Category: Offers

Final Cameracraft print + digital super deal

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All future editions of Cameracraft will be digital PDF downloads. All digital subscribers will be given a download link. This will include a QR code/link for ordering affordable A4 print on demand if you want a magazine copy to keep.

SUBSCRIBE NOW to our digital editions and (UK only) receive the final three issues including the latest March/April 2025 while stocks last. This issue has a black and white portfolio of Elena Dudar, sent to us from Kyiv. Elena’s portraits celebrate the strength and creativity of Ukraine’s women. She’s written a great article on her work to go with it.

Subscribe using the button below at £15 (worldwide). Only UK addresses can receive the pack of three magazines!

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Magazines, Offers, Subscriptions, Uncategorized

Portrait Pro discount boosted

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For those who must keep family or paying clients happy, in this era of completely modified selfies and altered perceptions of what a portrait should be, the latest AI version of Portrait Pro has real value. The discount has been increased pre-Christmas 2025 to 50% plus and extra 25% instead of 10% when using our new code F2BF24.

If badly out of focus faces within a group can be recovered, reflections removed from glasses, and smiles improved without the £10k my dentist suggests is necessary to replace teeth you can’t even see… take a look at this full info. – David Kilpatrick

  • Key New Features
  • Mouth Inpainting & Teeth Replacer
  • Glasses Reflection Remover
  • Face Recovery
  • Skin and Hair masks
  • Improved workflow
  • New gender and age detector

This is Face Recovery, though the lass has become a bit long in the tooth – the AI teeth are more realistic than any amount of focus retrieval and sharpening plus retouching could achieve in a few minutes.

This is Mouth Inpainting.

And this is Glasses Reflection removal, which again is a task not to be relished in Photoshop, and the top end version of PortraitPro (Studio Max) can handle in groups, in a series of shots where it’s having a similar effect.

This pair shows a cumulative but very subtle effect from the improved workflow, and it clearly compensates for failings in the colour management and lighting. It’s impressive to note that PortraitPro started life being a very obvious process, and our advice was always to turn the default sliders down rather than up. It has matured considerably. The new workflow has improved gender and age detection, and Studio Max is well-tuned to Apple Silicon to make optimum use of CPU, GPU and RAM.

PortraitPro 24 Editions

PortraitPro Standard is standalone software for photographers working with JPG or 24-bit TIFF files.

PortraitPro Studio is for photographers who work directly with RAW files or want the higher quality of 48-bit colour files, supports conversion between different color spaces, and provides JPEG/TIFF embedded color profile support. Offers Batch Dialog.  

PortraitPro Studio Max For professional photographers or those working with a large number of images. Full Batch Mode to speed workflow greatly.

Compare the different editions: anthropics.com/portraitpro/editions

Availability and Pricing

PortraitPro 24 editions are available from: anthropics.com/portraitpro

Remember to use Cameracraft’s latest code F2BF24 for maximum discount! This can also be used for PortraitPro Body, Landscape Pro and the user-recipe Smart Photo Editor.

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Offers, Press Releases, software, Studio, Technology, Trade News

WEX add 10% off all Sony E-mount lenses

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With large UK cashback offers running at the moment – example, if you buy separate A6500 and 16-70mm lenses you get £150 off the body, £80 off the lens – UK retailer WEX, one of our affiliate partners for Photoclubalpha, has added 10% off all E-mount lenses up to August 10th.

We know the UK cashbacks work as we had our cashback paid into our account just three days after buying the A6500 and 16-70mm this month. The cashbacks are selective and for example you won’t find one on the new 12-24mm f/4 FE or 16-35mm f/2.8 FE, but they still cover many choices of lenses and bodies. The 10% offer covers all Sony E-mount lenses.

For the WEX 10% discount, which they claim is exclusive to them, enter the code EMOUNT10 on any lens purchases from this Photoclubalpha affiliate URL – http://tidd.ly/7ab0de0d

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Lenses - E mount, NEX System, Offers

Sony UK cashbacks end Sept 4th

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Some worthwhile Sony lens cashbacks – some applying to in-stock lenses which may not have suffered the August price-hike yet – can be found from UK dealers such as WEX Photographic.

sonycashback

Amazon.co.uk has a reasonably good list of lenses too and the 70-200mm f/4 FE OSS G can still be found for under £1k (don’t expect this to last).

B&H (worldwide, US-based, dollar pricing) has 4% ‘reward’ off many lenses but you won’t get it on the latest models like the 70-300mm FE G OSS for example. Prices are still attractive even with the current dollar/£ exchange rate.

The UK cashbacks, we can confirm, work very reliably and quickly. We’ve bought two or three items under this system, just make sure you get your receipt and also photograph or record serial numbers. The new system does check for scammers who order a lens, send in the claim and then try to return it for a refund to the dealer, which is good news as it limits the benefits of the promo to genuine buyers and means Sony doesn’t end up footing the bill for fraud and passing it on in higher prices or limits to future promotions.

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Lenses - Alpha Mount, Lenses - E mount, NEX System, Offers

B&H has Hasselblad HV offer again

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Hasselblad HV from B&H

I feel slightly sick… I’ve spent so much on buying and replacing successive Sony A7 series cameras and their lenses that I can’t just buy this outright, which I would love to do. I sold my A99 to get the A7R (subsequently replaced by A7II, and now by A7R II) and have regretted it in so many ways, the whole optical concept of the mirrorless system being built down to a price by using innovative construction… unlike the A99 lenses which are designed even to be usable on film, let alone on a DSLR body. And then there’s GPS. I really miss GPS-in-camera and it can take me many extra hours without its benefit, to caption a 500 to 1000 final edit from one or two weeks of travel shooting to the degree of detail my work requires. And dual memory card slots… and just the whole feel of the camera.

B&H have this today for only $3,495 with the 24-70mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss lens, two batteries, and case.

And this is actually cheaper than an A99 and pretty much hand rebuilt by Hasselblad into a new body, with a hand-picked lens (you can be sure) all fitted in a Pelican-style hard case. It’s not vacant bling on a camera which does not deserve it – it’s a thorough upgrade to one of the best system cameras ever made, to make it even better.

They ship to the UK and rest of the world very reliably and honestly, if I had the spare cash, there would one on the way to me now. If you do buy from this link (anything from B&H, even if you navigate away from this offer) we do make some small commission to help support the site. Buy a hundred of ’em and I can maybe get mine!

– David Kilpatrick

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Accessories - 3rd party, DK's ramblings, Offers, Sony Digital Cameras

Blad bling going for a song

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Hasselblad HV

Well, I never really liked what Hasselblad did with the smaller Sony cameras – but what they did with the A99 is pretty cool, with the different body skin and control details. At the original price? A rip-off!

For $3999 including a 24-70m CZ lens and a special case – a bargain. This is still an amazing camera. OK, at the official price of $11,999 it would have been the badge of a wealthy eejit. At $3999 it’s a snap-up deal for anyone wanting the highly capable A99 in a form which will have wedding guests keeping their mouths shut even if they do have a cheap old Canon 5D MkIII round their neck.

B&H have this offer right now.

And for purists, they have an equally extreme reduction on the Sony NEX-7. Make no mistake, this is still a top end classic with excellent controls and it works with the older Sony hot shoe. It is only $498 with the 18-55mm lens, all in black. That’s amazing.

B&H NEX-7 with 18-55mm – reduced from $1248 to $498.

 

 

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Cameras (DSLR), News, NEX System, Offers

A77 B&H price goes through the floor

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Just got this link from B&H, ideal for our US readers – http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/817858-REG/Sony_SLT_A77V_SLT_A77_Digital_Camera_Body.html

It’s for the original A77, body only, at $549.

This is a ridiculously low price for a body with GPS which, bar a small improvement in high ISO performance stated to be 20% (I think it’s a bit more) is not far from the A77 MkII and if you have older flashguns or triggers like the Pixel King set I’ve bought recently remains ideal for flash work.

owl-sequence-web

That is a single shot at ISO 100 using an iLux Summit 600C flash head set on 10fps strobe, with the 16-80mm CZ lens at f/20 (it’s a powerful flash) and wireless triggering. Owl in our studio, working in complete darkness. The A77 didn’t suddenly stop being a great camera because the A77 MkII arrived! At $549 with (apparently) $77.38 of free accessories this ‘holiday special’ looks like a steal.

– David Kilpatrick

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Cameras (DSLR), Offers

B&H double Zeiss Touit lens deal for NEX

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I guess that Zeiss must be working right now on full frame Touit lenses, because this is unprecedented value for those able to buy in dollars without steep shipping charges, duties or taxes – however, the links they emailed out today led to a wrong page on their USED section, and after a lot of digging to get the right URL, the offer is needless to say on back order – and B&H are taking a Jewish holiday from June 3rd to 5th so you’d better jump in quickly before close of biz on June 2nd.

touit2lenses

BOTH the Carl Zeoss Touit 12mm f/2.8 and 32mm f/1.8 lenses for the E-mount for only $919 from B&H with free US expedited shipping (they do not cover full frame and I’ve tested them and found a fairly tight image circle). They are stunningly good for NEX-7, NEX-6, A6000, A3000,  A5000.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/0/Ntt/Zeiss+Touit+Lens

Here are the actual image circles of the three Touit lenses (12mm, 32mm and 50mm f/2.8 macro which is not in this deal) on A7R, without applying any distortion or vignetting correction. All the lenses have an Adobe profile and in the case of the 12mm this enlarges the image circle substantially. Normally, this means the lens is a true 12mm equivalent with the profile applied and the actual focal lenth could be closer to 10.5mm.

touit12mmf2p8-imagecircleonFF

First, the Touit 12mm without lens profile

touit12mmf2p8-imagecircleLensProfiled

Now, the Touit same shot but converted from raw applying the built-in lens profile (conclusion – the profile applies to an APS-C frame and does little good to the outer field on full frame – you are better off using the lens without the profile, including on APS-C, if you want maximum wide-angle coverage)

touit32mmf1p8-imagecircleonFF

Then the 32mm f/1.8 on the A7R (like the shot above, at full aperture – image circles generally do not get larger when you stop down, if the edge is as well-defined as these Zeiss lenses)

touit50mmf2p8-imagecircleonFF

Finally, the 50mm f/2.8 macro to complete the reference. All pictures taken from behind the counter of the Carl Zeiss stand at The Photography Show – hence the great lighting and subject-matter…

– DK

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Accessories - 3rd party, Lenses - Alpha Mount, NEX System, Offers

Free software and a cut-price lens

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You have until November 3rd to grab a free download of a truly excellent utility for Mac OSX, created by DxO Optics Pro software team – DxO Perspective. It normally costs $19.95 (or local equivalent) as an Apple App store download, but they have made it free for a few days. It’s a fully working, standard version with no time limit.

Download link for DxO Perspective from Apple iTunes, free until November 3rd

Here’s what they say:

“DxO Perspective corrects all kinds of perspective problems, even the most complex. Using its Rectangle tool, when a photo contains two perspective flaws, DxO Perspective’s Rectangle tool immediately reestablishes a full-frontal view of the object — essential when shooting a photo of a poster or painting! In 8-point correction mode, DxO Perspective handles even more complex perspectives: the independent placing of horizontal and vertical guidelines provides highly precise corrections on multiple planes.”

We can vouch for that. Here’s the software window with a straight shot, uncorrected, Sigma 12-24mm zoom on Alpha 99 at 12mm.

perspective-addpoints

Now on this example, you have a choice of adding points to correct both vertical and horizontal perspective (four indexes clicked/moved) which I have done if you examine the faint blue lines, and this will produce an extreme result:

perspective-extreme

However, for this example, you would normally onle correct the verticals and omit the four-square connections. This produces a natural result relative to any other correction method:

perspective-final

This is a 100% correction. DxO Perspective lets you reduce the degree of correction. Here is what they describe as a ‘natural’ look, 75% strength:

perspective-natural75percent

I preferred the result between 90 and 95% correction.

Midi-Pyrenees

You may ask how this differs from Adobe Camera Raw lens correction perspective control, or similar functions within Photoshop (without using special plug-ins). First, DxO Perspective is a stand alone program and does not need Photoshop, it only requires a JPEG to select and work on. Secondly, here’s the result from ACR/LR type correction, kept slightly on the ‘natural’ side of :

Midi-Pyrenees

The greatest difference is that DxO Perspective makes automatic corrections to the vertical aspect and retains the sense of height, at the same time ensuring that the sky is not compressed.

So, enjoy this free download until November 3rd 2013.

At the same time, from 12.00 midnight Eastern Standard Time on October 31st, B&H in New York announced a drop in the price of the Bower (aka Samyang) 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens for NEX, MicroFourThirds, Samsung NX, Nikon, Canon EOS, Pentax and Alpha mounts – down to as little as $209 for Alpha or NEX:

Bower 8mm fisheye for NEX – but see below!

Bower 8mm f/3.5 lenses from $209

Buy through this link and you support Photoclubalpha in a small way without paying anything extra yourself (indeed, buy any other B&H item after following this link and it will help us).

Here is some advice. The NEX model is basically an Alpha mount optical assembly with a permanently built in extension tube. We advise you to buy the Alpha version, as this is a manual focus manual aperture unchipped lens – use a NEX to Alpha adaptor, doesn’t have to be the expensive official LA-EA1 as this lens uses none of the connections. Then you have a lens which can be used on two systems.

DxO Perspective does not offer a de-fishing function but we’d make a guess that this would be a likely upgrade to the program in the near future and that’s why they are giving it away. DxO Optics Pro software itself is, after all, famous for the inclusion of lens profiles before any of the other programs (or cameras) got this facility.

– David Kilpatrick

 

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Lenses - Alpha Mount, NEX System, Offers, Software Reviews

Friedman’s Alpha 99 e-book released

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Well, we knew it would take some time – Gary Friedman has been working on his Alpha 99 e-book since the camera was pre-released to the press, and six months later, he’s got a huge volume as a result.

“This is my largest and most comprehensive work to date – 625 pages!”, Gary says.

It is available in triple-digital form: Buy a DRM-free, digital copy for USD $29.95 and you can download it ANY of the following formats:

* .pdf, (great for your computer or iPad)
* .mobi (ideal for your Kindle)
* .epub (ideal for your Nook and other e-readers).

(Printed books will be available from April 2013.)

Here’s the link.

Gary Friedman’s new Alpha 99 e-book

http://friedmanarchives.com/alpha99

Gary has just returned from Malaysia and Singapore, where he was running workshops including one for Sony themselves. He’s also just finished signing off the proofs for the latest Cameracraft quarterly magazine, published by Photoclubalpha’s owners Icon Publications Ltd, edited by David Kilpatrick with Gary as US Associate Editor.

Issue No 3, 2nd Quarter 2013, will be available from the first week of April and includes a great story on Gary’s period working in China, a portfolio proving that pinhole photography does not have be soft and murky, a look at viewpoints and the camera, the best ‘historical battle recreation’ set we’ve ever seen, and more.

http://www.iconpublications.com/cameracraft/

 

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Magazines, News, Offers
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