Table of contents for January 2020 in Digital Camera Magazine

With 2020 almost upon us, why not ring it in by following our top hints and tips for having your best-ever photo year? Contributing editor Claire Gillo is on hand with 13 pages of advice and insights, from page 40. Winter does afford some excellent opportunities for outdoor photography, of course, but its shorter days can present some lighting challenges – not when you’re toting a camera that can almost see in the dark, though. And that’s the theme of our Grand Bath Photo Walk, in association with Panasonic Lumix and Sigma, where we assess the low-light performance of the Lumix S1R (p90). Also in this issue, we discover how Eric Meola captures his incredible photographs of storms (p132), test the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mk III (p110) and reveal the…

1 | SUNSETS Make your sunsets sparkle Dan Mold explains how to take low-light shots with a striking starburst effect It has been long established that shooting in the ‘golden hour’, the time around which the sun rises or sets over the horizon, bathes your landscape in a flattering, dreamy, warm light. But you can further this photogenic quality by giving the sun a dramatic starburst effect. Here I’ll show you how to work out the direction in which the sun will set or rise, and where to shoot from. Because looking at the sun through the viewfinder can damage your eyes, you’ll also learn how to compose your scene with the sun in it safely. Camera settings play a large part in creating the starburst effect. You’ll need to…

Once you have a good sequence of images, you can combine them in Photoshop or other photo-editing software. It’s easier to do this if the camera remained perfectly still while the different exposures were made – ideally with a tripod, so that the shots all line up. Shooting raw files can help too, as you’ll be able to fine-tune the exposure and optimise the shadows and highlights for each image before blending them. In some cases it will be possible to adjust the exposure of a single raw file to create your source images, rather than shooting a sequence of separate exposures. But you will increase noise in the shadows if you increase the exposure too far, and you may not be able to rescue detail lost in the brightest…

To get the right exposure, you need to know the brightness range you’re working with. In order to do this, you can take a meter reading from the darkest and brightest parts of a scene in which you want to retain detail. Start by switching your camera to Manual exposure mode and dial in your preferred aperture and ISO. Now set the metering mode to Spot. Most cameras use the centre AF point to spot-meter from, so point this at an area of shadow and adjust the shutter speed until the exposure indicator you see in the viewfinder is in the centre of the scale. Note down the shutter speed, then repeat the process for the brightest area where you want to retain detail, noting the shutter speed there. Check…

Landscape photographer Title: Frozen Goit Stock Waterfall Camera: Canon EOS 6D Lens: Canon 16-35mm f/4, at 17mm Exposure: 2 sec at f/13, ISO 100 davezphotography.co.uk Yorkshire-based photographer Dave Zdanowicz recently published his third book of images inspired by his home county – and this time, it’s a collaboration with his father Paul. Yorkshire Revealed is a 128-page love letter to England’s largest county – and one with no end of photogenic locations, from stunning landscapes to areas of rugged beauty, and from picture-postcard villages to grand stately homes, as well as relics from the county’s industrial past. Dave and Paul are based in Bradford, but they travelled far and wide to shoot the best views of the county. They had photographed some of the locations before, but they also searched…

The Quick Selection Tool is arguably the best selection tool Photoshop has to offer. It works like a paintbrush, snapping on to objects and shapes in your photos. It means you can isolate part of an image in seconds, whether it’s a sky, a person, a shape or anything else you can think of. Once the shape is selected, you can make all kinds of changes. Sometimes the aim might be to make a local adjustment to the tones or colours. For more extreme edits, you might want to replace part of the photo with another image, as we’ve done here by dropping in a new background. Of course, the tool isn’t perfect. It’ll occasionally pick up the wrong area or snap on to the wrong line in your image…

Photographers tend to operate in two basic modes. One is an active mode where they go out specifically to take shots; the other is a passive mode where they have nothing particular in mind, but take a camera in case a shot presents itself. In the latter case, you may well be travelling light, with just one lens attached – but it’s worth remembering that you can always make a lens wider than its focal length by shooting a panoramic sequence. Provided you stick to a few basic rules at the capture stage, you can stitch this together in Adobe Camera Raw and create a new ultra-wide raw file that takes in the broader view. When you want to make a lens wider than its focal length, look at the…

1 Winter wildlife Wildlife is never easy to photograph, but in winter you’ll find the local wildlife making the most of feeding stations in parks and woodlands. To avoid scaring your subject, keep low and shoot with a telephoto lens. Some nature reserves even have purpose-built hides you can use. 2 Use exposure compensation Camera meters get tricked into thinking there is more light in the scene than there actually is when you shoot snow, ice or mist, so check your histogram regularly and introduce some positive exposure compensation to keep the whites bright. 3 Shoot while the snow is falling Don’t avoid shooting when the snow is falling, but be prepared to focus manually if you are using a long lens: the movement can confuse your autofocus system. Try…

Canon reaches for the stars The astrophotography-specific EOS Ra full-frame mirrorless lands this month The latest Canon camera dedicated to astrophotography goes on sale in December. The EOS Ra uses the same 30.3MP sensor as the EOS R, but with an infrared-cutting filter positioned in front of it. Compared with the standard EOS R, this modification allows for a higher transmission of the deep-red infrared rays emitted by nebulae, without requiring any other specialised optics or accessories. The EOS Ra is Canon’s first astrophotography camera since 2010’s EOS 60Da, and is its first full-frame mirrorless model for astrophotography. It will be available for £2,499/$2,499. In other Canon news, the manufacturer has confirmed development of the latest iteration of its flagship pro-spec DSLR. Due to be released in Spring 2020, expect…

£929/$899 www.tamron.eu Lens construction: 14 elements in 10 groups Angle of view: 63 degrees Diaphragm blades: 9 Minimum aperture: f/16 Minimum focusing distance: 0.3m Maximum magnification ratio: 0.2x Filter size: 72mm Dimensions: 81 x 105mm Weight: 815g (C), 805g (N) Compared with the large array of Sigma f/1.4 Art prime lenses in a wealth of focal lengths, as well as own-brand f/1.4 lenses from Canon and Nikon, Tamron has looked a step, or at least two-thirds of an f-stop, behind. Instead, the company launched slower f/1.8 35mm, 45mm and 85mm primes that were typically smaller and lighter, with the useful addition of Tamron’s proprietary Vibration Correction optical stabilisation. In contrast, the new Tamron SP 35mm f/1.4 Di USD lens goes large on aperture rating and all-round performance Something a bit…

£588/$649 www.canon.co.uk Canon’s EOS M range of mirrorless crop-sensor cameras has enjoyed a resurgence of late. Like the desirable EOS M5, the newer M50 has a built-in electronic viewfinder but, despite being cheaper, boasts a newer image processor, a larger number of phase-detection autofocus points on its image sensor, and the addition of 4K movie capture. The M50 is much smaller than the two Canon DSLRs on test, especially with its retracting 15-45mm kit zoom lens. This enables wider-angle coverage than the 18-55mm kit lenses of the DSLRs, which can be handy if you’re shooting solo and keeping an eye on the vari-angle touchscreen. Performance Video quality is pretty good in 720p and 1080p. Although the camera lacks sensor-shift stabilisation, Movie Digital IS avoids handheld jitters. 4K capture is relatively…

£547/$499 www.fujifilm.eu Neat and tidy, the X-T100 is available in black, dark silver or champagne gold, and has a slick interface. The three-way tilting rear screen is particularly useful for vlogging, as it can flip horizontally through 180 degrees as well as tilting up and down. Typical of most mirrorless cameras in the group, the high-resolution rear touchscreen is paired with a 0.39-type OLED electronic viewfinder that has a 2,360k-pixel display. The megapixel count of 24.2 is also pretty typical for an APS-C format image sensor. Like the Canon and Sony cameras, the X-T100 omits sensor-shift stabilisation. Performance Image quality is very pleasing for stills, but video looks soft and lacklustre, even at 720p and 1080p. 4K capture is disappointing, thanks to a slow frame rate of just 15fps. The…

£1,699/$1,997 www.panasonic.co.uk Bigger and beefier than the other Panasonic on test, the GH5 boasts a larger OLED viewfinder display with a more impressive 3,680k resolution. It’s the same story around the back, with an upgraded 3.2-inch, 1,620k touchscreen. The rear screens of both cameras are fully articulated. Both cameras feature contrast-detection autofocus systems but the number of focus ‘areas’ is increased from 49 to 225 in the GH5. The maximum shutter speed and burst rate for stills are faster, topping out at ⅛,000 sec and 12 frames per second respectively. Performance As with the Lumix G90, there’s no 30-minute time limit for video capture, which again benefits from five-axis, five-stop stabilisation. This time, however, there’s no additional crop factor when capturing 4K video. Outright video quality is noticeably more detailed…

Apple iCloud From £0.79/$0.99 per month www.icloud.com Apple’s iCloud system is the most logical cloud storage choice if you’re already an iPhone or Mac user, such is its seamless device integration with its host devices. As with Microsoft Windows and OneDrive, iCloud is part of the Mac Finder app, making for super-easy file backup and sharing across devices. The connection is so slick that selected folders on your Mac’s internal hard drive will automatically upload to iCloud; if you delete a file from your machine, it’ll also be deleted from the cloud. Apple also includes access to web versions of productivity apps like Pages and Numbers. The Photos app is available across all Apple devices, as well as directly through a browser. It enables you to quickly access, organise, download…

The digital advantage Your digital magazines can travel with you – even if you delete them, they’re free to re-download at any time. Subscribe today by visiting www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/photo Binders for your print issues Prefer print? Keep your mags together with our binder, which neatly holds a year’s worth of issues. We also sell back issues… www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/photo Available on the following: Apple iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch Get the free Digital Camera app for your iPad or iPhone at www.bit.ly/DC_app (UK) or www.bit.ly/DCW_app (the rest of the world), then browse through our back issues or buy a subscription using the app. Android, PC or Mac Zinio: www.bit.ly/DCW_Zinio Google Play: www.bit.ly/DCW_GoogleP Other options Digital Camera is available for Kobo, Kindle, Nook and more. It can also be found on the all-you-can read…

Eric Meola Editorial photographer Eric shoots a variety of work for his day job – but he spends every summer chasing tornadoes and capturing amazing shots. Find out how he does it on page 132. Jo Bradford Camera phone photographer Jo has untapped the rich potential of the camera built into her smartphone. Join her on Dartmoor to see how it has transformed her photography. Claire Gillo Creative photographer Photographer and journalist Claire is constantly coming up with new ideas and approaches, and shares some of her latest projects in Photo Active. Adriana Benetti Longhini Landscape photographer Adriana’s work straddles Africa and Europe. Join her on page 30 as she unites animals and the landscape in northern Italy. Quintin Lake Roving photographer Quintin has been walking around the UK coast,…

Although I make a lot of my images while I’m out on the streets, I don’t see myself as a ‘street photographer’. I don’t see myself as a ‘travel photographer’ either, despite making much of my work on my travels. I love shooting in the landscape, but loathe the association that’s generally made if I define myself as a landscape photographer. Why there seems to be a need amongst photographers to categorise photography is a mystery to me. When I did my degree in photography, many moons ago, I don’t recall the term ‘street photography’ even existing. I hate being asked what kind of photographer I am. I really don’t know how to give an answer that won’t pigeonhole me. I’ve yet to come up with a satisfactory reply. I…

TRY A 365-DAY PROJECT Unsure of where to begin? With 1 January, how about a 365-day project? Take one picture a day for a year. The subject and theme can be whatever you like, or the 365-day concept itself will tie the images together. DO SOME RESEARCH Think about what your interests outside photography are and where you can link your two hobbies together. For example, if you’re into wildlife, study the animals you want to capture. What do you want to say about them? Do you want to raise any environmental issues about that animal? How could you do that? GET NOTICED! If you have a more ambitious idea for your project, see if there is any way to get funding. There are many arts and photography grants out…

The method you choose to try to tame a wide dynamic range will depend on the subject. For example, if you’re shooting a landscape, you could use a graduated filter to control an excessively bright sky. For shots of people, a reflector or a flashgun is a viable option, as long as the subject is close enough for the extra light to have an effect. Fill flash This is a particularly useful way to balance a shadowed subject positioned in front of a brightly lit background. Filter Place the dark part of a graduated filter over the sky to bring its exposure closer to that of the foreground. Bracketing Take a series of shots at different exposures, then combine them. (See over the page for how this is done.)…

You don’t have to stress about recording detail in every single part of a scene. If you include a strong source of light in the frame, such as the sun, flames or a lamp, you’ll have to settle for these features being overexposed in order to render the rest of the scene normally. The same is true of specular highlights, such as sunlight glinting off ripples in water or metal objects: these will be clipped on the right of the histogram. But people looking at your picture will expect these areas to be very bright. Your camera is likely to have a highlight alert function tucked away in its menu – activate this, and parts of the picture that are at risk of being overexposed will blink in the display.…

Aperture, shutter speed and ISO can be measured in ‘stops’ of exposure. Each stop represents either double or half the amount of light – so going from a shutter speed of 1/250 sec to 1/500 gives one stop less light, but opening the aperture from f/8 to f/5.6 gives one stop more light. This balancing act is at the root of exposure: if the aperture, shutter speed or ISO changes, you need to change one of the others to maintain a consistent exposure for the shot.…

David Forknall Ribblehead Viaduct Star Trails “This is just a great example illustrating the earth’s movement in space. Some people think this is a Photoshop effect until I highlight the pole star (Polaris, top right) and the fact that this is simply showing the earth’s rotation and the passage of time. This was taken at two o’clock in the morning, at the famous Ribblehead Viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It was -5C. It took around an hour once I had framed the shot.” COMMENDED, 18 AND OVER AWARD David Spears Tadpole of Common frog Rana temporaria “This is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image coloured in Photoshop. At this stage in development, the external gills have been resorbed, and the mouth has changed to enable algae to be…

Photography as we know it actually started with no colour. A lot of experimenting took place to find things that allowed light to record onto a medium. That medium could have been glass, tin or paper. Even when the breakthrough was made and silver nitrate give us true black-and-white, it wasn’t without issue – the resulting prints faded over time. The solution (quite literally) was to use other chemicals to prevent this fading. This had the side-effect of changing the base tone of the photograph. Looking back now, the tones themselves are something to admire, rather than something to try to correct – so much so that we often recreate these looks ourselves. Each different process created a different tone. One of the most familiar to us is the rich…

The floodgates took a little while to open, but full-frame mirrorless cameras are here to stay and are really starting to catch on. But established big-hitters in the DSLR space aren’t the only brands to offer compelling products in this new market. Other manufacturers have created their own niches to appeal to professionals and keen amateurs alike. One such camera is Panasonic’s Lumix S1R, the brand’s first full-frame mirrorless model. It packs a 47.3MP image sensor and in-body image stabilisation, uses the expanding family of L-Mount lenses (see page 97), and is renowned for its ability to take high-quality photographs in low light. So what better opportunity to test the S1R’s capabilities than during an afternoon photo walk around beautiful Bath? Nine lucky readers would each be issued with a…

£1,399/$1,199 www.olympus.co.uk Specifications Sensor: 20.4MP MFT Live MOS Image processor: TruPic VIII AF points: 127 phase-detection AF points, all cross-type ISO range: 200-6,400 (exp Low-25,600) Max image size: 5,184 x 3,888 Metering modes: ESP multi-pattern, centre weighted, spot, highlight, shadow mode Video: C4K, 4K UHD 30p, 1080p at 120fps Viewfinder: EVF OLED, 2.36m dots Memory card: SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-I) Max burst: 10fps mechanical shutter, 15/30fps Pro Capture Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Size: 125 x 85 x 50mm Weight: 414g The new OM-D E-M5 Mark III is lighter, sharper and better than the older Mark II version. It has 20 million pixels instead of 16, plus better autofocus and an improved image stabilisation system. That’s a pretty good start! It’s arrived just after Olympus’s 100-year anniversary and fits between the more novice-orientated Olympus…

£369/$399 www.dji.com Sensor: 12MP ½.3in CMOS Lens: 24mm f/2.8 ISO range: 100-3,200 Max still image size: 4,000 x 3,000 Video: 2,720 x 1,530 at 30/25p Storage: SD UHS-1 Class 3 Connectivity: Wi-Fi Flight time: 30 minutes Size: 140 x 82 x 57mm (folded); 160 x 202 x 55mm (unfolded) Weight: 249g The DJI Mavic Mini weighs just 249g, which means it’s one of the few video-centric camera drones that doesn’t need to be registered with the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK, or with the Federal Aviation Administration in the US. It’s also DJI’s lightest, most affordable drone; it fits in a large pocket and has a range of up to 2.5 miles. The Mavic Mini’s pivoting arms collapse this quadcopter into a compact bundle, and the port locations also…

£599/$649 www.canon.co.uk Although it’s larger than the Canon M50, the 250D is only 60g heavier, weighing in at 450g. That’s less than most of the mirrorless cameras on test. Sold as the Rebel SL3 in the States, it’s a DSLR that gives you the best of both worlds for handling. The optical viewfinder gives a clear and unadulterated view of the world when shooting stills, and is especially good for tracking action in continuous drive mode. Meanwhile, the Dual Pixel hybrid phase/contrast detection autofocus system is as effective as that of a mirrorless camera, ideal for Live View stills and video capture. Performance The EOS 250D is very beginner-friendly, with ‘guided’ interfaces to smooth out the learning curve. Like the M50, the 250D delivers good 720p and 1080p video quality,…

£1,889/$2,297 www.nikon.co.uk The Z 7 has the greater snob value of Nikon’s mirrorless full-frame cameras, but all those extra megapixels are superfluous for vlogging. The Z 6 is much more cost-effective, has even better high-ISO performance and a faster burst rate for stills. A bigger bonus is that the Z 6 can oversample 4K video with no crop factor. For vlogging, the only real downside is the lack of a flip screen, as the rear LCD can only tilt upwards by 90 degrees or downwards by 45 degrees. Performance The five-axis, five-stop image stabiliser works every bit as well for video capture as it does for stills, which is a major benefit for handheld shooting. Autofocus can hunt occasionally, but it’s massively more effective and reliable for video capture than…

£999/$998 www.sony.co.uk The A6400 is considerably more compact than the competing Panasonic GH5. Body for body, it’s little more than half the weight at 403g, and the retractable ‘power zoom’ lens is a further space-saver. The little Sony really packs a punch, though, with a physically larger 24.2-megapixel image sensor, a hybrid phase/contrast autofocus system and a raft of video-centric features. The viewfinder is a little smaller than that of the GH5. The rear touchscreen has a neat tilt mechanism that enables it to flip up over the top of the camera for front-facing viewing. There’s no 30-minute limit for video capture, and no crop factor for 4K, unless you push the frame rate to its maximum 30fps. Performance In-body stabilisation is lacking, but at least the 16-50mm kit lens…

Smartphone photographer Jo is an award-winning photographer who shoots wild and windy Dartmoor. She delivers a range of photo walks and guided tours, and is the author of Smart Phone, Smart Photography. www.greenislandstudios.co.uk On a cold and showery autumnal day, I meet Jo Bradford at the iconic Haytor on Dartmoor. As we greet each other in the visitors’ car park, the sun is hitting the impressively large granite rock in the distance. This, teamed against the ominous and fast changing sky, we both agree is a great picture – unbeknownst to me, Jo has shot it before my arrival. However, we aren’t there to photograph or explore this well-known tor or even anywhere nearby; we’re heading deeper into Dartmoor, and so I jump into Jo’s car to embark on a…

Shoot portrait The weather is such an important part of your image, so by switching your camera to a portrait orientation, you can capture more of this aspect. Think carefully about what you are including in your frame as well as excluding. Look down Many photographers look up to see what’s in front of them, which is good for landscapes; but by looking down you can track for animals. On Dartmoor this means deer, ponies, sheep or cows. Go local Dartmoor is Jo’s local stomping ground – if, like her, though, you want to start a 365-project (see p44) or simply get out more with your smartphone, you’re more likely to succeed if you stay local. Experiment There are no right or wrong answers, so be experimental in your smartphone…

This compact shoulder bag fits a DSLR with lens attached, 3-4 lenses, a flash, essential accessories and a 9-inch tablet It keeps your kit clean and dry, with water-resistant and anti-scratch material on the bottom, plus a total-coverage rain cover. The bag is well-padded all round, with a non-slip shoulder strap and belt connector, and offers speedy top access to your kit. Your special Christmas offer Free shoulder bag worth £39.99 Enjoy six months of Digital Camera for just £22.49 – that’s just £3.46 per issue! Receive every issue delivered direct to your door each month A thoughtful gift that keeps on delivering throughout the year Go Premium for £69 a year and you’ll also get… Digital + print edition Magazine binder Expert PDF handbook Photography Show entry Order the…

You can bracket exposures by using your camera’s exposure compensation control or, if you’re shooting in Manual mode, by changing the shutter speed. (Leave the aperture alone so that the depth of field is consistent.) You can also take advantage of automatic exposure bracketing to take a series of shots… Sky detail Underexposing the standard exposure captures more texture in the clouds here. Shot number Most cameras can bracket a sequence of three shots automatically, although you’re free to do as many as you want to manually. Increments You need to set the compensation increments for automatic bracketing; even small ⅓ stop adjustments are usually possible.…

HDR is exposure blending with knobs on. The main difference between the two is that creating an HDR image is an automated process, so it’s quicker and easier. There are several different ways to create an HDR image, including loading the separate exposures into dedicated HDR software such as Photomatix or Aurora HDR, or by using the image merging features built into a general photo-editing package such as Photoshop or Affinity Photo. A large number of cameras now come with built-in HDR functionality, although often with limited control over the end result. On beginner-friendly cameras, it may be little more than a point-and-shoot mode, with just the final HDR JPEG saved to the memory card. Advanced cameras typically give you more control over the HDR effect, allowing you to get…

Once you’ve captured an image, and checked the screen on the back of the camera to confirm you’ve actually got it in the can, you’ll be aware there’s a range of other possibilities for how that image could look. Although the colour picture you see is composed in a particular way, there is a possible version of it in gritty black-and-white, and another with a romantic, soft-focus feel. Add to that a version with subdued colours and another with golf-ball-sized grain and a contrasting finish, and you’ll soon start to imagine a stream of different styles, each one bringing a different level of mood and feel to the original shot. Free with this issue is a set of stylish Photoshop Actions, which automatically generate a new look for any image.…

hen colour film first came into production, many people thought that black-and-white photography was done for. Yet, over 80 years later and despite now producing images digitally, the format remains as popular as ever. Get past all the clichés about monochrome, and what you’re left with is the fact that it makes images all about texture, tone, light and shape – and that’s what makes it such a powerful tool for landscape photography, among other genres. The abstraction from colour allows the viewer to focus purely on the content of the image itself. The beauty of black-and-white in the digital age is that you don’t need a home darkroom to achieve creative mono effects. Plus, you’re not confined to shooting in either colour or black and white, because digital cameras…

Quintin Lake Roving photographer Quintin is two thirds through his 6,000-mile photo walk around the whole of the UK coast. www.theperimeter.uk This month’s route Findhorn to Aberdeen 10 days, 160 miles Total so far: 5,305 miles Miles of anti-tank cubes run along the Moray Firth east of Lossiemouth, many still with strands of barbed wire wrapped around them. With the ever-present roar of Eurofighter Typhoons overhead, this still feels like the front line. Hours of walking along this are pretty soul-destroying; at least the pillboxes mean there are regular places to get out of the wind. Beige pebbledash and concrete wrestle for dominance in the town of Portgordon. Pebbledash may be unsurpassed in economy and longevity, but I suspect there’s some Calvinist pleasure to be had in uglifying these handsome…

£5,300/$5,995 www.leica-camera.com Sensor: 47MP full-frame CMOS sensor Image processor: Maestro III AF points: 225-area contrast AF with depth mapping ISO range: 100 to 50,000 Max image size: 8,368 x 5,584 Metering modes: Multi-field, centre-weighted, spot Video: 5K at 30/24/24p, C4K & UHD at 60/50/30/25/24p Viewfinder: EVF, 5.76m dots Memory card: 2 SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-II) LCD: 3.2-inch fixed touchscreen, 2.1m dots Max burst: 10fps mechanical shutter, 20fps electronic shutter, 100+ JPEG, 78 DNG Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Size: 146 x 107 x 42mm Weight: 835g (body only, without battery) We keep saying that Sony was once the only full-frame mirrorless camera maker until Canon, Nikon and Panasonic joined in – but we keep forgetting the prestigious but pricey Leica SL, launched in 2015. But while the Leica SL was easy to overlook (oops),…

£1,299/$1,349 www.canon.co.uk Canon’s most high-tech crop-sensor DSLR to date, the 90D has a new 32.5-megapixel image sensor, coupled to a processor that’s two generations newer than in the preceding 80D. Unlike the 250D, it has a pentaprism viewfinder that gives a larger, brighter image with full coverage of the entire image frame. The maximum burst rate of 10fps is also impressive for an SLR. There are key improvements over the M50 and 250D for shooting video in 4K. There’s no additional crop factor, and Canon’s excellent Dual Pixel AF system remains available. The 90D also adds a headphone socket. Performance Video quality is excellent in 1080p mode, but can look marginally lacking in clarity at 4K. Even so, the absence of a compulsory crop factor and slicker autofocus makes shooting…

£1,080/$1,197 www.panasonic.co.uk Slightly smaller and only about two thirds the weight of Panasonic’s older GH5 body on test, the G90 (G95 in the US) weighs just over half a kilogramme. Both are Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras based around 20.3MP sensors. However, the G90 adds a built-in pop-up flash while having a smaller, lower-resolution viewfinder and rear screen. The G90 is as adept at video as it is at stills capture. There’s no 30-minute time limit on video recording, so you can keep going until your memory card is full or your battery runs flat (up to about 90 minutes). Performance Video quality is great in 1080p under decent lighting but footage with ambient indoor lighting can look a bit grainy. Face and eye detection work well, and autofocus tracking…

It’s almost too close to call. The Panasonic GH5 and the Sony Alpha 6400 are both supremely capable as vlogging cameras. The GH5 adds highly effective five-axis, five-stop sensor-shift stabilisation and a headphone socket, both of which are absent in the A6400. However, the Sony’s video quality is a little crisper and more detailed. It has a physically larger image sensor, and its video quality holds up better under low lighting conditions. The A6400 is also smaller, lighter and easier to carry around on a daily basis. The Panasonic G90 is a little less appealing than either of these cameras, although it still has high-end video features and performance. The Nikon Z 6 is an exceptional camera and, again, combines high-end video capture features with outstanding performance. However, the lack…

In August 1977, photographer Eric Meola took a road trip with rock superstar Bruce Springsteen, during which they encountered an incredible storm. It inspired Springsteen – for whom Eric had shot the Born To Run LP cover – to write ‘The Promised Land’, which appeared on the 1978 LP Darkness On The Edge Of Town. It also sparked Eric’s long-held passion for storms. Since 2013 he has cleared time in his annual schedule to photograph storms across the Great Plains of the US. The photographic fruits of his storm shoots are showcased in the new book Fierce Beauty. What drove your interest in photography? My Dad was a doctor – one of his patients was an engineer and his hobby was photography. I was 12 years old, getting in my…