Gear

We have all been there when trying to pick a new lens. 14mm or 18mm? How big of a difference does that 4mm of focal length make? What sort of differences in depth of field will I see when comparing this zoom lens at f4 to this prime lens at f2.8? Well Fuji has come to the rescue and has released an app to iTunes and Google Play that will let you test all of their lenses from your phone or tablet.

Welcome to the this week's installment of Fstoppers’ Gear Tuesday! Below, you will find the answers to last week’s questions, including great topics such as the stability of memory cards and ultra low ISOs.

Ricoh recently refreshed their flagship Pentax K-3 DSLR camera with the Mark II version featuring an eye-catching bump in specs and abilities. These new additions, including built-in GPS, AstroTracer star tracking, and Pixel Shift Resolution in the $1,035 K-3 II are really pushing the meaning of “bang for your buck.” In particular, nature photography enthusiasts should really be paying attention to what Ricoh has created here. In this review I cover how the camera performs shooting nature, landscapes, and wildlife to determine if this feature-rich DSLR is an underrated trail boss that deserves a spot in your pack.

Camp 4 Collective, known for their high-end commercial and adventure productions, recently got to work with a pre-production ALTA Drone, made by the guys at Freefly (best known for making the MoVi.) Here is the behind-the-scenes video, with the final video inside the full post, and some more background information from Director Renan Ozturk.

If you're like me, the thought of touching, let alone fully cleaning your precious glass or even worse, your sensor, strikes fear into your heart. It's a skill every photographer should have, however. Learn how to do it safely here.

Another day, another drone is now available from DJI. You have heard of the Phantom 3 Advanced and the Phantom 3 Professional but the "standard" version is now available as well. Let's break down everything you need to know about these 3 quadcopters.

Some photographers like that soft, ethereal feel as they specifically seek out types of plastic to stick in front of the lens, or even go so far as to buy defocus control lenses and LensBabies that will allow them to distort an otherwise true image. That has its value. But this isn’t for that. This is the new go-to guide for absolutely everything to know about how to get your images to be tack sharp. Get ready to dive in: this is a no-questions-left-behind study on sharpness.

When you're shooting a wedding, every minute is valuable. There is often a compromise between the amount of time you spend on a shot and the level of quality you can achieve from that shot. That's partly what makes Fstoppers member Paul Keppel's ring shots so great. They take him almost no time to shoot and they look fantastic.

Nikon's newest AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR isn't any ordinary lens. Aside from the obvious addition of VR, the lens features a number of other features, including a new 82mm filter size and increased weight. While it's hard to consider those last two qualities "features," if you thought it was a bit odd, you were right. There's a reason behind everything -- and the reasons behind the design changes prove this might be a lens to think on more than you otherwise would. It also starts making that hefty price tag feel a whole lot cheaper.

While this is more than your average lens announcement on all counts, Nikon's updated 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR with electromagnetic diaphragm and vibration reduction technologies certainly reigns supreme on fans' hit lists of lens replacements for 2015. Meanwhile, Nikon's 24mm f/1.8G ED fits snuggly between the 20mm and the 28mm variants of the same range, filling a final gap in an otherwise perfectly covered potential f/1.8G video lens kit. The 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR gives lovers of the refreshed 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G something to think about with its combination of extreme affordability and extra reach, despite its narrower wide end.

Welcome to the first installment of Fstoppers’ Gear Tuesday! Below, you will find the answers to last week’s questions, including great topics such as walk-around lenses, magnesium vs. plastic bodies and the future of APS-C.

Another deal is up on eBay for those amongst us who pinch every penny like they're our moments before a match with Ronda Rousey. This time the deal is for us Canon loyals. The Canon 5D Mark iii is on sale from GetItDigital on eBay for today only and at the very agreeable price of $1999, a savings of $500 off the standard price of $2500.

You may have heard of "Skyfire" last year, a web-based platform that used custom weather forecasting models to predict the best times to shoot sunrise and sunset. Now, there is a new mobile app available for iOS that uses the Skyfire platform, called "The Photographers Ephemeris," that brings this service to a new level.

Building on the wild popularity of the X-T1, Fujifilm has announced the X-T1 IR, which features the same X-Trans CMOS II sensor found in the X-T1, with expanded sensitivity to wavelengths between 380 and 1,000 nm.

The EOS-1D X DSLR has been Canon's flagship camera since its release in March 2012. It started with a hefty price tag of $6,799.00 and has since seen a price drop to $5,299.00 and most recently down to $4,599.00. It's been more than three years since its release and with this latest price drop, from authorized dealers, there is little doubt that we will be seeing an announcement for its successor soon.

Canon's answer to the wildly popular Nikon D800/D810 is here and it is named the 5DS R. This camera is the same as the 5DS but the low pass filter on the sensor has been removed. In theory this camera should be sharper than the standard 5DS but Chris Niccolls decided to put it to the test.

Yes, you've read that correctly. Nokia, the former maker of my favorite cell phone in which I could play "Snake" during high school math class, has entered the hot new virtual reality camera market. A lot of the camera details are scarce, such as pricing and when it will ship to the consumer market, but there are some key functions I am very intrigued by. As Fstopper's resident virtual reality filmmaker, I am hesitantly optimistic. Read below to learn why.

I am probably going to piss off Lee Morris and Patrick Hall and probably some of you with this post but there has been a lot of conversation lately, including multiple posts on Fstoppers.com, about ‘discounted,’ ‘gray market’ and ‘on sale’ cameras dramatically priced lower than their manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP).

Gear, of course! Camera bodies and lenses galore! Nothing makes you a better photographer than dumping thousands of dollars on the latest technology! Right? No? Ok, I digress, I guess blowing all your hard earned (or borrowed) cash on the latest and seemingly greatest in camera equipment is probably about the least effective thing you can do to improve the quality of your work. So what SHOULD you be spending your money on then?

That is not a typo. Canon's newest camera is its first "multi-function" camera and is capable of something entirely refreshing (and maybe even a bit scary): capable of shooting 1080p at an equivalent of over four million ISO, the ME20F-SH can shoot objects that even the naked eye cannot see (objects lit by less than 0.0005 lux of illumination) in Full HD. While all cameras are somewhat multi-purpose by nature, Canon's "multi-function" designation of this camera speaks to the wide range of uses for which the ME20F-SH can be adapted given such features.

Beginning in 1995, consumer electronics giant Sony and high-end optics company ZEISS entered into a partnership that is still going strong. Today on the market you will find Sony, Sony/ZEISS, and ZEISS branded lenses. So what’s the difference between all of these, or are they actually quite similar?

A few years ago I started this blog for my photography students to help re-enforce the most fundamental aspects of photography. Understanding how your camera works and all the variables that make up a proper exposure is as essential to photography and breathing is to life. I've now decided re-transcribe these for Fstoppers. I will be posting all of my basics and fundamentals posts, about two a week, over this next month.

A few months ago I featured a hot deal on the Nikon D750 DSLR camera being sold by a reputable ebay seller. Today Canon users can get in on a similar deal. Right now you can save $700 on a brand new flagship Canon 5Ds on Ebay. The seller is the same one offering the D750, and we have received a ton of thank you emails from readers who took advantage of that deal (we bought 5 ourselves). You can read more about this deal

With July coming to an end, summer in the North East is in full swing and what better time to get out and shoot than the present. Whether you are shooting portraits or landscapes, in the daylight or under the stars, sometimes the best way to stay motivated and make sure you are having fun with your photography is to keep things simple. While I don’t go bare-bones with one camera and a lens, if I am out adventuring, chasing a sunset, or on a day trip hiking through the forest, I like to keep my gear minimal. While each piece of equipment has various uses, here is a look into my camera bag and different ways you can use each piece of equipment.

Let’s be honest, there are a lot of advantages to using speed lights. They are light, portable and they run on batteries. Speed light modifiers that accompany them are also usually quite light and portable as well. But speed lights do have their draw backs and they can be a real pain to use when you encounter issues, such as a painfully slow recycle time between flashes and a lot less power then you need on a bright sunny day. If you have a love hate relationship with speed lights then this article might just have a solution for you.

Last week I wrote a post about how Nikon really needs to jump on the 4k bandwagon. I got a few comments that basically said; "Why do you care about 4k? nobody even owns a 4k TV at this point." They were right, 4k TVs aren't very popular, but I have no interest in producing 4k videos right now. I want to shoot 4k footage to enhance my 1080p videos.

This morning I found myself aimlessly surfing through Vimeo and I ran across a great video by Photographer/Videographer Alex Cornell. In this 14 minute video Alex takes us through all of the gear that he brought to Iceland to capture both still images and 4k video.

In 2015, I can transmit photos to my wire service from the field using my phone, seconds after the images were shot. Back in the 80s however, it took a case of equipment weighing upwards of 80 pounds to get that job done. As the poet wrote: times they are a-changing.

Metabones, best known for their magical lens adapters that actually make cameras more sensitive to light, has added another adapter to their micro four-thirds lineup. Along with this new adapter, (aimed at users of the Panasonic GH4) autofocus functionality will now be available for certain Canon adapters as well.