The NEX-7 is Sony’s latest mirrorless camera and it sits at the top of their NEX range. It’s an all metal, APS-C sized sensor equipped machine, intended for professionals. It features the same 24 megapixel sensor and OLED viewfinder from the Alpha 77 and Alpha 65. Essentially, the NEX 7 is almost identical in specification and performance to the Alpha 77, but packaged in a far smaller body.
Samsung’s NX200 is the electronic ‘giant’s’ latest flagship mirrorless camera; and one which they hope will be taken seriously as a photographic tool for beginners in order to compete against the likes of well-established brands such as: Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Sony, and Nikon (all of whom have many more years experience as camera manufacturers). The NX200 has a 1.5x APS-C-sized sensor. The only other mirrorless cameras to feature sensors that big are Sony’s NEX range. Panasonic and Olympus both have a 2x crop sensor and Nikon opted for an even smaller 2.7 crop. At 20.3MP, the NX200 also has the 2nd highest megapixel count for a mirrorless camera. Only Sony’s range-topper (NEX7) has more (with 24MP). At the moment, Samsung’s sensor is in fact one of highest resolution cameras on the market; regularly out-resolving many pro-level DSLR’s. On paper then: Samsung’s 2nd generation flagship mirrorless camera looks good.
The Nikon 1 system of cameras and lenses marks quite a radical leap of change for Nikon. Having used the F-mount on their SLR’s for 55 years, spanning both the film and digital age, the Nikon 1 marks many firsts for the brand.
On paper, many things about the Nikon 1 system are simply mind blowing. To me though, on the flip side of the coin, many specs defy logic. And I suspect that I’m not the only one who sees it that way. As a result, it has taken a lot of global criticism since it’s launch, but I’ll speak more about its negative attributes later.
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Ring flashes are different to regular flashes in that they offer nearly shadowless on camera images . The light surrounds the lens meaning there is no single shadow but instead a slightly dark but diffused shadow that goes around the subject. You’ll often see these lights used in music videos on MTV or in high glamour fashion shoots in glossy magazines as they create quite a dramatic and glamorous style of lighting, partially because they create very attractive catch lights in the eyes of the model. Continue reading »
Motor sports photography can be one of the most technically challenging types of photography there is. Even when you know the theory behind the right technique, that award winning photo is, many of the times, just impossible to get. Add to that the high speed action and danger of motor sports photography and you have a recipe, not only for photos coming out badly, but also possibly a quick trip to the hospital. Continue reading »
Tilt lenses open up great possibilities for getting creative with your images. But because of their high prices, they’re out of reach of many photographers budgets. Lensbaby, however, have been making affordable alternatives for a few years now. I recently got to play with the newest addition to the range, the Tilt Transformer for Sony’s new NEX mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras range. As is customary with most of Lensbaby’s models, the internal optics are intechangable, allowing one to swap the desired glass inside the body of the lens, thereby changing the focal length or affect. But Lensbaby went one step further than they did with the regular composer by allowing the element body section of the lens to be completely removable, opening up the mount part of the lens. On the remaining part still left attached to the camera is a tiltable Nikon F-mount adapter allowing you to use any D generation Nikon lens, be it fixed or zoom, as a tilt lens, opening up a vast amount of possibilities.
Today is World Photography day, so go out today and take at least one photo of something or someone special you love, even if it just taken on a camera phone, you’ll be contributing to celebrating a very special day indeed. Can you even begin to image a world without a photograph in it? We can often take them for granted but a world without photos of your wedding day, your child’s first steps and family holidays would just not be the same.
The idea of having an almost unbreakable camera you can take virtually anywhere appeals to me greatly. It opens up so many possibilities of getting a shot that would have been restricted by the elements otherwise. The Olympus Tough TG-810 is the top of the range camera in the Tough range and is dust proof, 10 meters water proof, 2 meters drop proof, resistant to temperatures of -10 degrees Celsius and 100kg crush proof. So when given the camera to test, my imagination immediately went wild with ideas I’ve long wanted to recreate with my DSLR but was unable to because of it’s “allergies” to water.
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My brother is 5 years younger than me and, since finishing matric not long ago, has been thinking about what he wants to study after high school. After much thought (and changing he’s mind countless times) he’s decided to follow in my foot steps and study photography and so asked me what I’d recommend for his first camera. Continue reading »
In this eBook,* duChemin explains how to achieve greater depth in ones photos. In photography, depth can mean many things but he makes it clear of what type of depth he’s referring to. He isn’t referring to emotional depth, conceptual depth or, in his own words, “rich symbolism that illicit the “”Whoa man, that’s deep,” responses from the black-turtleneck, art-nic crowd.” He discusses spacial depth and 3 dimensionality in the physical world. In essence, how to take a 3 dimensional world and portray it the way you want to in a 2 dimensional medium. Continue reading »
Before I get started I should mention this isn’t an article on photographic equipment. This is about the often ignored non-photogtaphic equipment that will actually make shooting easier that no outdoor shooter should be without Continue reading »
I must admit, I love lomography. I love the high contrast, the grain, the vignetting and the intentionally bad image quality. I love the retro look and the concept of taking a camera with you everywhere and shooting the odd random picture completely unplanned. Lomo has a way of taking mundane subjects and making them look like art. It has so much character and is completely different to the clinically perfect results of modern digital cameras with the correct colors and exposure. Continue reading »
A few months ago when the X100 was first announced , I immediately became very excited. Despite being of a completely different generation to when rangefinders were commonplace, I love their simplicity and style of shooting. In the modern world of DSLR’s and digital compacts, rangefinders are becoming scarce. Due to the nature of how a rangefinder works, today’s method of trigger happy shooting where just holding down the shutter button to take hundreds of photos, hoping at least one will be a “keeper,” isn’t encouraged. Composition requires effort and focusing requires time. Because time is taken, it forces the user to think hard about shooting and usually the result is better photos. Continue reading »
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