Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2024 i N-Photo: the Nikon magazine

Anybody Home? KRISZTINA MÁCSAI Macro – Runner-up A jumping spider on an abandoned wasp’s nest. Jumping spiders love small spaces where they can hide. This wasp’s nest fell onto my terrace from the roof. This little spider was very happy to discover it and soon took shelter in one of the empty tubes. I waited a few minutes until he decided to come out. He was looking around and then went right back inside again. Camera: Nikon D750 Lens: 100mm f/2.8 Exposure: 1/60 sec, f/11, ISO200 Ready to Depart ALEXANDER HOWARD After Dark – Winner This photo was taken at West India Quay Station on the Docklands Light Railway. I’ve added motion blur and new headlights using Photoshop’s light flare tool to make this photograph stand out. Camera: Nikon Z 6…

Barn owls are one of five species of owl that are resident in the UK. Watching one silently quarter a meadow at dusk or dawn as it hunts for food is an incredible experience. With their heart-shaped faces and pale feathers, they are beautiful birds and one of my favourite subjects to photograph. Here’s how you can find and photograph them too. 1 Find the right location Barn owls inhabit lowlands throughout the UK. They each have a well-defined home range and, provided they are not disturbed, they tend to hunt in a fairly predictable manner. Spend time watching their behaviour and you may also find that they favour certain perches, such as posts and branches. 2 Rise early, stay up late The best time to photograph these crepuscular predators is at…

Photo booths have become hugely popular and you’ll often see professional setups at big events. But with a few simple skills, a DIY booth can yield results that are just as good. If you want to set one up – perhaps for a wedding or party – then you’ll find a host of tips over the following pages to get you started and in the party mood! A photo booth could be as simple as placing a mobile phone in selfie mode on a tripod. But there are ways to make the booth more polished and dynamic. First there’s the lighting, A couple of studio strobes allows for professional, flattering light that can illuminate groups large and small. Then there’s the user experience. A live view monitor can make it…

Sometimes it can feel there are dozens of things to think about, even when you’re taking a shot of a static subject that’s completely motionless. Add movement into the equation and everything can get very complicated, very quickly. For anything from kids playing in the garden, to wildlife or sporting action, keeping subjects in focus can feel a bit like herding cats. Thankfully, recent Nikons have a host of autofocus tracking options that you can put to good use, giving you a great hit rate instead of a memory card full of blurred photos. It’s worth considering how autofocus works. DSLRs have a separate autofocus module for viewfinder-based shooting, which uses phase-detection. It’s fast and highly effective. In Live View mode, when you’re composing shots on the rear screen, contrast-detection…

Q Based on issue 160’s review, I bought the Nikon Z Teleconverter TC-2.0x, but it won’t work with any of my lenses or my FTZ converter. Why is this? John Cowan A Like almost all current and recent teleconverters, the Nikon Z Teleconverter TC-1.4x and TC-2.0x have a protruding front section that contains optical elements, which fits into a cavity at the rear of compatible lenses. The upshot is that they will only work with telephoto prime and zoom lenses that have sufficient clearance between the rear element of the lens and the mounting plate. Even so, there are several Nikon Z-mount telephoto lenses that are compatible. It’s impossible to use Z teleconverters with F-mount lenses via an FTZ mount adapter. Apart from incompatibility issues, Z-system teleconverters cannot be attached to the…

* Star Letter Sharpest tool in the box? The sharpness test of the Z 600mm f/4 TC lens, which you carried out in the April 2024 issue (N-Photo 161), showed an alarming degradation when the teleconverter was engaged. This is completely at odds with the other reviews that I have come across, which conclude that it is almost impossible to detect any such deterioration, just as is the case with the Z 400mm TC. So I wonder whether you were loaned a faulty or damaged sample for your group test? Maybe, to reassure those who might be about to part with £15,499 (but which do not include myself, sadly!), you could obtain and test another sample and publish the results in your next issue. After all, we do not want…

Nikon Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR £1399/$1299 www.nikon.co.uk Nikon has announced a new full-frame N superzoom that sets a new record for an all-in-one zoom lens for the Z-mount system. The Nikon Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR offers a phenomenal 14.2x zoom ratio – which beats all other contenders for its reach. The lens is designed for use on full-frame cameras, but its size, weight and reasonable price means that you will also be able to use it on APS-C DX Nikon cameras. With this lens, anyone can effortlessly capture the finest details and facial expressions of distant subjects, opening up new possibilities for your photography or filmmaking. The longest range superzoom previously available for Nikon cameras was the Tamron 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD – but that could only be…

£299/$309 www.novo-photo.com Good things come in small packages, and the Novo Helix T50 is a prime example. Packing down to just 35.5cm, with the legs wrapped neatly around the head, it extends to a decent, if unremarkable, operating height of 140cm and weighs in at a relatively lightweight 1.84kg, with the BHP-32 ball head attached. The tripod is also available as a legs-only option, but the kit is good value, saving around £50/$50 over buying the legs and head separately. This impressive height differential is achieved with no less than five extendable leg sections, plus an additional two-section centre column. Despite the number of twist locks and lightweight build, the tripod feels rigid when fully extended, thanks to the chunky legs’ ‘Superweave’ construction, made up from 10 layers of carbon…

It’s the time of year that many of us are planning our summer getaways, packing our Nikons, naturally. So in this issue’s lead feature, intrepid photographer Iain Afshar shares his tips for getting off the beaten track and capturing your best-ever travel images. You don’t have to go to the ends of the earth for incredible scenic shots, though. Landscape pro Ian Asprey leads his apprentice through the Eryri (Snowdonia) national park in North Wales, where an unexpected dusting of spring snow transformed the mountains into something truly magical. A ‘nifty fifty’ should be in every photographer’s kit bag, and in our Big Test we rate eight FX and DX lenses with a 50mm-ish effective focal length for Z-mount Nikons, plus highlight the F-mount options that are still available. We…

Reflections in landscapes play a pivotal role in enriching the composition and enticing viewers to delve deeper into the image. They can offer a unique viewpoint of the landscape, revealing concealed intricacies that might otherwise go unnoticed. Using reflections in a body of water is a popular compositional tool. Reflections can create visual impact by introducing a sense of symmetry, unity and harmony. This perfect balance can evoke a serene and peaceful mood, allowing viewers to connect with the landscape on a deeper level. However, careful consideration is required to obtain the best results. This article will explore the important technical factors that will help you capture compelling reflections in landscapes every time. How to shoot reflections 1 Time and place Seek out calm waters to capture mirrored surfaces. Ideally, venture…

Lens flare is usually something photographers will take care to avoid. But, on the right image, it can enhance the mood. It’s ideal for travel and lifestyle photography, as what we lose in detail, we make up for in atmosphere. Of course, if you want natural flares then the best approach is to capture them in-camera by shooting into the sun. But sometimes the effect is difficult to capture, or it can look too weak. In this photo here, there is a subtle lens flare in the original image but it’s too weak to register properly. Whether you want to add to existing lens flare like this or create it from scratch, then Affinity Photo has a range of tools that can help you to achieve that effect. Unlike Photoshop,…

It’s the third week of March and the wet winter is ensuring a soggy start to spring, but that isn’t dampening Tony North’s spirits – or his initiative. “I was out early this morning doing some photography because it was cloudy and not windy, which is good for macro,” he tells me from his home near Manchester. I’m already wondering what he could have been shooting because it’s too early for many insects and flowers, but then he reveals the unexpected: “There’s not many insects about yet, but I’ve got one that I brought back from Florida – a chrysalis of a zebra swallowtail – and just recently it emerged, so I was photographing that this morning.” As any macro photographer knows, cool weather and early morning are the best…

SINGLE-POINT AF Mid-range DSLRs including the D7500 and D780 have a 51-point phase-detection autofocus module, whereas it’s as much as 153 AF points for the D850. Z-system mirrorless cameras have between 209 and 493 AF points, spread out across most of the image sensor. However, single-point AF is only really suitable for tracking if the subject is moving slowly and very predictably. 3D-TRACKING This mode is similar to Dynamic-area AF tracking. However, whereas you can often change the size of the active area to suit the subject in Dynamic mode, 3D-tracking is based on advanced recognition of factors like colour and brightness to lock onto the selected subject. But you can encounter problems if the main subject is similar in colour and brightness to its surroundings. AUTO-AREA AF This is…

£199/$249 www.astrhori.cn With a typical macro lens that has full 1x magnification, filling the image sensor with something little more than the size of a postage stamp enables incredible levels of enlargement when viewing the resulting images on screen or in print. This AstrHori lens gives comparatively super-sized enlargement. From one end of its focusing range to the other, it gives from 2x to 5x macro magnification, revealing the tiniest of details with an almost microscopic view. The concept of this lens isn’t entirely new. There’s a similar Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5x Ultra Macro, which costs around £409/$399, but the AstrHori 25mm f/2.8 Macro 2-5x is available from the company’s own website in Nikon Z mount option for the relatively inexpensive price of £199/$249, at the time of writing, which…

We’ve been heavily into prime time over the past three months, focusing our Big Test attention on portrait, super-telephoto and wide-angle prime lenses. You could say we’ve saved the best until last, and we’d be the first to agree. A standard prime with a focal length of around 40mm to 50mm has long been considered a ‘must-have’ lens by photographers the world over, stretching back to the beginnings of 35mm film cameras. The same is true for full-frame (FX) DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. To get an equivalent field of view with a DX (APS-C) camera, you’d need a lens with a focal length of 27mm to 35mm. So what’s the big attraction of a standard prime? For one thing, they give an entirely natural perspective, replicating how you see the…

DX DSLRS NIKON D7500 THE D7500 SHOEHORNS the best bits from the now-discontinued pro-grade D500 into a smaller, more affordable body. The control layout makes everything easy to get at, and there’s a top-plate info LCD, 51-point autofocus system, fast 1/8000 sec shutter speed and 8fps continuous drive rate. Video resolution stretches to 4K. TESTED IN ISSUE 155 • £1099/$897 Sensor 20.9Mp, DX (5568x3712) Processor EXPEED 5 Viewfinder Pentaprism, 0.94x, 100% ISO AF 51-point (15 cross-type) LCD 3.2-inch, tilt, touch Max burst (buffer) 8fps (50 Raw) Memory card 100-51,200 (50-1,640,000 expanded) SDXC UHS-I FX DSLRS NIKON D780 THE D780 TAKES the D750’s winning design and handling cues, but adds on-sensor phase-detection autofocus and EXPEED 6 processing, inherited directly from the Z 6. The result is a capable and natural-feeling DSLR…

Visit any popular travel destination, scenic viewpoint or historical landmark and you’ll likely see crowds of people waving a phone or camera around, all capturing similar images that you’ve undoubtedly seen before. If, like me, you’ve often wondered what’s around the next corner or over the next hill, then there’s only one thing for it: go and take a look! Travel photography doesn’t necessarily need to be to far-flung destinations. In the UK, we’re lucky to live in an incredibly diverse country with easy access to mountains, coastlines and rivers. Venture a mile or so from a car park or visitor centre and you’ll often leave 95 per cent of the crowds behind. However, with a bit of time, effort and an adventurous spirit, getting well off the beaten track…

Music festival season is upon us and this presents the perfect opportunity to experience your first taste of live music photography. Short of donning denim and leather and screaming into a microphone, nothing gets you closer to rockin’ out on stage. You might consider it an inaccessible genre that requires pro access. And while you’ll need to spend a lot of time honing your craft, if you hope to photograph headline acts such as Rod Stewart, Metallica or Taylor Swift, you may find that small venues and fledgling music festivals will welcome your Nikon with open arms. Some festivals may allow you to bring your camera along and shoot from the crowd. And since daytime shows provide less-challenging lighting than dingy, indoor venues, the learning curve will be lessened. More…

Luminosity masking is a powerful editing≈technique used for selective tonal adjustments. It’s often favoured by landscape photographers because it offers a fine degree of control over the brightness of different tonal ranges. Essentially, luminosity masking allows us to create selections around different areas of brightness. In the vibrant sunset coastal scene we have here, it means we can target the bright areas of sky around the sun, or the dark groynes in the foreground, then enhance those areas with various adjustments. There are several plug-ins that make luminosity masks, but in order to really understand how they work, it helps to know how to create your own. We can do this by using simple selection shortcuts in combination with Channels in Adobe Photoshop CC. The Channels panel lets us isolate…

This project, which I shot over the past two years, is all about connection: my connection to animals and the art form of photography; the horses’ connection to each other and the land; and our collective connection to the land and our planet. My connection to animals, which has developed continuously throughout my life as an escape from the challenges of living with Autism Spectrum Disorder, has often focused on exotic species – zebras, lions, giraffes and others – but I have a very genuine love for the UK’s floral and fauna, and for horses. I first spent time in the presence of horses during childhood days out at Fritton Lake in Suffolk, where I would spend 10 minutes on the back of a friendly pony. We would ride along…

Nikon’s retro Z cameras have proven hugely successful. But long before the Z f and Z fc tapped into Nikon SLR nostalgia, the Big N released the Df and its special edition 50mm f/1.8G. The ‘digital fusion’ was designed to bridge the gap between film and digital. Beneath its Nikon FM/FE veneer, the Df boasted the then-flagship D4’s sensor and imaging processor. And yet its 16Mp, single card slot and absence of video divided fans. But the years have been kind. The Df’s used price sits much higher than its D800 and D4 peers, likely because it is truly a one-of-a-kind camera. After all, it’s Nikon’s only retro-themed digital camera with an optical viewfinder and the only Nikon DSLR to fit truly retro non-AI glass. How cool is that? RELEASED:…

When we reviewed the Nikon Z f, we called it ‘Nikon’s best-looking camera since 1982!’ And now, together with Nikon UK, we’re giving you the chance to win this full-frame retro-style Z camera. It’s an incredible prize that’s worth a whopping £2299/$1999. Enter any of the 12 rounds of NPOTY 2024 to be in with a chance of taking Nikon’s nostalgia-infused Z camera home – and of being crowned N-Photo’s Photographer of the Year 2024. A blast from the… future? The Z f is far from retro under the hood. It’s built around a 24.5Mp full-frame CMOS sensor and inherits some of the latest advancements from the Nikon Z 8 and Z 9. It’s powered by the latest EXPEED 7 processor, has a native ISO range of 100-64,000, and uses…

Lab tests explained Sharpness A chart with multiple sharp boundaries is photographed, the extent of blur at the centre, mid and edges showing how many line widths per picture height the lens can resolve. Simply put, the bigger the numbers the sharper the lens. Fringing Chromatic aberration is visible as purple or green fringing around high-contrast boundaries, caused by different wavelengths being focused on different areas of the sensor. The larger the number, the worse the score. Distortion A lens that bulges towards the edges of the frame produces barrel distortion, shown as a negative score. Pincushion distortion produces a positive score. A score of zero indicates no distortion. Our awards in a nutshell Our scoring system…

The number one question I receive at N-Photo is: what camera should I buy next? To which I reply: what lenses do you have? We all love cameras. There’s nothing quite like picking up a new one, but while faster and more accurate AF, a better sensor and faster burst speeds might change the way you shoot, these specs are unlikely to change what you can shoot. The long and short of it You can spend thousands on a flagship Z 9; one of the best sports and wildlife cameras ever made. But if all you’ve got to go with it is a Z 24-70mm f/4 S, you’ve got yourself an F1 car and a set of slicks in the pouring rain… Give me a Z 6 and a Z…