PhotoPlus issue 94

3 FREE GIFTS!

canon d-slr buyers’ guide

video disc!

14 lessons gift 1

masks and montages

gift 2

700D • 60D • 70D • 7D Mk II • 6D

mini mag eos tips! gift 3

SLR skills e-book

December 2014 Issue 94

NEW EOS SKILLS!

our h it w ld e fi f o th p e d r te s Ma g tips in s u c fo d n a s n le , re u rt ape

canon 7D Mk II

lenses on test! super-tel

D-SLR enthusiasts buyers’ guide including the new EOS 7D Mk II

cape landsiq s! techn ue

ephoto zooms from canon, sigm & tamron a

100% CANON Master night photography Canon pro tips for great night shots of city lights

shoot in the twilight zone!

Learn how to capture the subtle tones and colours in landscapes after sunset

How to capture autumn colours Get creative with colour, composition and bokeh!

DECember 2014

PRINTED IN THE UK

£5.49

The PhotoPlus Apprentice

LES’S TIP

Go abstract!

“Simon encouraged me to experiment with my composition,” says Les. “If there’s an edge of a building or bridge coming into the frame that you didn’t anticipate, embrace it! Capturing something less predictable adds ambiguity to a scene, making viewers stop for a closer look.”

KILLER KIT OF THE PROS #1 Landscape lenses

Simon’s TIP

Balanced exposures “It’s hard to tell if you have a balanced exposure when shooting at night due to all the bright lights,” says Simon. “So get into the habit of checking your histogram to work out if you need a longer or shorter exposure time. If in doubt, it’s much better to underexpose your images, as you can recover darker images much more easily in post-production as they contain more detail, as long as you’re shooting in Raw!”

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You never know what you’re going to be faced with on a shoot, so it’s best to have a versatile range of lenses to cover all options, from wide and standard focal lengths for sweeping scenes and towering architecture, to long lenses to compress perspective and capture smaller details.

Simon has a selection of Canon L-series zooms to cover all eventualities, including wide-angle (16-35mm f/2.8), standard (24-105mm f/4) and compact telephoto (70-300mm f/4-5.6) lenses.

Your chance to shoot with a pro

Simon’s top city scenes Simon reveals his favourite shots from around the globe…

Exposure: XXXXXXXXX Lens: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sydney Harbour Bridge

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“The exposure was over a minute and amazingly the couple on the steps hardly moved. I’d have preferred more blue in the sky, but too many people were moving about earlier.”

North Point, Hong Kong

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Exposure: 13 secs at f/7.1; ISO1000 Lens: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM

Les’s comment

“I swapped to a longer focal length so the full moon was more prominent; anything too wide would lessen the impact. Shooting a long exposure, there was a risk the moon could blur, so Simon suggested increasing the ISO. He told me not to worry about blowing the moon’s highlights – if we exposed to capture it at its best, the rest of the image would have been dark!”

KILLER KIT OF THE PROS #2 Shutter release

“A shutter release is essential for long exposures as it enables hands-free shooting to eliminate even the smallest movement caused by pressing the shutter button,” says Simon. “If you don’t have one, use your camera’s 2-sec Self-timer drive mode.”

“This was a 102 sec exposure, during which a ship passed close to the shore – hence the light streaks.

The rocks were lit by city lights over my shoulder, although I did further enhance them with my head torch.”

Sha Tin, Hong Kong

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“These were all taken with my trusty arsenal of tilt-shift lenses.

In this shot, the shift has the double advantage of not only correcting the verticals, it also exaggerates the foreground to make the road more dramatic.

A 30 sec exposure makes for prominent traffic trails, enhancing the feeling of speed as the road heads for the distant high-rise buildings.”

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Depth of field techniques

g in s u c o f , e r u t r e p A : F Do f/5.6 h t g n e l & focal

f/8

We’ll help you get to grips with depth of field, and illustrate how it’s much more than just aperture settings…

A

lens can only focus at one distance at a time, however the scene will appear ‘acceptably sharp’ (more on this on p35) a certain distance either side of this focal point, and it’s this area we’re referring to when we talk about depth of field.

As well as changing the aperture (combined with shutter speed and ISO) to achieve the ‘correct’ exposure, when you change your lens’s aperture setting, you also affect DoF. The aperture (or opening) of your lens varies from wide to mid-range to narrow, measured in f-stops.

A wide aperture (such as f/4) will result in a ‘shallow’ DoF.

Wide apertures are great for portraits and wildlife, as you can ensure your subject is sharp, but the background is blurred, to help them stand out in the scene.

A mid-range aperture (such as f/8) will give a medium DoF, and is ideal for bigger subjects like buildings or group shots of people.

A narrow aperture (such as f/16) will result in a ‘deeper’ DoF. This is why narrow apertures are perfect when shooting landscapes and large cityscapes, as you want to ensure your scene is sharp all the way from the foreground elements right the way through to the background.

This is a sequence of macro shots taken at 100mm. Notice how the depth of field reduces and backgrounds become progressively more out of focus the wider the aperture. A shallow depth of field is handy to diminish busy backgrounds and help your subjects stand out.

How your lens’s focal length will also affect the depth of field…

18mm

50mm

100mm

200mm

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f/16

f/11

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hese shots were all taken at f/5.6, but look how DoF is affected as we zoom in from 18mm to 200mm (and also move back for each shot, to keep our subject roughly the same size).

As focal length increases, DoF decreases. The angle of view also decreases – hence why there’s less background behind our subject.

So, as these images (and the illustrations on the right) show, DoF is determined by more than setting a wide or narrow aperture: focal length, your distance from the subject, and their distance from the background, work together to increase or decrease DoF. Over the next pages we’ll explain how your subject and scenes, and your lens choices, can work in your favour to further maximise or reduce your DoF, depending on the type of shots you’re trying to capture…

Depth of field techniques

10-35mm es s n e l e l g n -a e id W : F Do How to maximise depth of field using wide lenses and narrow apertures…

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s their name suggests, a wide-angle lens (anything wider than 35mm) will capture a wider angle of view of your scene, but as well as fitting more into the frame, they also naturally capture more depth of field. This is why wide-angle lenses are best for big landscape images when you want the whole scene in focus, from your feet to infinity.

By also combining a narrow aperture (eg f/16 or f/22) with a wider focal length, you’ll be able to maximise depth of field, which is helpful if you have elements both in the near foreground and background of your landscape you want in focus.

Go wide for more DoF!

A

narrow aperture also lets in less light, so you’ll end up with a slower shutter speed for a standard exposure; which is also why narrow apertures are good for capturing blur in watery scenes – such as f/22 at 1 sec for a milky seascape. Use a tripod to ensure you capture shake-free shots. But even at mid-range apertures of f/11, an 18mm wide-angle focal length will capture everything from the path at your feet to the distant building, as our example shot shows. In fact, you can get away with shooting at 18mm and f/5.6 for a faraway cityscape scene, and it would still be acceptably sharp.

You need a wideangle lens and large DoF to capture entire scenes in focus, from the foreground to the background

If you focus too closely…

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ou still need to ensure your focusing is accurate when shooting with a wide-angle lens. If you used a fast wide-angle lens (eg 10-20mm f/3.5 or 16-35mm f/2.8) at its widest aperture and focal length, and focused on part of your scene very close to you, you’ll find the backdrop won’t be sharp. This can be good or bad, depending on the sort of creative shot you’re looking to take!

Even with wide-angle lenses, if you focus on objects very close to you, DoF will be reduced

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Skills Macro abstract project

Super Tip! We used the Gradient Map adjustment layer’s Black, White preset for an easy way to convert our image to mono.

If you then click on the large box containing the gradient, you enter the Gradient Editor; here you can adjust Colour Stop markers under the gradient to determine where the light and dark tones fall.

Construct your paper sculpture

Start by clearing a flat surface to work on. Ideally you need a plain backdrop behind, such as a white wall, for a distraction-free background. Fold an A4 sheet of paper softly in half to create a curve without a crease and position a weight over where the two sides meet.

Secure your camera

Phrase Book Dodge and Burn Dodging and burning is an old darkroom technique in which film photographers used pieces of card to block light from reaching specific areas of the photographic paper during exposure, thus brightening or darkening that part of the image. Photoshop has brush-like tools that achieve a similar effect, but offering further control over the Range (Highlights, Shadows or Midtones) in the image that the effect is applied to, meaning the result can really be fine-tuned.

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Manual focus

Frame your shot to show the ends of the paper tubes, but don’t include the weight in shot.

Switch your lens to Manual Focus (MF) and press the magnifying glass button to zoom to a 10x view.

Navigate to the front of the tubes and twist the manual focus ring until the tubes are pin-sharp.

Create shadows

Repeat three more times with the remaining sheets of A4 paper and place each curved sheet on top of each other to build up your sculpture. Place your camera on a tripod for support and compose your image, and set the Aperture Priority (Av) mode. Set a mid-range aperture between f/8 and f/11.

Light your sculpture from the side to create deep shadows, for a more three-dimensional appearance. We used a lamp, but you could also use a torch or an LED light. Don’t worry about the white balance as you’re shooting in black and white.

Live View and focus

Get shooting

For optimum image quality shoot in Raw and set ISO to 100. In the main menu set the picture style to Monochrome to apply the effect in-camera to the preview. Now activate the Live View mode on your camera to compose your image and see how well the monochrome effect is working.

To avoid nudging the camera during the exposure, we suggest you use a remote shutter release for hands-free shooting. Alternatively, use the 2-sec Self-timer drive mode. When reviewing the image, make sure the highlights haven’t blown by checking the histogram. Now to open Photoshop…

Download project files at: http://downloads.photoplusmag.com/pp94.zip

Master picture styles See page 70

Phrase Book Monochrome

Tweak in ACR

Open paper_start.dng. Set Exposure to +0.80 and Highlights to +30 to brighten the image. Set Shadows to -54 to darken the shadows and Clarity to +30 to boost midtone contrast. Click-and-hold on the Crop Tool icon, then use the 2 to 3 ratio crop to remove the empty space on the right. Click Open Image.

Gradient Map

Add a Gradient Map adjustment layer. In the Gradient Map panel, click the drop-down arrow to the right of the large box; the Gradient Picker opens.

Under the Default menu, select the Black, White option (a description pops up as you hover over each coloured box) to convert your image to black and white.

Adjust the levels

To boost the tones and contrast in the image add a Levels adjustment layer. Set the Shadows to 10 to darken them, and boost the Midtones to 1.22 and the Highlights to 242. If you want your image to have even more contrast, pull the Shadows slider in further to darken them more.

Monochrome means ‘one colour’, and although we associate it with greyscale images containing only shades of black and white, it can refer to varying tones of any single colour. Early monochrome prints were, in fact, sepiatoned (a reddishbrown colour), but a monochrome image could equally have a blue, yellow or red hue.

Super Tip!

Dodge and Burn

Hit Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E to create a merged layer.

Grab the Dodge tool, set Range to Highlights and Exposure to 10%, and paint over the highlights in the image. Select the Burn tool, set Range to Shadows, and paint over the shadows to darken them. n

Looks good on paper…

Add a dash of colour or learn the Japanese art of paper folding

Tint and tone

Different structures

Tone your image with a colour. We’ve added a blue tint using a Photo Filter adjustment layer and selecting Blue from the Filter drop-down menu.

Try your origami skills and create more complex structures; www.instructables.com/id/Origami has good suggestions and simple instructions.

The histogram is a graphic representation of the brightness of your image, ranging from pure black on the extreme left-hand side to pure white on the right, with everything in between marking a gradual transition between light and dark. The higher a column, the greater the number of pixels of that intensity. The main reason to check your histogram is to ensure you have a ‘good’ exposure; ideally you want all the pixels to be within the graph boundaries.

If they reach the right-hand side then you have blown the highlights as these pixels contain no detail; if they hit the left-hand side they will be in complete darkness.

PhotoPlus December 2014 | 49

Buyers’ guide Enthusiast Canon D-SLRs

The layout of buttons, joysticklike controller and quick control dial give the back panel a pro-like feel

In keeping with its professionallevel aspirations, there are no scene modes on the shooting dial

Canon EOS 7D Mk II Price (body only): £1,600 RRP Web: www.canon.co.uk

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he new 7D Mk II inherits the excellent dual-pixel AF system of the 70D but adds richly to specs in other areas. Ultra-responsive performance is enhanced by brand-new, dual DIGIC 6 image processors. There’s an equally new 65-point wide-area autofocus system, and they’re all cross-type points, which can resolve detail in both horizontal and vertical planes.

More novelty value is added by the iTR focusing system, which ‘intelligently’ tracks faces and objects as they move around the frame. Similarly, metering takes a step up with a new 150k-pixel sensor that analyses infrared as well as visible light for greater accuracy, throughout 252 zones instead of the usual 63.

Low-light performance is

boosted by autofocus accuracy being maintained in near-darkness, while the sensitivity range is particularly impressive, at ISO100-16000 (51200 expanded).

Bettering the original 7D’s speed credentials, the 7D Mk II has a blistering 10fps maximum burst rate. Like the fully pro 5D Mk III, the 7D Mk II has dual memory card slots, featuring both CF (UDMA) and SD/HC/XC (UHS-1). This gives you choices that include creating automatic backups of images as you shoot, or saving Raw and JPEG quality files to separate cards.

Built-in GPS enables you to geotag images and video clips as you shoot, but the omission of Wi-Fi seems a little strange, considering it’s implemented on both the 70D and 6D. Also

EOS 7D Mk II full test next month!

Building on the adrenaline rush that was the original 7D, the Mk II boasts superior autofocus tracking and an even faster 10fps burst rate

lacking are articulation or touchscreen facilities for the rear LCD. Instead, the 7D Mk II remains true to the design philosophy of other top-level cameras, with a similar rear panel layout. Indeed, it’s all

wrapped up in a magnesium alloy shell with advanced weather-seals, more in line with professional grade cameras. All in all, the 7D Mk II really is a force to be reckoned with. Full test next issue!

EOS upgrades

Compared with APS-C format cameras, the large full-frame image sensor at the heart of the 6D is its main attraction

Canon EOS 6D

Around the back, the full-frame 6D is more similar to the 70D than pro-level cameras, and it lacks an articulated screen

Price (body only): £1,300 Web: www.canon.co.uk

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ull-frame D-SLRs always used to mean full-fat design and top-dollar price tags. The 6D changed all that, delivering full-frame photography from a body that’s essentially the same size and weight as the 60D and 70D. It’s also the first and so far the only full-frame camera that Canon has launched into the ‘enthusiast’ rather than ‘professional’ arena, at a competitively modest price.

The overall design and handling are remarkably similar to that of the 60D and 70D APS-C format cameras.

Uniquely in the group, the 6D boasts both Wi-Fi and GPS, although it lacks the 70D’s articulation or touchscreen facility in its rear LCD. A more glaring omission is that the 6D doesn’t have a pop-up flash, so

you don’t get the luxury of using this to wirelessly trigger off-camera flashguns.

It’s a bit of a poor relation when it comes to autofocus, with only 11 AF points in total, of which only the central one is cross-type. In all other cameras, every single AF point is cross-type. On the plus side, the 6D shares the 7D Mk II’s ability to ‘see’ in near darkness, autofocusing in extremely low-light conditions equivalent to -3EV. Build quality feels about halfway between the 70D and 7D Mk II, based on a reinforced polycarbonate shell, but with magnesium alloy front and back sections.

One area in which the 6D leads the pack is in its sensitivity range. This extends to a whopping ISO25600 in

standard trim, and right up to ISO102400 in expanded mode.

Canon’s decision to stick to a fairly modest 20.2Mp image resolution, despite the physically larger dimensions of a full-frame rather than APS-C-

format sensor, bring the bonus of minimal image noise, even in low light. The 6D is also the best choice for photographers wanting a really shallow depth of field, for which full-frame cameras naturally accentuate.

Perfect for portraiture and other scenarios where you want a really shallow depth of field, the 6D is also a low-light big-scene specialist!

Skills Shoot landscapes at twilight

STEP BY STEP

The twilight fantastic!

How to get set to shoot after dark, or before light, for any early risers…

Check the times You will need to check the sunrise or sunset times, but the length of twilight also varies at different locations and times of year. So, it’s worth checking how long there will still be some light in the sky, using an app such as the Photographer’s Ephemeris (www.photoephemeris.com) or an online resource such as Suncalc (www.suncalc.net), and looking for the civil twilight times.

White balance Even though you can adjust the white balance when you process your Raw files, choosing an appropriate setting in-camera will help you visualise the final result. For a cool, blue result try using a Daylight or Tungsten preset.

While if you want a warmer look, you should use Cloudy or Shade.

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The weather is everything Along with checking the times, the other key variable, when shooting twilight, is the weather. Clear skies, with a few fluffy clouds, are the best conditions. But a light cloud cover can also work, giving a much cooler and more subtle appearance to the scene. So check the weather forecast for the area before heading out, and keep a close watch on the cloud when you are there.

Sensibly-priced telephoto zooms Tested on page 94

Use an ND grad Even though the sun is below the horizon, there will still be a big difference in brightness between the sky and the land. If you are shooting towards the glow of the setting or rising sun you will need to use a strong ND grad, such as a 3-stop (0.9 or ND8), but if you are shooting away from where the sun will rise or set there will be less contrast, so a weaker grad such as a 1- or 2-stop will give more natural results.

Shoot manually Shooting at twilight means that you’re best off switching to manual focusing and manual exposure, as it can be impossible for your camera to accurately focus and measure the exposure in the low light conditions. If you can’t focus accurately through the viewfinder, try switching to Live View and zooming in on the scene to a 10x view. In Manual exposure mode, select an aperture of f/16 and set the ISO to 100.

Check your exposure Finally select a shutter to give the correct exposure. But as the scene will get brighter at as the sun rises, or darker after sunset, you will need to keep checking the histogram when you review an image to make sure that the exposure is still okay.

It’s best to use the shutter speed to alter the exposure, rather than the aperture, so that the depth of field in your shots remains consistent.

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Workshop Welcome to the Canon D-SLR photography service centre

PROBLEM #38

What’s the score with picture styles?

Discover how to get more from your camera’s picture profiles – and then create your own…

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ands up who’s ever shifted their EOS D-SLR’s picture style control from its Standard setting? Despite every current EOS, from the beginner-friendly 100D to the top-of-the-range 1D X, being loaded with the same seven picture styles (six presets, plus an Auto option), we’d wager that the majority of photographers leave their cameras stuck in Auto or Standard. Does that mean you’re missing out? And what exactly does the picture style setting do?

As the name suggests, picture styles give you control over the overall look of your photos. While a picture’s brightness or exposure is determined by the combination of aperture, shutter speed and ISO, and any colour casts on a shot can be zapped (or introduced) with the camera’s white balance, it’s picture style enables you to adjust features such as contrast, saturation

Forget the menus: press Q button to access the the Control screen and chan Quick the picture style from hege re

and sharpness. Each picture style contains a different blend of these parameters, designed to complement a different subject or deliver a type of effect. Some give you sharper more saturated pictures, while others produce a softer, less punchy result.

There’s also an option for shooting in mono.

Even though some of the picture styles are named like the popular photographic subjects – such as Landscape and Portrait – they’re not to be confused with the similarly named shooting modes on the Exposure Mode dial. If you select the Landscape scene mode on the dial, your D-SLR essentially becomes a point-andshoot camera, with everything from the autofocus to the exposure being decided for you. However, all the Landscape picture style does is deliver the colours, contrast and sharpness that Canon engineers think work best for scenic shots. The camera will boost the blues and greens and increase the sharpness to add bite to details in the landscape, but that’s it: getting the right level of brightness and focusing accurately is down to you.

Style over substance

You don’t have to match the picture style to the subject you’re shooting. For instance, the punchy, high-contrast look of the Landscape picture style can be a good choice for adding impact to shots of food, a still life or a sunset. You can fine-tune each picture style to achieve even better results too. Select a picture style in the red Shooting menu or the Quick Control screen, and you’ll be able to adjust four variables: Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation and Colour Tone. The Monochrome setting has a slightly different setup, with Sharpness, Contrast, Filter effect and Toning effect options. If you make any changes, these will remain locked in even if you switch the

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When to change the picture style

Whether shooting JPEGs, Raw files or movies, here’s what you need to know

Movie shooting

Filmmakers usually want lowcontrast, muted-looking footage as this enables them to pull out plenty of detail when processing clips. Canon’s Neutral profile is a decent choice, although third-party profiles, such as Technicolor’s Cinestyle, can be downloaded from the internet.

Raw files Shooting Raw JPEGs You can’t switch picture style off – like white balance,

the default setting is Auto – so it’s worth spending a couple of seconds setting a suitable picture style. You’re free to choose any picture style for any subject – you don’t have to plump for the Landscape setting when shooting landscapes, for instance. Here, we’ve picked the Portrait setting for a softer, less in-your-face look.

camera off, until you remember to reset them. Usefully, you can save up to three modified picture styles in the User Defined slots of the picture style menu. This can be handy if you want to create a profile that’s dedicated to movie recording for instance, or if you want to be able to quickly switch between a number different Monochrome setups you could create profiles with different combinations of black-and-white

allows you to tweak the picture style or change it completely after you’ve taken the shot. It might therefore seem pointless worrying about setting it correctly, but as the Live View preview and exposure histogram change according to the picture style it’s worth getting it right.

filter, toning effect and contrast, and register these to the available ‘User Def’ slots. If your EOS offers Custom modes on the Mode dial, you can also register a distinct picture style to a particular camera setup, further cutting down on menu toing and froing.

But is all this fiddling around with picture styles worth it? After all, it’s one more thing to think about when you just want to take some pictures! If you use the camera’s

STEP BY STEP

“Is fiddling around with picture styles worth it? After all, it’s another thing to think about…”

How to customise a picture style

Don’t rely on the default values for sharpening, saturation and so on – here’s how to tailor them to your style of shooting

Picture style menu

Highlight a picture style then press Info/Disp. You’ll be presented with a series of sliders – highlight an option and press Set to make it active, then use the Main dial to change the position of the indicator.

User Defined setting View a live preview

Changes are highlighted in blue. You can also register custom versions in three ‘User Def.’ slots; they’re set to Standard by default, but you can change them to any picture style and make adjustments from there.

By activating Live View, you can preview a picture style.

If you modify a parameter, the original setting will be indicated by a grey marker. The mid-point setting for each parameter is different for each picture style.

Check the details

When checking images, press Info/Disp to show the shooting data. You’ll be able to check which picture style was used to take the shot. The numbers next to it correspond with the four parameters.

PhotoPlus December 2014 | 71

We help you choose new kit

Vanguard GH300T Grip Ball Head

Web: www.vanguardworld.co.uk Price: £149

Adam says “A variation on a ball head, but rather than loosening the locking mechanism with a knob, you squeeze a ‘pistol grip’ handle to easily move the head around one-handed. A friction control sets the amount of force that must be applied, to prevent heavier payloads from moving the head under its own weight. There are not one, but two separate panning controls: one under the camera quick-release plate, designed for precision panning it gives an audible ‘click’ every five degrees; and one where the head meets the tripod, designed for following action by swivelling the entire head with the handle. It has a maximum load rating of 8kg. Plus a built-in cable release fires the shutter via a button in the trigger handle!”

Alex says “The one-handed operation made this a doddle to recompose scenes, and it’s one-handed credentials were further boosted by being able to fire the tripod from the trigger release, which I could see being very useful indeed for other disabled photographers with limited control. As I find it very difficult to read number scales on

tripods, I loved the tactile feel and audible click of the topmost panning plate, which made it easy for me to rotate the camera in five-degree steps for panoramic shots.”

Easy, one-handed operation; top panning plate has audible clicks and tactile feedback Shutter release is perhaps a bit of a gimmick; bubble levels are rather small

Manfrotto 410 Junior Geared Head Web: www.manfrotto.co.uk Price: £209

Adam says “Like a regular threeway head, there are separate controls for each of the three axis, but unlike a conventional head, turning the levers doesn’t unlock that individual plane for free movement, but moves it in a small incremental amount.

This allows for setting the tripod position with extreme precision, aided by clearly marked scales, and is something that many landscape photographers will appreciate. A twist-clamp at the base of each control knob allows complete freedom of movement for quick setups. The control knobs are pretty compact, compared with the oversized levers typical of three-way heads, too. The load rating is 5kg; if that’s not enough for you, Manfrotto also produces models with 7.5kg and 10kg load ratings, but these jump

up in price quite significantly, at £459 and £680 respectively.”

Alex says “I love Manfrotto kit as it’s always well engineered, and this is no exception. I can see why these geared heads are so beloved of landscape photographers; if you have the time to spare to compose the scene exactly, it’s a cinch to endlessly tweak each of the individual control

arms just how you want it, yet twisting the spring-loaded the collar at the end of each arm down allows you to move to a rough ballpark position quickly.”

Allows for very precise composition; springloaded collars enable quick rough positioning Slow to set up for non-landscape types of photography; relatively low 5kg load rating

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What’s the best enthusiast EOS for you? See page 55

Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM www.canon.co.uk

Unlike all other lenses on test, this one is a prime rather than a zoom optic. At 257mm, it’s about the same length as the 150-500mm and 150-600mm zooms. However, it’s the outright lightest lens in the group at 1.25kg. Along with the 1.38kg Canon 100-400mm lens, it’s particularly manageable for long periods of handheld shooting.

There’s a catch, however, as it’s the only lens in the whole group to lack image stabilisation. Considering that the widest available aperture of f/5.6 certainly isn’t ‘fast’, sharp handheld shots can be difficult to achieve in anything other than bright daylight.

Build quality is a close match to the Canon 100400mm, with good sturdiness and rigidity. Again, there’s a focus range limiter switch for locking out the closer end of the scale. Autofocus is rapid but, in our tests, lagged slightly behind both Canon zoom

lenses. Image quality benefits from fluorite and Super UD elements but, while there’s plenty of sharpness and contrast, along with minimal colour fringing, overall image quality is no better than from the Canon zoom lenses. Ultimately, the lack of a zoom facility can be somewhat limiting in many shooting scenarios.

Target Price

£990

Strong yet lightweight build; very good image quality Lacks image stabilisation; fixed focal length can be limiting

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Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM www.sigma-imaging-uk.com

Nicknamed the ‘Bigma’, this is a real heavyweight lens at almost 2kg, although the weight is pretty much matched by the Tamron 150600mm, which is also slightly larger.

What’s most remarkable about the Sigma is its massive 10x zoom range, which puts everything else in the test group in the shade. Even so, it’s a mixed blessing. While it’s nice being able to zoom out to 50mm if an unexpected photo opportunity arises, the Sigma is monstrously big and heavy to use as a 50mm lens. It also suffers from noticeable barrel distortion at the short end of its zoom range. Those who think it might be the only lens they need, in addition to an 18-55mm kit lens, might therefore want to think again.

Because of its weight, prolonged handheld shooting can test your strength and stamina, but at least there’s a four-stop image stabiliser. It’s a

dual-mode system for static or panning shots, as fitted to Sigma’s other lenses on test, and is useful when using a monopod as well as for handheld shooting.

Autofocus is fairly rapid and image quality is good overall, but the sharpness of our review sample dropped off a bit at mid-zoom settings. Ultimately, Sigma’s 150-500mm is better value and a more attractive proposition.

Target Price

£1,000

Enormous 10x zoom range; effective image stabiliser Mid-zoom sharpness is lacking; barrel distortion at 50mm

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Shot in the Back

My favourite shot

Oliver Hellowell is a photographer with a difference: he just so happens to have Down Syndrome. His mother, Wendy, tells his story…

Oliver is 18 years old and dreams of becoming a professional landscape and wildlife photographer.

His love of the great outdoors was nourished by his family, whilst his skills as a photographer were born out of his desire to take pictures like his stepfather Mike. His ‘eye’ for a picture, however, is an innate ability clearly all his own. He started at around 11 years of age, having adopted Mike’s Canon EOS 5D. He favours two lenses, a Canon EF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 and a Sigma 135-400mm f/4.5-5.6 APO, which he used for this image at 200mm and 1/500 sec at f/7.1 and ISO100.

It was captured on an earlymorning trip out at the Greylake RSPB reserve on the Somerset Levels, close to our home. Oliver’s eye is often drawn by shapes, and ‘paths’ are a frequent subject. He was pleased with the frosty look and the feeling of ‘cold’ in this picture.

When environments or individuals have failed Oliver, his family have surrounded him with belief, encouragement and optimism. Mike’s patience, guidance and targeted tuition enabled Oliver to utilise the world of photography as both a tool for him to record the world in the way he sees it and as something which brings him a sense of achievement and self-esteem.

A recent three-minute film made by the BBC (www.bbc.co.uk/news/ magazine-29107894) has inspired people across the world with Oliver’s story and increased his Facebook following to more than 50,000.

Oliver Hellowell Web www.oliverhellowell.com and www.facebook.com/ OliverHellowellPhotographer Age 18 Location Bridgwater, Somerset Amateur for 7 years

114 | PhotoPlus December 2014