Innholdsfortegnelse for 17/07/2021 i Amateur Photographer

Digital photography offers lots of advantages over film but there is still something magical about traditional photography that can’t be replicated. The great news is that it isn’t a case of choosing one medium or the other. Many photographers now carry a classic film camera alongside their digital one. You don’t need a darkroom; it’s easy to digitise your film using a scanner or (my preference) photographing the film with a macro lens using a lightbox and copy stand. Or your lab can do it for you. Of course the larger the negative the better the results, so this week’s big feature focuses on medium format. We also look at the flourishing world of boutique film brands and rediscover the simplicity of home developing. John Wade looks back at the…

Win! Each week we choose our favourite picture on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr or Twitter using #appicoftheweek. PermaJet proudly supports the online picture of the week winner, who will receive a top-quality print of their image on the finest PermaJet paper*. It is important to bring images to life outside the digital sphere, so we encourage everyone to get printing today! Visit www.permajet.com to learn more. *PLEASE ALLOW UP TO 28 DAYS FOR DELIVERY Want to see your pictures here? Share them with our Flickr, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook communities using the hashtag #appicoftheweek. Or email your best shot to us at ap.ed@kelsey.co.uk. See page 3 for how to find us.…

CHINESE gimbal maker Zhiyun has launched the Weebill 2, featuring an innovative 2.88in HD flip-out touchscreen. It’s designed to provide stabilised video footage with mainstream mirrorless and DSLR camera and lens combinations, with the company quoting the Sony’s A7 III and FE 24-70mm F2.8 or the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and EF 24-70mm F2.8 lenses as examples. Zhiyun claims the device will offer unmatched stabilisation performance, thanks to its Infineon motion sensor, upgraded motors, and improved control algorithm. Users can also access features such as one-touch Smart Follow, Timelapse and Gesture Control directly from the gimbal’s rotatable and retractable touchscreen, without having to use the ZY Play smartphone app. The device weighs in at 1.5kg and promises up to 9 hours running time on a single charge, that’s said…

18 July 1934 WELCOME TO the summer number, 1934 style, and like holidays in 2021, the focus was on UK-based breaks with a strong seaside bias: cue pictures of happy holidaymakers playing leapfrog, throwing beachballs and frolicking in the surf. But there were also articles about taking a camera on cycling tours (‘films are much more convenient for touring than plates,’ it advised) and motoring holidays. ‘The car floor and pockets are not suitable places to carry the camera and should be avoided,’ it advised. ‘Small particles of dust or dirt have a nasty habit of entering the instrument and making the presence apparent on the negative by scratches and spots.’ The author, known only as ‘Fleetwing’, advised a dedicated dust-proof box lined with sorbo rubber sponges from a sixpenny…

Waist-level finder Pros See the whole composition in one glance Easy to shoot from lower angles Cons View is usually laterally reversed (left appears right) Magnifier needed to focus Hard to shoot from high angles Can make upright compositions difficult Prism finder Pros Allows us to see the image clearly Image will be the right way round Often have metering options Cons Adds weight to the camera Adds cost to the system Separate viewfinder Pros Tend to be bright Lightweight Cons View can be different to what is captured Only rangefinder models have focusing information View can be partially blocked by the lens…

I’m writing just to say how much I’ve enjoyed The Great British Photography Challenge on BBC4 – which I’d have been completely unaware of but for a mention in Amateur Photographer. I’ve never been a great admirer of Rankin, but he really grew on me over the course of the series. I thought the programme format was far superior to the similar series on Sky Arts. With nobody eliminated we could see how even the less-skilled photographers continued to grow and produced some amazing work. With several mini assignments in each episode, we got a much better impression of how different personalities approach the same challenges. Some of the images produced by the less technically skilled photographers were truly inspirational and I can’t imagine what they’ll be able to achieve…

Since completing my ten-year odyssey in which I used a different film camera each week, 522 in total, I’ve set myself a more modest project each year. Each month last year I used in, chronological order, the cameras that I’d acquired for use as opposed to collector’s items. My plan for 2021 is to use a different film format each month, starting with the smallest and working my way up through the sizes. I started in January with a Minox spy camera, followed in February by the disc film format. March was the turn for 16mm, and in April I moved onto 110. By this stage I was missing the pace of my previous weekly project, and as I have a lot of 110 cameras in my collection, I decided…

1 Designate a dry/wet area A kitchen with mixer tap is ideal. First, take a light-tight bag and put in your film, a bottle opener, scissors, the reel for the developing tank and the tank. The light-tight bag is sealed while you’re loading the film into the tank; the tank is open until you put the film onto the reel, and then you close it. 2 Zip it up Find the film canister lid and pop it off with the bottle opener (or if you prefer, you can use a film extractor, widely available on eBay). Load the film onto the reel. This requires a certain amount of care and dexterity, so practice on a roll of old film beforehand. Take it as slowly as you need to. 3 Be…

At a glance £1,600 body only (used condition) ● 45.7MP full-frame BSI CMOS ● New large-diameter Z-mount ● Works with F-mount SLR lenses via adapter ● 5-axis in-body stabilisation ● Tilting, touch operational, 3.2in rear LCD screen ● Long-lasting battery life of up to 330 shots The Nikon Z 7 was the first of an upstart generation of mirrorless cameras. This top-end, 45.7MP model was designed to go head-to-head with Sony’s highly regarded Alpha 7R III, with a remarkably similar configuration and specification. Not only is the Z 7 a match for the A7R III, in many respects it equals or surpasses the D850, Nikon’s best-ever DSLR. What we said ‘A stunning top-end mirrorless camera that’s every bit as good as the hitherto class-leading Sony A7R III.’ ‘In a first…

ILFORD Simplicity is a quick and convenient way to introduce a new film photographer to the delights of home processing. It would make an excellent present for a young teenager who wanted to find out about the way silver-based processing works without making too great an investment. Similarly, the convenience may tempt older photographers, like me, back to monochrome development. If you were travelling, this kit would be a low-impact way of developing your film while you are still on the road – in a hotel room, for example – to ensure that you were getting the results you wanted while you could still reshoot them. At about £8 to develop a roll of 35mm film, this isn’t exactly cheap. But equally, this isn’t far from the cost of sending…

The Intrepid Camera Co, known for its affordable large format cameras, has now taken on the challenge of making darkroom printing accessible to a new generation of film photographers with the launch of its compact, feature-rich enlarger. The system comprises of a compact head, control unit and a series of negative carriers. The enlarger head is built around an LED light source which, thanks to advancements in LED technology, generates an even spread of bright light that is capable of creating fantastic prints. The enlarger is designed to print both 35mm and 120 film and negative carriers have been created to cover 35mm and most 120 formats including 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, and 6x9. There will also be an option to purchase carriers that allow film borders to be scanned/printed. The…

FOLLOWING its success with large format cameras, Intrepid has once again identified a gap in the analogue market. This time the firm has applied the latest LED technology into a photographic enlarger and incorporated a feature set that was until now limited to expensive, bulky and heavy units. In doing so it has created a fun, easy-to-use enlarger that’s both extremely versatile and very affordable. It has the potential to open up home darkroom printing to a whole new generation of photographers that don’t want to compromise on the quality of their prints, and particularly those wanting a temporary set-up.…

LAUNCHED: 1947 PRICE AT LAUNCH: depending on lens, from £55 GUIDE PRICE NOW: £100-150 FOCA cameras were made by Optique et Précision de Levallois (OPL). The letters ‘PF’ in the name refer to Petit Format (small format, meaning 35mm). Camera production was originally planned in 1938, but abandoned with the outbreak of World War II, to be resurrected in 1944. The PF1 was made without a rangefinder, the PF2 added a rangefinder and the PF3 introduced slow speeds for the first time. The cameras are identified by the number of stars found on a small badge beside the lens. There was also a number of subtle variants of each model, but let’s look at the PF3. Compared to Leicas of the day, the Foca is far more streamlined, its design…

Cameras Cameras come in three types: DSLRs with optical viewfinders, mirrorless models with electronic viewing, and compact cameras with non-interchangeable lenses Handgrip DSLRs traditionally have relatively large handgrips, while many mirrorless models have much smaller grips to keep size down. However, some can accept accessory grips to improve handling with larger lenses. Lens mount Each camera brand uses its own lens mount, and mirrorless cameras use different lenses to DSLRs even from the same brand. However, mirrorless models can often use DSLR lenses via a mount adapter. Controls Entry-level cameras tend to have simple, easy-to-understand controls, while more expensive models add lots of buttons and dials to give quick access to settings. Viewfinder The biggest difference between DSLRs and mirrorless cameras is that the latter use electronic, rather than optical…

‘The kid appeared on the brow, and I grabbed it. He was gone in a second and I walked on thinking maybe that was something’ This image was taken in 2015 near Pwllheli in North Wales, it was taken by photographer Tim Williams. I recently came across an image of Tim and me taken in North Wales sometime in the late ’80s. We were studying photography together and had escaped to Tim’s hometown in North Wales for a few days reprieve from Derby. The photo of us two photographers near the beginning of our photographic journeys was something of a nostalgic jolt to me and it triggered a flurry of online searches and so on to see what Tim was up to after all these years. I was bowled over…

TS Warspite by Fox Photos Young sailors exercise on the deck of the naval training ship HMS Warspite in the summer of 1930. The battleship was completed during the First World War in 1915 and participated in the Battle of Jutland. After that, her service generally involved routine patrols and training exercises such as the one seen here. She was damaged many times during the Second World War, earning her the most battle honours ever awarded to an individual ship in the Royal Navy. Warspite was decommissioned in 1945, and she later sank on the way to scrapping. The salvage operation to retrieve the wreckage is still the largest of its kind ever carried out in British waters. The Getty Images Hulton Archive is one of the world’s great cultural…

A recent survey of 1,000 UK residents, commissioned by online mobile phone retailer Mobile Phones Direct has found that the quality of smartphone cameras is the most important buying criteria for those aged 25-34. Furthermore, 20% of survey respondents switched from iPhone to Android devices, citing the system’s ‘superior image quality’. More TikTok users made the switch than Instagram users, apparently, and landscapes, baking and pets also replaced holidays as the most popular subjects during the lockdowns. See the full survey findings at bit.ly/newphonesurvey.…

To flip or not to flip? The question’s been intriguing me of late. Many photographers, I’m told, routinely flip their pictures to see if they look better, but I’m disinclined to view the world through a mirror in this way – it seems somehow dishonest, people’s expressions often look eerily wrong in reverse, and there are problems like inverted clock faces and lettering waiting to catch you out. Maybe my reticence stems from years making car videos. Editors would occasionally flip shots to make a driving sequence flow better, seemingly oblivious to the unacceptably distracting side-effects of drivers swapping from one side of the car to the other and number plates suddenly appearing in reverse. Am I too puritanical, though? After all, car advertising agencies regularly flip shots. That’s why…

For this quick tutorial we shot a roll of Ilford FP4 black & white film, which is ideal for home development, along with the following equipment – easily available from suppliers such as Fotospeed: ● A darkbag – essentially, a double-zipped bag with light-tight arms ● A developing tank with a 35mm or 120mm reel. We used a central-loading stainless steel one, but plastic Paterson ones with ball-bearings are sometimes easier to use. ● A one-litre measuring jug and a thermometer ● A film squeegee to remove excess water from the negatives ● Scissors to cut the negatives into strips of six (which you can store in negative sleeves) and film clips for hanging them. You should be able to obtain all this for under £100 or you might find…

Our favourite photos posted by readers on our social media channels this week AP picture of the week Untitled by Charley Shillabeer Canon EOS 700D, Canon 50mm f/1.4, 1/500sec at f/8, ISO 100 ‘I took this shot at H&M on Regent Street, London,’ says Charley, a street and documentary photographer from Ipswich, currently based in north London. ‘My partner Bronte wanted to buy a cheap umbrella as it was starting to rain, so I wandered off, as I often do when she starts shopping! I instantly saw the potential for a strong geometric image with a silhouette. Props to the interior designer because this is one beautiful location to shoot.’ Charley is on Instagram: @ Scragglemuffphotos. We also liked Beachy Head Lighthouse by Harry Ward Nikon D7200, Nikon 17-55 f/2.8…

Perhaps surprisingly for someone just named Photographer of the Year (POTY) at the 2021 Sony World Photography Awards (SWPA), Craig Easton is angry. When Craig gets angry, he is often compelled to challenge what has caused it. In 2007, BBC Panorama made the programme, White Fright, tracking the ethnic and religious divide between Muslim Asian and white residents in Blackburn. A decade on, Panorama returned to find a town it claimed was even more divided. ‘It’s certainly not my experience of Blackburn and not the experience of the people that live there and people are pretty angry about it. I just spent a lot of time in the community and it’s very evidently not segregated. It’s the easiest thing in the world to come from afar with an agenda and…

Benedict ‘Ben’ Brain Benedict Brain ARPS has been developing film since he was ten, and is a passionate film photographer while fully embracing digital (Ben is also a Sigma ambassador and a widely published writer for a range of publications). In addition, Ben runs a range of photography workshops, see www.benedictbrain.com. If you see somebody under 35 with a camera these days, there is a good chance they are using a film device, sometimes one made before they were even born. The film revival has been bubbling away for a few years now, and is proving to be much more than a hipster fad; analogue continues to have a cultural ‘moment,’ as people seek an alternative to bland, digital perfection and the ubiquity of smartphones. For these modern-day flâneurs, wandering…

The empty road receding into the distance is a well-explored concept in the world of photography, and so it requires skill, creativity and artistic flair to bring something new to the table, which is just what Dan Newton has managed to achieve with his image, titled ‘It’s a Long Road’. Dan’s striking and dynamic photo won first place in APOY Round Four, and was taken in Dubai in an area called Al Qudra, where there are several man-made lakes. Along with the lakes, there is nearly 100km of cycle track that loops through the dunes and the nature reserve. ‘This area is easily one of my favourite areas for my genre of photography; wildlife, and landscapes,’ reveals Dan. Dan had wanted to take an image like this for some time…

Kit contents ● One sachet each of developer, stop bath and fixer – enough to process two 35mm films or one 120 film ● One sachet of wetting agent (enough for eight tankfuls) What you’ll need ● Film developing tank ● A water supply ● Three jugs which can measure 600ml (or three containers plus a measuring cylinder) ● Something to stir the solutions with to ensure they are mixed ● Thermometer for checking the temperature of the solutions ● Somewhere completely dark for loading the developing tank ● A bottle opener to open the film cassette, if using 35mm film ● Scissors ● A count-down timer ● A dust-free place where you can hang the processed film to dry Health and safety ● Read and understand the manufacturer’s advice…

Agfa Flexilette £40-75 Bolsey C22 £60-90 Braun Paxette £20-30 Canon AE-1; £100-150 Canon Demi £30-80 Canon EOS 3 £250-300 Contaflex £800-1,200 Contax IIa £200-275 Contax IIIa £250-300 Horizon 202 £80-100 Horizont £120-150 Leica IIIf £200-350 Leica M3 £1,500-2,000 Minolta 7000 £15-30 Nikon F £150-250 Nikon F100 £150-250 Nikon FA £200-250 Noblex 135 £200-300 Olympus AZ-300 £10-15 Olympus IS-1000 £15-25 Olympus Mju £60-100 Olympus OM-1 £100-120 Olympus Pen £30-50 Olympus Pen F £100-150 Olympus XA £100-200 Pentax EOS 650 £20-50 Pentax ME Super £75-100 Yashica Samurai £40-90…

THE ENLARGER head contains an LED light source which uses red, blue, green and white light, carefully balanced for both scanning and printing from negatives. The light is magnetically attached to the bellows and can easily be detached and used as a backlight for scanning negatives with a digital camera. The control unit also contains pre-programmed light settings that have been calibrated for scanning a range of popular film stocks such as Kodak Portra. The Intrepid negative carriers can be used to keep your film flat while the LED light will also work well in combination with other film carriers from companies such as Negative Supply which are better suited for quickly scanning strips of negatives.…

● £89.99 camera only; £8.99 for 10-shot film ● instax.com/mini40 FUJIFILM has carved out a profitable niche with its instax range of instant film cameras, which now appeal to a much wider (and younger) demographic than its higher-priced digital line-up. The instax mini 40 follows on from the mini 11, with attractively chunky retro styling. It looks and feels more like a ‘serious’ camera compared to the rather jejune mini 11, while still being very easy to use. It’s also cheaper than the higher-end Mini 90. Although made from plastic, the mini 11 feels sturdy enough, and it’s relatively light at 330g. This is not a camera if you like adjusting shooting settings, though, as it only features fully automatic exposure and full-time auto flash. There’s no tripod bush either,…