Table of contents for January - February 2022 in Camera

AS HAS BEEN THE CASE SINCE THE EARLY 1970s, Canon and Nikon have again shadowed each other pretty closely with their next generation of pro-level interchangeable lens cameras. It’s worked out pretty neatly that we have both on test in this issue, and it again illustrates the different philosophical approaches of each brand in the execution of a professional camera. While the EOS R3 and Z 9 have plenty in common, they’re also quite different in a number of key areas… and this has been the case over the decades of the two going head-to-head in the pro category. Of course, the big deal this time around is that we’re seeing the first full-frame mirrorless pro cameras from the traditional rivals, so there’s perhaps a bit more riding on their respective…

The Picture Titled Dirtbag Superhero and the overall winner of the Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2021. Also winner of the Masterpiece by SanDisk Professional category. The location is Indian Creek in Utah, USA. The climber is Jake Talley. The Photographer Will Saunders, Utah, USA. “I was 19 when a professor convinced me to pick up a camera for the first time. I fell completely in love with the art of making an image, I was truly obsessed. I was making images of my friends who were badass kayakers, bikers and climbers. Working closely with mentors and constantly learning, I started to build my own style and an understanding of the industry. Today I live in Utah, still chasing this obsession of making images that impress my mind. I’m lucky…

The Architectural Photography Awards showcases a specialist expertise and aims to focus on the skill and creativity of the photographer. The awards are supported by the World Architecture Festival (WAF), the World Architecture Festival China, and Aluprof UK. The 2021 competition provided for two overall winners – the Panel Judges winner and the World Architecture Festival Delegates winner. The Panel Judges winner was Liu Xinghao from China with an image titled Holidays During The COVID-19 Pandemic, which shows Raffl es City (designed by Safdie Architects) in the background. The location is Chongqing in China and the image was entered in the Sense Of Place category. Liu Xinghao explains how the winning shot came about. “The photo was taken on May 17, 2020 during the dry season of [the] Yangtze River.…

If all your photography practice has been in the digital era, you may not know that Fujifilm had a very productive ‘previous life’ as the maker of film cameras. Of course, the company started out making film – for both photography and cinematography – but in 1948, it introduced its first camera, a 6x6cm ‘folder’ called the Fujica Six. The Fujica brand was derived from Fuji Camera and remained in use until the mid-1980s. The company introduced its first 35mm camera in 1957, a rangefinder design called the Fujica 35M. Subsequently, there was a steady stream of developments introduced in successive models, culminating in 1962 with the Fujica 35mm Auto-M, which was the world’s first 35mm camera with programmed exposure control. During the 1970s and ’80s, Fuji was very much…

NIKON PROMISES A SWAG OF NEW Z-MOUNT LENS NIKON IS PUTTING the pedal to the metal with its rollout of Z-mount lenses with an updated roadmap revealing plans for a set of supertelephoto primes in the 400mm, 600mm and 800mm focal lengths, a 200-600mm supertele zoom and a fast 85mm prime. The 400mm supertele is an f/2.8 speed S-series lens and includes an integrated 1.4x teleconverter to give a focal length of 560mm (see separate new piece). Announced along with the Z 9 are two new Z-mount zooms and a new, more compact F-to-Z mount adapter called the FTZ II. The new zooms are the Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4.0 S and the Nikkor Z 100400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S. The F-mount 24-120mm zoom was a popular lens for Nikon’s full-frame DSLRs,…

AS PART OF the transfer of Olympus’ imaging business to Japan Industrial Partners Inc – where it now operates as OM Digital Solutions – the license to use the Olympus name has expired and all new products will be branded ‘OM System’. The OM initials date back to the launch of the famous OM-1 35mm SLR in 1972 (originally to be called the M-1 until Leica objected), the camera and system that helped established Olympus as one of the ‘big five’ Japanese camera makers. The ‘M’ acknowledged designer Yoshihisa Maitani who also created a number of other significant Olympus cameras, including the Pen F half-frame 35mm SLR and both the XA and mju series of 35mm sub-compacts. The Olympus name was first used in 1936 on a 6x4.5cm format folding…

When we reviewed the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III in the May/June 2020 issue, we concluded that it was the most capable interchangeable lens camera that money could buy… either DSLR or mirrorless. It was – and still is – an amazing machine; able to shoot any subject in any situation and deliver superlative results no matter what, with supreme reliability thrown in for good measure. Good though the Nikon D6 undoubtedly is as well, it’s nowhere near the multi-talented all-rounder that its Canon rival is. OK, so there was the little matter of the price tag – nudging $11,000 at the time and still up there now – but the rather bigger matter is its size and weight. It’s truly a big beast, tipping the scales at not much…

Many of us feel challenged photographically if its starts to rain or there’s a bit of a trek to reach a good location, but what if you had to film yourself jumping out of a helicopter… or free diving in freezing Icelandic waters… or surfing some of the biggest waves in the world? Long-term friends and adventure filmmakers Blake ‘BT’ Thornton and Matt ‘Gilso’ Gilsenan – a lifeguard and a carpenter in their other lives – have spent the last nine years travelling to extreme locations in Iceland, Alaska, Tahiti, Canada, New Zealand and, of course, Australia to shoot an epic 90-minute documentary they’ve titled Chase That Feeling. The pair filmed over 300 hours of footage – most of it in challenging conditions of one sort or another – and,…

FUJIFILM X-T30 II When we road-tested the original X-T30 in our July/August 2019 issue, we concluded that it, “punches above its weight in terms of both its features and performance, in particular the autofocusing and the image quality”. A lot has happened in the mirrorless camera world since then and the competition in the APS-C cropped sensor segment has gotten hot. There have been new cameras from both Canon and Sony, plus Nikon has weighed in with its Z DX system, with the retro-styled Z fc, in particular, out to give Fujifilm a run for its money. The updated camera is a proper Mark II in terms of what’s been changed and what hasn’t… which, in terms of the latter, is an awful lot. It’s a bit like the upgrades…

50 Years Of Canon-vs-Nikon Pro Camera Rivalry Nikon F (1959) In the beginning, realising that the rangefinder camera has its limitations, Nikon creates the world’s first professional 35mm SLR system. Interchangeable accessories such as view finders and motordrives created the flexibility to cater for a wide range of applications. Lens system spanned 21mm to 1000mm. Canon F-1 (1971) It took over a decade for Canon to decide that having a pro 35mm SLR system was a good idea, but this also gave it plenty of time to come up with a serious competitor. The FD lens mount made its debut too. High Speed version (1972) could do 9fps. VS Nikon F2 (1971) Second-generation pro cameras came with lots of new conveniences and a faster shutter, but at this point both…

www.teds.com.au DIGITAL SLR CAMERAS BUYER’S CHECK LIST JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 THIS CHECKLIST is designed to allow direct comparisons between different camera models, listed here in price order within each brand. The published prices are mostly supplied by the distributors as recommended retail prices (RRPs). However, some distributors are no longer supplying RRPs to the media, so it has become necessary to determine an ‘estimated street price’ derived from the range of prices for a model published by retailers. Where this has been necessary, the letter ‘E’ appears at the start of the entry. A dot appearing in a column indicates that the feature is available on the camera model listed. Where a specification or product detail hasn’t yet been published or confirmed, the letters TBA (to be announced) or TBC (to…