Innholdsfortegnelse for 2/20/2024 i Amateur Photographer

STORIED British camera bag maker Billingham has revealed updated versions of its ‘5-series’ camera bags, in the shape of the new 225 MKII, 335 MKII, 445 MKII, and 555 MKII models. They feature much the same classic styling and design as before, but with a few welcome tweaks and improvements. Shared features include a large main compartment for your camera and lenses, and a front pocket into which you can fit a tablet or laptop. Two more ‘dump’ pockets are found on the front, along with a flat zipped pocket on the back. Both the main and laptop compartments have zipped closures covered by a generously sized top rain flap. However, the MKII versions gain a luggage trolley strap on the back and ship with Billingham’s unique ‘V-Bridge 15’ padded…

Testbench CLASSIC FILM CAMERAS Collectors are often drawn to particular makes, models or types of camera. For some time, I have had a strong interest in, and have carried out a lot of research into, the Wray Optical Company that, for many years, was based at Bromley in Kent. They were principally lens makers, respected the world over for their quality. But they also made a few cameras which, in all honesty, were not so well received. A bit of background The Wrayflex was one camera that did gain a modicum of success. Wray made three models in 1951, 1953 and 1959. But, partially due to the quirky designs of the first two, they never really made it up there with the Big Boys. By the time they got…

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SERIF AFFINITY PUBLISHER Sooner or later, anyone who is serious about pursuing photography as a profession will need a business card. It doesn’t matter whether you are a commercial photographer, an event photographer or a fine art photographer building a portfolio – a business card will spread the word, get your name about and show people that you are a serious pro. Creating a stylish and effective business card is quite simple, and you don’t have to be a professional designer. Our sample business card is plain and straightforward and gives potential contacts and clients all the information that they need. Perfect tool Affinity Publisher is the perfect tool for any kind of publishing work associated with your photography, especially if you’re already familiar with Affinity Photo,…

EDWARD BURTYNSKY When Edward Burtynsky was a child, he grew up to the soundtrack of the General Motors plant in St Catharines, Ontario. ‘We would drive past and all you could hear was ba-boom, ba-boom,’ he recalls as we settle down for a chat. St Catharines was a blue-collar city and his father, Peter, had secured work on the production line at the factory. ‘There was a red brick wall that ran for about half a kilometre and from behind it there came a noise so loud that you could feel the earth shake,’ he explains. When Edward was seven, he attended an open day at the plant and was amazed by what he found there. ‘I saw molten metal going down chutes, big presses in action and people wearing…

● £49.99 ● www.qimeragear.com The Qimera Gear Flat Strap is designed with ease of attachment and removal in mind. It’s aimed to be an alternative to Peak Design’s popular straps, but it fits onto the camera directly, without any need for separate anchor loops. Peak Design’s use of such loops to attach its straps to a camera has a couple of drawbacks. In windy conditions, for example, they can flap around and create slight vibrations and a clacking noise. This can be bothersome for videographers as the sounds are recorded in the audio. The loops can be fiddly to remove, too. Qimera Gear’s solution to this problem is clever and practical. The attachment mechanism employs Dyneema loops, or ‘pigtails’, which stay on the strap when it is removed, rather than…

Film is enjoying a revival. Younger creators who have only known digital have discovered there’s a special pleasure to be had from the light-sensitive stuff; and there are those who grew up with film, switched to digital and have rediscovered their love for analogue. Whether film’s second coming is driven by the technical challenge of getting things right at capture, the craft of film photography or the thrill, one thing is for sure, film is on the up. You could argue that the medium never truly went away and there is a huge archive of memories, history and creativity out there, in drawers, shoeboxes, still stashed in their original d&p wallets or neatly catalogued in albums. So, whether you’re creating fresh images or working with existing ones, digitising film pictures…

When was the club founded? It was formed in June 1955 as the Aldershot Camera & Cine Club and eventually, in 2014, it became the ‘Aldershot, Farnham & Fleet Camera Club’. What does your club offer to new members? We are a small and friendly group of photographers with a wide variety of interests and skills. We have an interesting and diverse programme every season, including talks, print and projected digital image (PDI) competitions, practical workshops, social evenings, outings and a monthly photography challenge. Prospective members and guests are welcome to attend both face-to-face and Zoom sessions so that they can experience what the club has to offer before taking out membership. We can also offer mentoring. Above all, we want to give our members the confidence to share their…

7 daysA week in photography NIKON has released its first major firmware update for the Z 8 full-frame mirrorless camera. Version 2.00 of the firmware includes a dedicated Birds feature, which has been added to the Z 8’s AF subject-detection options. Nikon claims that this boosts bird-detection performance in a variety of high-contrast backgrounds, including forests and mountains and in various states – flying or perched. Auto Capture functionality now includes automatic shooting for both stills and video by pre-configuring capture criteria, including motion, distance, and subject detection. These options can be used either separately or together. Furthermore, there is a new pixel shift shooting function, using dedicated software to merge multiple raw files. ‘This is ideal for capturing the finest details in subjects with complex designs – such as…

7 daysA week in photography The Photographers’ Gallery, London, £8/£5 concessions, 23 February – 2 June. Open Mon-Wed 10am-6pm; Thur and Fri 10am-8pm (Friday free from 5pm); Sat 10am-6pm; Sun 11am-6pm. See thephotographersgallery.org.uk The era of Picture Post, which was published between 1938 and 1957, is seen as something of a golden age in British documentary photography – and with good reason. It established the careers of several photographers who are still well-known names, including Kurt Hutton, Grace Robertson, Thurston Hopkins and, possibly most widely recognised of all, Bert Hardy. He is the subject of the exhibition Bert Hardy: Photojournalism in War and Peace, on show at The Photographers’ Gallery in London. Born in 1913 to a working-class family, Hardy was the eldest of seven. A self-taught photographer, he made…

LAUNCHED 2003 PRICE AT LAUNCH £150 GUIDE PRICE NOW £80-120 If you thought you knew what Minox cameras look like, think again. This one has an unusual circular body with a 7cm diameter. It incorporates a round 2.1MP CMOS sensor interpolated to 3.0MP to serve a 9.6mm f/2.8 five-element glass lens. A single CR2 3-volt battery drops into a relatively bulky compartment on the side, there’s a shutter button just above it and a tiny optical viewfinder on top. Exposure is automated, but the lens can be manually focused at three click-stopped settings for 0.5m, 0.9m and infinity. It doesn’t accept a memory card, so JPEG images are stored on internal 32MB flash memory. An attachable USB cable transfers these to a computer. It’s compatible with Windows 98, SE, ME,…

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. Lens mounts Each manufacturer has its own lens mount and most aren’t compatible with one another. For example, a Canon DSLR can’t use Nikon lenses, although you can use independent brands if you get…