Innholdsfortegnelse for V74 issue 3 i Pro Photo

How much notice do we take of so-called brand ambassadors? They’re everywhere these days, spruiking everything from coffee to cars. I don’t know about you, but my car-buying decisions tend to go a lot deeper than an endorsement by a sports star, either major or minor. Likewise, my camera gear. Nevertheless the photography industry seems to be one of the most prolific users of the concept as a marketing tool, and it’s been this way for as long as I can remember. But does it really work? If you’ve been around for as long as me, you’ll probably remember that during the glory days of the epic Kodak-versus-Fujifilm and Canon-versus-Nikon battles it was brand ambassadors at twenty paces (although they weren’t as grandly titled back then) with the side contest…

Brisbane photographer Forough Yavari is the 2018 Queensland Portrait Photographer Of The Year. Ms Yavari won the prestigious title for a second consecutive year for her stunning portraits depicting the inner-strength of women. She emigrated to Australia from Iran seven years ago, and says it was the AIPP that began her illustrious photography career. “When I moved to Australia I was a complete stranger here,” says Forough. “I didn’t know how to start my career as a photographer, but through the AIPP, I’ve met many talented photographers across Australia and made wonderful friends.” Her previous award-winning portraiture was inspired by the on-going conflicts in the Middle East. “With my portraits I have found an outlet to demonstrate stories of the women around the world and the constraints, discrimination, or oppression…

Sports photography in particular has been the exclusive domain of the high-speed D-SLRs, either ‘APS-C’ or full-35mm, and 35mm film reflexes before this. There has never been a viable alternative… until now. It’s taken a while, but now that competitive autofocusing systems are a reality, mirrorless cameras are ready to exploit their potential for high-speed shooting derived from doing away with the reflex mirror. All of a sudden we’re spoiled for choice… the Sony A9 (or even the A7R III), Panasonic’s Lumix G9 and now Fujifilm’s X-H1. The Fujifilm X-T2 had already attracted the attention of some sports/action shooters, but the X-H1 goes a whole lot further, particularly in terms of its potential durability, a very D-SLR-like design (no doubt deliberate) and important new features such as in-body image stabilisation.…

By Canon’s own admission, the new EOS M50 is its “most intuitive and advanced mirrorless camera yet”. This is good news for fans of the brand who’ve been waiting for it to get a bit more competitive in the mirrorless sector, and we certainly agree that the M50 is the best thing it’s done so far. Similar in styling to the M5 – so it looks a lot like a down-sized D-SLR – the M50 steps up in many areas, including Canon’s latest-generation ‘DiG!C 8’ processor, the inclusion of more autofocusing points, 4K video with a frame-grab function, in-camera image stabilisation, faster continuous shooting, a new and more efficient 14-bit RAW file format, and a monitor screen that’s now adjustable for both tilt and swing. The M50 employs the same…

Announced a few months ago, Tamron’s first accessory lens for Sony’s FE mount will be available from the end of May. The 28-75mm f2.8 RXD zoom is a Di III series lens (Tamron’s designation for lenses for full-35mm mirrorless cameras) and employs a new autofocusing drive called ‘RXD’ which stands for Rapid eXtra-Silent Stepping Drive. Stepping motors are becoming more frequently used for autofocusing systems because they’re not only very quiet, but provide the smoothness which is especially important when shooting video. The Tamron lens supports Sony’s ‘DMF’ (Direct Manual Focus) function which provides a full-time manual override of the autofocusing. It also supports Sony’s in-camera corrections for vignetting, chromatic aberrations and distortion. The minimum focusing distance is 19 centimetres at 28mm and 39 centimetres at 75mm which gives a…

If you’re a regular reader of Fairfax Media newspapers, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Canberra Times or Newcastle Herald – to name just a few – and have an interest in the Middle East, you will know journalist Paul McGeough’s byline. But I can’t remember when I first started to see Paul’s byline paired that of photographer, Kate Geraghty. It just appeared one day and never went away. “I don’t think anyone is prepared for that kind of stuff. I’d never been in hospital wards with horrifically wounded people or seen dead bodies… you’re just there recording!” Well, Kate herself was actually often away, covering world events – in 2003 for the Solomon Islands Intervention, 2005 and the Aceh tsunami and Mindanao in the Philippine for a story…

Current to 24 June: Exhibition. Waves & Water – Australian Beach Photography. Images depicting Australian beach culture from the 1880s, including works by Harold Cazneaux, Max Dupain, Ray Leighton, Jeff Carter, Roger Scott, Ian Lever, Narelle Autio, Anne Zahalka, and Michael Cook. At the Australian National Maritime Museum, 2 Murray Street, Darling Harbour, Sydney, NSW 2000. Entry is free. Museum hours are 9.30am to 5.00pm daily. For more information telephone (02) 9298 3777 or visit www.anmm.gov.au Current 24 June: Exhibition: World Press Photo. 150 winning images representing the world’s best photojournalism from 2017. At the State Library of NSW, Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000. Exhibition hours are 9.00am to 8.00pm Monday to Thursday, 9.00am to 5.00pm on Friday, and 10.00am to 5.00pm on weekends. Entry is free. For more information…

A world record price of €2.4 million – that’s around A$3.7 million – was paid for a LEICA ‘O’ series camera at an auction in Vienna, Austria, in mid-March. The O series cameras – also known as null series cameras – were a short run of 31 hand-built pre-production models made during 1923 and 1924 to evaluate various aspects of operation and manufacture, and which carried the serial numbers 100 to 130. The record-breaking camera is number 122 and one of only three that is known to have survived in original condition. In an even more extensive upgrade for FUJIFILM’S X-T2 ‘APS-C’ mirrorless camera, firmware version 4.0 adds no fewer than nine new features or improvements, including F.Log internal recording for video, Full HD recording at 120 fps (for slow-mo…

The winner of the Photographer Of The Year title in the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards is British artist Alys Tomlinson for her series Ex-Voto. The work was praised by the jury for its beautiful production, technical excellence and sensitive illustration of pilgrimage as a journey of discovery and sacrifice to a greater power. In addition to the title, Alys wins the Award’s major prize of US$25,000. After receiving her award, she commented, “I am very surprised to have won, there is so much amazing photography in this competition. This is a huge boost both personally and professionally. It’s a project I invested so much in, so this recognition makes it all worth it”. Alys Tomlinson was selected from the ten category winners of the Professional competition, her submission also…

Type: Professional digital mirrorless camera with Fujifilm X bayonet lens mount. Focusing: TTL automatic hybrid system using both phase-difference detection and contrast-detection measurements. 325 measuring points (25x13 pattern) in total, 169 for phase-difference detection. Single-point, zone (7x7, 5x5 or 3x3 point clusters selected from 91 zones) and wide/tracking modes. Five ‘AF-C Custom’ settings for optimising tracking via Tracking Sensitivity, Speed Tracking Sensitivity and Zone Area Switching. Face/eye detection with left/right priority. Manual switching between one-shot and continuous AF modes. AF+MF mode. Lowlight assist via illuminator. Manual focus assist via magnified image, ‘Digital Split Image’ display (colour or B&W) or focus peaking display (white, red or blue; low or high levels). Sensitivity range is EV -3.0 - 18 (ISO 100). Metering: 256-point multi-zone, centre-weighted average, full average, spot and TTL flash.…