Gear Reviews

An 85mm f/1.4 lens lives or dies by how it performs wide open, especially when faces fill the frame and focus errors have nowhere to hide. The Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro lens aims to deliver reliable sharpness, controlled background blur, and usable autofocus at a price that undercuts many familiar options.

A power bank that charges your MacBook Pro at full speed and refills itself in under an hour. That is not marketing copy; that is what the Anker Prime Power Bank (20K, 220W) actually does.

The Sony a7 V is aimed at the problems you run into when one camera has to cover portraits, action, and video without forcing constant compromises. Here's a look at what you can expect.

I’ve owned a Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.8 for a few years now, and it’s been one of two lenses I take everywhere with me, the other being a 35mm f/1.8. I’ve found f/1.8 to be a very handy aperture for low light shooting, but I still encounter a few situations where I need to crank up my ISO, as it’s not quite fast enough. Therefore, I was very curious when Viltrox announced a new f/1.4 85mm in their Pro line.

The demand for storage in mobile devices has staggeringly increased in recent years due to high demand in mobile content creation workflows, especially with smartphones supporting professional video formats such as ProRes. With more and more people creating with their phones, Hohem aims to fill the gap in supporting these market needs with the SSD-01. It not only acts as an external SSD, but also as a compact, all-in-one solution designed specifically for creators who record, charge, and capture audio simultaneously.

A lens can be “bad” on paper and still be exactly the look you keep trying to fake in post. This video focuses on a vintage 85mm f/1.5 that keeps showing up in portraits and video because it does something modern lenses usually avoid.

While gear reviews can offer a lot of secondhand insight and opinion, there’s nothing like being able to try out the camera for yourself. While there is no way for us to let everyone interested try out the camera physically, this might be the next best thing.

For macro photography, it can sometimes be useful to have additional light. Many types of lamps are available, some small, others large. SmallRig now offers the new SmallRig RM 03 Macro Photography LED lights. These small lights provide a lot of flexibility, as becomes clear in this review.

A new 24-70mm f/2.8 can look boring on paper, but this one changes the way the lens behaves in your hands. If you rely on this range for paid work, travel, or portraits, small design changes can save time or create new problems.

A midrange body that suddenly shoots like a flagship changes what you attempt in the field, especially when the moment is gone before your brain finishes saying “now.” If you shoot action, wildlife, or kids that never hold still, the difference between “almost” and “got it” often comes down to small features.

A 50mm f/1.4 can be the workhorse lens of a kit, especially when it’s doing double duty for stills and video. This cheap option surprisingly challenges a top model.

Ultra-wide tilt-shift work is where small optical flaws turn into ruined corners, smeared lines, and extra retouching you did not plan for. If you care about straight buildings, clean edges, and files that hold up after stitching, this lens is worth a look.

Smartphone technology has come a long way and has reached a point of technological maturity where it has now completely integrated into our lifestyle, becoming one of our necessary companions for everyday tasks. Foldable phones, on the other hand, have been actively evolving over the past few years and have started to catch up with traditional bar-designed phones. With the launch of Huawei Mate X7, Huawei continues refining its foldable philosophy by placing greater emphasis on durability, camera performance, and shooting flexibility—areas that matter most to photographers and visual storytellers.

I should say "My Essential Lens Filters." I get a lot of people asking what I use, so I thought I’d share what they are. I have a few filters that go everywhere with me. Sometimes they reside in a backpack when on an outdoor adventure, or in a small shoulder bag when exploring urban environments. Because they all come in individual cases of varying shapes and sizes, I’ve recently become frustrated carrying them all—but we’ll get to the solutions that address this in a moment.

A 50mm f/1.4 can be the lens that lives on your camera when you need one look that works for portraits, events, detail shots, and handheld video. The difference between a lens you trust and a lens you fight often comes down to focus behavior, size, and the small optical quirks that only show up after a long shoot.

The Fujifilm XF 14mm f/2.8 R lens sits in that tricky corner of wide angle shooting where you want drama without chaos. If you use Fujifilm X bodies, this lens is worth a look.

Current owners of Luminar Neo are getting a holiday update with some new and unique features. Besides the usual bug fixes and some speed increases, Neo has added what they call an AI Assistant.

If you want a small full frame camera that can handle serious video specs without turning your kit into a brick, the Panasonic Lumix S9 is the kind of release worth paying attention to. Nonetheless, the tradeoffs matter, especially if you shoot fast action, rely on an EVF, or expect long, uninterrupted takes.

Old lenses feel familiar until you bolt them onto a modern sensor and see what they really do. If a fast fifty is part of your kit, the gap between “good memories” and “good files” can get expensive fast.

A looming shift in what drones you can buy in the U.S. forces a choice you probably have been delaying. If you rely on aerial shots to set location, scale, or motion, losing access to your default upgrade path changes how you plan shoots and travel kits.

Pocket cameras live or die on speed, handling, and whether they earn a place in your daily routine. The Ricoh GR IV sits right in that pressure zone, where small design choices and real-world behavior matter more than headline specs.

Packing one lens for a trip sounds smart until you get home and realize you missed half the shots you wanted. A travel zoom that starts wide, reaches long, and stays light changes how you plan, shoot, and move through a place.

Tilt-shift lenses stop being mysterious once you see what the controls actually do, and where the tradeoffs show up in real files. If you shoot buildings, interiors, products, or stitched landscapes, a 35mm tilt-shift option can solve problems that are hard to fix later, especially when you care about straight lines and consistent detail across the frame.

Ultra-wide primes are tricky: they can look dramatic, but they also expose every weakness in your technique and your lens. If you shoot Sony E, Fujifilm X, or Nikon Z APS-C and want a small lens at a cheap price, this one should be on your radar.

Today, I put the incredibly small Saramonic Air up against the current industry favorite, the DJI Mic 2, to see how it really stacks up. The results will surprise you. 

Instant cameras sound simple until you’re the one paying for each frame and guessing exposure with no screen. This video walks through a instax bundle that looks basic on purpose, and that’s exactly why it can change how you shoot on a night out.

Medium format on a budget is tempting, but the real question is whether it changes how you work or just slows you down. This video puts you on a cold shoreline where the light refuses to cooperate, and you get to see what happens when you commit to a slower setup anyway.

A 35mm is supposed to be simple: quick to focus, sharp enough wide open, and predictable in mixed light, but that often comes with a big price tag. This lens promises to offer all that at a much more affordable price.

A 200mm f/2 lens is one of those tools that can change the way your images feel, especially when you want tight framing and heavy background blur at the same time. If portraits, indoor sports, or subject separation are part of your work, this category of lens can be either a dream or a costly mistake.

Travel pushes gear in ways studio work never does. One lens that can handle streets, interiors, details, and distant scenes changes how you move, how long you stay out, and how often you swap glass.

Are you looking for a good and affordable tripod? Then the Sirui L-324F might be something for you. I received this tripod together with the Sirui KS-G3 geared tripod head to use for a course on tripods. I took the opportunity to test it extensively. You can read more about this tripod in this review.

A 24-70mm f/2.8 is the lens that ends up on your camera when the job has no margin for mistakes. If a new version changes how it handles, focuses, and holds up in rough weather, that affects what you bring, what you leave behind, and what you trust when the light gets weird.

Canon’s RF mount can make budget lens choices feel oddly narrow, especially if you shoot full frame. A small set of native primes now sits right where cost, size, and image character start forcing real tradeoffs.

A fast 135mm prime changes how faces, backgrounds, and light behave, and small flaws get loud at f/1.8. If you’re a portrait-focused photographer choosing between a flagship lens and a cheaper alternative, this matchup decides whether the premium buys visible gains or just peace of mind.

Lenses at the extreme wide end tend to divide shooters. Some want distortion control and edge-to-edge perfection. Others want portability, flexibility, and a price tag that does not sting. The new Viltrox 9mm f/2.8 Air sits in the latter camp. It is one of the smallest and lightest autofocus ultrawides available for APS-C. It costs $199 (less, actually, during the holiday sale), and on Fujifilm, it delivers a very wide 13.5mm full frame equivalent field of view.

Big hybrid cameras live or die on the small stuff: the screen you trust, the shutter mode you actually use, and whether the files stay consistent when you rotate the body. If one of those breaks your rhythm, you stop chasing moments and start wrestling settings.

As a photographer, I have always believed that printed photographs hold a special place in our lives, inviting us to pause and relive a moment. But in today’s digital world, where taking images has become effortless, we often find ourselves capturing thousands of photos just for the sake of it, rarely printing any of them.

A cheap f/1.2 lens sounds like a trap until you see what it can do and what it quietly does wrong. If you shoot Canon RF and care about low-light work, shallow depth of field, and consistent focus, don't miss this look at this affordable lens.

The need for fast external storage is not going down anytime soon; it is only growing higher, especially when your shoot includes both photos and video content. Memory cards fill up faster than ever, making it inevitable to have SSDs to store the footage securely. The TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus does just that, but maybe even more.

A compact 14mm full frame lens that barely adds weight to your bag opens up shots that are otherwise easy to skip. When ultra-wide becomes simple to carry and affordable to try, you start seeing space, scale, and foreground in a more deliberate way.

Picking a mid-range camera looks simple until you start missing moments you thought the gear would catch. The tricky part is not specs on a chart, it’s how the body, viewfinder, burst behavior, and card workflow affect the way you shoot in the field.

Cheap and f/1.2 rarely belong in the same sentence. This video puts that combination in a real shoot to see what breaks first.

Using the same camera for years exposes details that launch reviews completely miss. Here's a look at the Sony a7R V after 30 months.

Astrophotography has been having somewhat of a renaissance over the last few years. Part of that may be the addition of high-quality digital cameras and also computers that can take away the drudgery of aligning the telescope and finding and capturing faint objects.

A 100-megapixel medium format camera changes what you expect from detail, color, and cropping, and it also exposes every sloppy habit you’ve been able to hide behind speed. If you care about prints, portraits, landscapes, or any work where small tonal shifts matter, this video is worth a look.

Reliable power on location is a necessity for creators, but high-capacity units are often expensive. The OUPES Exodus 2400 aims to challenge that with a compelling feature set at a budget price. I put it through its paces to see if it can keep up.

The Platypod is a handy tool for your camera when a tripod is not allowed or not possible. It comes in two sizes and offers many possibilities. I received both versions for an extensive review. How does the Platypod perform, and how usable is it in practice?

I did not plan on liking the Viltrox AF 50mm f/2 Air. When you hold it for the first time, it feels almost too light. The plastic shell and the small footprint make it seem like a lens that will do an okay job on a casual afternoon, then fall apart when the light gets rough. My expectations were low.

Micro Four Thirds can solve problems that keep showing up in real shooting: bad weather, heavy kits, and subjects that always feel too far away. If you have only used APS-C or full frame, the system can look like a compromise until you see where it quietly outperforms bigger formats.

You keep hearing that the Sony a7 V is a “safe” update, and that’s exactly why it’s worth a closer look. If stills pay the bills, the details around speed, handling, and reliability matter more than another round of spec-sheet arguments.