Cameracraft magazine – Taking your practical photography further
Peter Crouch cuts a striking figure on the football pitch at the best of times and when recently asked to train the UK Sony ‘Twilight Football’ team ahead of their big game on the 22nd September, the outcome was some simply stunning imagery. (Editor’s note – continue reading to see the ‘stunning imagery’… but have somewhere handy to put the hair you tear out)
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Received today from Nikon:
TOTAL PRODUCTION OF NIKKOR LENSES REACHES FIFTY MILLION
Nikon Corporation is pleased to announce that its production of NIKKOR lenses (interchangeable lenses for Nikon SLR cameras) reached a total of fifty million units last month.
Nikon released the first NIKKOR lens, the NIKKOR-S Auto 5cm f/2 in 1959, along with Nikon’s first digital SLR camera, the Nikon F. In the fifty years since the launch, NIKKOR lenses have been extremely well received by a great number of photo enthusiasts and professional photographers.
Nikon’s current product line-up includes more than sixty NIKKOR lenses for Nikon SLR cameras, from fisheye lenses, super wide-angle to super telephoto lenses and micro lenses.
For more information about the range of lenses and cameras please visit www.nikon.co.uk
(no prizes of 50-year-old digital camera will be offered for correct answers!)
Emerging photographers seeking support for their work have until the end of the month to apply for a bursary of up to £20,000 from the National Media Museum. Following the success of the scheme in 2007 and 2008, the National Media Museum in Bradford, in partnership with five sponsors, is inviting applications until 25 September 2009, as part of its ongoing commitment to new photography.
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Nikon has teamed up with six of the industry’s most influential technology suppliers to bring cutting-edge, digital workflow solutions to professional photographers across Europe.
Nikon, Adobe Systems, Apple, Hewlett Packard, Nik Software, Wacom and X-Rite have joined forces for a unique, nine-city Creative Alliance Tour. The tour has been set up to provide creative professionals with a comprehensive insight into a complete digital workflow. A full-day seminar will take place at each city stop, hosted by photo professionals and evangelists Keith Thompson, Kevin Dopson, Robin Preston, and Guy Gowan among others. These influential master photographers will demonstrate live shoots, and talk about why colour profile and calibration is key to getting the best end product.
From image capture to printing and marketing, delegates of the Creative Alliance Tour will learn how to achieve optimum results (high resolution in, high resolution out) using the most innovative techniques available to photographic professionals. The seminars will consist of inspirational presentations and in-depth technical workshops, with the opportunity to share questions and experiences with the experts.
“The long-established professional photographic community has seen dramatic changes to photographic technology in the past few years, with the transition from silver halide to digital, and from traditional SLR to digital SLR. Combining the resources and expertise of the seven companies, this tour will provide a unique platform for the photographic community to learn about the latest technological innovations and take advantage of a complete digital workflow within their existing production process,” said photographer and digital artist, Robin Preston.
Photographers should not miss this opportunity to gain valuable insight into the latest workflow tools that could help their business maintain its competitive edge.
Registration and dates
The Creative Alliance Tour has started in Ede on the 24th June 2009, in the Netherlands. The tour will resume the 15th September 2009 in Manchester and 17th September 2009 in London.
Spain, Germany, Italy and France will follow in October and November 2009. For the exact dates and registration information please visit: www.thecreativealliancetour.com
I don’t have an Alpha 500 or 550 here yet, even though Photoclubalpha has been second in the Google search results for ‘Sony Alpha 550’ for some time and remains so as I write (the New York Times is first). That’s not bad for a WordPress blog website which does NOT employ the services of the dozen or so ‘search engine optimisation’ experts who contact us each week! Hopefully we’ll have a review camera very soon, preferably the 550.
In the meantime, a few samples have been posted on various sites which show the raw conversion engine of the camera/s (not necessarily the JPEG compression stage, as always seems to be assumed) has been radically revised. Sony call this ‘enhanced BIONZ’ and I think there’s a clue to how it has been enhanced in the relationship of Sony Europe and DxO Labs, the French company which specialises in in-camera process analysis and development.
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Sony has announced the Alpha 850 today, without a press conference, but via email to editors. The press release follows, confirming pretty much everything we have already been able to reveal about the 850. One exception – it does have dual BIONZ processor, not single, just a slower image throughput perhaps due to clock speed, buffer, processing firmware changes. We must hope that the slower capture rate is accompanied by superior image quality, as that is a real possibility. I have marked in bold any phrases which I think might indicate something new. Apparently the body-only deal is to appear one month before the kit.
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Sony has announced the Alpha 500 and 550 today with an official release to all press. No press conference was held for the UK press and any advance information received has been given indivudally to journalists. There is a press event tonight in London but this is VERY specifically stated to be for trying out the new Cyber-Shot models at twilight. The official release follows.
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ALL the current DSLRs made – whether by Canon, Nikon or even Sony with the A700 and A900 – state their maximum fps continuous shooting speed as being with NO autofocus, and NO exposure metering changes. There’s a lot of talk on forums about the 7fps of the new Alpha 550 – 14.3 megapixel CMOS APS-C with a good high ISO capacity – being in some way crippled because it has been made clear by Sony that this speed applies to a ‘lockdown’ of focus and exposure with the first frame. This is not surprising as it’s a quiet, mirror-up mode using the off-sensor live view to maintain contact.
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ACCORDING to specifications revealed on a German site, the new Sony Alpha 500 will have a 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor capable of providing Live View to the rear 3 inch medium resolution screen – with Manual Focusing at 14X magnification. The in-prism based Quick AF Live View is retained, giving a choice between two entirely different systems of Live View, Sony’s innovative and easy solution scanning the focus screen, and a critically accurate alternative for tripod work. The camera may sell for just €50 more than the Alpha 380 – or break the £500 body only barrier in the UK right from the start.
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Adobe’s Camera Raw Release Candidate 5.5, which introduces global corrections for all Bayer sensor cameras requiring a differential value treatment between the two Green channels, has a visible effect on the colour of Sony Alpha file conversions.
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