Gear Reviews

I've been looking for new ways to exhibit my photo and video work, ways that aren't tied to white walls or interior spaces. That search led me toward projectors, and I found one that fits. The appeal of something untethered is obvious in the fact that you can take your work almost anywhere. I initially expected I'd need a separate power station, but instead I found a quality projector with a built-in battery, making the whole setup far simpler than I'd imagined.

A $200 lens outperforming a Zeiss on corner sharpness is exactly the kind of result that shows how fast optics have moved. The 24mm focal length gives you a wide field of view with just enough drama to hold onto your subject, and paired with a bright aperture, it delivers backgrounds that fall away beautifully.

At this point, there are so many brands of gimbals that it can be hard to know which direction to go, especially with heavy-hitting names like DJI at the forefront of most publications and media outlets. But when I saw the MT3 Pro from Hohem, there was a standout feature that made me pause.

Twenty years behind a camera can lock you into fixed ideas about what gear delivers the results you want. A long-held bias against Micro Four Thirds is exactly what gets challenged here, and the reasons have less to do with specs than with how you actually shoot.

The Fujifilm X100VI has a cult following for good reason: it packs an optical viewfinder, IBIS, a built-in ND filter, and a fast fixed lens into a body small enough to carry anywhere. The catch is the price, and increasingly, the availability.

I had the good fortune of spending some time with Sony's new RX10 V, and I shot the entire range of my life with it. A World Cup match here in Seattle one weekend, then a family outing to the Ballard Locks the next.

Choosing between a wider aperture and a longer zoom range is one of the most common trade-offs in APS-C lens selection, and few comparisons make that tension as concrete as the Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 versus the Sigma 17-40mm f/1.8. These two lenses cost $200 apart, share the same weight, start at the same focal length, and yet produce noticeably different results depending on what you're shooting.

Choosing between the 7Artisans 135mm f/1.8 and the Viltrox 135mm comes down to a real tradeoff: raw optical and autofocus performance versus a lighter, smaller package at a lower price. At $689, the 7Artisans sits well below the Viltrox, and that gap raises a fair question about what you're actually giving up.

Choosing the right portrait lens for an APS-C system is genuinely hard when the native options are expensive and heavy. The Viltrox 75mm f/1.8 and Viltrox AF 90mm f/2.2 are making a strong case for themselves as lightweight, affordable alternatives for Fujifilm, Sony, and Nikon APS-C shooters.

Owing to the growing popularity of Leica cameras in recent years, a bunch of new lens manufacturers have sprung up to provide much cheaper alternatives to Leica lenses. And what's particularly exciting is that, with the aid of modern technology, many rare and desirable Leica lenses from the past can now be reproduced with incredible accuracy.

The Canon EOS R6 V is Canon's first full frame V-series hybrid camera, priced at $2,500 body only. It's built for video makers who still need serious stills capability, and at that price, it competes in a range of the market where buyers are making real commitments.

The Leica 35mm Summilux-M f/1.4 ASPH has been around for 16 years, and it was never designed with a 60-megapixel sensor in mind. Whether it holds up on something like the Leica M11 is a real question, and the answer is more nuanced than you might expect.

The Sigma 17-40mm f/1.8 for Fujifilm X sits in an interesting spot. It's faster than Fujifilm's own XF 16-55mm f/2.8, covers a narrower zoom range, and costs less, and for event shooters who live in dark rooms, that aperture difference isn't trivial.

Buying a 50mm lens for under $100 sounds like a deal until you see what you're actually getting. The TTArtisan AF 50mm f/1.8 Neo hits that $89 price point on full frame, and the question isn't whether it's cheap. It's whether cheap is cheap enough to matter.

Finding a fast prime with an apochromatic design under $400 is almost unheard of, and that's exactly what the Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 Evo claims to be. Apochromatic lenses correct chromatic aberration by aligning all three color wavelengths to the same focal plane, a feature you typically only find in lenses costing several times more.

7Artisans has built its reputation on cheap manual focus glass, so releasing autofocus lenses puts the company in direct comparison with brands that have been doing this for years. The bar for autofocus in 2024 is high, and whether a budget brand can clear it is a real question.

Choosing between a $370 lens and a $1,100 lens is easy when the cheaper one wins on almost every technical measure. The Viltrox AF 55mm f/1.8 Evo is a direct challenge to the Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 ZA, and Dustin Abbott's side-by-side test on the Sony a7R VI makes that case in detail.

Today I'll have a look at an exciting new lens option for filmmakers, the Zhongyi Zone T1 cinema lens.

There are lenses that photographers buy because they need them, and there are lenses photographers buy because they can't stop thinking about them.

The 200mm f/2 sits firmly in the latter category.

The 135mm autofocus lens market has gotten crowded fast, with options from Samyang, Viltrox, and Sigma all competing for your attention on Sony E-mount, Nikon Z-mount, and L-mount. The 7Artisans 135mm f/1.8 enters that field with the lowest MSRP of the group at $689, but price alone isn't enough to stand out when the competition has had years to mature.

This lens is the perfect example of why one should not judge a lens by its cover. While it may seem like any other budget fast prime, it offers a real, visible difference for your images.

Ultrawide lenses used to cost a fortune. A full frame 14mm f/2.8 from Canon or Nikon ran around $1,500 just over a decade ago, which put serious glass out of reach for a lot of people. Budget manual focus alternatives have changed that equation, and the Brightin Star 14mm f/2.8 is one of the most affordable yet, coming in at around $279.

Fujifilm's X system has been a quiet workhorse for serious landscape work for over a decade, and the debate about whether crop sensor cameras can hold their own professionally never really goes away. Andy Mumford's answer, built on 11 years of real-world use across five continents, is worth paying attention to.

Anamorphic lenses produce a look that's immediately recognizable: stretched bokeh, horizontal lens flares, and a cinematic quality that's defined Hollywood films for decades. The question most people face is whether that distinctive look is worth the tradeoffs compared to a conventional spherical lens.

The Leica SL3-P positions itself as Leica's answer to a problem that has frustrated SL system users for a while: you had to choose between the video-focused SL3-S and the resolution-focused SL3, and if you shoot both stills and video seriously, neither option was a clean fit. The SL3-P sits between them, and Leica calls it the best camera they've ever made.

Choosing between the Sony a7R VI and the Sony a1 II is genuinely difficult, and the spec sheets don't make it any easier. On paper, the two cameras overlap so heavily that you could easily talk yourself into either one without ever really knowing if you made the right call.

At $135 a full frame autofocus 50mm lens sounds like a compromise waiting to happen. The Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8S DF is that lens, and it turns out the compromises are a lot smaller than you'd expect.

To paraphrase a favorite pair of authors of mine: once is never, twice is always. Not sure where the third and fourth times something goes wrong rates. 

Because that's how many times my Leica MP pulled my bulk-loaded film out of the canister. Not the camera's fault; instead, the cheap tape I've been using didn't seem to be holding up to the stress of those final few tugs of the film advance. The first time it was something important: two dozen arrests during a protest downtown. Thankfully the rest were less important, mostly technical shots for this lens review.

Why fix what isn't broken? Well, Viltrox seems to have a good subtle reason as to why it did with the 35mm f/1.2 LAB (N) that photographers might appreciate.

The MacBook Neo sits at the bottom of Apple's MacBook lineup, and that single fact shapes everything about it. At its price point, it goes up against laptops that routinely disappoint, which makes what Apple has pulled off here genuinely worth paying attention to.

The Leica SL3-P sits in an interesting position: a 45-megapixel hybrid that Leica designed to land between the speed-focused SL3-S and the resolution-heavy SL3, and the question of whether it actually pulls that off has real stakes if you're considering dropping serious money on any of the three.

The Canon RF 20-50mm f/4L IS USM PZ is a lens built around a specific kind of shooter: someone who wants wide angle coverage, reliable stabilization, and smooth power zoom control, all in one relatively compact package. At $1,400, it sits in territory where performance has to justify the price tag.

Finding a fast, versatile zoom for APS-C mirrorless that doesn't cost as much as a full frame body is genuinely difficult. The Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 sits in a spot where very few lenses compete.

Thypoch has been slowly making a name for itself in the industry and is no stranger today to creating modern manual lenses that pay homage to classic lenses—starting with the Simera, Eureka, and now the Ksana. The 21mm f/3.5 Asph is Thypoch's first entry in the new "Ksana" series, designed to be an ultra-light and compact everyday lens with vintage rendering. If you must know, the name Ksana comes from the Sanskrit word Kṣaṇa (क्षण /ˈksɑːnə/), representing the eastern concept of the "instant" or the duration of a sudden enlightenment.

Buying a compact camera when you already own a full frame setup sounds like a step backward. The Canon PowerShot V1 makes a surprisingly strong case that it isn't.

Choosing the right lens for a Sony APS-C camera is genuinely difficult right now, because the options have multiplied fast and the differences between them aren't always obvious. Curtis Padley has been shooting Sony APS-C for six years and has run through enough glass to have strong, experience-backed opinions about what actually works.

Following my recent speculation about M-mount lenses being the next big thing, the M-mount ecosystem has seen some truly exciting developments lately. Even in such a niche and crowded market, we are still getting frequent releases from companies like Thypoch. And after all the good releases, they still manage to surprise us every now and then to give us a reason to pick their lens.

The Nikon Z f launched in October 2023, and the camera market has shifted considerably since then. New options from Nikon and other brands have changed what you're giving up when you choose that retro body.

The Leica D-Lux 8 sits in an unusual spot: a Micro Four Thirds compact with a fixed zoom lens, priced like a premium tool, marketed as something you actually carry. After nearly 19 months and close to 3,000 images, Peter Fritz has moved well past first impressions, and his conclusions are more nuanced than the usual early review.

 I used to think all fog machine liquid was the same. Never once had I considered that a new fog formula could be far better than what I've been using for decades. PMI's Vanishing Formula Kit has changed my opinion, and today I test it against three of the most popular portable fog systems on the market. 

Choosing a compact travel camera is harder than it looks, especially when two solid options sit at very different price points with very different sensor sizes, lenses, and feature sets. The Fujifilm X100VI and the Panasonic Lumix LX10 both pitch themselves as small, capable everyday cameras, but they take genuinely different approaches to getting there.

The Panasonic L10 lands in a genuinely narrow space: a compact camera with a large sensor, a zoom lens, and serious video features. If you've wanted something between a Ricoh GR IV and a full-blown mirrorless kit, this camera makes a real case for itself.

If you think the 7Artisans 35mm f/2.8 M Mount lens looks like it belongs to another era, you'd be quite correct. It was inspired by the compact optics used on Leica's early Barnack cameras in the 1930s. This tiny beauty, weighing just 88 g, embraces simplicity, portability, and character in a way that many modern lenses have forgotten.

Canon's oldest EF mount lenses are worth a second look now that they adapt so cleanly onto modern mirrorless bodies. The Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro is one of the more interesting cases: a lens from 1987 that regularly sells for under $100 on eBay and still communicates fully with current Canon R-series cameras, including in-body stabilization and in-camera corrections.

A lot of photographers nowadays prefer camera bags that are built to protect gear but barely look like it. This variation of Wandrd's Prvke backpack takes that to a whole new level.

The Sony a7R VI raises the resolution bar for full frame cameras to 66.8 megapixels on a fully stacked sensor, and that combination produces results that will make you rethink how much camera you actually need. The stacked design isn't just about pixels — it's what allows the a7R VI to shoot 30 frames per second with full autofocus and a blackout-free viewfinder at that resolution.

Choosing between a 35mm and a 55mm lens for location portraits isn't just a focal length debate. Shot in harsh midday Texas sun, this head-to-head between two of Viltrox's most talked-about Evo lenses puts the decision in a real-world context that gear charts can't replicate.

Choosing between a 40mm and 50mm lens looks simple on paper, but in real shooting situations, the gap between them matters more than the numbers suggest. The field of view difference alone can determine whether you get three people in a wedding cocktail hour frame or two.

Sharpness is one of photography's most debated specs, and it's also one of the most overrated. The Olympus 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R is widely considered one of the least sharp lenses in the Micro Four Thirds lineup, and Chris Baitson decided to take it out for a full shooting session anyway.

If a docking station can support or charge everything you use on your desk, this might be it. This 15-in-1 docking station powers all your devices safely and efficiently while keeping your desk neat.