C

JULY/AUGUST 2017 • £5.95

mer
cr
ƒt INCORPORATING f2 FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER

THE BIGGER BRYN GRIFFITHS

PICTURE CHERNOBYL MY SWEET

DAVID NOTON
ROGER SPENCER-JONES RETINA
CHERYL WALSH
PARVEZ SATTER
FESTIVAL
COVER BY PAUL MACPHAIL
WILLIAM BARRINGTON BINNS

THINKING BIG
BIGGER SENSORS
MORE MEGAPIXELS
BIGGER PRINTS
BIG IDEAS

GEAR
OLYMPUS 60mm ƒ2.8 Macro
SIGMA 50-100mm ƒ1.8 DC
150-600mm C, 105mm Macro
ADAPTALUX LED
MACRO LIGHTING
SIGMA sdQUATTRO H
SONY FE 85mm ƒ1.8

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 1

2 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
 ƒ2 C
VOLUME 2 No 5 (CC #17, f2 #89) JULY/AUGUST 2017

mer
cr
ƒt
Edited and Published by
DAVID & SHIRLEY KILPATRICK
f2photo
Icon Publications Ltd
Maxwell Place, Maxwell Lane
Kelso, Scotland TD5 7BB
editor@iconpublications.com
+44(0)1573 226032
News & Tests Editor COVER 45
RICHARD KILPATRICK Taken with an iPhone by Paul SCALING IT UP
RTK Media, The Grange MacPhail, this image nevertheless Stephen Power talks to two
Pincet Lane, North Kilworth made a full scale exhibition print photographers for whom sheer
Leicestershire LE17 6NE for Edinburgh’s independent Retina scale counts – David Noton with
richard@rtkmedia.co.uk Festival of Photography, where Paul’s 28 his huge landscapes, and Roger
+44(0)1858 882105 work was selected in the Emerging Spencer-Jones with big sheet film
Talent section. and monorail cameras.
Associate Editor, USA 26
GARY FRIEDMAN
4 MAKING THE BIG TIME 56
Huntington Beach, CA 92646 Gary Friedman takes up our theme
NEWS A CLOSER VIEW
gary@friedmanarchives.com of big stuff, proves you don’t Stephen wanted to get closer to
Associate Editor, Ireland 11 need big sensors, and talks to two his subjects and picked the Sigma
STEPHEN POWER A BIG PRINT RIPOFF photographers who think big. 150-600mm for outdoor reach, the
stephenpower1@eircom.net Wall posters, acryclics, art prints same maker’s 105mm for macro.
and canvases are big business in 30
Advertising & Promotion
retail decor – and as Paul Spencer A GLIMPSE OF HEAVEN 58
DIANE E. HENDERSON Gary visits a new art gallery
discovered, their producers are ADAPTALUX LED MACRO LIGHT
dianehenderson@ concept where the work is shown
often no respecters of copyright. We test a successful Kickstarter
iconpublications.com on big screens and printed on the project creating a new way of
+44(0)1573 223508
14 spot. lighting the smallest of subjects.
TEST: SIGMA sd QUATTRO H
f2 Cameracraft is published six
The Foveon Quattro sensor gives 60
times a year May/June, May/June,
a 25 megapixel image as sharp as 35 OLYMPUS MACRO 60mm ƒ2.8
July/August, September/October,
November/December, January/ most 50 megapixel files reduced, This must simply be the neatest
February. On sale in the month with a larger than APS-C 1.3X factor. and best little macro lens capable
before first month of cover date. of life size on MFT.
Distributed by COMAG: 16
www.comag.co.uk TEST: SIGMA 50-100mm ƒ1.8 DC 62
ISSN 2050-7844 A long standard to short tele SONY 85mm FE ƒ1.8
zoom range and fastest ever At less than twice the price of
UK subscriptions cost £35.70 for six
aperture combine with impeccable Canon or Nikon equivalents, in
issues. Europe £41.70. Rest of World
£46.70. Cheques to the publisher’s corrections. Sony money this lens is a bargain!
address made payable to ‘Icon
Publications Ltd’ or subscribe at 19 62
www.iconpublications.com THINKING BIG REARVIEW GALLERY
Icon Publications Ltd can accept no responsibility for loss of or damage to On the benefits of big sensors, big No entry fees, no repro fees, no
photographs and manuscripts submitted, however caused. Responsibility
for insurance and return carriage of equipment submitted for review or
files and big prints. contest! Just pictures we like.
test rests with the owner. Views expressed in this magazine are those of 35
the individual contributors and do not necessarily represent the views
and policies of Icon Publications Ltd or its advertisers. All technical 23 PORTFOLIO: BRYN GRIFFITHS 67
data and pricing information contained in news and feature articles
is printed in good faith. While all advertising copy is accepted in good
RETINA FESTIVAL Bryn is an FBIPP and a QEP OPINION
faith, Icon Publications Ltd can not accept any legal responsibility It happens before the big festival (Qualified European Photographer, One size does not fit all – and
for claims made or the quality of goods and services arising from
advertising in this publication. All contents including advertising season – from June through July, Brexit or not). He’s also a Hasselblad rapidly improving very small
artwork created by Icon Publications Ltd are copyright of the publishers Master and for his linked project
or the creators of the works, and must not be reproduced by any means
Edinburgh’s own photo festival. sensors show us why APS-C,
without prior permission. Tip: visit Ocean Terminal shopping visited Chernobyl. He contrasts its MicroFourThirds and the One-Inch
©2017 Icon Publications Ltd. E&OE.
centre! relics with slick studio counterparts. formats may have a bright future.

Print your own cards for all Special Occasions with 50 x A5 or 25 x A4 Imajet Pre-Scored Satin-Matt
239gsm Cards with Envelopes...only £12.98 Sign up for enewsletter for special offeres & promotions

Check site for Special Offers & Promotions

FREE UK P&P ’til Aug. 31st Checkout Code F2JUA

sales@on-linepaper.co.uk

FOTOSPEED SIGNATURE PLATINUM ETCHING 285 ALSO AVAILABLE IN PANORAMIC SHEETS FOR A4 AND A3 PRINTERS

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 3

NEWS
Lens choices for Sony
FROM SONY come new 12-24mm
ƒ4 FE G OSS and 16-35mm ƒ2.8
FE GM OSS lenses, together with
a 100mm ƒ2.8 STF portrait lens,
rounding out the now rapidly ex-
panding range of E-mount lenses.
for the new A9 and its sub-£4,000
stablemates.
SAMYANG has a new 35mm ƒ2.8
which looks as small as the Zeiss,
and will undercut the price while
(if their track record counts) giving
equal performance.
From ZEISS, the Batis 2.8/135
is the first 135mm AF in FE-mount.
Like the 85mm ƒ1.8, is has an op-
tical image stabiliser and an OLED
display enables visualisation of the
depth of field.
www.sony.co.uk
Lomography’s new galaxy
Neptune Art Lens System
$599/999
Lomography
IT SEEMS few months can pass be-
fore Lomography launches another
Kickstarter campaign, and in this
case, it’s perhaps more of a presale
than development funding. The
Neptune convertible lens system
provides a mount with aperture or
waterhouse/effects stops to which
an initial range of three prime
lenses can be attached, covering
35, 50 and 80mm optics. During
the campaign a fourth, wide-an-
gle lens was announced. Since the
Kickstarter has ended at the time of
4 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
send your news releases & events to richard@rtkmedia.co.uk
Nikon pushes DSLR dominance ahead with new lenses
ADDRESSING the market that
third-party makers have had to
themselves for far too long, Nikon
have turned their attention to deliv-
ering extreme wide angles for their
full-frame bodies. The AF-S Fisheye
8-15mm ƒ3.5-4.5E ED comes in
at £1,299.99 and presents an unu-
sually specialised lens for Nikon’s
current range. The circular fisheye
transforms to a full-frame covering
wide angle, and a competitive price
makes this a very appealing lens for
Apple goes dark for the Pro market
£4999
Apple iMac Pro
IT’S 20 YEARS since Apple’s beige
boxes went black to signify the
higher-powered models in the
range, and thankfully we’ve come
publication, the initial order price of
$599 is no longer relevant, though
it may be the case that the lenses
are available at that figure at some
stage – at the moment, it looks like
the three lens system will retail for
around £900 when launched. The
front elements are attached with
a rapid bayonet mount, and the
lightweight kit provides for quick
swapping of lenses on your man-
ual-focus rig. Body mounts suit
Canon, Nikon and Pentax - mirror-
less and rangefinder user will need
to use an additional adaptor.
www.lomography.com
creative photography as well as the
scientific applications of the circular
fisheye.
Similarly, APS-C DX format pho-
tographers get to go wide, at a
much lower cost with the AF-P DX
Nikkor 10-20mm ƒ4.5-5.6 G VR
– stabilised and offering the versa-
tile 15-30mm equivalent coverage
for a low £329.99 SRP. Enhancing
the range of fast primes, the
AF-S Nikkor 28mm ƒ1.4E ED at
£2,079,99 brings a single-marque
a long way from the compromises
of the Performa range. Facing ac-
cusations that it has neglected the
professional market, 2017’s new
iMac range includes a high-power
variant. Apple have retained the
slim all-in-one design, but the pro-
cessor architecture now includes an
18-core option, 8GB Radeon Vega
graphics with on-chip memory, 4
Thunderbolt 3 ports, 10GB Ethernet,
10-bit graphics and display capabil-
ity and 32GB RAM minimum, up to
256GB. It’s likely that the specifica-
tions will not include the ability to
upgrade after build, but for many
the 8-core, 8GB graphics and 32GB
RAM will be more that sufficient.
And, like the original Performa flag-
ship models, the iMac Pro stands
out in matte space-grey finish,
complete with matching keyboard
and mouse or trackpad. Availability
is scheduled for December; Apple’s
new iMac range has also been up-
dated with the 21.5” model now
featuring discrete graphics and 4K
Retina display in the entry-level
£1,249 model and all models mov-
ing to Thunderbolt 3, faster proces-
sors and enhanced graphics.
iPad Pro expands
£619-upwards
Apple iPad Pro 10.5”/12.9”
ALONGSIDE the traditional June
WWDC announcements of the next
Mac OS and iOS developments, the
iPad received a new form factor for
system option for one of the most
popular focal lengths in landscape,
street and wedding work, with ex-
cellent control of DoF and a close
focus of 28cm for dramatic perspec-
tives. Weathersealed and with the
same build quality as Nikon’s profes-
sional bodies, this flagship fast-wide
prime will no doubt be at the top of
full-frame photographers’ wishlists
this year. Availability on all three
lenses begins from the end of June.
www.nikon.co.uk
the Pro model. Apple’s work on the
ARM-based architecture continues
to yield levels of performance that
would once have been considered
workstation-class, and the A10X
“Fusion” processor in the latest iP-
ads features six processing cores
and 12 graphics cores for a 30-40%
improvement in performance with-
out a drop in battery life. In the
most significant change since the
iPad Pro range was introduced, the
smaller form factor has moved from
a 9.7” display to 10.5”, with smaller
border and bezels. Apple pencil per-
formance has been improved, now
featuring a 20ms response time
paired with a 120hz screen refresh
rate for natural drawing and control,
As more photographers move to
the iPad not just as a static presenta-
tion tool, but as a creative device in
its own right, the improvements in
graphics and processing are highly
relevant; Apple have also improved
the camera to the same specifica-
tions as the iPhone 7, with optical
stabilisation, but not the dual cam-
era mode of the 7 Plus. iOS 11, due
around September, recognises the
iPad’s role as a content creation de-
vice and finally offers a “Files” app
that brings together the local and
cloud storage and suggests, finally,
the iPad’s position is migrating to
that of a lightweight computer in
the traditional sense rather than a
browser/entertainment device.
www.apple.com
NEW FINE ART BOOK

Introducing the new Fine Art Book. The luxury photo book with stunning
Mohawk pages and unique cover. Our fine art range now offers even more.

• Three NEW cover styles

• All new Luxury Linen
• Five Sizes
• Exclusive Mohawk fine art paper
• Up to 80 spreads
• Boutique Presentation Box included

Discover more...Visit loxleycolour.com or call 0845 519 5000

fe s s i ona s s i onal
o fe
s s i onal s ional P
P ro o fe A fe s r
l Pr Pr F ro
st

od
ra

016 est P
lb
La

t
t
Be

B es
Bes

me

uc ts The S
um
b

2016
B
016

016

016
The

The

The
s2

s2

s2

s2
S

oc oc oc oc
BEST
ieti d ieti d ieti d ieti d
es Awar es Awar es Awar es Awar
PROCESSING LAB
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 5
NEWS
Holiday specials!
Nikon W300
£389.99
STAYING with the theme of robust
travel cameras, Nikon’s range has
also expanded with the new W300.
Sticking with the 16Mp size that
seems to have taken root as the
best compromise for the compact
market, the W300 offers 30m under-
water capability, 2.4m shock resist-
ance and 4K video alongside GPS
and 5x optical zoom, all in a com-
pact, ergonomic body. The ƒ2.8 ap-
erture allows fair control of depth of
field with the relatively small sensor,
and Nikon have included five axis
optical stabilisation for action pho-
tography. At under £400, it’s a rather
more appealing option than risking
your iPhone in extreme conditions.
SnapBridge wireless transfer allows
those images to be shared almost
as quickly as if you’d taken them on
the smartphone, too, keeping your
Instagram friends happy.
www.nikon.co.uk
Ricoh WG-50
£249.99
Continuing their popular line of
WG waterproof, shockproof and
robust compacts, Ricoh’s latest
WG-50 includes a 16Mp sensor and
5x optical zoom equivalent to a
28mm-140mm lens, offering 14 me-
tre depth waterproof and 1.6 metre
shock resistance. The lightweight
body comes in black or orange, and
includes scene modes and lighting
to allow 2Mp digital microscope
Macro detail, HD movies with 1280
x 720p slow motion/high frame rate
capability, underwater shooting
mode, flash bracketing and inter-
val/remote abilities. Under 200g,
the 123 x 62 x 30mm dimensions
mean it falls outside the draconian
restrictons proposed on some inter-
national flights, but currently cam-
eras are not included in those limits.
As the best smartphones become
more expensive, there’s a lot to be
said for dedicated pocket versatil-
ity - particularly if you’re travelling
anywhere with sand and sea this
summer!
www.ricoh-imaging.co.uk
6 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
send your news releases & events to richard@rtkmedia.co.uk
Profoto backs Olympus
OCCUPYING the high-end of the
lighting market, Profoto’s historic
associations with medium format
systems would seemingly make
them an unlikely source for pioneer-
ing the consumer-driven mirrorless
push into the professional arena.
However, Olympus’ association
with high-end fashion and studio
photography and the success of the
OM-D E-M1 MkII has tempted the
release of a dedicated TTL trigger
with HSS support for Olympus, link-
ing the diminutive bodies with the
Profoto Air system seamlessly. The
compact transmitter supprts the
Profoto Pro-10, D2, B1, and B2 flash-
es, with a 300m range, 8 channels
and 3 groups per channel. Support
for the OM-D M1, M5 and PEN-F is
confirmed for launch models.
www.profoto.com/air-remote-ttl-o
Canson TIPA award
TECHNICAL Image Press
Association (TIPA) has announced
that Canson Infinity Baryta
Prestige 340gsm won their 2017
award for the best inkjet photo-
graphic paper.
“It has the look and aesthetic feel
of traditional darkroom paper”, said
the judging panel. “This is a durable
paper that gives a sense of rich-
ness and depth to the tonal values
and nuances, with the appearance
and sharpness of traditional glossy
paper, but without the intense bril-
liance of gloss papers. Its grammage
and durability makes it really easy
to work with without preventing
it from being suitable for use in al
photo inkjet printers on the market.”
The award was due to be presented
this month by TIPA in Tokyo.
www.canson-infinity.com
The L.Type – a new superfine true photo print
LUMEJET Print Technologies
Limited has launched a new L.Type
print, the culmination of over 15
years of research into silver halide.
With L.Type the fusion of classic
analogue silver halide materials,
digital print technology and su-
per-accurate colour management
mean that the company is able
to offer outstanding print quality.
400dpi true continuous tone imag-
ing of the paper from the printer’s
proprietary print head allows pin-
sharp text and graphics alongside
photographs, ideal for photo books.
Wedding photographers go by the book
UK WEDDING photographers love
photo books as a replacement for
traditional albums because books
are zero rated for VAT. No VAT to pay
for the printing and binding, no VAT
to charge the customer. It works for
every photographer whether VAT
registered or not.
photobookconcept.com offers
high-end wedding and presenta-
tion books which offer generous
margins, very fast turnaround and
consistent quality thanks to fully
automated production. Book pro-
duction can be done by machine
better than by hand, with ICC colour
managed workflow and a design
interface which prevents photogra-
pher errors.
Already a top selling brand in
Germany and Austria, with produc-
tion in Hungary since 2008, photo-
bookconcept has succeeded in an
EU market where there’s no zero VAT
Jonathan Glynn-Smith, pho-
tographer and filmmaker (above)
comments: “L.Type reproduces the
detail of an image with such clarity
and sharpness that it will amaze any
photographer that wants the very
best.”
Established in September 2015,
LumeJet Print Technologies Limited
is a UK digital print innovator, of-
fering the world’s only 400dpi true
continuous tone photographic
and commercial printing on silver
halide.
www.lumejet.com
advantage. In 2016 they launched in
the UK, where photobook printing
is now the most popular way to cre-
ate albums.
Apart from the tax and cost ben-
efits, clients love the look and feel of
books in place of bulky covers and
pages. And UK photographers have
grown to love continental book
printing quality.
Wrap-around photo covers, lay-
flat opening, durable spine, choice
of fabrics and finishes, photo win-
dow cover and deep embossed
leatherette options are enhanced
by matching presentation boxes.
photobookconcept.com offers:
• Free demo sets
• A 50% discount on your own
sample books
• A white label on-line gallery for
the wedding couple or portrait cli-
ents to view
www.photobookconcept.com
MAKE IT AN Original
You can always trust in our photo paper, whether you’re a
professional or a keen amateur photographer. Whatever
you need, our range of silver halide paper types delivers
exceptional quality and has the perfect product for you.
All our photo paper types guarantee:
• Amazing colour longevity
• Brilliant whites
• Continuous tone

CREATIVE PAPERS ALBUM PAPERS SHARING PAPERS PROFESSIONAL PAPERS

Fujicolor Crystal Archive Fujicolor Crystal Archive Fujicolor Crystal Archive Fujicolor Crystal Archive
Professional Textured Paper Canvas Album Paper Paper Digital Pearl Paper

Fujicolor Crystal Archive Fujicolor Crystal Archive Fujicolor Crystal Archive Fujicolor Crystal Archive
Professional Textured Paper Linen Album HD Paper Paper Supreme Digital Paper Type DP II

These high-end photo papers

are for professional use and
requirements. They have a
luxurious look and feel and
a thick base, and produce
deep blacks and exceptional
sharpness.

Fujicolor Crystal Archive Fujicolor Crystal Archive Fujicolor Crystal Archive

Professional Textured Paper Leather Premium HDX Paper X-Tra Coat Paper Supreme HD

Fujicolor Crystal Archive Fujicolor Crystal Archive Fujicolor Crystal Archive

Professional Velvet Paper Album Paper XS Writable Paper

For ultimate creativity: this
creative, professional range has an
impressive, unique surface finish,
making it ideal for all photo ideas.
Turn pictures into masterpieces for
the fine art market.
Preserve and enjoy your most
precious moments. These album
papers are designed for beautiful
lay-flat photo albums and offer
ultimate paper thickness or
outstanding thinness.
Turn moments into everlasting
memories with this supreme paper
range. Create beautiful prints
and keep memories alive with
excellent image stability.

www.originalphotopaper.com
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 7
 ADVERTISING FEATURE

Let’s get back to a

T silver future
he Fujifilm Europe B.V challenge was to
assemble a cluster of print experts from
professional labs around the UK, secure
their undivided time and attention for a full
two days and create an opportunity to not
just see the creation process first hand but to
hear about the exciting future of silver halide.
The tour was also timed to coincide with the
launch of Fujifilm’s new ‘Make it an Original’
silver halide photo paper campaign – which
focuses on creating awareness of the blos-
soming silver halide marketplace and Fujifilm’s
own inventory of twenty-seven different colour
papers with varied surface types and sizes.
For those that believe that the unstop-
pable tide of digitisation has all but carried
away traditional processes it might come as a
surprise to hear that silver halide has a future
at all in fact, but the pro labs know better, and
Fujifilm’s classic Crystal Archive paper, revered
for its exceptional quality and archival qualities,
is still the media of choice for professional and
hobbyist photographers right across the board.
But nothing stands still, and the lab repre-
sentatives who had been invited to Fujifilm’s A group of leading UK pro labs visited Fujifilm’s vast photo-
vast Tilburg plant in Holland, an enormous
150-acre site that, amongst many other things,
graphic paper manufacturing plant in Tilburg, Holland, to
outputs the photo paper on which over a third see for themselves that silver halide technology is alive and
prints made worldwide are output, were keen very much kicking..
to see for themselves the work that goes on
behind the scenes to keep Fujifilm ahead of
the game and to hear about the plans that
are afoot to ensure that silver halide products
continue to hold their own.
Those making the trip comprised owners
and senior managers from Loxley Colour,
Metro, GF Smith, One Vision, Bayeux, Digi-
talab, Genesis and Colorworld, who had flown
in from airports all around the UK. One of the
truly great things about the pro lab business
is that, despite the fact that all of those on the
Tilburg trip are in serious competition with
one another, there was still a great sense of
camaraderie in evidence, along with a willing-
ness to network and to share experiences. So,
it was a buzzing, lively crowd that donned the
mandatory white overalls on that first afternoon
to undertake the factory tour and to see for
themselves where the papers they use actually
come from.

Focus on Quality
Nothing was off-limits, barring those areas
where coating processes need to be carried
out, for obvious reasons, in complete darkness.
So, guide Wil der Kinderen who, like so many
of the Fujifilm employees encountered on the
tour, has worked for the company for decades,
proudly showed his guests everything from the
store where the vast rolls of paper waiting to
be coated were kept – along with the ingen-
ious automated traverser system employed to
move them around – through to the high-tech
systems that cut the paper to size and take care
of quality control. Everything is checked thor-
oughly at every stage, and attention to detail
is impressive: Fujifilm’s reputation and that of
its customers is on the line, and that message
has clearly been received loud and clear.
There was no shortage of questions on the
way round the building as the various processes
were explained. Ken Sethi, CEO of Genesis
Imaging, a lab that handles the printing for
many major exhibitions as well as the fine
art print requirements for Getty Images, was
one of those that was having his eyes opened
as to how much goes into the production of
silver halide print materials in terms of r&d and
physical production methods.
“It’s incredible when it’s all explained to
you,” he enthuses, “a real eye-opener, and not
at all what I imagined it to be. Silver halide
paper still represents the vast bulk of my busi-
ness. It’s what brings photographers through
my door, so it was reassuring to hear from
Fujifilm about their confidence in the future of
the product. When you hear this first hand you
realise that you’re in safe hands and that you
can rely totally on silver halide papers being
around for the long term.”
Tim Berry, commercial manager at GF
Smith, was another taking a huge interest in
the tour, appreciating the opportunity not just
to get an insight and a deeper understanding
of the products that his lab uses extensively but
to get a feel for what the future might hold for
silver halide papers in general.
“GF Smith has worked with Fujifilm prod-
ucts since the start of 2001,” he says, “but
I’ve personally had dealings with the company
for over thirty years now on various projects.
I was very impressed with the whole paper-
manufacturing process, but equally it was really
good to see the knowledge of the staff at the
factory and the pride they had in their work.”

8 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft

The following day the pro lab party was back From raw material paper rolls
at the Tilburg plant, this time to hear from to cut sheet final products:
Fujifilm product manager Judith van Linden Wil der Kinderen explains
and key account manager Evert Groen, who the process control. New
both gave presentations that focused on the products, right. Below,
bright future that lies ahead for silver halide the Tilburg site with
paper. In particular, a dedicated website that its wind turbines.
will focus on the massively growing market for
fine art prints has been launched with the aim
of this driving custom to professional labs that
can evangelise the supreme qualities of the
silver halide papers that they’re working with.
“We are constantly working to achieve
ever greater print permanence,” Evert told his
audience. “Statistics show that the amount
of prints still hanging on a wall after fifty or
sixty years is less than 1%. That’s a reasonable
lifetime but we want to extend that longevity
still further. Fujifilm paper prints are officially
the best in class amongst silver halide print
types – especially our renowned DPII Profes-
sional Paper. Fujifilm professional paper prints
will last 48 years under 250 lux and 12 hours’
indoor light exposure.”

The Growth of Albums

There’s also going to be a strong focus on the
booming market for albums that are printed
on silver halide paper, especially those that
feature a lay flat design, with Fujifilm looking
to secure 50% of the album market in the not- Look out for the Fujifilm
too-distant future. Original brand – the
“We are seeing an exponential increase in new identity for real
growth,” says Judith. “Today 95% of all profes- photographic printing
sional albums within the EU are created with
Fujifilm colour papers. We currently have an Overall this was a valuable
inventory of twenty-seven different colour bonding exercise, a chance
papers with varied surface types and sizes – to cement relationships, for
and of course innovative new products such those that base their busi-
as Album XS paper. Our album papers are nesses around the quality of
growing by 17% a year and we have new silver halide paper to be able to
papers for wall décor in the pipeline.” see first-hand how much goes
“It’s great to see that Fujifilm is into the manufacturing process
continuing to invest in silver halide and to share the news about
papers in this way,” says Metro Imag- the exciting plans that will firmly
ing director Tony Window, who has establish traditional printing at the
worked with the company’s products heart of professional photography
for around twenty-five years now. for many years to come. All of those
“I was delighted to learn that the who made the trip came away en-
company’s paper range is going to thused and inspired, and now it’s the
continue to expand and obviously turn of their customers to reap the
we’ll be looking to incorporate any benefit of the considerable investment
new products that are introduced and development that is currently go-
E nha
nc
going forward. We’ll also be con- the m e the valu ing on in the depths of that cavernous
o st o e of y
tinuing to work with Fujifilm to beco n Fuji o ur p Fujifilm plant in Holland.
me a film’s hotos
one- o ori by pri
promote the value of printing c o lo urs fo f-a-kin ginal pho nting
those
Ï
r a ve d item to
on professional photo papers, r y long , keep paper. Yo you lo
v Browse the new Fujifilm website
ur ph
w w w.o time.
It will
ing its
intens oto w e
and it’s great to be hearing rig in alpho b e you e and ill dedicated to photo papers at
topap r perso b ri
that silver halide has such a er.co
m nal ‘o lliant
rigina www.originalphotopaper.com
l’.
positive future.”

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 9

 The ultimate folio box for your
reveal wall.

Photos shown in mounts courtesy of

LIMITED TIME STUDIO

SAMPLE BUNDLE OFFER!
50% Get off
your all Studio Samples when you use the code
14x11
STUDIO SAMPLE LOVEIT
• A stunning Premium 14 x 11 Folio Box
For
for
£82
delivered with the code:
• 20 slip in bevel cut mats for 10 x 7,
just more information, visit 3xmsolution.com/14x11.
•
10 x 8 or 12 x 8 prints
Branding on the box and USB
• A luxury gift bag
LOVEIT • Free Shipping
3XM • Satisfaction Guarantee
3XM
Order your sample today at 3xmsolution.com
3xmsolution.com/14x11 3xmsolution.com
10 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
 a big print ripoff
If you’ve seen those big canvas prints in chain stores, galleries or supermarkets and wondered how
the photographer got the deal and how much they make on royalties… well, they might be victims of
copyright theft, as Paul Spencer discovered. Think before you post big files on-line!

I
n the summer of 2008 my
family and I had a holiday in
New York. I had taken along my
then-new 14 megapixel Sony A350
and captured the usual touristy
stuff. We visited Times Square
and I grabbed a couple of snaps
as we passed through, really just
holiday photos with little or no
thought given to them other than
rudimentary composition.
Fast forward a couple of years
and I was inspired to revisit my
pictures by an image I’d seen in
IKEA. They were selling a shot of
New York cabs where all but the
yellow of the taxis had been ren-
dered into monochrome. I know
it’s a cheesy clichéd effect but I
kind of liked it. I went back to
my Times Square shots and found
one where pleasingly, but totally
accidentally, I had a line of cabs in their copyright infringed. But I did
the foreground. Bit of editing and learn that damages for infringe-
I was really pleased with the final ment could be high depending
image. I uploaded it to my Flickr on the volume of sales, purchase
acount and it went down a storm price, sale price, net profit etc.
with lots of views. I cranked up the tone of
Shortly after that Flickr got my emails and eventually was
into a deal with Getty Images and in contact with their company
I signed up as being interested in secretary. He held his hands up
licensing my work to them. They and conceded the infringement.
approached me saying that they The canvases had been imported
had a client that was interested in from a Chinese supplier who was
licencing my Times Square image unable to provide any evidence
and away we went. For the next that they had licensed the image.
couple of years it sold through It transpired that the retailer had
Getty on a regular basis but wasn’t sold about 9,000 of these pictures
generating much income, as Getty and had another 1,000 or so in
takes an eye-watering percentage stock. They made me an offer to
in commission. settle that was way less than all the
Fast forward again, this time case law suggested I was entitled
to New Year’s 2015. My daughter to… so I instructed my educated
contacted me to ask if I knew that friends, and six months later we
my Times Square image was being Top: Paul’s revisited Times Square. Above: a decor website displays one of the finally settled out of court and I
sold as a canvas print in one of offending big prints on sale, created from his earlier image file. found myself several thousand
the UK’s leading discount retail pounds better off.
chains! advised them I believed there infringement it was entirely Having discovered that my
I wasn’t, but a quick check was a copyright infringement. ‘inadvertent’. Now, at the time I image was being infringed I
of their website confirmed it. I They ignored me for a while but knew nothing about Intellectual started poking around the internet
got straight in touch with their eventually came back and said Property law and the remedies to see what else I could find and
customer services people and sorry and if there was a copyright available to people that have had to my utter amazement I found

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 11

another UK retailer had been
selling it, although this canvas was
manufactured in a different aspect
ratio so I guessed came from
a different source. Transpired
that they’d sold 28,000 copies
of their canvas at which point I
started to see pound signs and
my lawyer talked to me about
life-changing amounts of damag-
es! Unfortunately that retailer in-
structed the most awkward firm of
solicitors you can imagine and we
got nowhere with them over an 18
month period. This was extremely
stressful as my costs were mount-
ing and simultaneously I’d had a
work induced mental breakdown
and had to leave my job. I was
exposed to the utter uselessness
of the British legal system which
meant that I had to risk my home
and my life savings if I wanted to
take the matter to court, the only
way it seemed to get the retailers
to make me a sensible offer.
Thankfully this was avoided
and we settled last summer for
many tens of thousands of pounds.
In December 2016 I discovered
that my image had been used as
part of a wallpaper collage and
although this was a genuine error
on the part of the manufacturer it
led to a multi-thousand settle-
ment. But that’s not the end of it...
We’d returned to New York in
2012 and I went back to Times
Square with my new full frame
Sony Alpha 900 to recapture my
2008 shot – only to find that the
partial pedestrianisation of the
area meant that it wasn’t possible.
Nevertheless I took a few shots
and did the same monochrome/
yellow treatment to one although
this time it was taken in daylight.
This was uploaded to Flickr and
my website… and lo and behold,
I discovered in January this year
that it too had been illegally man-
ufactured and sold in the UK.
The infringements weren’t on
the same scale as the others but I
was able to wrestle some damages
out of the retailers without having
to involve the lawyers. So far I’ve
had a total of five copyright in-
fringements settled but frustrating-
ly I know that both of my images
are being sold illegally all over the
world but there’s little or nothing I
can do about it.
Ross Dress for Less in the USA
12 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
have sold both of them and using
Google’s image search and other
engines I’ve seen them on walls
in South Africa, Australia and
many European countries. I’ve
applied for their copyright to be
registered in the USA in case this
helps at a later date but I fear it’s
a forlorn hope. I’m sharing this
story to make people aware of
what’s happening and also that if
they stick to their guns they can
ultimately get redress. I’ve made
more from the settlements than I
ever would have from legitimate
sales so in one very real sense I’ve
benefitted from the infringements.
It’s also something that’s likely to
continue, my images are even now
for sale to retailers on the Chinese
Alibaba wholesale sourcing
website.
Determining damages
So far the settlements have yielded
about £70,000. I bought my new
Sony A99MkII using the proceeds
from my latest award (and bought
one of Gary Friedman’s books on
it as they really are indispensable
guides).
Initially it’s impossible to tell
how large the infringement has
been in terms of units sold and
over what time period as this
information can only come from
the infringing party and they like
to keep their cards close to their
chest. However the first one I
came across involved a retail
chain with over 400 stores in this
country so it was safe to assume
that they’d sold hundreds if not
thousands of the offending canvas-
es. When I contacted the retailer
their first responses were little
more than ‘shrugs of the shoul- not been properly licensed is no calculating the net profit that the
ders’ and an assertion that any defence so in this case the tricky infringer has made in selling the
infringement was ‘inadvertent’. part is agreeing what the level of product and in theory its a simple
This led me to start doing damages should be. calculation. Unfortunately if the
some research into the reme- As I discovered there are offending party won’t cooperate
dies open to me under UK/EU essentially two options open to the and either make you a sensible
copyright laws. It transpired that infringed and normally the ‘victim’ offer to settle, or provide you with
it’s normally quite easy to show would choose the more lucrative the basic information then if you
that an infringement has actually of the two. You can agree on a wish to pursue matters you have
occurred. There’s some potential payment that is similar to that that little option other than to get the
for argument over precisely who would have been made had the of- lawyers involved and that’s not
is liable in the UK but taking the fending party obtained your agree- something that should ever be
example of a retailer, if they have ment before selling the products, done lightly. I estimate almost half
imported the products direct and a royalty in effect. This can be as of my settlement payment was lost
distributed them to their shops low as 5% of the retail price. The in lawyers’ fees. In short despite
then they are bang to rights. Not other option is known as account having a cast iron case I would
knowing that the image had of profit. In essence this involves have to gamble with my home and
my life savings and accept that
even if I won I could end up out
of pocket – this is because of the
way the costs are dealt with in the
IPEC court. Clearly I wasn’t going
to risk everything as there are no
certainties with the British legal
system and because of that this
isn’t an area where lawyers will
operate on a pro bono or no win
no fee basis. I reluctantly had to
advise my solicitors that I wasn’t
going to take the retailer to court
and to see what they could agree
by way of an out of court settle-
ment. Simultaneously I appealed
to the member of staff at the
retailers that I’d initially dealt with
and to my delight an acceptable
offer was shortly forthcoming. It
wasn’t anything like as much as
I’d been encouraged to expect by
my lawyers but I was happy for the
ordeal to be over. Again, not far
short of half of the settlement dis-
appeared in legal fees. I continue
to scour the internet periodically
and see my image being offered
for sale on Chinese wholesale sites
and in India, Italy and Taiwan.
Unfortunately the practicalities
of taking action overseas are
such that it would only make
sense if you were certain that the
infringement was huge and there
is always the problem of establish-
ing the scale without any facts.
My story has sparked discus-
sions about how to protect ones
images from theft but no one
has come up with anything to my
knowledge that will be effective
without ruining the picture, e.g.
gigantic obtrusive watermarks
or only ever uploading very low
resolution copies which are no
good for printing. I understand
that discrete watermarks can
often be eliminated using standard
editing techniques so they’d have
to be very ‘in your face’ to prevent
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 13
that. I’d also say that of all the
image searching tools Google
has been the most successful for
me. Tin Eye strangely hasn’t yet
thrown up anything like as many
hits. However from my experience
Google isn’t very good at delving
deep into retailers’ websites and
therefore its necessary to do a lot
of non-automated searching to
be sure that your pictures aren’t
being re-sold.
Á
See Paul’s work at:
paul2paulphotography.weebly.com
Above: his best-selling, if too often
unauthorised, spot colour image.
 SIGMA sd Quattro H
I
t seems like a different age that
Canon has 1.3X factor sensors
in their 1D series cameras,
aimed at action and news work.
You had to live with a slight crop
from full frame, but with sports
and wildlife users that was never
an issue as it just increased
the power of telephoto lenses.
Setting the problem of getting
decent wide angles aside, Canon
restricted the 1D series to using
EF lenses, not EF-S which are
designed to fit 1.6X (Canon skinny
APS-C) sensors. The mirror on the
1.3X bodies would have hit the
rear mount of some EF-S lenses so
it was not possible to check out
whether these might just cover
the larger APS sensor.
Ten years later, Sigma has
reintroduced APS-H, the 1.3X (or
1.35) factor, 26.7 x 17.9mm. The
SD Quattro H uses a larger sensor
than any other APS currently on
the market. Remember, Sigma’s
APS-C used to be even smaller
than Canon at 1.7X. The Foveon
fabrication has improved steadily
in every respect including wafer
size.
Unlike Canon, Sigma does
allow lenses designed for regular
APS-C (1.5X) to be used with the
APS-H sensor. We were not able to
test the 10-20mm, but our contact
at Sigma UK confirmed that it
seems to cover perfectly at 12mm,
or a 15mm equivalent view much
the same as its angle on any other
sensor.
This bigger sensor and the very
chunky mirrorless body it lives in
bring the Sigma SA-mount (SLR,
not mirrorless originally) into a
different class. The SD15 and then
the SD Merrill were good SLR
implementations, but the sdQH is
a compltely different animal. The
native pixel count of the Quattro
pattern sensor (full pixel resolution
for the blue layer, one-quarter
resolution each for the red and
green layers) is a touch over 25
megapixels but it’s a better 25
than any Bayer pattern sensor.
Output at 40 megapixels fairly
matches a typical modern Bayer
without anti-aliasing. Output
14 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
at 25MP is so sharp your eyes
bleed when you start trying to
study the results on screen. It is
genuine single-pixel sharpness,
the impossible goal which aliasing
and artefacts are supposed to
prevent. The only sub-MF way to
get an image as sharp as the sdQH
25 megapixels is to shoot Canon
5DR S or Sony A7RII and downsize.
This is not the full story.
Although the X3F (Foveon) native
raw files from the camera are
14-bit per channel, opting for DNG
raw output at 12-bit produces
a robust film-like contrast and
dynamic range compression.
Anyone who has worked with 14
or 16-bit raw will know that there
is a danger of very flat results
(fine for videographers with their
watery grey Log-gamma settings
but poor for still work). Sigma’s
native curves to transfer from 14
to 12 bit are well plotted, resulting
in raw files which even in Adobe’s
very flat converter yield a classic
‘photographic’ look.
The benefits of using the
Sigma Photo Pro converter,
instead of Adobe, start with saving
card space by shooting native X3F
raw files. The DNG raw option uses
140MB or more per shot where the
X3F file is 70MB, and a Fine camera
JPEG usually under 20MB. We used
a 280MB/s card and a USB 3.0
reader. The camera has a full USB
3.0 connection meaning we could
also unplug the Lexar reader and
fit the large connector straight in
to the sdQH.
 Tethering and image transfer
will appeal to many and it’s
completely free, as is the raw
processing app. You save both on
the camera card, and on the PC or
Mac, and control camera functions
from Sigma Capture Pro. But the
versatility of the unusual raw
format also allows development
in-camera, and a special SHQ
mode which takes multiple
sequential raw files and combines
them to build one X3I raw with
maximum dynamic range and low
noise.
In practice, Adobe Camera
Raw is my workflow so I missed
out on many of the benefits of the
X3F format. Sigma Photo Pro is no
longer the numbingly slow utility
it once was – it’s still not up to real-
time adjustments but much faster
and with some of the best image
adjustment controls around.
This could also be said of
the camera. The image quality
is simply not in dispute – it can
hold its own against medium
format, as claimed. Operation is
also rather too similar to MF. The
live viewfinder, a 2.6 megapixel
screen which does not seem
DNG highlight and shadow dynamics: no way to recover the bright sky (Adobe Camera Raw, left hand pair); excellent scope to pull up underexposed areas, right hand.
quite as sharp as others with a
similar specification, blacks out
and displays an hourglass symbol
briefly as each single shot is saved
to card. The effect is a bit like a
Hasselblad EL where the mirror
is not auto return but the film
wind restores viewing. Use the
3.8fps (12 frames raw) continuous
shooting mode and the finder/
screen simply blacks out for the
sequence.
The camera itself, despite its
unusual design with SLR mount
depth and an odd mirrorles body
profile, is really solid and easy to
hold without shutter shock issues.
In fact it’s one of the best made
around. The On/Off switch on the
lens mount barrel is ideally placed,
and the two control wheels fall
intuitively under the shutter finger
and your thumb. The menus,
display, horizon level, histograms
and rapid function access buttons
all are ‘best in class’ with very fast
response and clear graphics.
At around £1,300 it’s worth
both the cost and learning curve.
sdQH quality – top and above, clip and full frame from a DNG at ISO 100 processed
– David Kilpatrick
to 25MP, 35mm ƒ1.4 Sigma ART lens. Below left, a 50MP (hi-res) in camera Fine
Á
JPEG (300dpi clip); right, using the multi shot SHQ mode the JPEG processsed from
the X3I file is much more refined and smooth in tone. www.sigma-imaging-uk.com
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 15
SIGMA ART 50-100mm ƒ1.8 DC
Sometimes, you just can’t make really
good glass small – and this Sigma crop-
format superfast zoom is built first and
foremost to perform.
T
esting the Sigma sdQH we
wanted to use one of the
APS-C format Sigma lenses
which are actually recommended
for use on the APS-H format. Along
with the superb 18-35mm ƒ1.8
which we tested a very long time
ago (the new car I photographed
with it has just passed its first
M.O.T.) the superfast tele zoom,
50-100mm ƒ1.8 DC ART, forms a
pair of working lenses which can
cover the larger sensor at all focal
16 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
lengths, wide open, without any
particularly noticeable loss of
definition or illumination in the
corners of the frame. This was our
only choice apart from a 35mm
ƒ1.4 ART which makes an ideal
standard lens, around equivalent
to a 45mm. The 50-100mm
translates to around 65-130mm
on this larger sensor rather than
the 75-150mm it equals when
used on a Nikon DX body, or the
80-160mm range on Canon APS-C
(all in terms of full 24 x 36mm
frame equivalents). This odd range
of angles is actually a very useful
one, covering from ‘short portrait’
to the classic headshot crop.
After some familiarisation
with the lens, it became clear
that the level of detail resolved
in distant scenes was exceeding
expectations. Close-ups always
make a lens look sharp – those
classic ad pictures of eyes with
striking eyelashes are used for a
reason. Distant views, which suffer
from haze and the tiny scale of
textural detail in foliage and grass,
make a very poor choice to show
off glass but a good challenge
when assessing it.
Passing a spot near Whitkirk in
East Lothian, I had already stopped
as the road approached Tantallon
Castle and crossed a field to find
a position which placed the castle
next to Bass Rock. The position
was too close, making the castle
dominate the rock, and the two
parts of the subject were far apart
at the extremes of the view of the
85mm Sony lens I was trying out.
Walls and mud prevented a better
position and the light was poor
(centre top photo), but it was clear
that from a vantage point further
back down the road there might
be access to a better juxtaposition
from private land.
It was also obvious that a
65-130mm zoom angle was
going to be perfect if the fixed
85mm produced what it had. So,
when the Sigma lens and sdQH
were to hand, we detoured to
the spot and found the best view
from the public highway. That’s
when the shire horse improved
a composition made in equally
poor light (right). Here the zoom
enabled fine-tuning, and lovely
differential focus between the
sharp horse and the softer distant
subjects at ƒ5.6 at 100mm.
The final big picture on this
spread was also at 100mm,
after a quick chat with a friendly
householder in the fermtoun
cottages who showed me a path
through woods off their access
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 17
drive which gave scope to position
the castle and rock exactly as I
wanted. I took some overlapping,
some clear of each other, and
some on the Sony A7RII with
70-300mm FE G lens. These fell
well short of the extreme detail of
the Sigma whether I used 1/2500s
at ƒ3.5 or 1/800s at ƒ5.6 (with no
stabilisation, hand-held, I expected
a difference and there was not
one). The Sigma shows individual
birds flying over the rock as birds;
the Sony shows them as blobs.
We had left the scene because
of poor light and returned after a
sandwich and coffee an hour later.
Even a slight strengthening of the
cloud-veiled sun enhanced the
impression of sharpness. A light
breeze ensured no aerial or heat
haze, which can ruin pictures at
this range. We now know at what
time of year, and time of day, there
could be a chance of much better
light. But we won’t have the Sigma
sdQH and 50-100mm… or any
lens to match it on the Sony full-
framer.
– David Kilpatrick
Á
 Commercial Cameras
7 High Street, Church Stretton, Shropshire SY6 6BU
Tel: 01694 722 202

We buy and sell quality

pre-owned and still-loved
equipment:
Leica
Hasselblad
Nikon
Linhof
Large Format
Vintage
Classics & Collectable
Studio Lighting
Accessories

To see our latest selection, please visit our website:

www.commercialcameras.co.uk
or email

109995 132x180 advert 2016 dates.qxp_Layout 1 03/03/2016 09:57 Page 1 sales@commercialcameras.co.uk

Photovision Trade Shows

EDINBURGH
EDINBURGH Seminars & Live Demos
April 2018
Hit the ground running in 2016/17
2016
2017
and learn new skills from our top
name speakers covering the
the latest subjects
DUBLIN
DUBLIN
5th Sept
5th
6th Sept 2017
Sept2016
2017
Studio Area Live Star Attractions
• Cameras & Equipment
KENT • Used Equipment Fair
14th Nov 2017 • Camera Cleaning
EPSOM
EPSOM • Workshops
18th
18thOct
19th Oct2017
Oct 2017
2016 • Leading Trade Suppliers
• Equipment Demos
• Discount Vouchers
Try the latest studio equipment Drones

FREE Trade Show Entry • FREE Parking • FREE Seminars • Tradeshow 11am To 4pm
Book your place now www.forwardevents.co.uk
18 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
 THINKING BIG
V
isiting Dublin, we were
struck by the Irish Tourist
Board and airport’s great
use of very large scenic images
along walkways. This was until a
reader pointed out that one of the
key pictures had, sitting on the
wall of a historic building, what
was clearly the photographer’s
own backpack…
Very high resolution, as in the
past when working with 5 x 4,
brings drawbacks because every
detail is so well rendered.
If you want to produce very
large prints, intended for murals
or displays viewed from a dis-
tance, the basic rule is to use the
highest pixel count can you but
don’t try to follow regular print
guidelines (300dpi for magazines,
225dpi for inkjets, and so on).
In practice the pixels can be fist-
sized if the image is large enough
and viewed from far enough away.
Most TV screens are only showing
you 30 pixels per inch and from
the other side of your living room
they look perfectly crisp.
With empty mall shop units turning entire windows This is the secret behind vast
into a photo diorama, airports greeting arrivals posters – they just blow the dots
up too. In fact anything from
with wall-sized transparencies and art photos around 12 megapixels up will
selling at a scale to match the cathedral ceilings of work well, but if you can produce
affluent clients… here’s how you get the best and a file to 36, 42, 50, 80, 100 or
even more megapixels it will look
biggest output from your images. progressively far better at close
range.
To increase the size of your
files you don’t have to buy
medium format or even a large
sensor DSLR/CSC. You only need
a reasonably good lens and
Photoshop. Simply lock the focus,
lock the exposure (manual),
avoid foreground being included
and shot an overlapping set of
files. Go to the Automation menu
called Photomerge, add the files,
and run the script. Photoshop
will tile and blend them perfectly
provided the lens does not have
severe distortion or vignetting. A
50mm standard lens is ideal for
this, and an old adapted manual
Above: Canon’s ProGRAF 4000, one of the most popular choices for very large print focus prime used at around ƒ8
output, as used by Cheryl Walsh (page 30). Below, David Noton’s exhibition at the will often produce a visually
OXO Gallery in London used wall-sized panoramic prints (see story, page 44). perfect assembly.
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 19
100 megapixel image (cropped) by William Barrington-Binns
Fashion designer: Sabina Saga
Model: Jocelyn Yip

20 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft

Why William Barrington-Binns shoots fashion at 100 megapixels
West Yorkshire and Bangkok based, WBB is rapidly cutting a reputation through very hard
work and promotion. He’s also adopted the Phase One medium format system. “Back in
2015 on a shoot Zurich with Phase One owner Roger Fichmann I was shooting with two of
the best DSLR cameras on the market, with the highest resolution. They were both great but
when I saw the depth of field and the incredible quality in the Phase One System, I was sold.
I made the decision to order the XF IQ2 60MP Camera System as it would cover my shooting
style well, and got it just in time for three big shoots I had lined up in Thailand”, he says.

In February, William traded up to the 100 megapixel IQ3-100 with XF body system. We asked
him whether the huge files caused workflow problems, or had any advantage. His answers
were clear – his existing Mac systems could cope with no problem, but to keep storage space
down, he was deleting many more raw files. “Selecting the ones to keep now takes me too
long and I need to speed up”, he admitted. “When you shoot 100 megapixels and you get it
bang in focus, you can zoom in to 400% and the quality is still there. For certain shots it adds
a quality nothing else can match. It is ideal for the hairstyling shots I’ve been doing recently
as you can see every hair – but it leaves you little room for faults. You have to work harder
making sure the shot is perfect from the start.”

See: williambb.com

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 21

 Large prints for wall decor Large prints can be ordered from many
labs. Loxley Colour supplied the huge
are often presented now without
acrylic which John Parris is shown
any framing. The most popular about to wall-mount in his studio,
mounting appears to be lamina- left: Acrylic Pictures made a sample
tion of the print to the reverse of print from another of his images,
an acrylic sheet, sometimes with a below, shown with the metal ‘floating’
mounting posts. Below this, a Loxley
further back layer of Dibond (al-
Alumini wall print, and the MDF box-
uminium sheet with an adhesive shape wall fixing method which keeps
coating) to create a very rigid and the metal sheet rigid over larger sizes.
strong panel. Dibond is also used
on its own, as as double layers Bottom of the page – a triptych wall
print created by Fujifilm using their
of acrylic (sandwich) and single
Wunderbars easy canvas mount kit.
acrylic. The best labs such as
Loxley Colour have diamond pol-
ishing systems to smooth the cut
edges of the sheet, and when we
tested a large range of these prod-
ucts, poor finish was one of the
issues with lower-cost services. It
does not look any different when
the print is already so big you view
it from two or three metres away,
but for small prints the polished
edge is essential.
Canvas wrap is a perennial fa-
vourite even if the material used is
not a canvas of the old type. Roll-
fed inkjet canvas papers can still
be stretched lightly after wrapping
round mount systems such as the
Fuji Wunderbars product. For
decor, the print may be made in
sections, like a triptych with three
windows showing the scene or
subject. This gives the impression
of a large print without the costs
or handling problems.
Some companies can print
very large, including The Print
Foundry. We found one special-
ist, Acrylic Pictures in Cardiff,
using eight by four foot sheets of
substrates to make display prints
for photographers on systems
originally set up for information
signs, vehicle numberplates and
similar products. In 2014, we now a match to regular photo lab SpectraJet material and such Imaging is one of those offering to
reviewed their metal and acrylic standards. You can find them at wonders as Kodak TEX 36" wide output the strips to paper that wall
products and found the quality to www.acrylicpictures.com repositioning wall fabric… and you want to cover – see
be great but the finish of the edges The one thing photographers advice on how to print it. See www.ccimaging.co.uk
rather crude. They have now in- have not yet woken up to is photo www.tetenaluk.com Next time you wonder how to
stalled polishing systems to ensure wallpaper. You can get this from Fujifilm has more conventional decorate that feature wall…
that this aspect of the prints is Tetenal UK including their own photo wallpaper and Leeds lab CC Á

22 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft

 Hellen Van Meene

Poem Baker Laura Feliu

4 VENUES, 202
PHOTOGRAPHERS,
A PHOTOMARATHON
& MORE
18 JUNE - 31 JULY 2017
For all information go to
http://www.retinafestival.com/
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 23
AN EDINBURGH FESTIVAL
OF PHOTOGRAPHY From the Emerging Talent show: by Laura Feliu

Emerging Talent show: Brother Columbo by Ashley Bourne Emerging Talent show: Head as Dandelion Clock, by Tim Pearse

24 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft


H
ellen van Meene is a Dutch photographer who shows us that
a dedicated vision can lead to acceptance beyond the world
of art. Her book, The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits, portrays
girls and boys on the brink of teenage adulthood. The square format,
carefully chosen locations and muted colours give the works the look of
visual memory. Now she creates impressions for major fashion houses
and scenarios for magazines.
As part of Retina 2017 Hellen Van Meene is exhibiting a selection
of prints from the book. “Over the last twenty years, van Meene has
produced a complex body of work, offering a contemporary take on
Hellen van
Meene
photographic portraiture”, say the organisers. “Van Meene captures the
intimacy in the photographer/subject relationship, bringing out a sense
of honesty and vulnerability from within her models and highlighting
the beauty of imperfection. She carefully poses her subjects in their en-
vironments to emphasize their fragility, adding a palpable tension to the
photographs. The combination of Van Meene’s instinctive understanding
of the universality of adolescent experience and the highly intimate
collaboration between photographer and model makes for powerful
portraits that resonate long after viewing.” The exhibition can be seen at
Summerhall, Edinburgh, from June 20th to July 15th.
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 25
MAKING THE BIG TIME
T Gary Friedman asks the
he world has gone crazy.
The Engineers have
produced a miracle, and
people are now shooting with
WAY more megapixels than they
really need. And lenses with
enough resolving power to do the
sensor justice now cost thousands
even for a wide angle. It is the best
of times, it is the worst of times.
So who needs so many
megapixels? Conventional wisdom
says that they are required to
make “giant enlargements”. But
is that really true? Back in 2000,
Nikon used their 3-megapixel
Coolpix 990 and was able to
produce a 65 by 43 foot giant
poster from it which they proudly
displayed above Times Square
in New York City. They were able
to do that by reducing the print
resolution to 96dpi (that’s all
you really need for a billboard),
increasing the final image size
using a program called Genuine
Fractals, and then also taking
advantage of the fact that when
you view things from very far
away, the image quality doesn’t
have to be that great. Nikon’s press
release describing the earth-
shattering (at the time) feat can be
read at
http://bit.ly/2ravLMg
Did I mention the original
image was 3 megapixels?
I’ve been shooting with such
engineering marvels for over
a year now – first with the 42
megapixel Sony A7RII, and now
with its A-mount equivalent, the
A99II. Never have my hard drives
filled up so fast!
I’m very happy with the
A-mount version for its superior
ergonomics and the fact that all
of my great Minolta and Zeiss
glass works well, saving me from
26 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
having to invest over $10K for
the best ‘G Master’ lenses for the
big question – how many E-mount platform. If your light is
megapixels do you really good and if you stop down to ƒ8
need? The answer is not as or so, the results are superb. But it
is a rare day that I ever make giant
many as you think… enlargements; nor have any of the
shots I’ve licensed for publication
been used that way. Regardless,
I still shoot at these new high
resolutions because in the stock
photography world it can give you
a competitive advantage, even
over identical compositions taken
just five years ago.
There’s another tremendous
benefit to shooting high
megapixels with high-resolution
optics: The amount of cropping
you can do and still be left
with enough megapixels to
print is tremendous. I used this
personally for the cover of a book
about Jasper National Park in
Alberta, Canada. I started with
the first image taken with the
42-megapixel Sony A99II (top left),
cropped it to the 2nd (centre left)
and still had enough pixels to print
at 300 dpi.
The most intense example of
extreme cropping I’ve ever seen
was sent to me by a reader whose
working style was to shoot wide
with the best glass he could, and
then crop severely just so he could
see his subject. His original very
wide shot appears right, but from
Commercial
photography
often requires
giant
enlargements
which can
be viewed up
close. This is
the domain in
which medium
format
cameras
reigned until
recently. There
are now many
full frame and
even smaller
models giving
image files
good enough
for this scale of
print mounted
for close range
viewing.
this he wanted to take tiny area as
a composition. He zoomed in so
much, in fact, that the tiled lines
in the rooftops started causing an
interference pattern with the fine
pixel pitch of the sensor! See red
squares in the 225dpi version –
high quality inkjet print scale – on
the bottom right.
Better Sharpening
In the same vein, if you’ve got
fuzzy pictures for whatever reason,
and you shot high resolution, you
can use the trick of downsampling
your images to half their original
size, followed by two Unsharp
Mask operations in Photoshop.
The first operation using values
of 90, 0.9, and 0, and the 2nd
operation using values of 500,
0.2, and 0. The final image will be
smaller, but when pixel peeping
they will appear to be perfectly
sharp. See examples, right.
This is one reason I felt
comfortable romping through
Australia a couple of years ago
using just a 42MP A7RII and a Sony
FE 24-240 superzoom lens – if I
didn’t feel the image was sharp
enough, I could just use this trick.
It’s great to travel light.
Let me also share with you
an interesting experiment I did
shooting the same subject under
the same ideal conditions using
two different cameras – one using
my Zeiss-laden 42 megapixel
Sony A99II, and the other using
the small-sensor Sony RX10II
which all the online camera snobs
thumb their noses at. I made
poster sized enlargements of
these two images, and asked other
photographers if they could tell
which camera took which picture.
They couldn’t. Here are two
download links so you can do the
comparison for yourself:
http://bit.ly/2pEnbFI
http://bit.ly/2qLfiyp
This exercise was designed
to reinforce the notion that pixel
peeping is not an appropriate
way to evaluate image quality.
The more time-honored way is
to print the image and view it
at a reasonable distance. Plus,
most people never enlarge much
greater than 24 x 36", which is why
I chose poster size for this test. If
you never enlarge to this degree,
dear reader, please don’t feel the
need to be intimidated by all the
industry hype regarding these
high megapixel cameras. You’ve
lived a happy life without one so
far, and can continue to feel happy
Sharpening and image size reduction to improve detail – original of my friend Oli, using whatever you’re using now.
top. Above left, close-up clip reduced to 50% file size with normal sharpening, Level So again, who needs more
100, Radius 0.9, Threshold 0. Right hand version, further sharpeneing at Level 500,
megapixels? Well, fine art
Radius 0.2, Threshold 0.
photographers who display their
work in galleries need to display
Original very wide shot sent in by one of my readers – with 225dpi
reproduction of a small section below revealing the moiré patterning giant prints AND have them
scrutinized from a close distance.
For this purpose, medium format
film cameras have traditionally
reigned. But now, modern gallery
artists use digital cameras with
sensor sizes no larger than a
35mm negative. I spoke to two
experts who sell their giant
enlargements in galleries to
get insights into their printing
techniques.
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 27
Cheryl Walsh
Cheryl produces fantastical
underwater portraits using her
Canon 5D III and IV (22 and 30 MP
respectively), and prints up to 30
feet x 26 feet.
http://cherylwalshfineart.com
When I caught up with her, she
had just returned from displaying
her work the Palm Springs Photo
Festival.
“When I shoot I make sure I am
getting really crisp, clear, perfectly
exposed images. I do some
processing in Lightroom, including
just a little bit of sharpening and
clarity. I try to do minimal editing
as to keep the original detail in my
images.
“The key to the best prints is Dramatically framed large prints by
having custom color print profiles Cheryl Walsh – from her studio to art
made for your own printer with reviews at the Palm Springs Festival.
each paper you use. I print on the
Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-4000 the cost of canvas, framing,
printer and Canson Infinity Fine stretching, the cost to make could
Art papers. Having the right paper range between $800 – 1400 for a
for the image is really important. canvas between 70-180" in size.
I’ve never made a single test print So, which sizes tend to be the
on my printer – every single print best sellers?
has come out perfect because of “The 60-90" width range.”
these choices I’ve made before Á
hitting the print button.”

Parvez Satter
Parvez Satter, featured previously
in ƒ2 Cameracraft, has travelled
the world with determination, a
tripod, and both film and digital
cameras:
http://www.parvezsimagery.com
Right, Parvez with his exhibition
prints from work in Cuba. The blue
car print far right is 89 by 54 inches
and he is an other photographer
who believes big prints sell.
His film camera is a Fujifilm
GX617 (optimized for panoramas),
the digital is a 42 MP Sony A7R II.
“I use Fujifilm for when I want
to go ‘exponentially big’ – natively
15 foot by 5 foot. I could go even
larger by using Photoshop’s Bicubic
resampling algorithm, but that’s
not always necessary. It depends
upon the content. High-detailed
images require it, but if you have
low-detail landscapes, for example
long exposures with ND filters, you
can easily lower the resolution to
print larger without sacrificing any
visual quality.”
Making giant enlargements
can be very expensive –
depending on the size, between

28 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft

More about the A99II
I
n the last edition of Cameracraft I started writing about my
impressions of the Sony A99II. Well, the world has completely
forgotten about this camera now that the A9 has been
introduced. I’ve finished the A99II e-book (FriedmanArchives.com/
A99II) and I’ve also created two YouTube videos explaining some
of the camera’s more difficult-to-understand features, including
focusing modes.
You can view the videos here:
https://youtu.be/Fzf5ixoApSM
https://youtu.be/ZSbislIShBQ
The reason I point this out is that in these videos there is
evidence that Sony has been trying to alleviate the one drawback of
the A-mount: Autofocusing during video.
Some background: It’s really, really difficult to focus while the
lens is stopped down. For proof of this, see my video comparing
E-mount and A-mount focusing differences:
https://youtu.be/QlBWL_UVUS8
That’s why SLRs, DSLRs, and SLT cameras always did their
focusing with the lens wide open. But with recent E-mount cameras
like the A7R II and the A6300, they figured out how to use the phase-
detect AF sensors that were baked into the sensor to AF at almost ANY
f-stop, not just wide open, and it could do so when shooting video
as well as stills. I fully expected this capability to trickle down to the
A-mount two years ago when I predicted the future of the A-mount:
http://bit.ly/2qe5rwv
I thought it hadn’t because there was another technical limitation
of the A-mount that restricted AF during video to Program mode.
Specifically, the f-stop could never move during video because the
Above, Sony’s idea of
how the A99II will be
used – a true video
rig camera for the
professional film-maker.
Right, how it will really be
used, with 24-70mm ƒ2.8.
old mechanism was too noisy and not stepless, as I demonstrate
7:10 minutes into the 1st video. Plus, the autofocus mechanism of
all DSLRs had evolved to focus faster and more accurately when
the f-stop was wide open. For these reasons, all SLT cameras would
autofocus during video ONLY when in Program mode, and then the
camera would hold the f-stop at a constant ƒ3.5 (or as close as the
lens allowed).
But that problem has been solved! And you can see me
demonstrate this 9:16 into the first video. Furthermore, the A77 II
can do this as well, and that camera is two years older! With this
capability, the last remaining technological hurdle to have the
A-mount video focus as well as the E-mount had been solved, and
A99II should have been able to do video AF in any exposure mode
when a Hybrid AF lens was attached. Sadly, it was not.
Á
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 29
A GLIMPSE OF HEAVEN
G Gary Friedman caught up with a new
isela and Randy
Anagnostis were in the
midst of packing up
their house in preparation for a
‘major leap of faith’. They had
been managing the design and
construction of their new art
gallery by remote control. Not
an easy thing to do, and they
were going all in – moving from
Connecticut to Arizona to manage
the opening and operation of the
art gallery of the future… Heaven
Art Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ.
What is the art gallery of the
future? Imagine your traditional
canvases replaced by giant
65" UHD Samsung displays,
showing off work of not only
photographers but also photos
of sculptures and paintings, all
changing several times an hour.
When a gallery patron sees a work
they would like to buy and take
home, it can be printed for them
on the spot using the gallery’s
large-format inkjet printer.
“Best of all”, they say, “all
photographers can participate. It
costs only $10 USD per image per
month to have your work shown
here.”
The idea for this grand
endeavor came from Randy and
his wife Gisela, both of them
artists, both of them having
exhibited in traditional galleries. At
a traditional gallery there can be
hundreds or thousands of dollars
in fees just for the privilege of
showing your work there, plus the
expense of creating the canvases,
transporting them, insurance,
hanging fees. Then the gallery
wants you to host the wine and
cheese opening party and pay for
other incidentals. “We should open
our own gallery”, they thought in
passing.
Nothing happened with that
idea until they started observing
some of the online photo contests,
where worthy images get up-
voted by online participants. That’s
when it clicked. So they set about
raising money from investors
to not only rent the space, but
also invest thousands of dollars
to create the custom computer
30 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
venture promising to put big photo art
on walls – by selling it from big screen
displays and printing on the spot. That’s
Scottsdale’s Heaven Art Gallery.
infrastructure to handle the
displays, entries, printing, website,
payments, and so on.
Then came the challenge of
finding the right location. “We
looked at gallery space in several
major locations – New York City,
the Mall Of America, Fisherman’s
Wharf in San Francisco… we
settled on Scottsdale because it
was ideal – lots of foot traffic in
a thriving arts district, a district
where people are bussed in once
a week just to go gallery-hopping.
People regularly are drawn to the
district just for art. Plus, real estate
in Arizona is more affordable.”
They will be running lots of
community outreach projects as
well, such as organized school and
senior citizen day trips. For the
children and seniors, the intent is
to bridge the generational gap in
a shared, creative and educational
art environment. Children and
teenagers can join with senior
citizens to share their thoughts,
ideas and opinions of the various
artworks. As a benefit to the
local community, 5% of annual
net profits from the gallery’s
operations will be set aside for
re-distribution to juried individual
artist awards and local community
projects supporting the arts.
They also plan to provide free
educational workshops, classes,
business after-hours events,
young professionals meet-ups and
personal development classes for
the general public.
Business model
While most galleries make
money in low-volume, high-price
art pieces, the business model
here is to rent screen space to
photographers from all over the
world, charging only $10 per
month per image. Each screen
can display hundreds of artists,
showing each image for 8 to
10 seconds, and the repertoire
repeats throughout the day.
“If a patron wants to purchase
a print, we can create one on the
spot at our On-Demand Print
Center right in the gallery – on
premium photo paper, metallic
paper or canvas – which can be
taken by the patron or rolled up
and shipped. Framing services
are also available. And whereas
other galleries might be charging
hundreds or thousands of dollars
per canvas sold, ours will go for
between $95 and $235 USD, the
right price point that will make
great artwork affordable to more
individuals. And the photographer
gets 60% commission on all prints
sold. Even if artists don’t make a
 The New
SONY 9

Inspired worlds wait to be revealed.

BUY AT CALPHOTO.CO.UK
RENT AT CALUMETRENTAL.CO.UK

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 31

lot of money from a high volume
of print sales, it’s still a prestigious
opportunity to have their work be
seen.
“If the artwork being exhibited
is a picture of a sculpture,
woodcraft, ceramic, glassblown art
or other large media and a visitor
would like to purchase the original
instead of a print, then we simply
provide them with the artist’s
contact information as a referral
and take no commission.”
Randy has been a
photographer for over 40 years.
In addition to that, he had a
marketing consulting firm for
26 years, having well over 400
corporate clients across the
country, which provided a good
pool of potential investors in
Heaven Art Gallery. Many of those
contacts declared ‘This project
is a winner!’ and he was able to
raise most of the seed money to
get the gallery established rather
quickly. Gisela holds a Masters in
Art Teacher Education and has
been a painter and sculptor for
over 30 years. Her international
art connections and experience
helped facilitate the quick
development of the gallery.
Things moved quite rapidly
after that – forming an LLC, finding
the perfect location, securing
the lease, getting the computer
infrastructure and programming
specified and subcontracted
out, the gallery designed and
constructed, and then moving to
Arizona.
“As with any new start-up
business, we still need to generate
a steady revenue stream in
order to survive. In addition to
artist fees, we hope to get some
corporate sponsors and art
philanthropists on board who
would like to support the arts
while being associated with such
an innovative, cutting-edge art
gallery.
“Our potential market of artists
is huge!”, says Randy. “There are
180,000 registered professional
photographers in the USA
alone. Add to that the amateur
and novice photographers and
international photographers
who could exhibit their work
at our gallery. When you add
in traditional media artists, our
market expands into the millions
32 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
From computer graphic simulation to a final gallery opening – Heaven, its location
close to museums and other galleries, is open for exhibition and sales.
around the world. Imagine the
diversity of artwork we will be able
to exhibit all in one gallery.”
So is it reasonable to expect
that a photographer showing their
work there will reap a profit?
“The commission structure
and profit margins for the
photographer at Heaven Art
Gallery are still much better
than most on-line art galleries
that sell prints. With a 60%
commission, photographers
can make much more than
their cost of participation in our
gallery if they sell even one print.
But the goal really is to gain
recognition for Heaven Art Gallery
as a ‘prestigious, innovative art
gallery of the future’ where artists
want to say they had their work
exhibited. They can then add it to
their resumes,bios, websites and
include it in their own marketing
efforts. For $10 an image, we
hope artists will find it’s a very
reasonable and beneficial cost
for an entire month of exhibition
in a very high traffic and well-
respected art district.”
So, his first challenge has
been to get the gallery open
on time and to recruit enough
photographers and other artists
to show their work. After that, to
expand the website functionality,
so you can see the same artwork
To follow Gary’s regular on-line journal see:
www.friedmanarchives.blogspot.co.uk
displayed in the gallery from
anywhere in the world.
The gallery had its formal
Grand Opening and Ribbon-
Cutting Ceremony on May 10th
and the idea already seems to
be a tremendous hit. The Mayor
of Scottsdale, Jim Lane, was the
keynote speaker along with City
Councilman David N. Smith.
They commended Gisela and
Randy on bringing an exciting
art gallery into the community
that incorporates technology,
creativity and innovation and
opens up a whole new concept
of art presentation compared to a
traditional art gallery.
“The response has been
outstanding from visitors, artists
and art associations”, said Gisela.
“Our May exhibit has achieved
unexpected results in just four
weeks of promotion: 842 images
have already been submitted by
artists (and the quality has been
excellent in all media); artwork
has come in from 18 different
countries already; artists have
submitted from 22 US states;
the number of art associations
adding us to their newsletters
and Facebook pages has been
incredible.”
How are the other traditional
galleries in the art district
reacting?
“We have already gotten some
feedback that the established
galleries aren’t sure if we fit in with
their old style of art presentation”,
stated Randy. “And they are
concerned that selling prints at
such a reasonable price that we’re
offering is below their standards.”
Such reaction from the
establishment is normal when
presented with a new or
competitive idea.
So if youíve ever wanted to say,
“my work has been displayed at
a world-class art gallery” you can
now make that dream come true.
Simply visit and submit your art at:
www.heavenartgalleryusa.com
or contact Heaven Art Gallery for
more information at +1 860-550-
3390 or e-mail to
info@heavenartgalleryusa.com
Á
 FUJIFILM GFX 50S
£250
ENHANCED
TRADE IN
Power in all the right places. BONUS
24
MONTHS
BUY AT CALPHOTO.CO.UK INTEREST
FREE CREDIT
RENT AT CALUMETRENTAL.CO.UK AVAILABLE

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 33

 NEVER MISS A COPY OF
CAMERACRAFT AGAIN!

www.iconpublications.com
On the Icon Publications website you will find a choice of
subscription options to ensure you never miss your next
edition of Cameracraft.

We’ve come some distance since publishing the original

Cameracraft series in 2012 to 2015, rescuing our earlier
ƒ2 Freelance Photographer title from closure in 2014, and
merging the titles in 2016.

You can even sign up to pay monthly, half the cover price (UK)
every month until you choose to cancel – or get six issues for
the price of five with an annual subscription.
Until June, Cameracraft had a sister publication. We intend to
return to that position – offering those readers who want a
photo business focused publication something better than
the commercial publishing houses can offer. If we owe you
paid-for issues of Master Photography don’t panic – we’ll have
a new way forward to announce later in 2017.
CAMERACRAFT BINDERS
Our binders will hold up to twelve
magazines (8 68-page editions are
a good fit).
You can order these from the same
front page subscription section of
our website, just scroll down to see
the postage included prices.

34 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft

 ƒ2 CAMERACRAFT PORTFOLIO

Bryn Griffiths

Chernobyl My Sweet
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 35
 Bryn contrasts objects found at Chernobyl with comparative products
that have passed through his commercial studio

36 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 37
 There are echoes in the shapes and colours of studio advertising work
in the faded, worn relics of the abandoned town

38 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 39
40 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 41
 Worlds Apart - Bryn Griffiths´ Chernobyl My Sweet
W
hen your career is built on a
commitment and passion for tech-
nical perfection, a process-driven
approach to images, receiving one of the most
prestigious awards in the industry is an un-
doubted honour - a recognition of hard work
and a validation of the skill behind it. Bryn
Griffiths, one of the 2014 Hasseblad Masters,
has the back catalogue to underline why he
won such an award and clients that value
and recognise that ability. However, the work
that came out of his submissions for Masters
Volume 4 - “Evolve”, shows a very different
approach.
Bryn has been a finalist in the biannual
competition previously, but winning in 2014’s
Product category presented a new challenge.
“Winning the Masters involves doing a project.
You have to fit a globally viewed, artistic
project into your workflow, self-funded and
to a tight deadline”. Although this body of
work does have to be produced on your own resources, at the time
Hasselblad offered support and equipment for their winners - perhaps
some of the most prestigious brand ambassadors in the industry. The
prize now includes Hasselblad cameras for the winners. Bryn laughs,
“Once you’ve won, you can’t enter again!” - though the incentive of a
flagship Hasselblad is surely a worthy motivator for future entrants.
Initially considering the polished, perfectionist approach of his
studio work, creating something for publication and exhibition gave
42 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
pause for thought. “I didn’t know whether to
replicate the winning images, or expand on
them. In some ways, I wanted to include and
embrace my loyal clients and highlight the
British brands I work with, such as Condor in
Soho.
“Considering it, though, I didn’t feel that it
was a major statement piece, I wanted a twist
and some drama. Chatting to the guys from
Hasselblad in the studio, I realised I wanted
to deliver something with impact. During the
course of one evening we hit inspiration; up
until then my work had been crisp, studio lit
and clean, predominantly shot with telephoto
lenses”.
When Bryn tells it, it sounds obvious, but
the results are distinctive, the result of a tight
discipline. “I’d shoot on location, with a wide
angle lens, no post production and natural
light.
“A bit grubby.
“Obviously, we’ve got to go to Chernobyl…”
The destination - Pripyat - chosen is certainly a mecca for photogra-
phers looking to move away from the clean and crisp, but they rarely
have the subject focus that defines Bryn’s career. Nor do the majority of
Urbex adventurers; guides and radioactive counters taking nothing away
from their bravado, have such demanding schedules.
“I went with the purpose of photographing products - I didn’t want
the wide vistas, I wanted to see what products would be around there.
The people had left believing they would be gone for a few days, even
hours, and a surprising amount of their possessions remain despite the
inevitable looting”
“I shot over two days on the 1st and 2nd of June, with the deadline
for finished images to reach New York on the 2nd!”
This is a situation where being outside of the comfort zone really hits
home, of course. “For the first time in my life I had no recce, I hadn’t

NEW
planned, no idea what I was going into, what I was going to shoot or
what the conditions were going to be like. It was unpredictable”.
To understand how different an environment this is, you have to un-

FB Mono Gloss
derstand how Bryn’s career has progressed. At the time of writing we’re
heading into a General Election, the results of which will shape the

Baryta 320
opportunities of future generations; it’s hard to look at the conditions
photographers face today and understand how different the environment
of the 1980s was. Even so, you only got to take advantage of that if you
worked hard, and at 18, Bryn was already working hard. Early success
was found through the classic approach of just getting out there and
asking for work.
Clients won that way included Tandy, for whom Bryn turned around
a four-product trial in under 24 hours with a quality of 5x4 transparen-
cies that ensured a long commercial relationship, and the ever-lucrative
catalogue shoot market. At £400 a page, at that time, photography was
a wonderful industry to be in. It remains such, but it’s notable that the
figures haven’t changed much. Even with his broad range of awards
and accolades, Bryn’s attitude is that if you do one £3,000 shoot every
six months because that’s your rate, you may as well be charging £30 a
day. No doubt his clients remain because the quality is backed up with a

Image © Paul Hassell

common-sense attitude to the work.
Great photographers, in my experience, are rarely driven by the
technology of photography, but the subject. Bryn’s passion is one I can
admire - the desire to inform, illustrate and highlight products - and he
explains where the fascination lies. “It’s in the textures and light, those
little nuances in the design, illustrating the materials and finishes, and
how iight reacts.
“You have to caricature, exaggerate elements of the design for the
viewer”. Bring the beauty of the
The documentary style inspired by such a lightweight workflow and
location with such gravitas, however, gave a great deal of time to reflect
darkroom into the digital world
on the deeper meaning of the images. Bryn admits that the philosophical with FB Mono Gloss Baryta
reach and commentary of his contrasts took some time to sink in. 320, a fibre based inkjet media
“The 150MB files had to be sent to New York with the available con-
nectivity, and it began to feel like a darkroom. A greater meaning came with a stunningly smooth glazed
through during processing, sending large files with time to reflect on the gloss surface.
images. We’d been in this 35km exclusion zone in absolute isolation.
The roads are maintained. but deserted. It’s a place of eerie tranquility,
where 50,000 people lived - now gone”. Available in:
So many threads exist within the contrasting images - again, Bryn
focused on the products, but products are so inherent to our society,
A4 to A2 sheets
defining our status, our lifestyles, our preferences and predilections. and a range of
The minimalism of Soviet design and the lack of choice throws the 15mtr rolls.
decadence and luxury of the high-end goods forming the body of Bryn’s
studio work into sharp relief.
“Winning the Hasselblad Masters and undertaking this project has Get yours today
been the most incredible experience. I’ve enjoyed a glorious 30 years.
from just

£14.95
This made me realise I hadn’t really shot anything for myself. The value
of a personal project is immense; I’m now budgeting time in my calen-
dar to do a personal project every year”.
– Richard Kilpatrick
Ì
Bryn’s work is featuring as part of the Retina Festival, running from
www.permajet.com
18th June to the 15th July at 1 Summerhall, EH9 1PL, where he will be
launching his book “Chernobyl My Sweet”, distributed through Amazon.
If you want to see the 2014 Masters’ work, Evolve is available under 01789 739200
ISBN 978-3832798727 for around £54.

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 43

SCALING IT UP
D Stephen Power talks to David
avid Noton, now based
in Sherbourne, Dorset,
started as a professional
photographer doing commercial
work in Bristol in 1985. Since
then, he has achieved a formida-
ble reputation for being one of the
best, and best-known, landscape
and travel photographers in the
world. jobs to the best of my ability and I
David has been working as
an Adobe ‘Influencer’ at The
Photography show for the last two
years and contributed to Adobe
Stock’s Visual Trend ‘No Man
is an Island’ which celebrates
mankind’s relationship with the
natural environment.
His clients have included;
Canon, Royal Mail, Manfrotto
and The National Trust. He is the
author of three books, including
Waiting for the Light which was
launched at a four-week exhi-
bition at London’s OXO Gallery,
which attracted over 27,000
visitors. In 2012 David launched
an iPad app, Photography in the
Raw on iTunes. He won awards
in the BBC Wildlife Photographer
of the Year competition in 1985,
1989 and 1990.
“I’ve seen quite a few changes
in this world of photography since
I started”, says David. “I’ve always
been a specialist in landscape and
travel work, which are my first
loves in photography. Over those
years I’ve been fortunate enough
to travel all over the world and
44 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
Noton, shooting the widest
landscapes of the world to the
last pixel of detail; and Roger
Spencer-Jones who rediscovered
the qualities of a big format after
moving from Big Country to Big State.
At home, Stephen’s invested in the magnifying
effects of new 150-600mm and 105mm macro.
David Noton: panoramas
from big rollfilm to stitched
digital
I’ve been through the professional
mangle, since I started out in
commercial photography.
“I started in Bristol, doing
whatever work I could get for
local advertising and PR agencies
and the quality of the work that
I was offered initially was low”,
David explains. “But, I did the
was reliable and completed them
on time, and so people started
offering me better jobs. After that
was a long, steady climb up the
ladder. It’s all about reputation
and especially about ‘word-of-
mouth’. The internet is great, but
‘word-of-mouth is still a very pow-
erful way of helping a reputation
to spread.”
For many years, David’s main
activity was in producing images
work for stock photography
sales. “In the past, I used to be
confident that if I spent several
thousand pounds on a trip to
New Zealand, for example, I had
a reasonable chance of making a
profit on that trip, from stock im-
age sales, but there’s no way that’s
the case anymore – not shooting
landscapes, anyway”, he says.
For those looking to make
money from stock photography,
David’s advice is to look at what
the market requires, rather than
what you prefer to photograph.
“The trouble is that most people
think that they can just go off on
holiday, take some photographs
Above, the Cape of Good Hope at Black Rocks, Cape Point, South Africa, Canon 5Ds, TS-E 24mm lens, 1s , ƒ14. This image was printed around 3 metres wide for the launch
of the 5DS. “I was amazed at the quality available from what I still think of as a 35mm sensor” says David. Below, Quebrada de la Conches from the Mirador Tres Cruces in
Valles Calchaquies, Salta Province, Argentina. Canon 5DS R, EF 100-400mm ƒ4.5-5.6 L IS II – 13 vertical images were merged to make a 4.5GB panorama.

and make money. You have to
approach stock photography in a
business-like way; analyse what
the market wants and go and
produce it. That might mean pho-
tographing subjects or concepts
that are not ones that interested
you initially. However, if you do
have a specific niche interest, that
can be turned to an advantage.”
Currently, David is creating
work for his own publishing
outlets including an online
magazine and his Chasing the
Light Roadshow, which he takes
around Europe. Another impor-
tant aspect of his work is making
very large prints for clients to buy
as wall art. The large prints are
produced for David by The Print
Foundry in London. Typically,
these will be around 1 metre
on the longest side, for private
clients. The largest print David
has made, to date, is six metres
wide, which was created for an
exhibition at the Oxo Gallery on
the South Bank, in London.
“It’s not often that we make
prints to that size, but when you
do it’s a fabulous thing to see your
image at that size. It was literally
the width of a wall and it a shot
taken on film using a panoramic
camera”, he says.
David is currently using a
Canon EOS 5DS R body, for his
large print work. It is a camera
that features a 50.6 megapixel
sensor, with the low-pass filter
effect of its stable-mate the 5DS
cancelled, which Canon claim
provides more fine edge sharp-
ness and detail for critical sub-
jects such as detailed landscapes,
and other situations where getting
the sharpest subject detail is a
priority.
David converted from working
with film cameras to shooting
with digital cameras around 2005
although he continued to use a

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 45

panoramic film camera “that I
had been using for decades” up
until 2007.
“What I then realised, was that
shooting with a digital SLR and
stitching images to make the pan-
orama delivered amazing quality
and it was a far more flexible way
of working – so no longer did I
have to travel the world carry two
completely incompatible camera
46 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
systems.” Those realisations
meant that David could switch
over to using the DSLR exclusively
for his work. “I am constantly
amazed by the quality tht is
available from what is essentially a
35mm size sensor”, he explains.
“I’ve recently had a job for
a landowner who wanted me to
photograph his estate over the
course of a year, documenting the
changing of the seasons, and this
was all done for wall art in their
new home. The images were shot
on the Canon 5DS R and stitched
together to make very wide
panoramas.”
David feels that although
digital photos shot on a camera
phone or DSLR images viewed
online or a computer screen can
produce results that most people
are happy with, working with very
large image files and prints will
reveal any weakness in technique.
“I have to be so attentive to
fundamentals such as camera sta-
bility, point of focus, depth of field
and all of those issues, which are
paramount. The 5DS R is capable
of delivering incredible quality,
but only if the photographer does
their thing right”.
 Once shot, David works on
his images in post processing
mostly using Adobe Lightroom.
“Some images need only a few
minutes of attention, and other a
little bit more. I merge the images
together in either Lightroom
or Photoshop. There is nothing
secret about what I do – in fact
I publish video tutorials every
month, taking subscribers to my
online magazine through various
post processing techniques.”
David uses 16-bit TIFF
image files for his work. “We
were shooting in Argentina a
few months back and I did a
panorama there, merging a total
of thirteen vertical images, each
of which was 50 megapixels, and
each of those was converted into a
16-bit TIFF and merged together.
The resultant image was abso-
lutely huge, something like 4.5
gigabytes, which if printed at its
native resolution of 300ppi would
be around four metres wide.
That was quite funny. It certainly
tested the processing power of my
computer. The frustrating thing is
that, most of the time, the image is
just viewed as a little ‘bootlace’ on
a screen printed to fit the 40cm
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 47
Above: Balanced Rock and the
Windows section with the La Sal
Mountains beyond, Arches National
Park, Utah, USA. Canon 5D mkIII,
70-200mm lens, 1/25s, ƒ11, stitched
panorama. Used on the Canon stand
at The Photography Show (see story).
Below: Dawn on Derwentwater at
Brandelhow Bay, Lake District National
Park, Cumbria, England. Fuji GX 617,
90mm lens. This image was printed 6
metres wide for David’s exhibition at
the Oxo Gallery in London in 2008.
Above: showers over the Andes from the Uco Valley nr Tupungato, Mendoza Province, Argentina. Canon 5DS R, EF 100-400mm ƒ4.5-5.6 L IS II,. 1/250s ƒ8.

48 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft

Above: the church at Ingjaldshóll dwarfed by the Snaefellsjokull, Snaefellsness Peninsula, Iceland. Canon 5DS R, EF 100-400mm ƒ4.5-5.6 L IS II , 1/160s ƒ8. A long lens
landscape using compressed perspective to really show the true scale of the landscape.
Lower left: Hamersley Gorge, Karijini National Park, Pilbarra, Western Australia. Canon 5DS R, EF 100-400mm ƒ4.5-5.6 L IS II, 0.5s ƒ11. The same favourite long zoom lens
used to isolate the detail in the landscape.

width of a magazine spread. It angle, you shoot from afar with

really needs to printed big to be
displayed to its full size.”
A few years ago, during The
Photography Show at the NEC in
Birmingham, Canon printed one
of David’s stitched panoramas to
around 10 metres long. “They
rolled it out along the aisle, and
we were blocking pedestrian traf-
fic around the NEC, but it’s great
fun to see your pictures produced
that big”, he says.
David states that photogra-
phers are constantly weighing up
the portability of the equipment
against the quality that it can
produce, to find a happy medium.
Shooting with large format camer-
as can produce maximum quality
but flexibility is lost, he feels.
“That’s the dilemma we are
all dealing with, as flexibility is so
important. You still need to lug all
the equipment into the right place
and be able to work quickly and
respond to spontaneous oppor-
tunities and moments. That’s
why I’m shooting with the DSLR,
because I’ve got excellent quality
combined with flexibility and lens
a long lens. This will emphasise
scale and compact perspective,
and I find this so useful when I
want to show the true majesty of a
landscape.
“I find myself doing more and
more of this long lens work with
landscapes”, he adds. “When you
first start out in photography, the
wide angle lenses can seem so
seductive, they certainly empha-
David’s exhibition at the OXO Gallery in London’s iconic OXO Tower on the south
bank of the Thames featured some very large prints. sise foregrounds and skies. But,
distant objects become almost
choice as well.” He believes that their game with those lenses.” insignificant and when I want
there is no point in having 50 He also enjoys working with to make the most of being in a
megapixel high resolution sensors long lenses for his landscape mountain area or other dramatic
unless he is putting the best quali- work and has found the Canon environment, long lenses work
ty glass in front of them. 100-400mm telephoto zoom lens well.”
“I really like working with the to be really useful. “The long lens To ensure that David gets the
Canon 17mm and 24mm TS-E tilt perspective really shows the true finest quality images, he always
shift lenses. The new generation scale of a landscape” David says. prints from the whole image
of Canon L series lenses obviously “I’m constantly telling people on frame.
responds to the demands of the my workshops that if you want to “I suppose it’s because I spent
high resolution sensors, and I make a mountain look big, you all those years shoot film that I
think that Canon have really upped don’t go up close to it with a wide try not to crop images”, says this
master of the big picture, and
For further information see: David Noton: www.davidnoton.com underlines his point with four
‘Chasing the Light’ Online Magazine: salient words – “Every Pixel is
http://www.davidnoton.com/chasing-the-light.asp Precious”.
Adobe Inspiration Blog: http://blogs.adobe.com/creative/inspiration/ Á

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 49

Roger Spencer-Jones:
from Scotland to Texas by
monorail
R
oger Spencer-Jones re-
ceived his BA in Film, Pho-
tography and Television
from Napier University, Edinburgh
in 1996. Since then, he has pro-
duced over 240 assignments for
the editorial and advertising fields.
Roger first became interest-
ed in photography at grammar
school in Grantham in 1987. “We
had an art teacher, Mr Cowan,
who was very generous with his
time, and he was good at helping
me to decide what I wanted to do.
Photography was very appealing
and Mr Cowan took the course,
which allowed me to develop an
interest in it.”
He also began working as
a photographer for the school
magazine, and managed to take a
photograph of Margaret Thatcher
(a Grantham native) when she
visited the school, which Roger
counts as his first celebrity shot.
“I was only 18 and it was quite
nerve-wracking, although she was
very gracious and generous with
her time”, he says.
Following this early success,
his mother found an advertise-
ment for a BA in photography at
Napier University and encouraged
Roger to put a portfolio togeth-
er and apply for a place on the
course. “I didn’t believe that I was
All captions are Roger’s own commentary on the images. Below, Ian Mellis of Ian
Mellis Cheese, Edinburgh. This was one of my last contributions for The Scotsman.
This would have been 2001 for Scotland Saturday Magazine.
50 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
qualified enough to be offered a
place, but apparently they liked
my photojournalism work and I
was accepted in 1991”, he says.
It was while working on a
Still Life photography module at
Napier University that Roger was
introduced to a Sinar 5 x 4 mon-
orail camera by Robin Gillanders,
and he has never looked back. “It
was a heavy camera, with a steel
frame and tube; the only way I
can describe is as ‘magnificent’.
I remember going to the local
camera shop to buy two Toyo 5 x
4 backs, on which I engraved my
initials, and I still have them.”
His first photograph with the
Sinar was, what he describes as a
“simple one” of a teapot. Roger
recalls going into the darkroom
and unloading the cut film into the
processing frame and processing
it with a clockwork timer. “I was
the first person at the enlarger
and it was amazing to see this big,
wonderful negative being printed.
To get it right first time, was just a
brilliant feeling”, he says. “I have
never lost my love for it”.
At Napier Roger met estab-
lished pro David Eustace, who
gave him tips on how to present
his portfolio to potential clients.
“He told me to only put ten
images in my book”, says Roger,
Above: Mary Spitzer for the El Paso Ballet Theater's 2016 production of the Nutcracker. I have tried a lot of different diffusers but I like the Photek II. It is light weight, takes a
lot of punishment and gives off a light that is difficult to describe apart from say, consistent. Top left: In my early years in the USA, 2007, I helped out at a gallery  and studio
(now defunct) in New Haven, a lovely small city. During a Christmas Party this lady wandered into the studio which was set up for another shoot and started dancing in
front of the camera (RB67) I was fond of from my Scotsman days, which just happened to have a roll of Provia 400X. I shot of a roll and this came out.  I do not know her
name and I never saw her again.  I call this one Lady In Red 2007. Bottom left: One of my early interiors for Scotland on Sunday, this is one of the kitchens on the Loch Fyne
estate of John Noble.

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 51

52 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
Below: A set of the contact sheets that are supplied to me by Photoworks Lab,
Tucson, for the image above. This is Mary Spitzer of El Paso Ballet Theater. The
little dog is Tesla, a little Deer Chihuahua that wandered into my studio looking
for a home. She is somewhat of a mascot now. The floor is made up from all old
pallets. the desert gives evrything here a lovely dusty patina. I like concrete too. In
fact El Paso has one of the first poured concrete buildings when the price of brick
became too costly. I think that has made its way into my studio. I can’t be doing
with shiny.

Contact sheet of Ariella Katz and Tesla for El Paso Ballet Theater's ‘Sleeping Beauty’
– just to prove I use 4x5!
“The best at the front, the best at
the back and the very best in the
middle. He also warned me that
I would only have five minutes at
most to present my images to a
picture editor, so I had to use the
Facing page top: The first of the group portraits of El Paso's Human Nature
time well.”
Contemporary Ballet. I used Portra 160 and a Caltar -N II 150mm. A old Calumet
2400 with big soft box. No fuss. Roger obviously put his advice
Left: June 6, 2015, senior members of El Paso Ballet Theater, Portra 400, Caltar II-N to good use as he soon found him-
150mm. It was about 104°F in the studio that day. self working for some important
Edinburgh-based media, including
The Scotsman, around 1996. His
other clients also included The
Financial Times, Greenwich
Magazine, the Dunfermline
Building Society, 3i, Townhouse
Company and Malmaison.
“I started by photographing
an interior of an architect friend’s
house ‘on spec’ for Kayt Turner

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 53

The water pistol – there is something about it like Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks or Forbidden Planet.  I dug it up at one of my gardenong jobs.  When I photographed it I made
sure that all the light was reflected back on to the top by making a white cardboard house around the pistol, keeping its 3D look. Below: Mr and Mrs Soomer of the S7S
Dugout in the fall of 2007. We built a studio in their diner because Mr Soomers’ advanced years prevented him from going anywhere other than the diner or his house.

at The Scotsman; she liked what of an Indian man, who owned a

I presented to her and it became Cambo 5 x 4 camera. I outlined
one job after another”, he ex- my photography background to
plains. In total, Roger completed him and he told me that I could
244 features for The Scotsman keep the Cambo if I put it to good
Saturday Magazine and Scotland use. I was delighted, and started
on Sunday – including interiors, photographing objects that I
food shots and gardens – over the would dig up in the gardens, in-
course of six years until 2002. cluding a perfectly desiccated frog
A decline in the magazine and an old water pistol, which is
industry brought about a career one of my favourite objects, and
change for Roger, who turned images.”
his large hands to becoming a Roger and Wendy now live
gardener; including working as in El Paso, Texas, following
assistant to the Head Gardener in her appointment as Assistant
Hyde Park, London, 2002-4. Professor of Immunology at the
Roger’s American girlfriend Paul L Foster School of Medicine
(now his wife) Wendy, was offered in 2013. Shortly after arriving, on
a research post at Yale University a walk around the town, Roger
and they moved to Stratford, found an open door into a build-
Connecticut in 2004, where he ing, and his curiosity took him
found more gardening work with inside, where he found members
a landscaping company. “This of The El Paso Ballet Theatre. He
is where the whole 5 x 4 thing introduced himself as a photogra-
comes back in”, he says. pher and offered to help with any
“I was tending the garden projects they were planning. The

54 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft

initial response was ‘we have no
money to pay for photography’,
which Roger countered with ‘let’s
not worry about that for now and
just see what we can do together’.
Roger has been working close-
ly with the company ever since,
including posters for their current
production of Sleeping Beauty.
The creative experience has been
very fulfilling for him. “One aspect
of working with the Ballet Theatre
is that we have so much space, to
design sets for the photography.
Unit space is quite cheap here,
due to over-development in the
area”, he says.
Roger now uses a Calumet/
Cambo view camera with a grid
square ground glass screen
combined with a Fresnel lens to
brighten the viewing area. His
main lens is a Caltar II-N ƒ5.6
150mm in a Copal 0 shutter.
He also use a Caltar II -E ƒ6.8
210mm lens for portrait work.
For still life work, Roger uses a
small light table, which is lit with a
2400Ws Calumet Elite pack. “The
heads are small and light weight
and there is an ability to spread
the power across two channels,
above and below”, he explains.
For most of his still-life work, and
especially insect photography,
Roger uses the Tiffen range of
close up lenses +1,+2 and + 3,
keeping the depth of field as deep
as possible.
“The skimmer and the frog
images were shot at ƒ32 and the
water pistol at ƒ45, to keep the
entire object as sharp as I can”
he says. “At macro levels attention
has to be kept to the hyperfocal
length and the Cambo comes
with a beautifully crafted ruler in
centimetres which allows me to
measure the two-thirds distance
into the object accurately.”
Roger’s favourite colour
film for still life work is Kodak
Ektar 100, while Kodak Portra
160 and 400 work well for his
portraiture, and Tri-X has been
his standard black and white film
stock since his days at Napier. His
large prints, often 26 to 30 inches
on the longest side, prints are
produced by Photographicworks
Lab, in Tucson, Arizona. “It is
their undying enthusiasm that has
helped me to continue working
with Kodak Portra 160 and Portra
400 in the 120, and especially the
5x4 format”, says Roger. “I have
worked with them exclusively for
three years since finding them on
the web.
“The processing, scanning
and post production work,
which happens by Dropbox and
FedEx is done from a lab which
would make any LA or NYC pro
lab ‘faint with the expectation
which they hath not’ to quote
Shakespeare’s Octavius… and
we have a very harmonious and
symbiotic working relationship”.
His photographic paper of choice
is the Hahnemuhle Matte Cotton
Smooth that Photographic Works
Lab introduced Roger to for his
exhibition work.
Although Roger clearly loves
El Paso and the work he is doing
here, there are some issues. “The
air is so warm that I had to install
a cooling system for my black
and white darkroom, which is set
The frog was the guy that started my ‘archaeological’ studies, as it were. I found up in my garage, to cool down
him under the cover of a pond pump engine, perfectly preserved.  It took a few my chemicals, rather warming
attempts to get the lighting and exposure mix right. them, which is what I would have
done elsewhere. Even if the air
conditioning is on in the house,
the ambient temperature can be
around 80° Fahrenheit.”
The university that employed
Roger’s wife was having trouble
recruiting new teachers because
some spouses did not want to
come to El Paso, as it is close
to the Mexican border and has
reputation for being a dangerous
place.
But this was not the case for
Roger. “I fell in love with the
place in about 20 minutes. It is
the closest place to LA, which is
where I would really want to live.
The only difference is that it is
nowhere near the sea. They have a
joke around here that El Paso was
close to the sea, but the tide went
out about 30 million years ago
and never came back”.
Perhaps it was the same tide
that took this passionate pho-
tographer-turned-gardener back
to his first love of photography
Painted Skimmer (Libellula semifasciata). This was more difficult to photograph
than I thought it was goig to be. She was so small, but perfect. The rear film plane
and especially his beloved 5 x 4
had to be perfetly in line with the curving away abdomen to ensure that the focus cameras.
remain sharp throughout.  Depth of field is difficult to calculate at such close-up Á
range. I used a +2 close up lens to
get right in there. The light table is lit See:
using the Calumet 2400 pack, with the
background light 2.6 stops brighter
Roger Spencer-Jones: http://rogerspencerjones.com/
than the light hitting the surface. Still El Paso Ballet Theatre: http://www.elpasoballettheatre.com/
life is discipline, more like science. Photographicworks Lab: http://www.photographicworks.com
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 55
 A CLOSER VIEW
Stephen Power looks at two Sigma lenses he’s invested in to
expand his scope – and help show their potential to students on
his Valentia Island photo courses.
M
y “go-to” lens for over
ten years has been
the Canon 24-105mm
ƒ4 L series zoom. I use it for at
least 80% of my professional
commissions and almost all of
my stock photography shots. I
haven’t been overly concerned
by what some would regard as a
limited maximum aperture, mainly
because I’m not a fan of extremely
shallow depth of field shots –
even though I own an underused
Canon 50mm ƒ1.4 prime lens
– and when I work in low light, I
tend to use a tripod or a Speedlite.
My Canon 70-200mm ƒ4 L
series zoom stayed in my bag for
56 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
so long without use (at least three
years) that fungus grew inside the
front element. Despite considering
myself less than handy with
a jeweller’s screwdriver, I did
manage to get it out, clean it up
and rejuvenate it back to crystal-
clear shooting life. Then, after 50
shots or so, I put it back in the bag
again.
So, my decision to buy a
very long telephoto zoom lens
recently – the Sigma 150-600mm
ƒ5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary
model – came as a bit of a surprise
to those who know how I work,
and to me too, if I’m being honest.
Maybe it was to drag myself out of
the photographic rut I was finding
myself in or just to have another
lens in my bag, and see what I
might do with it.
I’m not a ‘birder’ or wildlife
photographer and my days of
shooting sporting events for the
local press are behind me. There
was, though, something of ‘niggle’
in the back of my mind, that I
might be able to photograph my
usual range of subjects in a way
that would take me out of my
comfort zone.
My initial intention for the
150-600mm zoom is to capture
the stunning Valentia Island
and surrounding County Kerry
landscapes with a narrower angle
of view than might be typical
of landscape photographers,
certainly around these parts.
The first question that many
beginning photographers
attending my personal tuition and
small group workshops ask me is
“how wide angle should my lens
be for the best landscape shots?”
– there is an inherent presumption
The Sigma 150-600mm’s first trip out started with the Rainsleeve as a precaution,
above. It was rewarded with a dolphin (sharper shots will hopefully follow), a close- in it that only wide-angle lenses
up of Skellig Michael Lighthouse, and gulls round a fishing boat, sea-to-sea. will work. It makes sense of course,
as the large skies and sweeping
vistas I see all around me here,
literally as open my door, seem to
demand angles of view greater
than 70°. I’m keen to see what they
will look like with much narrower
ones.
When I started in
photography, in the mid 1970s
it was a revelation to see Mario
Giacomelli’s abstract-like black and
white landscapes that appeared
to use a telephoto lens to isolate
a section of land and transform it
into a surreal image. At that time,
the notion of using a telephoto
lens for landscape photography
was uncommon, to say the least.
The use of a wide-angle
lens to photograph the land is
prevalent even today, although
there are some ground-breaking
photographers such as David
Noton bucking the trend – as
mentioned in my discussion with
him in the earlier article.
The Contemporary version
of the Sigma 150-600mm is less
expensive than the Sport model
and much of the additional cost of
the Sport has gone into the build
quality and weatherproofing.
That’s not to say that the
Contemporary doesn’t feel well
made. It is heavy and solid and
doesn’t feel like it’s made of
plastic. It doesn’t worry me that
the Sport version has a metal
hood but it does worry me slightly
that the Contemporary model is
not as weatherproof as its more
expensive brother.
On my first serious excursion
with it, I went out on a small tour
boat around the Skellig Rocks.
I had the lens smothered in a
‘Rainsleeve’ protective cover even
though the weather was fine
and the Atlantic Ocean looked as
calm as I’ve seen it. A fellow me
if I was expecting bad weather.
I told him that I was expecting
occasional spray, if nothing else,
and that I had decided not to
take chances with the new lens. It
wasn’t long before I decided to risk
taking off the Rainsleeve, as it was
hampering my use of the zoom
ring.
Even without the sleeve, I find
the zoom ring quite stiff and slow
to use, compared to the Canon
24-105mm lens. The Sigma is also
a very heavy lens, by comparison
and not easy to handhold. This
was put to the test only a few
minutes into the trip, when
dolphins were spotted off the Port
side of the boat. I managed to get
a half-decent image, although
it’s not as sharp as I would have
wished.
The 150-600mm has a tripod
collar and I believe that a good
reason for this. Although time will
tell, I am beginning to see it as
the sort of lens that will work best
when it is very firmly supported
by a hefty three-legged friend.
Framing should be done slowly
and deliberately and this is where
landscape photography may suit
the lens very well.
Of course, I expect to become
more familiar with using it
handheld, perhaps for candid
portraiture. This should put the
image stabilisation system to the
test which reputedly allows for up
to 3 or stops when handholding
this heavy-enough lens.
Shortly after making my
purchase of the Sigma 150-
600mm zoom, I was offered the
opportunity to acquire another
Sigma lens, the 105mm ƒ2.8
DG Macro HSM. With this lens, I
was back in my comfort zone, as
much of my photography consists
of photographing people and
objects, often quite small ones.
The fixed focal length of 105mm
is perfect for head and shoulder
portraits on my full-frame Canon
EOS 5DIII and much older, albeit
still very useable, EOS 1DsII.
I’m not without a good portrait
lens in the 24-105mm zoom,
but I didn’t have a prime lens for
that purpose until now, which is
something of a luxury. The real
Even at small apertures, depth of field with the macro can be so limited that for
static subjects focus stacking is the best solution (see story).
irony is that, although I shoot a
reasonable amount of product
images I have never possessed
a true ‘macro’ lens, unless you
count a dabble with bellows
attachments in the mid 1980s. My
typical way of working has been to
crop the image, to enlarge smaller
objects, while shooting on a
tripod at very low ISO and optical
aperture settings, for maximum
image quality.
The opportunity to get in
tight to small subjects has now
eliminated the need for judicious
editing and all the small-object
images shown here are taken
from all, or almost all the entire
frame. I am however, still being
very careful about stability – rarely
handholding the camera – and
making sure that my settings
produce maximum quality, as
before.
Focusing for depth of field with
a macro lens can be a challenge
as it falls away dramatically as you
get closer. It wasn’t long before I
found this to be a practical reality.
Objects that were only millimetres
away from each other were being
rendered as out of focus in the
images at quite small apertures
such as ƒ13 and ƒ16.
The saxophone keys shot is a
focus-stacked image comprised
of nine separate exposures. I am
discovering that this may be the
only way to ensure that frames are
sharp from front to back when the
lens is being used for very small
objects.
There are three switches on
the lens; focus limiter, OS mode
selector, and AF-MF switcher. The
focus limiter is a three-way switch
that enables AF range limit. You
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 57
can select between full AF range,
0.45m to infinity, and 0.312-0.45m,
depending on what you are
shooting. The lens focuses fast and
silently and I’m more impressed
with it in this regard than even my
beloved Canon 24-105mm.
On the other hand, there has
been a lot of bad press about
how noisy the lens can become
when focusing with one of the
two OS (image stabilisation)
modes switched on. Yes, it does
make a noise, but it’s far from ear-
shattering or even too distracting
and in my view, doesn’t deserve
the bad press it has had. The first
OS mode provides a traditional
blur reduction and the second
version prevents vertical shake
when shooting subjects moving
horizontal to the camera. As with
the 150-600mm this OS system
has garnered some impressive
feedback in the photographic
press.
I feel almost as if I’ve been
given a new lease of photographic
life with these two lenses. My
image-taking may have got into
a rut, and there is certainly an
opportunity to work in ways
that I haven’t done previously, or
expand personal and professional
shooting avenues.
I’m not sure yet which lens
will spend more time out of the
camera bag. I think it’s going to be
important to give both of them
an equal airing, until I get used to
them. By doing this, I hope to let
them tell me what they are good
for, too.
Á
Stephen Power Photography &
Valentia Island Workshops:
www.stephenpowerphotos.com
SMALL, TIGHT AND COOL
K
ickstarter projects can turn LED lighting allows you to put sources close to
imagination into things subjects which would curl up and die under
you buy, and the Adaptalux
incandescent light. We look at a kit from
macro LED lighting system is as
much a work of imagination as
Adaptalux which can change the way you light at
anything else. The packaging is close range. OK, the package looks like you just
clever and you wonder if Brewdog bought four bottles of craft beer… why not?
has just sent an unexpected liquid
dividend. With a day’s work with
leathercloth and glue, it would
even make a fine field case for
the kit.
The power/control pod looks
like part of an X-Fighter kit; the
flexible arms taking Bluetooth
smart-app controlled power to the
point source LEDs snap into their
precision sockets with the help
of circular neodymium magnets.
This action also turns the unit
on and off – insert one or more
arms to fire up, remove them all
to power down. The five channels have manipulated the 31cm long change the angle of the light mounting with large lenses such
can remember how much juice flexi arms to position the light distribution by unscrewing the as 180mm or 200mm macros.
to pump out thanks to setting heads, you don’t risk disturbing cowl which protects the LED, and At present, the standard
profiles saved on your iOS (in the camera or the subject making in future extension arms should screw-in cold shoe is the weakest
future, also Android) device. One power adjustments. You can also enable on-camera control pod part of the design for on-camera
setup is saved in the control pod.
The visual interface is not just
easy to control, recognising if you
have added a coloured or white
LED and to which channel. It is
also so hands-free that once you

Above: the fittings, adjustments and components of the system. :Left: in use with an
Olympus 60mm macro lens, a slim design allowing easy positioning of the LEDs.

58 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft

mounting. It lacks any locating pin,
and relies on manual tightening of
screw-clamp discs to fix it relative
to the pod and to the camera
shoe. Apply any rotational force
to the pod (or arms) and this just
doesn’t work, which is exactly why
all similar mounts for cameras
usually have a locating pin or stop.
The cold shoe is usable even with
Sony’s Multi Function Interface
but should be treated with care.
But this is essentially table-top,
indoor lighting and the moment
you take it outdoors the relatively
low power is obvious. Camera
mounted ‘freehand’ shooting is
not what Adaptalux is for. Users
are more likely to mount the pod
on a tripod or tablepod, or their
own low profile stabiliser (optional
extra).
Even so we hope
improvements can be made to
this small design weakness in
future. In comparison, the flexible
arms are over-engineered and
superior to almost anything we’ve
used with a similar function. After
much bending, it’s even easy to
straighten them out for storage
without the silicon tube skin
ending up doing a Norah Batty.
The small ‘softbox’ white
Studio quality lighting on a macro scale
This composition (aimed at stock
sales with its blank label) would
be very hard to light this way
with any other system. The red
Adaptalux arm has been curled
round from the left of the camera
(the control pod is out of shot on
the bench top). The black flexible
arm disappears completely into
the shadow. The LED is hidden
behind the bottle. The green
LED is also behind the subject,
overhead, providing the bluish-
looking backlight from the blend
of colours and white balance
adjustment. A white LED with
diffuser sits immediately next to
the camera lens. Each lighting
arm adds more light, the power is
not split between them.
diffusers are more advanced than
you might think, offering three
different grades of reflective/
opaque front surface with the
funnel-like translucent body. Their
values can also be entered in the
app (see iPhone above).
The Combo Pack, which we
were sent to try out, is £269.99
and includes the control pod, USB
1.2W mains charger transformer
and cable; your choice of 5700K
high CRI 210 lumens white, red/
green/blue/amber lighting arms;
and five diffuser/filters. We had
two white LEDs, one red, one
green; three strengths of white
diffuser, yellow and blue filters.
This is much better value and
more useful than the £182.99
Starter kit with only two LED
arms. Extra arms are £34.99, extra
diffusers only £10.99.
If you work in dark conditions
you can change colour balance in
raw conversion and make yellow
or even green your ‘white’ – even
just a couple of coloured effects to
play with can give you more than
imagined. You can also combine
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 59
this highly controlled LED setup
with broader overall light from
more conventional Rotolight or
other video/general LED lights.
An important aspect of
this Kickstarter funded project
is the on-line community
involved, with image sharing
and also programmed lighting
set-up sharing. Users include
numismatists and standard set-
ups for photographing coins are
useful, enabling comparison to
be made. The very small size of
the light sources and the way the
black arms just disappear if you
place in the back of a shot can be
seen (or rather not!) in my example
below. There will be professional
users in scientific and medical
fields where the relatively heat-
free source, used at very close
range, can go where tungsten or
flash may not venture.
Most users are probably more
into experimenting with light for
their macro kit – much as they
experiment with differential focus,
tilted lenses or focus stacking.
As something to learn with and
form creative ideas, Adaptalux
succeeds.
– David Kilpatrick
Á
The exposure for this larger
macro subject (too small for a
regular lens close focus limit) was
1.6s at ƒ11 and ISO 100, which
indicates the limits for hand-
holding with the Adaptalux kit.
It’s best used for bench, table-top
and tripod work, as this was.
The camera was a Sony A99 with
Sigma EX Macro 70mm ƒ2.8. No
retouching other than removal of
tiny blemishes and fragments of
dust has been needed.
See:
www.adaptalux.com
 OLYMPUS MACRO 60mm ƒ2.8
B
ack when the original
Four Thirds fornat was
introduced (proper DSLR,
now almost forgotten) Olympus
launched with one of the best
macro lenses, their 50mm ƒ2. It
was affordable, the sensor format
made it equal to a 100mm macro,
the extra depth of field tended to
improve macro shots.
For the Micro Four Thirds
mirrorless system (MFT) Olympus
now had a well-proven update,
the M. Zuiko Digital 60mm ƒ2.8
Macro. At around £470 it is not
a bargain basement lens but it’s
worth hunting round for good
prices from UK retailers. Olympus,
as a system, has not suffered from
the price-hikes imposed by the big
three and buyers benefit from the
competition created by Panasonic
sharing the same mount. You need
to be wary as the compatibility of
Panasonic lenses with Olympus
bodies is variable. There’s also
plenty of used stock around, and
these lenses do not seem to pick
up marks and look worn as readily
as some competitors.
The 60mm ƒ2.8 is a rear/
internal group focusing design.
This means that it never extends
in physical length from its slim
(46mm filter thread) 80mm. It
also means that the ƒ2.8 aperture
remains more constant in the
range between infinity and
1:1, and the image scale does
not suffer from too much focus
breathing.
This, and the smooth ultrasonic
autofocus, combine to work
unusually well with Olympus’s
unique built-in focus bracketing
(E-M1, E-M1 MkII, Pen F and
E-M5 MkII) and in-camera focus
stacking (E-M1 Mk1 Firmware v4
and E-M1 MkII). Set up through a
fairly deep menu option process,
focus bracketing allows up to
999 successive images to be
captured with the lens focus
servo-adjusted in adjustable
steps (1 to 10) starting from a
closest focus setting. You then
merge the resulting images using
software such as Helicon for a
single image with focus depth
far beyond anything you can
60 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
When you need to get close to a small
subject, a small system and lens can be
the best choice.
The Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED
60mm ƒ2.8 Macro uses 13 elements
in 10 groups, with internal focusing
and aberration-correcting floating
groups as well as Extra-Low Dispersion
glass. It weighs just 185g and is 56mm
x 82mm (the camera mount is the
widest diameter, filters are 46mm and
the barrel’s manual focusing ring only
2mm more). Manual focus is ‘fly by
wire’ with a long throw and fast 1:1
setting, autofocus has options for full
range, 19-40cm and 40cm to infinity.
The lens is dust and splash proof.
achieve in a single frame. The
example on the right hand page
is a little crude, as we chose to use
only 24 frames and set the focus
bracketing on the E-M5 MkII to
the maximum step of 10. Helicon
Focus Pro (approx £47 plus VAT
from Heliconsoft.com) has done
a pretty good job stacking from
the raw files and producing a
.DNG composite; you can see by
counting the micro tools across
the frame how much image is
lost by the focus breathing effect.
The overall accuracy is far better
than with a conventional macro
lens (whole lens unit focusing) or
focusing rack camera movement,
and close to the ideal (front cell/
group focusing, which is now only
found in some tele zooms).
Focus bracketing this way, on a
tripod, gives more scope than the
very limited number of automatic
focus stacking frames which can
be processed in-camera on the
E-M1 models. We used the silent
anti-shock mode for the sequence,
a single shutter press setting off
the series as you watch the macro
lens change its focus incrementally
with just a whisper of sound.
It’s also very useful for regular
hand-held macro work, where you
can set a sequence (for example)
of just five frames with a moderate
(level 5) focus shift. You always
target the closest focus first, as the
bracketing moves focus further
away with each shot. Then, you
can pick the best individual frame
from the set and if necessary use
the other frames as sources for
Photoshop retouching.
The ability of the latest
Olympus cameras to servo-focus
the 60mm ƒ2.8 this way combines
with the strengths of the MFT
format for macro. You have to
remember that 1:1 – which can be
automatically set on the 60mm by
turning a thumbswitch on the side
of the lens to the 1:1 position – is
actually 2:1 in full frame 16 to 20
megapixel macro terms. You need
a 120mm ƒ5.6 lens focusing to
twice life size to achieve the same
image scale in the final print or
on-screen view as the E-M5 MkII or
E-M1 MkII produce.
 The additional depth of field
of a 60mm, compared to a non-
available 120mm for full frame,
only improves things. The 60mm
lens is of such a high optical
quality that it can be used at any
aperture wider than ƒ8 for high
resolution multishot files on the
new cameras. These use sensor
nano-shift and require a tripod,
and create images ranging from
40 to 80 megapixels (as we have
tested in previous Cameracraft
issues). We can only repeat that
the MFT sensor is around one-
quarter of the physical area of a 24
x 36mm sensor, and 80 megapixels
from this equates to having a 240
megapixel FF. That kind of demand
on lens quality sounds impossible,
beyond any reasonable limit, but
M. Zuiko Digital higher-end glass
is capable.
With macro subjects already
posing problems for depth of field
and even the state of the subject
itself with imperfections and dust
(see our brand new, just opened
box of computer case opening
driver heads).
In the field, it’s possible to get
the naked 60mm very close to
subjects if you don’t spend over
£40 on its dedicated optional
lens hood. This is very deep and
effective but can get in the way.
The minimum focus of the 60mm,
at 1:1, is 19cm which indicates a
true focal length of around 40mm
and real effective aperture around
ƒ4 at this range. The subject plane
is about 9cm from the lens front,
and that’s not a bad working
Focusing bracketing on the OM-D E-M5 MkII, 24 frames, step 10, Helicon Focus Pro from raw. First and last frames, below.
clearance – Sony’s new 90mm ƒ2.8
internal focus full frame FE macro
has a clearance of 13cm at 1:1.
But the M. Zuiko gets the same
framing at 1:2 and 23cm focusing
distance, thus matching the 13cm
clear space, and without a hefty
barrel and 62mm front diameter.
If you are serious about macro
photography, MicroFourThirds
seems by far the best system
choice. Where the Sony for our full-
frame kit would have cost £809
after £80 Sony cashback from our
dealer (Camera Centre UK, Cardiff)
the Olympus was discounted to
£360 with a further 10% off. On
price, performance, functions and
features it’s an all-round win.
– D&SK
Á

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 61

 SONY FE 85mm ƒ1.8
M
irrorless cameras look
and feel a bit like 35mm
rangefinders. The classic
postwar Leica outfit had a 90mm
portrait lens, a 50mm standard,
and a 35mm wide-angle. Thirty
years later updates like the Leica-
Minolta CLE (28/40/90) and Contax
G (28/45/90) followed the trend to
a more useful wide-angle, but the
85-90mm portrait lens remained
a favourite. SLR makers ensured
their range included one or two
choices, often a compact ƒ2 and a
faster a ƒ1.4 or ƒ1.2.
Sony was quick to update
Minolta’s 85mm ƒ1.4 with the Carl
Zeiss Planar T* 85mm ƒ1.4 ZA and
later added a very low cost 85mm
ƒ2.8 Sonnar-type A-mount SAM –
both for DSLR/DSLT models. The
now-dominant mirrorless E-mount
was left behind, with no 85mm
at all until early 2016 when their
ƒ1.4 GM (G-Master) arrived at the
same time as Zeiss’s independent
Batis stabilised 85mm ƒ1.8 Sonnar
T*. These two lenses hit £1,600
and £900 (variable) price marks
respectively.
Setting aside other aspects of
bokeh subtleties and build, what
you can actually do with these
lenses is only differentiated by
2/3rds of a stop in speed. Both
focus to 80cm, which is a ‘just
made the benchmark’ distance.
The humble 85mm ƒ2.8 SAM
A-mount does far better at 60cm
and typically sells for under £200.
Since this lens can use advanced
AF functions when adapted to the
A7RII with the LA-EA3, it’s almost
as good as a native FE lens. But
it’s not ƒ1.8 or ƒ1.4, and its simple
construction means there can be
slight colour fringes and bokeh
effects.
So, despite owning the SAM
lens for its superior close focus
and having been much impressed
by the Batis on test, I decided to
order the 2017 newcomer – a
non-stabilised, Sonnar type 85mm
ƒ1.8 FE made by Sony in the same
budget prime series as the 28mm
ƒ2 and 50mm ƒ1.8. At £599, it is
not an absolute bargain but fairly
priced relative to other Sony FE
designs.
62 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
It’s affordable at under £600, but the
equivalents from Nikon, Canon and
Olympus are even more so. David
Kilpatrick reviews the lens and rounds up
its serious competition.
Close focus limit
The 85mm lacks the focus distance
display of the Batis as well as its
superior ergonomics and optical
stabilisation, but does have a
single customisable on-lens
function button. It takes the same
67mm filter fit, has nine elements
rather than eleven in roughly the
same size barrel, and weighs 371g
even Japanese Pentax often had
close focus just to set them apart
from rangefinder lenses which
couldn’t get closer than 1m and
had real parallax problems with
composition if you tried.
But with the 85mm focal
length there’s another reason – the
The 85mm is a length of your arm. The little SAM
moderate sized lens at 60cm is at the limit. I’m a
lens and for its fairly normal 1.78m height and I
£599 comes can just manage to hold an item
complete
out to my left, put the camera
with a lens
hood. The to my right eye, and focus on it
finish is typical reliably in the 0.6-0.7m scale range
Sony plastic of the lens (hold it out in front of
with metal me, and it’s a dead 0.6m). Very few
sheathing in
people will manage this with 0.8m
places.
focus. Most women will find a
0.5m focus necessary.
I’m disappointed not because
of the 0.13X repro scale of these
80cm focusing 85mm lenses, but
because of the failure to identify
something basic about our
anatomy and camera use. I love
my 24-105mm, it focuses to 0.5m
– I am even happier with lenses
which go closer.
Beyond the fringe
I've been using my adapted SAM
85mm for commercial close-ups,
often wide open. It’s certainly
The 67mm filter
sharp enough. However, there
thread matches
the 24-70mm is a distinct hint of chromatic
and 70-300mm aberration and a visible gree-
Sony FE lenses magenta foreground and
background bokeh colouration.
Even the Batis has a trace of this,
so no miracles were expected.
The GM is relatively free of the
effect and you have to try hard, or
be very unlucky, to get a hint of
purple or green touching the edge
of a defocused highlight. It is also
ridiculously sharp wide open.
I should have known that
the FE 85mm ƒ1.8, an enhanced
Sonnar design, was not going
to match it. Indeed, the lens
against the Zeiss 452g. In the hand displays fairly marked colour
it feels less solid. It focuses to the effects in defocused detail and
same slightly disappointing 80cm. strong purple fringes on brilliant
Why am I so obsessed with highlights even when sharply
closer focus? Simple – we are not focused. It’s probably not too
constrained by actual rangefinder apparent in print, but the purple
design with these rangefinder- and green fringes created a faint
like bodies! Early SLR lenses from tartan effect in the window panes
Meyer, Zeiss Jena, Kilfitt and of the tests above. These show
Mechanical shutter, 1/6400s at ƒ1.8
Tests showed that at apertures between ƒ1.8 and ƒ4, using both shutter
curtains (mechanical shutter) gave the maximum amount of differential
focus blur. First curtain electronic is similar, but the metering does not tend
to give the slight (1/3rd stop) overexposure corrected for here.
how the Mechanical shutter gives
a very different depth of field to
Silent electronic (which acts a
bit like an SLR focusing screen) –
concert photographers note. You
don’t just lose differential focus,
you also get a slightly more noisy
image in low light if you use Silent
shutter.
This apart, the bokeh of the
85mm ƒ1.8 FE is pleasant. It has
none of the vices of the oddly-
designed 55mm ƒ1.8 Sonnar FE.
There are no ‘bad’ distances or
apertures to contend with and
transitions are smooth without
complex wiriness or double edge
emphasis.
Illumination and geometry
are as good as can be expected.
Copy work needed no distortion
correction, and disabling the
built-in profile in raw conversion
showed barely perceptible
pincushion distortion with
distant focus. The same process
produced a 0.8 stop light loss at
the extreme corner of the frame
at ƒ1.8, and less than half a stop
by ƒ8. This is better than the Batis
(1.4 stops vignetting to the corner
at ƒ1.8) which also displays more
distortion (barrel, not pincushion)..
The speed of focus can not
be faulted. It’s best to use a small
focus point as delicate foreground
subjects may be ignored with
wide area or even with a larger
expanded focus point – the
lens will simply home in on the
background if it has more detail
and contrast. Eye focus and
Silent shutter, 1/8000s at ƒ1.8
With first curtain electronic or silent shutter, exposure was normally more
accurate for highlight values. Silent shutter (purely electronic) gives visibly
greater depth of field and less blur to the windows in the distance at wide
apertures. By ƒ5.6 the difference was negligible.
tracking are excellent and rapidly
grabbed shots are usually in
perfect focus.
The Harley rider, shot so
quickly I didn’t think it was
remotely likely to be focused,
displays both its strengths (super
sharp at ƒ1.8 on the bike, instant
AF) and weaknesses (purple CA
on the chrome, purple and green
colour transitions in out of focus
regions).
The bottom line
My real issue with this lens is
Sony’s pricing. Recently, this has
become more a matter of taking
the p*** than just taking money.
The A9 has a joke price – a not
very funny joke – and this 85mm
is priced around 75% over market
value. I have used the Canon
85mm ƒ1.8 USM and it’s every bit
as good for c.£340. The excellent
Nikon 85mm ƒ1.8 G is around
£380, and Olympus’s superb little
45mm (=90mm) ƒ1.8 is under
£200. There are no full frame
mirrorless comparisons, of course.
It would not be so bad if the
Above: wide open, focus nailed on the slow-moving Harley at 1/2500s, but the finish of the lens was not so fragile
300dpi crop shows very strong purple fringes. Below: 85mm ƒ1.8, 55mm ƒ1.8 and (metal skin over plastic) and
Russian 85mm ƒ2 Jupiter-9 compared in size. planned so that even use for a
few hours renders the lens visibly
secondhand. Even my Zeiss Sony
lenses show black rubbed off
despite soft cloths used to protect
them in my bag. There’s no way I
would buy into this system now if I
had not started with it years ago –
it’s expensive and not durable.
Á
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 63
 Cmercrƒt REARVIEW

Above: Kingfisher killing a fish, by Ian Cook of Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. Nikon D800E, 500mm, ISO 5000, 1/1600s, ƒ8. Tripod, Camouflaged hide. “A Kingfisher
repeatedly strikes larger fish against a branch to kill it before devouring it or flying off to feed young in the nest. Kingfishers always swallow their prey head first, it aids
ingestion by helping prevent scales and fins getting caught in the oesophagus”, writes Ian.
Below, Urban Landscape by Michael Parrott of Wallingford, Oxfordshire– taken using a vintage Nikon D200 converted to infrared.

64 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft

Above: Charcoal carrier, Zambia, February 2017, by Richard Alton of Bexleyheath, Kent. Taken using a Leica M8 and 50mm Elmar lens.
Below: Return From the Fields in Romania, village of Viscri, by Robert Johnston. Taken with a Fuji XE-2 and the 55-200mm.
Submissions for Rearview Gallery should be 2400 x 3600 in size (or close), JPEG, emailed to editor@iconpublications.com

ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 65

Y
ou’ve absolutely got to
downsize and de-clutter.
This is sensible advice
from the voice inside my head as
well as anyone who knows me.
Dowsizing can mean scaling back
everything, from the amount you
spend on energy bills to your
wardrobe, cupboard, attic and
cellar stockpile of things which
are never ever going to be of use
again.
However, it should never be
done on a whim or in a state
of panic. I downsized a fully
equipped darkroom, plumbed
and wired, to a box of tanks and
safelights and a slightly inferior
enlarger. Ten years later, I might
have started processing film and
making prints again as so many
have done… if the gear had still
been there.
Richard K has struggled for
years with a kind of elephants’
graveyard of computer kit, boxes
of primeval Macs and ageing
Commodores. Every now and then
the digital nightsoil collection ar-
rives and clears some away. Then
what happens? Suddenly, stuff
which was worth nothing at all is
worth hundreds. Broken things
which can donate transplant
organs bring other broken things
back to life.
A Facebook clickbait bit of
skullbloggery asks you to check
your VHS video shelf because
some of those old releases are
now worth thousands. Don’t both-
er, as the ones you have are not,
even if some of them might get the
makers arrested today. Fashion
was not a crime then.
For photographers, downsizing
can be literal. You can sell the 5 x
4 monorail, the old Mamiya C330
kit, or the brick-weight Canon
DSLR and take a good look at just
how many of all of these items put
together might buy you half an
almost-OK fast zoom for that neat
mirrorless system.
And then – it is happening
right now – some of that old big
stuff becomes useful again. You
dig your ancient Nikon D1X out of
a cupboard, buy a clone battery
just to get it going again, and find
that the file size is really fairly
useful and advances in raw con-
verters completely transform the
results. You are about to consign
66 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft
Cmercrƒt
Why one size does
a pretty ordinary consumer level
early mirrorless to a car boot sale
and find that there’s a company
offering to convert it to true infra-
red with the benefit of live view
to compose those invisible-light
scenes.
not fit all Today’s clutter is tomorrow’s
treasure. It’s the same with stock
photography. The dated images
This issue has been given a theme you simply could not sell twenty
of ‘the bigger picture’ with some years ago pass a point where they
become period pieces, nostalgia
emphasis on its literal rather than and whimsy. Once the presence
philosophical meaning. Maybe we of more than one Ford Anglia
should look at downsizing too. in a street scene was enough to
consign a print or transparency to
the bin. Now you can sell prints to
hang on retro diner walls.
Since you are not a snail or
a hermit crab, you don’t have to
carry all this with you. Your every-
day camera kit enjoys the privilege
of being your companion and bur-
den instead, and here downsizing
can make a huge difference.
In May, we managed to use
Avios to reach Sardinia from
Scotland (still not a low-cost
itinerary) and I looked at Shirley’s
little Billingham bag with Olympus
Olympus 75-300mm II lens at 300mm, 1/400s at ƒ8 – 10 megapixel crop above,
OM-D E-M5II, 12-40mm and
Black-Winged Stilt extreme left of frame, 300dpi crop below. E-M5II, photograph by 75-300mm lenses. A virtual 24 to
Shirley Kilpatrick. Small sensor, small lens, 600mm equivalent. Why think big? 600mm kit small enough to go
in a fisherman’s pocket, but able
to deliver great results. I looked
at my full-frame Sony A7RII
with its 16-35mm ƒ4, 24-70mm
ƒ4, 70-300mm; and then at the
28mm ƒ2, 55mm ƒ1.8 and 85mm
ƒ1.8 primes, and the 10mm
Voigtlander Hyper-Wide.
I packed, into a waistbelt case,
a Sony A6000 with 10-18mm ƒ4,
35mm ƒ1.8, 16-50mm zoom,
50mm ƒ1.8 and 55-210mm,
filters, batteries and some space
to spare. I left the big gear behind
because 90 percent of getting any
photograph is being there, and
this lightweight kit simply makes it
so much easier to move round.
On return, the results didn’t
disappoint. The two different
smaller systems both did really
well. I could not say that the big
lenses and 42 megapixels of full
frame would have added anything
in value to the experience or the
pictures. Downsizing in digital
sensor format, not upscaling,
could be my own next step.
– David Kilpatrick
Á
ƒ2 Cameracraft July/August 2017 67
 Now available
TTL & HSS for Olympus
Attach this small unit to your Olympus camera’s hotshoe to
wirelessly integrate your Profoto Air TTL flash with your
camera. The Air Remote TTL-O gives Olympus users full
functionality with the entire range of Profoto Air TTL flashes.

Find out more: profoto.com/air-remote-ttl-o

68 July/August 2017 ƒ2 Cameracraft