Before I heap on the apologies, I do want to say that I get sent a lot of gear. Gear that varies in required skill level, genre of photography and purpose. I've reviewed a lot of equipment over the years, and eventually I was bound to make a mistake- I'm pretty much the furthest thing from infallible. Well it happened, and I'm sorry. My initial review of the Fotopro tripod was negative due in most part to, you got it, user error.

For over thirty years, Wacom has been the industry standard when it comes to pen and graphics tablets. Their tablets serve as an integral piece of gear in the kits of the world's best photographers, designers, and amateurs alike. Earlier this week, Wacom unveiled the two newest additions to their already impressive line of tablets: the Cintiq 27QHD and the Cintiq Companion 2, two blazing-fast graphic tablets that are sure to boost any creative’s workflow, from post-processing to graphics and design.

I’ll never forget the email; I was on a plane somewhere over the Florida coast, on my way to the Bahamas for the Fstoppers Workshops 2014. Just before I left the States, I had signed on with the artist consulting firm Wonderful Machine. The first step in preparation for a press release was to tear my website apart. The critique was tough and they slashed it hard… here I am in one of the most beautiful places in the world, feeling a truck load of anxiety. For years, I had thought I had a clean and straight to the point website, but it turns out I needed to strip it down even more.

Sony impressed everyone late last year with the announcement of the Sony A7/A7R, mirrorless full frame cameras packed with plenty of features. Well today, in wake of NAB, Sony gave a press conference to show their update to their mirrorless line with the A7s - a full frame mirrorless camera sporting 4K video and plenty of other features with video in mind.

Shooting products against a pure white (255,255,255) background, can be achieved using the pen tool in Photoshop, but what if you want to find an alternative way to create the same stunning images, but without the hassle of spending so much time in post-production? Dustin Dolby from Workphlo, has created an insightful online tutorial which shows just how simple it can be to create this effect, with minimal gear and maximum time saved. With the help of a couple of speed lights, strategically placed white and black card and a kit lens, Dustin is able to demonstrate just how easy is can be to control and shape lighting, to achieve the desired effect.

Matt Allard from Newsshooter.com has been hopping around Inter BEE 2015, an NAB-like exhibition that takes place in Japan, reporting on new video gear from established, as well as developing companies. In this particular video, he gets to try out a different type of lens adapter– one that is built specifically to let light leak in from the sides and flare the image as it's recorded in-camera.

It's that time of the year again, where your loved ones ask what you'd like for Christmas, Hanukkah, or any other celebration you may partake in. Rather than fumble around trying to make a list of things you might need to further your photography career, I thought I'd break down the absolute best gifts for photographers under $75.

EDC (everyday carry) items have always intrigued me. What people carry with them on a daily basis says a lot about who they are. Not to mention it's a great way to discover those can't-live-without items I never knew I needed. So I'm curious (and I know you are too): What do photographers carry with them on a day to day basis?

With impressive looking example videos and a relatively inexpensive price tag when compared to a MoVi or Ronin, the Kickstarter for the SteadXP has already blown past its fundraising goal. I wasn't sure what all the hype was about until I watched their video with before and after examples.

If you’ve ever wanted to see how the pros light amazing studio shots, look no further. My wife and I recently moved into a new place that offers quite a bit of new space for studio style photography. Being a tad rusty I was excited about the plethora of shooting opportunities a controlled lighting space would offer, but found myself lacking motivation. Until I discovered Broncolor’s “How To” section on their website.

Tired of shooting photos of your latest meal for Instagram? Need some new ideas, some challenges, something new and fresh to do with your iPhone camera. Well... ok do this.

Yep you heard that right. Check out OkDoThis.com!

Helped by great design, marketing, and a superb product to boot, Syrp’s motorized time-lapse aid, the Genie, became incredibly popular with photographers. As the product that launched the company on Kickstarter three years ago, it was a premium offering, though. And sometimes, it’s useful to have something fantastic in a “light” version. Enter the Genie Mini.

The secret to running a successful business is organization. Developing an effective workflow that is both simple to understand, and manages your time properly is key when running a studio. Introducing fotoClient, an easy to use workflow and task managing website developed for photographers. It’s new, it's simple, and already, I can’t run my business without it.

Announced late tonight is the latest in the beloved Sigma Art series with the 24-35mm f/2 designed for full frame sensors. This lens is the fastest zoom lens ever built for full frame sensors, and promises optical sharpness comparable to the Sigma 24mm Art Series and Sigma 35mm Art Series - considered the sharpest in their classes. So will this be a new lens for those who use 24mm, 28mm, and 35mm lenses and are looking for a one lens solution?

On the heels of photographer Yosh Enatsu's A7s killer low-light test, DxOMark comes out to confirm that the A7s is the new champion of low-light cameras. Expected to ship July 1st, the camera can still be pre-ordered at B&H.

The winter is coming. Actually, it's already here. Temperatures are dropping quickly and snow is falling, but we need to keep shooting and working. Here are few small (and cheap*) items that can help you survive the winter as a photographer, make your life easier and make the winter less annoying.

It's already been a couple weeks since Serif announced the release of the Affinity Photo beta. I, along with literally thousands of others, have downloaded the program and started putting it through its paces, trying to fit it into my own personal workflow. In this little first impressions review I'll focus on Affinity Photo as a raw converter, a basic retouching platform, and put it up against the big dogs: Affinity versus Lightroom, and Affinity versus Photoshop.

Announced back in March of this year, was the Nikon Coolpix P900. It seemed like your run of the mill affordable point & shoot camera, with a 16MP sensor, fixed lens, and basic video functionality. But what this camera also has, is what originally looked like a typo, with a 24-2000mm 35mm equivalent zoom, allowing you to see further than ever. And this short viral video above, shows the incredible power of that zoom.

Have you ever wanted to be invisible? That's the question Thomas Hurst, creator of COVR Photo, is asking. COVR Photo is an iPhone case with a sliding prism that, when slid into position, allows the photographer to take photos without being obvious.

If you're one of the many photographers out there with one of the most popular digital cameras on the entire market, the Nikon D750, you're going to want to grab it and check the serial number to make sure it's not one of the affected units in this new service advisory. Read on to learn if yours is affected and how to send yours in to Nikon for free.

In September 2014, Zeiss announced their new Loxia line of manual-focus lenses for Sony’s full-frame E-mount cameras. Ever since covering the announcement, I’ve wanted to try out these stylish lenses, namely the Zeiss Loxia 2/35 because of its extended usefulness in landscape photography. I was very much interested in seeing how a modern Zeiss manual-focus lens designed for a technologically-advanced mirrorless camera would fare, and in the end I was left blown away by the results.

In the photography world it is all about lighting, lighting, lighting. For videographers the main emphasis is not necessarily lighting as much as it is motion. Perhaps the easiest and most affordable way to add motion to your DSLR video is by using a slider. In this video we take a closer look at the Rhino Slider and why it might be the best sub $800 slider on the market.

So outrageous are the looks of the L16 camera, you might find yourself checking today's date to make sure we haven't entered into April. But no, this is completely real. Light, the company behind the L16 camera, took a compact body and crammed 16 cameras, each with its own plastic-covered lens, into it. The idea is to create an all-in-one camera with multiple focal lengths, allowing the L16 to use computational photography to combine resulting images for higher quality photos from an aggregation of photos taken with small sensors.

Paul C. Buff recently released a brand new Vagabond battery pack, the Vagabond Lithium Extreme. With a price tag of $399.95 this might be the next product you end up buying tonight. There are a few great improvements from their older Vagabond models, and overall, it is exciting to see a new product release from Paul C. Buff.

Sony's 50-megapixel sensor found in the latest 645 medium format digital CMOS bodies brought such cameras down in price considerably for the first time while extending ISO usability to the more DSLR-normal ISO 6,400. Today's announcement brings a new iteration of that technology in the form of the IQ3 100MP, also in a CMOS flavor. Although the resolution is doubled (and file size is quadrupled), Phase One also managed to pull out an extra stop of ISO performance on both ends of the spectrum, which now goes from ISO 50–12,800. Dynamic range also increases a stop over other models to 15 stops.

Just announced by Sigma is the newest in their covenant Art series of lenses with the 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art. In the past couple years now, the Sigma Art lenses have been considered by many the best in their class in terms of sharpness, so the news of a 24mm Art has gotten photographers everywhere excited. Along with this announcement is the dp0, an update to their mirrorless camera systems.

A few weeks ago you may remember Ikea's attack on product photography. Today news has spread that the Saudi Arabia franchise has photoshopped all females out from catalogs distributed throughout the Islamic nation. Women aren't the only ones being censored, however, as even glasses of wine have been transformed into less offensive "festive cups". What does Ikea have to say about the post processing changes found in their catalogs?

Sony's answer to many filmmakers' dreams comes in the form of the refined, lightweight, portable, and ever-enabling PXW-FS7. The FS7 offers internal 4K recording at 60fps and 1080p at 180fps, with a single extension unit and external recorder required to shoot 4K RAW footage. In addition to an ergonomic smart grip with customizable controls and a built-in, four-position ND filter to allow you to shoot truly on-the-go, the FS7 also makes use dual slots for a new 128GB XQD G-series card that supports 440MB/s read and 350MB/s write speeds.

Just when you thought the basic 5-in-1 reflector couldn't get any better, Westcott has announced their new 10-in-1 Omega Reflector. The unique design of the Omega allows you to use it like a ring light, a gobo and a flag rather than just your boring old traditional reflector. At 38 x 45 inches, the Omega offers your typical black, white, silver, gold and 1-stop diffusion surfaces. However, what makes the Omega stand out is its removable center frame on each surface that allows you to shoot through the reflector!

The Feiyu 3-Axis Wearable Gimbal is a miniaturized version of Feiyu's handheld gimbals, offering motorized 3-axis stabilization in a compact, wearable form factor for the latest GoPro and similar action cameras. Designed with flexibility in mind, the FY-WG features 1/4"-20 threaded holes for horizontal, vertical, or inverted mounting onto a variety of support devices. It can also be used with any accessory that uses the standard GoPro three-prong mount, letting you capture all of the immersive action camera shots that you're accustomed to, but with full motorized 3-axis stabilization.

About seven months ago, we posted an article about an application called 'Paddy' that connects a MIDI controller desk to Lightroom. Unfortunately for me, that application is Windows only, so I set out to find a solution for this gadget that I needed in and around my life. The solution is something called 'Knobroom.'

Phase One has officially announced the release of Capture One Pro version 8 with a host of new features and a new purchasing model option. More than just minor enhancements, version 8 brings with it truly useful features that allow you to perform more of your work within it and not have to turn to Photoshop or additional plug-ins.

In the retouching world, graphics tablets are pretty much a standard. I don’t know of many retouchers that only use their mouse to get the job done. Graphics tablets allow for a more precise, and thus refined, work. They also used to cost a fair amount of money, but that was until Huion came along.

The popular Mac photography software company, Macphun, released a new application for the Mac that promises incredible noise reduction processing. Noiseless comes in regular and Pro versions, the latter of which include increased capabilities like RAW processing and included plug-in support for your other editing applications and both of which provide what is truly some of the best noise reduction available.

We all love talking about what we'll see in the Nikon D5 or what Phase One's next big announcement will be. But for the most part, as important as it is, there's not much fun in "real" tech. Networking, cloud storage, hard drives...that's all kind of boring? Definitely not first date material (not second, or third, or fourth either). But when something as monumental as this comes, it's important to consider. Bigger, cheaper hard drives mean more storage in less space, with less complications, and all while slimming your wallet (what else can do that outside of the digital world!?). Meet the Seagate 8TB Archive hard drive, announced back in August, but finally shipping to consumers next month.

Until recently, HSS and HyperSync were considered gimmicky features available on either expensive PocketWizard or cheap Chinese triggers. With Profoto, Elinchrom, Priolite, RiME LITE, and other brands catching up on these techniques, it is slowly becoming more popular. However, are these sync modes as reliable and useful as the brands try to make us believe they are? Moreover, is one better than the other?

When was the last time you printed your family photos instead of just posting them on Facebook? when was the last time you made a real photo album instead of just posting on Picasa? The creators of the 'Flag' app decided to make people print again, and to do that - they created a simple and free high-quality printing service. The catch? An ad will be printed on the back of each print.

It's been two years since the Leica T was revealed. Touting an undeniably sexy unibody design and a brand new lens mount, the T showed that Leica was serious about staying relevant in a technology-focused climate. While the camera was universally praised in most regards, particularly for the body and interface design, there were certainly some unpleasantries in the way of performance. But that was two years ago, and a lot's changed. Leica has stayed committed to their aluminum wonder, and it has slowly evolved into a serious little machine worth a second glance.

Photographer Rob Grimm has posted a nice little BTS of his 'Micro Brewery Project' - where the photographs feature some various beers from the United States based on "unique bottle design, label, and/or flavor profile." The video starts out with a great, little trick for creating an even pour in a photo. The bottle itself is clamped in place, but by using twine, nail polish remover and fire, you can cleanly remove the bottom.

It’s safe to say that this camera doesn’t suck, and in the hands of someone like Tim Kemple, who’s at the top of their game, the results are pretty incredible. I got the chance to chat with Tim about his thoughts on using the new Phase One XF 100MP camera, including what happened when he flew it on a drone over a waterfall.

We know, it's another bag review, but we all need to face the reality that camera bags are like Pokemon for photographers; gotta' catch 'em all. There's really no such thing as a perfect bag, as no one bag can really apply to every situation the working photographer can throw at it, but I think I've found the closest thing to being universally useful in the Incase DSLR Pro Pack.