A concise round-up of new product updates, international snippets and other interesting stuff from the wonderful world of photography: Sony World Photography Awards finally conclude (whew!)…New software for Zooming in…Tamron 28-200mm for Sony E-mount…Canon leaks lens roapmap…
Sony World Photography Awards finally conclude (whew!)
The 2020 Sony World Photography Awards has announced Uruguay photographer, Pablo Abarenga, has won the Photographer of the Year title for his series, Seeds of Resistance. This marks an end to the prestigious contest, which exhaustingly drip feeds each announcement to ensure it generates as much publicity as possible. (We see what you are doing there, Sony PR team!)
The series explores the bond between Brazilian communities and activist groups defending defending land, much of which is sacred and have been inhabited for hundreds of years. Abarenga captured birds-eye aerial photos of his portrait subjects.
Seeds of Resistance is a body of work which pairs photographs of landscapes and territories in danger from mining and agriculture, with portraits of the activists fighting to conserve them. In 2017, at least 207 leaders and environmentalists were killed while protecting their communities from projects threatening their territories. According to a 2018 report by Global Witness, most of these cases occurred in Brazil with 57 assassinations being recorded, of which 80 percent were against people defending the Amazon.
‘With this important award, I see two victories: first, the opportunity to tell the stories of the traditional communities of the Amazon by highlighting the people who are still fighting not only for their future, but for everyone’s,’ Abarenga said in the press release. ‘We need to look beyond the trees, the oxygen and the “undiscovered” species of the rainforest. Secondly, that the photographer of the year award has landed in Latin America, a continent historically told through the eyes of foreigners. I hope that many more photographers from our region will continue to contribute with our voices, thus strengthening the amazing community of Latin American storytellers.’
No local photographers won a Professional category, however three Aussies scored in the Open categories which was already announced.
Click here to see all category winners.
New software for Zooming in
It’s passing strange that the most hyped up features on the latest wave of new digital stills cameras are centred on shooting video. It’s certainly the most hyped feature on Canon’s great hope for the future, the R5. (Apparently it can shoot at 8K. If only there were 8K monitors available to see the footage.)
And now, in response to the escalation of web conferencing, several of the camera makers have identified another video application for their stills camera – as webcams, connected to a PC via USB:
Fujifilm X Webcam, makes it possible to turn nine Fujifilm X Series and GFX System models (GFX100, GFX 50S, GFX 50R, X-H1, X-Pro2, X-Pro3, X-T2, X-T3 and X-T4) into webcams for use with video conferencing software such as Skype and Zoom.
Click here to download the (Windows only) software.
Canon has the EOS Webcam Utility Beta, which is compatible with a large range of interchangeable lens cameras and Powershots. It’s limited to PCs running the 64-bit version of Windows 10 and the very latest versions of MacOS.
Panasonic has Lumix Tether for Streaming. This is compatible with the Lumix GH5, G9, GH5S, S1, S1R and S1H, and both the 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows 10.
New Tamron long zoom for Sony E-mount
Local distributor Blond Robot has just announced local availability of the Tamron 28-200mm F/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD for Sony E-mount. At $1299, the new release looks like great value for a lens with an f2.8 widest aperture and a 7x zoom range.
There are now seven lenses in Tamon’s full-frame Sony E-mount range.It is just 117mm in length, weighs in at 575g and has a filter diameter of 67mm.
At 28mm, the lens can focus as close as 20cm, while even shooting at the telephoto end it can focus down to 80cm.
Unlike some other camera manufacturers, Sony has shared its E-mount specifications with third-part lens manufacturers, to the benefit of Sony camera owners who gain access to features like Fast Hybrid AF; Eye AF; Direct Manual Focus (DMF); in-camera lens correction (shading, chromatic aberration, distortion); and camera-based lens unit firmware updates.
Canon leaks lens roadmap
Canon has unofficially released its ‘lens roadmap’ for the second half of 2020:
– Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM;
– Canon RF 85mm f/2 Macro IS STM;
– Canon RF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM;
– Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM;
– Canon RF 600mm f/11 DO IS STM;
– -Canon RF 800mm f/11 DO IS STM;
– Canon RF 1.4x teleconverter;
– Canon RF 2.0x teleconverter.
The ‘DO’ in the 600 and 800mm telephotos stands for ‘Diffraction Optics’. It bends light more sharply, enabling the design of shorter lenses with fewer elements. But a widest aperture of f11 is kind of courageous.
The information came from Canon’s go-to site for planting stories, Nokeshita.
Be First to Comment