what it had in store for us in 2020. Retailers have had to contend not only with the continuing decline of both camera sales and bricks and mortar retailing, but a whole new set of problems: reduced footfall due to social distancing; forced closures in lockdowns; more caution about spending; no Photography Show and fewer new product launches to stimulate demand; and in many cases supply issues affecting availability. So we doff our caps in tribute to the dedication and ingenuity of our retailers for the fact that they’re still here. They have had to…

‘Images look great on social media, with strong colour and tonality’ ENTHUSIAST photographers tend to have a complicated attitude towards smartphone cameras. Despite continual hype, they don’t yet provide what most would consider ‘SLR-level image quality’. But equally, the truism is that the best camera is the one that you have with you, and chances are you will carry your phone all the time. So it makes sense to get one with the best camera. When choosing our pick of the year, we were looking for much the same qualities as with ‘proper’ cameras. In other words, a useful set of lenses, an easy-to-use interface that gives good results in auto mode while enabling plenty of manual control, and of course the ability to deliver attractive images in a wide…

‘It’s a great choice for keen enthusiasts who’d like to build a smaller, lighter system’ IT WAS a particularly close call in our enthusiast category this year, with three worthy contenders offering their own takes on how to make the most of their different sensor sizes. Nikon’s Z 5 is one of the best-value full-frame mirrorless models available, whereas Olympus’s OM-D E-M1 Mark III is a rapid-shooting technological marvel that’s crammed full of useful features. Ultimately though, though Fujifilm won out again with its updated APS-C flagship. Its predecessor the X-T3 was already one of the best cameras around, but Fujifilm has managed to add in in-body image stabilisation and a fully articulated screen without a significant increase in size. The X-T4 also employs much the same array of top-plate…

DSLR 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.…

‘We have treated the countryside as if it was an endless resource to be plundered’ One of the major beneficiaries of the digital revolution has been aerial photography and the adaptable bird’s-eye view afforded by a multitude of different-sized drones. This has given documentary makers and feature film directors a whole panoply of aesthetic possibilities. It has also given professional stills photographers another arrow to put into their photographic quiver. It thankfully eliminates those stomach-churning moments involving hanging out of helicopter doors, which made some of my aerial assignments far from enjoyable. But one photographer and drone pilot, Martin Shakeshaft, uses this new perspective to draw attention to environmental and political concerns that ‘could literally cost us the Earth’. Derbyshire-based, Shakeshaft is an archetypal ‘concerned photographer’ who wants his photographs…

City Lights Premiere by Sasha Crowds gather outside London’s Dominion cinema on the opening night of the Charlie Chaplin film, City Lights, 27 February 1931. City Lights took nearly two years to complete, and saw Chaplin sticking with the silent film format despite the rising popularities in ‘the talkies’. The only advantage of sound he took was the opportunity to record a score for the film, which he composed himself. Despite being unusual, the film proved to be a critical, popular and financial success, with many people still regarding the piece as a masterpiece of filmmaking. 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…

SHUTTERSTOCK has launched The Vault, one of the largest photo and video archives in the world. More than 50 million still and moving images – covering royalty, film, music, sports, wars, politics, and celebrities – are physically housed in the Iron Mountain facility in London, and many of them have been digitised. Highlights include the historic Rex Features Collection, the Harry Myers Collection and much more. See The Vault online at www.shutterstock.com/editorial/ collections/archival.…

Mirror, or catadioptric, lenses are one of the orphan technologies of the photographic world – an anarchic branch of optical evolution which flowered briefly then all but disappeared. Technically elegant, they became almost irrelevant in a world where low-dispersion glasses and compact zoom lenses left them with few practical advantages. I’ve used several, but until recently didn’t feel particularly positive about them – as they come with some inherent peculiarities. With typical focal lengths between 300 and 1000mm the fixed aperture of the design means that you have no control over the very shallow depth of field. The only way to reduce the amount of light coming through the system is by using an ND filter – which changes nothing in terms of focus. Then there is the bokeh: the…

Musicians: Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone and Tommy Ramone. Other musicians were used in recording the album but were not credited on the album notes Released: 23 April 1976 (Sire Records) Best chart performance: No. 48 in the Swedish Albums Chart, No. 111 in the US Billboard 200 Sales: Not confirmed, but the album went silver (60,000 sales) in the UK and gold (500,000 sales) in the US Fascinating fact: None of the original line-up is alive today. Joey passed from lymphona in 2001, Dee Dee from a heroin overdose in 2002, Johnny from prostate cancer in 2004 and Tommy in 2014 from bile duct cancer. During their career the line-up changed and included Marky Ramone, C.J. Ramone, Richie Ramone and Elvis Ramone (aka Blondie’s Clem Burke).…

The Reader Portfolio winner chosen will receive a copy of Skylum Luminar AI, worth £79. See www.skylum.com Luminar is a fully featured photo editor for Mac and PC designed for photographers of all skill levels, blending pro-level tools with remarkable ease of use and an enjoyable experience. A new Library feature lets you organise, find and rate images easily, while over 100 editing features, plus a suite of fast AI-powered technologies under the hood, will make any image stand out.…

DESIGNED to be suitable for both DSLR and mirrorless users, this backpack is capable of swallowing a substantial amount of kit while retaining a travel-friendly 28cm slim profile. Backpacks can be difficult to work from, so we were particularly impressed by the array of access points provided to its spacious main compartment, which allow you to get at your kit from the back, top or either side. In terms of capacity, the bag is capable of holding a full-frame DSLR with four to six lenses (depending on size) and is supplied with plenty of movable inserts which allow you to configure it to match your needs. It has a well-padded sleeve for a 13in laptop, and an array of pockets for organising such things as memory cards and batteries. It’s…

THIS year’s shortlist includes a diverse group of lenses, but one theme perhaps shines through. Our pick of the year’s best offerings all feature fine optics in relatively small sizes, particularly compared to their DSLR equivalents. Our winner exemplifies this, with Sigma’s latest designed-for-mirrorless 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art being fully 30mm shorter and 500g lighter than its stablemate for DSLRs. Despite this it gives up absolutely nothing in terms of image quality, while offering improved handling. In terms of design, the lens features an electronically coupled focus ring, along with an aperture ring that can be switched between clicked and clickless operation. The barrel features dust- and splash-resistant construction, the diaphragm employs 11 curved blades for attractive bokeh, and autofocus is driven by a silent stepper motor. Image quality…

‘For serious film makers, the A7S III is probably the best option on the market’ WHILE for many enthusiast photographers, movie capability is relatively low on the list of priorities when buying a camera, there’s a sizeable market of content creators working with both stills and video for whom it’s equally important. Indeed for some it can be the most important consideration of all, and for these serious film makers, Sony’s Alpha 7S III is probably the best option on the market. While Canon’s EOS R5 offers headline-grabbing 8K recording, Sony has chosen to produce a fully featured 4K workhorse instead. The A7S III can record in 4K at 60fps using the full width of its sensor and keep on going until you run out of battery power or memory…

AT THE top end of the market, one camera grabbed all the headlines this year. While the EOS R5’s biggest claim to fame is its ability to record 8K video internally, it gains our award by virtue of being an astonishingly capable stills camera. Just a glance at the headline specifications tells the story. The EOS R5 employs a 45MP full-frame sensor that provides a sensitivity range of ISO 100-51,200, with phase detection autofocus across the entire image area providing 5,940 selectable focus points. It can shoot in full resolution at 12fps using its mechanical shutter, or a blistering 20fps with its silent electronic shutter. Built-in 5-axis image stabilisation claims up to 8 stops of effectiveness with selected RF lenses. There really is nothing else quite like it. In terms…

AP picture of the week Snow on the Shroppie by Philippa Huber Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 at 165mm, 1/500sec at f/5.6, ISO 1000 Philippa has been living on a 45ft narrowboat with her husband since 2019, exploring the UK’s canals and rivers, and shooting wildlife from the front of the boat as they travel. ‘This was taken on the Shropshire Union canal at Nantwich, where I am on the narrowboat for lockdown,’ she tells us. ‘I was shooting birds in the snow (hence the big lens) when the heavens opened and the snowflakes became what I call “Hollywood flakes” – big, soft and too perfect to seem real, and making the row of narrowboats with the trees in the background seem exceptionally romantic and optimistic in the middle of…

THE RPS has announced the winners of the 2020 Science Photographer of the Year competition, with the title and overall prize going to Simon Brown from the UK. His winning image, ‘Orthophoto of the SS Thistlegorm’, is an intricate reconstruction of a shipwreck from 1941 using photogrammetry. Over 15,000 frames were adjusted to give a ‘straight down’ view, before being tagged with GPS data and merged with the others. The Young Science Photographer of the Year award went to Katy Appleton for her image, ‘Rainbow Shadow Selfie’. For this latest competition, a new Climate Change category was introduced. Sue Flood won this with a striking and powerful image called ‘North Pole Under Water’, while the Under 18’s Young Science Photographer of the Year in the Climate Change category went to…

Dench’s Lockdown Diaries by Peter Dench £10 each, Fistful of Books, 3x softback, 64, 56, 56 pages Regular readers will be familiar with Peter Dench. As well as producing his excellent features for AP he was hard at work during various periods of lockdown last year. The result is three ‘zines’ – which you can buy separately, or all together in a special slipcase. Each zine is divided into specific themes. The Tale of the Tape brings together pictures of London, where in April red-and-white striped tape seemed to appear overnight in many public spaces. Lockdown Fanatical Football Fans does what it says on the tin, exploring a new facet of extreme fandom in the Covid age. Finally, Sun, Sea & Covid-19 shows us pictures from May, when restrictions were…

Reading your 2 January issue I was struck by two articles which together very much reflect my own experience of the past. Paul Hill’s Final›Analysis, describing Paul Murphy’s discovery of a picture of his parents, reminded me of a similar discovery that I made in 2018. Investigating the events of July 1943, when my then 16-year-old father’s home was struck by a V1 ‘flying bomb’, in Edmonton, north London, I came across a press image on the Alamy Library website. The image showed an old man with his dog, victims of the bombing, being watched by a group of young men. I showed this image to my father, who was flabbergasted to confirm that the old man was in fact his own grandfather, and the youngsters in the background included…

Janette Beckman This photo captures everything I loved about New York City at that time. Shot for Punk on East 2nd St, where graffiti, homeless shelters and SROs abound. Roberta was friends with the band, part of the scene, and on the door at CBGBs; they trusted her. The shot is a stripped-down, raw, punk, real moment in time. Andy Cowles One, two, three, FOUR! This is the stripped-down genius of photo, band and sonic corridor meeting perfectly inside the confines of a 12-inch square. Four corners, four sides, four bars, four bruddas and four leather jackets. There is nothing added, nothing taken away. Rachael Wright An image so iconic that I’m not sure I believe the Ramones ever existed in colour! It’s simple, authentic and graphically striking. Roberta Bayley…

As a weekly magazine AP tests more cameras, lenses and accessories than any other UK publication and our tests are respected around the world for their independence, quality and depth. Consequently, the AP Awards, which have been an annual highlight in the photography calendar for over 40 years, are held in higher regard within the global camera industry than any other UK award. The cameras and lenses we see today are the most technologically advanced ever produced – we’re truly spoiled for choice – but our thorough testing identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each product to help you choose which one is right for you, and which really are the finest in their class. In addition to our own favourite products we have also re-introduced the AP Readers’ Choice…

THE CHRIS Cheesman Memorial Award was inaugurated in 2017 in memory of AP’s former News Editor, who died in 2016. It is given to someone in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the UK photography industry. This year’s recipient is Richard Caplan, who recently retired as the owner of Leica and Hasselblad specialist, Richard Caplan Photographic in London. ‘It has been wonderful to serve generations of photographers, often in the same family – parents, children, grandchildren,’ said Richard. ‘I wanted to produce a shop like Wallace Heaton, where I started working in 1961, and make service the biggest priority.’ Len Lyons, former owner of RG Lewis (another London Leica dealer which closed in 2015) paid tribute. ‘I have known Richard for over 30 years.. He loved his shop and the…

‘Few cameras garner the same level of affection and loyalty as the X100 line’ WHILE only a few fixed-lens compacts were released in the past year, we were lucky enough to see some absolute classics. Indeed, it would be remiss of us not to give an honourable mention to Leica’s Q2 Monochrom, which delivers truly phenomenal black & white images while channelling the spirit of the firm’s M-series rangefinders. But ultimately, it was just pipped to our award by Fujifilm’s fifth-generation APS-C compact. Few cameras garner the same level of affection and loyalty from their users as the X100 line. With each update, Fujifilm has had to consider carefully how to improve a modern classic without losing its spirit. The X100V is arguably its most ambitious upgrade yet, gaining a…

WITH camera makers mostly concentrating their efforts on the lucrative full-frame mirrorless sector, new models with a sub-£1,000 price tag are becoming increasing scarce. However, Fujifilm came up with a beauty in the shape of the X-S10. Looking for all the world like a shrunken version of a conventional DSLR, it eschews the firm’s usual retro aesthetic and analogue dials to deliver the perfect mirrorless upgrade for those who are currently using APS-C DSLRs. Internally, the X-S10 has the same proven 26.2MP sensor and X-Processor 4 as the flagship X-T4, which delivers excellent performance and image quality. It also includes 5-axis in-body image stabilisation to keep pictures sharp, along with a fully articulated touchscreen for shooting at creative angles. Its large handgrip makes it really comfortable to hold, while twin…

‘Most years, we don’t see such a stunning one-of-a-kind camera’ THIS isn’t an award that we usually give out. But that’s because in most years, we don’t see such a stunning one-of-a-kind camera as the Leica M10 Monochrom. This beautifully designed rangefinder camera that only shoots in black & white has lingered in our affections long after we had to return our review sample reluctantly to its makers. Leica’s rangefinder cameras are very much an acquired taste. In many respects, they’re as far removed as it’s possible to get from today’s full-frame mirrorless marvels, with their startling speeds and near-magical autofocus. Instead, they demand significant input from the photographer, with manual focus and aperture setting at the very least. But this also makes for an incredibly immersive shooting experience. The…

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 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 DS Canon’s Defocus Smoothing technology E…