Gear Reviews

A reflector is a reflector. Right? That was my first thought when I was asked to be the first to review Profoto's new line of collapsible reflectors. "It's a reflector, are you serious?" I mean come on, in what possible way could this be any different from everything else I've used? A reflector is a reflector. However, obviously I said yes and here we are…and I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

I've been using a product called IndieMats for over a year now and I absolutely love them. My wife and I are big DIY'ers and decorated our daughter's room with them by creating a large collage of funny photos at a fraction of the cost of traditional frames.  It's an awesome new way to display your photos with unique wall decor.

Induro is one of those companies that had a really slow start, but has worked extremely hard to climb their way to being a household name. My first few experiences with Induro (although brief) were not great. The build quality of their products left a lot to be desired. Oh how things have changed! Today I'm going to give you the rundown on an Induro CT-114 Carbon Fiber Tripod. 

Before you shell out a ton of cash for a new MacBook consider a few DIY options that can drastically increase the performance of your machine. For me, there is nothing more frustrating than having a program take four minutes to open, having programs crash or the spinning beach ball of death. Computers, like most things, need occasional maintenance and tune ups. If you don't address this on a semi regular basis then you are wasting all those duckets you spent on your fancy Macbook Pro.

I use PASS for my gallery systems. I use it because it’s pretty on both the computer and on mobile devices, something that Smugmug and Zenfolio sometimes fail on. The system is pretty expensive ($30 per gallery), and gets a lot of criticism for completely hustling photographers over with their print system and prices. To top it off, Pass creator has had his share of controversy. Introducing Pixieset, everything that PASS SHOULD be, and at a reasonable price.

Remember the Phottix Mitros speedlight? I loved this flash, and I wasn't the only one. Despite some complaints regarding the interface, generally there was only one other disappointment: no built in wireless receiver for their Odin transmitters. Phottix has now built them in, wiping aside the only place of complaint and making the Mitros+ instantly a speedlight you should seriously consider.

Online storage through "the cloud" is one of the best ways to ensure your files are safe and secure from failure, fire, and theft. "The cloud" has also typically been a super expensive place to store a ton of content until now. I stumbled upon a way to store the bulk of my photos online through a website service called Zenfolio, which you've probably heard of.

Phottix has been steadily working its way up the ladder when it comes to reliable and affordable photography equipment. Much like Yongnuo, Phottix started in the marketplace as somewhat unreliable, but in recent years has done a lot to turn that around. Introduced a few months ago, the Phottix Luna collapsible beauty dish caught many an eye as a perfect answer for beauty lighting on the go. But the question remained: does it produce the same results as a real beauty dish?

I love free stuff, who doesn't. After going through the software and services I use to run my business, I was pleasantly surprised how many were free. I do not mind paying for software, but I also don't mind using software that may have ads running to pay the developers. Nothing is worse than having to pay that dreaded monthly fee to use a service or software.

The always entertaining Kai from DigitalRev TV takes to the streets, armed with 3 different models of Canon 50mm lenses: The 1.8, 1.4, and 1.2L. Using phrases like "sphincter twitching" and "buying meth", he colorfully illustrates his points about choosing the right lens based on your budget and compares the look and feel of each model.

Photoshop for any photographer can be a Goliath of a program to learn and especially to master, and now with the new Creative Cloud aspect to Adobe's line of programs it's only going to be more difficult to keep up with the innovations made. Martin Evening's new book Adobe Photoshop CC for Photographers is a detailed guide for all of your editing and retouching needs in this new age of photography.

Being a professional photographer isn't just about the thrill of shooting photographs or the endless hours of work editing them behind a computer screen. A photographer worth their salt knows that the business aspect of marketing is just as important. Jolie O'Dell's new book, Blogging For Photographers, explains how a blog can help expand your business.

If you’re an outdoor or adventure photographer, one of the situations likely tangle with regularly is balancing the line between comfort and size when it comes to your backpacks. You usually need a bag to both safely transport your expensive gear as well as your climbing supplies. However, our spines have limits and the bag also needs to be supportive and lightweight. Lowepro’s recent iteration of their popular camera bags is the Photo Sport Pro 30L AW, aimed to give you a light bag option for your adventurous ways.

Carbon Copy Cloner is one of my all time favorite programs that takes the stress out of ensuring data security and redundancy. It’s a simple program that copies data from one place to another exactly when you want, and exactly how often you need it to. It completely takes the guess work out of dragging and dropping blocks of data from one volume to another; it’s perfect for photographers.

As a Wedding Photographer, I have tons of radio triggers. I started out with the PocketWizard Plus II, and then after having all of my gear stolen, I switched to the relatively inexpensive PocketWizard Plus X, so needless to say, I’m fairly entrenched in the Pocket Wizard Brand. Could the Chinese company Aputure get me away from PocketWizard while simultaneously saving my wallet from shelling out $100 every time I need a new trigger?

If you've used Dropbox, then you're probably going to love Copy! Ultimately, it's an almost identical product, but with a few features that will have you ready to switch by half way through this article. I like to think of them as Space, Interface and Sharing, even though Sharing doesn't rhyme. As far as online storage and backup goes, Copy seems to have raised the bar in many areas, and I'm excited to see where it goes from here.

When I preordered the Nikon D800 early last year, I purposely didn't order the battery grip for a few reasons. The first was that I didn't think I needed it, and the second was that the $450 price tag way way too steep, and seemed ridiculous for the product that I was getting. The first reason turned out to be dead wrong. Carrying my camera around for 8-10 hours a day as a wedding photographer meant that the joints in my right hand were always hurting. Maybe it was just because of how I held the camera, but either way, I realized I needed a battery grip to help balance the weight. But this meant I had to spend almost $500 right?

As an architectural and interiors photographer, I own more lights than I even want to think about. Pelican cases full - hot lights, speedlights, monolights, color balanced bulbs, and modifiers to go along with all of them. Lowel recently released the very polarizing GL-1 Hotlight to much controversy: people mocked it or loved it. And truth be told,

As a wedding photographer, I don’t often put much of a focus on video. Therefore I had never put any real thought into what accessories I might need to outfit my Nikon D800 as a proper video-producing machine. That being said however, the Chinese company Aputure may have just started me thinking more seriously about video.

Living in NYC and having to drag gear around I have become very particular about my camera and gear bags. Comfort, size, weight, and protection are the deciding factors, then I worry if I look cool or not (you can’t go wrong with a black bag). I started looking for a small light stand case that would fit nano stands, a small umbrella and a monopod. This is usually what I use for reception lighting at weddings. After searching through all of the camera stores online, I finally stumbled across the StandBagger.

About a year ago, Lee Morris stated that Alien Skin Exposure 4 was his favorite photo enhancement plugin for Photoshop. Claiming that all of its film presets makes it stand out above the rest, and the clear winner in the plugin world. Just a few weeks or so ago, Alien Skin released the latest installment, Exposure 5. But is it still the champion and must have plugin that Exposure 4 was?

Imagine a colorful self-setting rubber that you can keep in your camera bag and bust out at any time to repair on-the-job cracks, breaks and tears. Sugru is such a product, a moldable Play-Doh-like synthetic that can also be shaped into custom camera grips, monopod and tripod mounts and can add color and texture to existing buttons on your DSLR.

Just because we are photographers for a living doesn’t mean all our equipment has to be 100% utilitarian. Sometimes a little bit of style and fashion is appreciated, and ONA looks to deliver in that department. The ONA Leather Brixton, now available in “dark truffle” color, is a sling bag that looks like a businessman’s briefcase sling, but is designed with a photographer in mind.

Carl Zeiss (Now just named Zeiss) has always been considered the premium brand for lenses in the photography industry. With their high ticket price and extreme build quality, Zeiss had always been reserved to the biggest (and richest) names in the industry. Well now they're trying to maintain that brand image, while moving into the mirrorless systems industry. But how does their latest 32mm f/1.8 lens hold up?

There's been a lot of buzz these past few months about Rokinon's new 24mm tilt shift offering. Many enthusiasts are interested in tilt and shift capabilities, but are not interested in shelling out the $2,000+ for the Nikon or Canon equivalents. Rokinon's entry into the field has been widely anticipated and it was finally my chance to get my hands on this little lens for a review.

Starting today PhotoShelter released their new "Beam" portfolio websites templates on top of the secure cloud storage, e-commerce capabilities, SEO, image delivery and client proofing tools that are available to PhotoShelter’s existing members with Standard and Pro accounts. PhotoShelter's CEO Andrew Fingerman gave me a quick rundown of the new designs during a walkthrough last week and from everything I saw it looks like it could be great tool for account holders who need a functioning website with minimal set up. 

LED has come a long way in the last three years. It was not too long ago that serious photographers and videographers were having a hard time with the idea of LED. They tended to be under powered and cast unattractive shadows. But there was potential, and that potential is beginning to blossom. Fotodiox’s LED100WA monobloc-style heads are one such shining example of how far LED has come and what can be done with it.

The Nikon 200mm f/2 VR II is one of those lenses you always read about, but short of running into a professional sporting event, an affluent amateur, or Ryan Brenizer you just don’t see them. They’re rare and they’re expensive, but besides the obvious lust factor of the lens, is it any good?

Large, imposing and drop dead gorgeous, the new Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX DG OS APO HSM AF is one hell of a lens. Sigma has done an outstanding job in recent months producing some top quality lenses and they didn’t let up on the gas with the first Sport category offering in their new global vision. With two levels of optical stabilization, a wide open f/2.8 aperture, crazy fast and accurate AF and a beautiful body build, you want this lens, even if you don’t know it yet.