Table of contents for September - October 2022 in Camera

I recently read a very interesting article about the three key elements of Italian car design… the concepts that have produced many of the world's most beautiful cars, but also turned everyday vehicles into cult classics. The original Fiat Cinquecento – the 500 – is one very obvious example, but there are more. The first of these design principles is expressed in Italian as “la bellezza é lo splendour del vero” which translates as ‘beauty is the splendour of the truth’, but can be distilled right down to one word ‘honesty’. A design has to have integrity to be meaningful, and it's about form and function in equal parts. This leads to the second concept, which is “il coraggio della semplicita” or ‘daring simplicity’. This is as much about the…

► Current to 29 January 2023: Exhibition. Requiem To New York – Photographs By Ashley Gilbertson. Images documenting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the people of New York where the Australian-born Gilbertson has lived for 20 years. At Level 2, The Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, Federation Square, Melbourne, Victoria 3000. Exhibition hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm daily. Entry is free. For more information visit www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Current to 30 April 2023: Exhibition. Viewfinder – Photography From The 1970sTo Now. Australian documentary photography from the last five decades drawn from the National Library Of Australia's collection. The 125 images in this exhibition reveal a changing Australia. At the Exhibition Gallery, the National Library Of Australia, Parkes Place, Canberra, ACT 2600. Exhibition hours are 9.00am to 5.00pm daily (closed Christmas…

SPECIAL FEATURE Once again this year, the knockon effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continued to have an impact on many industries that have been hit by supply-chain issues, illness-related staffing shortages – sometimes necessitating total shutdowns – and various other logistical challenges. To the mix in 2022 has been added the increases in fuel costs arising out of the on-going war in Ukraine, which has had significant ramifications for transport costs and, consequently, a huge range of goods and services have become a lot more expensive. All this has no doubt shaped what the last year has looked like for the photo industry… which is to say, just a little bit unusual. With just a couple of exceptions, all the new cameras released during our period of eligibility have been…

ON TRIAL CANON EOS R1O If you've read our review of the EOS R7, you'll remember we discussed its appeal outside the very obvious target audience – i.e. anybody who is using an enthusiast-level APS-C format Canon DSLR. It's probably the largest sector in the interchangeable lens camera (ILC) market, so there's no question the production line will be kept busy, but what about outside the Canon community? It's the same question for the entry-leve! EOS R10. Again, there'll be plenty of takers from among existing Canon DSLR users, but a wider market is a bit harder to define. It's hard to see Nikon DSLR users jumping ship – even though the R7 is far better than anything currently in the Z DX line-up – and anybody already in the Fujifilm…

VITAL STATISTICS Type: Professional digital mirrorless camera with Micro Four Thirds bayonet lens mount. Focusing: Automatic 315-point wide-area system using contrast-detection via imaging sensor using ‘Depth From Defocus’ (DFD) processing at 480fps. Manual switching between one-shot and continuous AF modes, the latter with auto subject tracking. Four ‘AF Custom’ settings for fine-tuning subject tracking with three parameters – AF Sensitivity, AF Area Switching Sensitivity and Moving Subject Prediction. Automatic subject detection for Eye, Face, Flead, Body and Animal (Dogs, Cats or Birds). Area modes for Full, Zone (Vertical/Florizontal), Zone (three sizes from Square to Oval), 1-Area (eight sizes), 1-Area+, Pinpoint (four sizes). Adjustable 1-Area point switching speed. Touchpad AF point/zone selection available via touchscreen monitor. Vertical/horizontal switching. Focus/release priority or balance selectable in AFS and AFC. AF assist via magnified…

WHAT'S NEW FUJIFILM DIDN'T WASTE a whole lot of time following up its fabulous X-H2S speedster with a high-resolution sibling called, simply, the X-H2. The two cameras are virtually identical on the outside, but quite a bit is different internally starting with the X-Trans CMOS 5 HR sensor which packs an effective pixel count of 40.2 million… the highest resolution of any APS-C format camera. It's mated with Fujifilm's latest X Processor 5 and this combination allows, among other things, internal recording of 8K video at 30fps video in the Apple ProRes codec and using the full width of the sensor. The X-H2 supports three Apple ProRes codecs – ProRes 422 HQ, ProRes 422, and ProRes 422 LT. Additionally, when recording ProRes, it also supports proxy recording such as ProRes…

Like the R7, the R10's video offerings are a bit boxed in by the capabilities of its sensor, but it's still reasonably wellendowed and certainly has everything that photographers who want to dabble in video will need… in fact probably more. There's been some trimming of features and functionality compared to the R7, which is again mostly sensor related. You can record 4K UHD at up to 25/30p using the full width of the sensor, which means that there's no cropping and the footage is oversampled at 6K, thus enhancing quality. If you want to record 4K at 50/60p, but there's a 1.56x crop involved, which is fine if you want some more telephoto power, but not so good for shooting wide-angle. The compression uses the interframe IPB regime to…

ON TRIAL BENRO TABLEPOD WOOD EDITION Before there were lightweight metal alloys and super-strong composites, all tripods had wooden legs, but it's a bit of a rarity these days. Benro has opted for walnut for its special ‘Wood Edition’ of the TablePod tabletop tripod. It certainly looks pretty smart, especially along with the mini tripod's bronze-coloured aluminium components, but the Wood Edition is a fully functioning piece of equipment. Traditionally, tabletop tripods were for applications such as still life work or photographing small objects, but now they're also handy for vloggers or video live streaming, which is why Benro includes an adjustable smartphone adapter bracket in this kit. It all comes in an attractive presentation box which has a timber-look finish, but is actually just heavy-duty paper board in construction. Inside…

ON TRIAL PANASONIC LUMIX DC-GH6 It's very likely that the GHseries Lumix cameras have been the most successful Micro FourThirds models for Panasonic, certainly as far as the high-end market is concerned. The hybrid photo/video mirrorless camera was pioneered by the GH1 back in 2009 and every subsequent generation has further developed the concept, with the GH4 and GH5 models being particularly well received by video-makers, but also professional photographers who needed to shoot video clips as well. The GH6 takes everything a step further – especially in terms of its video recording capabilities – and, in the process, also refines the hybrid camera offering in general. Of course, the GH6 is facing stronger competition than its earlier predecessors with the majority of pro-level or semi-pro mirrorless cameras now ticking the…

FUJIFILM showcase WINNER Look carefully and you'll see an object to the top right of the Moon. It's the International Space Station, travelling at 20,000 km/h as it orbits the Earth. Not surprisingly, this shot – by regular entrant Jason Freeman – took a lot of planning, using an online ISS tracking website to determine the time and the place. Jason points out that this is a single frame capture and not a composite. The clear country air of central Victoria helped highlight the colours of the lunar surface – reddish (low in iron) and bluish (high in titanium). Jason used a Nikon D610 fitted with a 150600mm f/5.0-6.3 telezoom set to 600mm. The exposure was 1/1000 second at f/8.0 and ISO 800, with the camera mounted on a tripod.…

THE VINYL REVIVAL now isn't so much of a revival as a triumphant return, so what's going on with film? My local town now has a record store just like in the good old days and, according to its proprietor, it's the proverbial licence to print money. In fact, he actually has two outlets – one for secondhand stock he acquires, and one for the new stuff and rereleases, plus the really collectible albums. In this store he also sells turntables, a nice line of Italian-made valve amplifiers (yes, valves are back too) and bespoke loudspeakers. Rarely a week goes by without somebody coming into his shop to buy a few records and a $10,000 system to play them on. There's now furniture specifically made for storing records and showing…

Nikon has updated its road map for Nikkor Z lens releases, in the process revealing plans for four new models. These are a 70180mm f/2.8 telezoom, 35mm and 135mm S line primes (likely to be fast, but not confirmed), and a 12-28mm power zoom (PZ) for the APS-C Z-mount system which is equivalent to 18-42mm. Also still to come – as per the previous version of the roadmap – are a 200-600mm telezoom, a 26mm wide-angle prime, an 85mm S line prime and a 600mm S line supertelephoto, plus a 24mm prime for the APS-C system, which will be equivalent to 36mm and also likely to be a fast lens. Visit www.nikon.com.au. Samyang has announced its first autofocus cine lens, which is also the world's first AF cine lens in…

VITAL STATISTICS Type: Entry-level to mid-range digital mirrorless camera with Canon RF bayonet lens mount. Focusing: Automatic via 4503-points wide-area system using phase-difference detection measurements via ‘Dual Pixel CMOS AF II’ giving 100% vertical and horizontal coverage. 651 focus points available for automatic selection. Area modes are Spot AF, 1-Point AF, Expand AF (vertically/horizontially), Expand AF (around), Flexible Zone AF 1 (square), Flexible Zone AF 2 (vertical rectangular), Flexible Zone AF 3 (horizontal rectangular), Whole Area AF (21x31 points). Face/eye detection for tracking people and animals available with each area mode. Adjustable AF point size (small or large). Al-based subject tracking for People, Animals (dogs, cats, birds) and Vehicles (cars and motorcycles). One-shot and continuous (Al Servo) modes with manual switching. Continuous AF with predictive function. Acceleration/deceleration tracking and adjustable…

BENRO TABLEPOD WOOD EDITION $199 Type: Tabletop tripod. Materials: Aluminium and walnut. Max. Working Height: 19.5 cm. Min. Working Height: 8.6 cm. Load Capacity: 3.0 kg. Folded Length: 22.5 cm. Leg Sections: One. Head: Ball-type with Arca-Swiss type quick-release plate. Weight: 280 grams (total with head). Main Features: Special edition model with walnut leg sections and bronzed aluminium components, ball head rotates through 360 degrees, adjustable leg angles, mobile phone adapter supplied, carry pouch supplied. Price: $199. Distributor: Maxxum Pty Ltd, telephone (03) 9314 4979, visit www.maxxum.com.au…

DIGITAL SLR CAMERAS BUYER'S CHECK LIST 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 no longer supply 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 be confirmed) are used.…