Photography News 07

Latest photography news

NEWS INBRIEF C’MONENGLAND Two special edition PNY flash drives have been launched to celebrate the World Cup. Red and white for England and green and yellow for Brazil, these 16GB drives cost £9.99 each. www.pny.com OVERTHEMOON Two Hasselblad Lunar cameras worth $14,000 in total reached $54,500 at a charity auction in Florida in aid of spina bifida, as two (presumably wealthy) photo enthusiasts bid against each other. The Braun Master Action camera is perfect for extreme sports fans. It can capture videos and 16-megapixel still images with a 10x digital zoom and be used down to 100m underwater. It sells for £250. www.kenro.co.uk OFFERS Until 2 June 2014, get a deal on the GH4, GH3 or GX7. Buy a GH4 and you can claim a free battery grip and battery worth £300, or buy a GH3 and claim a free battery grip, battery and a Leica Summilux DG 25mm f/1.4 lens – that little lot is worth £800. Buy the GX7 with its 20mm kit lens and you can redeem a 12-32mm zoomworth £300 or if you buy the GX7 with the 14-42mm kit lens, claim a free 20mm lens. www.panasonic.co.uk HANG ITUP Users of Lastolite fold- up backgrounds (or any brand with a metal rim) will be interested in this gadget, the Magnetic Background Support. It attaches to any standard lighting stand and holds the fold-up background in place, perfect for the location shoots. On its own it sells for £60 and is available as a kit complete with a lighting stand for £1078. www.lastolite.com as the NXMini, the Galaxy Camera 2 or theWB350F, or a lens. Find full terms and conditions on the website. www.samsung.com/uk SAMSUNGTRADE-IN Until 31 August 2014, trade in your old digital camera (it still has towork!) for a new Samsung camera, such PANASONIC ACTIONBRAUN

Nikon’s latest Nikon’s 1 Series of CSCs has gained a new member. And if you want a tiny CSC, the Nikon 1 V3 could well be the camera for you.

The V3 may be really compact, but it offers high- speed performance. Its sensor has a resolution of 18.4 megapixels and it works with the new EXPEED 4A image processor to give high image quality and the ISO range is 160 to 12,800. The V3 with the 10- 30mm f/3.5-5.6 PD zoom costs £800 and £1050 for the same kit plus an EVF and grip.

An AF-S DX Nikkor 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens was also announced – 35mm format equivalent is 27-450mm. This compact lens costs £630 and will in the shops later this April.

π To find out more, go to www.nikon.co.uk.

Lee Filters’ Big Stopper has been a huge success and it continues to sell well. The thing with the Big Stopper is that you don’t always need to lose ten stops of light, especially when the light levels are lower, so the Little Stopper only absorbs six stops. As with the Big Stopper, the Little Stopper is not truly neutral so either needs correction in post, or the white-balance adjusted in camera. The Little Stopper costs £100.80 for the 100mm system and £68 for the Seven5 75x90mm system. Speaking of the Seven5 system, designed with CSCs in mind, Lee has just added some new kits. The Deluxe Kit costs £468 and comes with a filter holder, circular polariser, 0.6ND grad soft, 0.6ND grad hard, 0.9 ND grad hard and a Big Stopper. All you need to add is an adaptor ring. The other kits comprise just the filters and are tailored to specific subject areas so there is the Out of Town ND Filter Set, the Seascape ND Filter Set and the Urban ND Filter Set. Each set costs £168. . π To find out more, go to www.leefilters.com. SON OF BIG STOPPER ANDMORE FROM LEE

Olympuswith style

The 16-megapixel Olympus SH-1 is a beautifully designed compact and is on sale for £350. But it offers much more than great looks. It’s the world’s only compact with five-axis optical image stabilisation, has a 24x integral zoom giving a 35mm focal length equivalent of 24 to 600mm and has a top ISO of 6400. It’s available from the end of April. Due out in June is the Olympus Stylus Tough TG-3, also set to sell for £350. It’s aimed at the

adventurous photographer who is likely to face arduous conditions and the camera is waterproof, shockproof, crush proof and freeze proof. The 4x optical zoomgives a focal length equivalent of 25mm to 100mm and features an Advanced Super Macro function that offers Microscope, Microscope Control, Focus Stacking and Focus Bracketing modes.

π To find out more, go to www.olympus.co.uk.

A 12mm f/2 manual focus lens has been introduced by Samyang for mirrorless APS-C formats. With 12 elements, three of which are made from extra low dispersion glass, in 10 groups and nanocrystal anti- reflective coating to optimise resolution, this lens could be a real cracker and perfect for fans of wide- angle shooting. Mounts available are Canon M, Fujifilm X, Samsung NX, Sony E and Micro Four Thirds. It should be in store by the beginning of May, priced at £350. Wide Samyang

π To find out more, go to www.samyang.co.uk.

Photography News | Issue 7