News / Features & Articles

Photokina 2012 was arguably the most exciting show for years, for enthusiast photographers. Whether you've been waiting for a more affordable full-frame camera, looking for a mirrorless camera designed for an experienced user or you want a pocketable camera to live alongside your DSLR, there was something on show for you in Cologne. And much of that risked getting drowned-out by most of these products being launched on the same day. Read our round-up of the show to find out what you might have missed-out on.

In this Photokina interview - the second of two with Dirk Jasper, Nikon's Product Manager for Professional Products and Product Planning - we spoke to Dirk about the development of the Nikon 1 System, as it marks its first anniversary, and the challenges of creating a hybrid 'connected camera'. In this interview, Dirk explains why the Android-powered Coolpix S800c is a more serious compact that Samsung's Galaxy Camera and how despite the fact that it was never meant to be a 'professional' system, the Nikon 1 became number one in Europe. 

The medium format S system was 'the biggest risk Leica has ever taken,' says Stephan Schulz, the company's head of Professional Imaging. But, with the latest S 'our goal is to become market leader,' he says. We spoke to Schulz about his strategy to give professionals faith in the system and how the new Hasselblad adapter will help the company regain the professional market it lost in the 1980s. He also explains why only people with no experience of medium format see the Nikon D800 as a threat to the 37.5MP 'S.'

'I think Canon has a different approach to us. With the D600 we are really concentrating on the photographic features and we're trying to give the best photographic package that we can' says Dirk Jasper, product manager for professional imaging at Nikon Europe. We spoke to him about Nikon's latest full frame SLR, and he explained some of the choices that went into the creation of the D600, including who it's designed for and how it's different from the competition. Click through to read the full interview.

'Once you use the Galaxy Camera you won't be able to go back to a conventional camera,' says Samsung's VP of Sales and Marketing, Sun Hong Lim. We spoke to him to discuss Samsung's Galaxy Camera that combines the camera of its WB850F with the capabilities of its Galaxy SIII smartphone, to create one of the first true camera/smartphone hybrids. He explains why connectivity will be a keyword in the era of cloud computing and why he's not interested in low-end compact cameras. Click here to read the full interview.

Iceland is a destination filled with once-in-a-lifetime photographic opportunities. Professional photographer Erez Marom shares his experiences of shooting this remarkable landscape in all its winter glory. Read what it's like to venture into ice caves, shoot sunsets across a glacier lagoon and experience the northern lights in a locale like no other.

Pentax hasn't been idle in 2012, and just before the opening of Photokina, it refreshed its popular K-5 DSLR, releasing two new models, the K-5 II and the K-5 IIS, which lacks an anti-aliasing filter, for greater detail resolution. Barnaby Britton caught up with John Carson, Sr. Manager of Sales & Marketing at Pentax Imaging USA, and asked him about the new DSLRs, the tiny Q, and why designers love the K-01.

Photokina 2012 is proving a busy show for Leica, with two new M models, the 'M', which succeeds the M9, and offers live view and movie mode, among other refinements, and the ME - a cut-down model, which offers the same functionality as the M9 at a more affordable price. Barnaby Britton caught up with M product manager Jesko von Oeynhausen at the Leica stand.

Few things generate more passionate opinions among photographers than the stylized HDR images that have become so popular on the web. Pro photographer and author Rick Sammon argues that there is more to HDR, however, than the surreal over-the-top examples you see on photo sharing sites. In this article he shows that you can capture a wide dynamic range and still maintain a more natural and realistic image.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom offers workflow benefits that can make it easier to organize your photo collection. Pro photographer and Lightroom expert Martin Evening gives an overview of 'best practices' for managing the import process itself. Click here to find out how to make the best use of metadata, file renaming and custom templates during the image upload process, in his four-page article. 

There are fundamental rules of composition that visual artists of all disciplines make use of to create more dynamic images. Fashion and fine art photographer Thomas Park demonstrates three of these techniques and explains how you can employ them when creating your own photographs.

Travel photography isn't just about visiting beautiful places and taking pictures, it's a learning opportunity, too. If you travel without a laptop and don't edit your pictures until you get back from a trip, you might be missing a great opportunity to improve your work. In this short article, award-winning travel photographer Steve Davey explains why you should embrace editing on the road.

A number of factors led to the use of 2MP sensors in the main imaging cameras used on NASA's Mars rover, Curiosity, says the project manager responsible for their development. The slow data rates available for broadcasting images back to Earth and the team's familiarity with that family of sensors played a part, says Malin Space Science Systems' Mike Ravine, but the biggest factor was the specifications being fixed as far back as 2004. Multi-shot panoramas will see the cameras deliver high-res images, he explains, but not the 3D movies Hollywood director James Cameron had wanted.

A mixture of personal anecdote and practical advice, 'Envisioning Family: A Photographer's Guide to Making Meaningful Portraits of the Modern Family' by Tamara Lackey should be of interest to anyone who wants to add a little something extra to their family portraits. Adam Kaplan takes a look.

Following our review of the Nokia 808 PureView, Damian Dinning - Lead program manager of Imaging Experience at Nokia - wrote to us responding to some of the issues that we raised and explaining why those decisions were made in the phone's development. In addition to featuring the largest, highest-pixel-count sensor of any smartphone, the 808 also offers the most advanced camera features - including manually selectable ISO sensitivity from 50-1600, exposure bracketing and five white balance presets. Click through to read Dinning's thoughts on our review conclusions. 

Bestselling author Joe McNally (The Moment It Clicks and The Hotshoe Diaries) has written another accessible, entertaining book - Sketching Light: An Illustrated Tour of the Possibilities of Flash. In contrast to his earlier volumes, which were often rich with images and reminiscences from his storied editorial career, his latest book is more technical, covering methods for creating and shaping light using all manner of strobes. This is far from a prescriptive 'how to' guide though, says Adam Koplan.

When Apple's new MacBook Pro with 'retina' screen was launched recently, it was displayed with an arresting image as a desktop background, showing zebras galloping through long grass. In this article the photographer behind the photograph, UK-based Steve Bloom, explains how he got the shot.

The latest release of Photoshop - CS6 - included a range of additional tools likely to be handy for photographers. In this article, photographer and Photoshop expert Martin Evening builds on our walk-through article with a more detailed look at how he uses Photoshop CS6's photography-oriented features. If you've not yet grasped the additional creative options and time savings that CS6 can bring, through tools such as context-aware patch or the adaptive wide-angle filter, Evening shows where they can be used.

According to a report in the British Journal of Photography, press photographers in the UK are being called on to boycot the high-profile reunion tour of 80s/90s rock band The Stone Roses over the conditions of contracts being handed out at shows. The National Union of Journalists is backing a call for photographers to boycott the concerts over shooting contracts that appear to remove the right of the signee to sell their images for editorial use. Former professional music photographer Barnaby Britton gives his take on the brewing controversy.