Critique the Community

Images Taken on an Older Camera

Welcome to the March 2025 Critique the Community Contest!  For this month's contest we want to see your best images taken with an older camera you've owned. This could mean your previous smart phone camera, an older DSLR camera, or even a modern mirrorless camera that you've since replaced with a newer camera. Obviously this opens the door for a ton of entries so we are asking that you add a little information about the camera you used to create the photograph and what camera(s) you are now using. If the only camera you own was first released before 2020, you can submit images taken from it as well even if you have never upgraded since then. 

The whole idea behind this contest is we want to see images taken without the absolute latest and greatest gear available. We want read about the challenges you experienced back then and how it might be easier to capture the same shot today with a more state of the art camera.

Rules

• This contest is 100% free to join
• Each photographer may submit up to 3 images
• Each photograph must include a description that includes details about how the photograph was taken, what post processing was done to it, where it was taken, and what challenges you faced taking the image. Simply writing a single sentence that doesn't explain much of anything will disqualify you from being chosen!
• Each image MUST identify what camera it was taken on and what camera or cameras you are currently shooting with today. 

Because the only requirement for this contest is the model of camera you used, we are allowing submissions of images from any genre of photography. Whether that be landscapes, product and commercial, portraits, composite work, or conceptual and fine art photography,  any type of photography is allowed in this contest.

March Prizes

1st Place 

One first place winner will receive a full bundle of Topaz Labs' software suite. Topaz Labs has become the industry leader in image upsampling and Ai processing for both photograph and videography. This suite includes an unlocked copy of Topaz Labs' GigaPixel 8 software which allows you to upscale and enhance any image up to 16x. Also included is a copy of Photo AI 3 which uses artificial intellegence to bring out more detail and sharpness out of your photographs. Finally, for the video editors out there, the first place winner of this contest will receive a full copy of Tapaz Labs Video AI 6. This powerful software allows you to drastically improve any video file with options to upscale, resample, stabilize, denoise, and add additional frames for slow motion.  We have personally been using Video AI to upscale some of our older youtube content and the results are unbelievable. 

Additionally, the first place winner will also receive the brand new iSteady M7 smartphone gimbal from Hohem. The iSteady M7 is an advanced battery powered gimbal that stands out from other smartphone gimbals with it's wireless, self monitoring LCD remote and it's Ai powered subject tracking. The M7 also has an incredibly convenient extension arm built into the gimbal itself making it a versatile tool for any videographer or vlogger needing professional looking footage from their pocket sized smartphone. We recently reviewed the iSteady M7 and it is one of the most powerful yet compact smartphone gimbals we have ever used.

2nd Place

One second place winner will also win an iSteady M7 smartphone gimbal from Hohem.

The total value of this prize is $300. 

3rd Place

As always, our third place winner will receive their choice of any Fstoppers photo or video tutorial found at Fstoppers.com/store

The total value of this prize is up to $299

We are excited to see your best images captured using one of your previously owned cameras. Good luck to everyone and we will see you at the end of the month!

Bonus March Sale

For the month of March, Elia Locardi's photography tutorial Photographing the World 2: Cityscape, Astrophotography, and Advanced Post-Processing is on sale for just $59 (regular price at $299.99). 

In the second installment of Photographing the World, Elia takes you on a journey through some of his favorite countries as he captures both rural historic sites as well as some of the world's most modern cityscapes. You will learn Elia's entire on location workflow as he travels through Italy, Cambodia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. We then fly down to New Zealand where Elia focuses on capturing the night sky, star trails, and the Milky Way. 

As always, Elia then comes back to the post production studio to share his entire editing process including some of his favorite techniques for increasing dynamic range, removing distracting objects and people, blending multiple exposures into one single photo, and of course his entire astrophotography workflow as well.  

Learn more about this incredible landscape tutorial in the video above and jump over to the full Photographing the World 2 sales page to take advantage of this fire sale during the month of March!