Red Rock Micro recently had the chance to interview Captain Hook, the person behind the latest BlackMagic Pocket Camera footage, and answer a couple of questions about the BMPC and it's performance. For you that do not know about the BMPC check out our earlier post on it.
Phottix has been steadily working its way up the ladder when it comes to reliable and affordable photography equipment. Much like Yongnuo, Phottix started in the marketplace as somewhat unreliable, but in recent years has done a lot to turn that around. Introduced a few months ago, the Phottix Luna collapsible beauty dish caught many an eye as a perfect answer for beauty lighting on the go.
Last week I posted a gorgeous video from Wolfe Air - their promo reel for aviation cinematography, and explained a bit of the process behind it. This week, I've found and put together a few videos which detail how they equip their planes and helicopters with some of the most advanced camera technologies available, and it's pretty mindblowing.
If you've early-adopted to Canon's new STM motors, then you've probably been wishing there were a few more lenses available that you could make use of. Canon is releasing new STM lenses at a steady pace, and today announced the 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM, expanding the lineup of STM lenses to six total models.
Canon, makers of some of the more trusted point-and-shoot cameras, have announced four new members of their lineup, the PowerShot G16, the PowerShot S120, the PowerShot SX510 and the PowerShot SX170.
Following in the footsteps of Samsung who have the convenient "Share" button on their cameras, Canon has updated their tiny point-and-shoot with a feature they think fits right to the audience looking at a camera of this class: an built in Facebook share button. Canon is Facebook ready... are you?
Keeping up with the latest consumer demand, Wacom has just announced three new exciting products. The first two are portable Cintiq products. Thirdly, they've also come out with a stylus for the iPad that is pressure sensitive.
The always entertaining Kai from DigitalRev TV takes to the streets, armed with 3 different models of Canon 50mm lenses: The 1.8, 1.4, and 1.2L. Using phrases like "sphincter twitching" and "buying meth", he colorfully illustrates his points about choosing the right lens based on your budget and compares the look and feel of each model.
When calling ourselves artists, we also inherently accept the title of “story teller”. We each use different mediums, but our goals are ultimately the same: Creating memorable and engaging content. We use art to tell stories in beautiful and unique ways, which in turn helps connect us together.
Voightlander, maker of one of the sharpest pancake lenses I've ever used, has a new lens on the market, and it's unbelievably fast.
eBay rolled out a new feature to their website with "My Gadgets" which can track current prices of the gear you are looking to sell.
Because we cover a lot of news, we often get sent a slough of press releases from companies looking to get their product out to the masses. Today I received a release from Fotopro who announced a new line of colorful tripods. Sound familiar? It should, because they look exactly like MeFoto tripods.
Think Tank just announced the release of it's new sling camera bag collection, the TurnStyle. Designed to be lightweight with easy access to your gear, the bags come in three sizes to match specific needs. Think Tank says the new bags are ideal for DSLRs in the larger options to mirrorless and smaller cameras in the more compact sized bags.
A small team based in Melbourne, Australia wants to change how you view your studio lights. They say their new invention, the LED Light cube, offers answers to age-old problems. Their Cube has no recycle time, better control over light output and no external battery packs.
A few months ago, wedding photographer and Fstoppers writer, Trevor Dayley made a post about his favorite thing in his camera bag. Spoiler - it was a tilt shift lens, and the work he was able to produce with it made for some interesting and beautiful wedding and engagement photos. However, Trevor and I shoot entirely different styles, so what's my favorite thing in my camera bag?
We've all had that moment. You're out shooting on location, the shots are looking great, the weather's perfect, and then CRASH... a rogue gust of wind tears through your set and blows over your light stand. Bummer, but there's one piece of gear you can take on a shoot to prevent this kind of catastrophe, and it's not a sandbag.
If you’re an outdoor or adventure photographer, one of the situations likely tangle with regularly is balancing the line between comfort and size when it comes to your backpacks. You usually need a bag to both safely transport your expensive gear as well as your climbing supplies. However, our spines have limits and the bag also needs to be supportive and lightweight.
Carbon Copy Cloner is one of my all time favorite programs that takes the stress out of ensuring data security and redundancy. It’s a simple program that copies data from one place to another exactly when you want, and exactly how often you need it to.
Just about every week I hear of another photographer who is crying for help on a private Facebook group because they lost the photos from a shoot. Either their compact flash memory card went corrupt, they deleted the images on accident or they lost the memory card full of photos entirely.
As a Wedding Photographer, I have tons of radio triggers. I started out with the PocketWizard Plus II, and then after having all of my gear stolen, I switched to the relatively inexpensive PocketWizard Plus X, so needless to say, I’m fairly entrenched in the Pocket Wizard Brand.
Last night Nikon announced two new products, the Nikon SB-300 AF Speedlight and the Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Lens. The SB-300 is a smaller strobe designed for on-camera flash with i-TTL support. It has a guide number of 59' at ISO 100 and is compatible with DX and FX sensors with coverage from 27mm-200mm on a FX-format camera.
“Dress for the job you want, not the job you have”. I’m sure we’ve all heard this saying at one point in our lives. Even though I never took the advice (In your face Mom!) it can easily be reworked into something I firmly believe. “Film for the job you want, not the job you have”.
As photographers and videographers we often obsess over our cameras, lenses, stands, lights, etc. But often times, the most important tool in your bag is from the hardware store, something that allows you to temporarily fix an unexpected situation, whether it's a gear failure, or the need to fix something in an awkward space.
MeFoto, makers of my most favorite travel tripod, today announced a new addition to their product line: the WalkAbout monopod, which also looks like it could be used as a general walking stick. It comes in a host of colors, similar to the tripod line, and also sports a removable compass for when it's not attached to a camera.
7 years of shooting Automotive Editorial Photography has taught me to streamline as much as possible. One area I've simplified to fit my needs is my lighting kit. I used to rent gear wherever I could, but after you use your own gear long enough you almost develop a relationship with it and now I definitely prefer to use my own lights.
Recently director Moark Tola got the chance to spend 2 days testing out RED's Epic Dragon and has shared the results with all of us. I'm not going to lie, I've always been afraid that the day would come when a videographer could pull any frame a video and call it photography. Now you are only $29k (the price of an Epic Dragon brain) away from being able to do just that.
Most of the time, we leave rumors to the rumors sites. However, in this circumstance we thought it would be worth showing you a "leaked" image of the recently rumored Sigma 24-70mm f/2. If true, this lens would be something truly special. But is it real, or just some guys making a fuzzy-yet-believable fake?
Automotive Editorial Photography will teach you many things. Mostly though, it'll teach you how to make something out of nothing and how to operate quickly and efficiently. I can't tell you how many times I've shown up to shoot a car only to be told it can't be moved from where it sits.
As a wedding photographer, I don’t often put much of a focus on video. Therefore I had never put any real thought into what accessories I might need to outfit my Nikon D800 as a proper video-producing machine. That being said however, the Chinese company Aputure may have just started me thinking more seriously about video.
Ready to stand out in a crowd of photographers? Today the site Lomography.com announced the Kickstarter project for the Petzval lens. As they say on their website, "Invented in 1840, Reloaded In 2013 By Lomography & Zenit." This lens will surely look nothing like any lens in your bag today as they are crafted from brass just like the original Petzval lens was back in the 19th century.
Are you ready to be star-struck by Stellar? That's the tagline to Hasselblad aforementioned rumored RX100 reskin. Apparently, according to the Hasselblad Chairman and CEO, "The world has never seen a compact camera like this before." Weird, I could swear I saw a camera pretty similar to this last year. It's called the RX100.
Almost two years ago we wrote about an interesting idea for a rolling DSLR rig we found on Kickstarter. The concept was a small, compact and heinously simple design called CineSkates. Fast forward to today, and CineSkates has evolved not only into a whole line of products under the name "Cinetics," but is one step closer to great success.
Living in NYC and having to drag gear around I have become very particular about my camera and gear bags. Comfort, size, weight, and protection are the deciding factors, then I worry if I look cool or not (you can’t go wrong with a black bag). I started looking for a small light stand case that would fit nano stands, a small umbrella and a monopod.
Color reproduction, loading color profiles and calibrating monitors & printers can become an endless tangled mess that leads to frustrating headaches.
Proper use of a color chart can get you a lot closer to actual colors and save you a lot of time dialing in your post production work by adding a simple step to your workflow.
Apparently all the bad press surrounding the Lunar hasn't deterred Hasselblad from their present course of skinning current Sony cameras with the expensive "H" logo and wood accents. PhotoRumors is reporting that Hasselblad will be releasing a compact camera called the "Stellar" that will just be the RX100 with some fancy aesthetic additions.
Researchers from Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany have proposed quite an awesome attachment for the standard DSLR that would bring the power of a Lytro and more to the cameras already in the marketplace. Their design proposes a configurable, removable camera add-on for high dynamic range, multispectral, polarization, and light-field imaging called the KaleidoCam. And it works.
Peak Design, who launched a successful Kickstarter Project back in 2011, wants to improve on their original camera clip design by making it stronger and more versatile. Their solution? The Capture system. What they're planning looks to be a beefed-up version of the popular Spider Holsters.
Just because we are photographers for a living doesn’t mean all our equipment has to be 100% utilitarian. Sometimes a little bit of style and fashion is appreciated, and ONA looks to deliver in that department. The ONA Leather Brixton, now available in “dark truffle” color, is a sling bag that looks like a businessman’s briefcase sling, but is designed with a photographer in mind.
Carl Zeiss (Now just named Zeiss) has always been considered the premium brand for lenses in the photography industry. With their high ticket price and extreme build quality, Zeiss had always been reserved to the biggest (and richest) names in the industry. Well now they're trying to maintain that brand image, while moving into the mirrorless systems industry.
Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday that has seen a spike in exposure in the United States the past few years making it a perfect subject for a photoshoot. Follow Jay P. from The Slanted Lens as he takes you behind the scenes of his latest shoot featuring a model dressed up as a Calavera (sugar skull) posing in an eerie cemetery backdrop.
There's been a lot of buzz these past few months about Rokinon's new 24mm tilt shift offering. Many enthusiasts are interested in tilt and shift capabilities, but are not interested in shelling out the $2,000+ for the Nikon or Canon equivalents. Rokinon's entry into the field has been widely anticipated and it was finally my chance to get my hands on this little lens for a review.
We're embarking on some frightful times for camera manufactures everywhere. With stats showing that the Apple iPhone being the most popular camera used today, and Canon/Nikon/Sony producing virtually none of the camera phones components, they must come up with new ideas to win back the industry from Apple and Samsung.
About two years ago, Chimera showed us the first collapsible beauty dish at WPPI, something that promised to make traveling with the bulky, often heavy modifier a lot easier. However, with a price point of $230, it was a bit pricey for many. In the past few days, Phottix has released their version of the collapsable beauty dish.
One of my favorite 'old school' photo tricks is the macro reversing ring. When you turn your lens around - literally having the mount pointing at your subject - you will notice a pretty interesting effect. The lens (whatever focal length it is) becomes a macro. Of course, holding a lens over an open camera body is a pretty terrible idea. This is where the reversing ring comes in.
LED has come a long way in the last three years. It was not too long ago that serious photographers and videographers were having a hard time with the idea of LED. They tended to be under powered and cast unattractive shadows. But there was potential, and that potential is beginning to blossom.
Stuck in the car on a boring road trip with the parents this 4th of July? Well here is a list of 10 creative apps to help pass the time. From drawing with words to finding what color the back of your dad's head really is.
Benjamin Von Wong is known for making some pretty exceptional creative images, but this time he decided to go audio instead of visual. In his latest project, he uses 12 Nikon cameras (with the assistance of Nikon Professional Services) and the musical know-how of composer Andrew Kesler to produce a masterpiece of rhythm and shutters.
Tom Parker, avid aerial photographer and videographer from Cambridge, UK, decided to try and make his own homemade MōVI rig without losing all his savings in the process. Parker is a Product Design and Manufacturing student at the University of Nottingham, where he got the knowledge on how to design and build the rig for his GoPro camera.
Last night Canon unveiled the successor to their popular 60D DSLR, the EOS 70D. There is a lot to like about the camera, but where Canon is focusing the brunt of their marketing is around the new Dual Pixel sensor which supposedly offers significantly faster focusing during video production.
In recent months Fstoppers has shied away from churning the rumor mill, but you no doubt have read about the expected announcement of the new Canon 70D from other blogs. We've been eagerly waiting for its announcement because of what we understand to be a totally new sensor housed within the successor to the 60D: the Dual Pixel CMOS.