Gear

Dust and moisture are the enemies of your equipment's longevity. I'm sure most of us have experienced the annoyance of a foggy lens when moving from one environment to the next, but what about when that fog turns to fungus? Every lens eventually gets some dust in it, even the wonderfully expensive weather sealed professional lines.

Market testing happens all the time. It's not uncommon for brands to test identical products under different names in different markets or cultures. It is rare, however, to see one company brand three competing products against each other in the same industry in the same country/culture. That is what Samyang Optics appears to be doing in the United States with their Bower, Samyang and Rokinon brands.

Kodak struck a deal to allow the use of its name with the production of a camera by JK Imaging that will be known as the Kodak PixPro S1 -- a micro four-thirds mirrorless camera. Additionally, JK Imaging will also release future compact and superzoom cameras using the Kodak name. Is it just me, or does this seem cheap to anyone? Is this something that will help Kodak with its financial difficulties, or do you think it's a poor product?

Though they've each been a player for some time, Samyang, Bower and Rokinon have each grown in popularity over the course of the last year or so. Recently releases by Samyang and Rokinon in particular have garnered a lot of attention from gear heads. But unlike mainstays like Canon, Nikon, Sigma and Tamron, consumers generally aren't as familiar with Samyang, Bower and Rokinon. So I ask you, which would you buy?

Most of us would agree that it is quite exciting when the UPS Truck pulls up with some new gear that we purchased especially when it's a new camera body or lens. Like kids on Christmas morning we can't wait to unbox the new toy and put it to test. Sadly one photographer opened the box not to find a new camera body but floor laminate. Read on to learn about his experience, see photos and find out which nationally known dealer did this not just once, but twice to him.

Impossible, right? That's what I said too when I ran across Metabones' new Speed Booster today (currently only available for pre-order). One important thing to get out of the way first off though before you get as excited as I did... this adapter is currently only available to convert from EF, ALPA and Leica-R mounts, to Sony NEX and Fuji X mirrorless cameras.

Perhaps one of the most mysterious and misunderstood lights available to a photographer is the ring light or ring flash. Most people associate the ring flash with fashion photography, but unfortunately many photographers might not know what the effect is actually doing. In this latest Snapfactory video, Mark Wallace not only shows how a barebulb Profoto Acute 2 Ringflash works, but he also gives you 3 additional lighting setups to take your own ring flash images to the next level.

NEC is synonymous with high-end displays. Everyone knows they produce great monitors for professional imaging applications. But if they know that much, they also know they’re quite expensive. So why should you pay thousands of dollars for the PA301W 30” monitor when you can get one for a few hundred? What’s the difference? And is it worth it? Let’s find out...

Kickstarter product "Lil-Mule" is small, motor-powered camera platform that has been developed to capture timelapse or real-time video for lengths much longer than most rail or slider based systems can provide. It's aim was also to give the user a simpler feature set, doing away with the complicated math and setup that other systems offer. This video gives you a glimpse of what the system is capable of, with more informative videos inside.

The reputable seller "bigvalueinc" on eBay is currently selling the Nikon D600 for $1685.99. This is a pretty killer deal considering this camera is still very new and sells everywhere else for $2000. They are also selling the D800 at a decent price. If you are in the market for this camera you better jump on this tonight because I can guarantee they will be sold out soon.

Samsung announced their new NX300 and 2D/3D lens last week in anticipation of CES 2013, so we had them take us through a quick rundown of the new NX300 mirrorless camera as well as their new 2D/3D lens, a first of it's kind.

Do you have an extra $2000 laying around? If so, I would suggest coming to Dubai with us, but you might also want to buy Canon's premiere portrait lens, the 85mm 1.2. Mark calls this lens "the magic lens" because of it's incredibly shallow depth of field that can make almost any location look amazing. For a similar look check out the critically acclaimed 85mm 1.4 by Sigma.

We all know making precision pieces of glass for camera lenses must be a difficult task. Today Nikon Japan released a beautiful video showing exactly what goes into making their ED Nano Crystal coated lens elements. I really do not know what I'm looking at but it's still pretty amazing to see how much effort and care goes into the gear we use everyday. It's hard to take those who complain about quality control when you watch something like this.

Have you ever wanted to film yourself while doing a photoshoot for some behind the scenes action, but not one of your videographer buddies wanted to get away from whatever indie marathon was running that weekend and help you film it? Well, now with SOLOSHOT you don't have to worry about picking up the phone and degrading yourself by begging to your cinephile friends, you can do it yourself.

I was pleasantly surprised when I heard about the Sony RX1, a true, compact beast with a full-frame sensor. But I was less than impressed with its price, thinking there's no way this can really be as great as a high-end DSLR. Put up against the D800, the RX1 does surprisingly well in DxoMark's tests, however...

On December 17th, Fstoppers briefly introduced you to Polaroid's upcoming IM1836 (dumb name for such an innovative product). But what we didnt know at the time was that this camera is not only the first camera to feature interchangeable lenses and Android Jellybean, but also the first camera to have the sensor built right into the lens instead of the camera's body. Polaroid is hoping to eliminate sensor dust that is caused by changing your lenses by putting the sensor in the lens itself.

In an interesting development, four months ago, Sigma announced a dock that allows you to connect your Sigma lens to your computer and adjust custom settings, but we have today we have more information, expanding on what we already posted then. You can adjust setting like a new minimum focus distance, autofocus speed, optical stabilization parameters and more. It'll even let you update the lens firmware. This is pretty neat, I think, and the first such product of its kind to my knowledge.

Until now, Sony has been the only XQD card manufacturer (you know, for those crazy fast, kind of small, and weird format cards that go into your Nikon D4). Finally, Lexar has announced their own 32GB ($299.99) and 64GB ($579.99) versions along with a USB 3.0 XQD card reader. The cards feature read speeds of up to 168MB/s (1100x) and slower write speeds that aren't yet stated. A 256GB SDXC 600x card was also announced, holding the high-end for both capacity and speed of Lexar's SD card lineup.

The 14-megapixel Nikon 1 J3 mirrorless camera and 24-megapixel Nikon D5200 consumer DSLR were all announced yesterday with new lenses for the 1 system, including a 1 NIKKOR 6.7-13mm f/3.5-5.6 VR and a 1 NIKKOR 10-100mm f/4.0-5.6 VR. Both camera systems expand options in multiple ways for the consumer photo enthusiast or beginner...

Sigma has unveiled the latest iteration of their extremely powerful compact camera series in the DP3 Merrill, a 46 megapixel monster with a 50mm f/2.8 macro lens (a focal range equivalent to 75mm on a 35mm SLR camera) and Sigma's signature Foveon X3 sensor. It includes an advanced user interface and the capability of seven-frame continuous shooting. It is designed to be paired with its DP Merrill predecessors, the DP1 and DP2, as a complete compact camera tool set.

CES started today in Las Vegas, and with it comes the announcement of pricing and availability of the two lenses we announced last year. The 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC MACRO OS HSM will be available this month and the 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM will be available in February. The 17-70mm will retail for $499 and the 120-300 will retail for $3,599.

Olympus blew the doors off the camera announcing train with six cameras released at CES this week: the STYLUS SH-50 IHS, two new STYLUS TOUGH IHS cameras, the TOUGH TG-2,the STYLUS SZ-16 iHS and the STYLUS SZ-15. There is kind of a lot to take in, so let's go one by one and so we can cover what these are all about.

The new Fujifilm X100S is available for pre-order from Amazon for $1299.95. The camera features a new X-Trans sensor and hybrid phase and contrast detection autofocusing, as well as many more features. See more information about the camera here.

Well, the teaser ad from Canon France that we showed you last week was confirmed today. The PowerShot N is the compact camera that Canon is pushing of their four released cameras today. Here is a promo video they put on Youtube.

There have been a few really great lenses released in the past couple months hogging the spotlight, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the newly released upgraded Tamron 90mm f/2.8 VC Macro passed under your radar. I’ve had a few weeks with it and have mixed feelings on Tamron’s latest prime.

In addition to the PowerShot N, Canon also announced three other PowerShot cameras today: the ELPH 130 IS, the A2600, and the A1400. These cameras supposedly give consumers a simple, yet enhanced image sharing experience with Canon's built-in wireless functionality, which has evolved with new options that help make posting on social networking sites easy. It's obvious Canon is trying to mimic the ease of mobile phone cameras while maintaining higher image quality.

Canon today announced the the PowerShot N, a tiny portable camera designed to capture "life's every day moments." The 12.1- megapixel High-Sensitivity CMOS sensor and DIGIC 5 Image Processor is packed in an insanely small body which includes a tilt screen for tough angles. The tiny camera will retail for $300 and is expected in April.

Update 2: This update goes here because circumstances have changed. If you missed the hype, Arstechnica.com has a great explanation of what happened. The download link still works for a select few, so feel free to try, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work any more. Read on for the original post and a short explanation...

Phottix has had their BG-D800 grip for the Nikon D800/D800E on the market for a while now. However, a new BG-D800M is now available, featuring a higher-quality magnesium build. While the BG-D800M is currently listed on their site for $200, the BG-D800 (the regular one) is listed for $150, but can be had for $90 on Amazon. The BG-D800M isn't yet available on Amazon, but this post will be updated as soon as it is.

For the past few years DigitalRev has done the "Cheap Camera Challenge" with a professional photographer and a crappy little toy camera. This year's challenge consisted of Strobist's David Hobby, a 2MP Buzz Lightyear toy camera and 3 of the best named speedlights of all time, the Family Jewels FUQ 690. Kai of DigitalRev gives Hobby 5 photo tasks in 5 different locations and Hobby handles it pretty dang well considering the slight limitations. Enjoy!