Recent Gear Articles

More Info on Sigma's SM Dock

In an interesting development, four months ago, Sigma announced a dock that allows you to connect your Sigma lens to your computer and adjust custom settings, but we have today we have more information, expanding on what we already posted then. You can adjust setting like a new minimum focus distance, autofocus speed, optical stabilization parameters and more. It'll even let you update the lens firmware. This is pretty neat, I think, and the first such product of its kind to my knowledge.

Is the DJI Mavic Air 2 the Drone for You?

The DJI Mavic Air 2 is the latest drone from the company, and it brings with it a range of improvements along with new features. This excellent video review takes a look at the new drone and the sort of performance you can expect from it.

Affordable Macro Excellence: Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Review

Macro photography opens up a world of detail, from intricate textures to tiny subjects that escape the naked eye. The Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Di III VXD Macro aims to provide stunning image quality for those close-up shots while remaining affordable compared to other options on the market.

POV Portrait Shoot in the Rain With the Nikon Z8

Manny Ortiz is well known for his urban portraiture on the streets of Chicago, and this time, the windy city becomes the rainy city, as he captures some beautiful portraits of his model, Elizabeth, with the new Nikon Z8.

iPhone 5 Keeps The Same Camera And Lens, Adds New Features

Most of us have been waiting since the day the iPhone 4s came out to hear what the iPhone 5 was going to be like. Well it is finally here. Today Apple officially announced the new iPhone 5 and my oh my does it look nice. A new 4 inch screen which is rated the most saturated and accurate screen on the market today to deliver the richest looking and highest quality images and movies.

[Video] "Out Of Tunes" Shot for Canon On The New C300

This short film, Out of Tunes, was commissioned by Canon for the launch of its new EOS C300 camera. Canon’s only criterion for creator Sébastien Devaud was that the video must not be tied to a certain time or place. Other than that, he was free to let his creativity run loose.

Fstoppers Reviews the WANDRD HEXAD 45L Duffel Bag

In every photographer’s ongoing search for the perfect bag, until recently it seemed there was a gaping hole: a 45-liter bag suitable as hand luggage on short-haul flights, offering the possibility to combine camera gear with a few days’ worth of clothes. The HEXAD Access Duffel from WANDRD fills that gap and does an incredibly good job of it.

PES Releases New Stop-Motion Short Film "Submarine Sandwich" and BTS

Whether or not you knew it, you have most likely viewed a short film by Adam Pesapane, better known as PES. The director and animator has released several immensely popular stop-motion shorts, directed numerous commercials for major companies such as PlayStation, Scrabble, and Bacardi, and has even been nominated for an Academy Award. Along with the release of his newest short, "Submarine Sandwich," PES and Nikon Cinema have teamed up to bring you a rather comprehensive behind-the-scenes look into the process that goes into the making of PES’ films.

A Review of the Sony Distagon T* FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA Lens

A good wide-aperture 35mm lens is one of the most versatile lenses out there, popular for a wide range of photography and videography applications. This great video review takes a look at one such lens, the Sony Distagon T* FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA.

Lowel Now Has Three Pro-Level LED Light Banks

Lowel makes a lot of lighting products, some of which like the Tota have been used in mobile pro video for what seems like ages. Lowel has completed a line of LED light panels that are designed to bring studio quality to productions of all types and sizes. They recently announced the Lowel Prime LED Model 800 to go along with the Model 200 and 400.

Will Modern Lenses Have an Increased Dependence on Lens Corrections?

I see a growing number of new lenses hitting the market that rely on lens correction. These lenses have some benefits, but are lens manufacturers taking shortcuts with these lens designs? Will we be seeing more and more lenses with this reliance on lens correction in the near future?

Canon May Create More Unique Lenses Like the 600mm f/11 and 800mm f/11

Canon's RF 600mm f/11 IS STM and RF 800mm f/11 IS STM lenses are some of the most interesting optics to come along in quite some time, and despite some photographers initially questioning them, as reviews have started to come out, it seems Canon has a couple of winners on their hands. In a recent interview, Canon indicated that the company may release more such lenses.

Creating Better Nightscapes With Lonely Speck

When shooting the Milky Way and nightscapes, there are several ways to get cleaner images with less perceivable noise and other techniques to increase dynamic range. Ian Norman from Lonely Speck has been putting out tutorials for shooting at night for a few years now, and his newest video goes into addressing ISO noise by mixing two different techniques to create a better resolving and cleaner final composition.

A Review of the Astounding Fujifilm GF 80mm f/1.7 R WR Lens

Typically, medium format lenses have smaller aperture sizes compared to full frame lenses, making it uncommon to find one with an aperture wider than f/2. However, the Fujifilm GF 80mm f/1.7 R WR stands out in this regard, as explored in this detailed video review. The review takes a deep look at the lens' capabilities, highlighting its image quality and performance in real-world scenarios.

What Is an Aspherical Lens Element?

One of the most commonly touted features in lens design are aspherical elements, though you might wonder just what that rather technical-sounding name refers to. This excellent video will give you an introduction to aspherical elements, including what they are, how they function, and why they are so highly desired by photographers.

Important Things to Look For When You Choose a Camera Bag

There is a bamboozling range of different camera bags on the market, and deciding which to buy is a veritable minefield. Here are some explanations of the various bags, their purposes, and what to look for when choosing yours.

[UPDATE] Oprema Jena: New Zeiss Biotar 75mm f/1.5 Joined by Biotar 58mm f2

An updated version of the Biotar 58mm f2 will join the already announced Biotar 75mm f1.5, as the first two pieces in Oprema Jena’s lineup of modern remakes of classic lenses, the company announced today. Oprema is offering 58 people the chance to get the Biotar 75 and Biotar 58 – both originally produced by Carl Zeiss -- as part of a special rewards bundle in the current Kickstarter campaign for the Biotar 75. The 58 Biotar 58s will be pre-production models with serial numbers between 1 and 58. A pledge of $1,999 USD would allow someone to get both lenses at $2,500 less than the combined projected retail price for the lenses. The Biotar 75 is expected to go on the market next summer at a projected retail price of $2,499, with the Biotar 58 following by the end of 2018 at a projected retail price of $1,999.

12 Weeks of Christmas: 6 of the Greatest Digital Camera Firsts

Digital cameras are so pervasive in photography that it is difficult to remember a time when it was only possible to shoot on film. Yet as pervasive they are with the market is only about 30 years young, what are the six greatest "firsts" that we have seen in that time?

Photographer Gets Creative, Turns Coconut Into Camera

Nope, we're not joking. Photographer Kotama Bouabane is creating photographs using coconuts. While he used the fruit in several different ways to create images, his most interesting method simply involves tape, a coconut, and some photo paper! Read on and check out the video for more!

Our First Look at the New Sony FE 20-70mm F/4 G

There's definitely more than meets the eye with this new standard zoom lens option. Aside from a wider range and a smaller size, let’s see what else this has to offer.

A Review of the Fujifilm XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR Lens

The Fujifilm XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR gives users a nice long telephoto focal length in combination with a wide aperture, which makes it an appealing option for a range of users, particularly portrait and wedding photographers. This fantastic video review takes a look at the lens and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in usage.

How to Acoustically Treat a Room to Remove Echo and Reverb

Our new studio in Puerto Rico had so much echo that it was ruining the audio in all of our videos. I'm happy to say that we have finally figured things out, and we've learned a few things that might help you as well.

Leica Announces A New Camera Simply Named: Leica M

Today Leica announced a ton of new toys. One of them was simply called the Leica M. Leica said they took care of all the M9 problems and put everything in one nice package for $6,950, which is the same price as the M9 when it was released. The Leica M is now available to pre-order in black and silver.

Why Do Lenses Flip Images?

Why do all lenses, including the one in the human eye, flip an image upside-down? Or do they? It's far easier to understand than you might think.

How to Shoot While Tethered to Your iPhone or iPad

Shooting tethered can be useful for so many things, from having a better screen to view an image on, to being able to record what your camera sees for real behind-the-scenes footage. In this video, Jiggie Alejandrino shows you how he does it and how valuable it can be.
Experimenting With Different Weird Lenses and an Anamorphic

An experimental photographer has mixed a series of weird lenses while keeping the same anamorphic lens in order to test out how the combinations impact the image quality and bokeh in its video capabilities. Some of the combinations gave interesting, shallow bokeh.

[Video] How To Shoot Video With The Nikon D4

The Nikon D4 may not be a huge improvement over the D3S in terms of image quality but as a video camera there is no comparison. The most important updates include audio controls that allow you to dial in silky smooth sounding audio from an external mic as well as an audio out jack for headphone monitoring. The camera can also shoot at 1080P in standard full frame, 1.5 crop, or 2.7 crop meaning that you now can get almost a 200mm reach from a 24-70mm lens without losing quality. In this video I'll show you how to manage these new features.

Does the Panasonic S1 Secretly Have Dual Native ISO Just Like the S1H?

Aside from 6K/24p, one of the most exciting selling points of the S1H that Panasonic launched back in May was its dual native ISO, a feature that allowed users to switch between ISO 640 and 4000 without changing the levels of noise. Strangely, it seems that this feature might also have quietly been included in the much cheaper S1.