Photography News Issue 62

Photography News | Issue 62 | photographynews.co.uk

48 Competition

K Q Z N M R R S X L J R Y B E O Q T R O E W W H T I N R P U G D I T Z F G I D R O P O Z R O R P T A O T S M M T R O T O E J W T F W N D E B R R E T N R E H O Q M P H C E U A I P S I B O T T L O M V P S N T R T S B M E Z Q R L A U R E A A Z Y I W O A L L E T S E E B Z W F M P O D R K U U T O Z I I V S N X C T Q U F C L N N E I H T B H G T V E A B R F O F T L I T W S W U Y N G M L A U N N A T A Capture life’s magical moments across all devices with the Samsung EVO Plus 256GB microSDXC memory card with SD adapter offering read speeds up to 100MB/s and write speeds of up to 90MB/s. Samsung’s latest cards are also ultra reliable and are water, temperature, X-ray and magnet proof, so shooting in the most challenging conditions isn’t an issue. We have one 256GB Samsung EVO Plus microSDXC card with SD adapter worth £74.99 for the eagle-eyedwinner. Complete theword search below, and you’ll find oneword in the list that’s not in the grid. Email us on puzzle@photographynews.co.uk with that word in the subject box by 10 February 2019 and the winner will be randomly drawn from all correct entries received. The correct answer to PN 60’s word searchwas Fun and the Samsung 128GB PRO+ cardwas won byMMorley, Yorkshire. samsung.com/uk/memory-cards A Samsung memory card! WIN!

Editor’s letter Photography in a cold climate

I trust your 2019 is off to a flying start and you’re managing to brave the cold weather – and get some great pictures. So, which format are you?Micro Four Thirds, APS-C or 35mm full-frame? Maybe you’ve gone mediumformat, or use your phone, a compact or a bridge camera. Or maybe you don’t care how big or small your sensor is. Photography has always had different formats, and it is true that there is no one size fits all. Smaller formats are, by definition, more compact and portable, while larger formats offer better quality – but at the cost of bulk. Arguably, full-frame 35mm has offered the best compromise over the years and (depending on your viewpoint) that still applies. That said, Micro Four Thirds and APS-C are serious, portable challengers, while medium format digital is an option now, too. If you shoot film, you can take that step more cheaply. I bought a Belair X 6-12 for £240 a couple of years ago and still enjoy it. But going medium format digital is a seriously big (and potentially hideously expensive) step. There is no cheap upgrade path. Yet that small and very important market is evolving and we’ve seen sub-£10k cameras from Fujifilm, Hasselblad and Pentax. That, of course, is still a hugely significant sum– enough for adecent used car, several familyholidays or a good start towards a house deposit. Now there’s the Fujifilm GFX 50R, a £4k medium format camera that I got to test for this issue. At that price, it is actually cheaper than several popular 35mm full-frame cameras. This is a body price, so you’ll need to account for extras. You won't be too far off if you budget £6k for a GFX 50R, a prime lens and an extra battery. That’s still a significant lump of change, obviously, but it’s not stratospheric compared to wherewewere.

While digital medium format will never be mass market, the GFX 50R will certainly have full-frame shooters interested. I suppose the question is: is the quality benefit worthwhile or even discernible? With film, the difference was clearly evident and that’s why many 35mm workers also owned a medium format camera. I had several: 6x4.5cm, 6x6cmand 6x7cm. Given that the resolution of 35mm full-frame is in the area of 45megapixels, and theGFX50R has 50 megapixels, you could argue that the benefit (in purely numerical terms) isn’t great. Get granular, though, do some comparison shots with the various formats, make some big prints – as I have done – and I can confirm (quelle surprise!) that the larger the format, the better the image quality. The adage ‘bigger is better’ lives on, and inphotography it does hold true – if ultimate image quality is your aim. Whether that benefit is enough to switch formats is another question, and other factors come into play, such as portability, usability, your photographic interests and, of course, the depth of your pocket. Itmight be simply that you are perfectly content where you are, and there’s absolutely nothingwrongwith that! Mediumformat and indeed full-frame arenot for everyone, but the great thing is our options are growing and that is a very good thing. If medium format does appeal, check out the test of the GFX 50R in this issue and, if mirrorless full-frame is on your radar, we have a test of the Nikon Z 6. I will say that both are very fine cameras. See you next month.

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Editorial Team Editorial director Roger Payne Editor in chief Adam Duckworth Editor Will Cheung FRPS 01223 499469 willcheung@bright-publishing.com Digital editor Jemma Dodd jemmadodd@bright-publishing.com Chief sub editor Beth Fletcher

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ISSN 2059-7584

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