Gear

This Do-It-Yourself equipment video by Jay P Morgan of The Slanted Lens features Cinematographer Lars Lindstrom as he shows us how easy it is to build your own camera shoulder rig. To make this rig all you'll need is some standard PVC piping and a few other items from your home-improvement store. If you're in a bind and can quite afford one of the more expensive rigs, this is a great alternative for just under $10.

If your budget is over $500, you have a heck of a lot of awesome at your disposal. Camera equipment in general is pricey, but when you've got it to spend, you can really nab some nice stuff. We've compiled the absolute cream of the crop gift ideas that will set you back a lot of dough, but will not fail to impress come Christmas morning.

Canon has just filed for a patent for a 100% coverage optical viewfinder, which wouldn't be that exciting except that this one is tiny. Instead of the traditional physical adjustment, this patent focuses on an electronically switched transmission / non-transmission of the liquid crystal. This seems to give merit to the rumors last week regarding an updated EOS M with a viewfinder, as that would likely be the only camera small enough to take advantage of this patent.

That headline basically says it all, but in case you needed confirmation: yes, today Adobe is pushing retina support to all Illustrator and Photoshop users on the Creative Cloud and perpetual customers (those using discs). Unfortunately, if you're on a PC this update does not affect you, but I think we all could have predicted that since this kind of addresses a Mac specific problem.

Today (make sure you watch this CreateNow event that you could register for last week) Adobe is unveiling a host of changes to Photoshop and the Creative Cloud. There is a good amount of new stuff, but I'm going to highlight the things I think you guys will find most useful and stuff that I found to be the most interesting as far as a a lot of power and flexibility in a program. As much as I might say, if you have the time I really suggest taking part in their live stream, as they will go into more detail than I will.

Some deals are just so good that you will drop everything you are doing (or planning) just to take advantage of some savings. Let me tell you how Lee and I both just bought Nikon D800 cameras for $2,200. Yesterday our friend Pye Jirsa published an article on SLR Lounge about how their local Staples did not honor a national coupon for 30% off all cameras purchased in store. After reading the article, Lee wondered how this coupon would hold up in our local market. Here is what we discovered

You're in a pinch and some kid who's never seen a camera before just grabbed yours, front element first, leaving a nice handprint just before your shot of the usually stern village chief lifting his kid into the air. There's no time to grab that lens cleaner in your bag, so what do you do? You open your mouth in an 'O' and breathe hot air on the front, and then rub your lens off gently with your shirt, right? Wrong.

Fewer things get me as excited and enthusiastic about gear in my studio than something reliable. I just want it to work. Part of the reason I haven’t shot much on a Nikon is that it takes too much thinking for me. Having shot on Canon for 10 years, I just like using something that my hands just understand. The same goes for tripods, lights, and most definitely applies to lenses. For me, the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 lens just works, and might be have the best combination of speed and sharpness in and auto focus-enabled lens I have ever had the pleasure of shooting.

Canon USA has published a service advisory regarding issues users are reporting when trying to watch uploaded videos on YouTube. It's a relatively minor issue, and I'm glad it's not as big a deal as the D600 dust concerns. However, I just wish Canon and Nikon would put out cameras that were truly complete, and had no widespread issues to speak of in their first few weeks on the market.

Snapseed saw an update in the past 24 hours that brings it into the fold of Google products, along with the newly refurbished (and dramatically improved) Gmail app. Snapseed's logo has changed and loading screen now shows the Google+ name. The app also saw the addition of a new filter and new frames. Most importantly, Snapseed is now free.

Never thought I would see this again, but Ilford has announced a set of black and white disposable film cameras that shoot at 400 ISO film, each giving up to 27 exposures per camera. You have to be somewhat impressed with this, since as much as Kodak continues to discontinue products, Ilford seems determined to keep film alive.

Epson today announced the availability of the SureLab D-Series dry printers, aimed at studios who produce a high volume of prints and are looking to bring that in house. This is Epson's first foray into this kind of high volume, high quality printing and it should end up on the radar of many studios around the country.

Adobe has a smattering of changes and updates coming to Photoshop and the Creative Cloud next week, and they are hosting a live online event to go over all of the expected changes. We've been given a sneak peak of what they're going to cover and though we can't specify yet, we can say that some of the updates are significant.

Some rumors have surfaced regarding the possibility of an updated EOS M with a built-in EVF, but not until late 2013 sources say. That makes sense given the timeline release for the original M. The sources also are reporting that Canon's original reason for not including the viewfinder (stating it wasn't necessary for a mirrorless camera) was fluff, and that the real reason was that Canon lacked the tech this year.

B&H just updated the price of the Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens, one of our recommended gifts under $500, and has dropped the price to $299 when it's added to your cart. That's a pretty good discount if you're looking to pick up a normal lens for yourself or for someone on your gift list this holiday season.

This morning our pals at PopPhoto tweeted, "The most popular photography story this morning is the Exif of Reuters' best images of the year. Not the pictures. Doing it wrong." I have to agree with them here. Instead of focusing on the images, the story is instead focused on what they were shot with. Is that what we are reduced to? Oogling over gear?

If you've always wanted to get into wedding cinematography then this is your jump start. Starting at 9AM tomorrow, Monday December 3 creativeLIVE will be hosting a FREE Wedding Cinematography workshop With Vanessa & Rob. Together, they've got a career's worth of film-making knowledge and will be packing it into this three day course.

If you're like me, you still haven't decided what the perfect gif tis for the photographer in your life. Well if you've got a little to spend, we have compiled the best gifts between $200 and $500. Speedlights, softboxes, tripods, tablets, lenses, and more, you're bound to find something here that will really impress.

I just got an email from one of our readers saying that Amazon is currently selling the Canon 5D Mark III for $2999.00, the lowest price this camera has ever sold for. If you were waiting for a deal this is it. I wouldn't be surprised if it ended in a few hours. Check it out here.

Canon's highly anticipated dream lens, the 200-400mm f/4 with a built-in 1.4x teleconverter that was seen at the Olympics has been used "in the wild." CanonRumors reports that one of its readers, Ben, got to use the likely $11,000 lens in South Africa for a bit after speaking with a product manager...

In this video from The Slanted Lens, Jay P Morgan shows us a behind the scenes look at how you can achieve that colorful, rich-looking sunset. This is a technique that is a must if you do any type of portraiture or wedding photography. Your clients will be really happy with the results, not to mention it will look great in your portfolio. This photo shoot is for writer, Robert L. Harding's novel titled, Death of the Wayang.

Just a quick heads up to the many of us who have been waiting for this camera: It's finally in stock and ready to ship! Just in time for a nice holiday gift to...yourself. Because let's be honest, if you're as excited about this camera as I am, you're not going to let anyone else in your family get their paws on it before you. For more information and to place an order, head on over to B&H Photo's 6D page.

NikonRumors just gave us a few more rumors for new DSLR releases to come from Nikon next year. Among them is a claim that the D7000 and D300s lines will be consolidated into one semi-pro body APS-C camera that will sit just between the D5200 and D800...

Ed Hetherington was photographing animal life in Kenya from a remote on-the-ground setup when a lion approached and found it rather odd...and oddly tasty. The series of images that followed show the lion sniffing, carrying, and enjoying the camera for a while. The lens survived despite getting a little dirty, but the body wasn't so lucky...

Our second-place mirrorless camera, the Fuji X-Pro 1, is discounted up to $600 with the purchase of a lens on B&H, where the body is $300 off its original price and adding a lens takes an additional $300 off (that's essentially a free 18mm f/2 lens over the price a few weeks ago). Just add the items to your cart for the automatic deal. Additionally, the weather-sealed, durable and overall awesome Olympus OM-D E-M5 kits (our first place winner) are up to $100 off at B&H.

It's Cyber Monday, of course. And all those deals are pretty tempting. But Promise has their own treat for us today: the J4 4-bay enclosure that holds 2.5" SSD or normal hard drives for extreme speed over a Thunderbolt interface. Pre-order this enclosure now with or without four 500GB hard drives for $387 or $775 respectively. There's another bonus, too, though...

If you've been looking to upgrade your video set up and get some higher quality audio, take a peek at the holiday savings for the TASCAM DR-40 4-Track Portable Digital Recorder. B&H is offering the fantastic price of $139 plus a $15 rebate. Although online ordering is unavailable till tomorrow afternoon, you can still stick it your cart for later. Amazon is also offering a deal, though not nearly as enticing.

Adobe is having a sale at their online store for Photoshop Lightroom 4, Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11. Lightroom is discounted down to only $199, while the Elements are only $60 each. You can also grab both elements programs as a bundle for only $90. All great bargains, but only until November 28!

Roger Cicala of LensRentals (who really likes to be the first person to get something up whenever new tech hits his store) has published his initial feelings on the new Sigma 35mm f/1.4. The good news for me is that all of you who have called me a "Sigma fanboy" have one more person to lump into that group. To quote, it's the beginning of a "new world order," and "This lens kicks butt, takes names, and basically posterizes the manufacturers who make the cameras this lens will fit on."

We stumbled onto this video that points out the biggest issue with the Nikon D600 right now: the dust accumulation. Bloggers and reviewers across the internet are crying foul at the issue, and in case you are unfamiliar (unlikely) or just curious (most probable) about the issue, this simple video does a really good job of showing what a brand new D600 suffers from. Biggest deal to me? He never changed lenses. All the dust is internal.