Table of contents for November-December 2015 in Camera

THE RECENT NEWS that Cosina – surely the most enigmatic of Japanese camera makers – is ceasing production of its Voigtländerbadged Bessa 35mm rangefinder cameras is disappointing, but isn’t necessarily the end of the world as far as film cameras are concerned. True, the Voigtländer cameras were close to being the last 35mm film cameras that you could buy brand new and not spend a small fortune, likewise its M mount lenses. Leica – God bless it – has committed to making it 35mm RF cameras for as long as the sun shines, but obviously neither the M7 nor the MP are cheap propositions if you just want to have a dabble. There are lots of options if you want something quirky in film cameras – fantastic plastics, instant print…

Anybody who uses a tripod on a regular basis will know that even the very good ones can still be frustratingly time-consuming to set up. The main issue is achieving accurate levelling which can often involve numerous resetting of each leg’s extension… and even then you’ll still find that you’ve ended up with a bit of a slope. The popular ‘short cut’ has been the ball-type head which certainly allows for quick fine-tuning of levels, but means you have to go without the tilt and pan movements of a conventional head. The standard ball head is only absolutely level in one position. So what if you could have the best of both worlds? Well, you can with the UniqBall. Most of us had never heard of the UniqBall until this…

Type: Fully automatic digital SLR with Pentax K-AF bayonet lens mount. Focusing: Automatic via 11-point wide-area system using phase-detection type CCD sensor arrays (nine cross-type arrays). Auto (11 or 5 point modes) and manual point selection. Manual or auto switching between one-shot and continuous modes, the latter with a predictive function. Sensitivity range is EV-3 - 18 (ISO 100/f1.4). AF assist provided by built-in illuminator. AF micro-adjustment for individual lenses (up to 20). Contrast-detection AF in live view and video modes. Manual focus assist in LV via magnified image and peak focus displays. Metering: 77-zone evaluative, centre-weighted average, spot and TTL flash. Metering range is EV 0 to 22 (ISO 100/f1.4). Exposure Modes: Program with shift, shutter-priority auto, aperture-priority auto, shutter-and-aperture priority auto, sensitivity-priority auto, metered manual, and P-TTL flash.…

Who’d have thought it? Not so long ago we were in the grip of zoom fever, but now prime lenses are back in fashion… the faster the better and even, with quite a number of models, good old manual focusing. Of course, a lot of the current activity is being generated by the rise and rise of the mirrorless systems, but even with the D-SLR brands essentially whittled down to just three, there’s still a lot happening here too. Never one to sit still for very long, not surprisingly, Sigma is doing its bit in both categories, but it’s the Art Series lenses for D-SLRs which are really on target right now. The line-up started with a classic 35mm prime, following by a standard 50mm and, more recently, a 24mm…

VITAL STATISTICS Format: Micro Four Thirds. Effective Focal Length: 21mm. Angle-of-View: 93 degrees (diagonal). Construction: 13 elements/10 groups. Two aspherical types (three surfaces) and one ‘Super High Refractive’ type. Minimum Focus: 17 cm. Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 1:8.2. Aperture Range: f0.95 – f16. Overall Length: 82.4 mm. Maximum Diameter: 77.0 mm. Filter Diameter: 72 mm. Weight: 585 grams. Features: All-metal barrel construction, switchable aperture collar (click-stopped or continuous adjustment), ten-bladed diaphragm, depth-of-field scale. Metal ‘petal’ lens hood supplied. Price: $1395. Distributor: Mainline Photographics, telephone (02) 9437 5800, or visit www.mainlinephoto.com.au…

Current to 6 December: Exhibition. The Alchemists: Rediscovering Photography In The Age Of The JPEG. Artists from Australia, Japan,Thailand and New Zealand explore the creative relationship between analogue and digital processes in photographic practice. At the Australian Centre for Photography (ACP), 257 Oxford Street, Paddington, NSW 2021. Gallery hours are 10.00am to 5.00pmTuesday to Saturday, 12.00 noon to 5.00pm on Sunday. For more information telephone (02) 9332 0555 or visit www.acp.org.au Current to 16 February 2016: Exhibition. The Enclave. An immersive, six-screen video art installation by Irish contemporary artist Richard Mosse filmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo using 16mm colour infrared movie film. At Level 3, the NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3000. Gallery hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm daily.…

INTERNATIONAL FOOD Photography And Film Day takes place on Thursday 12 November 2015 and it’s a day to celebrate food photography and film in a caring sharing way. Why not put together a smorgasbord of food and celebrate your favourite food cultures with family and friends? The ‘Food For Sharing’ theme for 2015 is designed to inspire you to take a winning shot or video of your favourite feast. Wherever you are on Thursday 12 November, you can create your own food masterpiece. If you’re looking for inspiration, visit the Food For The Family and Food For Celebration Finalists’ gallery at https://www.pinkladyfoodphotographeroftheyear.com/finalists-gallery Everyone who takes part on Face-book, Twitter and Instagram on Thursday 12 November 2015 using the hashtag #FeastSocial will automatically be entered into a draw to win an…

PROVING THAT WINNING THE first Australian Idol competition back in 2003 was no flash in the pan, singer Guy Sebastian has gone on build an international career and is now a talent show judge himself, working on several seasons of The X Factor. So far, Guy has released eight albums, all which have reached the top ten of the charts, two of them reaching number one. A recent highlight was represented Australia in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest – the first time Australia has been allowed to actually compete – and finishing a creditable fifth. Not surprisingly then, Guy is a very busy man indeed, but we managed to catch up at his inner city recording studio in Sydney. As he turns the key to unlock the door, he admits…

Initially video didn’t seem to be a particularly big priority for Olympus on its D-SLRs and then on the Digital Pen mirrorless cameras, but all that changed with the OM-D E-M5 Mark II and the new version of the E-M10 follows suit. It has virtually the same video package as its bigger brother which means this is a big step up from what was offered on the original model. It also means that the E-M10 Mark II offers an exceptional level of video functionality for its comparatively low price tag. As noted in the main text, it has the ‘OM-D Movie’ image stabilisation options which include one that combines both the five-axis sensor-based correction with image shifting to enable smoother hand-held shooting. The electronic stabilisation involves applying a small crop…

Format: For full-35mm format or ‘APS-C’ size sensor D-SLRs. Focal length on the latter is equivalent to 36mm (with a magnification factor of 1.5x). Angle-of-View: 84.1 degrees (diagonal). Construction: 15 elements/11 groups. Minimum Focus: 25 cm. Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 1:5.3. Aperture Range: f1.4 – f16. Overall Length: 90.2 mm. Maximum Diameter: 85.0 mm. Filter Diameter: 77 mm. Weight: 665 grams. Lens Mount(s): Canon EF, Nikon F (D-type AF), Sony A and Sigma S-AF. Features: Two aspherical elements, three ‘FLD’ (“F” Low Dispersion) glass elements, four ‘SLD’ (Super Low Dispersion) glass elements, internal focusing, nine-blade diaphragm, ultrasonic AF drive, full-time manual focus override. Lens hood and carry pouch supplied. Compatible with Sigma’s USB Dock for firmware upgrades. Price: $1049. Distributor: C.R. Kennedy & Company Pty Ltd, telephone (03) 9823 1555 or…

VITAL STATISTICS Mount: Micro Four Thirds. Effective Focal Length: 16mm. Angle-of-View: 180 degrees (diagonal). Construction: 17 elements/15 groups. One aspherical type, Three ‘Super ED’ types, two ED types, one ‘Super HR’ type and two ‘HR’ types. Minimum Focus: 12 cm. Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 1:5.0 Aperture Range: f1.8 – f22. Overall Length: 88.0 mm. Maximum Diameter: 62.0 mm. Filter Diameter: N/A. Weight: 315 grams. Features: Fully weather-protected construction (dust, moisture and subzero temperatures), seven-bladed diaphragm, Olympus ‘ZERO’ multi-coating, built-in ‘petal’ lens hood. Price: $1399 Distributor: Olympus Imaging Australia, telephone 1300 659 678, or visit the website at www.olympus.com.au…

When you’re the market leader, everybody wants to beat you and so, in the video action-cam business, GoPro is squarely in the gunsights of a growing phalanx of rivals which includes mainstream brands such as Panasonic and Sony and a host of lesser known names, quite a few of them coming from China. Thanks mostly to GoPro, the actioncam market is now very big business indeed, greater in value in some regions than the sales of conventional video camcorders. The challenge for the competition is that GoPro had the business pretty much all to itself for a very long time… long enough to become ‘standard issue’ in professional film and TV production… long enough to establish widespread support among third-party accessory suppliers… long enough, in fact, to virtually become a…

CANON’S RECENTLY-ANNOUNCED EF 35mm f1.4L II USM L Series fast wide-angle lens is the first to incorporate the company’s newly-developed ‘Blue Spectrum Refractive’ optics. Also a world first, the ‘BR Optics’ technology employs a special organic optical material which has been engineered at a molecular level to significantly reduce chromatic aberrations via its ability to refract blue light. Ordinarily, it’s difficult to converge these shorter wavelengths to a single plane which subsequently results in longitudinal chromatic aberration (evidenced as colour fringing along high-contrast edges). The BR Optics technology is incorporated into a compound element as part of new 35mm’s 14-element optical construction which also includes two aspherical types to correct for distortion and one made from ‘Super UD’ (ultra-low dispersion) optical glass which also helps counter chromatic aberrations. The Mark…

Cosina – the current keeper of the Voigtländer marque – has announced it will cease production of the Bessa-Series Voigtländer 35mm film rangefinder cameras and a large number of L and VM mount lenses. This means the end of the road for the remaining R2M, R3M and R4M bodies (all the A’ models ended last year) so if you want one of these hugely affordable modern M-mount classics, you’ll need to act fast. Production of the SL and SL II Series lenses for selected 35mm SLRs is also ending. Production of Micro Four Thirds mount lenses continues. Voigtländer products are distributed in Australia by Mainline Photographics, telephone (02) 9437 5800 or visit the website www.mainlinephoto.com.au…

IF YOU’RE STILL getting your head around Canon’s 50 megapixels D-SLRs, the message from the company is that you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Canon had released details of various development projects which will see it move the Cinema EOS system up to 8K video and its EOS D-SLR system up to 120 megapixels. What’s more, also in the pipeline is an APS-H’ format sensor (which is slightly larger than APS-C’, giving a focal length magnification factor of 1.3x) with a staggering resolution of 250 megapixels. This CMOS-type sensor has an imaging area of 29.2x20.2 millimetres and delivers an output of 19,580x12,600 pixels. Canon also claims an ultra-high signal readout speed of 1.25 billion pixels per second which has been made possible through circuit miniaturisation and enhanced signal-processing technology. As a…

Type: Fully automatic, interchangeable lens digital camera with Micro Four Thirds System bayonet lens mount. Focusing: Automatic 81-point wide-area using contrast-detection measurement via the imaging sensor. Focus points may be selected manually or automatically by the camera. Manual switching between one-shot and continuous AF modes. Face/eye detection and auto tracking. Continuous manual override available with single-shot mode. Focus assist via magnified image (3x/5x/7x/10x/14x) and focus peaking display (Red, Yellow, White or Black; High, Normal or Low intensity). Metering: 324-point ‘Digital ESP’ (i.e. multi-zone), centre-weighted average, spot (2.0%) with highlight/shadow bias, and TTL flash. Metering range is EV -2.0 to 20 (ISO 100/f2.8). Exposure Modes: Continuously-variable program with shift, shutter-priority auto, aperture-priority auto, metered manual, TTL auto flash and TTL flash. Plus 25 subject/scene programs. Automatic scene detection in ‘iAUTO’ mode.…

There’s still the impression that shooting video isn’t a key priority on Pentax D-SLRs, but the functionality is steadily improving and the K-S2 is as capable as its closest rivals from either Canon or Nikon. Clips are captured in the MOV format using MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression with a choice of 30, 25 or 24 fps recording speeds. The K-S2 has built-in stereo microphones supplemented by a 3.5 mm stereo audio input and the sound levels can be adjusted manually. The program, aperture-priority auto, shutter-and-aperture priority and manual exposure control models are available. Time-lapse movies can be created in the Motion JPEG format and there’s a nifty mode called ‘Star Stream’ which merges multiple frames to create the effect of moving stars when recording night skies. Nine of the special effects…

We’re looking for the most talented teenage photographer in Australia so, if you’re aged between 13 and 19, and think you’ve got what it takes to be published on these pages, then start putting your portfolio together. The search for the Australian Teenage Photographer Of The Year is on! There are six chances to impress us with a great portfolio of pictures – and three of these are already gone – so don’t miss this great opportunity to get into print (and on our Website) and possibly kick off a career in photography. At the end the competition, we’ll judge all six portfolios and crown somebody the Australian Teenage Photographer Of The Year. Our good friends at Canon Australia have given us an EOS 750D D-SLR with an EF-S 18-135mm…

VITAL STATISTICS Format: Micro Four Thirds. Effective Focal Length: 14-28mm. Angle-of-View: 114 to 75 degrees (diagonal). Construction: 14 elements/11 groups. Two aspherical ED types, one ‘Dual Super Aspheric’ type, one aspherical type, three ‘Super ED’ types, one ED type, and two ‘HR’ types. Minimum Focus: 20 cm. Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 1:8.3. Aperture Range: f2.8 – f22. Overall Length: 105.8 mm. Maximum Diameter: 78.9 mm. Filter Diameter: N/A. Weight: 534 grams. Features: Fully weather-protected construction (dust, moisture and subzero temperatures), seven-bladed diaphragm, Olympus ‘ZERO’ multi-coating, ‘MF Clutch’ for fast AF/MF switching, customisable ‘L-Fn’ button (via OM-D and Digital PEN bodies), built-in ‘petal’ lens hood. Price: $$1699. Distributor: Olympus Imaging Australia, telephone 1300 659 678, or visit www.olympus.com.au…

Type: Compact 4K and Full HD video actioncam with stills capture function. Lens: 2.7mm f2.8 (15.2 mm equivalent in 35mm). Six elements optical construction including aspherical types. 10x digital zoom. Focusing: Fixed range (distances not quoted). Sensor: 16.35 million pixels (effective) ‘Exmor R’ back-illuminated CMOS with 6.16x4.62 mm imaging area. Still Capture: 4608x3456, 4000x3000 or 3200x2400 pixels with continuous shooting at 3.0, 6.0 or 10.0 fps. Video Recording: Cinema 4K = 4096x2160 pixels at 12 fps progressive scan and 17:9 aspect ratio. Ultra HD 4K = 3840x2160 pixels at 12.5 fps progressive scan and 16:9 aspect ratio. Cinema 2.7K = 2704x1440 pixels at 24 fps progressive scan and 17:9 aspect ratio. 2.7K = 2704x1524 pixels at 25 fps progressive scan and 16:9 aspect ratio. Full HD = 1920x1080 pixels at…