Gear

Hey guys, Paul here. Today is a busy day of packing for me. I'm shooting 41 shows for New York Fashion week and my plane leaves bright and early. I will share my experience with all of you as soon as I get back. For now, I wanted to share a quick down and dirty solution to shooting product shots, or any subject for that matter, especially when you have the client present in the studio... or garage in my case.

Canon faithful, the wait appears to finally be over for the 24-70mm f/2.8 L II, which is expected in stock September 13. The original 24-70 L, arguably one of the best telezoom lenses for Canon, has been sold out for quite some time in expectation of this new lens.

FS Reader Clifford Pate brought these images to our attention, asking if the DSLR Russuian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka was using on the International Space Station was a Nikon or a Canon. That legendary DSLR battle aside, it's cool to see how the cosmonauts work with a DSLR, and the kind of equipment that goes into the process (beyond just the camera).

I've always been more afraid of human error than a memory card error and because of this I always shoot weddings with 1 card per camera. Now that I shoot with D800s, the 36mp raw files require a 64gb card per camera. In 8 years I've shot hundreds of weddings and I've never had any sort of card error and I've never lost a file. What about you?

Sigma Corporation of America has announced that the Sigma DP1 Merrill compact digital camera will be available in the United States in mid-September for the retail price of $999. Check the specs, read the deets, and decide if you're going to grab this nifty little beast.

It's easy to just toss aside the news of the new Sony action cam as "late to the game" or "too late to matter." However, I beg that you give this little guy a chance, and maybe think a little bit about what it means for the industry.

If you haven't already upgraded to Lightroom 4 or Photoshop CS6, there is hardly a better time than now. You can grab both programs for the screaming deal of $389. Adobe Photoshop is normally $700 alone, so if this was just a Photoshop sale it would be an insanely good price. Even if you own one of these programs, I'm sure you have a buddy who could use the other.

We discussed a teaser that Sony put out earlier about their new action cam a while back, but it's finally here! Yet another contender in this segment for the action junkie...

We have a few more specs now that we're getting closer to Photokina, and they're pretty exciting... Get ready for an entirely new and incredibly affordable full-frame camera!

Sony's newest addition to its mirrorless lineup expands on its midrange mirrorless line, the NEX-5R. Building on the NEX-5N, the 5R adds some nice upgrades that make it a much nicer camera to use...

Even as a self-admitted prime lens lover, I can’t deny the allure of a telephoto zoom lens. A couple of my personal favorite tele-zoom lenses include the 24-70mm and the 24-105mm from Canon, which are touted by many as capable of "doing it all" if necessary. A bold statement, but you wouldn't find me arguing. But what other options are there? Though it may not be as recognizable, there certainly is a lot to love in Sigma’s 50-150mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM APO Lens.

Canon expanded its contribution to cinematic culture with the introduction of the new EOS C500 4K Digital Cinema Camera and the EOS C100 Digital Video Camera. The C500 will take its place as the flagship camera model in Canon's Cinema EOS System while the C100 provides another option for beginning filmmakers working on a budget.

Canon today announced the development of two new cinema prime lenses, the 14mm T3.1 cinema prime lens and 135mm T2.2 cinema prime lens, adding to the Cinema EOS lineup consisting of 11 EF Cinema Lenses.

After having worked extensively now with the Nikon D800, I can attest that it's a damn fine camera. Incredibly sharp at 100 ISO, nice big files that can stretch endlessly... But it's still slow. New rumors, however, indicate that Sony's re-entry into the full-frame market could see the introduction of the camera that we all really expected from Nikon back in January...

Leave it to Leica to produce the worlds most expensive lens. Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Thani of Qatar had this lens specially designed and shipped to him for a cool $2,064,500. This 1600mm 5.6 lens is the biggest and heaviest Leica has ever made and although it is a one of a kind product, you can see the prototype of this lens (the one in the picture above) in Leica's factory showroom in Solms, Germany.

As a photographer that does a lot of non-profit work internationally, I have always been on the look out for traveling with my gear in the safest yet most affordable way. Typically, my cameras, lenses and lighting equipment (strobes and powerpacks) travel with me as carry-ons in two Pelican 1514 cases. As for my grip gear, well, I was mostly limited to what I could throw into my checked bag with my clothes, which typically would be one Manfrotto Magic Arm, a Photek Softlighter and a small softbox or

Adorama TV has been mixing up their youtube channel lately, and this week features the TTL acrobatics of Joe McNally. Joe walks you through a typical street portrait as he accentuates the natural ambient light with a single speedlight gelled red. The more useful tip Joe gives is how to control the spill of your large softlight with an "egg crate" or softbox grid. I'm still shocked he pulled this shot off using only the Nikon D800 pop up flash acting as commander.

As the sad story of the fall of Eastman Kodak continues, news reports coming out state that Kodak is poised to see off its entire film division, looking to exit that segment of the market entirely. That division includes Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging departments which encompass digital scanners, picture kiosks, souvenir photo products, photographic paper, as well as Kodak's film businesses, the once bright and shining star of its core competencies.

You may not be one of their thousands of fans, but Fujifilm's retro-style mirrorless cameras are some of the most popular compact cameras out there. The X-100 and the X-Pro1 are some of the top selling compact cameras in the industry. These images leaked by Digicame-info.com depict what appears to be another Fujifilm camera called the X-E1 that could be on the market sometime soon.

Nikon has publicly announced the availability of a new line of COOLPIX cameras, one with Android OS and WiFi connectivity. The new S6400, S800c and the S01 are all designed to give intuitive control on the go, and the S800c is built in with an Android OS and WiFi connectivity. All three cameras boast a host of new features, so be sure to read all the details!

Industrial Engineers, Oscar Ramírez and Carlos Pendas, have come up with what seems to be the most simple and intuitive motion controlled pan/tilt intervalometers I have yet to see, and looks like it will be a breeze to setup and use (even for a moron like myself). Simply put, the Astro has 3 controlling discs that you have to set: Top disc sets duration, middle disc controls the rotation, and the bottom disc sets the interval.

Canon USA today announced the availability of two new PowerShot super-zoom camearas: the new PowerShot SX500 IS and PowerShot SX160 IS digital cameras featuring an impressive 30x and 16x optical zoom, respectively. Canon claims that these new models include long-reaching zoom and Canon's Intelligent Image Stabilization technology which analyzes the scene being shot and compensates for camera movement for steady images and video even while panning or walking.

Sure, so what if this camera name has been rumored since 2005? Photokina is coming and Canon is going to need something to unveil at the show. Especially with the EOS M already announced, Photokina seems a likely opportunity to dazzle the crowd with a new DSLR. So what would the Canon 3D specs look like?

Canon has a few things on the horizon, potentially. One thing is for sure, there's some kind of high-megapixel camera like the Nikon D800. But recent rumors prove this could up the game to an entirely new level...

In this behind the scenes video, photographer Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens shows us how he shoots zombies through a car using a Kessler shuttle pod. The camera movement is the most crucial part in making this commercial. The Kessler pod has to stay high enough so that when they move through the car, it will not shake the camera.

Voted the best professional cameras of 2012-2013 by the EISA, the Nikon D4 and the Nikon D800 take the lead. The EISA magazines found that the Nikon D4 camera has an exceptional combination of high resolution, wide dynamic range, very low noise levels even at ISO 12800, super- fast autofocus, short response time and high frame rates that can be maintained for very long sequences.

B&H Photo just announced Sony's latest camera, the NEX-EA50 Full HD Pro Camcorder with an 18-200mm servo zoom lens, the first E-mount lens with servo zoom. Called the NEX-EA50UH (rolls so easily off the tongue), it features a new Exmor APS-C CMOS sensor and delivers Full HD 1080p at 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 frames per second.

Jay P Morgan has been getting a lot of press recently for both his creative imagery and his informative behind-the-scenes videos, and for good reason: they're chock-full of great information and Jay shows everything from his lighting setups to post-processing tricks. In this BTS, Jay gives us a look at how he balances constant lights with strobe lights, something that

In this lighting lesson by Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens, shoots promotional material for Cui Baoqun, a Chinese champion ping-pong player. Using the information from his previous lesson on octoboxes, he was able to achieve some nice, dynamic shots.