Photography News Issue 37

Photography News | Issue 37 | absolutephoto.com

News

Laowa hits an optic treble

Shoot great British landscapes towin

Photography News has teamed up with expert photographic printers Lumejet to bring you this chance to win £200 to spend on Lumejet products. Lumejet is passionate about printing great photographs and uses its own specially developed S200 printer for high-end photographic and commercial print use. This high-resolution printer features the Lumejet RGB Digital Print Head and Fujifilm professional grade Crystal Archive materials to achieve a unique, ultra-high quality finish and really extraordinary colour fidelity.

To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is upload your entry the competition's Flickr gallery at bit.ly/2bPuEWR. Any image type is eligible (mono, HDR, multi-image) but only one shot per person can be submitted and the subject must be a British landscape. Entrants must also be UK based. For full terms and conditions see absolutephoto.com The closing date for entries is 17 October and the winner will be announced in PN issue 38, out the week beginning 24 October 2016. Go for it!

The Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D is the world’s fastest rectilinear ultra wide-angle lens designed for full-frame cameras. Optical construction comprises 16 elements in 10 groups which includes three extra-low dispersion elements and two aspherical elements to give a high quality, edge-to-edge optical performance free of chromatic aberration and exceptional sharpness even at maximum aperture. The innovative optical design also overcomes barrel distortion, a common problem with ultra-wide lenses, and does so in a compact form in a lens weighing in at just 609g. This lens will be available in Canon EF, Nikon AI, Sony A, Pentax K and Sony E lens fittings will be in the shops from the end of November at the price of £899.99. Going on sale in early 2017 will be a 15mm f/2 Zero D and 7.5mm f/2. Like the 12mm f/2.8, both lenses are manual focus, fast aperture, ultra- wide models; the 15mm for Sony FE fit cameras and the 7.5mm f/2 for

lumejet.com

Micro Four Thirds bodies. The 15mm f/2 is the fastest rectilinear lens of that focal length for full-frame cameras and it is designed to give close to zero optical distortion, so ideal for critical applications like architecture. Lightweight and compact, the 7.5mm f/2 is suitable for use on drones, but also makes a great partner for land-based shooting with its fast aperture making it perfect for low-light situations. Prices of both lenses will be confirmed in due course.

laowalens.co.uk

Panasonic powers on

Panasonic’s Lumix series is 15 years old and going strong. Now it's been swelled with three new high-spec additions, the LX15, the DMC-G80 and the TZ2000. The Lumix LX15 is a 20.1-megapixel 1in sensor premium compact sporting the fastest zoom in its class, a 3x 24- 72mm (35mm equivalent) with a maximum aperture of f/1.4-2.8. A macro mode enables it to focus as close as 3cm from the lens at the wide-angle end for great close-ups and its AF system features Depth from Defocus (DFD) technology to improve speed and precision

as focal length increases. DFD calculates distance by evaluating two images at different sharpness levels at 240fps. The LX15 also has a Post Focus mode that uses 4K video to let you set in-focus areas after shooting using the touch screen. The camera will be out in November at £599.99. The DMC-G80 is a Micro Four Thirds 16-megapixel camera with an updated image stabilisation system. The Dual IS Mk II incorporates gyro technology, two axis Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) and five-axis Body Image Stabilizer (BIS) to give a claimed 5EV benefit.

The sensor is low-pass filter- free and the new Venus Engine processor makes the most of whatever you shoot. The G80 has 4K video recording with live cropping and real-time HDMI image output, too. It’ll also accept the new DMW-BGG1 Battery Grip that takes an extra battery for enhanced shooting capacity. Prices of the G80 and grip and availability have yet to be confirmed. The TZ2000 is premium feature-rich bridge camera. Highlights include a 20-megapixel 1in MOS sensor, creative focusing features and a 20x f/2.8-4.5 zoom.

The latter is equivalent to 24- 480mm and once switched on, the internal zoomdesignmeans it stays a constant size as you zoom. Extra features include 4k Photo where you can shoot at 30fps and save the best frame as an 8-megapixel file. Post Focus is also available as on the LX15. The TZ2000 will also appeal to video shooters of all levels with unlimited 4K video recording in MOV/MP4 and Full HD video at the ultra-high bit rate of 200Mbps. Output in real-time can be made to an external drive via its HDMI connection and an optional V-Log

upgrade available, too. Other pro video features include Dolly Zoom, variable frame rate and Stop Motion Animation. Availability of the Lumix TZ2000 will be from mid November and the price is £1099.99. Panasonic has also announced that it's working on the GH5 for release in early 2017. The GH5 will offer several world-first innovations such as 4K 60p/50p video and a 6K photo mode where an 18-megapixel image is extracted from high-quality video.

panasonic.co.uk