The Final Word on Sensors
Derek Smith • 8 August 2022
Nuthatch
Photo By: Derek Smith - Sony A7ii, FE 70-300mm, f/6.3, ISO 640, 1/100
Bee
Photo By: Derek Smith - Fuji XT3, XF 16-80mm, f/6.4 ISO 80, 1/100
Robin
Photo By: Derek Smith - Fuji XT3, XF 70-300mm, f/8, ISO 800, 1/280
Nuthatch
Photo by: Derek Smith - Olympus EM5iii, Olympus 40-150mm + x2 telecon, f/6.3, ISO 1000, 1/250
For me personally a camera with an APS-C sensor is the sweet spot for size, weight, cost, and performance. An APS-C camera usually has a kit lens with a typical focal length of 16-50mm, equating to the 24-70mm typical focal length of a full frame camera kit lens, because the APS-C sensor is smaller than the full frame sensor, the focal length of a lens will be 1.5 times smaller (1.6 times for Canon sensors) to obtain the same field of view.
For lenses I like to have a zoom lens of approximately 16-50mm, and a telephoto lens of 50-300mm, also I do like my fixed focal length lenses, these are called prime lenses, and a photographer can always use a “nifty fifty” 50mm lens, which in APS-C terms becomes a 35mm focal length, with a wide aperture of f/1.2 – f/2.0 for use in low light situations. Many photographers like a selection of prime lenses a typical trio of prime lenses would be 35mm, 50mm, 85mm in full frame terms, that’s 23mm, 35mm, 56mm in APS-C terms.
Nikon, has three APS-C mirrorless cameras, (which are termed as DX) the Nikon Z30, Z50, and the retro styled Zfc. DX Z mount lenses are as follows: 16-50mm, 18-140mm, 50-250mm, however for prime lenses only full frame are currently available, so not a bad start for a relatively new format.
Canon has recently introduced the APS-C Canon R7 which appears to be a professional standard camera, and can be purchased with the RF-S 18-45mm, or the RF-S 18-150mm lens, which should be good for travel. Again, currently no dedicated RF-S prime lenses, but the RF 35mm f/1.8 macro, and the RF 50mm f/1.8 can be used on this camera. For wildlife photography the RF 100-400mm could be a good match for this camera. Now that Canon have chosen to introduce an RF mount APS-C camera, questions inevitably arise over the future of the APS-C M mount system of cameras, and lenses.
Sony has three APS-C mirrorless cameras the A6100, A6400, and the A6600. I fervently believe that Sony dropped the ball on their APS-C offering, considering the Sony NEX 7 was introduced in 2011, with the E mount 16-50mm, and the 55-210mm zoom lenses. The basic rangefinder design of the camera has hardly altered in 11 years!!, still not very ergonomic, in fact the NEX 7 had more controls than its A6000 successor. I used the Sony NEX 3N, the A6000, and the A6300 extensively for a number of years, the auto focus was amazing, possibly even bettering some modern cameras, but the lack of lenses, and poor ergonomics led me to leave the brand. Sony APS-C lens development stagnated, with the R&D development budget used to develop the full frame A7 series of cameras, and lenses. Third party manufacturers Sigma, and Tamron filled the gaps in the APS-C lens line-up early on, and only now is Sony beginning to fill the gaps. Placed alongside the A6100 though, the Nikon Z50, the Fuji XT30, and Fuji X-S10 APS-C cameras all represent improved handling and a better range of native lenses at a similar price point.
Fuji, well where do you start? Fuji X-E4, XT30ii, XT4, X-S10, X-H2S, all APS-C cameras plus a full range of native lenses, in my very humble opinion the king of APS-C.
Images posted with this blog, Nuthatch taken with the Sony A7ii, and with the Olympus E-M5iii. The Bee, and Robin taken with the Fuji XT3.
Clearly the full frame sensor has greater dynamic range, but photographic skills, use of lighting, and choice of lenses will best any advantage that can be obtained from a larger sensor.
The answers to the “Summer Fun Quiz”
A-Monica Olympus O-MD E-M5iii, with Sigma 30mm micro four thirds system at f/5.6
B-Heather Apple iPhone SE
C-Marika Fuji XT20, with XF50mm f/2.0 APS-C system at f/4
D-Ruby Sony A7ii, with Samyang AF 45mm f/1.8 at f/3.5 full frame system
My personal favourite portrait is Ruby, but I don’t believe that this is entirely due to the sensor. Ruby was positioned in the centre of the room, some distance away from an east facing window with net curtains diffusing the light, and the pose strengthens the image. Next favourite is Monica, this time positioned close to the window in full sun, choosing the f/5.6 aperture to control the light, the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens (60mm full frame equivalent) was my lens of choice for portraits on micro four thirds, strangely I never took to the 25mm focal length (50mm full frame equivalent). The portrait of Marika was taken with the Fuji XF 50mm f/2.0 lens (75mm full frame equivalent), this was my first outing with the lens, I enjoy the focal length, better than the 85mm full frame lens, the pose, and lighting could have been improved to create a more stunning image.
Louth Photographic Society
A print competition was held last night with the categories of; "Monochrome" and "Open". Diane Seddon from Cleethorpes Camera Club was the judge for the evening, Diane is very skilled, and thorough in her judging, providing useful insight, and critique of the prints. Many of her comments centered around the best cropping of an image to optimise the subject within the frame, and giving the subject "room to breathe" in the framing. Congratulations to David Whitehouse placed first in the "Monochrome" category, with his superb rendering of a face sculpture, and Dave Turner placed first in the "Open" category with his stunning print of the sunrise over Whitby Harbour. Thanks to Diane Seddon for a great evening, and as she remarked at the end of the competition all the prints were of an extremely high standard. The Competition Page has been updated with the highest placed images, but currently the score sheets for the competition are unavailable.
Good Morning All Last week Dave Bennett came to the club again, it has been a while since we have seen his photography but well worth the wait. Dave's photographs were excellent and his story telling along with AV's made it a very good night. This week, Wednesday 15th October, we are holding a print competition, with the categories of "Mono" and "Open", our judge for the evening will be Diane Seddon AFIAP CPAGB BPE3* she is well qualified to judge our prints. The following week we are going to try a retro night again, with Transparencies taken prior to the year 2000, please let me know if you want to take part and have a time slot allotted, time will depend on the numbers wanting to take part. Regards Graham
Last night Dave Bennett came to the club to show us AV's and narrate other sets of photographs on a theme. Dave started with photos along the Humber and then carried on the evening with AV's on nature, flowers and transport as well as talks and photographs showing us Grimsby docks including detailed photographs of fish smoking and engineering. Dave's photography is of a very high standard with strong colours, lot's of use of depth of field and they tell a story. A great night, thank you Dave.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held a local PDI competition with a category of "5 Minutes From Your Home", we had some very good entries in each category with myself, and Dave Turner judging on the night. All the results are on our website, but well done to Derek for his mobile phone picture of a remembrance seat in Horncastle and Harry for his hellebores in the "Open" category. This week, Wednesday 8th October, Dave Bennett is coming to the club to show us what he has been taking lately, Dave does quite a bit of AV so as usual it will be a very good night. A reminder, send your print titles for the next print competition to Dave Turner by midnight Wednesday and bring your prints in this Wednesday night as well please. If you have any more N&EMPF Exhibition PDI entries send them to me by midnight tomorrow (Monday) please. Regards Graham
Our PDI "Local" competition was held last night, with the categories of "5 Minutes From Your Home", and "Open". Dave Turner, one of our members began the evening with judging the "Open" category, always a difficult category in my opinion because of the variety of subjects entered into the competition. Dave had previewed the images on his home computer, and had notes on each of the images, he provided excellent feedback on each image. After the break, Graham Harrison began judging the "5 Minutes From Your Home" category, this was a very unusual subject category which stretched the creative ingenuity of members, and it was particularly interesting to see what members had submitted. Graham judged the entries very fairly, and provided very good critique of the images. The standard of images submitted was high, which makes judging a competition such as this difficult, and as always is subjective, but a big thank you to both judges, it was an interesting evening. The first placed images, from each category are shown on this post, "At the Going Down of the Sun" by Derek Smith, "5 minutes from your home", and "Hellebores" by Harry Kerman in the "Open" category. The website Competition Page has been updated with the top three placed images, and the scoresheets.
Good Morning All Last week at the club member Tony Gaskins gave us an excellent presentation of his recent trip to Kenya on safari. Tony showed us the animals and birds he had encountered on his trip. It was an evening of excellent wildlife photography as well as a very informative talk, thank you Tony. There is also a report on our website blog. This week, Wednesday 1st October, we are holding a local PDI competition, with the subject categories of "5 Minutes From Your Home" and "Open", Dave Turner has kindly offered to judge the Open with myself the subject, and you have until midnight tonight to enter. Dave Turner is also asking members to send him the titles of their prints for the next print competition, the categories for this are "Mono" and "Open". Regards Graham
Our member, Tony Gaskins presented us with an illustrated talk on his visit to the Kenya game reserves last night. Tony's talk was perfectly timed, and his description of the trip held our attention throughout the evening, the images he captured were indeed stunning. The variety of wildlife he captured with his camera were amazing, all of the photos of birds were incredible, and the fact that they didn't fly off like they do here in the UK. On Lake Naivasha Tony captured a sequence of a fish eagle swooping down to catch a fish, just look at the way those deadly talons are outstretched to capture the fish. The lodge Tony stayed in at Tsavo West was beside a watering hole, look at this capture of a Kirk's Dik Dik, taken from the balcony of the lodge. Images of Hippopotamus, Lions, Impala, Ostrich, Giraffe and Zebra kept us enthralled through the evening. Thank you and well done Tony for an interesting evening.
Good Evening All A little late as just got back late this afternoon from the golfing trip, I didn't take my camera other than phone as I wouldn't have really had time but there was some interesting wildlife about including Swallowtail butterflies which was a first for me. Last week you had the monthly PDI competition, Long Exposures and Open, Derek has done a blog on our website and the competition page has all the results. Some excellent photography on show judging by the top places. This week, Wednesday 24th September, we have member Tony Gaskins entertaining us with one of his talks, Tony is well travelled so as usual it will be an excellent evening of photography. Regards Graham
Last week we held our first PDI competition after the summer break, and what a superb evening it was. There were some excellent images submitted into the competition, and over half of the submitted entries were "held back" for awarding higher points, Tony Houlden was the judge for the evening. This week, Wednesday 24th September, Tony Gaskin will be giving an illustrated talk on his recent visit to the Maasai Mara game reserve in Kenya, it will be an interesting evening, with some stunning photography. Harry will be taking entries for our next PDI competition, with the categories of "Local 5 minutes From Your House", (in this case the "Local" applies to your house, not the 25 miles from Louth) and "Open". Harry is also taking entries for the LPA Competition, he's looking for 6 entries in this competition, from each member. I've been out, and about as usual, this photo is of an abandoned garage forecourt on the road to Spilsby.
This was our first competition after the summer break. The categories for the competition were "Long Exposure", and "Open" and our judge for the evening was Tony Houlden. We began the evening with the "Long Exposure" category, something of a surprise in this section were the amount of night time images, more typically were the images of flowing water, either of the sea or in rivers, Tony judged these images skillfully, and with his usual sense of humour. Dave Turner was placed first with his excellent "Saltburn by the Sea Morning", Keith Rossington took second place with his beautiful night time image of the river at York "From the Bridge", Harry Kerman showed the "River Dee, Cairngorms, Scotland" the flowing peat laden waters stilled in this carefully composed image. After the break, Tony began the judging of the "Open" category, I always think this is the more difficult category to judge because of the variety of images presented, Tony judged these thoughtfully, providing excellent critique. Dave Turner took first place with his monochrome view of "Scarborough Bay", I was pleased to take second place with "Sunset Jetty" taken on my holiday in Corfu, and third place with my monochrome "Haworth Main Street". It was an excellent evening, with some amazing images, Tony's critique was very helpful, highlighting unwanted distracting items in an image, haloing from excessive sharpening, and cropping errors. Thanks to Tony for judging, and Dave Mann for the refreshments.
