Innholdsfortegnelse for 1/31/2023 i Amateur Photographer

Unless a lot of our readers are hermits, it won’t be news to many that we live in tough economic times – or that the market for second-hand cameras is booming. So this issue, we highlight some irresistible used best buys. Our opening feature reveals great second-hand body and lens combinations under £200, £350 and £500, for example, and we also flag up some great pre-loved DSLRs, mirrorless lenses, bridge cameras and more. I’ve also been speaking to some top specialist retailers to get their tips for getting the best price when selling on your gear or trading in, while Amy Davies focuses on some terrific used smartphones. On the subject of saving money, don’t forget to check out our great new year subscription offers too. Connect with us @…

7 days A week in photography AP picture of the week Ebb and Flow by Luke Murray Sony Alpha 7R IV A, Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN Art, 1/8sec at f/9, ISO 50 ‘I captured this image mid-afternoon at the Kyle of Tongue in the western part of Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands, Ben Loyal standing tall in the distance. Once on location it was a waiting game, hoping the clouds would break releasing some warm sunlight. After around two hours and a heavy downpour it finally happened, the clouds parted, and the landscape popped. The beautiful light only lasted a matter of minutes before it disappeared and the rain came back.’ www.lukemurrayphotography.com Instagram: @luke.murrayphotography Vero: lukemurrayphotography #appicoftheweek Win! To congratulate the AP Pic of the Week winner, Fujifilm is…

The second-hand DSLR market is a fast-moving, exciting and competitive place. Many expert photographers will tell you that a second-hand DSLR from a few years ago is going to give you much better value for money than a brand-new mid-range for the same price – but it can be tough to navigate when there’s so much choice out there. So, we’ve decided to do the hard work for you, and have filled up the next few pages with the DSLRs that provide the best value on the secondhand market right now. For each camera, we’ve given a rough guide to the price you can expect to pay to get it in ‘Good’ condition or better. As a rule, this is a good level to stick to – you can certainly…

With the shooting convenience of compacts combined with the creative and manual options offered by interchangeable-lens cameras, the bridge camera is a superhero of the imaging world with incredible potential in a relatively portable bodyform. Of course, every superhero needs a superpower and in the bridge camera that is its integral zoom lens. A compact camera might have a 4x, 6x or 8x zoom range which in practice means coverage from 24mm wideangle up to 200mm telephoto in 35mm terms. For general shooting, that range is fine – but if you want frame-filling shots of distant subjects, the bridge camera is difficult to beat. A bridge camera’s zoom lens might be 20x, 30x or more, giving the 35mm equivalent of 500mm, 1000mm or even 2000mm so all you have to…

● £229.99 ● www.vanguardworld.co.uk ALTHOUGH it may look understated, Vanguard’s VEO 3T 235CBP tripod packs features that make it a strong contender in the constantly evolving travel tripod class. The design is based around slim five-section carbon fibre legs. The largest section has a 23mm diameter, while the thinnest measures a little less than 12mm, approximately the same diameter as an AAA battery. Combined with the two-section centre column, they produce a maximum shooting height of 155cm. If you are 6ft tall, your eye level will be around the same height as the viewfinder of most mirrorless cameras. Each leg section tightens via twist locks, which I found secure and firm. People argue back and forth whether twist or lever locks are better. Still, I prefer the twist lock as…

THE SOCIETIES of Photographers has announced it will hold its annual London Photo Convention and Trade Show from Wednesday 15 March to Saturday 18 March 2023 at the Novotel London West, Hammersmith. The event will feature 100 exhibitors, alongside over 200 hours of classes from 80 speakers, a Business School, a Photographer of the Year presentation evening and more. Sony, Canon, Epson, Fujifilm, Rotolight, Samyang and Tamron are amongst the companies who’ve confirmed attendance, with Park Cameras and Camera Centre UK being the main supporting dealers. AP readers can avoid the £10 entrance free by using the code AP10, valid until 11 March. Register at thesocieties.net.convention…

CANON UK & Ireland has teamed up with broadcast product supplier CVP to launch the Stories in Motion film-making contest, which is now open for budding videographers aged 18-25. Entrants may submit a maximum of three films in the Music Video, Documentary and Scripted Short categories. Prizes include a Canon EOS C70 camera and RF 24-70mm F2.8 L lens, and the opportunity to shadow an award-winning filmmaker. All shortlisted entries will also win a £200 voucher to spend at CVP, and each category winner will win an additional £500 voucher. The judges include Canon ambassador, cinematographer and photographer, Elisa Iannacone; CVP’s technical marketing manager, Jake Ratcliffe; and award-winning filmmaker, editor and colourist, Ollie Kenchington. Neale Conroy, Canon UK and Ireland marketing director. said, ‘With the chance to experience a day’s…

We’ve said this a lot, but it bears repeating – photography does not need to be expensive. Even if you’re shopping for interchangeable-lens system cameras, you can absolutely pick up a great camera and lens set for a minimal outlay. Whether you’re shopping for your first camera system, or for a capable second camera to use alongside your main kit, you can spend as little as £150 and pick up everything you need to get out and start taking pictures. The trick, of course, is buying secondhand. This isn’t just a way to save money on the RRP of a camera but is also a good way to shop smart. Digital cameras have been in their stride for a good couple of decades now, and that means we’ve had a…

Mark Passmore www.markpassmore.com Instagram: @markpassmorepix I’ve been a full-time professional press photographer since 1998 for the Apex News and Pictures agency. I also like to take photographs on my travels. I bought a used Sigma 500mm f/4.5 prime lens from Harrison Cameras for £1,100, which I thought was a fair price. The price of a new 500mm lens was prohibitive and I didn’t want to invest in a zoom lens which included the 500mm range. The lens is a Canon EF fit but has worked faultlessly with my Canon EOS R mirrorless camera, via the EF to R adapter. The lens has paid for itself many times over so I am very happy with my decision. The only downside is getting parts for repair, if needed, as spares for a…

Top-of-the-line smartphones can set you back a pretty penny these days. If you want the latest and greatest technology then you can very easily find yourself shelling out in excess of £1,000 for flagship models. Smartphones generally have a much swifter release cycle than cameras, meaning that top-line models usually only stay current for around 12 months. The good news is that if you’re prepared to wait and pick up last year’s model (or even the year before that), then you’ll often get a much better deal, without too much of a compromise on hardware specifications and features. Going down the refurbished or secondhand route (see boxout, right) can save you even more money. In fact on occasion, you’ll even be able to find this year’s top-line options already available…

Ever heard of Kylie Katich? I’m going to guess that’s a no. She’s a young American mother based in Utah, and a content creator on TikTok with 654,000 followers and 47.7 million likes for her short videos that cover everything from domestic life and parenting to photography. Until last November I had never heard of her either. But then I decided to get a Fujifilm X100-series camera to take on my holiday to South Africa, and was shocked to discover that the line had become the focus of a buying frenzy. It seemed virtually impossible to find one anywhere, unless I was prepared to pay silly money. For example, I could buy a used X100V on Amazon for about £2,300, but that’s about £1,000 more than it cost brand new…

Tech Talk The city of Kiev has been in the headlines for the best part of a year now, and not in a good way. I became aware of the name in the early 1970s when it was used for a whole series of disparate camera types made in the Soviet Union. Like so many Soviet-era offerings, these were often near clones of existing cameras, so we had the Kiev 4, which is a copy of the Zeiss Contax II, the Kiev 60, a behemoth of a rollfilm SLR, which borrows heavily from the Pentacon Six, and the Kiev 35a which is a blatant rip-off of the Minox 35. There are plenty of other examples of plagiarism, but the Kiev 10 isn’t one of them. This is definitely an original…

NIKON UK has announced the death of Harry Collins, the founder of the British arm of the Japanese camera giant. Harry Collins, known to many in the industry as ‘Mr Nikon’, set up Nikon UK with the support of Nikon Switzerland in 1979. Responsible for the establishment of the brand in the UK at that time, he was also pivotal in forming sponsorship partnerships with the London Symphony Orchestra, Wimbledon Tennis and The Open Golf. ‘Harry was a tough businessman and a hard negotiator, but also a great communicator and entertainer,’ said Jeremy Gilbert, former marketing director, Nikon UK. ‘Above all, he was extremely passionate about the brand.’ Mark Evans, customer support, systems and process manager, Nikon Europe, added: ‘Harry established press servicing, offering check and clean services at major…

THE CATEGORIES and entry details have been announced for the 12th HIPA photography award, which offers a generous cash prize of $120,000 (just under £98,000) for the overall winner. The theme of this year’s award is Diversity, which also serves as a category, with the others being General (which includes Colour and Black & White), Portfolio and a new addition to the competition, Digital Art. Entries are open from 1 April to midnight on 30 June, UAE time. See www.hipa.ae for full details of this lucrative contest.…

Buying used mirrorless lenses can save a significant amount of cash, open up lens choices you wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford, and gives you the chance to experiment with different angles of view and shooting styles. But which are the best used mirrorless lenses to get? Our list contains 32 lenses we’ve used and been impressed by, either because of their performance or their creative potential. But we’ve included another factor – price on the used market. So how much money can you save when you shop for second-hand lenses? It varies. Our guide prices are from retailers that inspect and grade used lenses and offer the kind of assurances and support you can’t expect from private sellers. Of course, you can save even more when you buy…

Keen photographers will travel with a system camera plus a couple of lenses and when it’s not practical to have versatile kit to hand, many will turn to the camera phone. However, while smartphones are incredible devices there’s something much more satisfying about using a ‘proper’ camera and that’s where compacts come into play. Largely thanks to the almost universal popularity of camera phones, there are fewer compacts to choose from and new models tend to be niche products targeted at specific types of user. However, there are many excellent options in the pre-owned market and even those from a few years ago are powerhouses of imaging tech that make shooting unforgettable images an absolute breeze. You don’t have to worry about focusing, exposure or white balance because it’s all…

Repeated messaging that directs us to ensure the subject stands out in our pictures has led to a world in which most photographs feature one point of interest. Efforts to ensure we have a main focus that’s clear and obvious often batter secondary and tertiary elements in the frame into oblivion, lest they steal the limelight from whatever the viewer is supposed to be seeing first. Images in which there is a lot happening are often dismissed as ‘too busy’, so we rarely see photos that force us to spend a long time looking at them in order to see all that is going on. The message, we are so often told, has to travel fast so the viewer gets ‘it’ immediately. In following this path though we risk missing…