Gear

So many times we photographers think we need to use every single strobe light we own just because they are there in our bag. I've been a victim of it and I'm sure you have too. Instructional photographer Tony Corbell has an old video he made for the folks at Profoto which really showcases the variety of light you can get from just one single light source. There is an old saying that goes the best light is the light you have with you but maybe it should go the best light is sometimes the simplest light. <

Camera and Video equipment is expensive! Whether you are just getting into digital media or are a seasoned professional, we are all looking for bargains and ways to justify dropping even more coin on photography gear. Everyday our email is full of readers asking about what gear we use/recommend and if there are any deals out there to be had. So we have created an Fstoppers Gear Guide that includes every piece of equipment we use for both photos and video separated into categories. You can also check out the latest Canon rebates (most end Jan 8) and Nikon rebates (expires Nov 20) through BHvideo.com which we find to have the best prices online. So check out the Fstoppers Gear Guide and if you want to get some new toys for Christmas, don't miss out on these Holiday rebates through Nikon and Canon.

I wish I had more info on this but all I know is that a guy named "Ben" made this electric dolly. With an automated dolly, you can create moving time lapse footage. You can view more pictures of his creation here.

DIY Dolly from Ben on Vimeo.

Adam Boozer is an amazingly talented videographer right here in Charleston, SC. His company Jewell and Ginnie has been making a big splash with very cinematic video here in the low country and throughout the southeast. Last night Adam emailed us a BTS video he created on how he sets up his camera for these incredible aerial shots. Besides having the access to a Robinson R44 Helicopter, the actual setup isn't that complicated: A Canon 5D MKII, a Zucato Follow Focus, a Marshall Monitor, and the piece that stabilizes it all together, the Tyler Mini Gyro. I've posted the highlight reel here so click the full post to see the BTS video on how Adam is getting these shots!

J&G 2010 Aerial Selects Reel from Jewell&Ginnie on Vimeo.

Jesse Rosten got his hands on $4500 worth of iPads and decided to do a photoshoot with them. You may be thinking that this is totally pointless and for stills I might have to agree that this is overkill but a single iPad could be used to add softlight to extremely low lit scenes; something a small strobe could never do. An iPad can also change color temperature to match the ambient light around it. I see this being used more for video that stills anyway. Don't believe me? Well you can buy this light panel for $500 and I'll stick to my iPad.

iPad Photoshoot from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Well not exactly but we can still get kinda close. The Phantom camera costs a staggering $118,000 for the body alone which puts it out of the average Joe's reach. The Canon T2i costs just $699 and it currently has a $400 rebate when you buy it with a Pro9000 printer (I love these "free printer" rebates they are doing). The T2i shoots 60fps but has great manual control. Once you shoot your super sharp 60fps you can use software called Twixtor to bring that framerate to Phantom levels. Twixtor costs about $300 and we have used it in a few of our FS originals. Very cool!

More Super Slow Motion [Water] - 550D from Rickard bengtsson on Vimeo.

For all you DIY hipster photographers out there who always wanted to shoot pictures with a Pumpkin...

How To Turn A Pumpkin Into A Camera from NPR on Vimeo.

We usually don't post good deals on the front page of FS but this is one of the best deals I have seen. Right now, if you buy a Nikon D7000 body (it literally just started shipping a couple days ago) and an Epson R1900 photo printer, you will get a $450 rebate, which is the full cost of the printer. Deals like this do pop up but never with a camera this new. I just got a chance to play with the D7000 at the photo Expo in NYC and the ISO performance is up there with the D3 and it has more mega-pixels and it shoots 1080p video and you get all of that for just $1100. If you needed an excuse to buy this camera, you're welcome. Details at BH here.

Like many of you, the most telephoto I typically shoot is 200mm. If you are David Bergman then you probably shoot at 600mm. But what if that still isn't enough? Well you need to buy the Canon 1200mm lens duh! And if this lens does not get you close enough to the action then you probably need to read the full post to view your last option. <

Are you a photographer and an iPad owner? If so, you are really going to love this. Are you a photographer who swore you would never buy an iPad because it's just an over-sized iPod Touch? Well you are about to change your mind. We have recently figured out that with nothing more than a jailbroken iPad and an Eye-Fi Pro X2 card, you can wirelessly tether the two without the need for a separate network. This "hack" is so useful that we have decided to give away a free iPad randomly to one of our twitter followers. Please read the full post to learn more.

How To Directly Tether Your Camera To An iPad By Lee Morris from FStoppers on Vimeo.

If you have ever been in front of the camera you know how difficult it can be to remember your thoughts and speak them as naturally as you do in normal conversation. But what you may not know is most news personalities you see on television are actually cheating! Check out this behind the scenes video on how newscasters use autocues to present the news both clearly and accurately. I may have to invest in one of these for my own camera appearances! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUMjD5_5eHE<

Moving time lapse videos are becoming more and more popular these days. Check out the video below to see Patryk Kizny take the DriveCam Slider for a test.

Autumn. A short timelapse film from Patryk Kizny on Vimeo.

The newest promo video for the incredible GoPro HD camera has me wanting to get out of the house and do something exciting! We are big supports of what Gopro is doing and can't speak highly enough of these little cameras. If you enjoy adding a unique perspective to your own videos or want a small time lapse camera, you can't go wrong with these...well unless you destroy them :) <

Warning: If you think using Photoshop is cheating then you should probably just ignore this post! I just saw the most amazing video demonstration of a new video editing software called MovieReshape. Basically it's like an automated Photoshop liquify tool for video. From now on, all future fstoppers videos will employ this feature to make everyone involved in our BTS videos look much sexier and healthier. All kidding aside, this video is pretty crazy and you pretty much have to see it for yourself. Hopefully we can get a trial plugin for Premiere soon ;) <

Benjamin Von Wong is a part time photographer but his concepts and images are definitely top notch. He was smart enough to film a behind the scenes video for his photoshoot with designer Andy Nguyen and the results are very interesting. You can read more about the ins and outs of this shoot from the model's perspective here and some of the final photos on Von Wong's Flickr page. If you enjoy these types of videos, Benjamin and others are posting them over at the Fstoppers Forum. I'm always amazed by what our readers come up with during their own shoots!

StillMotion is back again and this time they are showing us different stabilization options. Personally I am a huge fan of the Steadicam Merlin but it's not cheap.

an intro to EOS stabilizers // canon cinema caravan from stillmotion on Vimeo.

Nobody ever said that California Sunbounce makes cheap gear, in fact, you may hear people complain that their products are over priced. I can say from experience though that their products are extremely well made and if you like having the best, their products may be for you. Check out their promo video below and click here to see their full product line up. >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUgX7VcYfjk<

Nikon just announced a bunch of new gear and one of the new cameras is the new D7000. While I'm personally a little disappointed in it's lack of 720 60fps the camera does finally put 1080 video into a moderate Nikon body. All my wishful thinking aside, Chase Jarvis was approached by Nikon to shoot a short video showcasing the new video feature. Here is a little short behind the scenes promo video of Chase playing with the new camera and putting it through the ringer. Let's hope we get our 60fps on the D300s/D700 replacement so we can stop having to borrow Canon gear to shoot our videos :) Click the full post to see Chase's short film Benevolent Mischief and get on the Pre Order List first at Amazon.com or here at BHvideo.com <

We have all heard about and seen footage from the Phantom camera. This thing can shoot amazing slomo at 1050fps at 1080p. I, however, have never actually seen the camera itself before. Tom takes us through a quick tutorial, because we will probably never get to touch one ourselves. Is anyone else shocked by the terrible navigation on this camera? For the price you would think they could add a D-pad and LCD.

The Phantom HD GOLD High Speed Digital Cinema Camera from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

I was one of the few people on the planet that actually wasn't a huge fan of Avatar but I did love the special effects. James and his team had to create new technology to produce the most successful movie of all time. Check out his camera setup below. Game Trailers - E3 2011 - Gadget Pr0n

Martin needed a light weight camera crane that could fit in a backpack, setup in under two minutes, and hold a DSLR. This sounds too good to be true right? Well it was, so I built one by hand.

Light Camera Crane - Build from Martin Roberts on Vimeo.

If you have not seen the Go Pro HD Hero camera before, let me introduce it to you. We have bought a few of these this summer for various projects and they are a lot of fun to play with and the footage is absolutely amazing. We will have some new Fstoppers videos coming out soon with Go Pro HD footage but in the meantime you must check out these videos. Click the Full Post for a few details about the Go Pros and to see two other fun videos. <

Tom Guilmette has been creating a bunch of interesting videos recently, this being no exception. Check out his new toy below.

Kessler Shuttle Pod Dolly System Tutorial - Oracle Controller and ElektraDRIVE Motor from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

One of our readers sent us this crazy video that must have been shot 40 years ago because I don't recognize any of this technology. Apparently it was really popular back in the day and I think I've even seen some kids carrying these as they left a local Urban Outfitters. If only they could make one of these that uses both Polaroid film and a memory card maybe I could experiment with one. Apparently the creator of this video didn't watch our previous videos on enjoyable audio :( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jaiq_ZZ_eM<

Cris Matthews just sent this video over to me. He did a few tests with the iPhone 4 and a ring light. He also used his iPad to review and edit the images. I have gota say, if I can easily and instantly view my shots on an iPad like they seem to be doing I will buy one tomorrow.

VideoJunkie.co.uk - iPhone Fashion Shoot from Cris Matthews on Vimeo.

A few days ago I posted a video this duo created to help all the haters understand that expensive gear does not equal quality pictures. Well Zach And Corinne are back at it again with their contest entry. I was hoping for something a bit more in depth from these guys but they packed some quality into 3 minutes.

BTS Photoshoot from Zach Andrews on Vimeo.

We have all seen great slomo videos on the internet but rarely do you get to see what it takes to film them. Check out Tom Guilmette's quick BTSV.

Fastec Imaging High Speed Camera - Testing 718 Frames Per Second at 720p from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

This is going to be a busy week for FS. The contest submissions are starting to pour in because the deadline is only 6 days away. We are going to try to bring you at least one professional BTSV and at one contest submission every day. For her contest submission, Amber Williams teaches us about infrared photography (something I knew nothing about). Amber did a fantastic job of keeping the video interesting and informational. I'm just excited that there are some some cute female Fstoppers out there. Show Amber some love in the comment box below. <

Yes, this has been done before; but never this big. Amir took things up a few notches by shooting Paul Wall's new video "I Need Mo" featuring Travis Barker. I hope that Amir gives this another shot now that the iPhone 4 is out. The video quality is stunning on the new phone. View the finished music video in the full post. <

A few weeks ago I did a full fashion photo shoot with my iPhone 3gs. I posted a few of the images and asked people to critique them (never exposing that they were shot on my cell phone). I couldn't help but laugh when a few of our readers claimed that these were "the best images I had ever taken." Nobody ever claimed that they were too grainy, too soft, or lacked detail. View this full post to read the full story and see the high res shots from this photoshoot. ><

George Chatzakis is an advertising and fashion photographer based out of Greece. For the last Porcelana ad campaign, George used a bunch of small point and shoot cameras to get that "matrix" style effect where multiple camera angles are capturing in the exact same moment in time. It's a really cool, and expensive, trick you have probably seen on MTV or on the big screen. The little bit of talking in this video is in another language but I think there is still a lot to be taken from watching this short video. Hope all our American readers are having a good holiday weekend!

Porcelana - Making Of from Real Creations on Vimeo.

Chase Jarvis has apparently figured out the secrets of creating a viral video. I think he released this video 3 days ago and it already has 50,000 views. I don't mean to keep posting CJ videos but they are all really good so here another. Check it out! <

Okay I'm not an apple fanboy or anything (I'm the only photographer still using a PC) but this new iPhone 4 is pretty cool. I'm most excited that it can now take 720p 30 fps video which is perfect for shooting behind the scenes videos of your photoshoots. I got my iPhone 4 early and figured I would take it out on the water to do a little video comparison with the iPhone 3Gs. If you are an iPhone user, this new phone is a necessary upgrade if only for the HD video and LED flash for low light photos and videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc6PTHhFNEE<

The only thing this BTS video is missing is the actually images! But it is still really cool so I will give it a pass. They wrote: "Hand launching a custom built Canon 5D Mark II aerial drone from a boat in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico to capture oil spill imagery: Although we are able to hand launch our drones in very confined space, we've never done this from the back of a very unstable pitching and rolling boat...in rain and drizzle. Over $10,000 in equipment can be lost in an instant! Between boat movement and gulf winds this was an extreme challenge! What a great show of talent"

For the last 4 days I have been at Bonnaroo listening to music and living like a caveman. The biggest show of the event was Jay Z Saturday night and to get a decent view we camped out 4 hours before the show. The guy next to me happenend to be David Oppenheimer, a professional photographer, and we ended up chatting. He decided to camp out and shoot from the crowd with a monopod and a remote.