Author: Ian Burley

The Video and Photography Show goes to London for 2025

After ten years, the big annual UK photography event, the Photography and Video Show, is moving from the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre to London Excel, starting on Saturday, 8th March and running until Tuesday, 11th. But don’t worry if you prefer the Midlands venue, the plan is to alternate between London and Birmingham in future years.

If you aren’t familiar with the Photography and Video Show, it’s not just a camera show where you can touch and try the latest gear, though over 250 brands are represented in one way or another. There are also seminars and talks, with more than 25 guest photographers and filmmakers lined up at the time of writing. There are also special creativity areas as a part of the Creator Con, including talks and presentations by leading content creators.

A flavour of the Photography and Video Show

 

The usual big brands, like Canon, Sony, Nikon, OM System, Adobe, Pentax, Tamron, Sigma, Fujifilm, Epson, and so on, will be there, along with many other large and small firms showing their accessories and services.

The show takes place just after the big CP+ trade show in Japan, so lots of new cameras, lenses and other exciting new products unveiled there will be shown in London during the event, for the first time.

Many of the publishers of photography magazines will be there, hopefully with some great subscription deals. We also hope the big gear retailers, including Camera World, LCE, and WEX, will be battling each other on great show-price deals.

If you are sure of going, it’s best to purchase your tickets online and book any seminars or talks in advance.

For more about the show, check out the official Photography and Video Show website.

DxOMark hails the Oppo Find X7 Ultra as the Android smartphone camera to beat

Smartphone cameras just keep on getting better, as confirmed by imaging test laboratory, DxOMark. Their new champion is the Oppo Find X7 Ultra, which ties for first place with the Huawei Mate 60 Pro+, on 157points.

Since the Huawei Mate 60 Pro+ is prevented from running Google services, and, therefore, runs Huawei’s own HarmonyOS, instead of Android, the news means the Oppo Find X7 Ultra is the undisputed top DxOMark tested Android phone.

DxOMark test interchangeable cameras, lenses and smartphones in test laboratory conditions. Results are presented in a way that enables measured performance ratings to be compared easily from model to model, and even over time.

Accordoing to DxoMark: “The Oppo Find X7 Ultra shows excellent results across all test areas, and especially stands out in portrait capture, thanks to natural and accurate colors as well as high levels of detail in all shooting conditions.

“With a 50MP image sensor across all four camera modules, including a large 1″ main camera variant, the device delivers detailed and noise-free images. The two periscope cameras offer exceptional zoom capabilities from 3x to 6x and beyond, across all light conditions.

“Bokeh images in portrait mode show accurate subject isolation, as well as excellent color rendering and high levels of detail, thanks to the use of the 3x tele module in this mode. The Oppo Find X7 Ultra is an excellent device for capturing photos and videos of friends and family. Finally, while it uses SDR-8-bit format for video instead of HDR, the video quality remains excellent with accurate exposure, dynamic range, and vibrant colors, even in low light.”

To see the whole review, check out the DxOMark Oppo Find X7 Ultra page.

 

The storm in a lens cap over Princess Kate’s photo editing

After a short period of uncertainty, on yesterday’s Mothering Sunday in the UK, that soon turned into controversy, and then a press frenzy, Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, the future Queen Consort next to the future King William, had to apologise today for “..for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.” Kate owned up to being the perpetrator of the heinous crime of, well, not editing her family photos very well: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.”

The seemingly innocuous and rather pleasant family snap of Kate and her three children, taken, we are told, by William, was distributed by the Royal Family’s official media relations office at Kensington Palace. It was accepted by a number of photo press agencies, including Reuters, AP, and Getty, and duly distributed.

But a catalogue, or should that be ‘montage’, of errors, led to a ridiculous media circus performance, with the photo being issued with a so-called ‘kill order’, or basically being withdrawn from distribution. This ‘closing the stable door after the horse had bolted’ episode was after the realisation that the photo was an in-expertly pieced-together cut-and-shut Photoshop job. In turn, this led to hyperactive speculation about Kate’s health after major surgery at the beginning of the year, subsequent lack of public appearances, and the potential motives for trying to deceive everyone with a Photoshop job.

From the photography perspective, my own personal opinion is that the press people at Kensington Palace can’t escape blame, and neither can the photo desk editors at the independent press agencies, who accepted and distributed the image.

Where was the quality control at the Palace? Why didn’t the press agencies, who have expert photo editors, not spot the suspicious attributes of the shot immediately, before rubber-stamping its distribution?

The whole event remains cloaked in a a lot of secrecy, which is how Royal advisers operate. No replacement image has been offered. We don’t know if someone in the Royal household simply saw the photo and said to Kate: “Oooh, nice photo, can we use this?” Apart from poor old Kate, nobody else has admitted any concurrent guilt.

My message to Kate is; for an amateur Photoshop job, it wasn’t actually that bad. Keep it up and don’t get put off by the silliness surrounding you!