contents We encourage submissions to: The Editor edmail@photoreview.com.au T: (02) 9948 8600 Office 4 Clontarf Marina, Sandy Bay Road Clontarf NSW 2093
INSIDE
Cover image by Luke Hardy. See page 12.
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Editorial Our editor ponders the consequences of two new notable new contributions to imaging technology.
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Products & Trends Plenoptic point and shoot: gimmick or game-changer?
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Photo Challenge The Force of Nature proved a formidable challenge. Nothing so grand this issue – just tool about a bit!
INSPIRATION 12
LUKE HARDY: BETWEEN NARRATIVE AND MYSTERY ‘A fascination with that thin line between the spiritual and the sensual’ permeates Luke Hardy’s delicate studies.
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HANS SCHMIDT: BLOOMIN’ SMALL Every millimetre counts in Cairns photographer Hans Schmidt’s world of botanical marvels.
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SEAN DAVEY: IN THE CUT The editing process is every bit as important as capturing the image for Sean Davey.
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contents
Photo Review
A U S T R A L I A
BUYERS GUIDE Editor Don Norris dnorris@photoreview.com.au
DSLR 53
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SUBSCRIPTIONS 55 32
SUBSCRIBE TO PHOTO REVIEW Have Photo Review delivered to your door just $29 per year. You can also order back issues of Photo Review magazine or a selection of digital photography pocket guides.
The pros and cons of shooting video with a camera designed for still photography.
NIKON D5100 Nikon’s upgrade to the popular D5000.
Trade News Editor Keith Shipton keiths@photoreview.com.au
PENTAX K-5
Contributor Steve Packer
The value-for-money flagship in the Pentax consumer DSLR line-up.
Creative Director Darren Waldren
SAMSUNG NX11 Adding i-Function support widens the appeal of an affordable, large-sensor camera system.
INSIDER SHOOTING VIDEO WITH A DSLR
Technical Editor Margaret Brown mbrown@photoreview.com.au
MIRRORLESS INTERCHANGEABLES 56
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SONY SLT-A35 Sony’s latest DSLR with Translucent Mirror Technology (TMT) technology.
DIGITAL COMPACTS 58 58
WATERPROOF LUMIX FT-3 SONY CYBER-SHOT HX100V
TECHNIQUE
PRINTERS
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SHOOTING: GREAT HOLIDAY SNAPS
EPSON STYLUS PHOTO R2000
Some simple tips to help you prepare for the holiday season.
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EDITING: BLENDING MODES Using the blending modes with layers to add special effects to your digital photos.
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BUYERS GUIDE 47
Publisher David O’Sullivan dosullivan@photoreview.com.au
Design by itechne [www.itechne.com] phone (03) 9421 8833
ADVANCED COMPACT CAMERAS
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Technical editor Margaret Brown nominates the best compact cameras with raw file support.
All content in Photo Review Australia is protected under copyright and cannot be reproduced in any form without written consent from the publisher. Photo Review Australia is published by
CALIBRATION 60
EIZO EASYPIX COLOUR MATCHING TOOL
NET EFFECT 64
PEARL DIVING Our editor, in his own breathless prose, ‘dives into the vast and trackless virtual sea of the internet in search of a peerless photographic pearl or two’!
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Inspiration
Can’t recall the flower, the stamen was quite striking and careful placement gave required depth of field for sharpness across the face of the stamen.
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Inspiration
Bloomin’ small EVERY MILLIMETRE COUNTS IN CAIRNS PHOTOGRAPHER HANS SCHMIDT’S WORLD OF BOTANICAL MARVELS.
By Steve Packer
TALKING TO HANS SCHMIDT ABOUT THE FINER points of his exquisite flora close-ups, it comes as something of a shock when he mentions the bigger picture of what led him to the subject. ‘I started taking flower macros three years ago,’ he says, ‘when I was in the middle of treatment for throat cancer.’ He was away from his home and family in Cairns for six weeks, having radiation and chemotherapy treatment in Townsville. ‘I’d be in the hospital for halfan-hour a day and on my own for the rest of the time,’ he says. ‘You’ve got to do something. You don’t want to dwell on the whole thing. So I put on my photography backpack and went around the town common, the botanic gardens and other places.’ Before long, a whole world that can barely be seen with the naked eye had opened up to him, and he’s been adding to the portfolio ever since. ‘A lot of what I’m photographing is maybe two centimetres or less in diameter. You get to the point where you can see things, but you can’t really tell what you’re seeing until you put the camera there, have a look and start to choose what you want to photograph.’ Schmidt, who is the current president of the Cairns Photo Review AUSTRALIA ISSUE 49
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Photographic Society, started taking photos in the 1960s while growing up in Sydney. He bought his first SLR, a Minolta SRT100, while visiting Hong Kong in the 1970s. Back home, in his job as an electrical technician with the Department of Civil Aviation, he travelled around the backblocks of New South Wales and snapped landscapes, flora and fauna. Then his hobby took a back seat for about 20 years. ‘Just about everyone dabbled in photography in the 1970s,’ he notes. ‘And then you get married and other priorities come in.’ In the mid-1980s he and his wife moved to Cairns for the climate and lifestyle. He now runs a printer cartridge and consumables business, which fits in well with his photography. He can turn his commercial expertise to making high-quality prints for himself, other photographic society members and local artists. ‘I use a Canon iPF5000 fine art printer and mainly print on Hahnemühle papers,’ he says. ‘One of my business suppliers is Hahnemühle’s Australian agent, but they’re good papers anyway. I like their Barita PhotoRag, a fibre-based paper with a glazed finish. It reproduces colour and black-and-white superbly. And importantly, it’s full archival museum quality.’
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Shooting Video with a DSLR A DISCUSSION OF THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SHOOTING VIDEO WITH A CAMERA DESIGNED FOR STILL PHOTOGRAPHY. RAPHY.
By Margaret Brown
Is the ability to record video clips with a DSLR all it’s cracked up to be? It depends on what the camera offers, how often you’ll shoot movies, how you plan to use video clips – and also whether you can cope with the inevitable compromises involved in shooting video with a camera designed for shooting stills. Some videographers have adopted DSLRs for shooting SOME video footage because they represent low-cost, compact equipment for basic shooting tasks. But equipment options are changing. The introduction of high-quality, large sensor, interchangeable-lens video cameras from Panasonic and Sony at competitive prices will make the choice of cameras more difficult for professional video shooters. Currently, DSLRs are usually less conspicuous than professional camcorders and still represent the best option if a substantial percentage of your work involves shooting stills. Adjustable, fast interchangeable DSLR lenses also provide greater scope for shooting video with a very shallow depth of focus. But, aside from those advantages, you have to contend with aberrations like aliasing, moire and rolling shutter. Colour reproduction is often suboptimal. Recording times are usually limited and you may need to record soundtracks separately. A true video camera eliminates these problems and is more comfortable to shoot with.
WHAT’S MISSING? Being designed for still capture, DSLRs often lack features considered essential in a video camera. The following list covers the main deficiencies but is by no means exhaustive. 1. Viewfinder AND Monitor. Serious videographers require both an articulated LCD screen and a viewfinder – plus the ability to swap between them for framing shots. In most DSLRs the Live View mode disables the viewfinder. Consequently, viewing is compromised in bright sunlight and it can be difficult to shoot from high and low vantage points. Articulated monitors partially solve the last issue – but not the first one. 2. Audio. Most DSLRs only support monaural audio, although some provide ports for an external stereo microphone. Internal microphones can pick up noises from autofocusing motors and zooming and record them in soundtracks. You can’t monitor audio recordings as you shoot. Nor can you set the audio levels manually; instead you’re forced to rely on auto gain control (AGC), which may further compromise quality. 3. Slow Autofocusing. Contrast-based autofocusing in Live View mode makes most DSLRs slow to focus,
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and focus often shifts in and out while a clip is being recorded. A few cameras can focus continuously while shooting – but only in full ull auto mode with the lenss at maximum aperture. This prevents depth-offield control, a key benefit efit of shooting with a DSLR. R. 4. No Focusing Aids.. Many camcorders provide de peaking indicators that show areas of maximum sharpness. rpness. Often, the edges are outlined tlined in a different colour on the screen, a useful f l ffeature t for rapid focus pulls (when you change focus to shift the viewer’s attention). Such aids are seldom offered in DSLRs. 5. No Exposure Aids. Many camcorders include zebra patterns that flash when highlights are overexposed. You can set them to display at specific levels, for example between 80% and 90% of maximum exposure, so they will ignore the brightest specular highlights and warn you when large areas of sky risk being blown out. No DSLR to date provides this assistance. 6. Limited Adjustments. Most DSLRs block access to ISO and shutter speed settings in video mode. In low light, sensitivity is increased to avoid slow shutter speeds, producing noisy video clips. In bright conditions, the shutter speed is cranked up, with an inevitable loss of quality. Video cameras provide ND filters to pull exposure levels back to the optimal range. With a DSLR, the filters must be attached by the photographer, which can be fiddly and timeconsuming. 7. Rolling Shutter. CMOS-based cameras are prone to the ‘rolling shutter’ effect during rapid pans and when shooting fast-moving subjects. The slight delay between when the top of the frame and the bottom of the frame are recorded, captures moving subjects bent laterally, distorting the picture. 8. Downsampling artefacts. Substantial downsampling is required to obtain 1080p (or 720p) video from a 14MP+ DSLR sensor and artefacts are almost inevitable. Thin horizontal and vertical lines can be broken as part of the sampling process and moire patterns can appear in areas with contrasting fine lines. 9. Post capture processing. The compromises outlined above and the high levels of compression Photo Review AUSTRALIA ISSUE 49
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Released in September 2008 as the first DSLR camera with Full HD (1080p) movie capability, Canon’s EOS 5D Mark II was the first to be used for shooting commercial video footage. Following its initial success, Canon released a firmware update in June 2009 enabling Tv and Av shooting modes to be used for recording movies. ISO adjustment is also supported from 100-6400 plus the H1 setting. Subsequent firmware updates have added 25 fps and 24 fps frame rates and audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz plus manual adjustment of sound levels.
required to efficiently store video on an SD card severely restricts the amount of adjustment available in the final video file. Colour correction and Chroma Keying become difficult or impossible so white balance and lighting must be spot-on. There is very little latitude to ‘fix it in post’ (production). Professional video cameras use lower compression plus algorithms designed to provide much greater flexibility for manipulation. While you may be able to ‘work around’ some (although not all) of these issues, you can’t do much to change the frame rates a camera offers – and these will influence what you can do with the movies you’ve shot. If you want video clips that meet the standards for broadcasting, they must meet world broadcasting standards.
RESOLUTIONS AND FRAME RATES Video cameras typically support at least two of four standard resolutions: 1920 x 1080 pixels (‘1080p’), 1280 x 720 pixels (‘720p’), 640 x 480 pixels (VGA) and 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA). (The ‘p’ stands for progressive scanning, which is explained below.) The 1080p and 720p settings represent High Definition formats with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The VGA and QVGA settings are standard definition with a 4:3 aspect ratio. From a broadcast perspective, 1080 is available in both 1080i (interlaced) and 1080p (progressive); 720 is only available as 720p. The 720p HD format is preferred for sport for its fast frame rate of 50 full-
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resolution frames per second. This makes fast pans look much smoother as there are no interlacing artefacts. The 720p format is ideal for bandwidth-constrained applications, such as streaming on the net. Standard Definition (SD) resolution is 720 x 576 pixels and is always interlaced. Even with the16:9 aspect ratio, SD video is still 720 x 576 but is anamorphically squeezed for capture, and stretched for playback. HD 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) is ideal for movies that will be shown on home HD TV sets as well as streaming on the internet. Full HD 1080p resolution meets the minimal quality requirements for movies that will be displayed on cinema screens or recorded on Blu-Ray disks. The ideal resolution for the digital cinema and broadcast trades, is 2K (2048 x 1152 pixels), which is only slightly higher than Full HD. Currently almost all Australian cinemas use 2K projectors. Hollywood currently uses 4K (4096 x 2304 pixels) for most digital productions these days, although plenty of 2K footage has made it to the big screen. The popularity of the RED camera, which can shoot at 4K, has led to 4K being discussed as the next digital cinema standard. (Some professional video cameras can record at more than twice this resolution. ) Frame rates are largely dictated by local broadcast standards. Australia uses the PAL frame rate of 25 frames/second (fps), while the USA and Japan (both NTSC countries) use 30 fps. The 24 fps frame rate replicates the frame rate of movie films and has a slightly different ‘look’ from 25 fps and 30 fps video recordings, largely because of the rhythm of the repeating images. Many people prefer this frame rate due to more than a century of movie-going that makes us recognise it as ‘cinematic’. Roughly half a century of similar ‘training’ watching TV sets, causes us to see 30 fps at ‘video’. Interestingly, you can stream 24 fps video to a computer monitor and play it back on a PAL TV set with little loss of quality – but not on an NTSC TV set. Cameras that don’t support at least the 24p, 25p, 30p with both 1080 and 720 HD resolutions can’t be considered fully functional video cameras. Some cameras provide two additional frame rates: 50 (for PAL) and 60 fps (NTSC). These frame rates can be offered with either interlaced or progressive scanning (see box on this page).
CODECS AND COMPRESSION A Full HD video clip produces data at a rate of roughly two megapixels per frame, which translates to around
Panasonic’s i AG-AF102EN ffeatures t a 4/3-inch / i h ((18.0 x 13.5mm ) sensor and d iis th the fi firstt professional f i l camcorder d tto b be optimised for high-definition video recording. It uses the efficient AVCHD video format and features fast image scanning and optical low pass filters that eliminate aliasing and moire while minimising skew. The AG-AF102EN supports all global broadcast standards for Full HD and HD video recording and has twin card slots with SD, SDHC and SDXC compatibility. HD Video and Full Audio monitoring are available during recording and playback.
50 megapixels/second. Such a huge data stream can only be handled effectively if the data is compressed. As with JPEG compression, video compression can affect image quality. The trick is to use a system that preserves the essential moving image data while delivering a manageable data stream. Codecs ( ‘coder-decoder’ applications) are programs that encode data streams or signals for transmission, storage or encryption or decode them for playback or editing. All video streams are embedded in multimedia containers holding information on which codec is used in the file. When a display system doesn’t have the proper codec installed, the movie won’t play. The most popular codecs for consumer digital cameras and camcorders are:
MJPEG, a simple codec that is relatively inefficient at balancing file size and image quality. MPEG-4 AVC/ H.264, a more efficient codec that provides reasonable quality in relatively small files. AVCHD, a standard developed for consumer camcorders by Sony and Panasonic, which has at its core the H.264 compression system. It is also used on some consumer video cameras by Canon. The higher the bit rate, the better the video quality with this codec. Panasonic also introduced a ‘Lite’ version of AVCHD for 720p cameras. AVCHD is Blu-Ray compatible and some TV sets and Blu-ray players can play these clips directly from the SD-Cards. For editing, only the *.MTS files in the STREAM folder are needed.
Progressive vs Interlaced Scanning Progressive (p) scanning scans the entire picture, line by line, every sixteenth of a second and is used widely by LCD and TFT monitors, DVDs and digital cameras. The alternative, interlaced scanning (i) divides the horizontal lines across a standard TV screen into odd and even lines and then alternately refreshes them at 25 frames/second (or 50 fields/ second) for PAL and 30 frames/ second or 60 fields/ second for NTSC. The slight delay between odd and even line refreshes in interlacing creates some distortion or ‘jaggedness’, which can be removed by deinterlacing. Most LCD and TFT monitors can’t
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display interlaced video and de-interlacing employs complex processing algorithms. Consistent results are very hard to achieve. If you shoot with 50 fps using progressive scan, you can play the footage back on a progressive scanning monitor to give half-speed slow motion playback. With 50 fps interlaced footage, you need a compatible display for 25 fps or 30 fps playback. However, half-speed slow-motion playback from 50i footage can be problematic. Slow-motion playback is more difficult when you record video at 720p because of its 50fps frame rate.
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Jackie Ranken, EOS Pro Photographer. “I took some colleagues to Milford Sound for the day. The weather was ominous, but that’s the best way to experience the Fiord, and yes, it was raining! I decided to take refuge under the canopy of a beech tree, and started to explore the patterns of light through the branches. With the wide angle lens on my EOS, the tree branch above me appeared distorted and became huge, neatly filling the precipitous sky. Looking for the right shot, I noticed one of my colleagues walking with his umbrella raised. It was just what I needed to give me a sense of scale. Stop! Was my polite request. Click. Oops, I noticed the umbrella just touching the edge of the mountain side. Poolie, just hold the umbrella a little higher please... Click click. Thanks.”