Gear

With Christmas right around the corner, now is the perfect time to be buying gifts for family, friends, and significant others. As drones continue to become more and more popular, it shouldn’t be a surprise that these will be one of the hottest holiday gifts for anyone who is into photography and videography. With DJI being the leader in the drone industry, there are several drones on the market to choose from, but which one will suit as the best gift?

You may have read my review of the H6D 100c where I demonstrate how several of Hasselblads high-end lenses are being outperformed by regular full frame lenses. You may have also seen some reviews on YouTube where reviewers weren't too happy with the lens line-up or performance of said lenses for the Hasselblad X1D. I still maintain that there isn't a single lens from Hasselblad currently available, that can outperform the top full frame lenses. Well, what happens when you couple one of the best full frame lenses currently available on the market with the X1D?

Today, Broncolor has released the RFS 2.2 F, the Fujifilm version of their HS transceiver system. This allows those with Fujifilm cameras to take advantage of the Broncolor HyperSync system, allowing the photographer to move to sync speeds of up to 1/8,000 s on supported lights, enabling far more shooting possibilities.

Edelkrone has a knack for creating technology that captures the imagination in ways that other brands don’t. With the release of the original Edelkrone SliderONE, we saw that ingenuity manifest itself in what looks like the future of video camera support. That same ingenuity has guided the development of the new SliderONE PRO.

We all know what our favorite cameras are, but which brands have the numbers to back them up? We spoke to LensRentals, B&H, and 500px about what they saw over the year.

While the Mac Pro remains stagnant in its development with a completely modular redesign promised sometime next year, Apple is finally ready to ship the iMac Pro this Thursday. Featuring up to 18-core Intel Xeon processors, 128 GB of RAM, 16 GB of video memory, and 4 TB of Apple's fastest PCIe SSD storage to date, it's no slouch. But how does it perform in the real world? YouTuber Marques Brownlee gives us a first hands-on with Apple's latest professional workstation.

B&H posted a Holiday Deal today that you don't want to miss. The Fujifilm X-T1 is being sold with an 18-55mm lens at 50 percent off. This deal is only available today so if you want to save $850 on a fantastic camera, there are only a few hours to do so. At midnight tonight, EST, the deal ends.

In the last few years, it seems a number of new filter manufacturers have popped up, significantly improving the competitiveness in this particular market. Neutral density filters have been known for being quite expensive and this one of the key reasons why many photographers still avoid using them. In recent years, however, companies like NiSi Filters and Breakthrough Photography have been delivering some incredible products with much more palatable prices to help photographers get the look they desire. In a previous comparison done by Fstoppers, Patrick Hall demonstrated how good the filters from Breakthrough are, and in fact, they won that particular comparison. Breakthrough claims their filters are the sharpest and most color neutral in the world, so I wanted to see how they perform against NiSi.

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.

Since GoPro released their first action cameras, many other brands have tried to take on this market and offer alternatives. One of them is called Aukey, and they designed the AC-LC2 to be a very affordable yet still capable action piece of equipment. It can shoot in 4K at 25 fps, can produce time-lapses, and even has a Wi-Fi connection. I’ve had one for a little while and wanted to share with you why having one in your bag might be fantastic, but also why it may probably not replace a higher-end action camera.

A few years ago I was talking with a fellow photographer about the color correction of portraits. While on the topic of using white balance cards and color charts in order to get a perfect skin color, he interrupted me and said, “You can't have perfect skin color with these.” I immediately thought to myself, “Oh, yeah?” Oh, yeah. That was the truth, and I will explain why below.

Over the past few years, Zhongyi Optics have introduced several lenses in their Mitakon “Speedmaster” series of reasonably-priced, well-constructed, super-fast manual focus lenses. The 35mm f/0.95 Mark II lens falls straight into that category. We’ll be looking at the Fujifilm mount version, but this lens is also available for EOS-M and Sony E cameras. So, let’s get into it and look at sharpness, build quality, and, of course, bokeh.

This year has seen the number of people owning a drone grow like never before. That’s probably due to the units becoming more affordable and more accessible to use. One great example is the DJI Mavic, or more recently the DJI Spark. The latter is advertised as a drone you can take anywhere but still offers an excellent image quality, and that anyone can use. I bought one earlier this year as I wanted to see if the drone trend was something for me or not, and I thought I’d share my opinion on this adorable little thing.

If you’re one day hoping to market your magnum opus of a movie to Netflix, better gear up.

The DJI Spark is a fantastic tiny drone, but it comes with its limitations. To maximize the quality of your images and have more control freedom over your settings, you better be ready to invest in a couple of accessories. One of the first items I’d recommend are ND filters allowing you to adjust your shutter speed and ISO however you like instead of being forced into specific settings because of the lighting conditions. I’ve had the opportunity to try out the PolarPro Cinema Series filters for a little while now and here’s why they are an absolute must in your kit.

When it comes to photography and storing photos on your personal computer, most of us experienced the pain and heartache when you lose some or in worst cases, all the images you've ever taken. It's undoubtedly one of the most unpleasant things we've all had to deal with in our career as photographers and probably the number one cause of heart failure for photographers. While it's easy to fall into the trap of just buying more hard drives as we fill them up, it's probably one of the worst decisions you can make as a photographer. So what exactly is the perfect solution to backing up your images?

There are tons of photography bags available on the market, all meant to protect your gear better than the other one. When I was given the opportunity to review the Miggo Agua Versa Backpack 90 I didn’t know what to expect that I didn’t already have with my current transportation gear. However, once I had it in my hands and felt how robust it was, I thought it may offer something different that I didn’t have yet. I finally found a bag I could walk under the rain with without having to add a protection cover, use as a regular backpack as well, and that was comfortable!

LED lights are becoming more popular than ever, and with super compact, battery-powered options such as the Lowel Go Lite, it’s never been easier to pack them along for the ride, wherever that may take you. In this review I take a look at the versatile Go Lite by Lowel.

If you don't remember Lytro cameras and have no idea what their “living pictures” are, don't sweat it. As cool as the idea was, the technology itself was either not ready or was so poorly received that the hardware was doomed to fail. The concept, being able to refocus an image after it's been taken, is a great idea. Who wouldn't want to be able to literally fix the focus itself in post-production? Alas, we're not quite there yet.

Freefly has spent the last several years making some of the most impressive handheld gimbal-based stabilization systems and high-end drones for use with cinema cameras and advanced DSLRs. Today, however, Freefly introduced the Movi, a small stabilizer for your iPhone that brings their gimbal tech to the masses.

Photographer and filmmaker Mathieu Stern took to the streets of Paris to see what shots he could produce using three different vintage lenses, creating various different bokeh effects.

When you’re in the market for buying a new monitor, you’re probably overwhelmed by a host of specifications. Size, resolution, color gamut, and panel technology can make all the difference when you look for a new screen to edit your photos on. As a photographer, not all specs are that important. Dynamic contrast for instance; a feature that adjusts brightness and contrast according to what's on the screen at a given moment. In this guide, we’re focusing on buying a monitor that is geared specifically towards post-processing.

Is there a thing of having too many tripods? Over the years, I have tried out several tripods, usually trying to stay more at the affordable end of the price tags some of the tripods have. There have been a few tripods that I have simply returned or sold after not liking them and there's the small stack of tripods that I have held on to. My main tripod is a Manfrotto which is very sturdy and reliable, but it is also a bit heavy for my taste when traveling. In the past, I have left it behind simply because I do not want to carry it. So what’s a good budget-friendly travel tripod?

Two rental giants are teaming up to create the strongest rental company in the United States. Together, they’ll be able to reach 300,000 customers. So what’s going to change?

Tiny drones like the DJI Spark or Mavic are fantastic because they can fit in any bag. However, not all bags are equals when it comes to protection and usefulness. The Miggo Agua Stormproof Drone Lander was designed specifically for compact drones, keeping them safe no matter the conditions you are working in. I’ve had it for a little while now and couldn’t see myself going out for a walk with my drone without it. Here’s my full review of this handy bag.

A black rugged box that costs $50,000, has an "8K" label, sometimes it's called а "weapon," and it also shoots. What is it? A RED camera, of course. In this video, you will see the process of how these professional cinema cameras are manufactured.

Take a 5.5-inch cube you can hold in your hands and imagine it can put out 30,000 lumens of daylight-balanced light. You change intensities and color temperatures not by switching out the bulb, but by switching out light cards. And if you could then snap the lights together via hidden magnets to double or quadruple your power, you'd now have the new Anthem One. You would be right to be wary of all the new products claiming to do everything better and at less cost than its competitors. But Anthem One isn't some Kickstarter project that will be delivered next year. It's already for sale and will ship in just a couple months.

In 2016, David Strauss wrote an article on Fstoppers about how purchasing an ND filter holder set might be a better option. I, being the smartass that I am at times, left the following comment, "Or you can be really cheap and just mean stack exposures :P, plus it prevents long exposure noise." Without doing any actual comparisons between the two, I had made up my mind about filters and decided against them. Recently, however, a close friend of mine, Imran Mirza, asked me to keep an open mind and give neutral density filters a try. For that reason, I have been testing some filters from NiSi over the last few weeks. In my latest video, I compare using neutral density filters to using Photoshop techniques such as mean stacking.

Like many other photographers and filmmakers today, we need batteries for many of our gear and accessories. Many devices today come with their own rechargeable battery but there are still many gadgets and accessories we use that still can take the standard AA or AAA batteries. Keeping many on hand can be a pain in itself, so I tend to keep a set of traditional non-rechargeable batteries as a backup with many rechargeable ones as the main source for these items that need them. What happens with the rechargeable ones will not recharge anymore?

Casey Neistat's latest vlog is a review of the Rylo 360-degree camera. What makes this different than the 360-degree cameras currently on the market is that it comes with software that makes it easy to pick your shot (in other words, the frame that'll fit your 16:9 or 4:3 frame) and compose your video like that. Rylo is a start up, and although Neistat can distinguish which market it is for, I think it definitely can become something many videographers, especially YouTubers, and travel shooters will use.