Table of contents for V72 Issue 4 in Pro Photo

There are a number of reasons to celebrate Hasselblad’s announcement of the world’s first digital medium format camera system (the full details are in this issue’s news section). Firstly, it marks a return to original thinking by the famous Swedish marque. The last few years have been pretty uninspiring and it looked for a while there as if Hasselblad was incapable of responding to its much more active rival in digital medium format, Phase One. While the Sony-based clones weren’t as damaging to the reputation as some asserted, they were a big distraction and, it has to be said, a big waste of resources. I well remember going to the launch of the Lunar – a Sony NEX-7 dressed up in fancy clothes – at Photokina 2012 and not only…

WHILE MIRRORLESS CAMERAS ARE steadily eating into the lower end of the D-SLR market, the professional sector has proved to be a harder nut to crack. There are a couple of reasons for this. The sector is traditionally… well, traditional, and it’s been well and truly dominated by Canon and Nikon for decades. Both are hanging onto their D-SLR businesses like grim death, but the case for the reflex mirror is becoming harder to defend. Fujifilm was the first to mount a challenge, with the X-Pro1 which, perhaps because it was styled like a rangefinder camera, was too much for some, despite some obvious attractions. Sony’s SLR-styled A7 series and Olympus’s top-end OM-D models have subsequently given mirrorless a big boost among higher-end users – as has Fujifilm’s own X-T1…

In what could arguably be as significant a new camera announcement as the original 1600F back in 1948, Hasselblad has announced the world’s first medium format mirrorless digital camera. The Hasselblad X1D – the designation stands for X Series Model 1 Digital (so there’s obviously more to come) – is an all-Hasselblad design and built in Sweden to fully wash away the aftertaste of the Sony-based models of the last few years. Designed to appeal to both prosumer and professional users, the X1D features a very stylish and slimline aluminium and fully weather-proofed bodyshell with a built-in XGA (i.e. 2.359 megadots resolution) EVF (sourced from Epson) and a 7.62 cm fixed TFT LCD monitor screen with touch controls. Hasselblad says the X1D can operate in subzero temperatures down to -10…

Ricoh Imaging is certainly doing its bit for the D-SLR, and following the full-35mm Pentax K-1 comes a new mid-level ‘APS-C’ model called the Pentax K-70. It incorporates many of the features from the high-end Pentax D-SLRs, including the Pixel Shift Resolution system (for creating higher resolution images), the ‘AA Filter Simulator’ to eliminate moiré patterns and the variable-tilt LCD monitor which was introduced on the K-1. The K-70 has a new CMOS sensor with an effective resolution of 24.2 megapixels and a sensitivity range equivalent to ISO 100 to 102,400. The sensor is mated with a next-gen ‘PRIME MII’ image processor which enables continuous shooting at up to 6.0 fps and a 4K ‘Internal Movie’ mode. Image stabilisation is via sensor-shifting which is claimed to give up to 4.5…

“THE PROFESSIONAL PRINT MAKER WILL FIND THE STRENGTH AND QUALITY OF OF THE PRO-1000 APPEALING, WHILE THE KEEN ENTHUSIAST WHO APPRECIATES TOP CLASS MACHINERY WILL BE EQUALLY ATTRACTED.”Trevern Dawes, CAMERA Magazine CANON EOS-1D X MARK II “Equipped with a newly-developed 20.2 megapixels (effective) full-35mm CMOS sensor, Canon’s new D-SLR flagship offers continuous shooting at up to 14 fps, or up to 16 fps in live view mode.” • Rugged, weather-proofed all-metal bodyshell • Expanded ISO 50 to 409,600 sensitivity range • Cinema 4K resolution video shooting • 61-points AF and 360,000 pixels RGB+IR metering CANON EOS 5DS R “Rivalling the resolution of many digital medium format cameras, the CMOS sensors in the Canon EOS 5Ds R and EOS 5Ds deliver an impressive 50.6 megapixels (effective) with continuous shooting at 5.0…

There is no question Nikon’s D5 is an awesome piece of kit. The autofocusing performance, in particular, has to be seen to be believed and it betters just about every key spec of the already hugely-capable D4S. But, but, but… A few years ago we’d have been thumbing through the superlatives dictionary to find new ways to praise a camera like the D5, but the camera world has moved on and big, bulky D-SLRs are playing to a steadily reducing audience. In reality, the pro-level Nikon and Canon D-SLRs have always been fairly specialised machines as not everybody has required such durability and speed, but for a number of reasons – including external influences – a growing number of photographers don’t want the size or weight either. It may still…

Perhaps not so much of a surprise, but still a very welcome arrival, Fujifilm’s new X-T2 upgrades its SLR-style X-mount mirrorless camera to a similar spec level to the flagship X-Pro2. Retaining very similar styling to its predecessor, the X-T2 has the same higher-resolution 24.3 megapixels ‘X-Trans CMOS III’ sensor as the X-Pro2 – mated with the ‘X-Processor Pro’ high-speed engine – but it’s the first X Series model to have 4K video recording at 3840x2160 pixels (i.e. Ultra HD). At 25 fps, this gives a bit rate of 100 Mbps, and the X-T2 also has a ‘clean’ video output (for both 2K and 4K) via its HDMI terminal for recording to an external device. The stereo audio input for connecting an external microphone has been upgraded to the standard…

With the video actioncam market continuing to boom, Olympus is the latest ‘photo company’ to head for the great outdoors. The new Stylus TG-Tracker is styled like a mini camcorder and records 4K video, Full HD video and 8.0 MP JPEGs. Video clips are recorded in the MOV format using MPEG-4 AVC/H .264 compression. Data is recorded to a microSDHC/XC memory card, and the camera combines a 1/2.3-inch BSI-CMOS sensor with Olympus’s ‘TruePic VII’ image processor. The camera’s bodyshell is fully waterproofed down to 30 metres (so there’s no need for an additional housing), is shock-proofed to withstand a drop of just over two metres, freeze-proofed down to -10 degrees Celsius and crush-proofed to withstand a 100-kilogram equivalent force. A very neat touch is the incorporation of an LED illuminator…

Australian photojournalist Adam Ferguson was in Kurdistan on assignment for The New York Times in August 2014 when the helicopter he was travelling in crashed. While Ferguson wasn’t badly injured, he was shaken up, and the experience left him feeling apprehensive about heading into a conflict zone again in a hurry. In 2015 he moved back to Australia from Thailand where he’d been based for a couple of years, and began working on a personal project that was far removed from the conflict work that he’s built his reputation on. “I’ve been doing a survey of regional Australia, going back to my roots… which is what a lot of photographers do after too much war” explains Ferguson when I caught up with him in Sydney. “I feel like I’m living…