The Nikon Z fc offers beginners and vloggers a charming old-school camera look with thoroughly modern tech inside, while the new Nikon Z f delivers the same retro charm in an altogether better-made full frame model. So what’s the problem?
Opinion
This is where I offer thoughts on developments in photography and video, some of the context behind news stories and industry events, and how these might impact photographers.
Film simulations don’t go far enough
Fujifilm makes a big deal about its cameras’ built in film simulations. You can recreate the look of Velvia, Provia, Astia, ACROS and a host of other famous film emulsions, we’re told. Yeah, right.
Has Black Friday backfired for the camera industry?
Perhaps not just for the camera industry, but this is the one I know best and where I can best see what has been happening. I have spent some years at the front line of camera journalism and the heavily orchestrated sales bonanzas of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and to a lesser extent Amazon Prime Day.
The myth of megapixels and print sizes
A question I constantly get, and I constantly see being asked online, is ‘how big a print can I get from this camera or that camera?’ Any printing expert can work this out with a pocket calculator and I’ll show you how. The trouble is, it’s wrong. Not because the figures don’t add up, but because we’re looking at this the wrong way.
It took the Fujifilm X-H2 to make me realize how good the X-H1 was
I reviewed the Fujifilm X-H1 for Digital Camera World back in 2018. I loved it but I was cautious about the specs because it seemed a modest gain over the X-T2 at the time. Now, in 2023, I realise just how good the X-H1 was. And that is after using the later X-H2 and X-H2S.
I think the Sony A9 III is a one-in-a-thousand camera, and not in a good way
My argument is that the Sony A9 III fixes problems only one photographer in a thousand has – if that. It is, perhaps, a ‘halo’ camera that will impress a thousand times more armchair experts than actual photographers.
The Sony A9 III launches with stunning specs… and a wait of MONTHS
The New York launch of the Sony A9 III was met with the kind of whooping and hollering US audiences love, but also a few gasps and astonished mutterings from people not quite prepared for Sony’s technological tour de force.
Megapixels vs image size, and why we don’t always get what we think
When cameras come with a hike in resolution, we think about image size gains in megapixels or percentages, but actual image dimensions follow the inverse square law, so that if resolution increases by 37.5%, as in the case of the new Sony A7C II vs the existing A7C, the actual image width and height only increase by 17%.
The long goodbye of the Canon EOS M system
It’s been predicted since the launch of the Canon EOS R system and its APS-C models, but now Digital Camera World reports that the EOS M system is officially discontinued by Canon Japan. It’s still listed on some regional Canon websites, but it’s surely only a question of time before stocks finally dry up.
I can’t get close to Canon’s claimed stabilization figures
It’s not just Canon. I’ve been testing cameras and lenses for years, and testing lens IS as well as camera IBIS. I do it with informal real-world testing because there are no reproducible tests for stabilizers unless you are a testing body like CIPA.