Mike Smith

Staff Writer

Mike Smith is the principal photographer at Focali Photographic. He has been an active photographer for over 30 years, having started out on a reliable Canon SureShot before progressing onto his faithful Pentax P30. He now shoots on a range of digital cameras and formats, although he produces the majority of his work on Nikon. He also shoots regularly on both 35mm and medium format film. Outside of his commercial work, Smith writes regularly on both technical and philosophical photographic topics and has a fascination for fine art and abstract architectural work.

Articles by Mike Smith

Sony Didn’t Have a Clever Mirrorless Plan to Fool Canon and Nikon

Long-time Sony executive Shigeki Ishizuka recently gave an interview in which he candidly spoke about early developments in the imaging division and how the flip to mirrorless was part of a longer-term plan to unsettle the camera market. Was this really a clever strategy or a re-writing of history to fit the narrative?

Canon’s Strategic Plan Looks to Dominance and Expansion

What Canon says and does is important to the camera industry because it is so dominant across large swathes of the sector. And as a publicly listed company, it is required to publish both its financial results and business strategy going forward. Canon recently updated its medium-term strategy, so where does it see itself in five years' time? In one word: dominant. More importantly, what does this say about the future for everyone else?

Software Subscriptions: Spreading the Cost or Gouging the Customer?

Why pay for something outright when you can borrow it? Renting is an obvious solution - particularly when the item is potentially very expensive - to be able to use something you can't afford. Someone else makes the outright purchase and you pay them a small fee to have exclusive use.

The Best Way to Access Camera Raw Photos on Your Smartphone

It seems like a small request to a simple need... you shoot an event using your main standalone camera and want to upload a few choice shots to social media or send to a client to give them something to post straightaway. Or - as I've done - undertake some quick processing on your phone before sending it to an Instax printer and giving your customer an instant print.

A Guide to Third-Party Chinese Lens Brands

Lenses are big business: while we have seen the value of camera shipments nose-dive year-on-year, lens value has slowly increased and is now equal to about a third of the camera market. It's for this reason that third-party manufacturers have increased their stake in this market and particularly at the low-cost end where Chinese manufacturers proliferate. Who are these companies and what does their appearance presage in terms of the camera market as a whole?

2022 Was Officially the Year of the Mirrorless Camera

Camera manufacturers have long told us that the future was mirrorless and - as if there was any doubt - Canon and Nikon even joined the party as far back as 2018, yet compact cameras and DSLRs have stubbornly refused to die. With 2022 well and truly over, we can now safely say that it was the year of the mirrorless camera and this marks some profound changes across the board for the industry as a whole.

Viltrox AF 75mm f/1.2 XF Lens Review: The Bokeh Monster

The Viltrox AF 75mm f/1.2 doesn't slot neatly into Viltrox's existing prime lens lineup for APS-C cameras (and currently for Fuji X-mount) - in fact, I'd call it an aberration, an experiment, possibly even a mistake. But what a wonderful mistake.

Leica M11

The M Rangefinder is Holding Back Leica’s Innovation

Leica innovated the heck out of the camera with the Leica 1 back in 1925, breaking new ground with the Leica 2 and then the M3. However, not so much in recent years and I argue the "classic" M is now actually holding back Leica's innovation.

Camera to Cloud frame.io

Camera-to-Cloud RAW is the Start of the Computational Revolution

Adobe recently announced new Camera to Cloud integrations, following its recent acquisition of Frame.io. The Fuji X-H2S will become the first stills camera to natively shoot "to the cloud". This might seem like a niche feature, however look beyond the headlines and this could be a generational step change. Not only because of the ability save to the cloud (like Google Photos) but because of what this then enables.

The Changing Fortunes of Japanese Camera Manufacturers

Earlier this month Olympus revealed some of the thought process behind the 2020 sale of its camera division in which the company jettisoned it in order to pursue greater stability and profitability from its broad portfolio of medical technology. This is in stark contrast to Nikon, which has wiped the slate clean and started again. What is going on with Japanese camera manufacturers and are there any lessons to be learned?

Mirrorless Continues Its Inexorable Rise At the Expense of the DSLR

The death of the DSLR was always in the cards - as soon as Nikon and Canon entered the mirrorless fray in 2018 it was not a case of if, but when. However, what was perhaps not expected was the rapidity with which the sales rug would be pulled from beneath DSLR consumers' feet. It's all or nothing when it comes to mirrorless.

Photo Editor

A Plea to Manufacturers: We Need the Definitive Photo

The Africa Geographic 2019 winner "Tim in Amboseli National Park, Kenya is a great photo. It shows Tim the elephant majestically backlit against a dramatic sky. Except, it didn't win: it was later disqualified for excessive manipulation.

Straight Out of Camera is the Purest Form of Photography… or IS It?

The ultimate skill of the photographer -- of the artist -- is to create the aesthetics of the scene in front of them "in the moment". The Natural Landscape Photo Award is perhaps the epitome of this with minimal image manipulation allowed, while the World Press Photo has a Code of Ethics. So straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) has got to be the pinnacle of ability, hasn't it? Or is there more to the notion of what an image is and where the skill lies in producing it?

Canon

Canon is Riding a Rising Market As Cameras Sell Well

Ordinarily, it is the end-of-year results that are the most interesting as they provide a picture of how the year has gone and what the outlook for the next year is. However, with this report, Canon has confirmed three critically important aspects of the camera market which gives it increased confidence going forward.

Viltrox AF 13mm f/1.4

Viltrox AF 13mm f/1.4 STM XF Lens Review: Great Lens, Better Price

The Viltrox AF 13mm f/1.4 STM lens slots neatly into an existing range of Viltrox primes for APS-C cameras, a focal length that is notably absent from Fujifilm directly. The 13mm, which is equivalent to 20mm on 35mm full-frame, is fairly wide and works well for landscapes or architecture, especially for the low price of $429.

photographer with camera and lens

When Composing a Photo, Think About Where the Camera Is

As a photographer, you might be out on the street or at a vantage point in the landscape. You raise the viewfinder to your eye, compose the framing that you envisioned, then click the shutter. You have a picture that was acquired using the technical elements at your creative disposal: focal length, shutter speed, and aperture. But where was the camera?

Will Canon Scrap the EOS M Mirrorless Lineup and EF-M Mount?

The announcement has landed and it's now official: Canon has released an APS-C RF-mount camera. In fact, it hasn't just released one - but two - in the form of the R7 and R10. It might seem strange, given that Sony and Nikon have had APS-C models for some time, but this is a big deal because Canon already has the EF-M mount and EOS M APS-C mirrorless range. This begs the question, is Canon about to scrap the EOS M line?

Nikon Z9 and lens

Nikon’s Profits Are Up, But its Market Share is Still Worryingly Low

Nikon recently released its annual results which are a key metric in determining how well the manufacturer is doing both in terms of short-term finances as well as implementing its medium-term strategy. The quick takeaway is that it's making more money, but that camera market share is worryingly low. What does this mean for it going forward?

Fujifilm Instax

Fujifilm’s Business is Booming Thanks to the Success of Film

It's the time of year when many corporations announce performance over the last year and Fuji is no different, except all eyes are on recovery from COVID shutdowns and supply chain problems. So how did Fujifilm do? The short answer is very well and, for its Imaging division, film is king.

Falling Camera

Why 2022’s Falling Camera Sales Shouldn’t Worry You

The year 2020 saw digital camera shipments nosedive to a new low of 8.9 million units, down from 121 million units in 2010. It was believed it couldn't get any worse and, indeed, shipments stabilized in 2021. So why do sales appear to be in free-fall again?

What are Blinkies in Photography, and Do They Really Matter?

You're out in the field, having scouted out a new location to grab a landscape vista. You release the shutter button and then chimp the back of the camera to see what you've captured... the sky's blocked out, blinking back at you. You've got a dreaded case of the blinkies, but does it actually matter?

Why is Shooting with a Smartphone So Deeply Unsatisfying?

The smartphone is perhaps the single most important device in history, wresting the power of news and journalism back into the hands of the everyday person. Data communication is the key enabler, but the camera -- more than anything else -- slakes the thirst for instant visual gratification. So, why is shooting with a smartphone so deeply unsatisfying?

Why Digital Cameras Will All Die but Film Cameras Live On

Digital cameras are great -- the technology they are built upon is remarkable, underpinned by remarkably sophisticated designs. Not only that, but the pictures they acquire are of such astonishing quality that they make anything that went before pale in comparison. So why then do digital cameras have such (relatively) short lifespans compared to film cameras?