Tabla de contenidos para September - October 2019 en Camera

OVER TIME I’VE HAD A FEW MEDIUM FORMAT cameras, including two trusty Hasselblads (a 500C/M and a 500EL/M… of course, I’ve still got them) and a number of Fujifilm’s fixed-lens rangefinder models, in the 6x9cm, 6x7cm and 6x4.5cm formats. The Fuji GS645S Professional I bought new back in the late 1980s and, these days, it’s the only film camera I still shoot with on a regular basis. Why? Because it’s exceptionally compact and lightweight, and a basic manual, rangefindertype camera (but with the convenience of a built-in light metering), yet it still delivers superb-looking 6x4.5cm frames. When you’re shooting transparency film in particular, the bigger frame – 2.7 times bigger than 35mm to be precise – simply pops off the lightbox at you. In the ‘old days’ there was also…

THE LATEST ADDITION to Nikon’s Z mount mirrorless system is an 85mm f1.8 short telephoto which has been designed primarily with portrait and people photography in mind. The new Nikkor Z 85mm f1.8 S is a premium ‘S Line’ series lens and similar in styling to the existing f1.8-speed primes, the 35mm and 50mm models. It has a 12-element optical construction – in eight groups – which includes two elements with extra-low dispersion (ED) characteristics to minimise chromatic aberrations. Nikon says the optical design also delivers exceptional sharpness across the entire frame, even when shooting at f1.8. Additionally, it’s designed to minimise focus breathing, which is particularly advantageous when shooting video. A nine-blade diaphragm gives smoother out-of-focus effects to complement the shallower depth-of-field at 85mm and f1.8. Nikon’s ‘Nano Crystal’…

WITH FUJIFILM’S GFX mirrorless medium format digital cameras selling like hot cakes (and the 50R very keenly priced), Hasselblad has responded with the much-awaited upgrade of its stylish X1D. The new X1D II 50C uses the same 51.3 megapixels ‘44x33’ format CMOS sensor as the earlier model, but benefits from a long list of upgrades, including a new processor to improve the operating speed (i.e. start-up time, shutter lag and the shutter black-out time). There’s a small increase in the maximum continuous shooting speed which is now 2.7 fps. The sensitivity range is expanded to run from ISO 100 up to ISO 25,600, and the dynamic range is quoted at 14 stops. The new camera gets a bigger LCD TFT monitor screen – which Hasselblad says is the largest so…

OK, WELL STILL not especially cheap, but a whole lot more affordable than previously. Leica’s new M-E digital rangefinder camera is a repackaging of the Typ 240 M model and replaces the older-generation Typ 220 M-E. Consequently, the new M-E has a full-35mm format CMOS sensor with an effective resolution of 24 megapixels and a sensitivity range equivalent to ISO 200 to 6400 (extendable down to ISO 100). It has a 2.0 GB buffer memory with a maximum continuous shooting speed of 3.0 fps. You still get the classic Made-In-Germany Leica M build-quality with magnesium alloy bodyshell that’s sealed against the intrusion of dust and moisture. The top deck and the baseplate are made from brass and finished in an anthracite-gray lacquer that Leica says was specially developed for the…

IT MAY BE pocket-sized, but the seventh generation of Sony’s Cyber-shot RX100 is packed with big camera features… in fact, Sony is claiming it delivers “Alpha 9 performance in your pocket”. The new RX100 VII is built around a ‘1.0-type’ format stacked ‘Exmor RS’ CMOS sensor with an effective resolution of 20.1 megapixels and a sensitivity range equivalent to ISO 100 to 12,800 (extendable to ISO 25,600). It’s mated with Sony’s latest-generation ‘Bionz X’ image processor which enables continuous shooting at 60 fps with frame-by-frame adjustment of AF and AE and at 20 fps with no black-out of the EVF (both A9-equivalent specs). A new drive mode called ‘Single Burst Shooting’ captures at 90 fps, but only for a burst of seven images (either JPEG or RAW), and is designed…

NEW CAMERA ANNOUNCEMENTS that aren’t in the mirrorless category are becoming rarer events these days, but Canon has provided some light relief by upgrading two higher-end PowerShot compacts. The new models are the PowerShot G5X Mark II and the G7X Mark III. Both offer 4K UHD video shooting with no cropping (hence no pixel binning) on a ‘1.0-inch’ format stacked and back-illuminated CMOS sensor, and both are powered by Canon’s latest ‘DiG!C 8’ processor. The sensor in each new model has a total pixel count of 20.9 million (20.1 MP effective), giving a maximum image size of 5472x3648 pixels with the choice of 14-bit RAW and JPEG capture, the latter in a choice of four image sizes. There’s also a choice of four aspect ratios. The sensitivity range is equivalent…

Arguably the most significant photograph of the 20th century was recorded 50 years ago on a specially-prepared Hasselblad camera after the Apollo 11 lunar module, named Eagle, had successfully landed on the surface of the Moon. The date was, of course, 20 July 1969, and the camera used was the Hasselblad Electric Data Camera or HEDC, specifically modified for lunar photography – hence its colloquial title of the “Moon camera” – and based on the 500EL motordriven 6x6cm rollfilm SLR. It’s also referred to as the Hasselblad Data Camera or HDC. The HEDC body was fitted with a Zeiss Biogon 60mm f5.6 lens and a 70mm film magazine which contained specially-formulated thin-base Kodak rollfilms – either Panatomic-X fine-grained ISO 80 B&W negative film or Ektachrome 64 colour transparency stock. Ektachrome…

All the popular sensor sizes have their devotees, but it’s generally been the case that competition between the mirrorless brands has tended to be defined by format… so, Panasonic versus Olympus in M43, Fujifilm versus Sony in ‘APS-C’ and, until recently, Sony versus nobody in full-35mm (the term we’re sticking with here, because ‘full frame’ is, in reality, meaningless). With the arrival of Canon, Nikon and Panasonic in the full-35mm mirrorless category, these battle lines are being redrawn and we’ve finally arrived at the contest we’ve been predicting for a long time.The quest for the dominance of the interchangeable lens camera market (which, of course, still includes D-SLRs) sees the traditional photo brands of Canon and Nikon line-up against the consumer electronics giants Panasonic and Sony. We’re not dismissing the…

SONY HAS JUST upped the ante in ultra-high resolution cameras by installing a 62.5 mega-pixels back-illuminated, full-35mm CMOS in the Alpha 7R Mark IV. What’s more, Sony claims its new ‘Exmor R’ sensor delivers a massive 15 stops of dynamic range. The effective pixel count is 61 million, giving a maximum image size of 9504x6336 pixels. The sensitivity range is equivalent to ISO 100 to 32,000, expandable to ISO 50 and 102,800. And the big numbers don’t stop there. The A7R IV also boasts 10 fps continuous shooting with full AF/AE adjustment (and for up to 68 best-quality JPEGs), a hybrid AF system which uses 567 phase-difference detection points and 425 contrast-detection points, an OLED-type EVF with a resolution of 5.76 megadots (and a 120 fps refresh rate), and a…

THE INSTANT PRINT camera revival shows so no signs of slowing down (see comment p6), but the vast majority of models available now are essentially simple point-and-shoot types. The long-awaited MiNT InstantKon RF70 is a very different animal and provides much more control over both exposure and focus. It uses the Fujifilm Instax Wide print format – which is rated at ISO 800 and gives an image area of 62x99mm – and the print is manually ejected so there’s plenty of scope for creating multiple exposures. The InstantKon RF70 employs a classic folding design – similar to a Polaroid Land camera from the 1960s – with the lens mounted on bellows, while the main body incorporates an optical viewfinder, a separate mechanical rangefinder to assist focusing, and a built-in exposure…

THE 37TH RUNNING of the biannual Nikon Photo Contest attracted a record 97,369 entries across all three categories from more than 33,000 photographers across 170 countries and regions. This participation makes it one of the biggest photo contests in the world. Entries were invited in three categories – Open for a single photograph and photo story series on the theme of ‘Change’; Next Generation for a single photograph and photo story on the theme of ‘Identity’; and Short Film on the theme of ‘Hope’. The winner of the Open category (single image) is Jason Parnell-Brookes from the United Kingdom, and the photo story series winner is Thaib Chaidar (Indonesia). The winner of the Next Generation category (single image) is Sara De Antonio Feu from Spain, the photo story series winner…

SONY CONTINUES TO work hard at expanding its FE mount lens system and is now starting to concentrate on more specialist optics. The latest additions to the line-up are two supertelephotos – a 600mm f4.0 prime and a 200-600mm f5.6-6.3 zoom. The 600mm is a G Master standard lens (the tenth GM lens), while the 200-600mm is a G series model. The number of Sony full-frame E mount lenses is now 34. Not surprisingly, the 600mm is the longest focal length Sony FE mount prime thus far, and it’s obviously primarily aimed at sports, action and wildlife photographers. It weighs in at 3.04 kilograms and its optical construction employs 24 elements in 18 groups, including a large ‘Extreme Aspherical’ (‘XA’) type designed to optimise centre-to-corner sharpness, two with extra-low dispersion…

The Picture Margaret Street in central Sydney during mid-winter, so the low sun was creating dramatic and graphic shadows. Part of a series commenced in the early 1990s, documenting the continually changing characteristics of Sydney’s CBD. The Photographer After a long career as a corporate and advertising photographer, Bruce Usher now works as a freelancer concentrating primarily on editorial assignments for a wide variety of magazines, as well as shooting for annual reports and brochures. He is also a regular contributor to our sister publication ProPhoto, profiling the life and work of other professional photographers. The Equipment Nikon D700 D-SLR fitted with an 85mm f1.8 lens. This photograph was taken at f7.1 with a shutter speed of 1/400 second and the sensitivity set to ISO 1000. Camera hand-held, using available…

OLYMPUS PEN F 1963 The economics – and size advantages – of the half-frame 35mm format were the catalysts behind Olympus’s hugely successful Pen series of cameras. The SLR designs were hugely innovative too, with the reflex mirror turned sideways to allow for a very streamlined body. OLYMPUS PEN FT 1966 The FT model had a built-in TTL exposure meter, albeit uncoupled. A rotary-type focal-plane shutter allowed for flash sync at all speeds. OLYMPUS M-1 1972 Christened the M-1 when it was unveiled at the 1972 Photokina exhibition, Olympus’s all-new 35mm SLR – and its OM mount lens system – changed everything both for the company and for 35mm photography. OLYMPUS MDN 1969  Yoshihisa Maitani’s original ideas for a more compact 35mm SLR involved modular, box-form cameras with interchangeable film…

You have to take your hat off to Sony and acknowledge just what a huge effort it’s put into the development of its FE mount full-35mm mirrorless camera system over the last few years. Ten camera bodies and 34 lenses is no mean feat, but before the A7 arrived there was the excellent NEX series of ‘APS-C’ E mount cameras which has evolved into the 6000 series, quietly gaining more and more capabilities to make their extra compactness even more attractive. As it happens, along the way, quite a bit of the tech from the FE mount cameras has found its way into the E mount bodies. The A6400 represents just such an update so, if you were considering the A7 III, but still really wanted something more compact and…

There are numerous ‘firsts’ associated with Fujifilm’s 100 megapixels GFX series camera, not the least being that we can talk about it in relation to a potential group of users that extends well beyond a small handful of high-end studio photographers (or well-heeled landscape photographers with a lot of determination and patience). At $16,499, the GFX 100 body still isn’t cheap, but this is a fraction (and really a fraction) of what you previously had to pay for the same amount of resolution from either Hasselblad or Phase One. And, in both cases, the platform is a medium format D-SLR with all its inherent clunkiness, both audibly and operationally. The GFX 100 exploits the benefits of the mirrorless configuration to the hilt, so Fujifilm has built a 100 megapixels digital…

Of all the analog-era film products, the instant print has been the most enduring. It simply never went away, despite the demise of its chief protagonist (Edwin Land’s original Polaroid) and the swamping of photo-chemical photography by digital imaging. Right now there are more instant print cameras to choose from than was ever the case at the height of Polaroid’s popularity in the 1960s and ’70s. Aside from the many branding exercises of the last couple of decades, the ‘real Polaroid’ is back as the appropriately named Polaroid Originals, and with an appealing revival of the OneStep camera from 1977. There are numerous versions in various colour schemes and themes, but PO also offers refurbished SX-70s, 600 series cameras and Spectra models. Fujifilm – which has largely been responsible for…

WHILE THE UPDATED X1D II mirrorless camera (below) is good news, perhaps even more interesting are two other Hasselblad digital medium format products announced at the same time. One is the revival of the CFV 50C capture back, which is designed to work with the majority of V System camera bodies (such as the iconic 500 series), and the other is the 907X, an all-new super slim-line body which accepts the current X System mirrorless lenses. The 907x is a clever idea and leverages both the upgrades to the CFV II 50C back – with which it’s coupled – and the performance of the XCD lenses, but in a more classical medium format camera package than either the X1D or X1D II. Despite its very compact dimensions, the 907X retains…

NIKON BRAND AMBASSADOR and seven-times world surfing champion Stephanie Gilmore stars in a new video campaign created by Nikon Australia and called Freedom To Achieve. The video was shot entirely with the Nikon Z 6 full-35mm mirrorless camera and a combination of Nikkor Z lenses and Nikkor F mount models used on the camera with the FTZ mount adaptor. Cinematographer Stefan Jose (Goodoil Films) says he was surprised how quickly he was able to master the Z 6 after only having the camera for two days prior to starting shooting. He was also very surprised at how well the Z 6 performed in low-light situations. “We did some tests the day before and found ourselves trying to introduce noise instead of avoiding it. The mirrorless world has come on leaps…

ANNOUNCED NOT LONG after the pair of supertelephoto lenses (above) was the long-awaited mid-range fast wide-angle prime, the FE 35mm f1.8. It’s a compact and lightweight lens, measuring 73 millimetres in length and just 280 grams which means it is also suitable for use on Sony’s ‘APS-C’ format E mount cameras, where the effective focal length becomes 52.5mm. The FE 35mm f1.8 has an 11-element optical construction (in nine groups) which includes one aspherical type to correct for distortion. The minimum focusing distance is 22 centimetres and a linear-type focusing motor is used to give faster and smoother auto-focusing. There’s a nine-blade diaphragm for cleaner, more rounded out-of-focus effects. The lens accepts 55-millimetre diameter screwthread filters, and a bayonet-fit lens hood is supplied. The construction employs a mixture of metal…

Following a long association with Camera & Cine magazine under the editorships of Allan Moult and Terry Duckham (last issue in December 1978), I became involved with Iris Publishing and Paul Curtis who was the editor of the first issue of Camera Craft. Here I encountered youngsters John Back, Paul Burrows and Peter Eastway. It’s been wonderful watching everyone’s careers take flight; Paul became editor of Camera and ProPhoto, while Peter went on to launch his own magazine called Better Photography. Margaret Brown – an early Camera Craft contributor who later assumed the role of technical editor for Photo Review – also became a fast friend and for a decade or so we have, with our partners, been getting together in Sydney to talk on photography, and occasionally meet up…

WINNER A beautifully balanced composition, thoughtful cropping and a little help from the natural elements have combined to create this coolly atmospheric landscape study by Adam Fry. The location is Lake St Clair in Tasmania and this, believe it or not, is summer. Adam used a Fujifilm X-T20 fitted with a Fujinon XF 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR zoom lens. COMMENDED Great directional lighting creates the mood and modelling in David Grant’s portrait of a female factory work in Myanmar. David explains that he was part of a tour group, which can limit the opportunities for anything other than snapshots, but he spotted his subject lean into the light and was ready to grab the shot. David used a Nikon D7100 and an AF-S Nikkor DX 18-200mm f3.5-5.6G zoom…