Table of contents for Issue 425 in Camera

INFOCUS Regular readers will know about my love of lenses and all the physics, chemistry and mechanical engineering that goes into their designs. It really came about as a spin-off from my camera collecting – specifically 35mm SLRs – because often a body would come with an interesting lens. Many were, of course, classic primes from the camera maker, but there have also been plenty of third-party curiosities from brands now long gone. In the past, these were mostly destined to sit on the shelf as very few of them warranted a roll of film even just for fun. Mirrorless has changed all that because the configuration – with its shorter flange back distance – means that mount adapters really come into their own and you can pretty well fit…

WHAT'S NEW YOU CAN READ our full road-test of the Leica M11-P elsewhere in this issue, but here’s a synopsis of another history-making M series model. Under the skin, the M11-P is largely unchanged from the standard M11, but a key new feature is the ability embed secure metadata along with an image using the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) technology. The digital provenance information – the ‘Content Credentials’ – is hardwarebased so every image taken with the Leica M11-P receives a digital signature backed by a CAI-compliant certificate. Subsequently, the authenticity of these images can be easily verified at any time using a freelyavailable, open-source CAI tool. This means that ownership and copyright details can’t be tampered with and, any subsequent editing, is recorded so, for example, a photojournalist will…

IT’S ANOTHER OF the ‘staple’ lenses for many photographers – especially if you shoot sports or wildlife – and Sony is claiming its new FE mount 300mm f/2.8 telephoto prime is the world’s lightest. Interestingly, it’s actually also the first for a full frame mirrorless camera system. The Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS weighs in at just 1470 grams (without the tripod-mounting collar) and it’s only 26.5 centimetres in length so hand-held operation is quite feasible, especially with image stabilisation to assist. The 300mm f/2.8 has built-in optical image stabilisation gives up to four stops of correction for camera shake and works in conjunction with the five-axis IBIS in the Sony Alpha series bodies to enhance the compensation for pitch and yaw. The external construction is weathersealed and employ…

TAKING A BIT of a break from launching new EOS R mount camera bodies, Canon has been busy bolstering its RF lens line-up with the addition of three interesting zooms. It’s a sign of a lens system’s maturity when the exotica starts arriving and over the last couple of months Canon has added a 1020mm ultra-wide zoom, a 200-800mm supertelephoto zoom and a 24-105mm all-purpose zoom. What makes this last lens even more interesting is that it can be fitted with one of two power zoom adapters for shooting video. The RF 10-20mm f/4.0L IS STM is the widest-angle zoom in the current RF system and the RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9.0 IS USM is the longest. At 10mm, the 10-20mm zoom delivers an angle-of-view of 130 degrees, but it employs a…

COMPETITION The Epson International Pano Awards showcases the work of panoramic photographers worldwide and continues to be the largest global competition for panoramic photography. Entries are invited in two competitions – Open and Amateur – each with two categories; Nature/Landscapes and Built Environment. There are a number of special awards; including the Epson Digital Art Prize, the RAW Planet Award, the Nikon Australia Award and The Curator’s Award. The Pano Awards were founded in 2009 by Australian landscape photographer David Evans (the 2015 AIPP Australian Landscape Photographer Of The Year) with the support of Epson Australia. This year was the 14th running of the competition. The overall winner of the 2023 Open Photographer Of The Year and also the winner of the Nature/Landscape category is José Riquelme from Spain for…

ON TRIAL LEICA M11-P It’s pretty hard for a digital Leica M camera to look anonymous. From a distance it might just be mistaken for one of Fujifilm’s X-Pro models or maybe even an X100, but up close there’s no mistaking the shape and styling. Yup, that’s a Leica alright, even if it doesn’t say so on the front. So the M11-P is the ‘stealthy’ version of the standard M11 which means that it goes without the famous red-dot badge – a dead giveaway even if you don’t know your cameras – but there’s still ‘Leica’ writ rather large on the top plate in the classic script that dates back to the 1930s. It’s engraved and painted in, of course, not screenprinted, but it does rather give the game away. Tiny…

THE NEW ZOOM ZSG-1 is a compact and lightweight on-camera shotgun microphone for video-makers. It’s supplied with a dedicated shock mount to help isolate it from camera handling noise, and it uses plug-in power from the camera’s 3.5 mm minijack audio input (or from an external recorder) and records directly to your video. The ZSG-1 employs an electret condenser-type microphone with a super-cardioid pick-up pattern which makes it highly directional and suppresses off-axis sounds coming from the sides. The frequency response has been tailored for vocals so it’s particularly suited to recording interviews, performance dialogue or vlogging presentations. A built-in high-pass filter reduces unwanted low-end noise. Weighing a mere 40 grams, the Zoom ZSG-1 can be easily used off-camera mounted to a boom pole or a pistol grip. It’s also…

GLOBAL SHUTTER SENSORS in smaller sizes have been around for a while, but Sony is the first to develop a full frame sensor with the facility and the A9 III is the first mass-production digital mirrorless camera to be equipped with one. Sensor shutters typically make an exposure – and an image – progressively by scanning the scene lineby-line vertically which, while it can be done a lot faster than with a physical shutter, still has some limitations… chiefly rolling shutter distortion with fast-moving objects, the inability to use electronic flash and viewfinder black-out. A global sensor shutter exposes using all its pixels simultaneously so it’s actually better than a physical shutter which is also progressive in its operation. We’re still using the word “shutter’ here, of course, but it’s…

The Picture Brad And Harriet is by Australian photographer Raoul Slater and it was the winner of the Family Sitting category in the International Portrait Photographer Of The Year 2023 competition. Now in its third year, the competition invites entries in four categories – The Character Study, Family Sitting, Environmental Portraiture and Portrait Story. The photo is titled, As a parent, all you want is to be listened to. The Photographer Raoul has been photographing for 40 years, always seriously but not professionally. “I am a physiotherapist full-time, working in the public sector. Both my parents were professional photographers, authors and creatives. My father handed over his camera gear to me when he took up illustration full time in 1979.” “I started experimenting with tintypes because I was becoming tired…

ON TRIAL NIKON Z f Technology has rather trumped tradition in camera design over the last decade or so, but with retro being very much in fashion everywhere – and the promise of new film cameras (serious ones, that is) any time soon – the value of heritage is starting the gain more recognition. Of course, Leica does it best with its M series digital rangefinder models, although to some extent, it hasn’t had much choice with such a strong legacy overshadowing everything. Fujifilm’s more voluntary adoption of a dial-based control layout for its X-T series cameras has arguably been a more successful marriage of the old and the new given there’s no real links to the past (the Fujica 35mm SLRs were largely unremarkable). However, Nikon really does have something…

ON TRIAL BENQ PHOTOVUE SW272U 4K ADOBE RGB 90W USB-C PHOTO MONITOR Invest all you like in camera and lenses, but an absolutely key component in the digital imaging workflow – in terms of managing the final output – is a dedicated photography monitor. No self-respecting professional photographer would be without one, but the investment has been quite a big one if you weren’t going to be earning good money from your pictures… so, often, near enough was good enough. BenQ has been building a solid reputation for making more affordable monitors aimed at enthusiast-level photographers and the recently-released SW272U is arguably its best yet when it comes to performance and pricing. In terms of its capabilities, the SW272U is essentially a pro-level model, but it’s still comparatively affordable with a feature…

COMMENT BLACK OR SILVER? Silver or black? I seemed to have had an early preference for silver until I bought my Nikon F4 back in 1986 and then it’s been all black since then, although mostly because there wasn’t any choice. The contention seemed to be that silver was more elegant and classier – perhaps because of the contrast with black inserts – and that a black finish was more workmanlike because it looked to be the choice by professionals. Did the black paint wear any better? Not really, but now that patinaed look of brass showing through the scuffs and scratches of a wellworn Leica M or Nikon F is highly desirable… perhaps even more so than mint examples especially if there’s provenance involved. If pros picked another finish…

IT’S BEEN A while since we’ve welcomed a new photo printer and the Epson SureColor P5360 is a pro-level model which also introduces a new ten-colour pigmented ink set called UltraChrome PRO10. It comes in highcapacity 200 millilitre cartridges and includes a new colour – Violet Ink – which is designed to give an extended range of blue hues. Additionally, there are dedicated channels for the photo and matte black inks, so there’s no need for ink switching which not only save time, but also reduces ink waste. The P5360 is a 17-inch format printer which means that it can print up to A2 size (432x610 millimetres) on cut sheets, but it will also accept paper rolls. The printer has an updated version of Epson’s ‘Micro Piezo AMC’ print head…

Current to 21 January 2024: Exhibition. Hoda Afshar – A Curve Is A Broken Line. Through her photographs and moving image works, Iranian-born, Melbourne-based Hoda Afshar examines the politics of image-making. At the Art Gallery Of NSW, South Building Lower Level 2, Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000. Gallery hours are 10.00am to 5.00pm daily (to 10.00pm on Wednesday). Closed Christmas Day. Entry is free. For more information visit https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au Current to 21 January 2024: Exhibition. Nikon-Walkley Press Photography awards. All the 2023 finalists on display. At the Exhibition Galleries, State Library Of NSW, 1 Shakespeare Place, Sydney, NSW 2000. Gallery hours are 9.00am to 8.00pm Monday to Thursday, 9.00am to 5.00pm on Friday, 10.00am to 5.00pm on weekends. Entry is free. For more information visit https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au Current…

ON TRIAL LEICA DIGILUX 3 Classical film cameras are enjoying a revival, so what about a classical digital camera? For starters, is there such a thing? And, secondly, why would you bother when the current tech is so good? Well, if anything, the design of contemporary digital cameras has become quite conventional compared to the early days, so there is some fun to be had with models from the days when everybody was still feeling their way around. And, given nobody has really been taking much notice of older digital cameras, they can be very cheap indeed. The Leica Digilux 3 that we’ve chosen for our first classic digital camera test cost $4,300 when it was new back in 2006 (although it was definitely overpriced) and now you can pick one…

CAMERA ICONS If you were born in the 1960s or grew up in that decade, there’s a very good chance that the key milestones in your early life were documented by an Instamatic camera… most likely badged Kodak, but possibly also from Hanimex, Halina, Ricoh, Agfa and Minolta among quite a few others. Kodak made its name – and, for many decades, its millions – devising cameras to bring photography to the masses. It was the lifelong obsession of the company’s founder, George Eastman, and it all began in 1888 with the original ‘Kodak’ box camera. This was more a complete system than just a camera, and the idea was that users never had to handle the film. Ultimately, though, sending the whole camera back to Kodak for processing, printing…