Innholdsfortegnelse for 6/25/24 i Amateur Photographer

We live in truly blessed times for photography, with the best tools at our disposal that any generation has ever had, as this week’s issue reminds us. David Clapp extols the virtues of his ground-breaking Canon EOS R3 and explains why and how he uses it, while we take a first look at the brand new and highly impressive Nikon Z6III, which offers a few firsts of its own. Rosie Hardy reminds us that our cameras are not the only tools that are pushing boundaries and helping us to express our creativity. She uses Photoshop to create eye-catching images that have gained her a big following on social media. Also this week James Abbott focuses on our options when it comes to choosing lenses, and we round off with some…

IT’S been a busy week for AI-related controversies. First up, Adobe had to clarify the latest terms and conditions for its monthly Creative Cloud packages, following online accusations that subscribers’ images could end up being used as fodder for the company’s generative AI tools in Photoshop and other programs. Two senior Adobe executives later clarified in a blog post: ‘Your content is yours and will never be used to train any generative AI tool. We will make it clear in the license grant section that any license granted to Adobe to operate its services will not supersede your ownership rights.’ [Furthermore] ‘we don’t train generative AI on customer content. We are adding this statement to our Terms of Use to reassure people that is a legal obligation on Adobe. Adobe…

OM SYSTEM has announced a big summer cashback promotion, enabling you to save £800 when you buy its OM-1 Mark II flagship camera and the 150-400mm F4.5 TC1.25X IS Pro lens together. Bought separately, there is £350 cashback on the camera, £450 back on the lens. Further discounts are available on the OM-5 (£300 cashback), the E-M10 Mark IV (£100 cashback) and a wide range of lenses. Get your skates on, however, as the promotion ends on 28 June. See bit.ly/omsummeroffer…

EISA MAESTRO RUNNERS UP 2024 This year’s Maestro theme was Sports and Games, with a portfolio of 5-8 connected images which had to be taken between 1 May 2023 and 30 April 2024. In AP 11 June we published the UK winner, Nick Ledger, who took home the prize for his powerful portfolio of images taken at bareknuckle fight events in London and Wolverhampton. Nick goes forward to the international round of the contest where the overall winner will be judged later this month. For now, however, it’s time to celebrate those who almost snagged the top prize for the UK. On this spread, we have second-place Alina Uruc-Olaru for her set of motorsport images taken at Brands Hatch. In third place, Michael Loveder takes us into the world of…

● £134 ● lexar.com With the latest generation of professional cameras offering high-speed, high-resolution shooting for both stills and video, conventional SD cards are no longer always able to keep up. Getting maximal performance often requires the use of CFexpress media, with most cameras using Type B cards. Lexar offers its CFexpress Type B cards in two variants, labelled Silver and Gold. Just as with its SD cards, the latter are faster but more expensive. The difference in RRP isn’t huge – £159 vs £169 – but in practice, the Silver cards tend to sell at a significantly lower street price. Unpicking their specifications line-by-line reveals that the most significant difference lies with sustained write speeds. Gold cards promise 1300MB/sec, while Silver cards are rated for 480MB/sec for the 128GB…

Astrophotographer Josh Dury captured this stunning image of the Orion Constellation above the iconic Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival site earlier this year in January. It was months in the making, with extensive research undertaken, recces and hours of planning. Capturing this self-portrait has been an aspiration for Josh for quite some time. His passion for the arts makes this legendary location of one of the world’s most well-known music festivals, the ideal backdrop for creating his masterpiece. But to pull it off, he had several elements to consider and careful planning to ensure the stars aligned on the night. It was during a recce of the site on New Year’s Eve that Josh realised his plans to shoot at his desired location would be far more straightforward than…

7 daysA week in photography AP picture of the week Stormy Sunset by Alex John Fujifilm X-T30, 18-55mm, 1/60sec at f/11, ISO 80 ‘I go to St Mary’s quite often just to trial a few different compositions and techniques, all part of the process of becoming accustomed to the camera. I use weather apps as I did that day to decide if it’s worth going out; so I saw the storm coming in on the app and the direction it was going, so I had a rough idea which location I would shoot from.’ Instagram: @i.a.l.e.x #appicoftheweek Win! The AP Pic of the Week winner will receive a beautifully framed print of their winning image worth up to £100. If you Love it, Frame it! ThisPicture.com is an experienced, high-quality…

OM System Tough TG-7 ● £499 ● explore.omsystem.com This latest model in a long line of class-leading rugged cameras is waterproof to 15m, shockproof against a 2.1m drop, crushproof and freezeproof. The 25-100mm equivalent lens is paired with a 12MP sensor, with in-body stabilisation to combat shake. Viewing is via a 3in LCD. The TG-7 is also one of the few cameras of its type that can record raw files. Reviewed 2 Apr 2024 Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III ● £699 ● www.canon.co.uk This lovely little pocket camera provides a good range of features for both photography and video. You get a 20MP 1in sensor, 24-100mm equivalent f/1.8-2.8 zoom lens, 4K 30p video recording, and a tilting rear screen. It’s ideal for those who’d like more advanced controls than…

JAMES ABBOTT The top landscape and portrait photographer compares the 50mm f/1.2 and 24-70mm f/2.8 ANDY WESTLAKE Technical Editor Andy conducts a First Look and elsewhere reveals top accessories for the Fujifilm X100VI DAVID CLAPP The pro photographer shares his experiences of shooting with his Canon EOS R3 HOLLIE LATHAM HUCKER Technique Editor Hollie talks to Josh Dury about his spectacular night capture GRAEME GREEN Top pro and AP regular Graeme interviews Rosie Hardy about her therapeutic self-portraiture AMY DAVIES Features Editor Amy celebrates the UK runners-up of the EISA Maestro Photography Contest 2024…

Nikon has also taken the wraps off a new cloud-based file-storage service, called Nikon Imaging Cloud. This is designed to provide unlimited free temporary backup for camera files, for up to 30 days, after which files will be deleted. Initially it’ll be for use with the Z6III, but the firm suggests it’ll likely become available for Z9, Z8 and Zf users too. Imaging Cloud options are set using an in-camera menu. When the camera is connected to a Wi-Fi network, the files on its memory cards can be pushed to the cloud automatically. Alternatively, files can be selected for backup manually. Files saved to the cloud can then either be downloaded via a web-based interface, or pushed across to other cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Adobe…

Fujifilm’s Instax Mini Evo is among the most popular Instax instant cameras. In part, the hype is earned. It’s a hybrid camera, meaning that it is both a digital camera and instant printer, all rolled into one. Crucially, you get to choose what images you want to print out. All of this is pretty cool, but the Mini Evo is no longer the most exciting Instax you can get. For me, now that I’ve reviewed both cameras, that title goes to the new Instax Mini 99. Here are three reasons why: 1. The Mini 99 is the most capable Instax yet The Mini 99 (drumroll) has manual controls. And while it is expensive, it is nowhere near the Polaroid I-2’s over-$500/£500 price-tag. It is nowhere near as fancy, but it…

Testbench IN THE FIELD I’m a professional photographer concentrating on landscapes, seascapes, architecture, macro, and travel (or all of these combined, when in a foreign country). In addition, I shoot some commercial portraiture, street photography, infrared, and astrophotography. I even make occasional but somewhat laughable forays into wildlife photography (my wildlife skills are rated at ‘roadkill’ level). So what is a high-frame-rate, fast-focusing action and sports photography camera like the Canon EOS R3 doing in the hands of a low-shot-count, compositionally contemplative photographer? The answer, quite simply, is opening creative doors. Everyone who holds my R3 in their hands looks back at me and grins. I have seen my 80-year-old mum start to grin and shape-shift, as she too can feel the limitless power that resonates from this magic wand.…

There’s a new book out about the designer Sir Kenneth Grange. As the blurb says, even if the name isn’t familiar, you’re sure to have seen some of his prodigious output. Perhaps his best-known design is the Intercity 125 train, but he was also responsible for everything from parking meters, to food mixers and postboxes. Kodak was among his many clients, and I have used a number of the cameras that he designed for them. Less well known than his classic Instamatic cameras of the 1960s and ’70s, the Vecta was part of an equally iconic brand, the Brownie. Kodak first used the Brownie name in 1900 and went on to produce dozens of versions. Best known are the various Box Brownies, but this design from 1963 marks a shift…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Focus, please Will Cheung’s useful Manual Masterclass (AP 4 June) mentioned several scenarios when even modern AF may not deliver. But it omitted two which are very important for landscape, architectural and street photographers. First, when shooting through water or glass AF will often lock onto the physical surface, not the subject beyond it: you have to flip into manual (thank you, clutch ring!) to override the AF’s ‘guess,’ and take control. Second, in shooting reflections, the right focusing distance to get the reflection sharp is not (as you might expect) the distance from camera to the surface showing the reflection, it’s actually the equivalent of the distance from the original object to the mirror. Focus peaking makes this easy to figure out. This photo, taken…

Photo Critique This picture – made by Andy Greaves in 2013 – is part of Hipper Street, an ongoing project about his hometown of Chesterfield, where his family have lived and worked for generations. For some, this image resides in the category of street photography, but Andy finds that label unhelpful, claiming it to be little more than a convenient pigeonhole for Instagram. It’s true that street photography often relies on the ‘decisive moment’ for its impact, a particular combination of light, composition and timing that provides a quick fix, a photographic high. Andy is looking for more than that, for something with a ‘deeper meaning’, preferring to locate his work within the genre of documentary photography, and citing Jimmy Forsyth, Shirley Baker and Tish Murtha among his influencers. ‘I’m…

TOP portrait photographer Tom Oldham, who won our Hero of Photography Award in 2023 for his scheme to encourage photography-book donations to schools, has revealed his latest project, The Hopefuls. Tom shot a range of minority party candidates in the forthcoming general election, motivated by worrying reports that a large part of the UK electorate are disengaged or apathetic. The candidates range from the earnest to the unhinged. See thehopefuls.co.uk…

‘No animals were harmed in the making of these pictures,’ says Rosie Hardy, laughing, just in case any viewers are under the illusion that the scenes in her photographs are real, such as her riding a grizzly bear through a forest or cosying up to a polar bear. For the record, she also didn’t stand in front of exploding lava at the Gates of Hell or jump through a solid brick wall. Rosie’s creative self-portraits have gained her over 170,000 followers on Instagram. Although there’s plenty within the frames that isn’t real, her pictures strike a chord with her audience because they draw on thoughts and emotions from real life. ‘When I was younger, I didn’t want to be in front of the camera,’ she reveals. ‘I had bad skin…

You said... Jennifer MacKenzie An Olympus E-10 in 2001 – 4MP. Good camera but it ate batteries, particularly in the cold! I had a screw-on lens extender. Roberto @photoroma69 Canon EOS 300D and I still have original kit lens and box… Yellow Blob @doomhiker Canon PowerShot G1. It was awesome, got me into photography. Charlie Jobson Pentax Optio 750Z. If it hadn’t got broken I’d probably still use it because despite limited dynamic range and ISO range I took some great photos with it. First DSLR was the Pentax *ist D. Dan K @ZDP189 Casio QV-10A. Robert H Bruce C. @rbruce63 GoPro 3 Silver! Stephen Warner A 4MP Minolta Dimage S404. The images were reasonably good for the time and it was a tough little camera. Two file options: JPEG…