Gear

We all know that it's not the gear that takes the photo, but rather the photographer, however when we get a chance to peek into Chase Jarvis' bag, I can't help but get excited. Jarvis is probably the photographer with the most successful social media presence out there. Between his blog and Creative Live, Jarvis' reach is enormous. It doesn't hurt that he's an incredibly talented photographer as well. Now you can see what's in his camera bag!

Let me begin by saying that it's March and not April 1st, because what I'm about to reveal is not a joke. After 75 years of business, Calumet Photographic is closing their U.S. stores. This morning they announced through Facebook their "immediate closing in the United States".

Details for the new Nikon 1 V3 mirrorless camera have been announced early and they are looking good! One of the largest talked about features are the huge improvements in the video recording from the camera. Plus, it is only priced at $1,196.95 for a kit.

If you shoot video, you know that sliders make all the difference. I personally love the cinematic production value you can get out of a slider; the kind of shots you can produce are those that really elevate the end product. However, sliders can be large and obtrusive, not to mention difficult to travel with. When I saw that Edelkrone's SliderPlus promised to deliver that quality I was looking for but remain compact, I couldn't wait to try it out.

ONA, makes of some pretty fine bags, are celebrating 100 years of Leica photography with a new bag called the Berlin. It is a limited-edition ONA bag designed for the Leica M-System. The signature Leica red interior is fully customizable, padded with premium closed-cell foam, and can accommodate one Leica M-System camera, two to three lenses, an iPad and small personal items.

The guys at no film school have done it again. In a recent guest post by the awesome director, Rubidium Wu they show you how to make a cheap DIY multi-camera video rig. The cool thing about this setup is that you can shoot multiple focal lengths in one take giving a similar ascetic to Tommy Wiseau’s in his 2005 film, The Room.

You may have read my previous post previewing the first modern CMOS-based medium format back to hit the world market by Phase One. Soon after my post, Phase One HQ sent me one of the first IQ250 backs to arrive in the US to review for this site. I had a solid 2 weeks to try it out and see what this system was capable of doing.

Panasonic has been really quiet on when the new Lumix GH4 would be formally released to the public, and for what price point. Boasting 4K video at 24p, videographers everywhere hope to see this little mirrorless system be the next workhorse in the budget videography world. Good news came late tonight, as B&H finally decided to give us a price, and a link for preorder on this exciting new camera.

Talk to a photographer long enough and the question of screen calibration will be brought up. Often many will say it's an incredibly important tool in your post production workflow, and often many more disregard it all together. So what is screen calibration? Is it still a viable issue within photography today, or is it becoming more and more obsolete, like sync cables and light meters? I'm here to explain it to you.

You heard right! The Canon EOS 6D is now on sale at B&H for only $1999 and it comes with the Canon 24-105mm f/4.0L IS lens. If you are one of those people that puts off buying a new camera until a deal comes out then now is your time to buy.

Though WPPI is over, we're still going over all the cool stuff we saw. Today, we look at Pocketwizard integration within Bowens' new lights, an incredibly versatile video slider from Pro Media Gear and a bunch of great little upgrades to your GoPro camera system from Fotodiox.

It was a fascinating experience comparing the reactions to the Comodo Orbit online to those who saw the rig in person at WPPI Las Vegas this year. Almost 100% of the comments online were negative, non-believing dismissals of the product, while nearly 100% of the comments in person about the product were an excited thumbs up. It was easily the most popular product at the show. So what did we think of it?

Months of planning, 567 images stitched into a single panorama and a 14.6 gigabyte image results in a breathtaking view of New York City from the top of the Freedom Tower. Deemed as one the tallest skyscrapers in the US, the new Freedom Tower is about one year out from completion.

The Sony A7 and A7R were two of the most important cameras released in 2013. They pack a full-frame sensor into a compact mirrorless body with high resolutions of 24 and 36 MP respectively. We reviewed the Sony A7R here. While the A7(R) is an amazing camera (and the first of its kind), recently there have been reports of light leaks. Here's a quick fix via übergizmo.

As of today at 3pm, WPPI was concluded - and while the trade show itself is done, we're all still left with the excitement lingering from the last couple days. Today, we highlight a look at Sigma, who was able to show us their newly announced camera system as well as the much-anticipated Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art Lens. We also stop by Epson, to look at their rich new metallic prints available for ordering soon.

Stephen Yanni, Orlando photographer started a GoFundMe campaign on Saturday to raise money to buy a Nikon D4s. Jared Polin of Fro Knows Photo made a YouTube video this evening talking about this unusual move. The video also has phone interview between Jared and the photographer. [Update: Yanni's GoFundMe was removed 03/05/2014].

WPPI is upon us, and Fstoppers is here to give you an inside look at all the exciting new products on display and/or announced during this three day event in Vegas. Yesterday, we were able to get an inside look at Animoto, the Nikon D4s, and pricing and info for the Panasonic Lumix GH4.

There were few new products on the show floor that garnered as much attention as the Comodo Orbit. It's eye catching, but mostly because people are just fascinated with the design. We spoke to Comodo regarding the new product, and show you a little more about how it works. We even show you how quickly you can adjust the gimbal to accept any new camera.

Tom Guilmette and Jon Connor got together at Kessler HQ to have some fun with a FasTec High Speed Camera mounted to a Kessler CineDrive. The CineDrive is able to perform programmable camera moves at high speed, and in this behind the scenes video Tom shows us their setups for various shots, which revolve around food.

This just in: the DxOMark scores have been published, the new 6K RED Epic Dragon camera beats out the old king-of-the-hill, the Nikon D800E. The first video sample for the Dragon surfaced in August, 2013 and we've been excited to see how it would perform ever since. The RED press release surprised many with the camera being advertised for both video and stills. At around 19MP this camera system might just give high-end Nikon and Canon DSLRs a run for their money.

Hasselblad has made the camera they said existed back in January official: the H5D-50C CMOS medium format back will retail for €20,900. Ian Rawcliffe, Hasselblad CEO, stated: "There is no price premium at all for customers who wish to acquire this groundbreaking technology. The H5D-50c will ship with the same price tag that applies to our H5D-50 model."

First reported at The Phoblographer, Canon Rumors published an article about possible hardware based hacks being just on the horizon for Canon shooters. CR received an email that stated that an unnamed company is gearing up to produce a hacked motherboard for the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. Modification of cameras is nothing new to many Canon users, some of whom opt to install a modified firmware (like Magic Lantern as perviously covered here).

In the wake of rumors regarding the health of the PocketWizard parent LPA Designs, the MAC Group distributed company is teaming up with the lighting brand Bowens and light meter company Sekonic to produce cohesive products together, in the hopes this will improve sales on all fronts. This includes a new PocketWizard in the Bowens signature yellow.

Images have been posted of the first tests with the soon to be released Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens. Photos Rumors recently posted the following info about a release they found from Xitek. The images look VERY nice and if the price is right, I might be ditching my Canon 50mm 1.4 for this.

Comodo, a new member of the MAC Group and manufacturer of advanced camera stabilization systems, has announced the release of their newest camera stabilization device: Orbit. Utilizing advanced engineering in mechanical gimbal technology combined with application of basic physics, Orbit is the first mechanically driven, twin grip gimbal stabilization device of its kind to be introduced to the HDSLR and small camcorder segment of the filmmaking community.

Knowing the importance of color matching strobes indoors is crucial when combining strobes and ambient lighting. Fixing mismatched lighting temperatures can be extremely difficult in post process. Ian Christmann, a commercial and lifestyle photographer discovered a method which will change your life.

"Nikon Corporation is pleased to announce the release of the Quick-Draw Strap and the Quick-Draw Strap S, two new products developed in cooperation with world-renowned American camera accessory manufacturer, BlackRapid." That's right! Nikon is going to be pushing a new strap into the photography market. This is pretty exciting, minus the fact that I finally just bought my BlackRapid.

After a class action lawsuit, Nikon has announced they are performing free sensor cleanings and shutter replacement for all D600 cameras. As an owner of a D600 I am glad to see Nikon is being held to fixing this very common issue. Funny enough I had my sensor cleaned on Sunday for oil spots.

Introducing ShotKit, a fresh new take on a concept that people have been curious of for years. Sure, gear doesn't matter - we've all been battling with the concept for ages now. A great photographer can take a great photo with any camera, but that doesn't change all of our allure to new gear. ShotKit is now a service dedicated to showing you what's in your favorite photographers bag.

It hasn't even been a day since the Nikon D4s was released and we're already seeing pixel-peeping side-by-side comparisons of it and the D4. First reported on Nikon Rumors, the site ClubSNAP posted a comparison of files from the D4 and its successor at extremely high ISO. Judging by these high ISO images we can expect some really awesome low-light performance out of Nikon's new flagship model.