by There’s lots to cover in this issue of HDR News. In the area of new equipment there are two new lenses by a leading manufacturer that appear to push digital photography beyond expectations. There’s a color monitor that accommodates the most popular color space at a price we haven’t seen before. The ongoing discussion about the quality of phone cameras takes a turn when it goes up against a $20K camera. And, there is some great instruction on long exposures. Let’s get going.
Nikon Surprised At Demand for $8000 58mm f0.95 Manual Focus Lens
What’s the fastest lens you have in your bag? It’s probably your 50mm f1.4. It’s a go-to lens for getting the wonderful out-of-focus background that’s so much in style these days. The downside of your 50mm used at f1.4 is there is probably a fall off in sharpness. Nikon’s new 58mm f0.95 “Noct” lens appears to solve that sharpness problem in an incredibly powerful way. So much so that Nikon has stopped taking orders for the lens because of off-the-charts demand and a difficult manufacturing process. You need to see this video promoting the lens.
See why there’s no hesitation to dropping eight grand on a lens HERE.
The Perfect Every Day Camera? – Sony a6100 Review
You love photography but you’re not a pro. You want to create high-quality images but you don’t want to spend a fortune. You want a camera that’s light enough to have with you most of the time but you need it to be rugged. Sony appears to have broken the code for creating such a camera: the a6100. It’s got a great 24MP APS sensor, powerful auto-focus, an electronic viewfinder, Wi-FI image transfer and USB charging which comes in a take-anywhere form factor. You can read the full review and see sample images at dpReview. We love their reviews!.
Get a good look at the a6100 HERE.
New: Dell Ultra Sharp 27” Monitor with 100% Adobe RGB Coverage And Built-in Colorimiter
The portal into experiencing your work is your monitor and the more you work at your photography the more sensitive you become to color, sharpness and image size. Eventually, you’ll come to crave a nice big monitor with a super-wide color gamut and a crisp image. Up until now a 27 inch monitor has been a bit of a budget stretch for many of us. Now with Dell’s new Ultra Sharp monitor it appears you’ll get the Adobe RGB color space managed by an on-board colorimeter at that wonderful 27” size at a doable price. And, if you already have a colorimeter you can get the same monitor without he but-in colorimeter for $700 less.
Learn about the Dell 27 inch photo monitor HERE.
How To Take Really Long Exposures
Sometimes you just have to step out of your comfort zone. While most of us use a tripod for stabilization most of us probably haven’t made an image using a five minute exposure. The results of really long exposures are unique and very much worth trying. This is a deep, instructive article where photographer/author Elizabeth Gray covers all the bases in long exposure photography from scene selection to composition to filters to light contamination.
Get the valuable long exposure info by Elizabeth Gray HERE.
The Nikon Z 24-70 f2.8 May Be Enough To Get You Into The Z System
We don’t like to highlight more than one article about a single manufacturer’s products in an issue of HDR News. This month, however, we have the eye-opening high demand for the Nikon 58mm f0.95 and now this article in Photography Life claiming that Nikon’s Z 24-70 f2.8 is reason enough to switch to the mirrorless Z system. In fact, they called it “simply remarkable”.
You can learn about the lens HERE.
iPhone 11 Holds It’s Own Against a Leica
Discussions about the quality of phone cameras are all over the Internet where folks claim it won’t be long before phone cameras equal or outperform a “normal” camera. Well, we might be there already. Sawyer Hartman, who has more than 1.8 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, brings in four photographer friends for side-by-side comparisons to guess which photos came from the iPhone and the $20,000 Leica M10-P. The video is at the bottom of the page.
Make your own image choices HERE.
Comedy Wildlife Awards
This is an obscure photo competition but it serves the purpose of promoting conservation while giving you a good laugh at the same time. The website espouses “Conservation Though Competition” but little about the folks running it. Nevertheless, this year’s contest received over 4,000 entries from 68 different countries, which were whittled down to 40 finalists, and finally, one grand prize winner. These photos are funny. Enjoy.
Learn the drone gear basics HERE.