Photography Gear

It’s always been said that there are two types of people in this world: those who have had a hard drive crash, and those who will have a hard drive crash. To that, I’ll add another two: those who’ve dropped a phone into a toilet, and those who will drop their phone into a toilet. Or oven. Or puddle. Or snow. That’s why it’s important to have a backup plan.

Comparison videos are nothing new, but you can’t help be intrigued by this one. YouTuber Potato Jet brought together equipment from total opposite ends of the spectrum to conduct this experiment. See how this cheap 50mm Yongnuo lens fared when attached to a 6K RED cinema camera. 

Is there anything more simultaneously annoying and fun than speculating about a new product based on the obscure references in a hype video? Well, DJI just released a teaser video for their upcoming event on January 23, and it looks like they're planning something big. Here's what we think it is.  

Tether Tools is well known for its variety of wired and wireless products that make tethering easier and safer for your equipment. They have consistently been able to create products that solve problems that most photographers experience.

Tripods are sort of the humble buddy of most photographers: we rarely think about how much we need them in comparison to all the gee-whiz features on cameras and lenses, but they're essential in a lot of situations. This comprehensive video will show you everything you need to know about choosing the right tripod and using it to its full potential. 

I can still remember the first time I saw the effects of bounce flash. The soft natural light looked unlike anything I had seen from my little point and shoot's direct flash, and the resulting image looked so natural. Soon afterward I was introduced to off camera flash and a variety of light modifiers.

As I set up to shoot an assignment last week, I found myself in a casual conversation with the owner of the location. He was also a photographer, and as I opened my Pelican case and began to set up my strobes, he commented on the fact that he owned the same one. He then lamented the fact that this particular kit was no longer made by the manufacturer.

Western Digital recently announced a new storage device: the My Passport Wireless SSD. With capacities and prices ranging from 250 GB ($229.99) to 2 TB ($799.99), the Wireless storage device is a provocative buy you might want to add to your kit, especially if your shooting requires you to be out in the field.  

Notable product specs include:

It's time to stop buying those standard USB external hard drives. We've found a much better solution.  

If you're a photographer, retoucher, or videographer, you likely spend a lot of time at a computer. And since you're spending all that time there, it makes sense to make sure you're as comfortable and efficient as possible. Here are six non-photography items I use to make my workspace better. 

Film lovers and analog purists are not-so-patiently awaiting the release of Kodak's new Super 8 camera, which should finally come out sometime this year at a cost of $2,500-$3,000. In the meantime, Kodak took CES as an opportunity to release some new test footage that looks rather incredible. At times, the reel displays a properly vintage look reminiscent of 1960s French films.

Hasselblad announced an updated multi-shot camera based on its flagship 100c 100-megapixel, full-frame 645 CMOS sensor. The result: the Hasselbald H6D-400c MS. The 400c MS allows for a 400-megapixel image by shifting the sensor in one-pixel and half-pixel increments as it takes six shots that are then combined later for a true 400-megapixel file. 

Imaging Resource recently decided to put the weather sealing of a Nikon, Canon, Sony, and Olympus camera to the test. Watch as the team use a hosepipe to soak the equipment in simulation of a rainstorm to determine which camera fares best.

This can be a particularly dangerous time of year for chronic camera gear switchers. For one, the new year causes most of us to self-evaluate everything from the prior year, and photography gear is certainly not exempt.

Weird skin tone, strange green tint, fake sky; these are a few things that come to mind when describing the colors in video coming from Sony cameras. They wouldn't look as “natural” as Fuji, Canon, and Nikon colors. But did Sony fix it? According to Dave Dugdale from Learning Video and Andrew Reid from EOSHD, something happened. 

Today Leica has announced two new lenses for their SL camera system that will begin shipping next month. These two prime lenses — a 75mm f/2 and a 90mm f/2 — are the first of a new line of Summicron-SL glass. 

Rokinon is adding to their line up once again with a new lens design that may delight many photographers.The Rokinon AF 14mm f/2.8 lens looks to be designed in the new style the lens family has adopted the past year.

Files from our cameras get bigger and bigger and we expect our workflow to get better and faster. This is not possible without using new technology for transferring our work to a backup storage device. The trend today is the portable SSD.

Baby it’s cold outside, just look at that ice beard! Only in Northern Michigan would you find someone actually surfing in this kind of cold. But, that’s what a Marquette local, Daniel Schetter or “Surfer Dan,” does.

There are a lot of people switching from DSLR to mirrorless these days. But while Sony has the full frame side of things pretty much locked down, a ton of people, including Fujifilm X Photographer and Fstoppers tutorial maker, Elia Locardi, are recognizing the great, more compact, systems that Fuji is producing.

Insta360 aims to immerse consumers deeper into the world of virtual reality with two new cameras introduced this week at CES in Las Vegas. The company known for lightweight, portable 360-degree cameras introduced its eight-lens VR camera and the 6DOF Light Field Camera, a 128-camera array.

As a photographer, I spend a lot of time sitting at my desk, both producing and consuming content. I have a supportive chair, high-end monitors, and all sorts of peripherals cluttering up my desk. All to make that time easier, comfortable, and more productive. One area a lot of people either don't think about or just skip is speakers.

At CES 2018, DJI released details of the Ronin-S, a one handed gimbal system with modular add-ons for creative filmmaking. This is already a crowded market, with Zhiyun-Tech and Moza offering some of our favorite options, but given DJI’s proven track record of building top class gimbals, should you wait for the Ronin-S before investing in a new one-handed gimbal system? 

Medium-format cameras have long been known for their excellent image quality and incredible ability when it comes to rendering colors. Phase One's latest camera, the IQ3 100MP Trichromatic, takes this a step further and you can now get extremely accurate and effective colors, straight out of the camera.

It's rare that I use prime lenses and I also don't shoot video with Nikon gear very often anymore. But, if I'm in an extremely dark environment, the Nikon D850 and Tamron 35mm f/1.8 is a killer combination.  

Those anxiously awaiting a full frame Nikon mirrorless camera will be interested to hear this major piece of news: the company will likely be introducing a new mount, the Z Mount, for their upcoming mirrorless camera. 

Intel revealed more details about its new 8th generation CPUs with AMD’s RX Vega M graphics, and if you’re a VR video producer, avid gamer, or just a lover of fast laptops (like all photographers), you’re going to want to wait for this tech to hit your favorite laptop. 

Seagate’s premium brand, LaCie, and DJI have teamed up again and announced at CES this week the 2 TB DJI Copilot BOSS USB 3.1 Type-C Hard Drive. The DJI CoPilot comes with a $349 price tag. With 2 TB of storage users can expect to get 60 hours of 4K video at 30 frames per second or 20,000 raw images. 

Today Sony has released a version 2.00 firmware update for its a9 mirrorless cameras. The enhancements and added functions include changes to the continuous autofocus system as well as metadata input and image protection. 

The continuous autofocusing system gains a performance increase in following moving subjects and also stability while zooming.

One of the most important underlying themes in being a successful photographer is streamlining your workflow. That may be in how to edit photos quickly, how to organize video files, how to quickly produce invoices, or any number of tasks that you have to perform over and over again. One aspect of my business where I found myself wasting a lot of time was in my battery charging.

A few months ago, GoPro announced a new camera named the Fusion that would allow users to capture 360-degree videos. now, the company introduce Mobile OverCapture for the Fusion bringing a new way to shoot video to the world. Combined the two products will let you live the moment, capture the whole scene in 360 degrees, and then compose your video in postproduction. 

 Recording clean audio is extremely important but can also be infuriating. Finally, after seven years, we've found a system that seems to work... most of the time.  

So you received a fancy new DSLR or mirrorless camera for Christmas, or immediately went to the local electronics store with your wallet resembling George Costanzas’ from “Seinfeld,” filled to the brim with holiday gift cards, and picked yourself a kit that has everything you need to conqueror the photography trenches, including not one but two lenses.

Toronto-based photographer and filmmaker, Peter McKinnon, is a big jerk. You won't see me saying that very often as I truly do respect McKinnon as a content creator, but at the three minute, twenty-second mark of this video my butt clenched up and stayed that way for an entire six minutes and fifty-five seconds.

Early in my photography path, I didn’t pay much attention to the different kind of camera bags that were available. I knew I wanted a bag that could carry everything at the time, and I was looking for a backpack style camera bag. As time passed, my lenses collection grew which I didn't need to carry (or even use) it all.

Today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nikon announced their newest lens: the AF-S Nikkor 180-400mm f/4E TC1.4 FL ED VR super-telephoto. But what makes it worth its $12,396.95 price tag? 

The rumors were true and today Panasonic announced the new GH5S, the "updated" version of the GH5. It's certainly better in some ways, but not all.  

Today Panasonic announced at CES 2018 the new Lumix GH5S, a video focused camera that should be a boon for the prosumer hobbyists and professionals alike. Panasonic has changed several aspects of the camera to give an edge to the photographer and filmmaker that will enable them to step above the current Panasonic Lumix GH5 in usability and creativity.

The 10-Stop ND filter is one of the favorite filters of most landscape and urban photographers, as it extends the exposure time and makes possible achieving different results. The filter market is growing and NiSi is quite popular these days. So I decided to test NiSi 10-Stop ND filter with V5 holder system to see if it is a good option.  

The Panasonic GH5S, the update to the wildly popular GH5, is speculated to be released right now, live in Las Vegas. Watch the press conference right here, right now.  

Once the GH5S is officially released, we will be posting a new, full post on Fstoppers.com. 

Earlier today, TechRadar accidentally listed the full specifications for the new Panasonic Lumix GH5S, which were immediately taken down. Luckily, the Internet saw them, and it looks like quite the exciting camera. 

TechRadar states some of the most notable changes and upgrades from the Panasonic Lumix GH5 are:

Sigma continues to amaze with their lineup of lenses ,and at the end of the year, I finally got to try out one for the Micro Four Thirds (M43) and Sony E mount system, the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary lens for APS-C cameras. I used this on my Olympus OM-D EM5 II for a week in Florida while art-directing a shoot, and overall, I was pleasantly surprised and might pick it up.

Wildlife photography is one of the more expensive kinds of photography, with some popular lenses costing over $10,000. For many photographers, trying to get close enough to the subject may require longer 600mm lenses, but when you consider the price for each of them, a little research can definitely go a long way.

DJI have just released an update to the mobile version of their stellar Osmo system. The updates are pretty sweet, but not as sweet as the new price. 

DJI, usually on the forefront of new technology within their specific niche, seems to be looking to compete with the Zhiyun Crane 2 gimbal with the announcement of the new Ronin-S gimbal. The DJI Ronin-S is a handheld gimbal that is large enough for your common DSLR (and mirrorless of course) video configurations without requiring such a payload capacity of th

Fstoppers has created an entire tutorial on the basics of photography, Photography 101. Today, we are releasing a free excerpt from the tutorial that shows the inner workings of a DSLR camera and how it is you actually take a picture with it. In addition to our free excerpt, we are offering a discount on the full tutorial, simply use code "INTRO" at checkout to save $50.

Fujifilm continues to wow us with each new lens, and their latest release, the $1,199 XF 80mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR Macro lens, is no exception.

Earlier this week, Fstoppers creators Patrick Hall and Lee Morris posted a tongue-in-cheek video that mocked photographers’ very real lust for the perfect bag. I hope you all got a great laugh out of that just like I did. We’ve all been in Hall's position, watching a seemingly endless pile of gear come out of someone else’s bag.

Though Canon is atop the camera industry in market share, many photographers complain about the company's seemingly glacial pace of innovation, particularly as compared to the quickly charging likes of Sony and Fuji. In a recent interview, Canon's CEO has pledged to focus on innovation, how much of that will be directed at consumer cameras and lenses remains to be seen. 

It’s not a secret anymore: gaming laptops running Windows are cheaper and often more powerful than the current MacBook Pro. Many of us have wished that we could upgrade some parts of their MacBook to boost the performance, but unfortunately, with each new release, it seems like Apple is making it more difficult.