Photography News Issue 40

Photography News | Issue 40 | absolutephoto.com

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Buyers’ guide

Winter wonders Want to shoot better winter landscapes? Then you need the kind of kit that’ll help you adapt to snowy and icy conditions. That’s why this month we’ve outlined a host of cold-weather essentials, protecting your camera and lenses, making the most of the frozen scenery and allowing you to work faster and more easily, so you can concentrate on getting creative

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II compact system

Sigma 24-35mm f/2 DG HSMArt wide-angle

camera £1849 Winter shooting puts strain on your body and your kit, so smaller, lighter cameras designed for tough conditions can be a huge help. The 20.4-megapixel Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II is not only a cutting- edge camera (with exciting features like 5-axis image stabilization, 50-megapixel High Res Shot mode and a 60fps burst mode), but also very well suited to winter shooting thanks to its light weight, full weather sealing and low- temperature functionality. As well as being dust and splash-proof, it’s freeze proof down to -10ºC, so you can shoot in some pretty harsh conditions when other types of camera would fail to function. At 574g (with battery and card fitted) it’s also light enough not to weigh you down on your hikes through winter landscapes. olympus.co.uk The cold weather doesn’t just play havoc with your camera battery’s life, freezing conditions can also affect the performance of memory cards. Look carefully at the specifications of your memory card and you might see it’s only rated down to 0ºC, so if you want to shoot in chillier climes, you’ll need something a lot tougher. Fortunately, Samsung’s impressive PRO+ 64GB SDXC UHS-I memory card (which has a Class 10, Grade 1 U3 maximum read/write transfer speed of 95/90MBs) is uniquely specified for the rigours of winter shooting. Not only is it waterproof, it’s also designed to function at temperatures as low as an incredible -25°C. The PRO+ SDXC card is available in 32GB size too. samsung.com/uk 2 Samsung 64GB PRO+ SDXC card £40

zoom lens £699 All landscapers know the value of a fast wide-angle zoom lens, and this lens from Sigma is quickly achieving legendary status. With its fast f/2 maximum aperture, it’s a great low-light performer and provides excellent sharpness across its versatile focal lengths. Essentially you get the quality of three fast prime lenses in a single unit, but unlike many zooms, there’s no loss of image quality. As one of Sigma’s Art lenses, the 24‑35mm makes no compromises in terms of design and uses premium FLD glass, and no less than seven Special Low Dispersion (SLD) elements in its construction, of which two are aspherical lenses, while a multilayer coating controls flare and prevents ghosting for ultra-clear details. sigma-imaging-uk.com filter set £159 A fresh fall of snow might have you sprinting for a favourite location, but don’t forget your filters! Lee Filters has been helping improve landscape photographers’ work for generations (it’s the company’s 50th anniversary this year), and its latest sets of handmade, high-quality filters are specially designed for the smaller lenses and sensors of CSCs. To help you pick the right ones, Lee’s produced subject-specific packs, so for CSC landscapers, the Out of Town Set packs in a 0.6 (2 stop) ND soft grad, a 0.9 (3 stop) ND hard grad and Big Stopper for very slow shutter effects like silky smooth water. The soft and hard grads, meanwhile, make it easy to darken skies at different types of location. leefilters.com 4 Lee Filters Seven5 Out of Town Neutral Density

BRNO dri+Caps for lenses and camera bodies £17.50

Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di VC USDMacro lens £579

Hähnel ProCube charger and batteries from£45

Winter shooting isn’t just about broad snowy vistas, it’s also about delicate frost patterns and intricate frozen details. To make the most of those you need a dedicated macro lens, which will let you focus very closely, and they don’t come much better than Tamron’s SP 90mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Macro. An update of its previous (and excellent) 90mm macro, the new lens is moisture resistant, making it a great winter partner, and it focuses as close as 30cm. This in turn provides a true macro 1:1 reproduction ratio giving bags of detail. The lens also has an upgraded Vibration Compensation (VC) system, making it easier to shoot handheld, or in low light, and there’s a three-stage focus limiter (Full, 0.5m to infinity and 0.3-0.5m) to speed up AF, too. tamron.eu/uk

Winter shoots mean running into lots of water, and not just the frozen variety: snow, rain, spray, mist and fog can all pose problems if they come into contact with your gear. But that’s not all; taking cold cameras and lenses into a warm environment like your car or home will cause condensation that can fog up the elements, in some cases allowing mould to grow. You can guard against this with a BRNO dri+Cap. Used in place of a regular cap, it maintains humidity at an optimal level via a silica gel sachet and O-ring that sits between the cap and mount. Available in Canon or Nikon fit, a BRNO dri+Cap lens cap is £17.50, and you can get one in a kit with a DSLR body cap for £27.95. Replacement sachets cost £5.95 for eight. cameraclean.co.uk

Cold saps battery life and if you add in power-hungry landscape techniques like long exposures, you could find your winter excursions cut short. To cover yourself, invest in a spare cell, but instead of expensive first-party batteries, try one of Hähnel’s range. For an Extreme HLX-E6N that’ll fit bodies like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, III and IV, 7D and 6D, you’ll pay around £45, while Canon’s LP-E6N Battery Pack is £65. An Extreme HLX-EL15HP (equivalent of the EN-EL15 for models like the D600 and D810) is also around £45. Twin your new battery with a Hähnel ProCube (£49), and you’ll be able to charge two batteries at once, as well as powering up your smartphone. The charger can also be run from your car via a 12V lead. hahnel.ie