Price: $700

A fine lens

The low-down: This 105mm fast macro lens is suitable for either full frame or APS sensor cameras and it is available in mounts for Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Sigma, Sony and Four Thirds cameras. Construction is rugged with Sigma’s signature attractive matte finish. Macro focus is down to 1:1 at the maximum lens extension. For this lens Sigma use the sliding barrel clutch mechanism to change from manual to auto focus and also a small selector switch – it is not obvious why there are two selectors. To reduce focus hunting the lens can be locked to a “limit” position. It comes with a screw-in lens hood. While it is called a macro lens it is also a medium telephoto particularly suited to portraiture. On an APS-C sensor camera the focal length is equivalent to approximately 150mm.

Like: Optically this is an excellent lens with outstanding sharpness, contrast and colour fidelity. Sharpness is consistent across the entire image with no fall-off in the edges and corners and is also consistent at all focus points.

Dislike: There is extreme focus hunting with low contrast subjects and even with ordinary contrast the lens can take its time finding a sharp focus. Given the fast aperture (f2.8) this inability to focus quickly is inexplicable. When we compared the Canon 100mm macro on the same camera body as the Sigma the difference in focus speed was startling.

Verdict: This is a fine lens and for the price is excellent value for money. Optically it is as good as it gets and manually focussed there is nothing to complain about. But the auto focus issue is baffling. Our test cameras were two Canons – a 7D and a 5D MkII. Perhaps the focus performance would be different on another make of body. We can only suggest that you take your camera body to the shop and try it for yourself.

*

Frankly Imaging is surprised that Ms Gillard didn’t bolt into The Lodge in the recent unpleasantness.

The moment we clapped eyes on the cover of the August issue of Australian Women’s Weekly we thought it was in the bag. Here is the brand new prime minister looking like the glamorous half sister of Jana Wendt and actress Helen Hunt. Two million voters are going to see this, who can resist? Not just brains and determination and a slight touch of the Lady Macbeths but also beautiful.

Apparently the voters recognise photographic smoke and mirrors when they see it. And so does she! They didn’t fall for the Photoshopped PM and she knows enough about digital trickery to ask for a touch-up here and there.

Have a look at the video of the photo shoot at tinyurl.com/2d2cjg6. (Scroll through the stills to arrive at the video) You will see the prime minister looking at herself on the computer monitor and saying: “You can fix that?” And there is a murmur of agreement that there needs to be some post-camera work done on the prime ministerial cleavage which is deemed to be politically inappropriate. Her smart blue suit is kept taut and wrinkle-free by pulling it together at the back and fixing it with a safety pin.

The photographer Grant Matthews – said to be Elle Macpherson’s snapper of choice when she is in Oz – is working in a studio with a big staff of assistants, including a makeup artist, stylist (dresser), hair stylist and assorted dogsbodies. Before serious shooting begins one of those assistants holds the white balance card in front of the subject’s face – a white card with black and 18 per cent grey squares. It will be a simple matter to do a mass white balance correction in Aperture (Matthews is using Apple computer gear) by reference to this card. The sheer simplicity of this vital part of the process is a lesson for all photographers – get the white balance right at the outset and you save yourself a lot of imprecise fiddling later on.

Matthews’ lighting setup is fairly simple. He has one huge soft light directly in front of the subject and a wide white reflective board underneath Ms Gillard, reflecting light up towards her eyes, eliminating shadows and the dark crescents that we see under her eyes in other photos. The effect is a flattening of the light which is soft and flattering. A subtle modelling light comes through a high window to one side.

All the published photos are either full face or very slightly head turned, but never in profile to show her distinctive nose and chin. And what to do about that intimidating helmet of red hair? The solution is brilliant in its simplicity – the hair stylist is just out of shot aiming a hair dryer at Ms Gillard’s head, blowing her hair around in attractive, soft and romantic wisps. Why didn’t we think of that?

A lesson for all photographers: never go out without a safety pin and a hair dryer.

*

Price: $550

Outstanding compact

The low-down: This 10 megapixel camera is Canon’s first with a so-called backlit sensor. The image stabilised lens has a 28–105mm range and a maximum aperture of f2 at the wide end. The camera is well made and can be used as a fully automatic point-and-shoot or user-controlled in Program or Aperture/Shutter priority. The 7.5cm LCD is not high resolution but it is bright and OK as a viewfinder. There is a 1280X720 movie mode. The flash is small and not powerful and prone to producing red-eye, which can be corrected in the camera after the shot is taken.

Like: By creating a camera with a reduced pixel count and a short zoom range Canon has improved picture quality, especially where image noise is concerned. Images are clean up to ISO400 and useable at higher sensitivities. There is no noticeable blurring of fine detail, the usual trade-off for in-camera noise reduction. Canon’s three top compact cameras now have 10 megapixel sensors, a triumph of good technology over more-is-better marketing.

Dislike: We regret the passing of Canon’s easy to use quick menu system, used on all their compacts for the past eight years. The function menu system is now divided into two parts and takes some getting used to.

Verdict: This is a fine little camera. Panasonic were first to have the nerve to drop out of the pixel race and fit their top compact with a 10mp sensor. Canon quickly followed suit with the G11, S90 and now the Ixus 300HS. And now Samsung has fitted its top compact with 10mp. Shoppers may wonder why they should pay more money for fewer pixels and a shorter zoom range, and the answer is that where photo receptors and lenses are concerned less is sometimes more. The Ixus 300HS is highly recommended.

You know how excited and hostile Mac and PC devotees can get defending their operating systems? Well, we have discovered that you can get just as much heat and just as little light when you raise the matter of JPEG versus RAW for file storage.

A few weeks ago we invited readers to respond to a story about the basic requirements of the travelling photographer. In the story we said that we had recommended to a friend that he shoot in Large/Fine JPEG for ease of editing and storage. Four respondents to the story are indignant that we should give such poor advice (“the worst advice I would give anyone” according to LM) and one pointed out that we were factually wrong. We said that the free photo editing program, Photoscape (www.photoscape.org) wouldn’t handle RAW files. We were wrong. It does convert some RAW files from some cameras. It’s worth checking to see if your camera is included.

We suggested to our friend that he take a netbook for storage and internet transmission. Several respondents have done just this and they all had good service from Picasa, Google’s on-line service. Picasa is a basic photo editor and it can also be used to create and upload web galleries, accessible to the envious folks back home. (picasa.google.com/)

Doug found that MacDonalds in the US and Europe were convenient and free places to get WiFi connections to upload his photos to Flickr and his diary blog for the price of a Big Mac.

Most netbooks have 25cm screens, which Chris thinks is a bit small and recommends the Asus 1201N with its 30cm LCD as the way to go. Three Mac users carried MacBook Pros and could do their on-the-run editing with iPhoto. Only one respondent used Microsoft’s unloved Windows Live Photo Gallery.

BT learned the hard way that you need an elaborate file backup strategy in order to avoid disaster. He mistakenly formatted a memory card and lost 100 photos taken in South Devon. Next time around he plans to carry the Epson P-7000 photo storage device that has a decent little LCD screen and a 160GB hard drive. (This is too late to help Bram, but remember that files can usually be recovered even from a formatted card.)

Poor Debra bought an xD memory card for her Olympus in Edinburgh. It failed and she lost photos of elderly relatives who she would probably never see again. Her experience with Olympus service left a lot to be desired. While she was on hold to the service department she was subjected to “the incessant advertising expounding on the delights of the xD card”. When she eventually spoke to a service person she was told that the xD was discontinued “as we have better cards now.” And in any case, how dare she buy a memory card overseas and expect service in Australia. For $55 they would look at her card, which they did, and returned it with a note saying, in effect, “it’s stuffed!”

Ross’s file protection strategy includes carrying only small memory cards so that if one is stolen or malfunctions you don’t lose too many pictures. He backs up to other cards and USB memory sticks and distributes his backups through his luggage and clothes. He burns CDs and sends them back home. He reckons that he always has three copies with him and one in the post.

Geoff has a novel theft deterrent – he carries an old ACER notebook. He says “it is a bit heavy and very battered and highly unattractive to thieves.”

The over all advice is to carry a small computer, use an online service like Picasa, don’t put all your photos on one device and do distribute your backups in different parts of the luggage and around your person. A daily backup will also ring alarms if a memory card is failing.

*

    [Moonrise – near Pyalong, by John Spring]

We can think of several good reasons to join a camera club, but none more compelling than those that moved Jo Beilby, the president of the Melbourne Camera Club, to join up two years ago.

“I joined primarily to get back into the darkroom, a pastime I thoroughly enjoyed while studying photojournalism at college. Naïve and idealistic, my nights were spent soaked in the heady smell of chemistry, illuminated by barely perceptible red safety lights and featuring a never ending soundtrack of alternative mixes of Pink Floyd. Perhaps it was the promise of stolen kisses with my boyfriend at the time that kept me interested…But where we soon parted ways, photography won my heart in the end.”

These days, like the other 90 per cent of the Club members, Jo has gone digital. But the Club still offers a splendidly equipped darkroom to its members, and a hardy, romantic few, addicted to the fumes of developer, stop bath and fixer, continue to produce photographs by the traditional methods. In fact the stalwarts now form a subgroup in the Club called “The traditional darkroom printmakers group”.

The Melbourne Camera Club is just about 120 years old. It started life 1891 as the Working Men’s College Photographic Club. Gentlemen paid a subscription of ten shillings to belong and the ladies could join in for five shillings. Membership bought entry to the College darkroom. For another one shilling and sixpence members could attend any lecture offered by the Instructor in Photography at the school.

These days the Club has 244 members and use of the darkroom for developing and canoodling costs members $5 for six hours -- better than messing around setting up the bathroom or laundry as a temporary darkroom.

This Saturday, 21 August, the Club is opening its doors to the public for one of its periodic exhibitions. The club rooms are now in a historic building on the corner of Dorcas and Ferrars streets, South Melbourne and the exhibition will be open from about 2.15. There are two parts to the exhbition -- prints made by traditional methods and a showing of members’ digital images, displayed through a high definition projector.

Imaging has been given a preview and believe us it is worth making the effort to attend, if you have an interest in the art of photography. Being part of a mutually competitive group obviously inspires members to try harder.

John Spring, the retired engineer who is the coordinator of the exhibition, joined the club about 38 years ago, attracted by the inspiring contributions made by people like Athol Shmith and Helmut Newton. John was using Kodak and Nikon cameras when he joined, and even used a 4x5in press camera. Now he takes his photos with a much daintier Panasonic digital.

As well as the darkroom and a well equipped studio the Club offers an Introduction to Photography seven week course that is so popular it is booked out for the next year. To find more about the Melbourne Camera Club and the exhibition of members’ work go to www.melbournephoto.org.au

[Selby Markham, coordinator of the Traditional Printmaker group]

Price: $180

Interesting, but…

The low-down: This 17.8cm digital frame of 800X600 pixels is WiFi enabled. This means that in addition to the conventional ways of loading images into a digital frame, by USB or memory card, the Pulse can be loaded over a domestic WiFi network. Which also means that it can access images on social network services such as Facebook and Kodak’s Gallery. The frame can also be assigned its own email address and photos sent directly to it. There is no installation software – it is all done through the Kodak Pulse web site. Once our WiFi security code was entered in the frame itself we were given a token number to unlock the Kodak setup. It was simple enough but took some time to complete. There is no direct connection from your computer to the frame – all transfers pass through a server in the US.

Like: It’s a great idea – a wireless networked frame into which pictures can be loaded from anywhere in the world. The first time you email a picture file to the frame you won’t believe it, it is easy and miraculous.

Dislike: The frame is small, and being 4:3 aspect ratio it looks slightly old fashioned up against our larger 16:9 comparison frame. But the most unsatisfactory feature of the frame is the inability to connect it as a network device, as we do a printer or laptop. All communications must go through the Kodak US web server, so to send a file from the computer to the frame, perhaps only a few metres apart, it must cross the Pacific twice! The mind boggles!

Verdict: This is a clever gadget and it is easy to see applications for it. It would be a great way to keep sending photos back from abroad, for instance, provided the recipient has a WiFi network at home. It’s a pity that the entire concept is so Ameri-centric. Good value at going street prices.