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Photography News Issue 25 absolutephoto.com
N O B B F L H Z T D S Y Z U N Q Y X C C D F B P B H H T A L O T O Y E Q J S P V P H T Z T M R Q M X I G O T O I I N O D R I H P C O R R C P T L P N B D M A P L R D E N O L C P L D M E L H R M F S U C R E E U Z X C A M K P P T P M M L P A C M S Y B N A O E C A I F V C K N T R R P W R Z E R U H T O K Y A W C U A O U X C N M Z A R L O R M A C E C B W D D E X B S S E N S O R T K T F I L T E R I S Capture life’s special moments across all devices with the ultra-reliable Samsung SD memory cards. Samsung’s latest SD cards can write data at an impressive 40MB/s and read data at an even higher 80MB/s. The cards are also amazingly reliable being water, temperature-, X-ray-, magnet- and shockproof, so shooting in the most challenging conditions isn’t an issue. We’re giving away two 32GB Samsung PRO SDHC UHS-1 cards to two lucky winners. Just complete the wordsearch below, and you’ll find one word in the list that’s not in the grid. Email us on puzzle@photography-news.co.uk with that word in the subject line by 16 November 2015. samsung.com and search for memorycards Samsung memory duo WIN!
Editor’s letter Time for primes
I have nothing against them and they are obviously a very good thing, but when it comes to zoom lenses I was very much a late adapter. For a good many years I steadfastly stuck with prime (fixed focal length) lenses for a number of reasons, a key one being that primes were, without question, better optically. Not only were primes optically superior, but I preferred to move my feet rather than just lazily use a zoom lens, and that made me work harder for my compositions. I am, of course, not suggesting that zoom-lens users are lazy but having that flexibility can encourage it, with the result that a scene is not always fully exploited in terms of composition. Plus, primes didn’t suffer from pin or barrel distortion in the way zooms did. With film, straight lines coming out banana-shaped was a real issue; with digital, it’s not because distortion can be cured with a mouse click. I did eventually succumb to zooms once image quality got to a level I was happy with but Iwas tenyears behindmost photographers. I now have a decent collection of them covering fromultra-wide to long telephoto. I also have a fair smattering of primes, too, and continue to enjoy the discipline (and their lighter weight) of having to use my feet to achieve the required framing. It is gratifying to see that the lens makers seem to be spending a lot of time and effort working on their primes. Coming out with new ones or revamping existing models with the latest technology to maximise the potential of modern cameras. In this issue we test optics fromCanon and Tamron, and last issue we had primes fromFujifilm, Samyang and Zeiss.
Not only does this reaffirm to old stagers like me the value of primes, but it could mean a whole generation of photographers who have only ever used zooms will find that primes do offer something extra. Lens maximum aperture is an obvious example of what primes can offer. We have gotten used to zooms with modest maximum apertures of f/3.5 and f/4 and therefore get very excited by a ‘fast’ f/2.8 lens, especially when that aperture is constant throughout the range. To be fair, current advances in optical design means we are seeing faster zoom lenses, like the Sigma 24-35mm f/2 which we found to be a very fine performer. You could easily argue that the need for faster apertures is obviated by the quality of current ISO performance where ISO 400 can be as good as ISO 100 in terms of image quality, but a fast prime still offers a brighter viewing image, the chance of shooting with very shallow depth-of-field. And a prime makes you move your feet. I know I sound like a stuck record on that one but I do see a lot of potentially very good pictures that, to me, could have made the grade had the photographer put in a little more input than just operating the zoom barrel. So, regardless of whether you use a prime, zoomor biscuit tin with a pinhole, move your feet and I guarantee your pictures will get even better.
Aperture Backpack Clarity Clone
Cloth Compact Filter Frames
Hood LCD Macro Manual
Memory Photography Prime Sensor
Speedlight Telephoto Tripod Zoom
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